Death Anxiety: An Empirical Test of a Blended Self Report and Projective Measurement Model

2002 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bert Hayslip ◽  
Charles A. Guarnaccia ◽  
Lisa M. Radika ◽  
Heather L. Servaty

Data from a sample of 392 adults ( M age=34.3) were used to empirically establish a blended psychometric and projective measurement model of overt and covert death anxiety. Two equally plausible measurement models were derived. Based on a randomly selected sample of 196, both a two-factor model, Overt Death Anxiety-Self and Covert Death Anxiety, and a three-factor, Overt Death Anxiety-Self, Overt Death Anxiety-Other, and Covert Death Anxiety, fit the data. Data from a second randomly selected subsample of 196 adults was also consistent with a two-factor measurement model, as well as a three-factor model. On the basis of parsimony, the two-factor model of death anxiety was retained for both the development and cross validation samples. Those data substantiate a view of death anxiety which suggests that is best defined in terms of its conscious (overt) and unconscious (covert) components. These components are in varying degrees interrelated and reflect the dynamic nature of death anxiety in adulthood.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-246
Author(s):  
Máté Kapitány-Fövény ◽  
Róbert Urbán ◽  
Gábor Varga ◽  
Marc N. Potenza ◽  
Mark D. Griffiths ◽  
...  

AbstractBackground and aimsDue to its important role in both healthy groups and those with physical, mental and behavioral disorders, impulsivity is a widely researched construct. Among various self-report questionnaires of impulsivity, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale is arguably the most frequently used measure. Despite its international use, inconsistencies in the suggested factor structure of its latest version, the BIS-11, have been observed repeatedly in different samples. The goal of the present study was therefore to test the factor structure of the BIS-11 in several samples.MethodsExploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on two representative samples of Hungarian adults (N = 2,457; N = 2,040) and a college sample (N = 765).ResultsAnalyses did not confirm the original model of the measure in any of the samples. Based on explorative factor analyses, an alternative three-factor model (cognitive impulsivity; behavioral impulsivity; and impatience/restlessness) of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale is suggested. The pattern of the associations between the three factors and aggression, exercise, smoking, alcohol use, and psychological distress supports the construct validity of this new model.DiscussionThe new measurement model of impulsivity was confirmed in two independent samples. However, it requires further cross-cultural validation to clarify the content of self-reported impulsivity in both clinical and nonclinical samples.


E-psychologie ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 49-65
Author(s):  
Patrik Rudolf ◽  
◽  
Petra Hubatková ◽  
David Kremeník ◽  
Vít Kratochvíl ◽  
...  

This paper constitutes a pilot study of a novel measure for assessing proneness to guilt and proneness to shame, Inventář tendence k vině a hanbě (ITVAH, Inventory of Proneness to Guilt and Shame). ITVAH is a scenario-based method distinguishing affective and behavioural components of guilt and shame and also considering the private or public experience of guilt and shame, respectively. Two items (affective and behavioural reaction) were created for each of the 16 scenarios, resulting in total of 32 items. A four-factor measurement model was assumed – Negative behaviour evaluation (NBE), Reparation, Negative self-evaluation (NSE), Withdrawal. Next, we assumed negative correlations of NSE and Withdrawal with self-esteem and self-forgiveness and positive correlations of NBE and Reparation with self-forgiveness. The pilot study was carried out on 249 Czech-speaking adults (67 % women, aged 18–75, Md = 22). An ordinal confirmatory factor analysis with residual covariances between items connected to the same scenarios was conducted. The hypothesized four-factor model was found acceptable. However, we found limited evidence for the hypothesized relationships with self-esteem and self-forgiveness – in contrast to theoretical expectations we found a medium-strong negative relationship between self-forgiveness and affective component of guilt. For further use of the measure in the Czech and Slovak environment it is necessary to assess additional evidence of construct validity and concurrent validity with The Test of Self-Conscious Affect-3 (TOSCA-3).


Assessment ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 107319112097513
Author(s):  
Sophie A. Wissenburg ◽  
Carlo Garofalo ◽  
Arjan A. J. Blokland ◽  
H. Palmen ◽  
Martin Sellbom

The Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy (LSRP) scale is a self-report measure that can be used to assess psychopathic traits in community samples, and recent research suggested that its three-factor model (Egocentricity, Callousness, and Antisocial) has promising psychometric properties. However, no study to date has validated the LSRP in a longitudinal framework. The present study sought to validate the LSRP scale in a longitudinal design using a sample of Dutch emerging adults ( ns = 970 and 693 at time points 1 and 2, respectively). We assessed longitudinal measurement invariance and the stability of psychopathic traits over an 18-month time period, from age 20 to age 21.6. Furthermore, we replicated and extended findings on the factor structure, reliability, and construct validity of the Dutch LSRP scale. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the three-factor model fit the data well. Evidence of partial longitudinal measurement invariance was observed, which means that the Dutch translation of the LSRP scale is measuring an equivalent construct (and overall latent factor structure) over time. Psychopathic traits were relatively stable over time. The three LSRP subscales showed largely acceptable levels of internal consistency at both time points and showed conceptually expected patterns of construct validity and predictive validity, with a few notable exceptions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Muhammad Niqab ◽  
Janet Hanson ◽  
Arthur Bangert ◽  
Sathiamoorthy Kannan ◽  
Sailesh Sharma ◽  
...  

This study used a quantitative, empirical, survey-research design and collected self-report data from faculty (n = 408) in secondary-level schools (n = 34) in Pakistan to test the reliability and construct validity of a proposed three-factor model of intellectual capital (IC). Results of the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed the three-factor model was reliable to quantify the construct of IC in Pakistan secondary-level schools. Factors included social relations, teacher experience and education, and teacher training and skills. Structural capital was tested indirectly. Statistically significant differences existed between school types for the IC mean scores, revealing an influence of structural capital on IC. Gender was included as a control variable in the analyses demonstrating no significant influence on the dependent variable, IC. School administrators and policy makers can use the results of this study to inform decision making and to support self-developing processes in schools in the effort to reduce the divide in educational outcomes between developed and developing countries.


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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dylan Campbell ◽  
Anita Tusche ◽  
Brendan Gaesser

Prior work suggests that imagining helping others increases prosocial intentions and behavior towards those individuals. But is this true for everyone, or only for those who tend towards – or away from – helping more generally? The current study (N=283) used an imagined helping paradigm and a battery of behavioral and self-report measures of trait prosociality to determine whether the prosocial benefits of imagination depend upon an individual’s general tendency to help others. Replicating prior work, we found links between imagination and prosociality and support for a three-factor model of prosociality comprising altruistically, norm-motivated, and self-reported prosocial behaviors. Centrally, the effects of imagination on prosociality were slightly larger for less altruistic individuals but independent of norm-motivated and self-reported prosociality. These results suggest leveraging people’s abilities for episodic simulation as a promising strategy for increasing prosociality in general, and perhaps particularly for those least likely to help otherwise.


2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross L. Matsueda ◽  
Kevin M. Drakulich

This article specifies a multilevel measurement model for survey response when data are nested. The model includes a test–retest model of reliability, a confirmatory factor model of interitem reliability with item-specific bias effects, an individual-level model of the biasing effects due to respondent characteristics, and a neighborhood-level model of construct validity. We apply this model for measuring informal social control within collective efficacy theory. Estimating the model on 3,260 respondents nested within 123 Seattle neighborhoods, we find that measures of informal control show reasonable test–retest and interitem reliability. We find support for the hypothesis that respondents’ assessments of whether their neighbors would intervene in specific child deviant acts are related to whether they have observed such acts in the past, which is consistent with a cognitive model of survey response. Finally, we find that, when proper measurement models are not used, the effects of some neighborhood covariates on informal control are biased upward and the effect of informal social control on violence is biased downward.


2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. C. STEFANIS ◽  
M. HANSSEN ◽  
N. K. SMIRNIS ◽  
D. A. AVRAMOPOULOS ◽  
I. K. EVDOKIMIDIS ◽  
...  

Background. The aims of the study were: first to examine, using clinical symptoms of patients as a template, whether the correlated but independent dimensions of positive, negative and depressive symptoms that have been identified in clinical psychosis, also have a distribution as non-clinical experiences in the general population; and second, to establish to what degree population variation in experience of positive and negative features of psychosis is actually independent of experience of depression.Method. In a representative population sample of 932 young men, we measured experiences of positive, negative and depressive features of psychosis, using a 40-item self-report instrument. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare the fit of hypothesized one-, two- and three-factor solutions.Results. A three-factor model of separate depressive, positive and negative dimensions provided a better fit to the data than either a two-factor or unidimensional model. All three dimensions were correlated with each other, but also showed good discriminant validity in relation to established scales, confirming their relative independence.Conclusion. The data suggest that the correlated dimensions of clinical psychosis also have a distribution in the general population, and that depressive symptoms may form an integral part of psychosis-like experiences in the general population.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document