Pathological gambling in Estonia: Relationships with personality, self-esteem, emotional states and cognitive ability

Abstract Due to changes in gambling accessibility during the last decade gambling has become more widespread in Estonia and the prevalence of pathological gambling has sharply increased. The present study attempts to identify psychological characteristics of Estonian pathological gamblers. It has been shown that a wide range of social, economic, and individual factors (e.g. personality traits and emotional states) predict the likelihood of becoming a pathological gambler. In the present study, pathological gamblers' (N = 33) personality traits, self-esteem, self-reported emotional states and cognitive ability were compared to the respective characteristics in a non-gambling control group (N = 42) matched for age, gender and educational level. It was found that compared to controls, pathological gamblers had higher scores on Neuroticism (especially on its immoderation facet) and lower scores on Conscientiousness (especially on its dutifulness and cautiousness facets) and on self-esteem scale. They reported more negative emotional states during the previous month (especially depression and anxiety). Finally, pathological gamblers had lower general cognitive ability. In a logistic regression model, the likelihood of being a pathological gambler was best predicted by high immoderation score and low cognitive ability

Personality traits below facets: The consensual validity, longitudinal stability, heritability, and utility of personality nuances

It has been argued that facets do not represent the bottom of the personality hierarchy-even more specific personality characteristics, nuances, could be useful for describing and understanding individuals and their differences. Combining 2 samples of German twins, we assessed the consensual validity (correlations across different observers), rank-order stability, and heritability of nuances. Personality nuances were operationalized as the 240 items of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R). Their attributes were examined by analyzing item residuals, controlling for the variance of the facet the item had been assigned to and all other facets. Most nuances demonstrated significant (p < .0002) cross-method agreement and rank-order stability. A substantial proportion of them (48% in self-reports, 20% in informant ratings, and 50% in combined ratings) demonstrated a significant (p < .0002) component of additive genetic variance, whereas evidence for environmental influences shared by twins was modest. Applying a procedure to estimate stability and heritability of true scores of item residuals yielded estimates comparable with those of higher-order personality traits, with median estimates of rank-order stability and heritability being .77 and .52, respectively. Few nuances demonstrated robust associations with age and gender, but many showed incremental, conceptually meaningful, and replicable (across methods and/or samples) predictive validity for a range of interest domains and body mass index. We argue that these narrow personality characteristics constitute a valid level of the personality hierarchy. They may be especially useful for providing a deep and contextualized description of the individual, but also for the prediction of specific outcomes

Personality traits below facets:The consensual validity, longitudinal stability, heritability, and utility of personality nuances

Mõttus R, Kandler C, Bleidorn W, Riemann R, McCrae RR. Personality Traits Below Facets: The Consensual Validity, Longitudinal Stability, Heritability, and Utility of Personality Nuances. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2016;112(3):474-490

January 31, 2019

The Breeze is the student newspaper of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia

Factorial validity, measurement equivalence and cognitive performance of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) between patients with first-episode psychosis and healthy volunteers

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to use selected Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) tests to examine the dimensional structure of cognitive dysfunction in first episode of psychosis (FEP) patients compared with cognition in healthy subjects.MethodA total of 109 FEP patients and 96 healthy volunteers were administered eight CANTAB tests of cognitive function. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to estimate dimensionality within the test results. The dimensions identified by the PCA were assumed to reflect underlying cognitive traits. The plausibility of latent factor models was estimated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Multi-group CFA (MGCFA) was used to test for measurement invariance of factors between groups. The nature and severity of cognitive deficits amongst patients as opposed to controls were evaluated using a general linear model.ResultsAmongst subjects PCA identified two underlying cognitive traits: (i) a broad cognitive domain; (ii) attention/memory and executive function domains. Corresponding CFA models were built that fitted data well for both FEP patients and healthy volunteers. As in MGCFA latent variables appeared differently defined in patient and control groups, differences had to be ascribed using subtest scores rather than their aggregates. At subtest score level the patients performed significantly worse than healthy subjects in all comparisons (p &lt; 0.001).ConclusionsResults of this study demonstrate that the structure of underlying cognitive abilities as measured by a selection of CANTAB tests is not the same for healthy individuals and FEP patients, with patients displaying widespread cognitive impairment.</jats:sec

Subjective Well-Being Under Neuroleptics Scale short form (SWN-K):Reliability and validity in an Estonian speaking sample

BACKGROUND: The Subjective Well-Being Under Neuroleptic Treatment Scale short form (SWN-K) is a self-rating scale developed to measure mentally ill patients' well-being under the antipsychotic drug treatment. This paper reports on adaptation and psychometric properties of the instrument in an Estonian psychiatric sample. METHODS: In a naturalistic study design, 124 inpatients or outpatients suffering from the first psychotic episode or chronic psychotic illness completed the translated SWN-K instrument. Item content analysis, internal consistency analysis, exploratory principal components analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were used to construct the Estonian version of the SWN-K (SWN-K-E). Additionally, socio-demographic and clinical data, observer-rated psychopathology, medication side effects, daily antipsychotic drug dosages, and general functioning were assessed at two time points, at baseline and after a 29-week period; the associations of the SWN-K-E scores with these variables were explored. RESULTS: After having selected 20 items for the Estonian adaptation, the internal consistency of the total SWN-K-E was 0.93 and the subscale consistencies ranged from 0.70 to 0.80. Good test–retest reliabilities were observed for the adapted scale scores, with the correlation of the total score over about 6 months being r = 0.70. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the presence of a higher-order factor (general well-being) and five first-order factors (mental functioning, physical functioning, social integration, emotional regulation, and self-control); the model fitted the data well. The results indicated a moderate-high correlations r = 0.54 between the SWN-K-E total score and the evaluation how satisfied patients were with their lives in generally. No significant correlations were found between the overall subjective well-being score and age, severity of the psychopathology, drug adverse effects, or prescribed drug dosage. CONCLUSION: Taken together, the results demonstrated that the Estonian version of the SWN-K is a reliable and valid instrument with psychometric properties similar to the original English version. The potential uses of the scale in both research and clinical settings are considered