P. J. Watson

The non-concurrent multiple baseline across-individuals design: An extension of the traditional multiple baseline design☆

Abstract This methodological note argues that the multiple baseline across-individuals design can be usefully subdivided into two separate designs—concurrent and non-concurrent designs. The non-concurrent design, unlike the more traditional concurrent design, involves the observation of different individuals at different times. Procedural characteristics of the design are described, and its practical and theoretical advantages for applied researchers are delineated.

Dimensions of the Mysticism Scale: Confirming the Three‐Factor Structure in the United States and Iran

In a mostly Christian American sample (N = 1,379), confirmatory factor analysis of Hoods (1975) Mysticism Scale verified the existence of Staces (1960) introvertive and extrovertive dimensions of mystical phenomenology along with a separate interpretation factor: A second study confirmed the presence of these three factors in not only another group of Americans (N = 188), but also in a sample of Iranian Muslims (N = 185). Relationships of the introvertive and extrovertive factors with the interpretation factor were essentially identical across these two cultures, but the Americans displayed a stronger association between the two phenomenology factors. In both h samples, the interpretation factor correlated positively with an intrinsic and negatively with an extrinsic religious orientation, and the introvertive factor predicted psychological dysfunction. Associations of the interpretation factor with relative mental health appeared only in the Iranians. These data offered general support for Staces phenomenology of mysticism, although the ineffability he linked with interpretation proved to be as much or even more a feature of the introvertive experience, as hypothesized by Hood.

SELF-REPORTED EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: CONSTRUCT SIMILARITY AND FUNCTIONAL DISSIMILARITY OF HIGHER-ORDER PROCESSING IN IRAN AND THE UNITED STATES

This study employed the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS) to assess self-reported emotional intelligence cross-culturally as an input (attention to emotions), process (clarity of emotions), and output (repair of emotions) information-processing system. Iranian (N = 231) and American (N = 220) university students responded to the TMMS along with measures of alexithymia, public and private self-consciousness, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and perceived stress. Negative correlations with alexithymia and expected linkages with all other variables documented the validity of the TMMS in both cultures. Most of the other measures correlated similarly in the two samples. However, private and public self-consciousness displayed a stronger positive association in Iran. These two scales were also more predictive of adjustment in Iran and of maladjustment in the United States. This difference perhaps reflected a poorer integration of the two dimensions of self-consciousness within a presumably more individualistic Amer...

Narcissism, empathy and social desirability

Abstract Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) factors were correlated with empathy and social desirability to clarify the unexpected findings of a previous investigation. Statistical controls for the complex nature of the NPI revealed the Exploitativeness/Entitlement (EE) dimention to predict less emotional and cognitive empathy, more interpersonal distress, less social responsibility and lower social desirability scores. In contrast, Leadership/Authority was associated with less interpersonal distress, as was the Superiority/Arrogance factor, and also greater social responsibility. EE therefore may operationalize a maladaptive trait characterized by a socially undesirable and irresponsible interpersonal insensitivity. Other NPI dimensions may record more adaptive self-functioning.

Narcissism, sex roles, and self-functioning

This study examined the relationship between gender, sex role, and narcissism. Two hundred and three students completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and the Narcissistic Personality Disorder Scale, along with several measures of self-esteem and depression. Overall, the data indicated that males and masculine individuals were not higher in their levels of maladaptive narcissism, that an adjusted narcissism was more obvious in males and in masculine subjects, and that femininity appeared to inhibit the display of an unhealthy exploitive self-concern. Androgyny failed to appear as the healthiest sex role, although multiple regression analyses suggested that future research may need to further explore this possibility.

Empathy, religious orientation, and social desirability.

Summary The Allport and Ross Religious Orientation Scales were administered to 180 undergraduates (84 males, 96 females) who also responded to three empathy questionnaires. Correlations and data associated with religious orientation categories revealed intrinsic religiosity to be directly and extrinsic religiosity to be inversely related to empathy, and social desirability factors apparently did not produce these effects. Recent theoretical arguments concerning a linkage between empathy and religiosity were therefore supported, and the data further suggest that previously reported religiosity-helping behavior relationships may have been mediated by empathic motivation.

Muslim-Christian Religious Orientation Scales: Distinctions, Correlations, and Cross-Cultural Analysis in Iran and the United States

Allport and Ross (1967) Religious Orientation Scales were administered along with nine new Muslim-Christian Religious Orientation Scales (MCROS) to students in Iran and the United States. Religious extrinsicness was associated with self-reported symptoms of psychological disturbance; with the Iranians, intrinsicness predicted adjustment. Most relations among the religious variables were positive with the two samples displaying similar, though not identical, patterns of correlations. Factor analysis of all religious scales in each sample separately yielded two components suggesting Allports differentiation between the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. In both samples, partial correlations and multiple regressions were used to remove variance associated with the Allport and Ross scales, and at least some evidence testified to the incremental validity of each MCROS measure in predicting psychological symptoms and the other MCROS variables. Most important, this first systematic, empirical study of the psychology of religion in Iran confirmed the relevance of Allports thought for understanding Muslim religion and established an empirical foundation for further explorations of the MCROS.

Individualist and collectivist values: evidence of compatibility in Iran and the United States

This study examined claims that a collectivistic allocentrism is incommensurate with an individualistic idiocentrism and that the Western psychological promotion of individualism necessarily occurs at the expense of communal commitments. Individualist and Collectivist Values Scales were administered to Iranian and American university students along with a Commitment Scale. Commitment recorded one aspect of a healthy personality as described within the largely individualistic perspectives of Maddis (1998) existential personality theory. Empathy, attributional complexity, identity, perceived stress, anxiety, and depression scales were presented as well. In both samples, Collectivist and Individualist Values correlated positively. Both values also predicted a form of adjustment that included greater Commitment in Iran. In the United States, Collectivistic but not Individualistic Values correlated positively with Commitment. Partial correlations demonstrated that Collectivist Values explained many associations of Individualist Values with adjusted personality functioning, but not vice versa. Collectivist Values fully mediated the relationships of Individualist Values with Commitment and depression in both samples. Idiocentrism, therefore, was compatible with allocentrism, even in a society as different from the United States as Iran, and the individualism of Western psychological theory did not preclude a sensitivity to the positive potentials of allocentrism.

Further contrasts between self-reflectiveness and internal state awareness factors of private self-consciousness

Although widely used as a unitary measure of self-focused attention, the Private Self-Consciousness subscale (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975) contains two factors. In the present study, this subscale and its self-reflectiveness (SR) factor predicted greater shame, guilt, other-directedness, and social anxiety; but the internal state awareness (ISA) factor displayed relationships that were in the opposite direction. Contrasts between SR and ISA often became more obvious in partial correlations, when one factor was examined while controlling for the other. In relationships with personal and social identity, SR appeared to reflect public as much as private self-consciousness. These data support recent suggestions that it may be necessary to construct more adequate measures of private self-consciousness.

Muslim attitudes toward religion, religious orientation and empathy among Pakistanis

Pakistani university students responded to the Muslim Attitudes towards Religion Scale (MARS) along with the Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Quest Religious Orientation Scales and with measures of adaptive and maladaptive empathy. The MARS most importantly predicted higher Intrinsic Scale scores, and MARS linkages with empathy were at least partially explained by an intrinsic religious orientation. The Extrinsic–Social motivation was lower than the Intrinsic orientation, which in turn was lower that the Extrinsic–Personal form of commitment. Quest reflected a more Extrinsic religious orientation. Numerous gender differences appeared. Comparison with previous British, Iranian, Pakistani and American data illustrated how a well-established research perspective can promote insights into an under-examined religious tradition and how the analysis of an under-examined religious tradition can clarify and qualify a well-established research perspective.