Interpersonal attraction and personality: What is attractive--self similarity, ideal similarity, complementarity or attachment security?

Little is known about whether personality characteristics influence initial attraction. Because adult attachment differences influence a broad range of relationship processes, the authors examined their role in 3 experimental attraction studies. The authors tested four major attraction hypotheses--self similarity, ideal-self similarity, complementarity, and attachment security--and examined both actual and perceptual factors. Replicated analyses across samples, designs, and manipulations showed that actual security and self similarity predicted attraction. With regard to perceptual factors, ideal similarity, self similarity, and security all were significant predictors. Whereas perceptual ideal and self similarity had incremental predictive power, perceptual security's effects were subsumed by perceptual ideal similarity. Perceptual self similarity fully mediated actual attachment similarity effects, whereas ideal similarity was only a partial mediator. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the nature of self-monitoring: Construct explication with Q-sort ratings.

To explicate M. Snyder's (1987) construct of self-monitoring (SM), a new Q-sort prototype is introduced. Analyses of Q-sorts by both observers and self demonstrated cross-method convergent validity for the revised 18-item Self-Monitoring Scale (SMS-R) and its Public Performing subscale; however, neither scale showed discriminant validity against measures of extraversion. The Other-Directedness items remaining on the SMS-R correlated neither with the other measures of SM nor with extraversion. These findings suggest that the scale revision led to a conceptual shift toward extraverted (and away from other-directed) features of self-presentation. To adequately assess the conceptual domain of SM phenomena, researchers should administer the original 25-item SMS (not the abbreviated 18-item SMS-R) and score Public Performing and Other-Directedness separately to examine their individual and joint effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral and experiential patterns of avoidantly and securely attached women across adulthood: a 31-year longitudinal perspective

This article reviews the anatomy of the physis and the most common classification of injuries or fractures through the physis. The common apophyseal injuries of Osgood-Schlatter, Severs disease and iliac apophysitis, are reviewed in addition to a review of the most common osteochondritides, including Panner's disease and Osteochondritis Dessicans of the femur and talus. An understanding of these is key to diagnosis and treatment of adolescent musculoskeletal injuries. This article also reviews slipped capital femoral epiphysis, little leaguer's elbow, anterior cruciate and collateral ligament injuries, patella problems, ankle sprains and several common fractures in children.     

Negotiating the middle years: Ego-resiliency and successful midlife adjustment in women.

Midlife is a time of heightened reevaluation and reorientation during which individuals are faced with potentially stressful changes and turning points. Ego-resiliency (ER) is proposed to be a powerful personality resource that enables individuals to adaptively negotiate the challenges of this period. Through examination of data from 2 longitudinal samples of women (N?=?208), Study 1 examined whether observer-based and self-reported ER assessed at the beginning of midlife (at age 43) can predict life adjustments of specific relevance to this period assessed in late middle age (ages 52 and 48). In Study 2 age 43 ER was used to predict directional changes in central life adjustments and feelings about life over this same period (between ages 43 and 52). Predictions across samples, across measures of ER, or both were confirmed by replicated findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Traits and motives: Toward an integration of two traditions in personality research.

After reviewing classic and current conceptions of trait (as measured by questionnaires) and motive (as measured by the Thematic Apperception Test [TAT] or other imaginative verbal behavior), the authors suggest that these 2 concepts reflect 2 fundamentally different elements of personality—conceptually distinct and empirically unrelated. The authors propose that traits and motives interact in the prediction of behavior: Traits channel the behavioral expression of motives throughout the life course. The authors illustrate this interactive hypothesis in 2 longitudinal studies, focusing on the broad trait of extraversion and the 2 social motives of affiliation and power. In interaction with extraversion, both motives show predicted and replicated relations to independently measured life outcomes in the domains of relationships and careers. Extraversion facilitates unconflicted motive expression, whereas introversion deflects social motives away from their characteristic goals and creates difficulties in goal attainment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In vitro effects of holmium. YAG laser on caprine stifle retinacular restraints

This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of the Holmium:YAG laser for performing lateral release and medial joint capsular tightening intracapsularly and to compare the efficacy of the laser versus a scalpel blade for performing a lateral release by performing arthroscopic surgery on 29 caprine patellofemoral joints. Specimens were divided into six treatment groups and treatments consisted of lateral release alone, medial capsular tightening alone, or both treatments, and the effect of each treatment on patellar tracking was evaluated using video analysis of optical markers. Each treatment caused significantly different magnitudes of medial patellar displacement throughout a 75 degrees range of motion: medial tightening followed by lateral release (1.5 +/- 0.10 mm, mean +/- standard error of the mean); lateral release followed by medial tightening (1.1 +/- 0.11 mm); medial tightening alone (0.73 +/- 0.10 mm); lateral release alone (0.36 +/- 0.09 mm); and sham (-0.15 +/- 0.05 mm). There were no significant differences between performing the lateral release using the laser (1.5 +/- 0.10 mm) versus a scalpel (1.4 +/- 0.11 mm). This study shows that lateral release can be performed as effectively with the laser as with a scalpel and that the laser is an effective tool for performing lateral release and medial joint capsular tightening procedures intracapsularly in this caprine model.     

Assortative Mating and Marital Quality in Newlyweds: A Couple-Centered Approach.

Using a couple-centered approach, the authors examined assortative mating on a broad range of variables in a large (N = 291) sample of newlyweds. Couples showed substantial similarity on attitude-related domains but little on personality-related domains. Similarity was not due to social homogamy or convergence. The authors examined linear and curvilinear effects of spouse similarity on self and observer indicators of marital quality. Results show (a) positive associations between similarity and marital quality for personality-related domains but not for attitude-related domains, (b) that similarity on attachment characteristics were most strongly predictive of satisfaction, (c) robust curvilinear effects for husbands but not for wives, (d) that profile similarity remained a significant predictor of marital quality even when spouses' self-ratings were controlled, and (e) that profile-based similarity indices were better predictors of marital quality than absolute difference scores. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Realization of generativity in two samples of women at midlife.

On the basis of E. H. Erikson's (1950/1963) theory of midlife development, a measure of generativity realization was constructed with items from J. Block's (1961/1978) California Adult Q-Set (CAQ). Convergent and discriminant validity for the new CAQ measure were established through a survey of 2 samples of educated women at about 43 years of age (N?=?208). These 2 samples, 1 from a study of Mills College graduates and the other from a study of Radcliffe College graduates, were also used to examine the personality, attitudinal, and life outcome correlates of generativity at midlife. Results indicated that generative women have prosocial personality characteristics, express generative attitudes through their work, are invested in the parenting process, and exhibit an expanded radius of care. In general, results conceptually replicated in the Mills and Radcliffe samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptual analysis and measurement of the construct of ego-resiliency.

This investigation explored the meaning, measurement, and validity of the ego-resiliency construct ([ER] J. H. Block and J. Block, 1980) in 3 samples. Study 1 explored the internal structure of ER in observer and self-report data, and the development of a self-report measure is described. Study 2 tested convergent and discriminant relations of ER with personality attributes. Study 3 investigated implications of ER for adjustment and effective functioning in adulthood. Components of ER obtained through exploratory factor analyses (confident optimism, productive and autonomous activity, interpersonal warmth and insight, and skilled expressiveness) formed a unitary construct and mirrored the relations found between ER and other trait domains. Across samples, there were strong relations between ER and effective functioning in diverse areas of life. ER is discussed in relation to generally accepted criteria of adjustment and effective functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)