[An Ultra-Short Instrument to Assess Sensation Seeking: Psychometric Evaluation of the German Version of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS-4)]. / Ein ultrakurzer Test zur Erfassung von Sensation Seeking: Psychometrische Evaluation der deutschen Version der Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS-4).

The personality trait of sensation seeking (SS) plays a prominent role in health-related risk behaviors and is associated with psychopathology, emotion regulation, and delinquency. Despite this high relevance, hardly any ultra-short self-report measures optimized for test duration exist for the assessment of SS. An exception is the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS-4) consisting of four items, which is gaining international popularity. In this study, the German version of the BSSS-4 was psychometrically evaluated for the first time in a student sample (N=419). A unidimensional confirmatory measurement model showed adequate goodness of fit and internal consistency was in the satisfactory range (ω=0,73). As first evidence for adequate construct validity and in line with the hypotheses, associations of the BSSS-4 with male gender, self-reported risk-taking, and risk-taking behavior (operationalized via a lottery-based behavioral paradigm) but not with current depression were found. An examination of measurement invariance across men and women using multigroup CFA suggested that partial scalar measurement invariance can be assumed for the BSSS-4, when equality constraints for loadings and intercepts of Item 1 are relaxed. Considering its increasing international use, the German version of the BSSS-4 can be recommended overall: For an ultra-short instrument, it is sufficiently internally consistent and rather suitable for gender comparisons. In this regard, the facet of experience seeking may be problematic in terms of gender-dependent differences in measurement properties. In light of insufficiently rigorous tests of instruments for the assessment of SS, the results of comparisons between women and men may thus be interpreted with caution.

Personality disorder categories as combinations of dimensions: translating cooperative behavior in borderline personality disorder into the five-factor framework.

The authors examined the proposal that personality disorder categories may denote particular detrimental combinations of personality dimensions. A multiround economic exchange game (ten round trust game), conducted with university students pre-selected on basis of their personalities (N = 164), provided a framework within which to investigate inability to repair ruptured cooperation. This behavior, thought to be characteristic of patients diagnosed with DSM-IV borderline personality disorder, was predicted only by the combination of high Neuroticism and low Agreeableness. Our results highlight an advantage of the categorical approach, category labels being a much more economic means of description than the delineation of interactions between dimensions.

The moderating effect of conformism values on the relations between other personal values, social norms, moral obligation, and single altruistic behaviours.

Three studies predicted and found that the individual's conformism values are one determinant of whether behaviour is guided by other personal values or by social norms. In Study 1 (N=50), pro-gay law reform participants were told they were either in a minority or a majority in terms of their attitude towards the law reform. Only participants who were high in conformism values conformed to the group norm on public behaviour intentions. In studies 2 (N=42) and 3 (N=734), participants played multiple choice prisoner's dilemma games with monetary incentives. Only participants who considered conformism values to be relatively unimportant showed the expected connections between universalism values and altruistic behaviour. Study 3 also established that the moderating effect of conformism values on the relation between universalism values and altruistic behaviour was mediated through experienced sense of moral obligation.