Your search

Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and their adult counterparts (ATCKs) refer to individuals who spent part of their developmental years abroad and are an important demographic to study in this rapidly globalizing world. To date, the bulk of the research on (A)TCKs has been descriptive and little is known about their developmental trajectories in adulthood. The major objective of this study was to examine the personality traits, dimensions of well-being, and cognitive-affective styles of ATCKs across the adult life span using well-validated psychological measures. A subsidiary goal was to develop a new multidimensional international experiences scale to assess levels of multicultural engagement in ATCKs. The participants in this study (N = 700+; age = 18-80+) were recruited from the Alumni Office of an international school in Japan. Somewhat contrary to how they are often depicted in the news media and in qualitative studies, the ATCKs showed normative changes in personality and well-being in the direction of greater maturity and adjustment during adulthood, with those reporting higher levels of multicultural engagement generally exhibiting a more resilient personality profile, higher levels of well-being, and more adaptive cognitive and affective styles.

This study examined whether personality variables would account for political preferences during the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election using a demographically diverse sample of participants (N = 897). Study A revealed participants' ratings of their own personality and emotions were weakly associated with political preferences, but their ratings of candidates' personality showed robust associations, and were far more predictive of voting intention than all of the demographic variables, political affiliation, and racial attitudes combined. In Study B, linguistic analysis of narratives revealed words reflective of liberal values were correlated with positive evaluations of Clinton's personality, whereas words reflective of conservative values and “populist” sentiment were correlated with positive evaluations of Trump's personality, suggesting appraisals of candidates may be associated with values. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This study examined changes in Alan Greenspan's language use across the economic cycle by analyzing his testimonies and speeches using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Program (LIWC), which is a widely used text analysis program. Consistent with expectations, Greenspan showed an increase in the composite measure of psychological distancing as well as a decline in the measure of cognitive complexity between the economic expansion and downturn periods. Interestingly, these patterns of changes became more pronounced during the purported economic recovery period. In contrast to the measures of psychological distancing and cognitive complexity, the measure of emotionality remained relatively stable across the economic cycle.

This study explored the role that positive emotions and emotional intelligence play in experiential learning. Students' field practicum journals were analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Program (LIWC) and a measure of emotional intelligence was obtained using the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). Positive emotion words were robustly associated with almost all dimensions of supervisors' ratings of students' performance, but showed weak associations with students' ratings of perceived benefits associated with their practicum experiences. Overall El scores were correlated with several of the supervisor rating items and the Facilitating Thought and Managing Emotions subscales of the El were robustly correlated with many of the student rating items. This study thus yielded a more differentiated view of the role of positive emotions and emotional intelligence in adaptive functioning and underscored the importance of using multiple informants to assess a complex construct such as successful experiential learning. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This study examined cognitive-affective styles associated with position on the Iraq war by analyzing responses posted on an online discussion forum using a computerized text-analysis program (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count). Overall, the results were consistent with those obtained in narrative-coding studies. The pro-war group was associated with an external focus and a simplistic style of information processing. The anti-war group was associated with an internal focus and high levels of cognitive processing and negative emotion words. The “neither” group scored the highest on cognitive complexity and positive emotion words, and it was also the most balanced in terms of internal and external focus.

In The Face of Emotions, which was Carroll Izard's first major attempt at elaborating his differential emotions theory (DET), he stated that the book presents a theoretical framework for the study of emotions and their role in personality and interpersonal processes. Yet, over the years, his contribution to personality theory has generally been overshadowed by the attention focused on his views on facial expressions and the structure of emotions. This article will begin with a brief overview of the DET perspective on personality development. Then, it will examine how the DET framework can be used to organize recent findings from three lines of research on adult personality. It will conclude with suggestions for future research as well as some personal recollections.

The long-term outcomes associated with happiness and meaning-making were examined by following up on participants in previous studies on experiential learning an average of 2.5 years later. Measures of happiness and meaning-making were extracted by analyzing the participants' journals using a computerized text-analysis program. Happiness as assessed by a composite measure of positive emotionality showed weak associations with the measures of adaptive functioning, and was negatively correlated with optimism, as well as positively correlated with emotion suppression. By contrast, meaning-making as assessed by composite measures of cognitive processing and self-distancing was robustly positively correlated with almost all measures of adaptive functioning. Regression analyses revealed that the two measures of meaning and their interaction term accounted for 20-24% of the variance in predicting the outcome measures. This study revealed that there may be at times a trade-off between happiness and meaning-making as well as a reversal in their patterns of long-term outcomes.

This study applied word count strategies developed by expressive writing researchers to examine whether the words students use to describe and reflect on their field practicum experiences would predict practicum supervisors' ratings of their performance. The weekly journals of 66 students who completed a practicum at a mental health or school setting were analyzed using a computerized text-analysis program. As expected, positive emotion words and "insight" words were positively correlated with almost all dimensions of evaluation, with the exception of organizational ability, and "we" words were associated with dimensions that focused on interpersonal relations. These findings further support the view that positive emotion words and "insight" words are powerful markers of cognitive broadening and behavioral flexibility and that "we" words index feelings of affiliation and belonging. As one might expect, there was an increase in "we" words and a decrease in "anxiety" words over the course of the internship. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This study examined whether maternal ratings of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) obtained when children were 3.5 years would show theoretically coherent patterns of relations with a variety of behavioral referents in the laboratory at 5 years as well as with maternal and self-ratings of psychological functioning in adolescence. As expected, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness were associated with measures of self-regulation at both ages as well as with an internal locus of control, but only Conscientiousness was associated with high academic performance. By contrast, Neuroticism was associated with measures of anxiety and Extraversion was associated with difficulty inhibiting behaviors at both ages. Openness to Experience was associated with sophisticated play behavior at 5 years and self-confidence in adolescence. Overall, this study yielded strong support for the predictive validity of the FFM with preschool age children and provided further evidence that there are striking continuities in personality from early childhood to adolescence. (c) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The purpose of this study was to shed further light on the intrapersonal and interpersonal correlates of shame- and guilt-proneness by examining their relations with self- and peer-ratings of the five-factor model (FFM) of personality. Shame- and guilt-proneness were assessed using a scenario-based and a checklist measure. Consistent with findings from previous research, the self-rating data yielded support for the view that shame-proneness may be associated with more maladaptive patterns than guilt-proneness. However, peer-ratings of personality failed to corroborate these findings. Both scenario-based and checklist measures of shame-proneness were associated with a tendency to underestimate one's Agreeableness relative to peer-ratings. Several possible interpretations of these findings are discussed in light of the extant research on personality judgment. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

This study examined the relative importance of self-esteem, family cohesion, and support from friends in predicting depressed mood and anxiety in Japanese and American college students. Contrary to expectations, self-esteem was the strongest predictor of emotional distress in both groups of students. Nevertheless, consistent with predictions derived from Markus and Kitayama's theory of self-construals, family cohesion accounted for a significantly larger percentage of the variance in predicting emotional distress in Japan than in the United States. In both countries, the relations between support from friends and the measures of emotional distress were entirely mediated by self-esteem. However, among Japanese students, family cohesion accounted for additional significant variance in predicting the measures of emotional distress, even after controlling for self-esteem.

Are conservatives more simple-minded and happier than liberals? To revisit this question, 1,518 demographically diverse participants (52% females) were recruited from an online participant-sourcing platform and asked to write a narrative about the upcoming 2020 U.S. Presidential Election as well as complete self and candidates’ ratings of personality. The narratives were analyzed using three well-validated text analysis programs. As expected, extremely enthusiastic Trump supporters used less cognitively complex and more confident language than both their less enthusiastic counterparts and Biden supporters. Trump supporters also used more positive affective language than Biden supporters. More simplistic and categorical modes of thinking as well as positive emotional tone were also associated with positive perceptions of Trump’s, but not Biden’s personality. Dialectical complexity and positive emotional tone accounted for significant unique variance in predicting appraisals of Trump’s trustworthiness/integrity even after controlling for demographic variables, self-ratings of conscientiousness and openness, and political affiliation.

This study extends research on adult narrative identity in two major ways. First, it focuses on Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCKs), which refer to individuals who spent a part of their early developmental years abroad. In spite of the fact that they are an important demographic to study in this rapidly globalizing world, they have tended to be neglected in the field of psychology. Second, this study incorporates the cutting-edge tools of automated language analysis to extract developmental themes from autobiographical narratives using a bottom-up exploratory approach, as well as to identify psychological patterns and processes associated with the themes. The participants (N = 350; 18–80 + years old) were recruited from an alumni office of an international school and asked to write a narrative about the impact their international experiences had on their development. The meaning extraction method (MEM) yielded four developmental themes, which were remarkably consistent with the recurring themes that emerge from past research on adult narrative identity as well as ATCKs: past focus, communion, agency, and global focus. These four developmental themes, in turn, showed theoretically coherent patterns of relations with the demographic variables, linguistic markers of psychological patterns and processes, as well as self-reports of dimensions of well-being.

Infants' expressions of discrete emotions were coded during the more stressful episodes (4 through 8) of the Strange Situation at 13 and 18 months. The data showed a significant decrease in full-face expressions (more complex configurations of movements) and a significant increase in component expressions (simpler and more constrained patterns of movements). The authors interpreted this trend as a developmental change toward more regulated and less intense emotions. Consistent with this view, the aggregate index of infants' full-face negative emotion expressions, interpreted as reflecting relatively unregulated intense emotions, correlated significantly with maternal ratings of difficult temperament. The authors discuss alternative interpretations of the findings in terms of changes in reactivity/arousability and the emerging capacity for self-regulation.

The present study compared compliance, noncompliance strategies, and the correlates in 5-year old Japanese and American children were observed during three standardized laboratory procedures. Compliance, noncompliance strategies, and negative affect were coded during Toy Pick Up procedure. Maternal directiveness and mother-directed behaviors were coded during Mother-Child play and Free-play procedures, respectively. A baseline level of play was also obtained during the Free Play procedures to ensure that the children's willingness to engage in the Toy Pick Up procedure would not be confounded with their level of involvement with the toys. Consistent with predictions derived from a review of cross-cultural research on socialization practices, Japanese children showed longer latencies to begin picking up toys in response to maternal requests and were also more likely to engage in the `less skilled' noncompliance strategies of direct defiance and passive noncompliance than American children. The two groups of children did not, however, differ in their level of negative affect during the Toy Pick Up procedure. Contrary to expectations, maternal directiveness was not associated with compliance in either group of children. However, approach behavior to mother during Free Play was inversely correlated with compliance in Japanese, but not American children.