Journal of personality assessment最新文献

It is essential to understand the perception of self-continuity across time to understand the nature of personal identity and its development. To fill a gap in existing psychological research, this study introduces a novel scale designed to measure past self-continuity from narrative and essentialist perspectives. We developed and validated the Past Self-Continuity Scale through four studies involving Japanese university students, adults, and high school students. This scale differentiates between narrativity-based continuity, where past and present selves are integrated into a coherent story, and essentialist-based continuity, which focuses on the stability of the core of the self attributes over time. Results indicate that narrative and essentialist strategies for perceiving self-continuity are distinct and may change with development. The development of this scale advances our ability to measure and understand the complex nature of self-continuity and its implications to identity development and psychological well-being.

Recent advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) offer new assessment approaches that can help overcome the limitations of traditional Likert-item scales in measuring complex, subjective constructs. To demonstrate this, we introduce and validate a novel LLM-based methodology for psychological assessment by applying it to Future Self-Continuity (FSC), the perceived connection, including similarity, vividness, and positivity, between present and future selves. We used an LLM (Claude 3.5 Sonnet) to perform natural language processing (NLP) on transcripts of audio responses to 15 theory-based interview prompts. Data from 164 MTurk participants (including 93 with past-year suicide ideation, who were oversampled to examine clinical utility) yielded quantitative NLP-FSC scores that significantly correlated with the Future Self-Continuity Questionnaire (FSCQ; r = 0.57), supporting convergent validity. A Bland-Altman analysis also indicated acceptable agreement. Replication using one older and two updated LLM versions confirmed the method's robustness (inter-model total score r = 0.91, 0.88, and 0.84). Exploratory analysis using the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQR) found that the NLP assessment captured unique variance in the perceived likelihood of a future suicide attempt beyond the FSCQ, suggesting potential clinical implications. This validated NLP approach offers a nuanced assessment of FSC, advancing psychological measurement methodology in research and, potentially, clinical practice.

This study evaluated the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 Brief Form (PID-5-BF) as a screening tool for personality disorder (PD) in adolescents. Data from clinical (n = 127) and community (n = 139) samples of adolescents aged 12 to 17 were analyzed. Exploratory structural equation modeling supported the five-factor structure, with good to excellent internal consistency. Nomological validity was demonstrated through correlations with other measures of personality and psychopathology. All PID-5-BF domains, except antagonism, differed significantly between adolescents with borderline PD (BPD), non-BPD inpatients, and community controls. However, only negative affectivity showed significantly higher mean scores among inpatient youths with BPD compared to those without BPD. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses indicated that only negative affectivity among the PID-5-BF domains demonstrated diagnostic accuracy in the lower moderate range for identifying BPD, whereas the total score and other domains showed limited performance. In comparison, a measure of identity diffusion demonstrated stronger discriminative ability. Overall, these findings suggest that the PID-5-BF might be a useful tool for identifying pathological personality trait-related risk factors associated with general psychopathology. However, its utility might be more limited in accurately detecting BPD specifically within adolescent populations.

The World Health Organization five-item Well-Being Index has been widely used to assess adolescents' well-being. However, its structural properties and measurement invariance at both between- and within-country levels have been underexamined in this population. The present study aimed to fill this gap. Relying on a nationally representative sample of 9,007 school attendees in Luxembourg (M_AGE = 14.7; SD_AGE = 2.4; 48.7% female) and on both classical test theory and item response theory, I assessed the scalability, reliability, monotonicity, factorial structure, convergent validity, and sociodemographic measurement invariance of the WHO-5. Measurement invariance was investigated across groups differing in terms of academic performance, country of birth, language, sex, socioeconomic status, and type of school. The WHO-5 exhibited strong scalability (Loevinger's H = .550) as well as satisfactory reliability (McDonald's ω = .84), monotonicity, factorial validity, and convergent validity. Measurement invariance held across all the examined subgroups. This study suggests that the WHO-5 is a sound, unidimensional measure of well-being that can be used for comparisons across various sociodemographic adolescent groups.

Epistemic trust is the capacity of an individual to assimilate new information and engage with their surroundings. This study focused on the Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ) among individuals seeking treatment for common mental health issues (N = 378) compared to a non-clinical group (N = 357). The study aimed to validate the ETMCQ clinically, assess its consistency across clinical groups and community controls, and explore the relationship between epistemic attitudes (trust, mistrust, and credulity), mentalizing, and mental health problems by comparing the two groups. The ETMCQ's three-factor structure showed acceptable reliability and validity in the clinical setting. The measurement invariance analyses showed complete metric consistency but only partial scalar and strict consistency, with certain items not aligning across groups (Items 1, 3, 4 for scalar consistency; 2, 12, 14 for strict consistency). The results indicated that difficulties in mentalizing and increased levels of epistemic trust, mistrust, and credulity were linked to a greater likelihood of experiencing clinical distress. These outcomes underline the effectiveness of the ETMCQ in distinguishing between clinical and non-clinical individuals. However, researchers should use caution with the epistemic trust component of the questionnaire which appears to reflect a paradoxical epistemic attitude.

The primary goal of this study was to develop a concise, theoretically grounded tool -the Holistic Wellbeing Measure (HWM)- that captures both hedonic and eudaimonic facets of wellbeing. Items for the HWM were generated through a careful review of existing wellbeing scales and literature, followed by expert consultation, pilot testing, and iterative refinement to ensure conceptual coverage, clarity, and face validity. Data were collected from three distinct samples: adolescents (n = 453), young adults (n = 361), and adults (n = 358). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a two-factor structure, with 12 items reflecting independent but related hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing dimensions. The measure demonstrated strong internal reliability and evidence of convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity across all age groups. Regression analyses further indicated that the HWM contributed unique variance to the prediction of general health indicators (physical, social, and mental health) and psychological problems (depression, anxiety, and somatization), above the effects of gender, age, and psychological wellbeing. These results suggest that the HWM is a valid and reliable measure for assessing both aspects of wellbeing across age groups and can support strategies aimed at promoting overall mental health.

The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) was developed to assess alexithymia as a multidimensional construct consistent with the attention-appraisal model. This study evaluated the hierarchical structure of the PAQ using Goldberg's bass-ackwards method across student and community samples. Results consistently revealed a general alexithymia factor at the highest level of the hierarchy, with limited evidence of stable or distinct dimensions at the lower levels. Although some components, such as externally oriented thinking and positive emotion valence items showed partial differentiation, the overall pattern did not support the proposed five-factor dimensional model, indicating that the PAQ does not provide a reliable multidimensional assessment of the alexithymia construct. While the PAQ was developed to provide a multidimensional profile by incorporating both positive and negative emotion processing, our results indicate that it is best conceptualized and interpreted as measuring a single, unidimensional construct.

The Fear of Failure as Motivation Scale (FOFAMS) addresses the motivational role of fear of failure, which existing measures typically overlook in favor of its negative effects. FOFAMS was developed using a rational-theoretical approach to fill this gap, offering a new tool for examining this aspect in achievement contexts. Two studies examined the scale's psychometric properties. Study 1 involved item development and an exploratory factor analysis, refining the scale by removing conceptually and psychometrically weaker items. Study 2, with samples of students (N = 385) and sports participants (N = 382), supported the unidimensional structure through confirmatory factor analysis and contributed evidence supporting the scale's construct validity. FOFAMS showed significant correlations with other constructs hypothesized to relate to fear of failure as motivation. This questionnaire provides a unique perspective, enhancing the understanding of fear of failure's positive influences on goal pursuit and achievement, and contributing to the broader nomological network of this construct.

Informed by psychoanalytic, humanistic, and cybernetic perspectives on defensive functioning, the present work established the psychometric structure and initial validation of the 10-item Self-Presentational Defensiveness Scale (SPDS). Across four studies (total N = 1,634), we assessed the item-level observability of the initial 20-item SPDS (Study 1), explored the psychometric structure of the initial SPDS in two separate samples (Studies 2 and 3), and established the psychometric properties of the final 10-item SPDS (Study 4), along with preliminary evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. The SPDS demonstrated (a) item content that was rated as more observable compared to other commonly used measures of defensive functioning, (b) a robust substantive self-presentational defensiveness factor, (c) measurement invariance across gender (i.e., male and female) and measurement type (i.e., self and informant ratings), (d) substantial self-other agreement (i.e., r = .42), and (e) appropriate correlations with theoretically related constructs (e.g., neuroticism). These results demonstrate the reliability and initial validity of the SPDS and suggest that self-presentational defensiveness reflects a lack of personal accountability when confronted with negative self-relevant stimuli.

The Multidimensional Scale of Emotion Regulation for Adolescents (MSERA) was initially developed to assess adolescents' emotion-regulation strategies in Mexican education contexts. Given the lack of instruments to measure adolescents' emotion-regulation strategies in Chinese educational settings, the current study adapted the English version of the scale to Chinese (C-MSERA) and provided initial validity evidence to support the use of the scale. The scale was translated into simplified Chinese. A sample of 1,798 Chinese adolescents reported their emotion-regulation strategies using the C-MSERA. Factor analysis supported the eight-factor structure of the C-MSERA, and the instrument's concurrent validity and internal consistency were also supported. The findings indicate that C-MSERA produces reliable and valid scores for measuring adolescents' emotion-regulation strategies in Chinese education settings.