Bojan Janičić

TENDENCY TO SELF-HANDICAPPING IN THE SITUATION OF EXPECTED FAILURE

The basic objective of this research is to determine what type of self-handicapping strategies subjects will use when they face potential failure, under the condition that they have the possibility of strategy choice. Another research objective is directed to the research of relation between the selected self-handicapping strategy and personality characteristics. 120 student of the second and third year of the Department of psychology, University of Novi Sad has been taken into sample. In the first research stage, all students administrated a series of personality self-report tests. In the second experiment stage, the participants were divided into four groups, on the basis of two criteria: the solvability of intelligence test tasks and the presence of hampering factors during task solving. The research results show that there are at least two types of self-handicapping strategies. One type is used by the majority of people when found in the situation where potential failure is expected. It refers to searching for alibis in external circumstances and it is probably the reflection of sound tendencies of facing possible consequences of information on one’s own incompetence. Another type of strategies presents consistent behaviour pattern, determined by the higher degree of adverse affectivity and negative image of oneself, and it is manifested in the use of poor psychophysical condition as the alibi for failure.

Discriminant possibilities of the Hamilton depression scale: ROC analysis

The purpose of this study is to compare discrimination power of original and reconstructed version of Hamilton’s depression scale in separation of depressive vs. anxious patients and to suggest some possibilities which offer ROC analysis. The subjects of the study were 119 patients of Psychiatric clinic in Novi Sad. 67 of them were diagnosed with some of the forms of affective disorders and 52 with an anxious-phobic diagnosis. Results of ROC analysis suggest that both instruments can be used in distinguishing depressive from anxious patients, but reconstructed version shows greater sensitivity and specificity with optimal cut-off score. It also has more significant AUC, which refers to probability of prediction on the basis of the whole spectrum of the results. These data is commented in relation with current debates, between unitaristic and pluralistic oriented authors, about the nature of the anxious-depression relationship.

Procena uspešnosti u klasifikovanju rezultata na osnovu graničnih (cut-off) skorova: Receiver operating characteristic curve

Aim of this study to draw attention to possibilities for use ROC curve analysis (receiver operating characteristic curve) for determining the classification capabilities of the tests. Concepts of sensitivity and specificity, underlying creation of ROC curves, are explained. Interpretation of formulas for calculating the positive and negative predictive values and accuracy of the tests are also given. ROC curve is a graphical representation of sensitivity and specificity for every possible threshold score (test result) in the coordinate system where the ordinate shows the values of sensitivity and the abscissa value of 1-specificity. It is explained how to determine optimal threshold score on the basis of sensitivity and specificity, and how to perform ROC analysis in several statistical packages (SPS, PSPP and R). In the end, it is pointed to the findings within clinical psychology that are based on ROC analysis and test characteristics (such as sensitivity and specificity) on which this analysis is based.

Equity of computer-assisted and classic form measures of cognitive abilities

In this paper the equivalence of computer-assisted and traditional forms of two cognitive tests have been examined. In a sample of 238 subjects, the effects of gender, age, education level, computer experience, computer anxiety and state anxiety on the scores on different modalities of tests have been investigated. The analysis of the test structure and analysis of the ranks of the test scores, in two modalities, yielded no information on which to conclude that change of modality affected constructive validity of tests. There have been no significant differences in scores in two different modalities of test. Significant effects of interaction between the modality of tests and other employed predictors have not been detected. On this basis it has been concluded that the two modalities of testing have psychometric and experiential equivalence.