To date, the vast majority of research regarding personality in IO Psychology has relied on self-report assessments. Despite support for the utility of third-party assessments, IO Psychologists have only just begun extensive research in this area. Connelly and Ones (2010) conducted a meta-analysis that demonstrated that accuracy of third-party ratings improved as intimacy between the judge and the target grew. This remained true with the exception of predicting behavioral criteria, where non-intimates maintained superior predictability (Connelly & Ones, 2010). This was later contradicted by a recent investigation that found the best predictive validity for third-party assessments when they are taken from personal acquaintances as opposed to work colleagues (Connelly & Hulsheger, 2012). The current study is intended to investigate how the depth of the relationship and breadth of behavioral observations differentially moderate the relationship between third-party personality assessments and accuracy criteria (i.e., self-other overlap, discriminant validity and behavior). Results indicate that both depth and breadth impact accuracy criteria and they do so differentially based on trait visibility and evaluativeness. These findings will be discussed along with practical implications and limitations of the following research.

No description available.

Intresset för brottsofferfrågor har vuxit sig allt starkare i Sverige under de senaste årtiondena. Socialtjänsten är den instans som har det lagstadgade ansvaret att erbjuda brottsoffer den hjälp och det stöd de behöver. Idag tyder dock mycket på att det föreligger stora brister i socialtjänstens brottsofferstöd. Det är i dessa brister som denna studie har tagit sin utgångpunkt med två primära frågeställningar: (1) varför har det varit så svårt för socialtjänsten att fullfölja sitt lagstadgade ansvar gentemot brottsoffer och (2) vad skulle behöva göras för att få socialtjänstens brottsofferarbete att fungera på ett bättre sätt än vad det gör idag? Ingen liknande kartläggning har tidigare gjorts på området.Genom åtta stycken nyckelpersonsintervjuer undersöktes dessa frågeställningar. Vid intervjuerna användes en utformad modell bestående av faktorer som inbegriper begreppet förmåga, denna har utgjort en central utgångspunkt för kartläggningen av socialtjänstens förmåga att stödja brottsoffer. Nyckelpersonerna bestod av företrädare i nyckelpositioner inom verksamheter som på olika sätt arbetar med brottsofferfrågor.Resultatet visade på att det föreligger en stor ovisshet kring dessa frågor. Det visade sig även att en majoritet av de intervjuade anser att den största problematiken beror på att det inte riktigt finns den vilja som behövs för att prioritera och förbättra brottsoffersituationen i Sverige. Därmed kvarstår också den viktiga frågan; varför är det så svårt för socialtjänsten att fullfölja sitt lagstadgade ansvar gentemot brottsoffer? Med dessa oroväckande upptäckter är det än viktigare att fler studier utförs på området. Vidare forskning bör riktas mot att ta reda på var den faktiska problematiken ligger. Därefter kan det vara lämpligt att utreda eventuella åtgärder. / Interest in crime victim issues has grown stronger in Sweden in recent decades. The social services have the statutory responsibility to offer victims of crime the help and support they need. Recent indications suggest that there are major shortcomings in the social services for crime victim support. Based on these shortcomings this study investigates two primary issues: (1) why has it been so difficult for the social services to fulfill their statutory responsibilities towards victims of crime and (2) what would be needed for the social services for crime victim support to work better than it does today? No similar study has been conducted in this area before.Through the execution of eight key informant interviews these issues were investigated by the use of a designed model constituted of various factors including the concept of ability. This concept has been a central point for the mapping of the social services’ ability to support victims of crime. The key informants consisted of representatives in key positions in operations that work with different crime victim issues.The results show that there is a great uncertainty around these issues. It was also found that a majority of those interviewed believe that the biggest problem regarding these issues is that the will and the necessary prioritization of crime victim matters are relatively low. These alarming findings show an even greater need of more studies performed in this field. Thus remains the important question; why is it so difficult for the social services to fulfill its statutory responsibility towards victims of crime? Further research should be directed at finding out where the real problem lies. Further on, suggestions for improvement should be investigated.

The present study aimed to investigate the predictors of conduct problems and callous-unemotional (CU) traits in a non-clinic sample of children from different socioeconomic levels. It was hypothesized that conduct problems and CU traits will be associated with different risk factors. Regression analyses were conducted in order to find out the predictors of conduct problems/hyperactivity and CU traits. Results showed some significant differences between risk factors of conduct problems/hyperactivity and CU traits. Predictors according to mothers&rsquo / and teachers&rsquo / ratings were not the same, except for some overlapping variables. The findings indicated that teachers could not differentiate conduct problems/hyperactivity symptoms and CU traits appropriately from each other. However, they could make more reliable comparisons between two groups of children with conduct problems who differ on severity of CU levels as compared to mothers. The results were discussed in terms of using of multiple informants forassessing different problem areas in children. In addition, the study aimed to investigate the differences between three groups of children, namely, children with conduct problems and high CU traits, children with conduct problems and low CU traits, and children without conduct problems and low CU traits were compared on child-related, parenting-related, and other family measures by using multiple factorial analyses of variances. Although significant differences were found between the control group and the two conduct group, the significant differences between the two conduct groups were limited. The results were discussed in terms of treatment needs and possible differences in cultural expression of CU traits.

No description available.

No description available.

O TDAH é um transtorno do neurodesenvolvimento e, de acordo com os novos critérios do DSM, a presença de vários sintomas antes de 12 anos de idade são exigidos. Além disso, o DSM-5 também incentiva o clínico a buscar informações colaterais para corroborar o diagnóstico, mesmo para adultos. O esforço para a obtenção de informações de terceiros seria justificada se uma evidência robusta de sua relevância pudesse ser demonstrada. Este é um estudo transversal com 449 pacientes adultos com TDAH e 143 controles, entrevistados entre 2002 e 2012. Os participantes foram consecutivamente avaliados para transtornos psiquiátricos considerando-se o DSM-IV, através de instrumentos diagnósticos padronizados. Informações colaterais foram obtidas usando-se as escalas de Barkley para sintomas de TDAH atuais e da infância. Nós comparamos os perfis demográficos e clínicos de pacientes adultos cujos informantes concordavam (n = 277) ou discordavam (n = 172) dos pacientes em relação à presença de sintomatologia na infância, e adultos sem TDAH (controles). Os pacientes com TDAH e controles não diferiram quanto à idade, anos de escolaridade, renda e sexo. Os grupos com TDAH diferiram dos controles com relação a repetência escolar, problemas com autoridade e disciplina, problemas com a lei e polícia, e tratamento farmacológico prévio. Comparados com os controles, os grupos com TDAH também apresentaram escores mais elevados de prejuízo e maiores taxas de prevalência de uso do tabaco, transtorno bipolar, transtorno de oposição e desafio, transtorno de conduta e dependência de substâncias não-alcoólicas. Poucas e pequenas diferenças entre os dois grupos com TDAH (suspensões escolares, problemas com autoridade e disciplina, e escores SNAP-IV) foram observadas. Nossos resultados não oferecem suporte para a ideia de que a informação colateral sobre a sintomatologia da infância é essencial para confirmar o diagnóstico de TDAH em adultos com uma síndrome clara auto relatada desse período, mas reafirmam a ideia de que o diagnóstico não deve ser descartado na ausência de um colateral que corrobore o relato do paciente. Contudo não podemos descartar a importância de informações de fontes externas ao próprio paciente em outras situações clínicas ou apresentações psicopatológicas. / ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder, and, according to the new DSM, the presence of various symptoms before 12 years of age is required. In addition, the DSM-5 also stimulates the clinician to look for collateral information to support the diagnostis, even for adults. The effort to obtain information from third parties would be justified if a robust evidence of its relevance could be demonstrated. This is a cross-sectional study of 449 adult patients with ADHD and 143 controls, that were interviewed between 2002 and 2012. Participants were consecutively evaluated for DSM-IV psychiatric disorders through standardized diagnostic instruments. Collateral information was obtained with Barkley’s scales for current and childhood ADHD symptoms. We compared the demographic and clinical profiles of adult patients whose informants agreed (n=277) or disagreed (n=172) from patients for the presence of symptoms in childhood, and adults without ADHD (controls). Patients with ADHD and controls did not differ in age, years of education, income and gender. Groups with ADHD differed from controls with respect to school failure, problems with authority and discipline, problems with the law and police, and prior psychopharmacological treatment. Compared with controls, the groups with ADHD also had higher scores of injury and higher prevalence rates of tobacco use, bipolar disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder and non- alcoholic substance dependence. Few and small differences between the two groups with ADHD (school suspensions, problems with authority and discipline, and SNAP-IV scores) were observed. These results do not support the idea that collateral information about symptoms of childhood is essential to confirm the diagnosis of ADHD in adults with a clear self-reported syndrome in childhood, but reaffirm the idea that the diagnosis should not be dismissed in the absence of an informant to corroborate the patient's report. However, we can not rule out the importance of information from external sources for patients with different clinical situations or psychopathological presentations.

La presente ricerca nasce da una domanda di un territorio specifico che si è interrogato relativamente ai problemi emotivo-comportamentali dei bambini in età prescolare Tale richiesta ci ha sollecitato da un punto di vista teorico a porre l’attenzione da un lato, sul significato “clinico” dei problemi emotivo-comportamentali dei bambini, dall’altro sul processo di assessment e in particolar modo sulla prospettiva multi-informant . Tale prospettiva è stata nello specifico oggetto di riflessione e indagine empirica soprattutto nel primo studio dove si sono considerate con particolare attenzione le discrepanze tra gli informant e il loro possibile significato. La domanda di ricerca iniziale si è quindi ampliata fino ad affrontare l’individuazione dei fattori protettivi e di rischio nello sviluppo psicologico dei bambini in età prescolare. A questo proposito il secondo studio propone un modello multifattoriale per la comprensione delle problematiche emotivo-comportamentali dei bambini che tiene conto di aspetti individuali e di aspetti relazionali, familiari in primo luogo. Infine, il terzo studio vede l’utilizzo del modello teorico proposto nei i primi due studi su di un campione di genitori che si sono rivolti a un servizio territoriale arrivando a identificare gli elementi del modello che discriminano famiglie considerate normali da quelle definibili come cliniche. / This research developed from a need to answer specific questions about emotional-behavioral problems in preschool children. From a theoretical point of view, this need forced one to focus on the “clinical” meaning of emotional-behavioral problems in pre-school children and their assessment processes, especially from a multi-informant perspective. Particularly, this perspective was a topic of interest in an empirical investigation in the first study, where discrepancies between informants and their possible perceptions were considered with particular attention. The initial research question was expanded to deal with the identification of risk and protective factors in the psychological development of preschool children. On this regard, the second study proposed a multi-factorial model to understand the emotional and behavioral problems of children which took into account individual and relational aspects, including especially the family. Finally, the third study considered the use of a theoretical model proposed in the first two studies with a sample of parents who turned for help to social services to identify from the model critical elements that discriminated families which could be considered functional from those defined as clinical.

Šiame magistro darbe tyrinėjamos augalų pavadinimų žodinės asociacijos lietuvių ir baltarusių kalbomis, kurios kyla perskaičius tam tikrų augalų pavadinimus. Asociaciniame eksperimente dalyvavo 102 informantai: 52 lietuvių ir 50 baltarusių tautybės. Jiems buvo pateiktas 20 augalų pavadinimų sąrašas: ąžuolas, eglė, liepa, rožė, tulpė, kaštonas, klevas, beržas, šermukšnis, žibutė, erškėtrožė, tuopa, obelis, kriaušė, pušis, nendrė, gvazdikas, lelija, gluosnis, ramunė. Magistro darbo tikslas – aprašyti, kokias asociacijas sukelia apibrėžtos teminės grupės žodžiai-stimulai, t.y. augalų pavadinimai, ir nagrinėti žodines asociacijas psicholingvistiniu ir etnolingvistiniu aspektais. Žodinės asociacijos nagrinėjamos pagal tokius parametrus: asociacijų turinį, asociacijų santykį su žodžiu-stimulu, asociacijų dažnumo charakteristiką, asociacijų loginį ir gramatinį kriterijų. Tyrimui pasirinkti tokie metodai: anketavimas, lyginamasis ir aprašomasis. Atlikus analizę, paaiškėjo, kad abiejų tautybių informantų atsakymuose vyrauja daiktavardinės asociacijos, žodžiai-stimulai ir asociatai daugiausia susiję paradigminiais santykiais. Pastebėta, kad augalų pavadinimai dažniausiai sukelia vienažodes asociacijas. Ne visos asociacijos buvo logiškai motyvuotos ir pagrįstos, tačiau tokias asociacijas dažniausiai vartojo abiejų tautų mokyklinio amžiaus vaikai. Nustatyta, kad vyrų mąstysena ir kalba yra konkretesnė, moterų – abstraktesnė, susijusi su jausmine sritimi, asmenine gyvenimiška patirtimi... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / This study for an AM deals with verbal association of names of plants, which are evoked when tie names of certain are read. One hundred two people took part in this associative experiment: 52 Lithuanian and 50 Belarusian nationality. They were given a list of 20 plants: ąžuolas, eglė, liepa, rožė, tulpė, kaštonas, klevas, beržas, šermukšnis, žibutė, erškėtrožė, tuopa, obelis, kriaušė, pušis, nendrė, gvazdikas, lelija, gluosnis, ramunė. The objective of the study is to compare the differences in the use of language, which arise from social and psychic factors. The verbal association are studied by the following parameters: the contents of the association, the relationship of association with the word-stimulant, the character of the frequency of associations, and the logic and grammatical criterion of the associations. The following methods were chosen for the study: questioning, comparison and description. The study demonstrated that in the answers off two nationality of informants nouns prevail, and the words-stimulants and the association are mostly connected with paradigmatic relations. It was noticed that the plant names most often trigger one-word associations. Not all associations have been substantiated in a logical and reasonable, but such associations in both nations used mostly school-age children. It was found that the male way of thinking and language is more specific for women - more abstract, concerned with the sensual sphere of personal life experience... [to full text]

Background Studies on course and outcome of schizophrenia coming from low income countries are increasingly becoming important to challenge the existing dogma claiming good outcome in these countries. Besides clinical course and outcome, mortality is considered a very important outcome measure for schizophrenia. Culture and tradition play a significant role in the manifestations of severe mental illnesses (SMI). Khat is a culturally accepted plant endemic to Eastern Africa, which is chewed by people for its stimulating effect. It is believed that Khat influences the course and outcome of schizophrenia although systematic studies are scarce. Patients with SMI continue to chew khat despite advice from their doctors to desist. Reasons for this behavior were not fully investigated before. Objectives              -     To describe the 5-year clinical course and outcome and mortality of schizophrenia in Butajira. -       To explore traditional views on psychosis in the semi-nomadic Borana population. -       To describe the perceived causes and preferred treatment for SMI in the semi-nomadic Borana population -       To explore reasons for khat chewing behavior in people with SMI in Butajira. Methods The studies were done in two sites: Butajira and Borana. The Butajira study involved screening, using CIDI and Key Informants (KIs), of more than 68,000 adults aged 15-49. Of these, 321 people were diagnosed with schizophrenia and were followed-up for five years to look into their clinical course and outcome, including mortality. A qualitative study involving 37 men with SMI and 30 female caregivers was conducted in Butajira to study reasons why patients continue to chew khat despite their physicians’ advice against it. The Borana study of a remote semi-nomadic population in southern Ethiopia, used qualitative methods involving 56 KIs to identify descriptions of psychosis, perceived causes and preferred treatment in the community. Cases identified by the KIs also underwent SCAN interview for confirmatory diagnosis.   Results The five year follow-up of schizophrenia patients showed that 45% of participants were continuously symptomatic with 30.3% having had continuous psychotic episode. About 20% had experienced continuous remission. Being single (OR = 3.41, 95% CI = 1.08-10.82, P = 0.037), on antipsychotic treatment for at least 50% of follow up time (OR = 2.28, 95% CI = 1.12-4.62, P = 0.023), and having a diagnosis of paranoid subtype of schizophrenia (OR = 3.68, 95% CI = 1.30-10.44, P = 0.014) were associated with longer period of remission. A total of 38 (12.4%) patients, thirty four men (11.1%) and four women (1.3%) died during the 5-year follow-up period. The mean age (SD) of the deceased for both sexes was 35 (7.35): 35.3 (7.4) for men and 32.3 (6.8) for women. The most common cause of death was infection, 18/38 (47.4%) followed by severe malnutrition, 5/38 (13.2%) and suicide 4/38 (10.5%). The overall SMR was 5.98 (95% CI = 4.09 to 7.87): 6.27 (95% C I = 4.16 to 8.38) for men and 4.30 (95% CI = 1.02 to 8.52) for women. Patients residing in rural areas had lower mortality with adjusted HR of 0.30 (95% CI = 0.12-0.69) but those with insidious onset had higher mortality with adjusted HR 2.37 (95% CI = 1.04-5.41). Treatment with antipsychotics for less than 50% of the follow-up time was also associated with higher mortality, adjusted HR 2.66 (1.054-6.72). In the Borana study, the incongruity between local and psychiatric concepts in the CIDI lay mainly in the fact that KIs described characteristics of marata (madness) in terms of overt behavioral symptoms instead of thought disturbances. Following the focus group discussions, participants identified 8 individuals with schizophrenia and 13 with a psychotic mood disorder, confirmed by SCAN interview. Supernatural causes such as possession by evil spirits, curse, bewitchment, ‘exposure to wind’ and subsequent attack by evil spirits in postnatal women; bio-psycho-social causes such as infections (malaria), loss, ‘thinking too much’, and alcohol and khat abuse were mentioned as causes of SMI. The preferred treatments for severe mental illness included mainly traditional approaches, such as consulting Borana wise men or traditional healers, prayer, holy water treatment and, finally, seeking modern health care. Regarding khat and SMI in Butajira, reasons given by patients as well as caregivers were more or less congruent: social pressure, a means for survival by improving function, combating medication side effects, to experience pleasure and curbing appetite.  Conclusion Schizophrenia runs a chronic and non-remitting course and was associated with very high premature mortality in Butajira. Continued treatment with antipsychotics has been a consistent predictor of favorable outcome and reduced mortality. Case identification in studies of psychotic disorders in traditional communities are likely to benefit from combining structured interviews with the key informant method. Planning mental health care in traditional communities needs to involve influential people and traditional healers to increase acceptability of modern mental health care. Patients with SMI chewed khat for some important reasons that clinicians need to consider in their management.