Are normal healthy research volunteers psychologically healthy? A pilot investigation.

Most new drug development in Phase I clinical trials relies on the use of "normal healthy research volunteers" (NHRVs); however, little is known about the personality functioning of these volunteers. Determining whether NHRVs are similar to or different from individuals with "normal" personalities can impact participant recruitment, group assignment, and statistical interpretation of study results. This pilot study was undertaken to gain insight into the demographics, personality functioning, and potential psychopathology of the volunteers who participated in a Phase I confinement clinical drug trial. NHRVs (N=28) in an all-male, Phase I clinical trial completed a battery of questions, including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and a sociodemographic questionnaire. Fifty percent of the sample showed clinically significant elevations on at least one of the scales. Current findings need to be replicated and expanded through future research. Results must be interpreted with caution because of the small, all-male sample. This preliminary study suggests that there is a difference in personality functioning between NHRVs and the general population. In addition, NHRVs may purposefully distort or conceal self-report information when participating in studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

e-Perceptions: Personality Impressions Based on Personal Websites.

This research examined the accuracy of personality impressions based on personal websites, a rapidly growing medium for self-expression, where identity claims are predominant. Eighty-nine websites were viewed by 11 observers, who rated the website authors' personalities. The ratings were compared with an accuracy criterion (self- and informant reports) and with the authors' ideal-self ratings. The websites elicited high levels of observer consensus and accuracy, and observers' impressions were somewhat enhanced for Extraversion and Agreeableness. The accuracy correlations were comparable in magnitude to those found in other contexts of interpersonal perception and generally stronger than those found in zero-acquaintance contexts. These findings suggest that identity claims are used to convey valid information about personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Borderline personality traits and disorder: Predicting prospective patient functioning.

Objective: Decisions about the composition of personality assessment in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM–V) will be heavily influenced by the clinical utility of candidate constructs. In this study, we addressed 1 aspect of clinical utility by testing the incremental validity of 5-factor model (FFM) personality traits and borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms for predicting prospective patient functioning. Method: FFM personality traits and BPD features were correlated with one another and predicted 2-, 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-year psychosocial functioning scores for 362 patients with personality disorders. Results: Traits and symptom domains related significantly and pervasively to one another and to prospective functioning. FFM extraversion and agreeableness tended to be most incrementally predictive of psychosocial functioning across all intervals; cognitive and impulse action features of BPD features incremented FFM traits in some models. Conclusions: These data suggest that BPD symptoms and personality traits are important long-term indicators of clinical functioning that both overlap with and increment one another in clinical predictions. Results support the integration of personality traits and disorders in DSM–V. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proposed changes in personality and personality disorder assessment and diagnosis for DSM-5 Part I: Description and rationale.

A major reconceptualization of personality psychopathology has been proposed for DSM-5 that identifies core impairments in personality functioning, pathological personality traits, and prominent pathological personality types. A comprehensive personality assessment consists of four components: levels of personality functioning, personality disorder types, pathological personality trait domains and facets, and general criteria for personality disorder. This four-part assessment focuses attention on identifying personality psychopathology with increasing degrees of specificity, based on a clinician's available time, information, and expertise. In Part I of this two-part article, we describe the components of the new model and present brief theoretical and empirical rationales for each. In Part II, we will illustrate the clinical application of the model with vignettes of patients with varying degrees of personality psychopathology, to show how assessments might be conducted and diagnoses reached. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Eyeheight-scaled information about affordances: A study of sitting and stair climbing.

Previous work has shown that both the perceived and actual critical (maximum) heights of surfaces that afford "sitting on" and "climbing on" can be expressed as constant proportions of each actor's leg length. The current study provides evidence that these judgments of critical action boundaries are based on an existing source of size and distance information that is already scaled with reference to the actor's eyeheight. In Experiment 1 changes in judgments of "perceived eyeheight" (an index of the intrinsic scalar) as a function of viewing distance were shown to be highly correlated with changes in the maximum height that was perceived to afford sitting on or climbing on. In Experiments 2 and 3 observers wore 10-cm blocks and made judgments about whether the heights of various surfaces afforded sitting or climbing. The use of eyeheight-scaled information as the basis for their estimates predicted the obtained pattern of errors in these judgments. With a modicum of experience wearing the blocks, however, observers were able to retune accurately their critical action boundary to a degree that would not have been predicted from their consistent overestimation of the height of the block on which they were standing. These results have implications for understanding how observers obtain information about their specific action boundary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A source of data is not a measuring instrument.

Discusses a study by J. I. Berzins et al (see PA, Vol 53:Issue 5) which used a national sample and made multiple analyses of data on the outcome of psychotherapy. While they appropriately stress the disagreements among sources of data, their hope for a remedy is futile. A source of data yields observations from a distinctive role providing distinctive experience. When an observer representing a source makes judgments about the complex variables of interest to current psychotherapeutic theory, he is actively processing his own experience. His observations may agree fairly well with parallel observers representing that source, but will not agree as well with observers from other sources. Nearly exact agreement can be obtained only from inanimate measuring instruments or from observers functioning like instruments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Value of Pooling "Naive" Expertise: Comment.

Comments on the article by D. Westen and J. Weinberger (see record 2004-19091-002), which explored the benefits and limitations of clinical observation and judgment. Westen and Weinberger identify two categories of informants--clinicians and participants--but these categories could be expanded to include other observers who might have particular expertise or experience related to the phenomenon of interest. The type of expert best suited to provide observations depends on the type of expertise required. There are some domains, however, in which those with the greatest expertise are neither specially trained observers nor self-reporters but, rather, lay observers who have a native or learned ability to detect complicated social or psychological phenomena and make subtle discriminations. This type of expertise is often thought of as intuitive because it uses implicit knowledge that is not always accessible to conscious awareness or capable of being fully articulated. One way to harness this intuitive expertise effectively is to pool the judgments of multiple lay observers. Our research has led us to believe that lay observers' intuitive judgments about emotions may in fact capture important information that is lost when coders depend on more commonly used manualized approaches such as the Specific Affect Coding System (SPAFF; Gottman, McCoy, Coan, & Collier, 1996) and the Facial Action Coding System (Ekman & Friesen, 1978). In our zealousness to reduce variability among coders and to make our methods more exportable to other investigators, researchers risk losing the intuitive expertise that people naturally develop in making judgments about the world. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What mediates sex discrimination in hiring decisions?

Bogus resumes were evaluated by 212 business professionals to discover what mediates sex discrimination in hiring decisions. We hypothesized that discrimination against women and men who applied for stereotypically "masculine" and "feminine" jobs, respectively, could be reduced by providing individuating information suggesting that the applicant was an exception to his or her gender stereotype and possessed traits usually associated with the opposite gender. We also hypothesized that individuating information consistent with stereotypes about an applicant's gender would decrease the probability that an applicant would be evaluated favorably for a job usually considered appropriate for the other gender. We found that individuating information eliminated sex-typed personality inferences about male and female applicants and affected applicants' perceived job suitability; however, sex discrimination was not eliminated. We suggest that sex discrimination is mediated by occupation stereotypes that specify both the personality traits and the gender appropriate for each occupation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating the outcomes of psychotherapies: The Personality Health Index.

This paper introduces two related measures that can be used to evaluate, describe, and track changes in personality functioning. Both are derived from the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200). The first measure is the Personality Health Index (PHI) that offers an assessment of personality functioning that may be applied to the study of outcome in any treatment purporting to affect overall psychological health, such as long-term psychodynamic therapy and psychoanalysis. Preliminary studies suggest robust construct validity for the PHI. The second measure, RADIO, uses the item content of the SWAP-200 to categorize personality functioning into five domains: Reality testing and thought process, Affect regulation and tolerance, Defensive organization, Identity integration, and Object relations. Referred to by the acronym RADIO, this measure provides a picture of personality health across major dimensions of personality functioning. Applying these measures to the well-studied case of “Mrs. C” illustrates their potential clinical, educational and research utility. Both the PHI, a global measure, and the RADIO, a more specific measure, demonstrate changes in her functioning from early to late periods in her psychoanalysis. The paper elaborates the wider application of the PHI and RADIO in clinical and research contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Profiles of psychological functioning in the old and oldest old.

Cluster analysis was applied to 12 measures of intellectual, personality, self-related, and social functioning collected in the 1st cross-sectional wave of the Berlin Aging Study (BASE; N?=?516). Central questions concerned the number, profile desirability (functional status), and membership of the subgroups obtained. Of the 9 subgroups extracted, 4 reflected different patterns of desirable functioning (47% of the sample), and 5 reflected less desirable functioning (53%). Relative risk of a less desirable profile was 2.5 times higher for the oldest old (85–103 years) than for people between the ages of 70–84 years and was 1.25 times higher for women compared with men. Relationships with education, health, and mortality suggested underlying systemic differences. Consistent with theoretical propositions about a "4th age" and the incomplete architecture of life span development (P. B. Baltes, 1997), the oldest old appear to have a distinct and less desirable psychological profile. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Convergence of self-reports and independent observers: Dominance and friendliness.

This study examined the validity of self-report measures and measures based on independent observers in the laboratory. It used 2 self-report formats, ratings on adjectives and ratings for specific situations, and 2 formats for responding by independent observers, ratings and behavior counts. The personality characteristics studied were dominance and friendliness. Ss participated in 6 laboratory situations: twice with a same-sex friend, twice with a male stranger, and twice with a female stranger. The ratings and behavior counts had high convergence, particularly when assessments were aggregated across several situations. Men gave accurate self-reports about dominance, and women gave accurate self-assessments of friendliness. The most consistent evidence for convergence in specific situations was in situations with the friend. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Normal" personality inventories in clinical assessment: General requirements and the potential for using the NEO Personality Inventory.

Issues pertaining to the use of "normal" personality inventories in clinical assessment are discussed. The basic tasks of a clinical evaluation are outlined, and the ability of normal measures of personality such as the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO–PI) to contribute to clinical assessment is considered. The authors conclude that normal personality tests should not be used as stand-alone measures in a clinical evaluation and that currently there is insufficient evidence to support the use of the NEO–PI for the differential diagnosis of psychopathology. The authors note that normal measures of personality show the greatest potential for contribution to clinical assessment in identifying stable personality characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facing faces: Studies on the cognitive aspects of physiognomy.

Physiognomy, the art of reading personality traits from faces, dates back to ancient Greece, and is still very popular. The present studies examine several aspects and consequences of the process of reading traits from faces. Using faces with neutral expressions, it is demonstrated that personality information conveyed in faces changes the interpretation of verbal information. Moreover, it is shown that physiognomic information has a consistent effect on decisions, and creates overconfidence in judgments. It is argued, however, that the process of "reading from faces" is just one side of the coin, the other side of which is "reading into faces." Consistent with the latter, information about personality changes the perception of facial features and, accordingly, the perceived similarity between faces. The implications of both processes and questions regarding their automaticity are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality dimensions in spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta).

Personality ratings of 34 spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) were made by 4 observers who knew the animals well. Analyses suggest that (a) hyena personality traits were rated with generally high reliability; (b) 5 broad dimensions (Assertiveness, Excitability, Human-Directed Agreeableness, Sociability, and Curiosity) captured about 75% of the total variance; (c) this dimensional structure could not be explained in terms of dominance status, sex, age, or appearance; and (d) as expected, female hyenas were more assertive than male hyenas. Comparisons with previous research provide evidence for the cross-species generality of Excitability, Sociability, and especially Assertiveness. Discussion focuses on methodological issues in research on animal personality and on the potential contributions this research can make for understanding the biological and environmental bases of personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)