Daniel J. Ozer

Construct validation of optimism and pessimism in older men: Findings from the normative aging study.

Validation of Scheier and Carvers (1985) Life Orientation Test (LOT) has identified associations between bipolar optimism and several external constructs. However, optimism and pessimism may be not bipolar, but rather separate constructs. Furthermore, these constructs may be indistinguishable from personality traits, such as neuroticism and extraversion. This study examined the associations of separate optimism and pessimism measures with self-reports of hassles, psychological symptoms, and illness severity, controlling for personality. Ss were 1,192 men from the Normative Aging Study. Findings suggest that optimism and pessimism are separate and that their relations to external criteria remain, although attenuated, when neuroticism and extraversion are controlled.

Subjective Injustice and Inferiority as Predictors of Hostile and Depressive Feelings in Envy

Two hypotheses concerning the hostile and depressive components of envy were tested: that hostile feelings are associated with a subjective belief that the envy-producing difference is unfair and that depressive feelings are associated with a sense of inferiority evoked by the envied persons advantage. Subjects wrote autobiographical accounts of experiences of envy and then indicated how unfair (in both a subjective and an objective sense) they believed the envied persons advantage was, how inferior the advantage made them feel, and how hostile and depressed they felt. Multiple regression analysis generally supported the hypotheses. Hostile feelings were predicted by subjective injustice beliefs and objective injustice beliefs but not by inferiority beliefs. Depressive feelings, however, were predicted largely by inferiority beliefs but also by subjective injustice beliefs. Envy, especially in its typically hostile form, may need to be understood as resulting in part from a subjective, yet robust, sense of injustice.

Complementarity of Interpersonal Behaviors in Dyadic Interactions

An important assumption of interpersonal theory is that during social interactions the behavior of one person tends to invite com-plementary behavior from the other person. Past research examining complementarity has usually used either confederates or fictitious interaction partners in their designs and has produced inconsistent results. The current study used observational ratings of behaviors of 158 participants as they interacted with partners across three different dyadic social situations. Randomization tests of hypothesized order relations found that the behaviors exhibited during these interactions tended to occur in a circular pattern predicted by the interpersonal circumplex. These tests also indicated support for Learys (1957) orientation of the control and affiliation dimensions of the interpersonal circumplex and Carsons (1969) notion that dominant behavior induces submissive responses and friendly behavior encourages friendly responses.

Shared experiences and the similarity of personalities : a longitudinal study of married couples

Do spouses become more similar over time? What processes contribute to enduring similarities between them? Using the 20-year Kelly Longitudinal Study of couples, no support for the hypothesis that couples increasingly resemble each other with time was found. Rather, couples maintain the same degree of similarity across 20 years. Structural equation analyses suggest that the shared environmental experiences of couples play a significant role in maintaining these similarities over time. We distinguish the shared marital environment from the shared rearing environment and consider developmental and dynamic-relational factors that moderate the relative importance of nonshared and shared environmental experiences in life-span personality development. Whereas nonshared influences in ones family of origin contribute to development in childhood and adolescence, shared influences in ones family of destination may contribute a great deal to development in adulthood.

The replicability and utility of three personality types

Personality types are construed as constellations of features that uniquely define discrete groups of individuals. Types are conceptually convenient because they summarize many traits in a single label, but until recently most researchers agreed that there was little evidence for the existence of discrete personality types. Several groups of researchers have now proposed replicable, empirical person clusters based on measures of the Five‐Factor Model. We consider several methodological artifacts that might be responsible for these types, and conclude that these artifacts may contribute to the replicability of types, but cannot entirely account for it. The present research attempts to replicate these types in four large and diverse adult samples: the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (N = 1856); the East Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area study (N = 486); the University of North Carolina Alumni Heart Study (N = 2420); and an HIV risk reduction intervention study (N = 274). A clear replication (kappa = 0.60) of the proposed types was found in only one sample by one standard of comparison. The failure of the three personality types to replicate in three of the four samples leads to the conclusion that they are not robust empirical entities. Type membership predicted psychosocial functioning and ego resiliency and control, but only because it summarized trait standing; dimensional trait measures were consistently better predictors. Nevertheless, while the types do not refer to distinct, homogeneous classes of persons, they do have utility as convenient labels summarizing combinations of traits that relate to important outcomes. Published in 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Improved vision and on-field performance in baseball through perceptual learning.

Our visual abilities profoundly impact performance on an enormous range of tasks. Numerous studies examine mechanisms that can improve vision [1]. One limitation of published studies is that learning effects often fail to transfer beyond the trained task or to real world conditions. Here we report the results of a novel integrative perceptual learning program that combines multiple perceptual learning approaches: training with a diverse set of stimuli [2], optimized stimulus presentation [3], multisensory facilitation [4], and consistently reinforcing training stimuli [5], with the goal to generalize benefits to real world tasks. We applied this training program to the University of California Riverside (UCR) Baseball Team and assessed benefits using standard eye-charts and batting statistics. Trained players showed improved vision after training, had decreased strike-outs, and created more runs; and even accounting for maturational gains, these additional runs may have led to an additional four to five team wins. These results demonstrate real world transferable benefits of a vision-training program based on perceptual learning principles.

Person‐factors in the California Adult Q‐Set: closing the door on personality trait types?

To investigate recent hypotheses of replicable personality types, we examined data from 1540 self‐sorts on the California Adult Q‐Set (CAQ). Conventional factor analysis of the items showed the expected Five‐Factor Model (FFM). Inverse factor analysis across random subsamples showed that none of the previously reported person‐factors were replicated. Only two factors were replicable, and, most importantly, these factors were contaminated by mean level differences in item endorsement. Results were not due to sample size or age heterogeneity. Subsequent inverse factor analysis of standardized items revealed at least three replicable factors; when five person‐factors were extracted, they could be aligned precisely with the dimensions of the FFM. The major factors of person similarity can be accounted for entirely in terms of the FFM, consistent with the hypothesis that there are no replicable personality types in the CAQ. Published in 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Culture and Interpersonal Conflict Resolution Styles: Role of Acculturation

This study explored the role of acculturation and bicultural identity processes in the interpersonal conflict resolution preferences of monoculturals (Koreans and European Americans) and biculturals (Korean Americans). Koreans and European Americans differed in their conflict resolution styles in a manner congruent with individualism-collectivism theory. Korean Americans displayed a complex bicultural pattern of conflict resolution: They endorsed “competing” (a traditionally individualistic style) more than Koreans and similar to European Americans, while also endorsing “avoidance” (a traditionally collectivistic style) more than both European Americans and Koreans. The authors discuss the results in light of biculturalism and cultural encapsulation theories.

Emotional stability and goal-related stress

Abstract The experience of anticipatory and reactive stress associated with goals was examined as a function of the trait of emotional stability. During the first few weeks of the academic year, first-year college students completed a measure of emotional stability, provided a set of their goals, rated these goals on anticipated stress, and 6 months later, re-evaluated the same set of goals on reactive stress. Results indicate that emotional stability relates to reactive stress but not anticipatory stress. While this general finding held for the academic, social, pleasure, independence, and moral/religious goal domains, three other content domains required substantive qualifications. Emotional stability related to both anticipatory and reactive stress in the health domain, and to neither kind of stress in the organization and material wealth domains. Potential explanations of these differences and implications for using trait and goal units conjointly are discussed.

Validation of an Adjective Q-Sort as a Measure of the Big Five Personality Structure

This study provides a strategy for examining the traits of the Five Factor Model in a situation where no direct measure is available. Big Five wcales were rationally created from the 43-item Adjective Q-Sort adapted from Block s Self-Descriptive Q-Set (Block & Block 1980). In the first study, expert judges evaluated each of the Q-Sort items on the five personality dimensions to provide conceptual measures of the five factors. Preliminary sets of items were honed using internal consistency criteria. The second study employed these scales in a sample of 112 African American 1Oth-grade students. Results indicated thatfour ofthefive scales demonstrated predictable relations to subscales of a self-concept measure, and allfive exhibited empirical relations to several parent socialization items of the Black Family Process Q-Sort. Theoretical suppositions relating personality traits to parental socialization practices are discussed.