scholarly journals Inhibition Tasks are not Associated with a Variety of Behaviours in College Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 412-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis D. Gunten ◽  
Bruce D. Bartholow ◽  
Jorge S. Martins

Executive functions are (EF) top–down control processes involved in regulating thoughts, ignoring distractions, and inhibiting impulses. It is widely believed that these processes are critical to self–control and, therefore, that performance on behavioural task measures of EF should be associated with individual differences in everyday life outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to test this assumption, focusing on the core executive function facet of inhibition. A sample of 463 undergraduates completed five laboratory inhibition tasks, along with three self–report measures of self–control and 28 self–report measures of life outcomes. Results showed that although most of the life outcome measures were associated with self–reported self–control, only one of the outcomes was associated with inhibition task performance at the latent–variable level, and this association was in the unexpected direction. Furthermore, few associations were found at the individual task level. These findings challenge the criterion validity of lab–based inhibition tasks. More generally, when considered alongside the known lack of convergent validity between inhibition tasks and self–report measures of self–control, the findings cast doubt on the task's construct validity as measures of self–control processes. Potential methodological and theoretical reasons for the poor performance of laboratory–based inhibition tasks are discussed. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis David Von Gunten ◽  
Bruce D Bartholow ◽  
Jorge S. Martins

Executive functioning (EF) is defined as a set of top-down processes used in reasoning, forming goals, planning, concentrating, and inhibition. It is widely believed that these processes are critical to self-regulation and, therefore, that performance on behavioral task measures of EF should be associated with individual differences in everyday life outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to test this core assumption, focusing on the EF facet of inhibition. A sample of 463 undergraduates completed five laboratory inhibition tasks, along with three self-report measures of self-control and 28 self-report measures of life outcomes. Results showed that although most of the life outcome measures were associated with self-reported self-control, none of the life outcomes were associated with inhibition task performance at the latent-variable level, and few associations were found at the individual task level. These findings challenge the criterion validity of lab-based inhibition tasks. More generally, when considered alongside the known lack of convergent validity between inhibition tasks and self-report measures of self-control, the findings cast doubt on the task’s construct validity as measures of self-control processes. Potential methodological and theoretical reasons for the poor performance of laboratory-based inhibition tasks are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 76-89
Author(s):  
T.I. Bogacheva

The article discusses theoretical approaches to understanding sociality as a personal characteristic. The author’s definition of the concept of “sociability” is proposed, which is understood as a personality property that characterizes the degree of its involvement in the social microenvironment, due to the psychoemotional stability of the individual and manifested in his adaptive and perceptual-interactive skills. The author’s psychodiagnostic technique for measuring sociality as a personal characteristic is presented. A distinctive feature of this technique lies in the simplicity of the diagnostic procedure, in the ability to identify not only the current level of development of sociality, but also to determine the features of its structure in the subject. The article describes the main psychometric characteristics of the technique: constructive and convergent validity, discriminativeness, reliability, representativeness. In order to determine the convergent validity, a correlation was established between the scales of the author’s methodology and the methodology for diagnosing perceptual-interactive competence, as well as the VSC questionnaire («self-control» scale). The proposed author’s psychodiagnostic tools can be used to solve academic and applied problems in the field of personality psychology, developmental psychology, educational psychology, leadership psychology, organizational psychology and other areas of psychological science to determine the current level of development of sociality of the researcher at the age of 14 to 25 years.


Author(s):  
Helmut Hirtenlehner ◽  
Heinz Leitgöb

AbstractCriminological research has identified low self-control as major cause of criminal activity. However, astonishingly little is known about the individual and situational characteristics that affect the functioning of self-control in relation to crime. Recent theorizing, especially in the context of Situational Action Theory, suggests that the interplay of personal and contextual morality creates a morally preselected choice set whose composition determines the relevance of self-control. Guided by the ideas of differential self-control effects and a moral filtering of action alternatives, the present inquiry investigates whether the role of self-control in crime causation depends on the power of moral factors to exclude crime from the set of the considered behavioral options. We argue that the significance of an individual’s capacity for self-control increases with a growing weakness of the moral filter, reaching its maximum when both personal and setting morality encourage criminal activity. Analyses of self-report data on adolescent vandalism delinquency provide support for differential self-control effects. The general picture is that self-control ability matters most when the strength of the moral filter hits a low, which is when both an individual’s own moral rules and the moral norms of the setting facilitate offending. Further evidence suggests that crime contemplation is highest when individual morality and setting morality jointly encourage vandalism. There is also indication that trait self-control has a greater effect on vandalism delinquency at higher levels of crime contemplation. All these results accord with the notion of a subsidiary relevance of control.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 136-149
Author(s):  
Nicola C. Newton ◽  
Lexine A. Stapinski ◽  
Katrina E. Champion ◽  
Maree Teesson ◽  
Kay Bussey

Background: The present study explored the reliability, validity, and factor structure of a modified version of the Moral Disengagement Scale (MDS), which comprehensively assesses proneness to disengage from different forms of conduct specific to Australian adolescents. Methods: A sample of 452 students (Mage = 12.79; SD = 1.93) completed the modified MDS and the Australian Self-Report Delinquency Scale. A multistep approach was used to evaluate the factor structure of the MDS. The sample was divided into exploratory (n = 221) and cross-validation samples (n = 231). Principal component analysis was conducted with the exploratory sample and multiple factor solutions compared to determine the optimal factor structure of the modified MDS. The final factor solution was confirmed in the cross-validation sample using confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency of the final scale and convergent validity with the delinquency questionnaire was also assessed. Results: Analyses resulted in a 22-item MDS for use in Australia, with four factors mapping onto the four conceptual categories of moral disengagement. The individual subscales demonstrated adequate to good internal consistency, and the total scale also demonstrated high internal consistency (α = 0.87). Convergent validity of the scale was established. Conclusions: The 22-item Australian MDS is a reliable and valid instrument for use within an Australian population.


Author(s):  
Jana Holtmann ◽  
Tobias Koch ◽  
Johannes Bohn ◽  
Michael Eid

Abstract. The dynamic development of interindividual differences and the temporal interplay between different personality constructs are of major interest to many researchers in the field of personality psychology. Furthermore, the collection of multiple rater-perspectives complementing classical self-report measures in psychological assessment is increasingly applied also in longitudinal research. Nevertheless, models to analyze longitudinal multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data are scarce. A new Latent State-Trait (LST) Graded Response Model for the analysis of longitudinal MTMM data with ordered categorical response variables is introduced. The model combines advantages of LST theory and MTMM models for different types of raters (interchangeable and structurally different) with an Item Response Theory (IRT) approach. The model allows researchers to analyze the stability and variability of personality constructs, discriminant and convergent validity, as well as rater effects on the item-level. Model application and interpretation are illustrated using subjective well-being data of young adults. Results of an extensive simulation study indicate that the model can be accurately estimated with Bayesian statistics with at least 3 measurement occasions and more than 250 target persons rated by at least 5 interchangeable raters under moderate degrees of convergent validity.


Author(s):  
Jeanne L. Weaver ◽  
Clint A. Bowers ◽  
Kareen A. Mourra ◽  
Lori G. Rhodenizer

Although there is an extensive literature regarding the individual and stress, it is critical for researchers to gain an understanding of the impact of stressors on teams due to the increasing number of jobs in both the military and civilian sectors that require groups of individuals to work together effectively in teams. The current study sought to meet this need by investigating the relationship between an individual difference characteristic of team members (self-control), stressor condition, and indices of coping. In particular, it was of interest to determine the effects of self-control and stressor condition, manipulated in terms of perceived stressor control, on coping assessed via self-report and coping communications between team members. Results provided mixed support for the hypothesized relationships between these variables with low self-control teams reporting different coping behaviors than high self-control teams. Results also revealed self-report and communication coping differences as a function of stressor condition. The findings are discussed in terms of possible interventions for teams performing under stress.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alodie Rey-Mermet ◽  
Kris Singh ◽  
Gilles E Gignac ◽  
Christopher Brydges ◽  
Ullrich K. H. Ecker

Working memory (WM) is a system for maintenance of and access to a limited number of goal-relevant representations in the service of higher cognition. Because of its limited capacity, WM requires interference-control processes, allowing us to avoid being distracted by irrelevant information. Recent research has proposed two interference-control processes, which are conceptually similar: (1) an active, item-wise removal process assumed to remove no-longer relevant information from WM, and (2) an inhibitory process assumed to suppress the activation of distractors against competing, goal-relevant representations. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which removal and inhibition are the same construct. Results showed acceptable to good reliabilities for nearly all measures. Similar to previous studies, a structural equation modeling approach identified a reliable latent variable of removal. However, also similar to some previous studies, no latent variable of inhibition could be established. This was the case even when the correlation matrix used to compute the latent variable of inhibition was disattenuated for imperfect reliability. Critically, the individual measures of inhibition were unrelated to the latent variable of removal. These results provide tentative support for the notion that removal is not an inhibitory process. This suggests that the removal process should be conceptualized as a process independent of inhibition, as proposed in computational WM models that implement removal as the “unbinding” of a WM item from the context in which it occurred.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0243053
Author(s):  
Alodie Rey-Mermet ◽  
Krishneil A. Singh ◽  
Gilles E. Gignac ◽  
Christopher R. Brydges ◽  
Ullrich K. H. Ecker

Working memory (WM) is a system for maintenance of and access to a limited number of goal-relevant representations in the service of higher cognition. Because of its limited capacity, WM requires interference-control processes, allowing us to avoid being distracted by irrelevant information. Recent research has proposed two interference-control processes, which are conceptually similar: (1) an active, item-wise removal process assumed to remove no-longer relevant information from WM, and (2) an inhibitory process assumed to suppress the activation of distractors against competing, goal-relevant representations. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the tasks used to assess removal and inhibition measure the same interference-control construct. Results showed acceptable to good reliabilities for nearly all measures. Similar to previous studies, a structural equation modeling approach identified a reliable latent variable of removal. However, also similar to some previous studies, no latent variable of inhibition could be established. This was the case even when the correlation matrix used to compute the latent variable of inhibition was disattenuated for imperfect reliability. Critically, the individual measures of inhibition were unrelated to the latent variable of removal. These results provide tentative support for the notion that removal is not related to the interference-control processes assessed in inhibition tasks. This suggests that the removal process should be conceptualized as a process independent of the concept of inhibition, as proposed in computational WM models that implement removal as the “unbinding” of a WM item from the context in which it occurred.


2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 548-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulio Costantini ◽  
Juliette Richetin ◽  
Denny Borsboom ◽  
Eiko I. Fried ◽  
Mijke Rhemtulla ◽  
...  

Because indirect measures of personality self–concepts such as the Implicit Association Test (IAT) allow tapping into automatic processes, they can offer advantages over self–report measures. However, prior investigations have led to mixed results regarding the validity of indirect measures of conscientiousness. We suggest that these results might be due to a failure to consider the different facets of conscientiousness. These facets are of crucial importance because they are associated differentially with other psychobiological constructs and they are also characterized by different mechanisms. Therefore, focusing on facets while developing indirect measures of conscientiousness may improve the validity of such measures. In Study 1, we conducted a psycholexical investigation to develop one IAT for each conscientiousness facet. In Study 2, we examined the convergent and discriminant validities of each facet IAT in relation to self–report measures, peer–report measures and self–report behavioural indicators, and we investigated differential associations of the conscientiousness facets with working memory capacity and self–control. We employed network analysis as a novel approach to elucidate differential relationships involving personality facets. The results corroborated the convergent and discriminant validity of the conscientiousness facet IATs with self–reports and showed that the conscientiousness facets were differentially associated with working memory capacity and with self–control. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Agrawal ◽  
Prof. Mahmood S. Khan

Intelligence plus character is the goal of true education (Martin Luther King, Jr.). Education must also guide one for fast, firm and successful thinking. Educational achievement is associated with many life outcomes, including income, occupation and many health and way of life variables. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and logically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the stage in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. Vaughan (2002) states that Working as a psychotherapist, my thought is that spiritual intelligence opens the heart, illuminates the mind, and inspires the soul, connecting the individual human psyche to the underlying ground of being. Spiritual intelligence can be developed with practice and can help a person discriminate actuality from illusion.In this situation an attempt was made to ascertain therole of education on spiritual intelligence between science and arts undergraduate students. For this purpose we selected 80 students randomly from the faculty of science and faculty of arts in A.M.U. to meet the objectives and have a better idea and analysis to understand the student’s behaviour. We applied the spiritual intelligence self-report inventory developed by D. King in 2008. We analyseddata with the help of t- test. The obtained results revealed that the students of arts are more spiritual as compared to students of science. We have found the insignificant difference between both the groups on holy intelligence level.


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