People with mental illness face numerous negative life outcomes, many of which are directly cause... more People with mental illness face numerous negative life outcomes, many of which are directly caused by stigma. In addition to stereotypes and discrimination, prejudice towards people with mental illness is a central component of stigma. Prejudice towards people with mental illness is defined as a complex negative outgroup attitude, that is, a multidimensional unfavourable evaluation of people with mental illness. It comprises four main factors or dimensions: a) fear/avoidance (fear of people with mental illness and the desire to avoid and exhibit social distance from them), b) unpredictability (a negative evaluation of people with mental illness as being highly unpredictable), c) authoritarianism (an attitude in favour of social control of people with mental illness at the expense of their freedom and independence), and d) malevolence (rejection of sympathetic and benevolent attitudes and perceiving people with mental illness as being inferior to others). This entry reviews the conceptualisation of prejudice towards people with mental illness, including its causes and consequences, by focusing on a comprehensive prejudice towards people with mental illness framework. In addition, it also discusses an often-overlooked aspect of stigma research, that is, the notion that different mental disorders may invoke different levels of prejudice. It illustrates this aspect with an application of the prejudice towards people with mental illness framework to unfavourable attitudes towards people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. In conclusion, prejudice towards people with mental illness is an area of research that is of utmost importance for researchers to investigate, especially as it is a central driver of discrimination.
Encyclopedia of Religious Psychology and Behavior, 2024
Authoritarian personality is a widely used construct in social and political psychology that has ... more Authoritarian personality is a widely used construct in social and political psychology that has often been employed to explain individuals’ propensity for prejudice, ethnocentrism, and anti-democratic attitudes. Although early researchers used the term “authoritarian personality,” currently the term “right-wing authoritarianism” has become more prevalent as empirical support for the initial conceptualization and theory has been weak. The concept has also been linked to religiosity, and research consistently supports the relationship between right-wing authoritarianism and religiosity. Nonetheless, religiosity is a complex phenomenon, and right-wing authoritarianism has been linked positively to certain kinds of religiosity, such as religious fundamentalism, but negatively to others, such as quest religious orientation.
Encyclopedia of Religious Psychology and Behavior, 2025
The domain of personality disorders is a highly studied area in psychiatry and psychology. Person... more The domain of personality disorders is a highly studied area in psychiatry and psychology. Personality disorders are characterized by enduring, pervasive impairments in self-perception and interpersonal functioning, leading to significant difficulties in cognition, emotion, and behavior across various personal and social contexts. Various studies have investigated the relationship between personality disorders and religious behavior. Overall, research appears to suggest that higher personality disorder scores tend to be inversely related to religiosity and spirituality, suggesting that religion and spirituality have certain protective factors. Nonetheless, the relationship is not straightforward, and certain personality disorders, including their specific dimensions, may predispose people to reject certain kinds of religious behavior, but endorse others. We will unpack the nuances of their association in this chapter by first discussing the nature of personality disorders, including the two dominant classification approaches, and outlining the primary measurement approaches. Second, we will discuss research linking personality disorders with diverse kinds of religious behavior, and how religiosity may be relevant to diagnosing and potentially treating personality disorders. Third, we will address the major challenges in the area that investigates the relationships between personality disorders and religious behavior.
'Phubbing' refers to the phenomenon where people ignore social partners in a face-to-face situati... more 'Phubbing' refers to the phenomenon where people ignore social partners in a face-to-face situation by focusing on their phones. Narcissism, a personality trait characterised by entitled self-importance, has strong influences on interpersonal relationships. As the mechanism through which narcissism may affect the development of phubbing is unclear and most relevant studies have been conducted in Western countries, we proposed and empirically tested a theoretical model that links narcissism to phubbing in China. Chinese participants (N = 322; 181 women and 141 men) completed a survey in the Chinese language. Path analyses largely confirmed the proposed hypothetical model. The main findings showed that vulnerable narcissism directly predicted more phubbing behaviour and also indirectly via increased social anxiety, preference for online social interaction (POSI), social media use (SMU) for mood regulation, and compulsive SMU. Also, grandiose narcissism indirectly predicted less phubbing behaviour via reduced social anxiety, POSI, SMU for mood regulation, and compulsive SMU. The findings, therefore, elucidate the mechanisms by which the two subtypes of narcissism differentially predispose people to phubbing in China, with vulnerable narcissism predisposing people to more phubbing and grandiose narcissism to less phubbing. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.
The study of narcissism has been hindered by conceptual, theoretical, and measurement inconsisten... more The study of narcissism has been hindered by conceptual, theoretical, and measurement inconsistencies. In this article, we report two studies that tested a novel unified conceptualization and theoretical approach to narcissism using the Unified Narcissism Scale-Revised. Study 1 revised the recently developed Unified Narcissism Scale to construct a preliminary 40item measure in a sample of 395 American participants (M age = 41). We confirmed the five-factor first-order model, the two-factor second-order model, and the one-factor third-order model. Study 2 considered the cross-cultural performance of the revised scale in the Chinese language in China (N = 326, M age = 25.5 years) and in the English language in Sri Lanka (N = 354 M age = 28.7 years) and constructed a final 35-item measure. In conducting these studies, we have demonstrated the cross-cultural importance of entitlement and self-esteem to the conceptualization of narcissism and suggest that the negative relationship between narcissism and agreeableness may be culture-specific to Western samples (as evidenced by the absence of this relationship in non-Western samples). In this article, we have constructed a measure of narcissism that has refined our understanding of the construct and created a tool to capture this understanding.
Introduction: Although ethnocentrism is one of the fundamental concepts in the social sciences, i... more Introduction: Although ethnocentrism is one of the fundamental concepts in the social sciences, its study has been impeded by a diversity of conceptualizations and measures. In recent years, a growing number of political scientists and psychologists have undertaken in-depth research into ethnocentrism. In addition, researchers have recently proposed a comprehensive reconceptualization of ethnocentrism and developed a new Ethnocentrism scale. There is strong evidence for this scale's reliability and validity in indexing ethnocentrism, but like most measures in psychology and political science, this scale is based on classical test theory. Item response theory (IRT) is a powerful psychometric technique that can provide a much more sophisticated test of test performance and is currently under-utilized in research.
Methods: We performed IRT to assess the psychometric properties of the Ethnocentrism scale on a sample of 4,187 participants.
Results: The scale's items had strong psychometric properties to capture the ethnocentrism latent construct, particularly in the below average to above average range. Men required marginally lower levels of ethnocentrism to endorse less socially acceptable items than women (items relating to superiority, purity, or exploitativeness). When compared to liberals, conservatives responded more readily to nearly all ethnocentrism items. Given this variation, the IRT approach highlighted that future measurements must adjust for differential item functioning, albeit more for political orientation than gender identity.
Discussion: The findings detail how IRT can enhance measurement in political science and demonstrate the implications for how gender and political ideology may affect the differential performance of items.
Categorical models of personality disorders have been beneficial throughout psychiatric history, ... more Categorical models of personality disorders have been beneficial throughout psychiatric history, providing a mechanism for organizing and communicating research and treatment. However, the view that individuals with personality disorders are qualitatively distinct from the general population is no longer tenable. This perspective has amassed steady criticism, ranging from inconsequential to irreconcilable. In response, stronger evidence has been accumulated in support of a dimensional perspective that unifies normal and pathological personality on underlying trait continua. Contemporary nosology has largely shifted toward this dimensional perspective, yet broader adoption within public lexicon and routine clinical practice appears slow. This review focuses on challenges and the related opportunities of moving toward dimensional models in personality disorder research and practice. First, we highlight the need for ongoing development of a broader array of measurement methods, ideally facilitating multimethod assessments that reduce biases associated with any single methodology. These efforts should also include measurement across both poles of each trait, intensive longitudinal studies, and more deeply considering social desirability. Second, wider communication and training in dimensional approaches is needed for individuals working in mental health. This will require clear demonstrations of incremental treatment efficacy and structured public health rebates. Third, we should embrace cultural and geographic diversity, and investigate how unifying humanity may reduce the stigma and shame currently generated by arbitrarily labeling an individual’s personality as normal or abnormal. This review aims to organize ongoing research efforts toward broader and routine usage of dimensional perspectives within research and clinical spaces.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, adopted a “go hard, go early” approach to eliminate... more New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, adopted a “go hard, go early” approach to eliminate COVID-19. Although Ardern and her Labour party are considered left-leaning, the policies implemented during the pandemic (e.g., police roadblocks) have the hallmarks of Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA). RWA is characterized by three attitudinal clusters (authoritarian aggression, submission, and conventionalism). The uniqueness of the clusters, and whether they react to environmental change, has been debated. Here, in the context of the pandemic, we investigate the relationship between political orientation and RWA. Specifically, we measured political orientation, support for New Zealand’s major political parties, and RWA among 1,430 adult community members. A multivariate Bayesian model demonstrated that, in the middle of a pandemic, both left-leaning and right-leaning individuals endorsed items tapping authoritarian submission. In contrast to authoritarian submission, and demonstrati...
Recent cross-cultural and neuro-hormonal investigations have suggested that love is a near univer... more Recent cross-cultural and neuro-hormonal investigations have suggested that love is a near universal phenomenon that has a biological background. Therefore, the remaining important question is not whether love exists worldwide but which cultural, social, or environmental factors influence experiences and expressions of love. In the present study, we explored whether countries’ modernization indexes are related to love experiences measured by three subscales (passion, intimacy, commitment) of the Triangular Love Scale. Analyzing data from 9474 individuals from 45 countries, we tested for relationships with country-level predictors, namely, modernization proxies (i.e., Human Development Index, World Modernization Index, Gender Inequality Index), collectivism, and average annual temperatures. We found that mean levels of love (especially intimacy) were higher in countries with higher modernization proxies, collectivism, and average annual temperatures. In conclusion, our results grant ...
Background: People living with borderline personality disorder (BPD) face high levels of prejudic... more Background: People living with borderline personality disorder (BPD) face high levels of prejudice and discrimination from both the community and medical professionals, but no measure of prejudice toward people living with BPD exists. Aims: The current study aimed to adapt an existing Prejudice toward People with Mental Illness (PPMI) scale and investigate the structure and nomological network of prejudice toward people with BPD. Methods: The original 28-item PPMI scale was adapted to create the Prejudice toward People with Borderline Personality Disorder (PPBPD) scale. The scale and related measures were completed by three samples: 217 medical or clinical psychology students, 303 psychology undergraduate students, and 314 adults from the general population. Results: The original four-factor structure of the PPMI was supported in the PPBPD scale. Reported prejudice toward people with BPD was more negative than prejudice toward people with mental illness in general. The association of the PPBPD scale with antecedents and consequences was assessed, including social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, personality traits, empathy, prior contact, and feelings toward other stigmatized groups and mental illnesses. Conclusions: This study provided evidence for the validity and psychometric properties of the PPBPD scale across three samples and investigated anticipated relationships with theoretically related antecedents and consequences. This research will help improve understanding of the expressions underlying prejudice toward people with BPD.
The clinical literature on narcissistic families has often described the presence of a family sca... more The clinical literature on narcissistic families has often described the presence of a family scapegoat. To date, however, no research has empirically explored this phenomenon. This study investigated the relationship between perceived parental vulnerable and grandiose narcissism and scapegoating, and the impact of these on the symptoms of anxiety and depression in emerging adults, in a sample of 504 Australian adults (Mage = 22.38, SDage = 3.63; 59.72% female, 38.09% male). A path model was tested, with perceived parental vulnerable and grandiose narcissism as predictors, scapegoating as a mediator, and participants’ anxiety and depression as outcomes, controlling for demographic variables and participants’ vulnerable and grandiose narcissism. Results indicated that higher perceived paternal grandiose narcissism had a direct effect on anxiety and depression, whereas perceived maternal vulnerable narcissism, perceived paternal vulnerable narcissism, and perceived maternal grandiose narcissism had indirect effects on anxiety and depression via scapegoating. Effect sizes were generally small to medium. These findings show that scapegoating is an important variable linking parental narcissism with negative psychological outcomes such as anxiety and depression in emerging adults.
Many existing measures of prejudiced attitudes toward people with mental illness have conceptual,... more Many existing measures of prejudiced attitudes toward people with mental illness have conceptual, theoretical, and psychometric problems. The recently created Prejudice toward People with Mental Illness (PPMI) scale has addressed many of these limitations, but prejudice toward people with different mental disorders may be unique and require further exploration. This study aimed to facilitate this exploration by adapting the PPMI to focus on schizophrenia and depression, and investigate the structure, distinctiveness, and the nomological network of prejudice toward people with these mental disorders. Study Design: We adapted the original 28-item PPMI scale to create the Prejudice toward People with Schizophrenia (PPS) and Prejudice toward People with Depression (PPD) scales. There were 406 participants from the general population, who completed these scales and related measures. Study Results: The original 4-factor structure (fear/avoidance, unpredictability, authoritarianism, and malevolence) was supported for each scale. Participants expressed the highest levels of prejudice toward people with schizophrenia, followed by prejudice toward people with mental illness, and lastly by prejudice toward people with depression. Analyses supported the proposed nomological network of prejudice, which involves theoretical antecedents of social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, empathy, personality traits, disgust sensitivity, and prior contact. Conclusions: This research provides evidence for the validity and psychometric properties of the PPMI, PPS, and PPD scales, expanding our understanding of antecedents to prejudice toward people with different mental disorders. This research also shows that we gain more insight into prejudice when we use measures targeting specific disorders rather than mental illness in general.
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 2017
Traditionalism involves respecting and upholding traditional values, morality, norms, and practic... more Traditionalism involves respecting and upholding traditional values, morality, norms, and practices of one's own social group. It also includes active resistance to changing traditional values, morality, norms, and practices.
Narcissism as a psychological construct has had a contentious past both in its conceptualization ... more Narcissism as a psychological construct has had a contentious past both in its conceptualization and measurement. There is an emerging consensus that narcissism consists of grandiose and vulnerable subtypes, which share a common core. In the present research (N = 1002), we constructed a new measure of unified narcissism that reflects these contemporary understandings using items from the most widely used measures of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism: the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Terry, 1988, https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.5.890), and the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI; Pincus et al., 2009, https://doi-org/10.1037/a0016530). We used classical test theory and item response theory approaches to devise a 29-item Unified Narcissism Scale. The scale showed good internal consistency, and convergent and discriminant validity, and showed evidence of measurement invariance between men and women. This research gave strong support for the structure, reliability, and validity of the unified measure, which offers a promising avenue for further enhancing our knowledge of narcissism.
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 2019
Ethnocentrism is a multidimensional attitudinal
construct, comprising intergroup and intragroup
... more Ethnocentrism is a multidimensional attitudinal
construct, comprising intergroup and intragroup
attitudes, emanating from the belief that one’s
own ethnic group is of immense importance.
Background
We investigated the specificity in mediated pathways that separately link specific st... more Background
We investigated the specificity in mediated pathways that separately link specific stress dimensions through anxiety to depressive symptoms and the protective utility of resilience. Thus, this study goes beyond lumping together potential mediating and moderating processes that can explain the relations between stress and (symptoms of) psychopathology and the buffering effect of resilience.
Methods
Ghanaian adolescents between 13 and 17 years (female = 285; male = 244) completed the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ), Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Short Mood Feeling Questionnaire (SMFQ) and the Resilience Scale for Adolescents (READ). Independent samples t-test, multivariate analysis of covariance with follow-up tests and moderated mediation analyses were performed.
Results
Evidences were found for specificity in the associations between dimensions of adolescent stressors and depressive symptoms independent of transient anxiety. Transient anxiety partly accounted for the indirect effects of eight stress dimensions on depressive symptoms. Except stress of school attendance and school/leisure conflict, resilience moderated the indirect effects of specific stress dimensions on depressive symptoms. Results suggested differences in how Ghanaian adolescents view the various stress dimensions, and mediated pathways associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms.
Limitations
Use of cross-sectional data does not show causal process and temporal changes over time.
Conclusions
Findings support and clarify the specificity in the interrelations and mediated pathways among dimensions of adolescent stress, transient anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Conditional process analyses shows that resilience does not only buffer direct, but also indirect psychological adversities. Interventions for good mental health may focus on low resilience subgroups in specific stress dimensions while minimizing transient anxiety.
A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However... more A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However, research examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates. Less empirical attention has been directed towards the relationship between sex ratio and mate preferences, despite the importance of mate preferences in the human mating literature. To address this gap, we examined sex ratio's relationship to the variation in preferences for attractiveness, resources, kindness, intelligence and health in a long-term mate across 45 countries (n = 14 487). We predicted that mate preferences would vary according to relative power of choice on the mating market, with increased power derived from having relatively few competitors and numerous potential mates. We found that each sex tended to report more demanding preferences for...
People with mental illness face numerous negative life outcomes, many of which are directly cause... more People with mental illness face numerous negative life outcomes, many of which are directly caused by stigma. In addition to stereotypes and discrimination, prejudice towards people with mental illness is a central component of stigma. Prejudice towards people with mental illness is defined as a complex negative outgroup attitude, that is, a multidimensional unfavourable evaluation of people with mental illness. It comprises four main factors or dimensions: a) fear/avoidance (fear of people with mental illness and the desire to avoid and exhibit social distance from them), b) unpredictability (a negative evaluation of people with mental illness as being highly unpredictable), c) authoritarianism (an attitude in favour of social control of people with mental illness at the expense of their freedom and independence), and d) malevolence (rejection of sympathetic and benevolent attitudes and perceiving people with mental illness as being inferior to others). This entry reviews the conceptualisation of prejudice towards people with mental illness, including its causes and consequences, by focusing on a comprehensive prejudice towards people with mental illness framework. In addition, it also discusses an often-overlooked aspect of stigma research, that is, the notion that different mental disorders may invoke different levels of prejudice. It illustrates this aspect with an application of the prejudice towards people with mental illness framework to unfavourable attitudes towards people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. In conclusion, prejudice towards people with mental illness is an area of research that is of utmost importance for researchers to investigate, especially as it is a central driver of discrimination.
Encyclopedia of Religious Psychology and Behavior, 2024
Authoritarian personality is a widely used construct in social and political psychology that has ... more Authoritarian personality is a widely used construct in social and political psychology that has often been employed to explain individuals’ propensity for prejudice, ethnocentrism, and anti-democratic attitudes. Although early researchers used the term “authoritarian personality,” currently the term “right-wing authoritarianism” has become more prevalent as empirical support for the initial conceptualization and theory has been weak. The concept has also been linked to religiosity, and research consistently supports the relationship between right-wing authoritarianism and religiosity. Nonetheless, religiosity is a complex phenomenon, and right-wing authoritarianism has been linked positively to certain kinds of religiosity, such as religious fundamentalism, but negatively to others, such as quest religious orientation.
Encyclopedia of Religious Psychology and Behavior, 2025
The domain of personality disorders is a highly studied area in psychiatry and psychology. Person... more The domain of personality disorders is a highly studied area in psychiatry and psychology. Personality disorders are characterized by enduring, pervasive impairments in self-perception and interpersonal functioning, leading to significant difficulties in cognition, emotion, and behavior across various personal and social contexts. Various studies have investigated the relationship between personality disorders and religious behavior. Overall, research appears to suggest that higher personality disorder scores tend to be inversely related to religiosity and spirituality, suggesting that religion and spirituality have certain protective factors. Nonetheless, the relationship is not straightforward, and certain personality disorders, including their specific dimensions, may predispose people to reject certain kinds of religious behavior, but endorse others. We will unpack the nuances of their association in this chapter by first discussing the nature of personality disorders, including the two dominant classification approaches, and outlining the primary measurement approaches. Second, we will discuss research linking personality disorders with diverse kinds of religious behavior, and how religiosity may be relevant to diagnosing and potentially treating personality disorders. Third, we will address the major challenges in the area that investigates the relationships between personality disorders and religious behavior.
'Phubbing' refers to the phenomenon where people ignore social partners in a face-to-face situati... more 'Phubbing' refers to the phenomenon where people ignore social partners in a face-to-face situation by focusing on their phones. Narcissism, a personality trait characterised by entitled self-importance, has strong influences on interpersonal relationships. As the mechanism through which narcissism may affect the development of phubbing is unclear and most relevant studies have been conducted in Western countries, we proposed and empirically tested a theoretical model that links narcissism to phubbing in China. Chinese participants (N = 322; 181 women and 141 men) completed a survey in the Chinese language. Path analyses largely confirmed the proposed hypothetical model. The main findings showed that vulnerable narcissism directly predicted more phubbing behaviour and also indirectly via increased social anxiety, preference for online social interaction (POSI), social media use (SMU) for mood regulation, and compulsive SMU. Also, grandiose narcissism indirectly predicted less phubbing behaviour via reduced social anxiety, POSI, SMU for mood regulation, and compulsive SMU. The findings, therefore, elucidate the mechanisms by which the two subtypes of narcissism differentially predispose people to phubbing in China, with vulnerable narcissism predisposing people to more phubbing and grandiose narcissism to less phubbing. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.
The study of narcissism has been hindered by conceptual, theoretical, and measurement inconsisten... more The study of narcissism has been hindered by conceptual, theoretical, and measurement inconsistencies. In this article, we report two studies that tested a novel unified conceptualization and theoretical approach to narcissism using the Unified Narcissism Scale-Revised. Study 1 revised the recently developed Unified Narcissism Scale to construct a preliminary 40item measure in a sample of 395 American participants (M age = 41). We confirmed the five-factor first-order model, the two-factor second-order model, and the one-factor third-order model. Study 2 considered the cross-cultural performance of the revised scale in the Chinese language in China (N = 326, M age = 25.5 years) and in the English language in Sri Lanka (N = 354 M age = 28.7 years) and constructed a final 35-item measure. In conducting these studies, we have demonstrated the cross-cultural importance of entitlement and self-esteem to the conceptualization of narcissism and suggest that the negative relationship between narcissism and agreeableness may be culture-specific to Western samples (as evidenced by the absence of this relationship in non-Western samples). In this article, we have constructed a measure of narcissism that has refined our understanding of the construct and created a tool to capture this understanding.
Introduction: Although ethnocentrism is one of the fundamental concepts in the social sciences, i... more Introduction: Although ethnocentrism is one of the fundamental concepts in the social sciences, its study has been impeded by a diversity of conceptualizations and measures. In recent years, a growing number of political scientists and psychologists have undertaken in-depth research into ethnocentrism. In addition, researchers have recently proposed a comprehensive reconceptualization of ethnocentrism and developed a new Ethnocentrism scale. There is strong evidence for this scale's reliability and validity in indexing ethnocentrism, but like most measures in psychology and political science, this scale is based on classical test theory. Item response theory (IRT) is a powerful psychometric technique that can provide a much more sophisticated test of test performance and is currently under-utilized in research.
Methods: We performed IRT to assess the psychometric properties of the Ethnocentrism scale on a sample of 4,187 participants.
Results: The scale's items had strong psychometric properties to capture the ethnocentrism latent construct, particularly in the below average to above average range. Men required marginally lower levels of ethnocentrism to endorse less socially acceptable items than women (items relating to superiority, purity, or exploitativeness). When compared to liberals, conservatives responded more readily to nearly all ethnocentrism items. Given this variation, the IRT approach highlighted that future measurements must adjust for differential item functioning, albeit more for political orientation than gender identity.
Discussion: The findings detail how IRT can enhance measurement in political science and demonstrate the implications for how gender and political ideology may affect the differential performance of items.
Categorical models of personality disorders have been beneficial throughout psychiatric history, ... more Categorical models of personality disorders have been beneficial throughout psychiatric history, providing a mechanism for organizing and communicating research and treatment. However, the view that individuals with personality disorders are qualitatively distinct from the general population is no longer tenable. This perspective has amassed steady criticism, ranging from inconsequential to irreconcilable. In response, stronger evidence has been accumulated in support of a dimensional perspective that unifies normal and pathological personality on underlying trait continua. Contemporary nosology has largely shifted toward this dimensional perspective, yet broader adoption within public lexicon and routine clinical practice appears slow. This review focuses on challenges and the related opportunities of moving toward dimensional models in personality disorder research and practice. First, we highlight the need for ongoing development of a broader array of measurement methods, ideally facilitating multimethod assessments that reduce biases associated with any single methodology. These efforts should also include measurement across both poles of each trait, intensive longitudinal studies, and more deeply considering social desirability. Second, wider communication and training in dimensional approaches is needed for individuals working in mental health. This will require clear demonstrations of incremental treatment efficacy and structured public health rebates. Third, we should embrace cultural and geographic diversity, and investigate how unifying humanity may reduce the stigma and shame currently generated by arbitrarily labeling an individual’s personality as normal or abnormal. This review aims to organize ongoing research efforts toward broader and routine usage of dimensional perspectives within research and clinical spaces.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, adopted a “go hard, go early” approach to eliminate... more New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, adopted a “go hard, go early” approach to eliminate COVID-19. Although Ardern and her Labour party are considered left-leaning, the policies implemented during the pandemic (e.g., police roadblocks) have the hallmarks of Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA). RWA is characterized by three attitudinal clusters (authoritarian aggression, submission, and conventionalism). The uniqueness of the clusters, and whether they react to environmental change, has been debated. Here, in the context of the pandemic, we investigate the relationship between political orientation and RWA. Specifically, we measured political orientation, support for New Zealand’s major political parties, and RWA among 1,430 adult community members. A multivariate Bayesian model demonstrated that, in the middle of a pandemic, both left-leaning and right-leaning individuals endorsed items tapping authoritarian submission. In contrast to authoritarian submission, and demonstrati...
Recent cross-cultural and neuro-hormonal investigations have suggested that love is a near univer... more Recent cross-cultural and neuro-hormonal investigations have suggested that love is a near universal phenomenon that has a biological background. Therefore, the remaining important question is not whether love exists worldwide but which cultural, social, or environmental factors influence experiences and expressions of love. In the present study, we explored whether countries’ modernization indexes are related to love experiences measured by three subscales (passion, intimacy, commitment) of the Triangular Love Scale. Analyzing data from 9474 individuals from 45 countries, we tested for relationships with country-level predictors, namely, modernization proxies (i.e., Human Development Index, World Modernization Index, Gender Inequality Index), collectivism, and average annual temperatures. We found that mean levels of love (especially intimacy) were higher in countries with higher modernization proxies, collectivism, and average annual temperatures. In conclusion, our results grant ...
Background: People living with borderline personality disorder (BPD) face high levels of prejudic... more Background: People living with borderline personality disorder (BPD) face high levels of prejudice and discrimination from both the community and medical professionals, but no measure of prejudice toward people living with BPD exists. Aims: The current study aimed to adapt an existing Prejudice toward People with Mental Illness (PPMI) scale and investigate the structure and nomological network of prejudice toward people with BPD. Methods: The original 28-item PPMI scale was adapted to create the Prejudice toward People with Borderline Personality Disorder (PPBPD) scale. The scale and related measures were completed by three samples: 217 medical or clinical psychology students, 303 psychology undergraduate students, and 314 adults from the general population. Results: The original four-factor structure of the PPMI was supported in the PPBPD scale. Reported prejudice toward people with BPD was more negative than prejudice toward people with mental illness in general. The association of the PPBPD scale with antecedents and consequences was assessed, including social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, personality traits, empathy, prior contact, and feelings toward other stigmatized groups and mental illnesses. Conclusions: This study provided evidence for the validity and psychometric properties of the PPBPD scale across three samples and investigated anticipated relationships with theoretically related antecedents and consequences. This research will help improve understanding of the expressions underlying prejudice toward people with BPD.
The clinical literature on narcissistic families has often described the presence of a family sca... more The clinical literature on narcissistic families has often described the presence of a family scapegoat. To date, however, no research has empirically explored this phenomenon. This study investigated the relationship between perceived parental vulnerable and grandiose narcissism and scapegoating, and the impact of these on the symptoms of anxiety and depression in emerging adults, in a sample of 504 Australian adults (Mage = 22.38, SDage = 3.63; 59.72% female, 38.09% male). A path model was tested, with perceived parental vulnerable and grandiose narcissism as predictors, scapegoating as a mediator, and participants’ anxiety and depression as outcomes, controlling for demographic variables and participants’ vulnerable and grandiose narcissism. Results indicated that higher perceived paternal grandiose narcissism had a direct effect on anxiety and depression, whereas perceived maternal vulnerable narcissism, perceived paternal vulnerable narcissism, and perceived maternal grandiose narcissism had indirect effects on anxiety and depression via scapegoating. Effect sizes were generally small to medium. These findings show that scapegoating is an important variable linking parental narcissism with negative psychological outcomes such as anxiety and depression in emerging adults.
Many existing measures of prejudiced attitudes toward people with mental illness have conceptual,... more Many existing measures of prejudiced attitudes toward people with mental illness have conceptual, theoretical, and psychometric problems. The recently created Prejudice toward People with Mental Illness (PPMI) scale has addressed many of these limitations, but prejudice toward people with different mental disorders may be unique and require further exploration. This study aimed to facilitate this exploration by adapting the PPMI to focus on schizophrenia and depression, and investigate the structure, distinctiveness, and the nomological network of prejudice toward people with these mental disorders. Study Design: We adapted the original 28-item PPMI scale to create the Prejudice toward People with Schizophrenia (PPS) and Prejudice toward People with Depression (PPD) scales. There were 406 participants from the general population, who completed these scales and related measures. Study Results: The original 4-factor structure (fear/avoidance, unpredictability, authoritarianism, and malevolence) was supported for each scale. Participants expressed the highest levels of prejudice toward people with schizophrenia, followed by prejudice toward people with mental illness, and lastly by prejudice toward people with depression. Analyses supported the proposed nomological network of prejudice, which involves theoretical antecedents of social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, empathy, personality traits, disgust sensitivity, and prior contact. Conclusions: This research provides evidence for the validity and psychometric properties of the PPMI, PPS, and PPD scales, expanding our understanding of antecedents to prejudice toward people with different mental disorders. This research also shows that we gain more insight into prejudice when we use measures targeting specific disorders rather than mental illness in general.
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 2017
Traditionalism involves respecting and upholding traditional values, morality, norms, and practic... more Traditionalism involves respecting and upholding traditional values, morality, norms, and practices of one's own social group. It also includes active resistance to changing traditional values, morality, norms, and practices.
Narcissism as a psychological construct has had a contentious past both in its conceptualization ... more Narcissism as a psychological construct has had a contentious past both in its conceptualization and measurement. There is an emerging consensus that narcissism consists of grandiose and vulnerable subtypes, which share a common core. In the present research (N = 1002), we constructed a new measure of unified narcissism that reflects these contemporary understandings using items from the most widely used measures of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism: the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Terry, 1988, https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.5.890), and the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI; Pincus et al., 2009, https://doi-org/10.1037/a0016530). We used classical test theory and item response theory approaches to devise a 29-item Unified Narcissism Scale. The scale showed good internal consistency, and convergent and discriminant validity, and showed evidence of measurement invariance between men and women. This research gave strong support for the structure, reliability, and validity of the unified measure, which offers a promising avenue for further enhancing our knowledge of narcissism.
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 2019
Ethnocentrism is a multidimensional attitudinal
construct, comprising intergroup and intragroup
... more Ethnocentrism is a multidimensional attitudinal
construct, comprising intergroup and intragroup
attitudes, emanating from the belief that one’s
own ethnic group is of immense importance.
Background
We investigated the specificity in mediated pathways that separately link specific st... more Background
We investigated the specificity in mediated pathways that separately link specific stress dimensions through anxiety to depressive symptoms and the protective utility of resilience. Thus, this study goes beyond lumping together potential mediating and moderating processes that can explain the relations between stress and (symptoms of) psychopathology and the buffering effect of resilience.
Methods
Ghanaian adolescents between 13 and 17 years (female = 285; male = 244) completed the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ), Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Short Mood Feeling Questionnaire (SMFQ) and the Resilience Scale for Adolescents (READ). Independent samples t-test, multivariate analysis of covariance with follow-up tests and moderated mediation analyses were performed.
Results
Evidences were found for specificity in the associations between dimensions of adolescent stressors and depressive symptoms independent of transient anxiety. Transient anxiety partly accounted for the indirect effects of eight stress dimensions on depressive symptoms. Except stress of school attendance and school/leisure conflict, resilience moderated the indirect effects of specific stress dimensions on depressive symptoms. Results suggested differences in how Ghanaian adolescents view the various stress dimensions, and mediated pathways associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms.
Limitations
Use of cross-sectional data does not show causal process and temporal changes over time.
Conclusions
Findings support and clarify the specificity in the interrelations and mediated pathways among dimensions of adolescent stress, transient anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Conditional process analyses shows that resilience does not only buffer direct, but also indirect psychological adversities. Interventions for good mental health may focus on low resilience subgroups in specific stress dimensions while minimizing transient anxiety.
A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However... more A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However, research examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates. Less empirical attention has been directed towards the relationship between sex ratio and mate preferences, despite the importance of mate preferences in the human mating literature. To address this gap, we examined sex ratio's relationship to the variation in preferences for attractiveness, resources, kindness, intelligence and health in a long-term mate across 45 countries (n = 14 487). We predicted that mate preferences would vary according to relative power of choice on the mating market, with increased power derived from having relatively few competitors and numerous potential mates. We found that each sex tended to report more demanding preferences for...
In P. K. Jonason (Ed.), Shining light on the dark side of personality: Measurement properties and theoretical advances, 2022
In this chapter, we provide detailed information on the psychometric properties of the Two-Dimens... more In this chapter, we provide detailed information on the psychometric properties of the Two-Dimensional Machiavellianism Scale (TDMS; Monaghan et al., 2020), in addition to the theory and interpretation of each dimension. This approach helps to further differentiate Machiavellianism from the other dark personalities, particularly psychopathy. We demonstrate the psychometric properties of the TDMS with previously unpublished data from 4747 participants, who completed the measures on the TDMS’s companion website built using RStudio’s Shiny platform, developed to provide instant personalised feedback on participants’ levels of Machiavellianism in comparison to normative data (https://conalmonaghan.shinyapps.io/two-dimensional_machiavellianism). This chapter serves as a guide to help researchers who are interested in Machiavellianism measure the construct using this new robust measure.
Ethnocentrism has made a huge conceptual contribution to the social sciences, but its popularity ... more Ethnocentrism has made a huge conceptual contribution to the social sciences, but its popularity and usage have somewhat decreased over the last several decades. This book works to reinvigorate the study of ethnocentrism by reconceptualising ethnocentrism as a social, psychological, and attitudinal construct.
Using a broad, multidisciplinary approach to ethnocentrism, the book integrates literature from disciplines such as psychology, political science, sociology, anthropology, biology, and marketing studies to create a novel reorganisation of the existing literature, its origins, and its outcomes. Empirical research throughout serves to comprehensively measure the six dimensions of ethnocentrism—devotion, group cohesion, preference, superiority, purity, and exploitativeness—and show how they factor into causes and consequences of ethnocentrism, including personality, values, morality, demographics, political ideology, social factors, prejudice, discrimination, and nationalism.
This book is fascinating reading for scholars, researchers, and students in psychology, sociology, and political science.
This document contains several versions of the Ethnocentrism Scale, including instructions for ad... more This document contains several versions of the Ethnocentrism Scale, including instructions for administering the scale, the response options used, and the scoring key for each version. The following versions are included: the Ethnocentrism Scale 2 – the full 36-item version, the Ethnocenrism Scale 2 – 12 (or the ES2-12; the 12-item version), the Ethnocenrism Scale 2 – 6 (or the ES2-6; the 6-item version), the Ethnocentrism Scale 1 – the full 58-item version, and the Ethnocentrism Scale 1 – the 36-item version.
This paper investigates whether personality affects support for populist parties either directly ... more This paper investigates whether personality affects support for populist parties either directly or indirectly through “populist attitudes.” It theorizes that populist attitudes should be disambiguated into their component facets and that the attitudinal components of populism are best understood as loosely related characteristic adaptations, which mediate the relationship between personality and vote choice. Using data from a nationally representative survey of 2,200 Australians fielded prior to the general election in 2019, the paper demonstrates that the three attitudinal components of populism (People-centrism, Anti-elitism, and a Manichean outlook) are weakly associated with one another and distinctively connected with underlying personality traits. Our results indicate that populist attitudes are better conceptualized as a cluster of weakly related psychological tendencies rather than as a coherent worldview or personality. Mediation analysis indicates that personality traits affect support for populist parties both directly and indirectly through the attitudinal components of populism.
2018 Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention, 2018
Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) has been an important explanatory concept for more than 60 year... more Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) has been an important explanatory concept for more than 60 years and a powerful predictor of social and political attitudes and behaviours. An important impediment to research on RWA has been the length of the measures. We therefore developed a very short 6-item authoritarianism (VSA) scale that equally represented the three content dimensions and two directions of wording of RWA. Over four samples (N = 1,601) from three countries the VSA scale showed satisfactory internal consistency and the expected hierarchical factor structure with three primary factors loading on a single higher-order factor. Additionally, the scale predicted variables such as nationalism, ethnocentrism, political orientation, political party/candidate support, and attitudes towards social groups, at moderate to strong levels with effects very close to those obtained for much longer established measures of RWA (including Altemeyer’s scale). The VSA scale also performed better than a short measure of authoritarian parental values often used to measure authoritarianism. The VSA scale, therefore, has been shown to be very useful for contemporary research into authoritarianism.
The 16th Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 2015
Ever since Adorno and colleagues' work on ethnocentrism, researchers have attempted to link perso... more Ever since Adorno and colleagues' work on ethnocentrism, researchers have attempted to link personality, values, and ethnocentrism in a model. There were numerous problems along the path. A major problem was the lack of comprehensive models of personality, values, and ethnocentrism. Conceptual and theoretical improvements now let us comprehensively conceptualize these constructs and hypothesize their links. The present investigation uses the Big Five model of personality, Schwartz's and Haidt and colleagues' models of values, and Bizumic and colleagues' model of reconceptualized ethnocentrism. It tests a theoretical model in which the Big Five personality traits affect ethnocentrism via values. A study with 817, primarily US, participants showed that only agreeableness and neuroticism directly influenced ethnocentrism, but that all the Big Five personality traits indirectly influenced ethnocentrism via seven, primarily moral, values. The present research, therefore, shows that disparate models can integrate to explain personality processes that generate ethnocentrism.
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Papers by Boris Bizumic
Methods: We performed IRT to assess the psychometric properties of the Ethnocentrism scale on a sample of 4,187 participants.
Results: The scale's items had strong psychometric properties to capture the ethnocentrism latent construct, particularly in the below average to above average range. Men required marginally lower levels of ethnocentrism to endorse less socially acceptable items than women (items relating to superiority, purity, or exploitativeness). When compared to liberals, conservatives responded more readily to nearly all ethnocentrism items. Given this variation, the IRT approach highlighted that future measurements must adjust for differential item functioning, albeit more for political orientation than gender identity.
Discussion: The findings detail how IRT can enhance measurement in political science and demonstrate the implications for how gender and political ideology may affect the differential performance of items.
construct, comprising intergroup and intragroup
attitudes, emanating from the belief that one’s
own ethnic group is of immense importance.
We investigated the specificity in mediated pathways that separately link specific stress dimensions through anxiety to depressive symptoms and the protective utility of resilience. Thus, this study goes beyond lumping together potential mediating and moderating processes that can explain the relations between stress and (symptoms of) psychopathology and the buffering effect of resilience.
Methods
Ghanaian adolescents between 13 and 17 years (female = 285; male = 244) completed the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ), Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Short Mood Feeling Questionnaire (SMFQ) and the Resilience Scale for Adolescents (READ). Independent samples t-test, multivariate analysis of covariance with follow-up tests and moderated mediation analyses were performed.
Results
Evidences were found for specificity in the associations between dimensions of adolescent stressors and depressive symptoms independent of transient anxiety. Transient anxiety partly accounted for the indirect effects of eight stress dimensions on depressive symptoms. Except stress of school attendance and school/leisure conflict, resilience moderated the indirect effects of specific stress dimensions on depressive symptoms. Results suggested differences in how Ghanaian adolescents view the various stress dimensions, and mediated pathways associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms.
Limitations
Use of cross-sectional data does not show causal process and temporal changes over time.
Conclusions
Findings support and clarify the specificity in the interrelations and mediated pathways among dimensions of adolescent stress, transient anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Conditional process analyses shows that resilience does not only buffer direct, but also indirect psychological adversities. Interventions for good mental health may focus on low resilience subgroups in specific stress dimensions while minimizing transient anxiety.
Methods: We performed IRT to assess the psychometric properties of the Ethnocentrism scale on a sample of 4,187 participants.
Results: The scale's items had strong psychometric properties to capture the ethnocentrism latent construct, particularly in the below average to above average range. Men required marginally lower levels of ethnocentrism to endorse less socially acceptable items than women (items relating to superiority, purity, or exploitativeness). When compared to liberals, conservatives responded more readily to nearly all ethnocentrism items. Given this variation, the IRT approach highlighted that future measurements must adjust for differential item functioning, albeit more for political orientation than gender identity.
Discussion: The findings detail how IRT can enhance measurement in political science and demonstrate the implications for how gender and political ideology may affect the differential performance of items.
construct, comprising intergroup and intragroup
attitudes, emanating from the belief that one’s
own ethnic group is of immense importance.
We investigated the specificity in mediated pathways that separately link specific stress dimensions through anxiety to depressive symptoms and the protective utility of resilience. Thus, this study goes beyond lumping together potential mediating and moderating processes that can explain the relations between stress and (symptoms of) psychopathology and the buffering effect of resilience.
Methods
Ghanaian adolescents between 13 and 17 years (female = 285; male = 244) completed the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ), Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Short Mood Feeling Questionnaire (SMFQ) and the Resilience Scale for Adolescents (READ). Independent samples t-test, multivariate analysis of covariance with follow-up tests and moderated mediation analyses were performed.
Results
Evidences were found for specificity in the associations between dimensions of adolescent stressors and depressive symptoms independent of transient anxiety. Transient anxiety partly accounted for the indirect effects of eight stress dimensions on depressive symptoms. Except stress of school attendance and school/leisure conflict, resilience moderated the indirect effects of specific stress dimensions on depressive symptoms. Results suggested differences in how Ghanaian adolescents view the various stress dimensions, and mediated pathways associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms.
Limitations
Use of cross-sectional data does not show causal process and temporal changes over time.
Conclusions
Findings support and clarify the specificity in the interrelations and mediated pathways among dimensions of adolescent stress, transient anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Conditional process analyses shows that resilience does not only buffer direct, but also indirect psychological adversities. Interventions for good mental health may focus on low resilience subgroups in specific stress dimensions while minimizing transient anxiety.
Using a broad, multidisciplinary approach to ethnocentrism, the book integrates literature from disciplines such as psychology, political science, sociology, anthropology, biology, and marketing studies to create a novel reorganisation of the existing literature, its origins, and its outcomes. Empirical research throughout serves to comprehensively measure the six dimensions of ethnocentrism—devotion, group cohesion, preference, superiority, purity, and exploitativeness—and show how they factor into causes and consequences of ethnocentrism, including personality, values, morality, demographics, political ideology, social factors, prejudice, discrimination, and nationalism.
This book is fascinating reading for scholars, researchers, and students in psychology, sociology, and political science.