Work-life balance is essential to reducing burnout, improving well-being.

OBJECTIVE: To assess levels of burnout, well-being, and mental health of veterinarians and compare them to those of nonveterinarians by use of validated instruments, and to identify the predictive values of techniques individuals can use to help reduce burnout and/or improve well-being and mental health. SAMPLE: An online survey of 4,636 veterinarians from a random sample of 40,000 US veterinarians provided by the AVMA. METHODS: The study was fielded from September 11 to October 9, 2023. RESULTS: Burnout and well-being of veterinarians were generally consistent with that of employed US adults. Serious psychological distress was more common among veterinarians than in the general population. Veterinarians on average were more likely to score higher in neuroticism than nonveterinarians, and neuroticism was a predictor of low well-being, poor mental health, and burnout. Work-life balance, an effective coping mechanism for stress, and working in a positive clinic culture were among the significant factors that predicted good well-being and mental health and reduced burnout. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The higher percentage than the norm of veterinarians with serious psychological distress was a concern. Focusing on maintaining a good work-life balance and adopting a reliable coping mechanism can potentially help reduce distress. Veterinary medicine is an inherently stressful profession. The purpose of this study was to identify key factors that contribute to burnout, well-being, and mental health and to determine what behaviors and management techniques help reduce stress and burnout and contribute to well-being and mental health, thus improving job satisfaction and personal fulfillment.

Valence explains how and why positive affects and negative affects correlate: A conceptual replication and extension of Diener et al.'s (1995) the personality structure of affect.

Diener et al. (1995) used a multimethod approach to test a hierarchical model of trait affect. The model suggests that specific trait affects are related to each other by two, distinct, but negatively correlated factors. We report the results of a conceptual replication study that addressed several limitations of Diener et al.'s (1995) study. We used three ethnically diverse samples which included a group of undergraduates along with both of their biological parents. As such, in terms of generalizability, we improved upon the original study which was limited to a student sample by also including middle-aged adults as targets. Most importantly, we included measures of hedonic tone to validate the interpretation of the higher-order factors as positive affect and negative affect. Also, we did not average informant ratings to model individual rating biases. Further, we used item-level indicators rather than item averages as indicators of basic affects. Our results confirm Diener et al.'s (1995) model and demonstrate that positive trait affect and negative trait affect are negatively correlated and account for the covariance among specific affects. We discuss the implications of these results in the context of personality theories that consider positive trait affect and negative trait affect as independent factors related to extraversion and neuroticism, respectively (Costa & McCrae, 1980). We argue that this model cannot account for the negative correlation between positive affect and negative affect and that further research is needed to locate affect within the Big Five model of personality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Estimating the false discovery risk of (randomized) clinical trials in medical journals based on published p-values.

The influential claim that most published results are false raised concerns about the trustworthiness and integrity of science. Since then, there have been numerous attempts to examine the rate of false-positive results that have failed to settle this question empirically. Here we propose a new way to estimate the false positive risk and apply the method to the results of (randomized) clinical trials in top medical journals. Contrary to claims that most published results are false, we find that the traditional significance criterion of α = .05 produces a false positive risk of 13%. Adjusting α to.01 lowers the false positive risk to less than 5%. However, our method does provide clear evidence of publication bias that leads to inflated effect size estimates. These results provide a solid empirical foundation for evaluations of the trustworthiness of medical research.

Seeing the self through rose-colored glasses: A cross-cultural study of positive illusions using a behavioral approach.

Previous studies on self-enhancement bias used self-report measures to investigate individual and cultural differences in well-being. In the current research, we took a behavioral approach to analyze positive and negative perception tendencies between European Canadians, Asian Canadians and Koreans. In Study 1 and 2, participants were asked to bet on their expectation of success on a given task and then perform the task. The betting behaviors and actual performance were used to quantify positive and negative perception tendencies. In Study 1, we did not find cultural differences in positive and negative illusions. Positive self-perceptions were also not associated with higher self-reported well-being. In Study 2, we employed the same research design as Study 1, and we included a measure of perceived desirability to examine whether perceived desirability of the performance tasks are related to the two illusions indices. The results from Study 2 replicated the findings from Study 1, and perceived desirability did not influence the results. Our findings suggest that North Americans do not always exhibit more positive self-perceptions than Asians, suggesting that North Americans do not always view the self through rose-colored lenses.

Executive summary of the Merck Animal Health Veterinarian Wellbeing Study III and Veterinary Support Staff Study.

OBJECTIVE: Merck Animal Health Veterinarian Wellbeing Study III was conducted to continue to monitor mental health and well being within the veterinary profession in the US and to identify factors associated with high levels of wellbeing and lack of serious psychological distress. METHODS: A questionnaire consisting of several instruments and questions for measurement of mental health and wellbeing was completed by 2,495 veterinarians and 448 veterinary support staff. Results for veterinarians were weighted to the US AVMA membership. RESULTS: This study revealed that wellbeing and mental health of some veterinarians declined over the past 2 years, driven in part by the COVID-19 pandemic and extreme labor shortages. Burnout remained at a high level, but there was no increase in suicide ideation. A new companion survey of veterinary support staff demonstrated that staff scored lower in wellbeing and mental health, and higher in burnout than veterinarians. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Importantly, these studies identified techniques that both individuals and employers may find useful in fostering wellbeing and good mental health. A healthy method for coping with stress and good work-life balance was important, as was engaging a financial adviser for those with student debt or other financial stresses. Employers should create safe environments where employees feel comfortable seeking help, reducing the stigma associated with mental health issues. In addition, employers can provide Employee Assistance Programs and health insurance that covers mental health treatment. Fostering a healthy work culture was also important, one with good communication, teamwork, trust, and adequate time allotted to provide quality patient care.

Invalid Claims About the Validity of Implicit Association Tests by Prisoners of the Implicit Social-Cognition Paradigm.

In a prior publication, I used structural equation modeling of multimethod data to examine the construct validity of Implicit Association Tests. The results showed no evidence that IATs measure implicit constructs (e.g., implicit self-esteem, implicit racial bias). This critique of IATs elicited several responses by implicit social-cognition researchers, who tried to defend the validity and usefulness of IATs. I carefully examine these arguments and show that they lack validity. IAT proponents consistently ignore or misrepresent facts that challenge the validity of IATs as measures of individual differences in implicit cognitions. One response suggests that IATs can be useful even if they merely measure the same constructs as self-report measures, but I find no support for the claim that IATs have practically significant incremental predictive validity. In conclusions, IATs are widely used without psychometric evidence of construct or predictive validity.

The Implicit Association Test: A Method in Search of a Construct.

In 1998, Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz proposed that the Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures individual differences in implicit social cognition. This claim requires evidence of construct validity. I review the evidence and show that there is insufficient evidence for this claim. Most important, I show that few studies were able to test discriminant validity of the IAT as a measure of implicit constructs. I examine discriminant validity in several multimethod studies and find little or no evidence of discriminant validity. I also show that validity of the IAT as a measure of attitudes varies across constructs. Validity of the self-esteem IAT is low, but estimates vary across studies. About 20% of the variance in the race IAT reflects racial preferences. The highest validity is obtained for measuring political orientation with the IAT (64%). Most of this valid variance stems from a distinction between individuals with opposing attitudes, whereas reaction times contribute less than 10% of variance in the prediction of explicit attitude measures. In all domains, explicit measures are more valid than the IAT, but the IAT can be used as a measure of sensitive attitudes to reduce measurement error by using a multimethod measurement model.

Progressive taxation, income inequality, and happiness.

Income inequality has become one of the more widely debated social issues today. The current article explores the role of progressive taxation in income inequality and happiness. Using historical data in the United States from 1962 to 2014, we found that income inequality was substantially smaller in years when the income tax was more progressive (i.e., a higher tax rate for higher income brackets), even when controlling for variables like stock market performance and unemployment rate. Time lag analyses further showed that higher progressive taxation predicted increasingly lower income inequality up to 5 years later. Data from the General Social Survey (1972-2014; N = 59,599) with U.S. residents (hereafter referred to as "Americans") showed that during years with higher progressive taxation rates, less wealthy Americans-those in the lowest 40% of the income distribution-tended to be happier, whereas the richest 20% were not significantly less happy. Mediational analyses confirmed that the association of progressive taxation with the happiness of less wealthy Americans can be explained by lower income inequality in years with higher progressive taxation. A separate sample of Americans polled online (N = 373) correctly predicted the positive association between progressive taxation and the happiness of poorer Americans but incorrectly expected a strong negative association between progressive taxation and the happiness of richer Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record

The replicability revolution.

Psychology is in the middle of a replicability revolution. High-profile replication studies have produced a large number of replication failures. The main reason why replication studies in psychology often fail is that original studies were selected for significance. If all studies were reported, original studies would fail to produce significant results as often as replication studies. Replications would be less contentious if original results were not selected for significance.

Extraversion and life satisfaction: A cross-cultural examination of student and nationally representative samples.

OBJECTIVE: Previous research on Extraversion and life satisfaction suggests that extraverted individuals are more satisfied with their lives. However, existing studies provide inflated effect sizes, as they were based on simple correlations. In five studies, the authors provide better estimates of the relationship between Extraversion and life satisfaction. METHOD: The current study examined student and nationally representative samples from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan (Study 1, N = 1,460; Study 2, N = 5,882; Study 3, N = 18,683; Study 4, N = 13,443; Study 5, Japan N = 952 and U.S. N = 891). The relationship between Extraversion and life satisfaction was examined using structural equation modeling by regressing life satisfaction on the Big Five traits. RESULTS: Extraversion was a unique predictor of life satisfaction in the North American student and nationally representative samples (Study 1, ß = .232; Study 2, ß = .225; Study 5, ß = .217), but the effect size was weaker or absent in other non-North American samples (Germany, United Kingdom, and Japan). CONCLUSIONS: The findings attest to the moderating role of culture on Extraversion and life satisfaction and the importance of controlling for shared method variance.

Future Directions for Work on Refinement of ADHD Assessment in Young Adults.

Sibley, Coxe, and Molina provide a thoughtful discussion of the implications of our study and highlight important future directions in this line of work. They helpfully amplify several themes that space did not allow discussion of in our article. In particular, they correctly emphasize the importance of theoretical as well as statistical considerations in model selection. We also agree that clinical tests of sensitivity and specificity, taking into account different base rates and types of samples, are essential before a final algorithm would be ready for dissemination. However, we are not convinced that such tests should be limited to populations of individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Rather, they should include those with and without diagnosed ADHD in order to provide comprehensive tests of reporter sensitivity and specificity across the entire continuum of ADHD symptomatology and in relation to different populations, including other disorders and typically developing populations.

Psychometrically Informed Approach to Integration of Multiple Informant Ratings in Adult ADHD in a Community-Recruited Sample.

Although Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth edition requires that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms are apparent across settings, assessed by multiple informants, there remains no standardized approach to integration of multiple sources in adult ADHD diagnosis. The goal of the study was to evaluate informant effects on adult ADHD symptom ratings. Participants were 406 adults, ages 18 to 37, and identified second reporters, recruited from the community, and completing a comprehensive diagnostic and cognitive assessment, including a clinician-administered diagnostic interview and self- and other-report questionnaires of ADHD symptoms. Structural equation modeling indicated good fit for a trifactor model of ADHD, including general ADHD, specific inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity, and self- and other-perspective factors. Yet there were a number of symptoms on the specific hyperactive-impulsive and self-factors that exhibited nonsignificant loadings. Significant differential item functioning across self-ratings and informant ratings was also noted. The external validation indices of laboratory executive function and diagnostic team-rated impairment was significantly correlated with the specific inattentive factor. While executive function was marginally significantly correlated with the other perspective factor, impairment was associated with the self-perspective factor. Overall, inattentive symptoms may be more sensitive measures of adult ADHD, and other and self-ratings may provide different information in relation to external criteria.

Stability and change of personality traits, self-esteem, and well-being: Introducing the meta-analytic stability and change model of retest correlations.

The stability of individual differences is a fundamental issue in personality psychology. Although accumulating evidence suggests that many psychological attributes are both stable and change over time, existing research rarely takes advantage of theoretical models that capture both stability and change. In this article, we present the Meta-Analytic Stability and Change model (MASC), a novel meta-analytic model for synthesizing data from longitudinal studies. MASC is based on trait-state models that can separate influences of stable and changing factors from unreliable variance (Kenny & Zautra, 1995). We used MASC to evaluate the extent to which personality traits, life satisfaction, affect, and self-esteem are influenced by these different factors. The results showed that the majority of reliable variance in personality traits is attributable to stable influences (83%). Changing factors had a greater influence on reliable variance in life satisfaction, self-esteem, and affect than in personality (42%-56% vs. 17%). In addition, changing influences on well-being were more stable than changing influences on personality traits, suggesting that different changing factors contribute to personality and well-being. Measures of affect were less reliable than measures of the other 3 constructs, reflecting influences of transient factors, such as mood on affective judgments. After accounting for differences in reliability, stability of affect did not differ from other well-being variables. Consistent with previous research, we found that stability of individual differences increases with age. (PsycINFO Database Record

Integration of symptom ratings from multiple informants in ADHD diagnosis: a psychometric model with clinical utility.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder-Fifth Edition explicitly requires that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms should be apparent across settings, taking into account reports from multiple informants. Yet, it provides no guidelines how information from different raters should be combined in ADHD diagnosis. We examined the validity of different approaches using structural equation modeling (SEM) for multiple-informant data. Participants were 725 children, 6 to 17 years old, and their primary caregivers and teachers, recruited from the community and completing a thorough research-based diagnostic assessment, including a clinician-administered diagnostic interview, parent and teacher standardized rating scales, and cognitive testing. A best-estimate ADHD diagnosis was generated by a diagnostic team. An SEM model demonstrated convergent validity among raters. We found relatively weak symptom-specific agreement among raters, suggesting that a general average scoring algorithm is preferable to symptom-specific scoring algorithms such as the "or" and "and" algorithms. Finally, to illustrate the validity of this approach, we show that averaging makes it possible to reduce the number of items from 18 items to 8 items without a significant decrease in validity. In conclusion, information from multiple raters increases the validity of ADHD diagnosis, and averaging appears to be the optimal way to integrate information from multiple raters.

The validity of well-being measures: a multiple-indicator-multiple-rater model.

In the subjective indicators tradition, well-being is defined as a match between an individual's actual life and his or her ideal life. Common well-being indicators are life-satisfaction judgments, domain satisfaction judgments, and measures of positive and negative affect (hedonic balance). These well-being indicators are routinely used to study well-being, but a formal measurement model of well-being is lacking. This article introduces a measurement model of well-being and examines the validity of self-ratings and informant ratings of well-being. Participants were 335 families (1 student with 2 parents, N = 1,005). The main findings were that (a) self-ratings and informant ratings are equally valid, (b) global life-satisfaction judgments and averaged domain satisfaction judgments are about equally valid, and (c) about 1/3 of the variance in a single indicator is valid. The main implication is that researchers should demonstrate convergent validity across multiple indicators by multiple raters.

The ironic effect of significant results on the credibility of multiple-study articles.

Cohen (1962) pointed out the importance of statistical power for psychology as a science, but statistical power of studies has not increased, while the number of studies in a single article has increased. It has been overlooked that multiple studies with modest power have a high probability of producing nonsignificant results because power decreases as a function of the number of statistical tests that are being conducted (Maxwell, 2004). The discrepancy between the expected number of significant results and the actual number of significant results in multiple-study articles undermines the credibility of the reported results, and it is likely that questionable research practices have contributed to the reporting of too many significant results (Sterling, 1959). The problem of low power in multiple-study articles is illustrated using Bem's (2011) article on extrasensory perception and Gailliot et al.'s (2007) article on glucose and self-regulation. I conclude with several recommendations that can increase the credibility of scientific evidence in psychological journals. One major recommendation is to pay more attention to the power of studies to produce positive results without the help of questionable research practices and to request that authors justify sample sizes with a priori predictions of effect sizes. It is also important to publish replication studies with nonsignificant results if these studies have high power to replicate a published finding.