The development of the Broaching Assessment Scale: A client-rated measure of therapists' broaching behaviour in clinical counselling.

Objective: Addressing ethnic-cultural topics during the process of psychotherapy, i.e. broaching, is considered highly important for ethnic minority clients who consult mental health care services. Surprisingly little is known, however, about clients' perception of a therapist's broaching qualities, and how clients' mental construction of broaching translates into behavioural broaching acts a therapist may display.Method: Based on previous work and nine in-depth interviews with ethnic minority clients, a client-rated measure of therapists' broaching behaviour was developed and psychometrically evaluated in two samples. Sample 1 (N = 252 UK ethnic minority clients) was used to empirically delineate the factor structure of an initial item set. Participants were then resolicited to complete a revised item pool.Results: The empirical structure resulted in a final 25-item broaching instrument with five subscales probing into therapists' broaching behaviour. This Broaching Assessment Scale (BrAS) was validated in Sample 2 (N = 239 US ethnic minority clients). Strict measurement invariance of the factor structure was observed across the two samples and distinctive correlational patterns with therapeutic process measures were found.Conclusion: The BrAS provides new insights on how sensitivity to ethnic-cultural topics can be targeted along its concrete features, and is a promising tool for conceptualizing culturally sensitive mental healthcare assessment.

Addressing cultural topics during psychotherapy: Evidence-based do's and don'ts from an ethnic minority perspective.

OBJECTIVE: Broaching-i.e., a counsellor's effort to install meaningful conversations in psychotherapy concerning one's cultural identity-is a strong predictor of positive treatment outcomes and client satisfaction, especially for minority-identified clients. Despite this understanding, the broaching literature has struggled to translate broaching principles into practical recommendations for specific behaviours and skills. The current study therefore explores the effects of broaching approaches by the therapist (i.e., direct, indirect and avoidant approach) about cultural topics including ethnicity, religion, gender expression and socioeconomic status on clients' perception of (1) the multicultural orientation of the therapist and (2) the frequency of microaggressions during therapy. METHOD: These research questions were investigated in a sample of ethnic minority clients (N = 231) who followed at least one session of mental healthcare counselling during the last 12 months. RESULTS: Findings show that indirect broaching is the overall most favourable approach, whilst avoidant broaching is consistently negatively associated with all therapy-related outcome measures. CONCLUSION: The results lay the basis for practical guidelines for broaching in psychotherapy, and provide counsellors with a foundation for having cultural conversations in an effective and respectful manner.

Country-level correlates of the Dark Triad traits in 49 countries.

OBJECTIVES: The Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) capture individual differences in aversive personality to complement work on other taxonomies, such as the Big Five traits. However, the literature on the Dark Triad traits relies mostly on samples from English-speaking (i.e., Westernized) countries. We broadened the scope of this literature by sampling from a wider array of countries. METHOD: We drew on data from 49 countries (N = 11,723; 65.8% female; AgeMean  = 21.53) to examine how an extensive net of country-level variables in economic status (e.g., Human Development Index), social relations (e.g., gender equality), political orientations (e.g., democracy), and cultural values (e.g., embeddedness) relate to country-level rates of the Dark Triad traits, as well as variance in the magnitude of sex differences in them. RESULTS: Narcissism was especially sensitive to country-level variables. Countries with more embedded and hierarchical cultural systems were more narcissistic. Also, sex differences in narcissism were larger in more developed societies: Women were less likely to be narcissistic in developed (vs. less developed) countries. CONCLUSIONS: We discuss the results based on evolutionary and social role models of personality and sex differences. That higher country-level narcissism was more common in less developed countries, whereas sex differences in narcissism were larger in more developed countries, is more consistent with evolutionary than social role models.

The mental health continuum-short form: The structure and application for cross-cultural studies-A 38 nation study.

OBJECTIVE: The Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) is a brief scale measuring positive human functioning. The study aimed to examine the factor structure and to explore the cross-cultural utility of the MHC-SF using bifactor models and exploratory structural equation modelling. METHOD: Using multigroup confirmatory analysis (MGCFA) we examined the measurement invariance of the MHC-SF in 38 countries (university students, N = 8,066; 61.73% women, mean age 21.55 years). RESULTS: MGCFA supported the cross-cultural replicability of a bifactor structure and a metric level of invariance between student samples. The average proportion of variance explained by the general factor was high (ECV = .66), suggesting that the three aspects of mental health (emotional, social, and psychological well-being) can be treated as a single dimension of well-being. CONCLUSION: The metric level of invariance offers the possibility of comparing correlates and predictors of positive mental functioning across countries; however, the comparison of the levels of mental health across countries is not possible due to lack of scalar invariance. Our study has preliminary character and could serve as an initial assessment of the structure of the MHC-SF across different cultural settings. Further studies on general populations are required for extending our findings.

An Insiders' Outside Perspective on the Flemish-Walloon Conflict: The Role of Identification and Disidentification for the German-Speaking Minority.

In this study we analyzed the opinions of citizens of the German-speaking minority in Belgium on the linguistic conflict between the Walloons and the Flemish, as well as their attitudes towards these linguistic communities. We were especially interested in the effects of identification with the local community and disidentification with Belgium. We distributed a survey questionnaire in Eupen, the capital of the German-speaking community, and received replies from 129 inhabitants. Results showed that identification with the German-speaking community was associated with positive attitudes towards the German-speaking community and with demands for more autonomy of the community within the federal Belgian state. Disidentification with Belgium was not positively correlated with these constructive and positive outcomes, but with negative perceptions of all three Belgian communities, the perception of strong conflicts among these communities, and demands for the separation of the Belgian federal state into independent regions. The results are in line with previous research on these processes and point to unique, positive aspects of a strong local identity.

The hierarchical structure and construct validity of the PID-5 trait measure in adolescence.

The DSM-5 may be the first edition that enables a developmental perspective on personality disorders because of its proposal to include a trait assessment in the Axis II section. The current study explores the reliability, structure, and construct validity of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5; Krueger, Derringer, Markon, Watson, & Skodol, 2012) in adolescents, a measure that assesses the proposed DSM-5 traits. A community sample of Flemish adolescents (N = 434; 44.7% male) provided self-reports on the PID-5 and the Dimensional Personality Symptom Itempool (DIPSI; De Clercq, De Fruyt, Van Leeuwen, & Mervielde, 2006). Results indicate an acceptable reliability for the majority of the PID-5 facets and a tendency toward structural convergence of the adolescent PID-5 structure with the adult proposal. Convergent validity with age-specific facets of personality pathology was generally supported, but discriminant validity appeared to be low. Beyond the findings that support the applicability of the PID-5 in adolescents, developmental issues may be responsible for specific differences in the adolescent PID-5 structure, the rather poor discriminant validity of the PID-5, and the lower reliability of a small number of PID-5 facets. These results indicate that further research on the validity of the PID-5 in younger age groups is required.

Openness as a predictor of political orientation and conventional and unconventional political activism in Western and Eastern Europe.

This study provides a comprehensive investigation of the relationship between Openness and political orientation and activism in Europe. Analyses were conducted on the 4 waves of the European Social Survey, including large representative samples in up to 26 European countries (total N > 175,000). In line with previous studies, a robust, positive relationship between Openness and left-wing political orientation was obtained in Western Europe. However, in Eastern Europe, the relationship between Openness and political orientation was weaker, and reversed in 3 out of 4 waves. Moreover, Openness yielded significant positive relationships with unconventional activism and to a lesser degree with conventional activism. The magnitude of the relationship between Openness and activism was dependent on political orientation and region. Stronger associations between Openness and activism were found for those having a left-wing orientation in Western Europe, whereas in Eastern Europe, Openness was somewhat stronger related to activism for those having a right-wing orientation. In the discussion we elaborate on the role of the geopolitical context in the relationship between Openness and political variables.

More Money, More Trust? Target and Observer Differences in the Effectiveness of Financial Overcompensation to Restore Trust.

Recent research revealed that despite its financial costs, overcompensation is not more effective to restore trust in the perpetrator than equal compensation. In a lab experiment (N = 115), we compared the effects of these compensation sizes for both targets of the compensation and non-involved observers. It was revealed that overcompensation did not yield superior outcomes than equal compensation. Specifically, for targets overcompensation resulted in lower levels of trust than equal compensation, while for observers equal compensation and overcompensation resulted in similar levels of trust. This finding suggests that overcompensation is not a cost-effective trust repair strategy, neither for the targets nor for third party observers. Other implications are discussed as well.

Correction: Adaptation and validation of the Johnson-Lecci scale to assess anti-white bias among black UK minority group members.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0277077.].

Internal and external threat in relationship with right-wing attitudes.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies on the relationship between threat and right-wing attitudes have tended to focus on either internal threat, emanating from one's private life, or external threat, originating from society. However, these studies failed to examine whether these types of threats constitute two distinctive dimensions and which of these threats is most closely related to right-wing attitudes. METHOD: In order to explore the dimensions underlying threat, a factor analysis on a variety of threat scales was conducted (Study 1; N = 300). Furthermore, in a meta-analysis (Study 2; total N = 22,086) and a questionnaire study in a large representative sample (Study 3, N = 800) the strength of the relationships of internal and external threat with right-wing attitudes were investigated. RESULTS: The present studies revealed that internal and external threat can be considered as two distinct dimensions underlying threat. Moreover, whereas external threat yielded strong relationships with right-wing attitudes, internal threat only explained a minor part of the variance in these attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: External rather than internal threat underlies the relationship between threat and right-wing attitudes.

The influence of mothers' and fathers' parenting stress and depressive symptoms on own and partner's parent-child communication.

This study examines how parenting stress and depressive symptoms experienced by mothers and fathers influence their own (actor effects) and the partner's (partner effects) parent-child communication. Based on the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, data from 196 families were analyzed, with both parents rating their parenting stress and depressive feelings, and parents as well as children rating the open parent-child communication. Actor effects were found between parenting stress and open parent-child communication, whereas partner effects were prominent between depressive symptoms and open parent-child communication. The results provide no evidence for gender differences in the strength of the pathways to open parent-child communication. Our findings demonstrate the need to include both parents in studies on parent-child communication to enhance our understanding of the mutual influence among family members.

When threat to society becomes a threat to oneself: implications for right-wing attitudes and ethnic prejudice.

The relationships between threat on one hand and right-wing attitudes and ethnic prejudice on the other were investigated in a heterogeneous sample (N = 588). Specifically, we considered the perception of economic and terroristic threats in terms of their consequences at the societal and personal levels. Previous studies revealed that societal consequences of threat, rather than personal consequences, are related to right-wing attitudes. However, the present results challenge these findings. More specifically, three important results emerged. First, items probing the distinct threat levels loaded on separate dimensions for economic and terroristic threat, validating the distinction between societal and personal threat consequences. Second, consistent with previous research, this study revealed that perceived societal consequences of threat yield strong and robust relationships with all target variables. However, personal consequences of threat were also associated with higher levels of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), social dominance orientation (SDO), and ethnic prejudice in particular. Third, societal and personal consequences of threat interacted in explaining the target variables. More specifically, feeling personally threatened by terrorism was only related to higher levels of RWA in the presence of low levels of threat to society, whereas experiencing personal economic threat was only related to higher levels of SDO and ethnic prejudice when high societal economic threat was experienced. In sum, although the perception of societal consequences of threat plays a prominent role in explaining right-wing attitudes and ethnic prejudice, the perception of being personally affected by threat is also associated with higher levels of RWA and SDO, and especially ethnic prejudice.

Procedural fairness in ethnic-cultural decision-making: fostering social cohesion by incorporating minority and majority perspectives.

Recent research describes how procedural fairness can be used to resolve issues related to ethnic-cultural matters. The central finding in this strand of literature is that when minority members experience procedurally fair treatment by societal actors regarding ethnic-cultural issues, this will lead to a range of outcomes that are beneficial for social cohesion. Although these results are promising, it remains yet to be shown that such group-specific treatment fairness does not hamper social cohesion by inciting misapprehension among members of non-recipient groups. Therefore, the present study set out to examine two central questions. First, how would minority group members respond to treatment fairness of citizens belonging to another minority group? Second, how would majority group members respond to treatment fairness of citizens belonging to minority groups? Two experimental studies (total N = 908) examined these questions. In Study 1, we compared ethnic-cultural minorities' reactions to procedurally (un)fair treatment of their own versus a different minority group. In Study 2, we compared minority and majority group members' responses to procedurally (un)fair treatment of minority group members. Results show that minority group member reactions to ethnic-cultural procedural fairness emanate from a shared bond with the fairness recipient(s) of the other minority group. Conversely, majority group members' reactions are driven primarily by a perceived moral obligation to act rightfully toward members of disadvantaged groups. Taken together, our results suggest that ethnic-cultural procedural fairness enactment fosters societal unity among different groups, possibly strengthening social cohesion for well-being and prosperity among members of these groups.

Violent Assault on a Chinese Man: COVID-19 Psychosocial Resource Loss Diminishes Right Wing Authoritarianism Variability in Societal Reactions.

We examined whether prejudice-related personality characteristics (i.e., right wing authoritarianism [RWA]) and COVID-19-driven psychological resource loss might predict perpetrator-directed punitive responding (i.e., support for criminal charges) to a COVID-19-related attack on a Chinese victim by a White male. Across two studies, participants completed an RWA measure and reported the extent they had experienced COVID-19-related psychosocial resource loss. They then read a passage describing the COVID-19-related physical assault. For both studies, at low resource loss levels, low RWA participants reported greater punitive responding toward the perpetrator than high RWA participants. This RWA-punitive responding association was mediated by greater victim-directed suffering sensitivity (i.e., empathy) for Study 1 and greater anti-perpetrator reactions (i.e., hate crime perceptions) for Study 2. The RWA association with the relevant outcome variables (i.e., suffering sensitivity, anti-perpetrator bias, and punitive responding) was eliminated at high psychological resource loss levels. Specifically, low and high RWA participants reported similar reactions. While previous research has demonstrated that high RWA individuals tend to report greater outgroup-directed prejudicial responses due to COVID-19-driven perceptions of threat, our findings demonstrate that the COVID-19 pandemic can also elicit feelings of resource loss that can diminish the egalitarian reactions typically reported by low RWA individuals. In sum, we demonstrate that experiencing difficult life circumstances such as COVID-19 psychosocial resource loss can diminish supportive reactions toward victimized minority group members even among low RWA participants who are typically expected to be more sensitive to the struggles of those who are disadvantaged.

Empathy for a Black Woman Victim of Police Sexual Violence: The Roles of Crime-Related Stress and Stereotype Attributions.

Police sexual violence has been ranked as the second most common form of misconduct among police officers. Moreover, there is evidence that Black women are at heightened risk of being victims of such police violence. A report titled Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women has brought international attention to the minimal empirical focus on such police violence toward Black women. To address this lacuna in the literature, using an incident of police sexual assault of a woman, we assessed whether victim's race and participants' level of crime-related stress (i.e., stress due to crime victimization) would influence empathic responding toward the victim. Prolific participants (N = 411) first completed a measure of crime-related stress. They then read an article describing a White police officer's sexual assault of a Black or White woman. Next, participants completed a racial stereotype-related measure (i.e., Black women's higher sexual proclivity) and a stereotype-unrelated measure (i.e., perceived victim untrustworthiness), and reported their victim-directed empathic responding. At high stress levels, participants reported less empathy for the Black (relative to White) victim. At low stress levels, there was greater Black victim-directed empathy. The race effects on empathy were mediated by heightened attribution of Black women-related stereotypical beliefs to the Black victim at high stress levels and by diminished attribution at low stress levels. In sum, we addressed the lacuna in the literature on police sexual violence against Black women while providing evidence that stress can play a critical role in the occurrence of the oft-cited outgroup-directed empathy deficit.

The reputational and ethical consequences of deceptive chatbot use.

The use of chatbots is becoming widespread as they offer significant economic opportunities. At the same time, however, customers seem to prefer interacting with human operators when making inquiries and as a result are not as cooperative with chatbots when their use is known. This specific situation creates an incentive for organizations to use chatbots without disclosing this to customers. Will this deceptive practice harm the reputation of the organization, and the employees who work for them? Across four experimental studies, we demonstrate that prospective customers, who interact with an organization using chatbots, perceive the organization to be less ethical if the organization does not disclose the information about the chatbot to their customers (Study 1). Moreover, employees that work for an organization which requires them to facilitate the deceptive use of a chatbot exhibit greater turnover intentions (Study 2) and receive worse job opportunities from recruiters in both a hypothetical experimental setting (Study 3) and from professional job recruiters in the field (Study 4). These results highlight that using chatbots deceptively has far reaching negative effects, which begin with the organization and ultimately impact their customers and the employees that work for them.

Improving the measurement of prosociality through aggregation of game behavior.

Prior research has found that people's choices in economic games are often only modestly related to their prosocial personality traits and to mundane prosocial behaviors. The present article reviews the recent literature showing that the strength of these relationships depends on the level of aggregation. Specifically, we demonstrate an increase in behavioral consistency after horizontal aggregation (across multiple game types), vertical aggregation (across multiple game variants), and a combination thereof. Moreover, we show that aggregation increases the magnitude of the relationships of game behavior with prosocial personality and mundane prosocial behavior. These findings illustrate that economic games can genuinely capture a core facet of human prosociality - but that their capacity for doing so is greater when multiple game behaviors are considered.

Trust is in the eye of the beholder: How perceptions of local diversity and segregation shape social cohesion.

A more nuanced understanding of the complex relationship between ethnic diversity and social cohesion is needed. Ever since Robert Putnam (2007) has put forward the highly contested constrict claim holding that diversity is related to less trust and more social withdrawing, hundreds of follow-up studies across the globe have been conducted. In the present contribution, we investigated the association between diversity and "hunkering down" in the Netherlands, hereby taking into account the role of segregation. Indeed, Uslaner (2012) pointed to local segregation as the true motor of the so-called diversity effects on intergroup relations in general, and trust in others in particular. We did not only investigate objective indicators of diversity and segregation, but also added an "eye of the beholder" perspective by probing into the subjective perceptions of these variables. Specifically, in a stratified community sample of 680 Dutch ethnic-cultural majority members (52% male, mean age 51), we assessed the additive and interactive effects of four variables (objective diversity, perceived diversity, objective segregation, and perceived segregation) at the municipal level in the prediction of three outcomes (generalized trust, ingroup trust, and outgroup trust). The results revealed three interesting patterns. First, neither of the objective indicators of diversity and segregation, nor their interaction effect significantly predicted any type of trust. Second, higher perceptions of diversity and higher perceptions of segregation were negatively associated with outgroup trust (but not with generalized and ingroup trust). Third, and most importantly, there was a significant interaction effect between perceived diversity and perceived segregation, indicating that simultaneous perceptions of high levels of diversity and high levels of segregation were related to the lowest levels of trust in other ethnic-cultural groups. These findings shed a more nuanced light on the diversity debate, showing that perceptions of segregation shape diversity effects. In sum, the present study shows that perceived rather than objective indicators of diversity and segregation matter, and that both diversity and segregation should be taken into account when it comes to social cohesion in general, and trust in particular.

The contribution of teacher, parental and peer support in self-reported school and general well-being among ethnic-cultural minority and majority youth.

Social support has been shown to be a crucial element in the well-being of children and adolescents. The present research article investigated how various sources of social support (i.e., parental support, teacher support and peer support) are related to school well-being and general well-being,. A survey was administered to N = 12,215 primary school pupils, pertaining to three ethnic-cultural groups, i.e., the national majority group, the Eastern European minority group and the Middle Eastern minority group. The results showed that perceived teacher support was most strongly and positively related to school well-being, although peer support was also an important determinant of school well-being. All three sources of perceived support were positively related to general well-being. Furthermore, and contrary to previous research, no significant differences were found between both minority groups and the national majority in terms of perceived teacher support. Conversely, both minority groups reported lower perceived parental and peer support. It was further shown that minority status moderated the relationship between the various sources of support and school well-being, although it should be articulated that these effects sizes were fairly small. School diversity, finally, did not yield any relevant effects. Similarities and differences with the existing literature on school well-being are delineated, and potential explanations for these divergences are discussed.

Adaptation and validation of the Johnson-Lecci scale to assess anti-white bias among black UK minority group members.

The present study (total N = 901) set out to construct and validate a culturally sensitive instrument to examine anti-White bias among Black UK minority group members. Our novel measure of anti-White bias-which we called the AWB scale-was based upon the Johnson-Lecci scale (JLS; 2003) a questionnaire designed to measure anti-White attitudes among Black Americans. Studies 1 and 2 provided converging evidence for the AWB's four-factor dimensionality, its structural characteristics, its temporal stability and its external validity in Black UK samples, attesting to the consistency of minorities' experience of anti-majority bias in two very different societal contexts. Moreover, Study 3 evidenced our measure's utility for understanding reactions to various relevant contemporary societal events. Theoretical contributions to the literature on intergroup bias are delineated and compared with majority-to-minority prejudice.