As cold as a fish? Relationships between the Dark Triad personality traits and affective experience during the day: A day reconstruction study

The Dark Triad of personality is a cluster of three socially aversive personality traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy. These traits are associated with a selfish, aggressive and exploitative interpersonal strategy. The objective of the current study was to establish relationships between the Dark Triad traits (and their dimensions) and momentary affect. Machiavellianism, grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism and the dimensions of the Triarchic model of psychopathy (namely, boldness, meanness and disinhibition) were examined. We used the Day Reconstruction Method, which is based on reconstructing affective states experienced during the previous day. The final sample consisted of 270 university students providing affective ratings of 3047 diary episodes. Analyses using multilevel modelling showed that only boldness had a positive association with positive affective states and affect balance, and a negative association with negative affective states. Grandiose narcissism and its sub-dimensions had no relationship with momentary affect. The other dark traits were related to negative momentary affect and/or inversely related to positive momentary affect and affect balance. As a whole, our results empirically demonstrated distinctiveness of the Dark Triad traits in their relationship to everyday affective states. These findings are not congruent with the notion that people with the Dark Triad traits, who have a dispositional tendency to manipulate and exploit others, are generally cold and invulnerable to negative feelings. The associations between the Dark Triad and momentary affect were discussed in the contexts of evolutionary and positive psychology, in relation to the role and adaptive value of positive and negative emotions experienced by individuals higher in Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy

A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N=10,535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-being, and (2) whether the relation between religiosity and self-reported well-being depends on perceived cultural norms of religion (i.e., whether it is considered normal and desirable to be religious in a given country). In a two-stage procedure, the teams first created an analysis plan and then executed their planned analysis on the data. For the first research question, all but 3 teams reported positive effect sizes with credible/confidence intervals excluding zero (median reported β=0.120). For the second research question, this was the case for 65% of the teams (median reported β=0.039). While most teams applied (multilevel) linear regression models, there was considerable variability in the choice of items used to construct the independent variables, the dependent variable, and the included covariates

A Many-analysts Approach to the Relation Between Religiosity and Well-being

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N = 10, 535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-being, and (2) whether the relation between religiosity and self-reported well-being depends on perceived cultural norms of religion (i.e., whether it is considered normal and desirable to be religious in a given country). In a two-stage procedure, the teams first created an analysis plan and then executed their planned analysis on the data. For the first research question, all but 3 teams reported positive effect sizes with credible/confidence intervals excluding zero (median reported β = 0.120). For the second research question, this was the case for 65% of the teams (median reported β = 0.039). While most teams applied (multilevel) linear regression models, there was considerable variability in the choice of items used to construct the independent variables, the dependent variable, and the included covariates

A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N=10,535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-being, and (2) whether the relation between religiosity and self-reported well-being depends on perceived cultural norms of religion (i.e., whether it is considered normal and desirable to be religious in a given country). In a two-stage procedure, the teams first created an analysis plan and then executed their planned analysis on the data. For the first research question, all but 3 teams reported positive effect sizes with credible/confidence intervals excluding zero (median reported β=0.120). For the second research question, this was the case for 65% of the teams (median reported β=0.039). While most teams applied (multilevel) linear regression models, there was considerable variability in the choice of items used to construct the independent variables, the dependent variable, and the included covariates

Possibilities of using the concept of ecosystem services at the regional level in experts’ opinions

In the European Union countries, including Poland, work is being conducted on the implementation of the ecosystem services (ES) approach in policy and decision-making. This process is relatively advanced at the level of individual member states; however, it still constitutes a big challenge on the subnational level. The determination of reasons for such a status quo and searching for solutions were main subjects of one of the workshops at the ECOSERV 2016 symposium that was held in Poznań in 2016. 30 persons representing the most important Polish authorities and institutions dealing with environmental management participated in the workshop. The analysis performed made it possible to identify a set of conditions, which, according to the experts, are the most important for the development of the ES approach in the regional scale

Detection of circulating tumour cells in the breast cancer using CytoTrack system

Introduction: Plants are a rich source of healing substances. Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide while breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are potential founder cells for metastasis. Therefore, their assessment may be used for monitoring of treatment as well as detecting cancer metastatis. Hence, it is suggested that the number of CTCs may be a valuable tumour biomarker during therapy. Objective: The purpose of this study was to detect CTCs in breast cancer and to validate the method of assessment of CTC count using CytoTrack CT11 technology. Methods: MCF-7 cells were sorted by a FACSARIA flow cytometer from blood samples derived from patients who have not been diagnosed with cancer. Identification and quantitative assessment of MCF-7 cells in blood samples were determined by flow sorting. Then, blood samples containing MCF-7 cells or without MCF-7 were scanned with the use of an automated fluorescence scanning microscope. Results: In in vitro model analysing the glass CytoDisc™ with stained MCF-7 cells, we noted the correlation between the amount of observed tumour cells and expected number of tumour cells. Moreover, coefficient of variation in case of the recovery rate of the assumed number of MCF-7 cells was 30%, 17%, 18% and 15%, respectively. Conclusion: Our study suggest that CTCs could be predictive factor in patients with metastatic cancer especially in breast cancer

Detection of circulating tumour cells in the breast cancer using CytoTrack system

Introduction: Plants are a rich source of healing substances. Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide while breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are potential founder cells for metastasis. Therefore, their assessment may be used for monitoring of treatment as well as detecting cancer metastatis. Hence, it is suggested that the number of CTCs may be a valuable tumour biomarker during therapy. Objective: The purpose of this study was to detect CTCs in breast cancer and to validate the method of assessment of CTC count using CytoTrack CT11 technology. Methods: MCF-7 cells were sorted by a FACSARIA flow cytometer from blood samples derived from patients who have not been diagnosed with cancer. Identification and quantitative assessment of MCF-7 cells in blood samples were determined by flow sorting. Then, blood samples containing MCF-7 cells or without MCF-7 were scanned with the use of an automated fluorescence scanning microscope. Results: In in vitro model analysing the glass CytoDisc™ with stained MCF-7 cells, we noted the correlation between the amount of observed tumour cells and expected number of tumour cells. Moreover, coefficient of variation in case of the recovery rate of the assumed number of MCF-7 cells was 30%, 17%, 18% and 15%, respectively. Conclusion: Our study suggest that CTCs could be predictive factor in patients with metastatic cancer especially in breast cancer