Testing the Situationism Scale in Europe: Scale validation, self-regulation and regional differences.

The term situationism refers to an individual's belief about the importance of a behaviour's context. This study tested whether the degree of situationism expressed by individuals in various regions of Europe was consistent with self-regulation and cross-cultural theories. The English version of a Situationism Scale (measuring beliefs about the relation between the environment and one's own behaviour) was translated into five additional languages: Dutch, German, Hungarian, Italian and Slovenian. Young adults (N = 1106, MAge = 22.9 years, 79% female) across Europe responded to one of the six language versions of the scale as part of a larger survey. Results indicated that: new language versions were psychometrically valid; there was a positive relation between situationism and the use of situation-control strategies; and situationism was higher for individuals from regions that are Eastern European and relatively more interdependent, compared with individuals from regions that are Western European and relatively less interdependent. As the first evaluation of the Situationism Scale outside America, this study supports the Scale's validity and suggests not only may some effects of situationism be universal, but between- and within-culture differences in situationism exist. Overall, when making judgments and decisions about the self, cultural background and individual differences in situationism may come into play.

The covariation of trait anger and borderline personality: a bivariate twin-siblings study.

Anger can be defined as an emotion consisting of feelings of variable intensity, from mild irritation or annoyance to intense fury and rage. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by impulsivity and instability of interpersonal relationships, of self-image, and of negative affects. Borderline personality and trait anger are often observed together. The present study examined the extent to which a genetic association explains the covariation between a trait measure of borderline personality and trait anger. To this end, self-report data of 5,457 twins and 1,487 of their siblings registered with the Netherlands Twin Register and the East Flanders Prospective Twin Survey were analyzed using genetic structural equation modeling. A significant phenotypic correlation was observed between the two traits (rP = .52). This correlation was explained by genetic (54%) and by environmental influences (46%). A shared genetic risk factor is thus one of the explanations for the covariation of borderline personality and trait anger.

The effects of psychiatric distress, inhibition, and impulsivity on decision making in patients with substance use disorders: A matched control study.

In the present study, the decision making abilities of patients with substance use disorders were compared to those of healthy controls and, subsequently, the impact of psychiatric distress, behavioral inhibition, and impulsivity on Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) performance were evaluated. A total of 31 patients and 31 matched healthy controls performed the IGT and completed the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) and the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System (BIS/BAS). The results confirmed that the patient group had severe impairments on the IGT relative to the controls, which appeared to be virtually unrelated to the employed measures. It is concluded that self-reported psychiatric symptoms, behavioral inhibition, and impulsivity have no impact on the IGT performance in this patient sample.