Who is Gelotophobic? Assessment Criteria for the Fear of Being Laughed at

2008 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willibald Ruch ◽  
René T. Proyer

Ruch and Proyer (2008) provided preliminary evidence for the validity of gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at) by showing that a group of individuals diagnosed as gelotophobic could be discriminated from groups of shame-based neurotics, non shame-based neurotics, and normal controls by means of a self-report measure. The present study reanalyzes data aimed at identifying the set of items best suited for measuring gelotophobia and estimates the prevalence of gelotophobia in the four groups (N = 863). The application of several criteria led to a final list of 15 statements. Cut-off points for a slight, pronounced, and extreme expression of gelotophobia were defined. In the group of those clinically assessed as having gelotophobia, the cut-off points were exceeded by approximately 31%, 39%, and 22%, respectively. Only 7.1% did not exceed the cut-off point, suggesting that the self-report measure validly determines the presence of and measures the intensity of gelotophobia. Close to 12% of the normal controls exceeded the cut-off points, suggesting that gelotophobia can be studied as an individual differences variable among normal individuals.

Children ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 537
Author(s):  
Jaimie K. Beveridge ◽  
Maria Pavlova ◽  
Joel Katz ◽  
Melanie Noel

Sensitivity to pain traumatization (SPT) is defined as the propensity to develop responses to pain that resemble a traumatic stress reaction. To date, SPT has been assessed in adults with a self-report measure (Sensitivity to Pain Traumatization Scale (SPTS-12)). SPT may also be relevant in the context of parenting a child with chronic pain, as many of these parents report clinically elevated posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). This study aimed to develop and validate a measure of parent SPT by adapting the SPTS-12 and evaluating its psychometric properties in a sample of parents whose children have chronic pain. In total, 170 parents (90.6% female) and children (aged 10–18 years, 71.2% female) were recruited from a tertiary chronic pain program. Parents completed the parent version of the SPTS-12 (SPTS-P) and measures of PTSS, depression, and parenting behaviors. Youth completed measures of pain. Consistent with the SPTS-12, the SPTS-P demonstrated a one-factor structure that accounted for 45% of the variance, adequate to good reliability and moderate construct validity. Parent SPT was positively related to their protective and monitoring behaviors but was unrelated to youth pain intensity, unpleasantness, and interference. These results provide preliminary evidence for the psychometric properties of the SPTS-P and highlight the interaction between parent distress about child pain and parent responses to child pain.


2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 227-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abira Reizer ◽  
Mario Mikulincer

Abstract. In the current series of studies, we developed a self-report measure of mental representations of caregiving (MRC). Study 1 (N = 841) describes the development and factor structure of the MRC scale. Studies 2-4 provided convergent, discriminant, and construct validity of the MRC scale, by examining its associations with attachment dimensions, empathy, emotional control, relational interdependent self-construal, communal orientation, and value priorities. Study 5 revealed significant associations between caregiving representations and parenting attitudes (desire to have a child, feelings toward parenthood, and expectations of self-efficacy as a parent). Overall, the results provide highly consistent evidence for the reliability and validity of the new MRC scale. The implications of individual differences in mental representation of caregiving for prosocial behavior and helping are discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom J. Barry ◽  
Bram Vervliet ◽  
Dirk Hermans

Anxiety disorders are often treated by repeatedly presenting stimuli that are perceptually similar to original stimuli to which fear was originally acquired. Fear can return after it is extinguished because of the differences between these stimuli. It may possible to attenuate return of fear by manipulating attention to the commonalities between feared stimuli and extinction stimuli. After acquiring fear for an animal-like stimulus by pairing with an electro-cutaneous shock, fear was extinguished by repeatedly presenting a similar stimulus. During extinction participants were asked questions that instructed them to attend towards the features in common between the acquisition and extinction stimulus or towards the unique features of the extinction stimulus. Return of fear was assessed by presenting a second perceptually similar stimulus after extinction. Participants showed a return in skin conductance responding after extinction in the unique condition, and not in the common condition. Both groups showed a return in self-report ratings of US expectancy. Neither group showed a return in fear potentiated startle, but there was evidence that this may have been due to individual differences in emotional attentional control. Our conclusions are limited by the use of a self-report measure of emotional attentional control and the absence of limits on the length of time participants could take to answer the extinction questions. It may be possible to enhance extinction and prevent a return of the physiological aspects of fear by manipulating attention during extinction. However, this does not appear to influence explicit expectancy of aversive outcomes. Individual differences in attentional control may influence this process.


1998 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 783-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustine Osman ◽  
Peter M. Gutierrez ◽  
Beverly A. Kopper ◽  
Francisco X. Barrios ◽  
Christine E. Chiros

We conducted two studies to develop and validate a brief self-report measure for assessing the frequency of positive and negative thoughts related to suicidal behavior Items on this new measure, the Positive and Negative Suicide Ideation inventory, were generated by undergraduates. In Study 1, we administered a 20-item version of the inventory to 150 male and 300 female undergraduates and conducted an exploratory principal axis factor analysis with varimax rotation. Two factors, Positive Ideation and Negative Ideation, were retained. In Study 2, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis to validate the fit of the one-factor and the oblique two-factor models to data from another sample of 84 men and 202 women. The oblique two-factor model provided an excellent fit to the sample data. We also examined preliminary evidence of concurrent and predictive validity. Over-all, these findings suggested that the inventory is a well-developed self-report measure for assessing the frequency of positive and negative thoughts related to suicidal behavior.


2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten E. Gilbert ◽  
Jessica H. Kalmar ◽  
Fay Y. Womer ◽  
Philip J. Markovich ◽  
Brian Pittman ◽  
...  

Objective: Increased impulsivity has been shown to be a trait feature of adults with bipolar disorder (BD), yet impulsivity has received little study in adolescents with BD. Thus, it is unknown whether it is a trait feature that is present early in the course of the disorder. We tested the hypotheses that self-reported impulsiveness is increased in adolescents with BD, and that it is present during euthymia, supporting impulsiveness as an early trait feature of the disorder.Methods: Impulsiveness was assessed in 23 adolescents with BD and 23 healthy comparison (HC) adolescents using the self-report measure of impulsivity, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), comprised by attentional, motor and non-planning subscale scores. Effects of subscale scores and associations of scores with mood state and course features were explored.Results: Total and subscale BIS scores were significantly higher in adolescents with BD than HC adolescents. Total, attentional and motor subscale BIS scores were also significantly higher in the subset of adolescents with BD who were euthymic, compared to HC adolescents. Adolescents with BD with rapid-cycling and chronic mood symptoms had significantly higher total and motor subscale BIS scores than adolescents with BD without these course features.Conclusion: These results suggest increased self-reported impulsiveness is a trait feature of adolescents with BD. Elevated impulsivity may be especially prominent in adolescents with rapid-cycling and chronic symptoms.


Assessment ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 107319112094991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Luo ◽  
Meng-Cheng Wang ◽  
Craig S. Neumann ◽  
Robert D. Hare ◽  
Randall T. Salekin

The Proposed Specifiers for Conduct Disorder (PSCD) Scale is a new measure to assess psychopathic traits and symptoms of conduct disorder (CD) in children and adolescents. The current study examined the psychometric properties of the self-report version of the PSCD in a sample of community adolescents in mainland China ( N = 1,683; mean age = 13.60, SD = 1.14; 54.1% boys). The new instrument showed good internal consistency (alpha) for the 24-item total scale and good mean interitem correlations for each of the six-item subscales. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were conducted on all 24 items, and also a subset of 13 items that demonstrated strong item-level reliabilities. Using all 24 items, CFA results supported a four-factor bifactor model indicating the total score reflects a broad syndrome with four factors. The four factors included grandiose–manipulative traits (GM traits), callous–unemotional traits (CU traits), daring–impulsive traits (DI traits), and CD traits. The 13-item CFA results provided further support for a four-factor conceptualization of the PSCD and evidence of strong measurement invariance across gender. Finally, the PSCD exhibited the expected relations with other psychopathy measures, anxiety and depression, and aggression, supporting the PSCD scores convergent, discriminant, and criterion related validity. The findings provide preliminary evidence for the four-factor structure of the PSCD and support for the utility of the self-report PSCD for measuring psychopathic traits and CD in Chinese adolescents.


1987 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-13
Author(s):  
Robert A. M. Gregson

Individual case histories collected variously in Europe and in Australia, recorded over long unbroken sequences, on a daily self-report basis, are potentially analysable as time series. The assessment of spontaneous changes in the dynamics of headache generation and attenuation, and the consequences, if any, of superimposed therapeutic intervention, require that we treat the self-report ratings of headache intensity and duration as a multistate process which is highly autoregressive. Some strong insights into individual differences both in chronic headache patterns, and in response to treatment, are obtained. Of particular interest are individual differences in cyclical and quasi-periodic headaches and in the possible causality of such differences.


2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Wilhelm ◽  
Michael Witthöft ◽  
Stefan Schipolowski

The Cognitive Failure Questionnaire (CFQ) is a well-known and frequently used self-report measure of cognitive lapses and slips, for example, throwing away the candy bar and keeping the wrapping. Measurement models of individual differences in cognitive failures have failed to produce consistent results so far. In this article we establish a measurement model distinguishing three factors of self-reported cognitive failures labeled Clumsiness, Retrieval, and Intention forgotten. The relationships of the CFQ factors with a variety of self-report instruments are investigated. Measures of minor lapses, neuroticism, functional and dysfunctional self-consciousness, cognitive interference, and memory complaints provide evidence across several studies for the interpretation of self-reported cognitive failures as an aspect of neuroticism that primarily reflects general subjective complaints about cognition. We conclude that self-report measures about cognition ought to be interpreted as expressing worries about one’s cognition rather than measuring cognitive abilities themselves.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janneke K. Oostrom ◽  
Lisanne M. de Rijke ◽  
Alec W. Serlie ◽  
Brigitte Heldeweg

Individual differences in communication styles. Does personality explain our way of communicating? Individual differences in communication styles. Does personality explain our way of communicating? The aim of this study was to empirically support the structure of the communication styles within the Social Style model by relating these to personality. The communication styles in the Social Style model consist of assertiveness, responsiveness, and an indicator that represents versatility or flexibility in the use of communication styles. Prior to communication styles training, 153 participants invited a number of co-workers and supervisors to rate their communication styles. We examined the extent to which the communication styles as rated by co-workers and supervisors could be explained by a self-report measure of personality. The regression analyses showed that extraversion is the most important predictor of responsiveness. Assertiveness was predicted by extraversion, self-presentation, and agreeableness (negative relationship). Versatility was predicted by agreeableness, neuroticism (negative relationship), and openness to experience (negative relationship). Given these relationships, it seems that communication styles are partly determined by personality. Organizations should take this into account when their employees participate in communication styles training.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-258
Author(s):  
Javier A. Granados Samayoa ◽  
Russell H. Fazio

The current research presents a novel perspective regarding individual differences in intertemporal choice preferences. We postulate that such differences are partly rooted in individuals’ valence weighting proclivities—their characteristic manner of weighting positive and negative valence when constructing an initial evaluation. Importantly, valence weighting bias should predict intertemporal choice most strongly (a) for those who are relatively low in trait self-control and (b) when the magnitude of the available rewards is relatively small, because these two factors are associated with lesser motivation/resources to deliberate extensively about one's decision. More specifically, we propose that those with a more positive weighting bias give greater weight to the clearly positive immediate reward that is under consideration, and under these conditions, the resulting appraisal shapes choice more strongly. Using a performance-based measure of valence weighting tendencies, a hypothetical intertemporal choice task, and a self-report measure of trait self-control, we provide evidence for our hypothesis.


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