Measuring Intellectual Curiosity across Cultures: Validity and Comparability of a New Scale in Six Languages.

Intellectual curiosity-the tendency to seek out and engage in opportunities for effortful cognitive activity-is a crucial construct in educational research and beyond. Measures of intellectual curiosity vary widely in psychometric quality, and few measures have demonstrated validity and comparability of scores across multiple languages. We analyzed a novel, six-item intellectual curiosity scale (ICS) originally developed for cross-national comparisons in the context of the OECD's Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Samples from six countries representing six national languages (U.S. Germany, France, Spain, Poland, and Japan; total N = 5,557) confirmed that the ICS possesses very good psychometric properties. The scale is essentially unidimensional and showed excellent reliability estimates. On top of factorial validity, the scale demonstrated strict measurement invariance across demographic segments (gender, age groups, and educational strata) and at least partial scalar invariance across countries. As per its convergent and divergent associations with a broad range of constructs (e.g., Open-Mindedness and other Big Five traits, Perseverance, Sensation Seeking, Job Orientations, and Vocational Interests), it also showed convincing construct validity. Given its internal and external relationships, we recommend the ICS for assessing intellectual curiosity, especially in cross-cultural research applications, yet we also point out future research areas.

Why we need to abandon fixed cutoffs for goodness-of-fit indices: An extensive simulation and possible solutions.

To evaluate model fit in confirmatory factor analysis, researchers compare goodness-of-fit indices (GOFs) against fixed cutoff values (e.g., CFI > .950) derived from simulation studies. Methodologists have cautioned that cutoffs for GOFs are only valid for settings similar to the simulation scenarios from which cutoffs originated. Despite these warnings, fixed cutoffs for popular GOFs (i.e., χ2, χ2/df, CFI, RMSEA, SRMR) continue to be widely used in applied research. We (1) argue that the practice of using fixed cutoffs needs to be abandoned and (2) review time-honored and emerging alternatives to fixed cutoffs. We first present the most in-depth simulation study to date on the sensitivity of GOFs to model misspecification (i.e., misspecified factor dimensionality and unmodeled cross-loadings) and their susceptibility to further data and analysis characteristics (i.e., estimator, number of indicators, number and distribution of response options, loading magnitude, sample size, and factor correlation). We included all characteristics identified as influential in previous studies. Our simulation enabled us to replicate well-known influences on GOFs and establish hitherto unknown or underappreciated ones. In particular, the magnitude of the factor correlation turned out to moderate the effects of several characteristics on GOFs. Second, to address these problems, we discuss several strategies for assessing model fit that take the dependency of GOFs on the modeling context into account. We highlight tailored (or "dynamic") cutoffs as a way forward. We provide convenient tables with scenario-specific cutoffs as well as regression formulae to predict cutoffs tailored to the empirical setting of interest.

Incremental validity of sense of coherence, neuroticism, extraversion, and general self-efficacy: longitudinal prediction of substance use frequency and mental health.

BACKGROUND: Several studies have demonstrated the importance of sense of coherence (SOC), neuroticism (N), extraversion (E), and general self-efficacy (GSE) for health, yet the unique utility of these overlapping constructs remains uncertain. The present research aims at exploring incremental validity when predicting (1) substance use specifically and (2) mental health generally among adolescents. METHODS: A prospective and longitudinal design was used to predict (1) initial substance use nine years into the future and (2) mental health one year and four years into the future. Participants were 318 adolescents (age 14 to 15 at the beginning of the study). RESULTS: Structural equation modeling revealed (1) that SOC had long-term incremental validity over N, E, and GSE for tobacco use and alcohol use, whereas cannabis use was predicted by E and GSE; and (2) that long-term mental health after four years was only predicted by SOC. CONCLUSIONS: Two studies provide further evidence for the importance of considering salutogenic factors when forecasting mental health and health-related behavior beyond classical constructs such as N, E, and GSE. Differences in criterion validity reveal that SOC cannot be equated with reversed neuroticism.

Automatic processes in aggression: Conceptual and assessment issues.

This editorial to the special section "Automatic Processes in Aggression: Conceptual and Assessment Issues" introduces major research lines, all of which culminate in recent advances in the measurement of automatic components in aggressive behavior. Researchers of almost all psychological disciplines have stressed increasingly the importance of automatic components to gain a comprehensive psychological understanding of human behavior. This is reflected in current dual-process theories according to which both controlled processes and rather automatic processes elicit behavior in a synergistic or antagonistic way. As a consequence, complementing self-reports (assumed to assess predominantly controlled processes) by the use of implicit measures (assumed to assess predominantly automatic processes) has become common practice in various domains. We familiarize the reader with the three contributions that illuminate how such a distinction can further our understanding of human aggression. At the same time, it becomes evident that there is a long way that method-oriented researchers need to go before we can fully comprehend how to best measure automatic processes in aggression. We see the present special section as an invigorating call to contribute to this endeavor. Aggr. Behav. 41:44-50 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

On the adaptive flexibility of evaluative priming.

If priming effects serve an adaptive function, they have to be both robust and flexible. In four experiments, we demonstrated regular evaluative-priming effects for relatively long stimulus-onset asynchronies, which can, however, be eliminated or reversed strategically. When participants responded to both primes and targets, rather than only to targets, the standard congruity effect disappeared. In Experiments 1a-1c, this result was regularly obtained, independently of the prime response (valence or gender classification) and the response mode (pronunciation or keystroke). In Experiment 2, we showed that once the default congruity effect was eliminated, strategic-priming effects reflected the statistical contingency between prime valence and target valence. Positive contingencies produced congruity, whereas negative contingencies produced equally strong incongruity effects. Altogether, these findings are consistent with an adaptive-cognitive perspective, which highlights the role of flexible strategic processes in working memory as opposed to fixed structures in semantic long-term memory or in the sensorimotor system.

An adaptive-learning approach to affect regulation: strategic influences on evaluative priming.

An adaptive cognition approach to evaluative priming is not compatible with the view that the entire process is automatically determined by prime stimulus valence alone. In addition to the evaluative congruity of individual prime-target pairs, an adaptive regulation function should be sensitive to the base rates of positive and negative stimuli as well as to the perceived contingency between prime and target valence. The present study was particularly concerned with pseudocontingent inferences that offer a proxy for the assessment of contingencies from degraded or incomplete stimulus input. As expected, response latencies were shorter for the more prevalent target valence and for evaluatively congruent trials. However, crucially, the congruity effect was eliminated and overridden by pseudocontingencies inferred from the stimulus environment. These strategic inferences were further enhanced when the task called for the evaluation of both prime stimuli and target stimuli.

Examining Multidimensional Measuring Instruments for Proximity to Unidimensional Structure Using Latent Variable Modeling.

A widely applicable procedure of examining proximity to unidimensionality for multicomponent measuring instruments with multidimensional structure is discussed. The method is developed within the framework of latent variable modeling and allows one to point and interval estimate an explained variance proportion-based index that may be considered a measure of proximity to unidimensional structure. The approach is readily utilized in educational, behavioral, and social research when it is of interest to evaluate whether a more general structure scale, test, or measuring instrument could be treated as being associated with an approximately unidimensional latent structure for some empirical purposes.

The influence of violent and nonviolent computer games on implicit measures of aggressiveness.

We examined the causal relationship between playing violent video games and increases in aggressiveness by using implicit measures of aggressiveness, which have become important for accurately predicting impulsive behavioral tendencies. Ninety-six adults were randomly assigned to play one of three versions of a computer game that differed only with regard to game content (violent, peaceful, or abstract game), or to work on a reading task. In the games the environmental context, mouse gestures, and physiological arousal-as indicated by heart rate and skin conductance-were kept constant. In the violent game soldiers had to be shot, in the peaceful game sunflowers had to be watered, and the abstract game simply required clicking colored triangles. Five minutes of play did not alter trait aggressiveness, yet an Implicit Association Test detected a change in implicit aggressive self-concept. Playing a violent game produced a significant increase in implicit aggressive self-concept relative to playing a peaceful game. The well-controlled study closes a gap in the research on the causality of the link between violence exposure in computer games and aggressiveness with specific regard to implicit measures. We discuss the significance of importing recent social-cognitive theory into aggression research and stress the need for further development of aggression-related implicit measures.

Author Correction: Death anxiety, exposure to death, mortuary preferences, and religiosity in five countries.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

An Interdisciplinary Mixed-Methods Approach to Analyzing Urban Spaces: The Case of Urban Walkability and Bikeability.

Human-centered approaches are of particular importance when analyzing urban spaces in technology-driven fields, because understanding how people perceive and react to their environments depends on several dynamic and static factors, such as traffic volume, noise, safety, urban configuration, and greenness. Analyzing and interpreting emotions against the background of environmental information can provide insights into the spatial and temporal properties of urban spaces and their influence on citizens, such as urban walkability and bikeability. In this study, we present a comprehensive mixed-methods approach to geospatial analysis that utilizes wearable sensor technology for emotion detection and combines information from sources that correct or complement each other. This includes objective data from wearable physiological sensors combined with an eDiary app, first-person perspective videos from a chest-mounted camera, and georeferenced interviews, and post-hoc surveys. Across two studies, we identified and geolocated pedestrians' and cyclists' moments of stress and relaxation in the city centers of Salzburg and Cologne. Despite open methodological questions, we conclude that mapping wearable sensor data, complemented with other sources of information-all of which are indispensable for evidence-based urban planning-offering tremendous potential for gaining useful insights into urban spaces and their impact on citizens.

Traumatic life experiences and religiosity in eight countries.

We present two datasets from a project about the relationship between traumatic life experiences and religiosity. These include data from 1,754 individuals in the United States (n = 322), Brazil (n = 205), China (n = 202), India (n = 205), Indonesia (n = 205), Russia (n = 205), Thailand (n = 205), and Turkey (n = 205). Surveys were consistent across samples: they include measures of traumatic life experiences, negative affective traits, existential security, life satisfaction, death anxiety, and various religious beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours. Psychometric evaluations of measures of supernatural belief and death anxiety were conducted.

Base rate effects on the IAT.

We investigated the influence of stimulus base rates on the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Using an East/West-German attitude-IAT, we demonstrated that both overall response speed and differential response speed underlying IAT effects depend on the relative frequencies of the stimulus categories. First, when those stimuli that are more common in reality also occurred more frequently in the stimulus list, response speed generally increased. Second, IAT effects increased when congruent blocks profited from the compatibility of frequency-based response biases (i.e., frequent target stimuli and frequent valence stimuli mapped onto the same response key), whereas IAT effects decreased when incongruent trial blocks profited from response compatibility. These findings demonstrate that the stimulus context moderates the magnitude of the IAT effect. Simultaneously, they highlight the need to explore the extent to which implicit measures reflect properties of the task or the environment rather than attributes of test-takers.

Death anxiety, exposure to death, mortuary preferences, and religiosity in five countries.

We present three datasets from a project about the relationship between death anxiety and religiosity. These include data from 1,838 individuals in the United States (n = 813), Brazil (n = 800), Russia (n = 800), the Philippines (n = 200), South Korea (n = 200), and Japan (n = 219). Measures were largely consistent across samples: they include measures of death anxiety, experience of and exposure to death, religious belief, religious behaviour, religious experience, and demographic information. Responses have also been back-translated into English where necessary, though original untranslated data are also included.

Death salience moderates the effect of trauma on religiosity.

OBJECTIVE: Previous research has shown contradictory evidence for the relationship between religiosity and trauma; exposure to traumatic life events has been associated with both increases and decreases in religiosity over time. On the basis of a long theoretical tradition of linking death and religious belief and recent empirical evidence that thoughts of death may increase religiosity, we tested whether one determinant of trauma's influence on religion is the degree to which it makes death salient. METHOD: Using longitudinal data from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, a unique population-representative birth cohort, we tested whether the relationship between trauma and religiosity depends on whether the trauma involves death. Participants reported their private, ceremonial, and public religious behaviors at ages 26 and 32 and, at age 32, whether they had experienced any of 23 traumatic life events since age 26. RESULTS: Experiencing the death of a loved one (but not an equally traumatic event not involving death) predicted a future increase in private religious behavior (e.g., prayer) among those already practicing such behaviors, and an increase in the importance of religious ceremonies among those with relatively little prior interest in them. On the other hand, experiencing a death-unrelated trauma predicted a future reduction in public displays of religiosity among those previously so inclined. CONCLUSION: The study represents a significant step in understanding religious responses to trauma, and emphasizes the importance of considering not only the nature of a trauma, but also the dimensions and practices of a victim's religiosity prior to it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Predicting voting behavior with implicit attitude measures: the 2002 German parliamentary election.

Implicit measures of attitudes are commonly seen to be primarily capable of predicting spontaneous behavior. However, evidence exists that these measures can also improve the prediction of more deliberate behavior. In a prospective study we tested the hypothesis that Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures of the five major political parties in Germany would improve the prediction of voting behavior over and above explicit self-report measures in the 2002 parliamentary elections. Additionally we tested whether general interest in politics moderates the relationship between explicit and implicit attitude measures. The results support our hypotheses. Implications for predictive models of explicitly and implicitly measured attitudes are discussed.

Measuring Cross-Cultural Supernatural Beliefs with Self- and Peer-Reports.

Despite claims about the universality of religious belief, whether religiosity scales have the same meaning when administered inter-subjectively-or translated and applied cross-culturally-is currently unknown. Using the recent "Supernatural Belief Scale" (SBS), we present a primer on how to verify the strong assumptions of measurement invariance required in research on religion. A comparison of two independent samples, Croatians and New Zealanders, showed that, despite a sophisticated psychometric model, measurement invariance could be demonstrated for the SBS except for two noninvariant intercepts. We present a new approach for inspecting measurement invariance across self- and peer-reports as two dependent samples. Although supernatural beliefs may be hard to observe in others, the measurement model was fully invariant for Croatians and their nominated peers. The results not only establish, for the first time, a valid measure of religious supernatural belief across two groups of different language and culture, but also demonstrate a general invariance test for distinguishable dyad members nested within the same targets. More effort needs to be made to design and validate cross-culturally applicable measures of religiosity.

Do implicit attitudes predict actual voting behavior particularly for undecided voters?

The prediction of voting behavior of undecided voters poses a challenge to psychologists and pollsters. Recently, researchers argued that implicit attitudes would predict voting behavior particularly for undecided voters whereas explicit attitudes would predict voting behavior particularly for decided voters. We tested this assumption in two studies in two countries with distinct political systems in the context of real political elections. Results revealed that (a) explicit attitudes predicted voting behavior better than implicit attitudes for both decided and undecided voters, and (b) implicit attitudes predicted voting behavior better for decided than undecided voters. We propose that greater elaboration of attitudes produces stronger convergence between implicit and explicit attitudes resulting in better predictive validity of both, and less incremental validity of implicit over explicit attitudes for the prediction of voting behavior. However, greater incremental predictive validity of implicit over explicit attitudes may be associated with less elaboration.

When autocratic leaders become an option--uncertainty and self-esteem predict implicit leadership preferences.

We investigated the impact of uncertainty on leadership preferences and propose that the conjunction of self-esteem level and stability is an important moderator in this regard. Self-threatening uncertainty is aversive and activates the motivation to regain control. People with high and stable self-esteem should be confident of achieving this goal by self-determined amelioration of the situation and should therefore show a stronger preference for democratic leadership under conditions of uncertainty. By contrast, people with low and unstable self-esteem should place their trust and hope in the abilities of powerful others, resulting in a preference for autocratic leadership. Studies 1a and 1b validate explicit and implicit leadership measures and demonstrate a general prodemocratic default attitude under conditions of certainty. Studies 2 and 3 reveal a democratic reaction for individuals with stable high self-esteem and a submissive reaction for individuals with unstable low self-esteem under conditions of uncertainty. In Study 4, this pattern is cancelled out when individuals evaluate leadership styles from a leader instead of a follower perspective.

Exercise might be good for me, but I don't feel good about it: do automatic associations predict exercise behavior?

Models employed in exercise psychology highlight the role of reflective processes for explaining behavior change. However, as discussed in social cognition literature, information-processing models also consider automatic processes (dual-process models). To examine the relevance of automatic processing in exercise psychology, we used a priming task to assess the automatic evaluations of exercise stimuli in physically active sport and exercise majors (n = 32), physically active nonsport majors (n = 31), and inactive students (n = 31). Results showed that physically active students responded faster to positive words after exercise primes, whereas inactive students responded more rapidly to negative words. Priming task reaction times were successfully used to predict reported amounts of exercise in an ordinal regression model. Findings were obtained only with experiential items reflecting negative and positive consequences of exercise. The results illustrate the potential importance of dual-process models in exercise psychology.