The link between EU identification and responses to a war between non-EU countries over time
The European Union (EU) is portrayed as a "normative power" that promotes democracy. How does identifying with the EU identity predict citizens' responses to a war between two non-EU countries, where one (Ukraine) appears as the victim (i.e., a nation suffering significant harm as a result of military aggression by another country) and the other (Russia) as the aggressor (i.e., a nation initiating military aggression against another country)? This study tested two contrasting, yet not mutually exclusive hypotheses. Based on the underlying idea that Ukraine is perceived to share similar (European) values while Russia is perceived to deviate from these values, the "humanitarian influence of the EU identity hypothesis" hypothesized that identification with the EU identity predicts increased support for the victim group (Ukraine) and condemnation of the aggressor group over time. Based on the "protective effect of EU identity hypothesis," however, a reverse temporal order was also hypothesized. We conducted a two two-wave study among Greek participants. Our findings provided full support for the first hypothesis and partial support for the second hypothesis. Identification with EU identity predicts increasingly stronger opposition to an intergroup conflict between non-EU countries.
Comparison of the symptom networks of long-COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome: From modularity to connectionism
The objective was to compare the symptom networks of long-COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in conjunction with other theoretically relevant diagnoses in order to provide insight into the etiology of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). This was a cross-sectional comparison of questionnaire items between six groups identified by clinical diagnosis. All participants completed a 65-item psychological and somatic symptom questionnaire (GSQ065). Diagnostically labelled groups were long-COVID (N = 107), CFS (N = 254), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS, N = 369), fibromyalgia (N = 1,127), severe asthma (N = 100) and healthy group (N = 207). The 22 symptoms that best discriminated between the six groups were selected for network analysis. Connectivity, fragmentation and number of symptom clusters (statistically related symptoms) were assessed. Compared to long-COVID, the symptom networks of CFS, IBS and fibromyalgia had significantly lower connectivity, greater fragmentation and more symptom clusters. The number of clusters varied between 9 for CFS and 3 for severe asthma, and the content of clusters varied across all groups. Of the 33 symptom clusters identified over the six groups 30 clusters were unique. Although the symptom networks of long-COVID and CFS differ, the variation of cluster content across the six groups is inconsistent with a modular causal structure but consistent with a connectionist (network, parallel distributed processing) biological basis of MUS. A connectionist structure would explain why symptoms overlap and merge between different functional somatic syndromes, the failure to discover a biological diagnostic test and how psychological and behavioral interventions are therapeutic.
The isolation between part-set cues and social collaboration in episodic memory is dependent: Insight from ongoing and post-collaboration
It has been demonstrated that both part-set cues and social interaction can produce detrimental effects on memory. Specifically, part-set cues lead to part-set cueing impairment, while social interaction can result in collaborative inhibition. However, there is less evidence on whether these factors have isolated or comparable impacts on memory. Additionally, it is still unknown whether the effects behave similarly on item memory and source memory, whether the effects are comparable between ongoing and post-social collaboration, and whether stimulus features influence their respective roles. To address these issues, we conducted the current experiment where participants were exposed to gender stereotype-consistent or -inconsistent words, categorized as positive, neutral, or negative. The words were read out by either a male or a female. Two recall sessions were conducted: Recall 1 was carried out either individually or collaboratively, whereas Recall 2 was always collaborative. Some participants performed Recall 1 under the part-set cued condition while others were under the no-cued condition. Both item memory and source memory were assessed in both recall sessions. The results have three implications. First, during the ongoing collaborative session, two effects were observed on item memory: part-set cueing impairment and collaborative inhibition. Further, the contributions elicited by part-set cues and social collaboration are isolated. The part-set cueing impairment was influenced by both emotional valence and stereotypical consistency. Second, post-collaboration analysis indicated that both the utilization of part-set cues and collaboration itself enhanced item memory, resulting in the part-set cueing enhancement and post-collaborative memory benefit. Additionally, there was evidence indicating that the mechanisms prompted by these two factors intertwined when emotional valence and stereotypical consistency were considered. Third, in both ongoing and post-collaboration scenarios, the detrimental and beneficial effects on item memory and source memory exhibited different patterns, thereby supporting the dual-process models. These findings enhance our comprehension of the insolation and the interplay between part-set cues and collaboration in memory.
Temporal associations of emotional and social loneliness and psychosocial functioning in emerging adulthood
Emerging adulthood is an important developmental phase often accompanied by peaks in loneliness, social anxiety, and depression. However, knowledge is lacking on how the relationships between emotional loneliness, social loneliness, social isolation, social anxiety and depression evolve over time. Gaining insight in these temporal relations is crucial for our understanding of how these problems arise and maintain each other across time. Young adults from a university sample (N = 1,357; M = 23.60 years, SD = 6.30) filled out questionnaires on emotional and social loneliness, social isolation, depressive and social anxiety symptoms at three time points within a 3-year period. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models were used to disentangle reciprocal and prospective associations of loneliness subtypes, social isolation, depressive and social anxiety symptoms across time. Results showed that on the within-person level, increases in emotional and social loneliness as well as social isolation predicted higher depression levels on later timepoints. Increases in depressive symptoms also predicted increases in subsequent social loneliness, but not in emotional loneliness. Finally, increases in depressive symptoms predicted increases in social isolation. There were no significant temporal relations between loneliness and social isolation on the one hand and social anxiety symptoms on the other hand. Social distancing imposed by COVID-19 related government restrictions may have impacted the current results. The findings suggest that emotional and social loneliness precede development of depressive symptoms, which in turn precedes development of social loneliness and social isolation, indicating a potential vicious cycle of social loneliness, social isolation and depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood. Social anxiety did not precede nor follow loneliness, depressive symptoms, or social isolation. The current study sheds more light on the temporal order of loneliness and psychopathological symptoms and hereby assists in identifying times where prevention and intervention efforts may be especially helpful to counter development of depression and loneliness.
Leaders' mental health and leader-member exchange: Exploring relations on different levels of analysis
Research on leader-member exchange (LMX) has shown that the relation between leaders and followers may be considered from different angles. Leaders may form individual relationships with followers (LMX quality), may agree with their followers on these relationships (LMX agreement), and may form different relationships within their work group (LMX variability). We posit that leaders' mental health may function as an antecedent for these different forms of LMX. We use conservation-of-resources theory as a theoretical model to describe how leaders' mental health may interact with relationship quality with followers on different levels.
Psychometric Properties of the Danish International Trauma Questionnaire-Child and Adolescent Version (ITQ-CA)
With the introduction of the ICD-11 diagnostic manual, the need for developing and validating new assessment instruments has become urgent. The International Trauma Questionnaire-Child and Adolescent version (ITQ-CA) assesses posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (CPTSD) based on the ICD-11 diagnostic definition. This study examines the psychometric properties of the Danish version of the ITQ-CA in a non-clinical sample of 226 adolescents. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed to study the effects of gender, age, trauma exposure, family dysfunction, and SDQ variables on PTSD and Disturbances in Self-Organization (DSO). Results showed that 16 participants (7%) met the ITQ-CA criteria for CPTSD and 11 (5.7%) for PTSD. The full model of gender, age, family dysfunction, trauma exposure, and SDQ variables was found to predict PTSD and DSO. The present study supports the validity of the Danish version of the ITQ-CA and represents an important step of establishing and applying validated tools for assessing PTSD and CPTSD in children and adolescents. The results also underscore the need for a broader trauma definition. Future research should examine the sensitivity of the ITQ-CA.
Attitudes Toward Prostitution in Norway, Spain, and Germany: Association With the Legal Context and Susceptibility to Persuasion
The social and legal treatment of prostitution varies between countries. We examined attitudes toward prostitution (ATP) and their susceptibility to persuasion in three countries: Norway, where prostitution is illegal; Spain, where prostitution is not explicitly regulated in the law; and Germany, where prostitution is legal. Participants (total N = 579) read arguments in favor of either legalization or abolition of prostitution or no arguments. Then they reported their ATP, judged the consequences of abolishing prostitution and completed measures of feminism, political orientation and sociosexuality. Results showed that, as hypothesized, ATP scores (1) reflected the countries' legislation, being most positive in Germany and least positive in Norway; (2) were affected by arguments only in Spain, where the legal situation is ambiguous; and (3) were meaningfully correlated with other attitudes across countries. These findings highlight the association of legal frameworks with attitudes, suggesting that national legislation can shape social norms and perceptions of prostitution. Additionally, the varying susceptibility to persuasive messages across different legal contexts underscores the role of legal ambiguity in shaping openness to attitudinal change.
Negative Affect and Planning Ability in Preschool Children: A Mediation Model of Working Memory, Inhibition, and Cognitive Flexibility
Past research in developmental psychology has revealed close links between affect and planning ability over the life-span. However, such links have rarely been studied in children from non-clinical samples. To address this gap, the present study investigates whether negative affect, understood as a temperamental trait, affects planning ability in 5-year-old children. Moreover, it examines whether selected cognitive processes, that is inhibition, verbal working memory, and cognitive flexibility, mediate this relationship. A total of 103 children aged M = 5 years 4 months, SD = 2.7 months, and their parents participated in the study. The analyses, which employed a path mediation model, revealed that negative affect's influence on planning was entirely mediated by flexibility. Moreover, flexibility partially mediated the relationship between inhibition and planning, and verbal working memory had a direct effect on planning. The results provide a new insight into the relationship between negative affect and planning ability in non-clinical preschool children.
Mentalizing Care: Adult Attachment and Structural Factors as Predictors of Representational Mind-Mindedness in Early Child-Care Professionals
Out-of-home childcare is increasingly essential in many children's lives, significantly impacting their wellbeing and development. Central to high-quality care is the concept of caregiver mind-mindedness (MM), the ability to recognize a child as a unique psychological individual with thoughts, feelings, intentions etc., as this capacity is linked with more optimal responsiveness to children's needs. Despite its importance, the factors influencing MM in professional caregivers remain under-researched. We examined the association between structural factors, self-reported adult attachment, and caregiver representational MM assessed in an interview. The sample consisted of 128 childcare professionals from 30 Danish early childcare centers (children aged 0-2.9 years), participating in a randomized controlled trial. Overall, our results showed that longer employment in the current position was associated with higher levels of representational MM, i.e., increased tendency to describe children in terms of their mental states as opposed to more behavioral or external features. In contrast, more years of experience working in childcare as well as attachment-related avoidance were associated with lower levels of representational MM. These results indicate that personal characteristics, like adult attachment, may be a relevant focus for early education and care research and training.
Relationship Between Gestures and Vocabulary in 14-Month-Old Swedish-Learning Children
In this study, the relationship between gestures and vocabulary size in 177 Swedish-learning 14-month-old children was examined. Gesture use, receptive, and expressive vocabulary were reported by caregivers with the Swedish version of the MacArthur Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory, words and gestures, SECDI-1. Gesture types examined were referential gestures classified as either deictic gestures, conventional gestures, and object actions. A fine-grained analysis of gestures and lexicon was performed. Results show that percentage of gestures used by children significantly predicts percentage of words in their receptive vocabulary. However, looking at gesture type, only use of object actions significantly predicts percentage of words in the receptive vocabulary whereas use of conventional gestures does not. Deictic gestures showed a ceiling effect and were therefore not further used for analysis. The relationship between gesture use and vocabulary size was not impacted by semantic category (food or clothes). Vocabulary in both semantic categories was statistically predicted by object actions in only one semantic category.
The Effects of Cues to Ambient Darkness on Women's Willingness to Engage With Physically Strong Men
Despite the overall desirability of men's upper body strength, women's preference for such features remains bounded to contexts in which the benefits exceed the potential costs. The relative salience of these costs could be augmented within ostensibly threatening environments, which could include one of ambient darkness. This study sought to determine whether women's interest in strong men would become downregulated in the presence of these cues. A sample of sorority women reported their reactions to meeting a hypothetical man on campus who was manipulated to appear either strong or weak with the image manipulated to be either at night or during the day. Although women reported feeling more comfortable around the weak man in the dark compared to the strong man, no difference emerged in their evaluations of strong men during the day and night. These findings suggest that women functionally shift their interest in strong men based on environmental cues that could implicate men as costly.
How Does Representational Mind-Mindedness Translate Into Observable Parenting Behaviors Among Parents of Six-Year-Olds?
Mind-Mindedness reflects parents' capacity to treat their child as an individual with a mind of their own. Research is lacking on how Representational Mind-Mindedness (RMM) translates into observable parenting behaviours beyond infancy. The present study examined how RMM was associated with parents' Acknowledging Behaviour (AB) and use of Mental State Talk (MST), and whether these associations were moderated by parents' educational level. The sample consisted of 133 Danish parents and their 6-year-old children, who were observed engaging in a challenging puzzle and in a shared reminiscing task during home visits. RMM was operationalized as parents' use of mental attributes when describing their child. There was no significant association between RMM and AB. RMM was significantly associated with MST, but only among parents with higher education level. The present study illuminates differences in how the representational measure of parents' mentalization capacity translates into observable parenting behaviors among early school-aged children.
Self-Concept in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Mild Dementia due to Alzheimer's Disease Is Affected on Tests of Self-Generated Statements
Several studies show that Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurocognitive disorders have a negative impact on the self and identity formation. Most studies have included persons with mild to moderate dementia, but how AD patients in the earliest phases retrieve information about themselves has only been studied scarcely. The aim of this study was to investigate if persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild AD would generate fewer self-related statements than healthy controls. From a memory clinic, we included 17 aMCI patients, 17 patients with mild dementia (AD; MMSE ≥ 24), and 30 healthy controls. Three Events Test and Twenty Statements Test (TST) were applied to all participants. The persons with mild dementia gave significantly fewer statements compared to the controls (p < 0.001) and the aMCI patients (p < 0.01) on TST. Fewer statements were also produced by the aMCI patients compared to the control participants (p < 0.05). Persons from both patient groups produced significantly fewer contextual details compared to the controls on the Three Events Tests. There were significant associations to lexical fluency for both the TST and Three Events Test, but only a limited amount of variance was explained, and the results cannot be explained solely by a fluency effect. The results from this study are in accordance with findings from previous studies demonstrating that mild AD leads to a decline in both autobiographical memories and a diminished sense of self. Further, this study shows that changes in self-concept may occur even in the earliest clinical stages of AD.
Cultural Barriers to Women's Progression in Academic Careers: A France-Brazil Comparison Through the Lens of the Queen Bee Phenomena
Despite significant improvements, women are still underrepresented at high levels in academia. Most research on these inequalities is conducted within a specific national academic system, without taking into account its cultural roots. The aim of the present study was to analyze the extent to which the cultural context acts as a barrier on women's career progression. Specifically, we focused on psychological processes described under the metaphor of Queen Bee Phenomenon that may reflect the ways in which female academics conform to male-gender roles encoded in androcentric social and academic culture. Two samples of women academic, one French (N = 73), the other Brazilian (N = 88), were compared through the lens of two dimension of the Queen Bee Phenomena: self-group distancing and gender hierarchy legitimation. Brazilian women identify more with their female peer group than their French counterparts. French women are more hostile to quotas and more inclined to adhere to meritocratic discourses than their Brazilian counterparts. Both academic contexts tend to perpetuate gender inequalities, but in different ways: by maintaining gender-stereotypical expectations in Brazil and meritocratic ideology in France. The implications for policies to promote a more egalitarian university context are discussed herein.
How Culture and Musical Engagement Shape Musical Reward Sensitivity in Danish Teens: A Validation Study of the Danish Barcelona Musical Reward Questionnaire With 4641 Adolescents
The ability to convey emotions and induce pleasure is one of the most important aspects of the way that music becomes meaningful to humans. Affective responses to music are specific to both cultural and personal preferences, but little is known about the individual variability in adolescence. The Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ) is a psychometric measure that identifies five factors associated with musical pleasure: Musical Seeking, Emotional Evocation, Mood Regulation, Social Reward, and Sensory-Motor. With this study, we aimed to validate the BMRQ in Danish teens and to explore the differences in music reward experiences in relation to the amount of musical activity, between genders and over ages. Approximately 30,000 Danish adolescents participated in a mass experiment with a subset (N = 4641, 51.2% girls, age range = 13-19 years old) responding to (1) a Danish adaptation of the BMRQ and (2) the Concurrent Musical Activities (CCM) Questionnaire. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied, and a seven-factor model of the BMRQ was found to fit the Danish adolescent population. The seven-factor version of the Danish BMRQ was due to the split of the dimensions "Sensory-Motor" and "Social Reward" into two further subfactors. The students with a higher amount of musical engagement scored higher across all dimensions. In particular, the higher the musical engagement, the higher scores were found for the facet of musical pleasure related to the sharing of musical activities, especially in the earliest stages of adolescence. Furthermore, we found that sensitivity to music generally tends to increase with age, and that girls reported overall to be more sensitive to music than boys in the dimension related to evocation of emotions. A slightly different model of the BMRQ has to be taken into account when testing the Danish adolescent population. In addition to utilizing the Danish version of the BMRQ on a large sample of adolescents, this study may provide insight into the relationship between changes in the level of musical reward depending on amount of musical engagement and how musical reward unfolds within and between genders and across age groups during this developmental stage.
Daily within-fluctuations in need frustration and implications for employee recovery and well-being: A mixed-methods study
Daily variations in frustration of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) have received limited attention. This mixed-methods study examines such daily variations and their relations to recovery from work and employee well-being.
When fMRI came to Bergen and Norway - as I remember it
In this personal recollection, I review the beginning of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research in Norway, i.e., at the University of Bergen and the Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen. Research with fMRI had already started in Bergen in 1993, and the small group of researchers involved were the first to take up this new method for studies of the brain and brain-behavior relationships. This article is a recollection of the early years of how the field started and developed in Bergen, Norway over the years, including basic as well as clinical research, and how the research also led to successful innovation and commercialization through the establishment of a MedTech company, NordicNeuroLab (NNL), that has delivered products to more than 2,000 university hospitals worldwide.
Sex workers' professional agency, quality of life, and problematic substance use in Finland
Sex workers suffer considerable marginalization that limits their choices and exposes them to various types of harm. Hence, it is important to examine sex workers' professional agency and its association with quality of life. In the current study, we investigated professional agency, quality of life, and problematic substance use among sex workers in Finland.
Interpretability and clinical utility of the strength and stressors in parenting questionnaire
This study aimed to enhance the interpretability and clinical utility of the strength and stressors in parenting (SSF) questionnaire, a parent-reported questionnaire designed to assess strength, stress and associated risks of mental ill-health in parents of children with developmental disabilities. Responses to the SSF and a demographic questionnaire were collected from 576 parents of children with (n = 203) and without (n = 373) developmental disabilities. To enhance the interpretability of the SSF, a subset of 129 parents were invited to complete an additional questionnaire consisting of three free-text questions regarding recent help-seeking behavior, experiences of mental ill-health and experiences of parenthood. Parents' responses to the free-text questions were then categorized as indicative of higher or lower degrees of stress and compared to their SSF score distribution to derive empirical cut-offs for strength, stress and risk of mental ill-health as measured by the SSF. The credibility of these cut-offs was evaluated by comparing the cut-offs with SSF scores collected from the other 447 parents. Finally, SSF scores from parents of children without developmental disabilities (n = 373) were used to generate percentile values for the SSF to enable a standardized interpretation of SSF scores. To increase the utility of the SSF, we examined a recurring pattern of missing answers to items 23 and 33-38, noted in previous studies of the SSF and repeated in the present study. These items were excluded from further analysis since our examination revealed that they were not missing at random but rather constituted real differences in parental experiences, such as receiving a healthcare allowance, or caring for more than one child. The proposed empirical cut-offs performed well in discriminating between the two groups and yielded a specificity of 77-89% and a sensitivity of 68-76% for the strength, stress and risk of mental ill-health subscales of the SSF. This study also presents a conversion chart associating each SSF score with a corresponding percentile value. We propose modifications to the SSF, whereby items 23 and 33-38 are excluded, which will enable a more reliable assessment of parental experiences. This will, together with the empirical cut-offs and percentile values, enhance the interpretability and clinical utility of the SSF.
Core self-evaluations and perceived classmate support: Independent predictors of psychological adjustment
The main aim of this research was to explore the contribution of both core self-evaluations (CSE) and classmate support as unique predictors of positive and negative psychological adjustment among adolescents.
Co-worker phubbing: A qualitative exploration of smartphone use during work breaks
The present study qualitatively explores co-worker "phubbing" (from "phone" and "snubbing") during communal work breaks. Phubbing, or ignoring others by paying attention to one's phone, has been linked to a range of negative interpersonal and intrapersonal outcomes. Although most research has targeted private relationships, there are indications that lateral work relationships may be similarly affected, with potential consequences at the individual, group, and organizational levels.
Not exactly twins: Authoritarians and populists differ in their attitudes toward trust in government, elitism, pluralism, political identification, and identity fusion
Authoritarianism and populism are used regularly to describe the individuals responsible for anti-democratic action. These two constructs share some similarities with regard to how they hinder democracy and at times have been used interchangeably to describe such issues. However, authoritarians and populists may differ with regard to their political identification, as well as how they view the government and the existing establishment.
Do conservatives really have an advantage in mental health? An examination of measurement invariance
Many studies have found that conservatives show an advantage in mental health and happiness and various causes of this have been debated (e.g., religiousness, ideology, or genetics). However, not much attention has been given to examining whether this advantage is psychometrically real, or whether it is due to test bias. We analyzed data from two large Finnish surveys of adults (Ns = 848 and 4,978) from Lahtinen (2024), that measured general anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as a new wokeness scale. Using differential item functioning tests, we found no evidence for measurement bias in these scales. The correlation between index scores of wokeness and mental health (internalizing) was -0.36, which increased to -0.41 when measurement error was removed. The association between wokeness and anxiety (r = -0.33, adjusted r = 0.37) was stronger than wokeness and depression (r = 0.20, adjusted r = 0.22).
The importance of change communication and state motivation when adapting to changes
Employees often work in dynamic environments requiring adaptive performance (e.g., emergencies, clients from other cultures). To optimize change management, employee training, and personnel selection in organizations, researchers have focused on trait-like predictors of adaption to change, such as personality traits or cognitive ability. The study (N = 300) shifts the focus to more proximal performance predictors - change communication and task-related state motivation. Adaptive performance was modeled using latent growth models. Providing two change-related hints, one at the beginning of the task and another directly after the change, mitigated performance impairment observed directly after the change. Moreover, this advantage largely persisted throughout the later stages of the task. In contrast, a single hint at the beginning of the task did not substantially facilitate adaption. Finally, task-related state motivation was linked to better performance on the subsequent measurement occasion. Organizations might minimize change-induced losses by deploying adequate change communication and maintaining employee motivation.
Are profiles of job insecurity associated with health-related indicators among faculty in Swedish academia?
Job insecurity is a work stressor associated with various health-related impairments. As concerns about the ubiquity of job insecurity in academia have become increasingly prominent, the potential implications of job insecurity for the health and well-being of faculty require attention. Specifically, these implications may vary between groups within academia, yet little is known about such variations, particularly with respect to different indicators of health and well-being. This study aims to identify and examine profiles of job insecurity (including quantitative and qualitative dimensions) in relation to exhaustion, depressive symptoms, well-being, and work-family conflict among faculty in Sweden. Self-reports in questionnaires were collected in 2021 from a representative sample of faculty, with a doctoral degree, working in Swedish public higher education institutions (N = 2,729 respondents; 48% women; average age: 50 years; 82% born in Sweden). Latent profile analysis was conducted to identify profiles of job insecurity, followed by statistical comparisons on demographic covariates and health-related indicators across profiles. The latent profile analysis revealed five job insecurity profiles: the moderately insecure (n = 215), the secure (n = 1777), the secure; quality-concerned (n = 406), the insecure; employment-concerned (n = 177), and the insecure (n = 154). Twelve percent of the sample was identified as vulnerable, particularly the insecure profile, where these individuals may be most at a risk for exhaustion disorder and depression. Among faculty in Sweden, quantitative and qualitative dimensions of job insecurity appear to be closely connected, with the qualitative dimension seemingly more informative for health-related indicators.
Materialistic happiness is negatively associated with meaning in life: A serial double mediation model
Materialism refers to values that equate materialistic possessions with happiness and success. Gathering materialistic possessions is also central to materialists' life. Extant research has widely shown that materialism is detrimental to people's well-being, but its influences on meaning in life are less clear. In this article, we address two principal research questions within the framework of self-determination theory: First, we explore the association between varying dimensions of materialism and the perceived meaning in life; second, we investigate the factors that mediate the relationship between materialistic values and meaning in life.
Predicting hostility towards women: incel-related factors in a general sample of men
Hostility towards women is a type of prejudice that can have adverse effects on women and society, but research on predictors of men's hostility towards women is limited. The present study primarily introduced predictors associated with misogynist involuntary celibates (incels), and then investigated whether loneliness, rejection, attractiveness, number of romantic and sexual partners, right-wing authoritarianism, and gaming predicted hostility towards women among a more general sample of men. A total of 473 men (aged 18-35, single, heterosexual, UK residents) recruited via Prolific answered the hostile sexism subscale, the misogyny scale, the self-perceived sexual attractiveness scale, the right-wing authoritarianism scale, the game addiction scale for adolescents, the adult rejection-sensitivity scale, the UCLA loneliness scale, and self-developed questions regarding number of sexual and romantic partners, and time spent gaming. We found a strong positive relationship between right-wing authoritarianism and hostility towards women, as well as a strong convex curvilinear relationship between attractiveness and hostility towards women. The number of sexual partners showed a moderate concave relationship with hostility towards women. We did not find sufficient support for a relationship between gaming and hostility towards women, and there was no support that loneliness, rejection, or romantic partners predicted hostility towards women among a general sample of men. Our study supports right-wing authoritarianism and self-perceived attractiveness as potential strong predictors in understanding men's hostility towards women in the wider community. Pre-registration: https://osf.io/ms3a4.
Test-retest reliability, practice effects and estimates of change: A study on the Mindmore digital cognitive assessment tool
The present study aimed to establish test-retest reliability and investigate practice effects of the Mindmore cognitive assessment tool, a digital adaptation of traditional pencil and paper tests designed for self-administration. Additionally, normative change scores for the most frequently used tests were derived. A total of 149 healthy Swedish adults (aged 20-79) completed the test battery twice, 1 month apart. The battery assessed attention and processing speed, memory, language, visuospatial functions, and executive functions. Test-retest reliability, measured by ICC and Spearman coefficients, and practice effects were estimated for 22 main-scores and 33 sub-scores. Regression models were used to assess change in performance while controlling for demographics, computer equipment, testing location (online or in-laboratory) and baseline performance for 12 main-scores and nine sub-scores. Test-retest reliability was good for 11 main-scores (≥0.70), satisfactory for five (0.60-0.69), and minimal for six (<0.60) albeit three having satisfactory sub-scores. Practice effects were observed for tests with a major speed component, but not for reaction time, sustained attention, verbal memory and naming (alternate forms), nor visuospatial functions. Trackpad negatively influenced change for one test. Demographics and testing location did not significantly affect the change scores. Our study provides support for test-retest reliability and practice effects of the Mindmore cognitive assessment tool which were comparable to those of traditional tests. These findings, together with the normative change scores, can aid researchers and clinicians in interpreting test results and distinguishing between normal variations in performance and changes indicative of clinical impairment.
Defining and developing operational psychology competency
Establishing competency in new or emerging areas of psychological practice is always difficult. For practitioners of operational psychology, it is even more challenging due to the requirement for highly specialized skills, novel applications, and the fact that many organizations employing operational psychologists operate in classified or sensitive settings. Despite the ethical obligation to do so, operational psychologists may face challenges in establishing and maintaining their credentials and competency.
Improved readability in written neurodevelopmental reports by five writing rules
The purpose of a neuropsychological assessment is to describe a child's difficulties and strengths to enable treatments and contextual adjustments. Typically, the assessment is summarized in the form of a written clinical report. However, such texts have been criticized for being too difficult for parents and teachers to read and comprehend. The purpose of this pre-registered and randomized controlled study was to evaluate five writing rules to improve readability and accessibility in clinical reports: to structure the text with functional domains, exemplify cognitive tasks with examples from daily life, use examples from the daily life of the child, avoid jargon, and to write shorter sentences. We created two separate reports based on the same assessment information of a hypothetical child: one "standard" report, and one where the five writing rules were applied. One hundred teacher students at a teacher education program were randomized to read one of the reports, and then rated readability and answered a comprehension quiz. Results showed that the five writing rules led to improved ratings of readability, and helped readers recall more information immediately afterward. Effects were medium to large. Future studies need to investigate whether the findings generalize to parents and other potential readers. Additionally, future work should address how psychologists can be taught to improve their writing through writing guidelines. Clinical trial registration: https://aspredicted.org/ac96p.pdf.