Psychology Commons^™

Substance Or Style? An Investigation Of The Neo-Pi-R Validity Scales, Leslie C. Morey, Brian D. Quigley, Charles A. Sanislow, Andrew E. Skodol, Thomas H. Mcglashan, M. Tracie Shea, Robert L. Stout, Mary C. Zanarini, John G. Gunderson

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992b) has been criticized for the absence of validity scales designed to detect response distortion. Recently, validity scales were developed from the items of the NEO-PI-R (Schinka, Kinder, & Kremer, 1997) and several studies have used a variety of methods to test their use. However, it is controversial whether these scales are measuring something that is substantive (such as psychopathology or its absence) or stylistic (which might be effortful distortion or less conscious processes such as lack of insight). In this study, we used a multimethod-multitrait approach to examine the validity …

Trends. Terrorist Brains, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses the construct of biological reductionism in the context of the case of Red Army Faction member Ulrike Meinhof. For the author, overly emphasizing the biological aspects of Ms. Meinhof’s case might obscure legitimate grievances, and ultimately, lead to more cases of violence associated with terrorism.

Trends. Disclosure Of Post-9-11 Arrestees And Maslow’S Hierarchy Of Needs, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses the Maslowian hierarchy of needs in the context of 9-11 terrorist attacks and the relationship between executive and judicial branches of American government.

Trends. Getting Emotional On Nonlethal Weapons, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes a significant biopsychosocial impediment to developing nonlethal weapons affecting emotional functioning.

The Effects Of Wilderness Therapy On The Perceived Psychosocial Stressors, Defense Styles, Dysfunctional Personality Patterns, Clinical Syndromes, And Maladaptive Behaviors Of Troubled Adolescents, Jeffrey P. Clark

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

The purpose of this study was fourfold: (a) to empirically evaluate the correlation between perceived psychosocial stressors (expressed concerns), immature defense styles, dysfunctional personality patterns, clinical syndromes, and maladaptive behaviors, as measured by the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI), Defense Style Questionnaire-40 (DSQ-40), and Youth Outcome Questionnaire-2.0 (YOQ); (b) to look at how wilderness therapy affects the expressed concerns, immature defense styles, clinical syndromes, dysfunctional personality patterns, and maladaptive behaviors of troubled adolescents; (c) to see if subjects whose post-test defense styles change improve more than subjects whose defense styles remain the same or get worse; and (d) to begin …

The Black And White Of Profiling: Sniping On The Sniper Case, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article analyzes the construct of profiling in the aftermath of the arrest of two suspects in the recent sniper attacks perpetrated in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

Trends. Sniping As Terrorism And Terrorism As Sniping, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses the possible terrorist context of sniper attacks perpetrated in the greater Washington, D.C. area in 2002, and the potential impact on global social cohesion.

Lay Theories And Evaluation-Based Organization Of Impressions: An Application Of The Memory Search Paradigm, Yuk-Yue Tong, Chi-Yue Chiu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

People may believe that personal attributes are fixed entities that cannot be changed (hold an entity theory). Alternatively, they may believe that qualities of a person are malleable (hold an incremental theory). In the present research, the authors used Sternberg's (1966) memory search task to examine entity and incremental theorists' cognitive strategies in memory search. It was hypothesized that entity theorists, who have a greater tendency to make spontaneous evaluation of people, would organize impressions in short-term memory according to whether the stimulus persons are positively or negatively evaluated. Next, they might compare the probe only to the stimulus persons …

Personnel Security: Beyond Initial Screening And Selection To Career Aftermath, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes Issues pertaining to personnel security in the aftermath of an individual’s career with an organization.

Commentary On “Conditions For Success And Failures Of Denial And Deception: Democratic Regimes”, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article provides commentary on an essay written by Mr. Walt Jajko. Mr. Jajko’s essay was itself a commentary on an article published in the book, Strategic Denial and Deception, the Twenty First Century Challenge, that was edited by Roy Godson and James J. Wirtz and published by Transaction Publishers (2002).

Mr. Jajko was formerly assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Oversight and director, Special Advisory Staff, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy within the United States Government (USG).

Trends. If You're So Right, Why Are We Sure You're So Wrong? Iraq, Free Riders, And Social Loafing, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses and evaluates public discourse surrounding the acceptability of militarily invading Iraq through a social psychological perspective. In social psychology, the research tradition for constructs such as free-riding and social loafing suggests that, wittingly or unwittingly, many political actors assume that the United States will act to address actual political threats in a certain way, and that they (the other political actors) can adopt contrarian ideological stances because they don’t have to address those same threats.

An Empirical Analysis Of The Effect Of The Need For Closure On Materiality Thresholds Of Auditors, Cynthia M. Daily

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to identify the strengths of a specific motivator for judgment and decision-making, referred to as “need for closure” and determine how the strength of that motivator affects materiality judgments of auditors.

The extent to which auditors seek and process information prior to forming a judgment can have important consequences in the conduct of an audit. In this regard, psychology researchers have identified a personality characteristic—a motive for judgment and decision making—that influences the decision making process. This motive, referred to as the need for closure, pertains to the desire of individuals to clear …

Humiliation And Terrorism: Final Common Pathway Or Lowest Common Denominator?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes complexities in attributing a construct termed the primary causal factor to terrorist behavior perpetrated by espousers of variants of something called radical Islam against the interests of the United States Government (USG) and against something called the West.

Trends. Self-Esteem And Terrorism, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses the role self-esteem plays in terrorist behavior. Analysis includes the application of Jennifer Crocker and Connie T. Wolfe’s views as presented in their 2001 Psychological Review article “Contingencies of self-worth” (Vol 108 (3), pp. 593-623).

The Double Edged Sword Of Disaster Psychology In The Context Of Terrorism, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes implicit assumptions, and clinical and political implications, of prescriptions for psychological services in the aftermath of terrorism-created disaster. The article is one of a series in IBPP that focuses on crisis psychology, stress management, and critical incident debriefing in an era of a United States Government (USG)-announced war on terrorism with global reach.

Trends. War On Personality And Personality And War: Comments On Nass And Lee (2002), Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses another article – Identity and deconstruction, by Clifford Nass and Kwan Min Yee – published in volume 3 (2002) of Archives of Psychiatry & Psychotherapy in which the authors demonstrate that people reliably attribute personality characteristics to computer-synthesized speech, exploring the ramifications in a political psychological context.

The Societal Costs Of Surveillance: An Alternative View On Civil Liberties Constraints, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article explores some psychological phenomena bearing on the consequences of civil liberties constraints.

Vestiges Of Communism And Personnel Security, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article illustrates several interpretive difficulties in employing personnel security criteria in the context of national security.

Trends. Personnel Security In An Age Of Terrorism With Global Reach, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses what an appropriate level of commitment to a security bureaucracy might look like.

Trends. A Room With A Cue: Validating An Age-Old Intelligence Tool?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the psychological implications of the choices regarding physical features of a given individual’s environment (e.g., a person’s office).

Trends. Husbands, Wives, And Terrorism: The Validity Of Beliefs And The Threat Of Interpretive Strategies, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses threat assessment via linguistic analysis.

Personality And Psychobiography, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes Issues related to the construct of personality and the construct's application to understanding, predicting, and influencing people.

Trends. Aviation Terrorism's Winning Hand, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses aviation security, terrorism, and the psychology behind pilot motivations for opting out of flying members of the Israeli government to Israel.

Trends. Too Good To Be True As The Good And The True: The Political Psychology Of The Con, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the psychology of cons (confidence games), or swindles.

Traumatic Exposure And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder In Borderline, Schizotypal, Avoidant, And Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorders: Findings From The Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study, Shirley Yen, M. Tracie Shea, Cynthia L. Battle, Dawn M. Johnson, Caron Zlotnick, Regina Dolan-Sewell, Andrew E. Skodol, Carlos M. Grilo, John G. Gunderson, Charles A. Sanislow, Mary C. Zanarini, Donna S. Bender, Jennifer B. Rettew, Thomas H. Mcglashan

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

The association between trauma and personality disorders (PDs), while receiving much attention and debate, has not been comprehensively examined for multiple types of trauma and PDs. The authors examined data from a multisite study of four PD groups: schizotypal, borderline (BPD), avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive, and a major depression comparison group. Rates of traumatic exposure to specific types of trauma, age of first trauma onset, and rates of posttraumatic stress disorder are compared. Results indicate that BPD participants reported the highest rate of traumatic exposure (particularly to sexual traumas, including childhood sexual abuse), the highest rate of posttraumatic stress disorder, and …

Co-Occurrence Of Dsm-Iv Personality Disorders With Borderline Personality Disorder, Carlos M. Grilo, Charles A. Sanislow, Thomas H. Mcglashan

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

The Personality Profile Of September 11 Hijack Ringleader Mohamed Atta, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of a posthumous, indirect assessment of the personality of Mohamed Atta, apparent ringleader in the September 11, 2001 terror attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon.

Information concerning Mohamed Atta was collected from media reports in the one-month period following the attack and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the …

The Personality Profile Of Al-Qaida Leader Osama Bin Laden, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Osama bin Laden, founder and leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network responsible for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States.

Bin Laden’s primary personality patterns were found to be Ambitious/exploitative and Dauntless/dissenting, with a secondary Distrusting/suspicious orientation, and subsidiary Dominant/controlling and Conscientious/dutiful features.

Ambitious individuals are bold, competitive, and self-assured; they easily assume leadership roles, expect others to recognize their special qualities, and often act as though entitled. Dauntless individuals are bold, courageous, and tough; minimally constrained by the norms of society; routinely engage …

The Necessities And Luxuries Of Mate Preferences: Testing The Tradeoffs, Norman P. Li, J. Michael Bailey, Douglas T. Kenrick, Joan A. W. Linsenmeier

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Social exchange and evolutionary models of mate selection incorporate economic assumptions but have not considered a key distinction between necessities and luxuries. This distinction can clarify an apparent paradox: Status and attractiveness, though emphasized by many researchers, are not typically rated highly by research participants. Three studies supported the hypothesis that women and men first ensure sufficient levels of necessities in potential mates before considering many other characteristics rated as more important in prior surveys. In Studies 1 and 2, participants designed ideal long-term mates, purchasing various characteristics with 3 different budgets. Study 3 used a mate-screening paradigm and showed …

Trends. Fetishism, Secrecy, And Security, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses the Federation of American Scientists’ Secrecy News and how it characterized the Bush Administration’s stance towards the President’s Daily Brief as “fetishism.”