Self-concept and the stability of personality: Cross-sectional comparisons of self-reports and ratings.

Examined the hypothesis that in normal individuals the self-concept is crystallized in early adulthood. If so, then self-report assessments would show great stability despite radical changes in personality or characteristic behavior. The use of spouse ratings is proposed as an alternative method that should be capable of demonstrating personality changes. Data on 139 male and 142 female 21–89 yr olds were collected. Correlations between age and spouse ratings of 18 personality traits showed only small associations, which may be attributable to sampling bias or cohort differences. When the difference between ratings and self-reports was examined, MANOVA showed no age effect for men or women. The agreement between self-reports and ratings at different ages was not lower among older Ss. Personality thus appears to be stable in groups and individuals whether or not the self-conccept is crystallized early in life. It is argued that the self-concepts of most adults are reasonably accurate representations of their pesonalities at all ages. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons of bipolar and unipolar depressed groups on the MMPI.

Compared MMPI admission and remission profiles in 34 patients (17 bipolar and 17 unipolar) hospitalized for depression. There were no significant demographic differences or difference in behaviorally rated depression between the bipolar and unipolar groups. Relatively normal profiles for the bipolar group and abnormal profiles for the unipolar group significantly differentiated the 2 groups at admission, but, with 1 exception, the differences dissipated at recovery. Thus, greater changes over time were found in the self-reported personality characteristics of unipolar Ss than in bipolar Ss. After recovery from the depressive episode, there was a significant shift within unipolar Ss from withdrawal and lack of interest in others to a greater concern for socially approved behavior. The implications of change in the unipolar group and stability in the bipolar group and the more enduring personality characteristics of the 2 groups are discussed. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-sectional age changes in ego identity status during adolescence.

Cross-sectional age changes in ego identity status during adolescence were investigated in 25 males in each of 5 age groups (12, 15, 18, 21, and 24 yrs). Each S was administered the Marcia Identity Status Interview, extended to include questions about avocation and, for the older Ss, attitudes toward premarital sex. Significant increases were found in occupational commitment and crisis, religious crisis, political commitment and crisis, and sexual crisis. On overall identity status, there were large increases with age in the number of Ss in the achievement status and decreases in the number of Ss in the foreclosure and diffusion statuses. Contrary to expectation, sexual attitudes appeared to be related to identity formation for this sample. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Declines in divergent thinking with age: Cross-sectional, longitudinal, and cross-sequential analyses.

Six measures of divergent thinking were administered to 825 men ranging in age from 17 to 101 over the period from 1959 to 1972; repeat administrations were given to a subset of 278 men after a 6-year interval. Cross-sectional analyses showed curvilinear trends, with an increase in scores for men under 40 and a decline thereafter. Repeated measures analyses on subjects initially aged 33 to 74 generally replicated this finding, whereas cross-sequential analyses suggested a decline for all cohorts tested at a later time. Additional analyses suggested that not all of the decline could be attributed to reduced speed of response production. These longitudinal findings confirm earlier cross-sectional reports of decline in divergent thinking abilities with age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Open-field behavior of the rat as a function of age: Cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations.

Exposed 52 female Sprague-Dawley albino rats to an open field for 5 min. daily between the ages of 31-110 days. Ss 40 days old or younger showed day-to-day increments in activity during repeated apparatus exposures, while no group 70 days old or older showed this activity change. In Exp. II groups of 9 Ss, 31 and 110 days old, respectively, were given 60 open-field trials. The juveniles increased their activity and maintained this elevated behavior; adults never did exhibit any significant increase in activity. Results indicate a critical period among rats such that high rates of ambulation are typical of only those animals that are placed in the apparatus prior to Day 70. (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships among age, cognition, and processing speed.

Cross-sectional and longitudinal age effects on cognitive function were examined in 302 older adults followed longitudinally. Processing speed was related to cognitive performance at cross-section, and change in speed predicted within-person longitudinal cognitive decline. Statistical control of processing speed greatly reduced cross-sectional age effects but did not attenuate longitudinal aging effects. This difference in processing speed's ability to account for cross-sectional and longitudinal age effects is discussed in the context of theories of cognitive aging and methodological and statistical issues pertaining to the cross-sectional and longitudinal study of cognitive aging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensation seeking in England and America: Cross-cultural, age, and sex comparisons.

Compared the factor structure of the Sensation-Seeking Scale (SSS) in English and American samples, and constructed a new form of the SSS, applicable to both groups. The English Ss consisted of 254 males and 639 females from the Maudsley Twin Register, ages 15–70 yrs. The American sample included 97 male and female undergraduates. Three of the 4 factors showed good cross-national and cross-sex reliability (i.e., significant and reasonably high resemblance between the 4 national and sex symbols). English and American males did not differ on the total SSS score, but American females scored higher than English females. Males in both countries scored higher than females on the total SSS score and on the Thrill and Adventure-Seeking and Disinhibition subscales. Significant age declines occurred for both sexes, particularly on Thrill and Adventure Seeking and Disinhibition. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional intelligence in young and middle adulthood: Cross-sectional analysis of latent structure and means.

Differentiation of the construct of emotional intelligence was investigated in young and middle-aged adults, on the basis of hypotheses generated from differential emotions theory, discrete emotions functionalist theory, and empirical literature on age-related changes in affective complexity and differentiation of abilities. Both age groups were characterized by the same set of comparably related dimensions. However, midlife adults reported significantly greater use of optimism as a mood-regulation strategy than was reported by young adults. This study considers implications of possible structural continuity in emotional intelligence in conjunction with mean increases in the use of optimism as a strategy for managing affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age comparisons in the processing of event frequency information.

The usual superiority in frequency-of-occurrence judgments of younger vs older subjects was hypothesized to result from greater strategic encoding of the materials conveying frequency information. A subject-paced, visual search task was designed to control nontarget word encoding. Relative frequency judgments for the nontarget word pairs were equally accurate for younger and older subjects, and performance of both groups was above chance. Results suggest that strategic cover-task encoding can induce age differences in incidental frequency processing. Consistent with a nonoptimal as opposed to an optimal view, automatic processes require only minimal capacity for above-chance performance, but additional strategic resources can increase performance. When such additional resources are used more by younger than by older subjects, the former are better in frequency performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intellectual functioning in old and very old age: Cross-sectional results from the Berlin Aging Study.

This study documents age trends, interrelations, and correlates of intellectual abilities in old and very old age (70–103 years) from the Berlin Aging Study (N?=?516). Fourteen tests were used to assess 5 abilities: reasoning, memory, and perceptual speed from the mechanic (broad fluid) domain and knowledge and fluency from the pragmatic (broad crystallized) domain. Intellectual abilities had negative linear age relations, with more pronounced age reductions in mechanic than in pragmatic abilities. Interrelations among intellectual abilities were highly positive and did not follow the mechanic-pragmatic distinction. Sociobiographical indicators were less closely linked to intellectual functioning than sensory-sensorimotor variables, which predicted 59% of the total reliable variance in general intelligence. Results suggest that aging-induced biological factors are a prominent source of individual differences in intelligence in old and very old age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family structure and age at menarche: A children-of-twins approach.

Girls who grow up in households with an unrelated adult male reach menarche earlier than peers, a finding hypothesized to be an evolutionary strategy for families under stress. The authors tested the alternative hypothesis that nonrandom selection into stepfathering due to shared environmental and/or genetic predispositions creates a spurious relation between stepfathering and early menarche. Using the unique controls for genetic and shared environmental experiences offered by the children-of-twins design, the authors found that cousins discordant for stepfathering did not differ in age of menarche. Moreover, controlling for mother's age of menarche eliminated differences in menarcheal age associated with stepfathering in unrelated girls. These findings strongly suggest selection, and not causation, accounts for the relationship between stepfathering and early menarche. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect and memory: A review.

Reviews, critically, the empirical literature on the role of depression and elation in biasing mnemonic processing. Two classes of effects—state dependence and mood congruence—are examined. The latter, which involves the enhanced encoding and/or retrieval of material the affective valence of which is congruent with ongoing mood, is the more extensively researched of the two and is thus the focus of much of the review. Although the support for claims of such a phenomenon is impressive in its size, consistency, and diversity, a number of questions remain. These include whether such effects are linked to mood states per se and the possible role that such effects may play in the development of persistent depression. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual speed in adulthood: Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.

Cross-sectional data on age differences in perceptual speed are presented from the Seattle Longitudinal Study for the age range 22–91 years (N?=?1,620, first assessed in 1977; N?=?628, first assessed in 1984). In addition, 838 subjects were followed over the 7-year interval. Markers of perceptual speed were the Identical Pictures and Finding A's tests from the Educational Testing Service's Kit of Factor-Referenced Cognitive Tests. Significant age differences, age changes, and cohort differences were found at both observed variable and latent construct levels. Cross-lagged correlations examine the role of perceptual speed in predicting later performance on other abilities (Verbal Meaning, Inductive Reasoning, Spatial Orientation, Number, and Word Fluency). When perceptual speed is partialled out of scores for these abilities, aging effects are reduced markedly for all abilities, but least for Spatial Orientation and Inductive Reasoning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of age and stimulus structure on serial learning.

Investigated the ability of 4th, 6th, and 8th graders to use structures inherent in a list of permuted symbols. The structures were defined in terms of Piagetian theory, and the sequential stimuli were drawn from previous research. The 240 Ss, 120 males and 120 females equally divided among the 3 grades, were each given 2 lists, 1 random and 1 structured, and were administered 8 serial anticipation trials with each list. The dependent variable was the total number of correct anticipations over the 8 trials. The analysis of variance performed on these data revealed structure to be increasingly facilitative with age, with the less complex structures being more facilitative. Results support the theoretical notion that environmental event structure facilitates learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect Networks: A Structural Analysis of the Relationship Between Work Ties and Job-Related Affect.

The relationship between organizational networks and employees' affect was examined in 2 organizations. In Study 1, social network analysis of work ties and job-related affect for 259 employees showed that affect converged within work interaction groups. Similarity of affect between employees depended on the presence of work ties and structural equivalence. Affect was also related to the size and density of employees' work networks. Study 2 used a 10-week diary study of 31 employees to examine a merger of 2 organizational divisions and found that negative changes in employees' affect were related to having fewer cross-divisional ties and to experiencing greater reductions in network density. The findings suggest that affect permeates through and is shaped by organizational networks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structural integration of the Affect Balance Scale and the Life Satisfaction Index A: Race, sex, and age differences.

In this research we examined race, sex, and age differences in the factorial structure of Liang's (1985) model of subjective well-being that integrates the Affect Balance Scale and the Life Satisfaction Index A. In particular, we viewed the covariance structure of the items as a function of several parameter matrices. We analyzed the factorial invariance by testing hypotheses involving the equivalence constraints of one or more parameter matrices with regard to the following: White and Black subsamples, men and women, and the young–old and the old–old. Data for the research came from the 1974 Harris National Council on Aging Survey, Myths and Reality of Aging in America. Analysis of covariance structures, or {lisrel}, was used to assess the factorial invariance. Replicated race differences were found in the factorial structure, but sex and age differences were not found. Consistent race differences were found for the second-order factor loadings for negative affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding metaphorical comparisons: Beyond similarity.

Traditionally, metaphors such as "my job is a jail" have been treated as implicit similes (i.e., this metaphor would be treated as if it were a comparison statement, "my job is like a jail"). A. Tversky's (1977) account of similarity is applied to such nonliteral similarity expressions, and is shown to apply as readily to nonliteral comparisons as to literal comparisons. But treating metaphors as comparison statements fails to account for certain important phenomena, including metaphoricity itself (the judgment that a comparison statement is nonliteral). We argue that metaphors are exactly what they appear to be: class-inclusion assertions, in which the topic of the metaphor (e.g., "my job") is assigned to a diagnostic category (e.g., entities that confine one against one's will, are unpleasant, are difficult to escape from). In such assertions, the metaphor vehicle (e.g., "jail") refers to that category, and at the same time is a prototypical exemplar of that category. This account of metaphor provides a basis for a theory of metaphor comprehension, and also clarifies why people use metaphors instead of similes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading skill: Some adult comparisons.

Three groups of college readers were compared on several information-processing and language comprehension tasks that tap the cognitive components of reading. The groups were skilled readers with high verbal and nonverbal abilities, low-skilled readers with a disparity between verbal and nonverbal abilities, and low-skilled readers who were low in both verbal and nonverbal ability. Results confirm the importance of word processing and general language comprehension in distinguishing skilled from less skilled readers. Results also support the view that reading ability is best described as a continuous function and provide evidence of the reemergence of lower level processing skills in adults as a function of text difficulty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-sectional time-series experiments: Some suggested statistical analyses.

In the past, statistical analyses for time-series experiments have usually operated with a single-case model, thereby limiting the general applicability of the designs. In this article, alternative analytical procedures are developed for cross-sectional time-series in which the sample size is large and the number of observations per case is relatively small. Interrupted time series, equivalent time samples, and multiple time series are all treated within a multiple regression framework. A generalized least squares estimation procedure is outlined as a more suitable alternative to the G. E. Box and G. M. Jenkins (1970) approach. Some of the special advantages of the designs are briefly discussed. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect regulation: Two clinical approaches.

The panel on affect was presented in the Spring 2001 Meeting of Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association. Judith Levene and Kenneth Barish presented a theoretical framework and clinical experiences indicating how their work attempts to facilitate affect regulation. David Landau discussed several similar qualities shared in these papers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)