Unraveling the three faces of self-esteem: A new information-processing sociometer perspective

Abstract Based on an integration of sociometer theory and information-processing models, the present study investigated the predictive validity of three self-esteem measures: self-report, an implicit association test, and an affective priming task. In a first session, self-esteem measures were obtained from 93 participants. After an interval of four weeks, interpersonal perception ratings were collected in small round-robin groups. Participants were requested to briefly introduce themselves to the group before evaluating one another and indicating how they expected to be evaluated by the others (metaperceptions). As hypothesized, all three self-esteem measures independently predicted the pe…

Gender differences in implicit and explicit anxiety measures

Abstract Explicit measures assess introspectively accessible self-descriptions and evaluations. In contrast, implicit measures assess introspectively inaccessible processes that operate outside of awareness. While women consistently yield higher scores on explicit anxiety measures, there are to date no studies available that examine gender differences in implicit anxiety measures. To analyse this topic, we used the Implicit Association Test (Study 1, N =248) and the Emotional Stroop task (Study 2, N =121) as implicit anxiety measures and a standard trait questionnaire as explicit anxiety measure. As expected, women scored higher on the explicit anxiety test. Women also yielded higher anxiet…

The Benefits of Believing in Chance or Fate: External Locus of Control as a Protective Factor for Coping with the Death of a Spouse

The death of a spouse is an extremely stressful life event that consequently causes a large drop in life satisfaction. Reactivity to the loss, however, varies markedly, a phenomenon that is currently not well understood. Because lack of controllability essentially contributes to the stressful nature of this incident, the authors analyzed whether individual differences in belief in external control influence the coping process. To examine this issue, widowed individuals ( N = 414) from a large-scaled panel study were followed for the 4 years before and after the loss by using a latent growth model. Results showed that belief in external control led to a considerably smaller decline in life …

Examining the "Veggie" personality: Results from a representative German sample.

Abstract An increasing proportion of people choose to follow a vegetarian diet. To date, however, little is known about if and how individual differences in personality relate to following a vegetarian diet. In the two studies presented here, we aimed to (1) estimate the prevalence of self-defined vegetarians in two waves of a German representative sample (N = 4496 and 5125, respectively), (2) analyze the effect of socio-demographic variables on dietary behavior, and (3) examine individual differences between vegetarians and meat eaters in personality traits, political attitudes, and health-related variables. In Study 1, a strict definition of vegetarians was used, while in Study 2 the defi…

The measurement of coping in achievement situations: an international comparison

Abstract English and German versions of a newly developed instrument for measuring coping with achievement stressors (the Mainz Coping Inventory — Ego Threat; MCI-E) were presented to samples of American and German students. Equivalence of the two versions was determined by principal component and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The CFA included a multiple group analysis. This analysis was employed to compare factor patterns, loadings, factor variances and covariances across the two samples. In addition, relationships between the coping instrument and tests which are already established in English and German versions (among others, the NEO Five Factors Inventory, the State-Trait Persona…

Implicit and explicit self-concept of neuroticism in borderline personality disorder

In the past, research on personality in borderline personality disorder (BPD) used primarily questionnaires suggesting heightened neuroticism in BPD. Self-report instruments inform about the conscious or explicit self-concept. BPD patients are known to show negative distortion with exaggeration of negative affect in the self-report. Neuroticism represents a risk factor for mental disorders. Indirect measures are available that tap into the implicit self-concept of neuroticism. The implicit self-concept refers to individual differences in associative representations of the self. The present study examined for the first time the implicit in addition to the explicit self-concept of neuroticism…

A Focused Review of Language Use Preceding Death by Execution.

Executions are one form of death that can be assumed to be maximally anxiety provoking. Words spoken by death row inmates moments before their execution can provide valuable insights into people's end-of-life communication needs and themes, conveying what individuals choose to express to others in the face of imminent death. In this focused review, we describe findings from quantitative and qualitative text analysis studies that have analyzed affective experiences and meaning-making attempts in transcriptions of actual statements made by Texas death row inmates. Overall, the most prevalent content themes identified in these final acts of verbal communication in the reviewed studies consiste…

Personality and attitudinal correlates of meat consumption: Results of two representative German samples

Abstract The vast amount of meat consumed in the Western world is critically discussed with regard to negative health consequences, environmental impact, and ethical concerns for animals, emphasizing the need to extend knowledge regarding the correlates of meat consumption in the general population. In the present article, we conducted two studies examining the associations between meat consumption and personality traits, political attitudes, and environmental attitudes in two large German representative samples (Ntotal = 8,879, aged 18–96 years). Cross-sectional data on frequency of meat consumption, socio-demographics, personality traits, and political and environmental attitudes were col…

Being popular in online social networks: How agentic, communal, and creativity traits relate to judgments of status and liking

We investigated how personality affects both peer-perceived popularity (status) and sociometric popularity (liking) in online social networks (OSNs). Self-ratings of agentic (e.g., extraversion), communal (e.g., agreeableness), and creativity traits (e.g., openness) were collected from 103 OSN profile owners (targets). Unacquainted perceivers provided status and liking judgments based on either targets’ full OSN profiles or profile pictures. Independent coders assessed behavioral cues (e.g., attractiveness) from targets’ OSN profiles. Results showed that targets scoring high on agency were ascribed a high status (without necessarily being liked), whereas targets scoring high on creativity o…

Stability and Change of Personality Across the Life Course: The Impact of Age and Major Life Events on Mean-Level and Rank-Order Stability of the Big Five

Does personality change across the entire life course, and are those changes due to intrinsic maturation or major life experiences? This longitudinal study investigated changes in the mean levels and rank order of the Big Five personality traits in a heterogeneous sample of 14,718 Germans across all of adulthood. Latent change and latent moderated regression models provided four main findings: First, age had a complex curvilinear influence on mean levels of personality. Second, the rank-order stability of Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness, and Agreeableness all followed an inverted U-shaped function, reaching a peak between the ages of 40 and 60, and decreasing afterwards, whereas…

A comparison of two approaches to the assessment of coping styles

Abstract This study examined the association of coping style classifications based on (a) dispositional vigilance (VIG) and cognitive avoidance (CAV) and (b) trait anxiety and social desirability (SD). 281 subjects (123 men, 158 women) completed questionnaires to assess these variables. By applying median splits, subjects were divided into high and low scorers on each dimension. According to both classifications, four coping style groups were operationally defined on the basis of the respective dichotomized variables. Results yielded convergent assignments of repressers (low anxiety and high SD; low VIG and high CAV, respectively), sensitizers (high anxiety and low SD; high VIG and low CAV)…

Does social desirability moderate the relationship between implicit and explicit anxiety measures?

Abstract Explicit measures assess introspectively accessible self-descriptions and evaluations. In contrast, implicit measures assess introspectively inaccessible processes that operate outside of awareness. Consequently, implicit measures should be free of response factors such as faking tendencies and social desirability (SD). Usually, correlations between implicit and explicit measures of the same construct tend to be low. Study 1 (N=145) tested the hypothesis that SD should moderate the relationship between an implicit (the Implicit Association Test) and an explicit (a standard questionnaire) anxiety measure. Study 2 (N=62) extended this test by distinguishing between the SD components …

Interactive effects of state anxiety and trait anxiety on emotional Stroop interference

This study examined main, interaction, and quadratic effects of state and trait anxiety on attentional bias toward threat related stimuli. Students (n=121) completed a card version of an emotional Stroop task. While there were no main effects for trait anxiety or state anxiety, regression analyses revealed a significant contribution of the interaction term of both variables. Only for individuals high in trait anxiety, was state anxiety positively related to Stroop interference. In contrast, the low anxious group showed the opposite response pattern. A quadratic effect of trait anxiety was also found but the interaction term proved to be the most important predictor. Implications of these fi…

Narcissistic Tendencies Among Actors

Building on a two-dimensional reconceptualization of grandiose narcissism, we investigated how narcissistic admiration (the tendency toward agentic self-promotion) and rivalry (the tendency toward other derogation) are related to acting. Study 1 ( N = 583) showed that acting students scored higher on narcissistic admiration than students with other majors, but at the same time, the acting students scored lower on rivalry. In Study 2 ( N = 283), we compared improvisational theater actors with a comparison group and found the same pattern: Admiration was higher, but rivalry was lower among the actors (across both self-reports and informant reports). Effects persisted when we controlled for s…

Reply to Côté and Willer: New replication attempts provide no evidence that inequality moderates the effect of income on generosity

Cote et al. (1) provided evidence that economic inequality moderates the effect of income on generosity. In their study, individuals with higher household income were less generous in a dictator game than poorer individuals only if they resided in a US state with comparatively large economic inequality. We questioned this finding because we did not find any evidence for the postulated moderation effect of economic inequality across three studies (ref. 2; for similar replication failures see ref. 3). However, our studies were conceptual rather than direct replications as we used different measures of generosity (charitable donations, behavior in a trust game, and volunteering) and also inclu…

Accurate Judgments of Neuroticism at Zero Acquaintance: A Question of Relevance

Prior studies have consistently found a surprising inaccuracy of people's neuroticism judgments at zero acquaintance. Based on the Realistic Accuracy Model (Funder, 1995), we hypothesize that this is due to a lack of relevance of the situation in which targets are typically observed. Fifty participants were videotaped in a highly trait-relevant (i.e., socially stressful) situation as well as three less relevant situations. An aggregate of self-reports and informant reports was used as the accuracy criterion. Four independent groups of unacquainted observers judged participants' neuroticism based on these short video sequences. Results showed that neuroticism judgments were significantly mor…

Narcissus plays video games

Abstract Two phenomena of our time have fascinated the general public and the scientific community alike: (a) narcissism as a personality characteristic with important implications for daily social functioning, and (b) the (vast) use of digital media such as video games. But how are these phenomena related to one another? To investigate this question, we administered an online survey to 2,891 individuals to assess their levels of narcissistic admiration and rivalry (NARQ; Back et al., 2013) and their video-gaming activities (frequency of playing, reasons for playing, preferred game genre and role). Results revealed that these narcissism dimensions were differentially related to video gaming…

Selfies reflect actual personality – Just like photos or short videos in standardized lab conditions

Abstract Social media sites are overflowing with millions of selfies, because people increasingly share what they do and who they are with the rest of the world. We examined whether self-expressions based on selfies elicit enhanced, consensual and accurate interpersonal perceptions compared to commonly employed laboratory conditions. Perceived narcissism was relatively higher and conscientiousness lower when ratings were based on selfies. This effect did not extend to the accuracy of ratings: Across all conditions, unacquainted observers agreed with each other and their ratings were correlated with a criterion measure of target personality. Except for agreeableness and self-esteem, accuracy…

The independence of positive and negative affect depends on the affect measure

Abstract This study examined the degree of independence between Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA) within a given situation. The affective state was measured before and after an experimentally induced success or failure experience in an anagram task. Two types of affect measures were used to assess PA and NA: the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and a Pleasantness-Unpleasantness scale. Consistent with our hypotheses, results show that PA and NA are independent when measured with the PANAS but are correlated when assessed with the other scale. These PA-NA correlations differed significantly from each other before and after emotion induction, respectively. Additional a…

Does the Implicit Association Test for assessing anxiety measure trait and state variance?

The stability of the Implicit Association Test for assessing anxiety (IAT‐Anxiety) is lower than its internal consistency, indicating that the IAT‐Anxiety measures both stable and occasion‐specific variance. This suggests that the IAT‐Anxiety may be not only a valid measure of trait anxiety but also one of state anxiety. To test this assumption, two studies were conducted in which state anxiety was experimentally induced by a public speaking task. However, both studies showed that the IAT‐Anxiety score did not change when a state of anxiety was induced. Thus, it seems that occasion‐specific factors other than variations in state anxiety lead to occasion‐specific variance in the IAT‐Anxiety…

A New Reliable and Valid Tool for Measuring Implicit Self-Esteem

We investigated the reliability and predictive validity of a new response-window affective priming task (RW-APT) for the measurement of implicit self-esteem. Participants (N = 96) were administered the self-esteem RW-APT and filled out two measures of explicit self-esteem. To investigate the effect of explicit and implicit self-esteem on reactions to failure, we applied an anagram task in which participants received anagrams that were more difficult than expected. Three self-esteem criteria were obtained: pretask expectancy bias, perceived performance bias, and posttask expectancy bias. As hypothesized, explicit self-esteem and implicit self-esteem measures independently predicted all vali…

A Closer Look at First Sight: Social Relations Lens Model Analysis of Personality and Interpersonal Attraction at Zero Acquaintance

Based on a new theoretical framework—the Social Relations Lens Model—this study examined the influence of personality on real–life attraction at zero acquaintance. A group of psychology freshmen ( N = 73) was investigated upon encountering one another for the first time. Personality traits, attraction ratings and metaperceptions were assessed using a large round–robin design (2628 dyads). In line with our model, personality differentially predicted who was a liker and who expected to be liked (perceiver effects), who was popular and who was seen as a liker (target effects), as well as who liked whom and who expected to be liked by whom (relationship effects). Moreover, the influence of pers…

Stability and Change in Diffusion Model Parameters over Two Years

In recent years, mathematical models of decision making, such as the diffusion model, have been endorsed in individual differences research. These models can disentangle different components of the decision process, like processing speed, speed–accuracy trade-offs, and duration of non-decisional processes. The diffusion model estimates individual parameters of cognitive process components, thus allowing the study of individual differences. These parameters are often assumed to show trait-like properties, that is, within-person stability across tasks and time. However, the assumption of temporal stability has so far been insufficiently investigated. With this work, we explore stability and c…

Predictors of volitional personality change in younger and older adults: Response surface analyses signify the complementary perspectives of the self and knowledgeable others

Abstract Goals to change personality traits have been linked to self-rated Big Five traits. Extending previous research, we investigated the associations between change goals and diverse personality characteristics (e.g., self-esteem), other-rated Big Five traits, and self-other agreement in an age-heterogeneous sample ( N  = 378). Results replicated previous associations of change goals with age and self-rated traits. Additionally, change goals were stronger when others rated a person’s traits as low and when self-other agreement about traits was greater for extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Associations of additional personality characteristics with change goals diminish…

Using Implicit Association Tests for the assessment of implicit personality self-concepts of extraversion and neuroticism in schizophrenia

There is evidence from research based on self-report personality measures that schizophrenia patients tend to be lower in extraversion and higher in neuroticism than healthy individuals. Self-report personality measures assess aspects of the explicit self-concept. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) has been developed to assess aspects of implicit cognition such as implicit attitudes and implicit personality traits. The present study was conducted to investigate the applicability and reliability of the IAT in schizophrenia patients and test whether they differ from healthy individuals on implicitly measured extraversion and neuroticism. The IAT and the NEO-FFI were administered as implicit …

Implicit Interpersonal Attraction in Small Groups

The present research investigated the nature and behavioral consequences of interpersonal attraction in small groups. In line with dual-process models of information processing, we studied the influence of implicit and explicit evaluations of interaction partners on actual friendly behavior in two social contexts. In two studies, 247 unacquainted same-sex participants ( N1 = 139; N2 = 108)—assigned to groups of four to six members—rated each other by completing a variant of the affective priming task to assess implicit interpersonal attraction and a self-report to measure explicit interpersonal attraction. Social relations analyses indicated that implicit and explicit interpersonal attract…

Examining the Dynamics of the Implicit and the Explicit Self-Concept in Social Anxiety: Changes in the Implicit Association Test–Anxiety and the Social Phobia Anxiety Inventory Following Treatment

In this study, we analyzed changes in the strength of self-anxiety associations—as measured by the Implicit Association Test–Anxiety (IAT–Anxiety; Egloff & Schmukle, 2002) and the Social Phobia Anxiety Inventory (SPAI; Turner, Beidel, Dancu, & Stanley, 1989)—following treatment of social anxiety. We assessed socially anxious participants (N = 24) prior to and following a group-based treatment; and we assessed healthy controls (N = 24) at matched time points. Results showed (a) higher implicit and explicit anxiety in socially anxious participants (as compared to controls) prior to treatment and (b) reductions in IAT–Anxiety and SPAI scores of socially anxious participants following treatment…

Improving heartbeat perception in patients with medically unexplained symptoms reduces symptom distress.

Abstract Distortions in interoceptive accuracy have been linked to somatoform disorders. In line with cognitive theories of symptom formation in somatoform disorders, decreases in interoceptive accuracy have recently been observed to co-occur with more severe symptom reports. The current study tested the hypothesis that experimentally increasing interoceptive accuracy should decrease symptom severity in somatoform disorders. Twenty-nine patients with somatoform disorders were instructed in a newly developed heartbeat perception training procedure. Heartbeat perception, as a proxy for interoceptive accuracy, was assessed with a mental tracking task. Although there were no significant differe…

When scary messages backfire: Influence of dispositional cognitive avoidance on the effectiveness of threat communications

We examined whether individual differences in cognitive avoidance influence the effectiveness of threat communications in changing attitudes and intentions regarding health-promoting behaviors. Two-hundred ninety-seven participants completed a measure of dispositional cognitive avoidance and read either a high or a low threat communication. We found that after a high threat message, low cognitive avoiders reported more favorable attitudes toward and intentions to adopt the action recommendation than high cognitive avoiders. The recommended response was appraised more positively by high cognitive avoiders after the low threat message than after the high threat message. Exactly the opposite p…

Implicitly and explicitly assessed anxiety: No relationships with recognition of and brain response to facial emotions.

Abstract Trait anxiety, the disposition to experience anxiety, is known to facilitate perception of threats. Trait anxious individuals seem to identify threatening stimuli such as fearful facial expressions more accurately, especially when presented under temporal constraints. In past studies on anxiety and emotion face recognition, only self-report or explicit measures of anxiety have been administered. Implicit measures represent indirect tests allowing to circumvent problems associated with self-report. In our study, we made use of implicit in addition to explicit measures to investigate the relationships of trait anxiety with recognition of and brain response to emotional faces. 75 heal…

Investigating Risk Factors for Internet Gaming Disorder: A Comparison of Patients with Addictive Gaming, Pathological Gamblers and Healthy Controls regarding the Big Five Personality Traits

Engaging in online games has become increasingly important as a part of leisure activity in adolescents and adults. While the majority of people use these games in a healthy way, epidemiological studies show that some develop excessive use and symptoms that are related to those of substance-related addictions. Despite increasing research concerning the epidemiology of internet gaming disorder (IGD), predisposing factors have been examined to a lesser extent. Knowing about specific risk factors would help clarify the nosological features of IGD and enhance prevention and intervention. This study aimed to evaluate the relationships between personality traits and IGD. A total of 115 patients m…

Keep your cool and win the game: Emotion regulation and performance in table tennis.

Objective People often feel anxious prior to performance situations, and this can lead to performance decrements. Thus, applying effective emotion regulation strategies could be crucial for achieving maximum performance. Method We investigated the relation between dispositional precompetition emotion regulation and competition performance. Participants were 310 table tennis players (240 men, Mage = 39.07, SD = 15.99). Self-reported emotion regulation behavior was matched with objective performance data. Results We found that positive cognitive change strategies were positively related and negative cognitive change strategies were negatively related to winning in competitions. Furthermore, a…

You can���t always get what you want: The role of change goal importance, goal feasibility and momentary experiences for volitional personality development

Most adults want to change aspects of their personality. However, previous studies have provided mixed evidence on whether such change goals can be successfully implemented, perhaps partly due to neglecting the goals’ importance and feasibility as well as the experience of trait-relevant situations and states. This study examined associations between change goals and changes in self-reported Big Five traits assessed four times across two years in an age-heterogeneous sample of 382 adults (255 younger adults, Mage = 21.6 years; 127 older adults, Mage = 67.8 years). We assessed trait-relevant momentary situations and states in multiple waves of daily diaries over the first year ( M = 43.9 day…

Examining the effects of birth order on personality.

This study examined the long-standing question of whether a person’s position among siblings has a lasting impact on that person’s life course. Empirical research on the relation between birth order and intelligence has convincingly documented that performances on psychometric intelligence tests decline slightly from firstborns to laterborns. By contrast, the search for birth-order effects on personality has not yet resulted in conclusive findings. We used data from three large national panels from the United States (N = 5,240), Great Britain (N = 4,489), and Germany (N = 10,457) to resolve this open research question. This data base allowed us to identify even very small effects of birth o…

Examining Mechanisms of Personality Maturation

Individuals are expected to mature with increasing age, but it is not yet fully understood which factors contribute to this maturation process. Using data of a representative sample of Germans ( N = 14,718) who gave information about their Big Five personality traits twice over a period of 4 years, the authors identified satisfaction with life, which was reported yearly, as an important variable for explaining mechanisms and interindividual differences in personality maturation. Dual latent change models suggest that more satisfied (compared to less satisfied) individuals experience more positive changes in Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness and that positive changes…

Reliability of Implicit Self–Esteem Measures Revisited

This study investigated the internal consistencies and temporal stabilities of different implicit self–esteem measures. Participants ( N = 101) responded twice—with a time lag of 4 weeks—to five different tasks: the Implicit Association Test (IAT), the Brief Implicit Association Test (BIAT), the Affective Priming Task (APT), the Identification–Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (ID–EAST) and the Name–Letter Task (NLT). As expected, the highest reliability coefficients were obtained for the self–esteem IAT. Importantly, the internal consistencies and the temporal stabilities of the APT, the ID–EAST, and the NLT were substantially improved by using material, structural, and analytic innovations.…

Leckelt_OnlineAppendix – Supplemental material for A Longitudinal Field Investigation of Narcissism and Popularity Over Time: How Agentic and Antagonistic Aspects of Narcissism Shape the Development of Peer Relationships

Supplemental material, Leckelt_OnlineAppendix for A Longitudinal Field Investigation of Narcissism and Popularity Over Time: How Agentic and Antagonistic Aspects of Narcissism Shape the Development of Peer Relationships by Marius Leckelt, Katharina Geukes, Albrecht C. P. Küfner, Lisa M. Niemeyer, Roos Hutteman, Sarah Osterholz, Boris Egloff, Steffen Nestler and Mitja D. Back in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Supplementary_Material_-_Narcissism_and_Popularity_in_the_Field_R1 – Supplemental material for A Longitudinal Field Investigation of Narcissism and Popularity Over Time: How Agentic and Antagonistic Aspects of Narcissism Shape the Development of Peer Relationships

Supplemental material, Supplementary_Material_-_Narcissism_and_Popularity_in_the_Field_R1 for A Longitudinal Field Investigation of Narcissism and Popularity Over Time: How Agentic and Antagonistic Aspects of Narcissism Shape the Development of Peer Relationships by Marius Leckelt, Katharina Geukes, Albrecht C. P. Küfner, Lisa M. Niemeyer, Roos Hutteman, Sarah Osterholz, Boris Egloff, Steffen Nestler and Mitja D. Back in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

A multidimensional approach to the reporting of somatic symptoms: The Somatic Symptom Questionnaire Five (SSQ-5G)

The Stigma of Being Overweight

In a job context, we investigated whether controllability of a stigma influences the self-protective effects of attributions to discrimination. Eighty overweight females read a vignette and imagined being rejected for a job because of their (1) personal abilities, (2) sex, (3) being overweight due to a disease, or (4) being overweight from personal causes. Results showed that when the rejection was gender-based, participants blamed themselves less and had higher performance self-esteem than when it was due to personal abilities. Importantly, when being overweight had a personal background – and was hence controllable – women blamed themselves more for the rejection and reported lower perfo…

No evidence that economic inequality moderates the effect of income on generosity

A landmark study published in PNAS [Côté S, House J, Willer R (2015) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112:15838–15843] showed that higher income individuals are less generous than poorer individuals only if they reside in a US state with comparatively large economic inequality. This finding might serve to reconcile inconsistent findings on the effect of social class on generosity by highlighting the moderating role of economic inequality. On the basis of the importance of replicating a major finding before readily accepting it as evidence, we analyzed the effect of the interaction between income and inequality on generosity in three large representative datasets. We analyzed the donating behavior of…

sj-pdf-1-erp-10.1177_0890207020962332 - Supplemental material for You can’t always get what you want: The role of change goal importance, goal feasibility and momentary experiences for volitional personality development

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-erp-10.1177_0890207020962332 for You can’t always get what you want: The role of change goal importance, goal feasibility and momentary experiences for volitional personality development by Anna J Lücke, Martin Quintus, Boris Egloff and Cornelia Wrzus in European Journal of Personality

Need for Conclusive Evidence that Positive and Negative Reciprocity are Unrelated

The strong reciprocity model of the evolution of human cooperation (1) postulates that positive and negative reciprocity are associated. Recently in PNAS, Yamagishi et al. (2) reported results that challenged this proposition by showing that the tendency to reject unfair offers in the ultimatum game is not related to various indicators of positive reciprocity in other experimental games. This result was corroborated by a nonsignificant correlation between self-reported positive and negative reciprocity.

The implicit health-related self-concept in somatoform disorders.

Abstract Background and objective Dual-process theories stress the importance of explicit as well as implicit cognitive processes for the development of somatoform disorders (SFDs). 1 In particular, the self-concept has been demonstrated to be a key factor in SFD. Yet, the self-concept in SFDs has been studied only on an explicit but not on an implicit level. Methods The present study empirically examined the implicit health-related self-concept in SFDs by using the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Twenty-two patients with SFDs (according to DSM-IV) and 27 healthy control participants (CG) completed an IAT to assess associations of the self with illness- versus health-related words. Results…

A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior

Does being from a higher social class lead a person to engage in more or less prosocial behavior? Psychological research has recently provided support for a negative effect of social class on prosocial behavior. However, research outside the field of psychology has mainly found evidence for positive or u-shaped relations. In the present research, we therefore thoroughly examined the effect of social class on prosocial behavior. Moreover, we analyzed whether this effect was moderated by the kind of observed prosocial behavior, the observed country, and the measure of social class. Across eight studies with large and representative international samples, we predominantly found positive effect…

Predicting Self–Confident Behaviour with Implicit and Explicit Self–Esteem Measures

The present research compared the validity of popular direct and indirect measures of self–esteem in predicting self–confident behaviour in different social situations. In line with behavioural dual–process models, both implicit and explicit self–esteem were hypothesized to be related to appearing self–confident to unacquainted others. A total of 127 participants responded to the Rosenberg Self–Esteem Scale, the Multidimensional Self–Esteem Scale, and an adjective scale for measuring explicit self–esteem (ESE). Participants‘ implicit self–esteem (ISE) was assessed with four indirect measures: the Implicit Association Test (IAT), the name–letter task (NLT), and two variants of an affective …

Measuring Task-Switching Ability in the Implicit Association Test

Abstract. Recently, the role of method-specific variance in the Implicit Association Test (IAT) was examined ( McFarland & Crouch, 2002 ; Mierke & Klauer, 2003 ). This article presents a new content-unspecific control task for the assessment of task-switching ability within the IAT methodology. Study 1 showed that this task exhibited good internal consistency and stability. Studies 2-4 examined method-specific variance in the IAT and showed that the control task is significantly associated with conventionally scored IAT effects of the IAT-Anxiety. Using the D measures proposed by Greenwald, Nosek, and Banaji (2003 ), the amount of method-specific variance in the IAT-Anxiety could b…

Assessing attention allocation toward threat-related stimuli: a comparison of the emotional Stroop task and the attentional probe task

This study examined the association of two widely used measures of attention allocation toward or away from threat-related stimuli: The emotional Stroop task and the attentional probe task. Fifty-three participants responded to computer versions of both tasks where stimuli were presented both subliminally and supraliminally. Thus, four indexes indicating attention allocation were computed for each participant. A correlation analysis showed that the attentional probe index and the emotional Stroop index were associated within each presentation mode while all other relations were nonsignificant. These results are discussed in terms of a distinction between preattentive and attentional process…

Relationships between time of day, day of the week, and positive mood: Exploring the role of the mood measure

This study examined the relationship between time of day, day of the week, and two measures of positive affect (PA). According to previous research and the circumplex model of affect, one scale was designed to assess the activation component of PA, and the other one measured the pleasantness aspect. Subjects rated their mood three times a day for 7 consecutive days. Consistent with our hypotheses, PA-Pleasantness showed a peak on the weekend, whereas PA-Activation remained stable throughout the week. Regarding time of day, maximum PA-Activation was reached in the afternoon. In contrast, the Pleasantness component of PA increased from morning to evening. Implications of these results as well…

Facebook profiles reflect actual personality, not self-idealization.

Assessing Anxiety with Extrinsic Simon Tasks

This article introduces two new indirect measures of anxiety that are based on the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST; De Houwer, 2003 ). The EAST differs from the more established Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998 ) in that participants' responses to different trials within one block of trials are compared rather than performance between two different blocks of trials. Two studies led to the following results: (a) Both extrinsic Simon tasks for assessing anxiety showed only moderate internal consistencies, (b) one of the two tasks showed at least some convergent validity with an IAT for assessing anxiety, and (c) both tasks were dissociated from sel…

Do vegetarians feel bad? Examining the association between eating vegetarian and subjective well-being in two representative samples

Abstract Research on the relationship between vegetarianism and subjective well-being (SWB) has produced inconsistent results, which may partly be due to small sample sizes and divergent operationalizations of well-being. For these reasons, the present study aimed to thoroughly examine this association in two large representative samples from Germany (Study 1: N = 12,905, including 665 vegetarians) and Australia (Study 2: N = 15,532, including 383 vegetarians) using a consensual conceptualization of SWB (composed of an affective component, i.e., positive and negative affect, and a cognitive component, i.e., life satisfaction). Results of t-tests showed that vegetarians reported slightly hig…

Verbal-autonomic response dissociations as traits?

Dissociations between subjective and physiological responses to stress are of central interest in coping research. However, little is known about their stability across situations and time. Two experimental sessions - separated by 1 year - were conducted to examine cross-situational consistency and longterm-stability of HR-derived and SCL-derived dissociation scores. In year 1, a speech stressor, the cold pressor and a video stressor (viewing of the speech video) were applied. In year 2, mental arithmetics, anagrams and a torture video were presented. Thirty-five students participated and HR, SCL and negative affect were recorded. For each stressor, standardized changes in negative affect w…

Second to fourth digit ratios and the implicit gender self-concept

Abstract Intersexual and intrasexual variation in the ratio of index and ring finger lengths (2D:4D) is thought to be a marker of fetal androgen and estrogen levels. Thus, 2D:4D ratios have been expected to be associated with the development of the gender self-concept (masculinity vs. femininity). These associations have, however, proven to be empirically rather small and lower than expected. By arguing that early developmental events more greatly influence implicit as compared with explicit self-concepts, we hypothesized that 2D:4D ratios might be associated with the implicit gender self-concept – assessed using an Implicit Association Test – as opposed to the self-reported explicit gender…

To make innovations such as replication mainstream, publish them in mainstream journals.

AbstractIt was a pleasure to read Zwaan et al.'s wise and balanced target article. Here, I use it as a shining example for bolstering the argument that to make innovations such as replication mainstream, it seems advisable to move the debates from social media to respected “mainstream” psychology journals. Only then will mainstream psychologists be reached and, we hope, convinced.

Tell me a story and I will tell you who you are! Lens model analyses of personality and creative writing

Abstract We elucidated the accuracy of personality judgments based on creative writing by means of lens model analyses. Targets ( N  = 79) wrote short stories with five predefined words. Observers rated the Big Five dimensions and general knowledge of the targets who wrote these stories. Three main findings were revealed: (a) the Big Five and general knowledge were consensually judged by observers; (b) judgments of openness to experience, agreeableness, and general knowledge were accurate; and (c) accuracies were achieved due to the correct usage of valid cues. Additionally, we replicated all results in a second sample of targets ( N =  126). Results are discussed in comparison to other are…

sj-pdf-1-asm-10.1177_10731911211029379 – Supplemental material for The Agony of Choice: Acceptance, Efficiency, and Psychometric Properties of Questionnaires With Different Numbers of Response Options

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-asm-10.1177_10731911211029379 for The Agony of Choice: Acceptance, Efficiency, and Psychometric Properties of Questionnaires With Different Numbers of Response Options by Markus Müssig, Jeanette Kubiak and Boris Egloff in Assessment

Interactive effects of avoidant coping and parental hypertension on Rate Pressure Product reactivity in women

Background: Previous research suggests that personality, situational context variables, and genes might interact to potentiate cardiovascular stress responses.Purpose: Our purpose is to examine interactive effects of dispositional avoidant coping and parental hypertension on cardiovascular reactivity to three different laboratory stressors.Method: Participants were 63 healthy female students. Stressors were an evaluated videotaped speech, the cold pressor, and viewing of the speech video. Heart rate and blood pressure were continuously recorded during baselines and tasks.Results: After controlling for age, body mass index, smoking status, reported exercise, alcohol consumption, oral contrac…

Temporal stability of the implicit association test-anxiety.

The Implicit Association Test-Anxiety (IAT-Anxiety; Egloff & Schmukle, 2002) provides an indirect assessment of anxiety by measuring associations of self (vs. other) with anxiety-related (vs. calmness-related) words. In 3 studies (using 3 independent samples), we examined the temporal stability of the IAT-Anxiety. In Study 1, 65 participants responded twice to the IAT-Anxiety with a time lag of 1 week. The test-retest correlation was .58. In Study 2 (N = 39), we extended the time interval between test and retest to 1 month and this yielded a stability coefficient of .62. In Study 3 (N = 36), we examined the long-term stability (time lag: 1 year) of the IAT-Anxiety and this showed a correlat…

The Association Between Video Gaming and Psychological Functioning

Video gaming is an extremely popular leisure-time activity with more than two billion users worldwide (Newzoo, 2017). However, the media as well as professionals have underscored the potential dangers of excessive video gaming. With the present research, we aimed to shed light on the relation between video gaming and gamers’ psychological functioning. Questionnaires on personality and psychological health as well as video gaming habits were administered to 2,734 individuals (2,377 male, 357 female, Mage = 23.06, SDage = 5.91). Results revealed a medium-sized negative correlation between problematic video gaming and psychological functioning with regard to psychological symptoms, affectivity…

Interactive Effect of Dispositional Cognitive Avoidance, Magnitude of Threat, and Response Efficacy on the Persuasive Impact of Threat Communications

This internet study investigated the effect of individual differences in cognitive avoidance on the persuasive impact of threat communications. A total of 289 participants completed a measure of dispositional cognitive avoidance and read either a high- or a low-threat communication that provided either an effective response to reduce the threat or not. We found that cognitive avoidance did not moderate the effect of magnitude of threat when response efficacy was low. By contrast, cognitive avoidance was relevant when efficacy was high: After a high-threat message, low cognitive avoiders reported more favorable attitudes toward and intentions to adopt the action recommendation than high cog…

Maladaptive Personality Traits and Their Interaction with Outcome Expectancies in Gaming Disorder and Internet-Related Disorders

Gambling disorder and gaming disorder have recently been recognized as behavioral addictions in the ICD-11 (International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition). The association between behavioral addictions and personality has been examined before, yet there is a lack of studies on maladaptive traits and their relationship to specific outcome expectancies. In study 1, we recruited a community sample (n = 365)

Thinking about anxiety moderates the relationship between implicit and explicit anxiety measures

Abstract Explicit measures (e.g., questionnaires) assess introspectively accessible self-descriptions and evaluations. In contrast, implicit measures (e.g., the Implicit Association Test) assess the self-concept indirectly, usually by means of performance measures such as reaction-time tasks. Correlations between implicit and explicit measures of personality dispositions tend to be low. The current study ( N  = 82) tested the hypothesis that thinking about anxiety-arousing (vs. extraversion-arousing) situations moderates the relationship between implicit and explicit anxiety measures. Results supported this prediction: While no association between implicit and explicit anxiety measures was …

Does a positive appraisal style work in all stressful situations and for all individuals?

AbstractKalisch et al. posit that a positive appraisal style is the key to resilience. I will argue instead that the adaptiveness of a particular emotion-regulation strategy is determined by contextual factors. Hence, a positive appraisal style might not always result in positive consequences and is most likely not the only mediator of resilience.

A Latent State-Trait Analysis of Implicit and Explicit Personality Measures

Abstract. Explicit personality measures assess introspectively accessible self-descriptions. In contrast, implicit personality measures assess introspectively inaccessible processes that operate outside awareness. However, for both kinds of trait measures, the effect of the situation in which the assessment takes place should be as small as possible. The present study aims at quantifying possible systematic occasion-specific effects on implicit measures (Implicit Association Test) and explicit measures (self-report ratings) of extraversion and anxiety by means of a latent state-trait analysis. This analysis revealed that - as desired for personality assessment - all four measures capture m…

Automatic brain response to facial emotion as a function of implicitly and explicitly measured extraversion.

Extraversion/introversion is a basic dimension of personality that describes individual differences in social behavior and sensory sensitivity. Previous neuroimaging research exclusively relied on self reports for assessing personality traits. In recent years, implicit measures of personality have been developed that aim at assessing the implicit self-concept of personality and complement self report instruments which are thought to measure aspects of the explicit self-concept of personality. In the present study functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine automatic brain reactivity to facial expression as a function of both implicitly and explicitly measured extraversion in 3…

Probing birth-order effects on narrow traits using specification-curve analysis

The idea that birth-order position has a lasting impact on personality has been discussed for the past 100 years. Recent large-scale studies have indicated that birth-order effects on the Big Five personality traits are negligible. In the current study, we examined a variety of more narrow personality traits in a large representative sample ( n = 6,500–10,500 in between-family analyses; n = 900–1,200 in within-family analyses). We used specification-curve analysis to assess evidence for birth-order effects across a range of models implementing defensible yet arbitrary analytical decisions (e.g., whether to control for age effects or to exclude participants on the basis of sibling spacing).…

Alexithymia and the implicit self-concept of extraversion in women

Abstract Findings from studies using self-reports suggest a negative association between the personality traits of alexithymia and extraversion. Self-report measures are assumed to assess aspects of the explicit self-concept of personality. Indirect measures, such as the Implicit Association Test (IAT), were developed to tap into the implicit self-concept of personality. The present study examined for the first time the relationship between self-reported alexithymia and the implicit self-concept of extraversion. The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and an Implicit Association Test (IAT) assessing extraversion were administered to 86 healthy women along with the NEO Five-factor Inventory (N…

Brain response to masked and unmasked facial emotions as a function of implicit and explicit personality self-concept of extraversion.

Extraversion-introversion is a personality dimension referring to individual differences in social behavior. In the past, neurobiological research on extraversion was almost entirely based upon questionnaires which inform about the explicit self-concept. Today, indirect measures are available that tap into the implicit self-concept of extraversion which is assumed to result from automatic processing functions. In our study, brain activation while viewing facial expression of affiliation relevant (i.e., happiness, and disgust) and irrelevant (i.e., fear) emotions was examined as a function of the implicit and explicit self-concept of extraversion and processing mode (automatic vs. controlled…

Keep your eyes open: dispositional vigilance moderates the relationship between operational police stress and stress symptoms.

ABSTRACTBackground: Vigilant coping is characterized by a deep processing of threat-related information. In many cases, vigilant coping increases stress symptoms, whereas avoidant coping decreases negative affect. However, vigilance may be beneficial when stress-eliciting situations involve a risk of injury or escalation as is usually the case in police operations. Design: We investigated the roles of vigilance and cognitive avoidance in police operations in a cross-sectional survey. Methods: The participants were 137 students (104 men, Mage = 28.54, SD = 8.04) from the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences; 76 of them were already police officers (work experience: M = 12.59…

“Automatic or the People?”

The Agony of Choice: Acceptance, Efficiency, and Psychometric Properties of Questionnaires With Different Numbers of Response Options

Questionnaires are one of the most important tools in psychological assessment, yet the impact of different numbers of response options on psychometric properties of questionnaires is limited. This study extends existing research by analyzing respondents’ acceptance of and the efficiency of different numbers of response options and replicate findings on reliability and validity. We studied these questions in 540 respondents who filled out the Big Five Inventory–2 and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Two response options, 11 response options and the visual analog scale showed disadvantages in acceptance compared with the original number of response options. The completion time increase…

The development of the rank-order stability of the Big Five across the life span.

Several studies have suggested that the rank-order stability of personality increases until midlife and declines later in old age. However, this inverted U-shaped pattern has not consistently emerged in previous research; in particular, a recent investigation implementing several methodological advances failed to support it. To resolve the matter, we analyzed data from two representative panel studies and investigated how certain methodological decisions affect conclusions regarding the age trajectories of stability. The data came from Australia (N = 15,465; Study 1) and Germany (N = 21,777; Study 2), and each study included four waves of personality assessment. We investigated the life spa…

Supporting info item, per1935-sup-0001-tablesS1-S5 - Personality Expression and Impression Formation in Online Social Networks: An Integrative Approach to Understanding the Processes of Accuracy, Impression Management and Meta–Accuracy

Supporting info item, per1935-sup-0001-tablesS1-S5 for Personality Expression and Impression Formation in Online Social Networks: An Integrative Approach to Understanding the Processes of Accuracy, Impression Management and Meta–Accuracy by Stopfer Juliane M., Egloff Boris, Nestler Steffen and Back Mitja D. in European Journal of Personality

Investigating Measures of Achievement Motivation(s)

After a long debate there is now growing agreement that implicit and explicit achievement motivation can be seen as distinct constructs. One of their major differences lies in their predictive validity, which supposedly differs depending on the setting. Empirical evidence exists to the effect that different explicit measures based on different theoretical concepts build one construct. For implicit measures, however, such evidence is lacking. Thus, scores on three implicit and three explicit achievement motivation measures, an intelligence test, and a Big 5 questionnaire were obtained (N = 150) as well as two criteria. The explicit achievement motivation measures were classified as being ba…

Personality Expression and Impression Formation in Online Social Networks: An Integrative Approach to Understanding the Processes of Accuracy, Impression Management and Meta–Accuracy

In this paper, we investigate personality expression and impression formation processes in online social networks (OSNs). We explore whether, when and why people accurately judge others’ personalities (accuracy), successfully manage the impressions that others form of them (impression management) and accurately infer others’ impressions of them (meta–accuracy) at zero acquaintance. On the basis of targets’ OSN profiles (N = 103), overall perceiver impressions were collected and compared with targets’ self–view, desired impression and meta–perception. In addition, independent groups of thin–slice perceivers based their personality impressions solely on one of four kinds of information withi…

Accuracy of Self-Esteem Judgments at Zero Acquaintance.

Objective Perceptions of strangers’ self-esteem can have wide-ranging interpersonal consequences. Aiming to reconcile inconsistent results from previous research that had predominantly suggested that self-esteem is a trait that can hardly be accurately judged at zero acquaintance, we examined unaquainted others’ accuracy in inferring individuals’ actual self-esteem. Method Ninety-nine target participants (77 female; Mage = 23.5 years) were videotaped in a self-introductory situation, and self-esteem self-reports and reports by well-known informants were obtained as separate accuracy criteria. Forty unacquainted observers judged targets' self-esteem on the basis of these short video sequence…

Avoidant coping, verbal-autonomic response dissociation and pain tolerance

Higher autonomic reactivity relative to self-reported discomfort, often found in repressors and avoidant copers might be associated with a diminished perception of bodily symptoms. This study aimed at relating such so-called verbal-autonomic response dissociation to pain tolerance. Eighty-five volunteers underwent a public speaking task and a cold pressor test. Heart rate and negative affect in response to the speech, and pain ratings and facial muscle responses for the cold pressor were obtained. A dissociation score was calculated for each individual in response to speech, thereby subtracting standardized changes in negative affect from standardized changes in heart rate. Response dissoci…

You are not alone – Social sharing as a necessary addition to the Embracing factor

AbstractI argue that the Embracing factor cannot be adequately conceptualized without taking into account the regulatory power of the social sharing of emotions. Humans tend to share their negative emotions with close others, and they benefit from it. I outline how this mechanism works in art reception by regulating and transforming negative emotions into positive experiences.

Personality and eating habits revisited: Associations between the big five, food choices, and Body Mass Index in a representative Australian sample

Abstract Objective Personality traits are related to health and health-related behavior such as eating habits. However, results are inconsistent regarding exactly which traits are related to eating habits. The eating habits assessed across studies are also not easily comparable, as they are based on different food items and on different computational methods. This study investigated eating habits and their relationship to both the Big Five personality traits and Body Mass Index (BMI; an objective criterion of health status) in a representative Australian sample. Method Participants were 13,892 adults from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. An analysis of 14 food …

Examining the Veggiee Personality: Results from a Representative German Sample

An increasing proportion of people choose to follow a vegetarian diet. To date, however, little is known about if and how individual differences in personality relate to following a vegetarian diet. In the two studies presented here, we aimed to (1) estimate the prevalence of self-defined vegetarians in two waves of a German representative sample (N = 4,496 and 5,125, respectively), (2) analyze the effect of socio-demographic variables on dietary behavior, and (3) examine individual differences between vegetarians and meat eaters in personality traits, political attitudes, and health-related variables. In Study 1, a strict definition of vegetarians was used, while in Study 2 the definition …

Personality and meat consumption: The importance of differentiating between type of meat

Recent research has shown that sociodemographic factors and the Big Five personality traits are related to people's overall level of meat consumption. However, there are important differences among various types of meat (e.g., red meat, poultry, and fish) that might lead to differential patterns in how the consumption of specific types of meat is associated with personality and sociodemographic factors. To disentangle these general and specific relationships, we conducted two studies using two large-scale representative samples from different countries: Germany (N = 13,062) and Australia (N = 15,036). Mostly consistent with our expectations, personality and sociodemographic variables showed…

Depression and Sequential Decision-Making Revisited

Background: The effect of depression on decision-making is an important but still an unsettled issue. Although most studies have reported that clinically depressed participants show worse performance, there are also studies that have shown no or even positive effects. Specifically, von Helversen et al. (2011) were able to document a positive effect of depression on task performance in a sequential decision-making task called the secretary problem (SP). Here, we (1) aimed to replicate this study in an extended version using more trials and (2) modified it by including an additional condition in which negative feedback was given. Method: Eighty-two participants took part. They were split into…

Attachment anxiety and implicit self-concept of neuroticism: Associations in women but not men

Abstract Previous research has shown that adult attachment-related anxiety is associated with the explicit self-concept of neuroticism. It remains to be clarified whether attachment anxiety is related to the implicit self-concept of neuroticism. There is evidence that gender can moderate the strength of correlation between implicit and explicit measures. The Experiences in Close Relationships scale and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) were administered to 106 healthy adults along with an Implicit Association Test assessing neuroticism. Attachment anxiety correlated with NEO-FFI neuroticism, regardless of gender. Attachment anxiety was correlated with neuroticism as measured by the IA…

The relationship between positive and negative affect in the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule

Abstract The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988 ) is one of the most widely used affect scales. Nevertheless, the relation between its two scales, positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), is still controversial. Previous results that suggest independence between NA and PA were limited to manifest variables. In this study, the relation between PA and NA for both state and trait instructions was analyzed by means of structural equation modeling. Two hundred ninety-two participants responded to the PANAS at three occasions of measurement. No association was found between trait PA and NA, but significant negative correlations between state PA and…

The emotional timeline of September 11, 2001.