Individual and group differences in multivariate domains: What happens when the number of traits increases?

The major domains of psychological variation are intrinsically multivariate, and can be mapped at various levels of resolution-from broad-band descriptions involving a small number of abstract traits to fine-grained representations based on many narrow traits. As the number of traits increases, the corresponding space becomes increasingly high-dimensional, and intuitions based on low-dimensional representations become inaccurate and misleading. The consequences for individual and group differences are profound, but have gone largely unrecognized in the psychological literature. Moreover, alternative distance metrics show distinctive behaviors with increasing dimensionality. In this paper, I offer a systematic yet accessible treatment of individual and group differences in multivariate domains, with a focus on high-dimensional phenomena and their theoretical implications. I begin by introducing four alternative metrics (the Euclidean, Mahalanobis, city-block, and shape distance) and reviewing their geometric properties. I also examine their potential psychological significance, because different metrics imply different cognitive models of how people process information about similarity and dissimilarity. I then discuss how these metrics behave as the number of traits increases. After considering the effects of measurement error and common methods of error correction, I conclude with an empirical example based on a large dataset of self-reported personality

A general motivational architecture for human and animal personality

To achieve integration in the study of personality, researchers need to model the motivational processes that give rise to stable individual differences in behavior, cognition, and emotion. The missing link in current approaches is a motivational architecture—a description of the core set of mechanisms that underlie motivation, plus a functional account of their operating logic and inter-relations. This paper presents the initial version of such an architecture, the General Architecture of Motivation (GAM). The GAM offers a common language for individual differences in humans and other animals, and a conceptual toolkit for building species-specific models of personality. The paper describes the main components of the GAM and their interplay, and examines the contribution of these components to the emergence of individual differences. The final section discusses how the GAM can be used to construct explicit functional models of personality, and presents a roadmap for future research

The S-index: Summarizing patterns of sex differences at the distribution extremes

Sex differences researchers are becoming increasingly interested in how differences in averages and variability jointly influence male and female representation at the tails of the distribution. This paper introduces the S -index, a novel index that provides a simple and robust summary of the shape of sex differences at the distribution extremes. The use of S is illustrated with a selection of real-world datasets of personality and cognitive ability, and a R function is provided to calculate S and draw intuitive proportion plots of sex differences across the distribution. The S-index is not limited to the study of sex differences; it can be applied to other domains as long as the groups to be compared are about equally represented in the population and the variables of interest are approximately bell-shaped

Arbitrary, inappropriate grading criteria distort the evaluation of evidence: A comment on Kim et al.’s (2022) umbrella review

Non c'è abstract per questa pubblicazion

Guideline on management of the acute asthma attack in children by Italian Society of Pediatrics.

BACKGROUND: Acute asthma attack is a frequent condition in children. It is one of the most common reasons for emergency department (ED) visit and hospitalization. Appropriate care is fundamental, considering both the high prevalence of asthma in children, and its life-threatening risks. Italian Society of Pediatrics recently issued a guideline on the management of acute asthma attack in children over age 2, in ambulatory and emergency department settings. METHODS: The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology was adopted. A literature search was performed using the Cochrane Library and Medline/PubMed databases, retrieving studies in English or Italian and including children over age 2 year. RESULTS: Inhaled ß2 agonists are the first line drugs for acute asthma attack in children. Ipratropium bromide should be added in moderate/severe attacks. Early use of systemic steroids is associated with reduced risk of ED visits and hospitalization. High doses of inhaled steroids should not replace systemic steroids. Aminophylline use should be avoided in mild/moderate attacks. Weak evidence supports its use in life-threatening attacks. Epinephrine should not be used in the treatment of acute asthma for its lower cost / benefit ratio, compared to β2 agonists. Intravenous magnesium solphate could be used in children with severe attacks and/or forced expiratory volume1 (FEV1) lower than 60% predicted, unresponsive to initial inhaled therapy. Heliox could be administered in life-threatening attacks. Leukotriene receptor antagonists are not recommended. CONCLUSIONS: This Guideline is expected to be a useful resource in managing acute asthma attacks in children over age 2

A new look at the relations between attachment and intelligence

In this paper we offer a new perspective on the relations between attachment and intelligence, a topic that has received relatively little attention in the recent decades of attachment research. Based on a review of relevant empirical work, a reanalysis of published data, and novel theoretical arguments, we advance a revised model of attachment and intelligence that challenges a number of widespread assumptions in the field. Specifically, we argue that attachment in infancy and childhood is influenced by general intelligence (with lower cognitive ability in ambivalent and disorganized categories compared with secure and avoidant ones), and that attachment states of mind in adulthood show a parallel pattern (with lower cognitive ability in preoccupied and unresolved/unclassifiable categories). The partially genetic correlation between parent and child intelligence gives rise to a previously unrecognized causal pathway linking parents' states of mind to children's attachment; parental intelligence also predicts aspects of sensitivity and mentalizing, and thus exerts an additional indirect influence on children's attachment. Our revised model suggests that intelligence likely contributes to the "transmission gap" between parental state of mind and child attachment; it also offers a novel (partial) explanation of the increased levels of parent-child concordance observed in older children