The peaks and valleys of narcissism: The factor structure of narcissistic states and their relations to trait measures.

Although interindividual differences in narcissism are well studied, little is known about assessing narcissism at the within-person level. To fill this research gap, we investigated whether the narcissism construct is represented in the same way at the between- and within-person levels. We analyzed four established narcissism measures across multiple studies. In each of the studies, participants completed narcissism measures in ecological momentary assessment or daily diary studies. Equivalent construct representation across between- and within-person narcissism (i.e., cross-level measurement invariance) was found. State narcissism measures showed convergent validities for the trait narcissism scales. Moreover, we also found that antagonistic narcissism was most strongly related to within-person variability in narcissism. Our investigation sheds new light on the structure and assessment of narcissism on the within-person level by providing a comprehensive examination of its measurement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Humor Styles Are Related to Loneliness Across 15 Countries.

The relationships between self-report loneliness and the four humor styles of affiliative, aggressive, self-defeating, and self-enhancing were investigated in 15 countries (N = 4,701). Because loneliness has been suggested to be both commonly experienced and detrimental, we examine if there are similar patterns between humor styles, gender, and age with loneliness in samples of individuals from diverse backgrounds. Across the country samples, affiliative and self-enhancing humor styles negatively correlated with loneliness, self-defeating was positively correlated, and the aggressive humor style was not significantly related. In predicting loneliness, 40.5% of the variance could be accounted. Younger females with lower affiliative, lower self-enhancing, and higher self-defeating humor style scores had higher loneliness scores. The results suggest that although national mean differences may be present, the pattern of relationships between humor styles and loneliness is consistent across these diverse samples, providing some suggestions for mental health promotion among lonely individuals.

The conscientiousness-health link in depression: Results from a path analysis.

BACKGROUND: This was the first study aiming to develop a theory-based model to analyze the relation between conscientiousness and impaired physical health as well as between conscientiousness and subjective health-related well-being within a large clinical sample with depressive symptomatology. In addition, a mediating effect of health risk behaviors regarding the association between conscientiousness and objectively impaired physical health as well as subjective health-related well-being were exploratory examined. METHODS: Individuals with depressive symptoms (n = 943) with a mean age of 52 years (ranging between 20 and 78 years) undergoing intensive psychiatric rehabilitation treatment were investigated with the Big Five Inventory-10 as well as several self-report health questionnaires (Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire, Food-Craving Inventory and lifestyle questions assessing physical inactivity and alcohol consumption). Health-related well-being was measured using the World Health Organisation Quality of Life Assessment and the construct of impaired physical health comprised anthropometric measurements (Body Mass Index, Waist-to-Height-Ratio), blood lipids, and impaired physical performance capacity on the bicycle-ergometric test. RESULTS: Structural path analyses revealed that unhealthy eating habits and physical inactivity partially mediated the negative relation between conscientiousness and impaired physical health as well as the positive relation between conscientiousness and health-related well-being. LIMITATIONS: Possible limitations include cross-sectional study design, missing data, assessment of conscientiousness on a global level and self-report assessment of health risk behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight the importance concerning the extended inclusion of personality aspects in the treatment of depression in order to improve health.

Using the 16PF to Test the Differentiation of Personality by Intelligence Hypothesis.

The differentiation of personality by intelligence hypothesis suggests that there will be greater individual differences in personality traits for those individuals who are more intelligent. Conversely, less intelligent individuals will be more similar to each other in their personality traits. The hypothesis was tested with a large sample of managerial job candidates who completed an omnibus personality measure with 16 scales and five intelligence measures (used to generate an intelligence g-factor). Based on the g-factor composite, the sample was split using the median to conduct factor analyses within each half. A five-factor model was tested for both the lower and higher intelligence halves and were found to have configural invariance but not metric or scalar invariance. In general, the results provide little support for the differentiation hypothesis as there was no clear and consistent pattern of lower inter-scale correlations for the more intelligent individuals.

Applicant Faking of Personality Inventories in College Admission: Applicants' Shift From Honest Responses Is Unsystematic and Related to the Perceived Relevance for the Profession.

This study aims to further our understanding of applicant faking twofold. First, it challenges viewing applicant faking as a systematic shift from otherwise honest responses. To this end, systematic item parameter shifts are proposed and tested across applicants and incumbents. Second, items' perceived relevance in a college admission process as real-life selection is scrutinized: Are applicants influenced by items' perceived relevance for the education, the prospective profession, or both? Participants (n = 840) filled out a Big Five inventory in a college admission process, and were retested 10 months later under standard instructions. Furthermore, they rated items' perceived relevancies for educational and professional purposes. Linear partial credit models were used to model item parameter shifts across response conditions. All proposed patterns of systematic shifts fit the data worse than unsystematic shifts. Unsystematic shifts were greater for lower response categories and items that were perceived as more relevant for the profession. The perceived relevance for education moderated the latter effect. Taken together, applicant faking should not be understood as applicants systematically shifting from their otherwise honest responses. Although applicants elevate their responses, it is not in a systematic way. Furthermore, determinants of applicant faking should be differentiated across real-life selection settings.

[The contribution of Open Science to the quality of educational research]. / Open Science als Beitrag zur Qualität in der Bildungsforschung.

The starting point of this paper are the discussions of the robustness of empirical findings in related disciplines, namely social psychology, which culminated in the so-called "replication crisis". These discussions about replication and "questionable research practices" have only started to reach the educational sciences. At the same time, parts of the educational sciences are prone to the same problems as related disciplines. Therefore, it may only be a matter of time before these controversies also arise in the educational sciences. Against this backdrop, we argue how Open Science can contribute to increasing the robustness of educational sciences' findings. In particular, we suggest three Open Science practices: Pre-registration, Open Materials and Open Data. We present these practices and examine how researchers can implement these Open Science practices in the educational sciences. We discuss the specific conditions of the educational sciences in comparison to related disciplines and address the limitations and particularities of the educational sciences. We conclude with a plea for transparency.

[Aspects of online teaching and their relation to positive experience and motivation among teacher education students: mixed-method findings at the beginning of COVID-19]. / Aspekte der Online-Lehre und deren Zusammenhang mit positivem Erleben und Motivation bei Lehramtsstudierenden: Mixed-Method Befunde zu Beginn von COVID-19.

In the summer semester 2019/20 it was degreed that universities switch to purely online learning due to COVID-19/SARS-CoV­2. This switch offered the unique opportunity to study online learning in teacher education. The aim of the present study was to give recommendations for online learning in teacher education. To this end, we identified aspects of online learning that students experienced beneficial/impeding (study 1) and analyzed their relation to the positive/negative experience of students and their goal orientation (study 2). In study 1 (n = 75), we asked students for aspects of online learning that they experienced as beneficially/impeding for their perceived learning gain (open data & materials: https://osf.io/7knhj/). The study was pre-registered before data collection (https://osf.io/438p6/). We identified 39 aspects by means of qualitative content analysis. In study 2 (n = 855), these aspects were rated for positive & motivating or negative & demotivating courses and related to the situational goal achievement (SELLMO) of the teacher education students (open data & materials: https://osf.io/87v5y/). The study was pre-registered before data collection (https://osf.io/rj5f9/). Analyses with BEST showed seven aspects with very large differences (|d| > 3), 18 with large differences (3 > |d| > 0.8), seven with medium/small differences (0.8 > |d| > 0.2), and seven without differences (2 > |d|) between positive & motivating or negative & demotivating courses. Multigroup path analyses identified 13 aspects that were related to goal orientation. Our results contribute to the understanding of online learning in teacher education. They highlight that online learning can be optimized and steered depending on the objective-positive experience, goal orientation, or both.

The life-skills program Lions Quest in Austrian schools: implementation and outcomes.

This article investigates the importance of implementation level for the effectiveness of the school-based life skills program Lions Quest in a sample of Austrian students (n = 363 from three schools; aged 9-15 at T1). A quasi-experimental pre- and post-test design with intervention and control group over 2 years was used. The effects of low, average, and high implementation levels on the outcome variables classroom climate, bullying and psychosocial health were analyzed. Multilevel analyses of the longitudinal data indicated greatest effects in the intervention group with highest implementation level, smaller effects with average implementation level, and no or rather detrimental effects in one case with the low implementation level (always compared with the control group who received no intervention). A moderate implementation level was necessary to foster the programs aims for three out of four aspects of class climate and bullying, while no effects were found for psychosocial health. These results are discussed with respect to key factors that are important for successful implementation of school programs.

The Psychometric Costs of Applicants' Faking: Examining Measurement Invariance and Retest Correlations Across Response Conditions.

This study examines the stability of the response process and the rank-order of respondents responding to 3 personality scales in 4 different response conditions. Applicants to the University College of Teacher Education Styria (N = 243) completed personality scales as part of their college admission process. Half a year later, they retook the same personality scales in 1 of 3 randomly assigned experimental response conditions: honest, faking-good, or reproduce. Longitudinal means and covariance structure analyses showed that applicants' response processes could be partially reproduced after half a year, and respondents seemed to rely on an honest response behavior as a frame of reference. Additionally, applicants' faking behavior and instructed faking (faking-good) caused differences in the latent retest correlations and consistently affected measurement properties. The varying latent retest correlations indicated that faking can distort respondents' rank-order and thus the fairness of subsequent selection decisions, depending on the kind of faking behavior. Instructed faking (faking-good) even affected weak measurement invariance, whereas applicants' faking behavior did not. Consequently, correlations with personality scales-which can be utilized for predictive validity-may be readily interpreted for applicants. Faking behavior also introduced a uniform bias, implying that the classically observed mean raw score differences may not be readily interpreted.