STAFF TALK on the consequences of positive and negative intergroup contact: Tuesday 4th November

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WHO/WHAT FOR: Dr Stefania Paolini, school of psychology, UON will deliver a research presentation entitled “Valence asymmetries in intergroup relations: The challenges of improving intergroup relations against the relative advantage of negative contact”, This talk is sponsored by the school’s Social and Organisational Psychology research group.

WHEN: Tuesday 4^th November, 12-1pm,

WHERE: Keats room, Aviation building, Callaghan

WHERELSE:  video conferenced to: Humanities Meeting room (HO 1.73), Ourimbah (please advise Stefania if you plan to be at the Ourimbah)

ABSTRACT: Due to a focus on prejudice reduction, social psychological analyses of intergroup contact have traditionally shied away from negative contact and negative-positive contact comparisons. These analyses provide a more positive report for contact than related disciplines; one that disagrees with global trends of intergroup conflict. This paper showcases Australian-led research on valence asymmetries aiming to redress these research disconnects. Stefania will first introduce a Self-Categorization Theory’s inspired model of valence asymmetries in intergroup relations. Based on this model, negative experiences with the outgroup should worsen intergroup attitudes more than positive experiences with the outgroup improve intergroup attitudes (i.e., negative valence asymmetry on intergroup attitudes) because negative contact causes higher category salience than positive intergroup contact (i.e., negative valence asymmetry on social categorization). Stefania will then present a systematic program of research testing the basic tenets of this model in a variety of intergroup settings and with several research paradigms. She will identify a series of moderating factors exacerbating, mitigating, and even reversing negative valence asymmetries on social categorization and intergroup attitudes and discuss the implications of these findings for theory, social interventions, and future research.

BIO: Stefania Paolini trained in social psychology at the Universita’ di Padova (Italy), under the supervision of Prof Dora Capozza, and completed her doctoral work in 2001 under the supervision of Prof Miles Hewstone at Cardiff University (UK). For her PhD, she used models and methods of intergroup contact and social categorization to explore ‘when’ and ‘why’ information about individual members of a social group affects the judgements of the group as a whole. Since, she has published in leading international journals and has been regularly invited to act as reviewer for leading journals and grant bodies on the topics of member-to-group generalization, intergroup contact, intergroup friendship, and intergroup emotions. Her current research focuses on valence asymmetries on categorization and attitudes, on motivational predictors of intergroup contact, and on the learning mechanisms of intergroup anxiety and stereotyping. As part of this work, she has investigated conflict-ridden intergroup contexts, like Northern Ireland, Cyprus, and Arizona’ southern border. Stefania is currently senior lecturer in social psychology at the University of Newcastle (Australia), co-chair of the internationalisation committee of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), and will be organising the upcoming annual meeting of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP) at Newcastle in 2015. For more information on her work, visit: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/profile/stefania-paolini

Cognitive Psychology Colloquium NOT ON THIS WEEK

Due to the CTMHN postgraduate conference there will be no meeting this week, but please come along next week to hear about the future of statistics (see preview below)!

When: Thursday 6th November, 12-1pm
Where: Keats Reading Room, Psychology Building
Title: JASP ̶ A free and open alternative to SPSS, a rich and user friendly alternative to R.

Authors: Jonathon Love(a), Ravi Selker(a), Josine Verhagen(a), Martin Smira(b), Anneliese Wild(c), Maarten Marsman(a), Quentin Gronau(a), Richard D. Morey(d), Jeff Rouder(e), Eric-Jan Wagenmakers(a)
a University of Amsterdam
b University of Brno
c University of Newcastle, Australia
d University of Groningen
e University of Missouri

Abstract
The two dominant software platforms for performing statistical analyses in psychology are SPSS
and the R programming language. SPSS is expensive, closed source, and does not implement the
newest analyses (such as recent developments in bayesian statistics). In contrast, the R
programming environment is open source and implements the newest analyses, however it requires
users to write software in a programming language, and is a challenging platform for people without
programming experience to use.

This talk introduces JASP, an alternative to both SPSS and R which combines the best of both
worlds. JASP implements the latest Bayesian analyses, is free and open source, and provides a rich
user interface such that individuals without programming experience can use.

JASP is available from http://jasp-stats.org
JASP is funded by a grant from the European Research Council.

Bio
Jonathon Love is a Software Developer and Researcher at the University of Amsterdam. He
completed his studies with Andrew Heathcote at the University Newcastle, Australia, and has over
15 years experience in Software development. Jonathon's interests are promoting the use of
liberated (free and open source) software in science and developing software which bridges the gap
between methodologists and applied researchers. He is the lead developer of the JASP project.

The School of Psychology’s Sensory, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Group is pleased to present the following PhD completion seminar. All Welcome!

Theta oscillatory networks influence individual differences in cognitive control ability.

Patrick S. Cooper, PhD Candidate
School of Psychology
Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory
University of Newcastle, Callaghan. NSW 2308 AUSTRALIA

Wednesday 29^th October 12-1pm in the Keats Reading Room, Psychology Building Callaghan Campus (video conferenced to Science Offices meeting room Ourimbah).

Abstract: Cognitive control processes enable flexible adjustment of intentions and actions in order to guide goal-directed behaviour. Low frequency neural oscillations promote widespread integration across cortical regions, with theta (~4-7Hz) oscillations playing a key role in integrative processes associated with cognitive control. My research has focused on understanding the extent of individual variability that exists in theta oscillations and their influence on cognitive control ability. To do so, I have applied functional connectivity techniques to the oscillatory EEG data that is typically averaged over during event-related analysis. In this talk, I will present evidence that theta oscillations vary both between individuals and within individuals and that these variations have specific effects on cognitive control efficiency and trial-by-trial performance. Interestingly, these relationships appear to have real-world implications too, with control-related theta signatures linked to differences in subjective reports of anxiety and quality of life. I will argue that individual differences in low frequency oscillatory activity can provide unique insight into brain-behaviour relationships. 

Tue 28th Oct: RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS on intergroup psychology

Please join us for two research presentations on the 28^th of October by two scholars from the University of Sydney. Full details below.

These research talks are sponsored by the school’s Social and Organisational Psychology research group. 

Hope to see many of you then. Cheers,   Stefania at: Stefania.Paolini@newcastle.edu.au

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WHEN: Tuesday 28^th October, 11.30-1pm,

WHERE: Keats room, Aviation building, Callaghan

WHERELSE:  video conferenced to: The Science Offices Meeting room, Ourimbah

 

WHO/WHAT FOR: Karen Gonsalkorale, visiting scholar, University of Sydney, delivering a research presentations entitled “Now You See it, Now You don’t: Automatic Bias and Overcoming Bias in Implicit Attitudes” (see abstract and bio below)

WHO/WHAT FOR: Andrea van Dommelen, visiting scholar, University of Sydney delivering a research presentations entitled “Multiple Social Identities in Minority Group Members: individual and contextual differences” (see abstract and bio below)

Gonsalkorale’s Abstract

When implicit measures of attitudes first burst onto the psychology scene, they were often conceived as uncontaminated reflections of the automatic associations stored in memory. Many researchers considered these implicit measures to be revolutionary in their capacity to reveal automatic attitudes that people are unwilling or unable to express on self-report measures. However, we now know that performance on implicit attitude measures is influenced both by the nature of activated evaluative associations and by people’s ability to regulate those associations as they respond. I will describe a method for separating the multiple automatic and controlled processes underlying implicit measures, and discuss how this method can be used to understand the processes responsible for variability and malleability in implicit attitudes. Specifically, I will present studies in which we applied the Quad model (Sherman et al, 2008) to examine variability in implicit attitudes as a function of group membership (Black vs. White participants) and age (young vs. older participants), and malleability in implicit attitudes resulting from prejudice reduction training and alcohol intoxication. The findings indicate that implicit attitude variability and malleability do not only involve activated associations, and may not involve associations at all, in some cases. I will wrap up by discussing the implications of the findings for the measurement and interpretation of implicit attitudes.

Gonsalkorale’s Bio

My research interests include social cognition, stereotyping and prejudice, intergroup relations, and ostracism. I am currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. Prior to joining the University of Sydney as a Lecturer in 2008, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Davis. I received a Bachelor of Psychology (Hons) in 2001 and a PhD from the University of New South Wales in 2005.

van Dommelen’s Abstract

Members of ethnic and religious minority groups belong to distinct ethnic, religious and national groups that may differ in group composition, values, norms and attitudes. In this talk, I will propose a conceptual and operational framework to examine how minority group members subjectively construe their ingroup in the context of such multiple, cross-cutting group memberships. I will describe the subjective combination of multiple social identities in terms of structure (Social Identity Structure, SIS) and inclusiveness (Social Identity Inclusiveness, SII), and present findings of three studies using this conceptual framework.  In the first two studies, we assessed SII and SIS in a sample of Turkish Belgian Muslims (N = 95) and Turkish Australian Muslims (N = 132). The findings of both studies showed that participants, despite sharing membership in three specific social groups, varied widely in how they combined these group memberships in their ingroup construals. More inclusive ingroup representations predicted how participants felt towards people from other social groups, including remote groups with whom participants were unlikely to have contact. In a third study, again using a sample of Turkish Australian Muslims (N = 143), we examined how ingroup representations are altered after a threat or reassurance to their religious group identity. We found that participants were less likely to integrate multiple social identities in their ingroup construals after the value of their religious group identity was threatened as opposed to reassured. These findings highlight the need for a more thorough understanding of individual versus contextual differences in multiple social identity management in ethnic and religious minority groups.

van Dommelen’Bio

I completed my Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Brussels (VUB), in Belgium (where I am originally from), in 2008. My Master’s dissertation was in the area of social cognition (stereotype activation upon an encounter with an atypical target), under supervision of Prof. Vincent Yzerbyt at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. In 2010, I worked with Dr. Katharina Schmid and Prof. Miles Hewstone (University of Oxford, UK) on a project on social identity complexity. Later in 2010, I started my PhD research at the University of Sydney, under supervision of Dr. Karen Gonsalkorale and Prof. Marilynn Brewer. For my PhD, I studied how people belonging to ethnic and religious minority groups in Australia, combine their ethnic, religious and national group memberships into an ingroup construal, and how such ingroup construals relate to intergroup variables such as outgroup contact and attitudes. I conducted correlational and experimental studies with community samples of adult and adolescent Turkish Australian Muslims. I recently completed my PhD and will be graduating in October 2014. My research interests are social identity, intergroup relations, acculturation, minorities and refugee mental health. 

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Cognitive Psychology Group Colloquium (and The Great Bayes Debate!)

This week we have two special events.

First, a colloquium from Prof. Cliff Hooker (a pioneer of Cognitive Science at Newcastle, now an Emeritus Professor) in our usual time slot.

Then on Friday we debate whether "Bayesian cognitive models advance our understanding of the human mind." with Dan Navarro (University of Adelaide, http://health.adelaide.edu.au/psychology/ccs/people/dan/) and Don van Van Ravenzwaaij in the affirmative and Ben Newell (http://www2.psy.unsw.edu.au/Users/BNewell/) and Scott Brown in the negative.

When: Thursday 23th October, 12-1pm (Colloquium)  and
            Friday 24th October, 1-2pm (Bayes Debate)

Where: Keats Reading Room, Psychology Building

COLLOQUIUM DETAILS

Title: A Universal Model for Deep Problem Solving
Authors: Robert Farrell, Cliff Hooker

Abstract:
This paper provides a specific proposal for the internal drive and organisation of a problem solving process capable, if anything is, of solving initially strongly ill-defined (= deep) problems, and an explanation of why it is so cognitively powerful. Arguably it works, if anything does, everywhere deep problems arise, including in design, science, management and detective work, and performs as well or better than alternatives on most wicked problems. The proposed model arose from our study of the development of research into ape linguistic capacities using our high-level organisational model of learning process: self-directed anticipative learning (SDAL) combined with the standard model of design process in which problem and solution are iteratively reformulated.

Bio's:

Robert Farrell holds a PhD (ANU) in Philosophy of Science, has published a well received book on Paul Feyerabend's critique of the common, too simplistic, accounts of scientific method, and 8 papers on the present research.

Cliff Hooker, PhD (Physics), PhD (Philosophy), FAHA is emeritus prof. of Philosophy at NewcastleU. he has published 150+ papers (incl. 7 of Farrell's 8 papers) and authored/edited 20+ books on foundations of physics, biology and complex systems, and on rationality, philosophy of science, applied ethics and kindred topics.

JUST PUBLISHED: Resilience and Responses to Persistent Pain

The concept of resilience is of considerable interest in clinical practice.  The resilient person shows relatively speedy recovery from a disturbance and an ability to resume their former work practices, habits and normal life.  In addition, they are able to maintain that recovery over the long-term.

The maintenance of recovery is of particular interest in patients suffering from chronic pain, since the presence of persistent pain leads to a raft of behavioural and cognitive changes all aimed at coping with the pain.  And since the pain is persistent, the adaptations are chronic, be they beneficial or not.

In a recently published study, Christie Mason, Toby Newton-John and Mick Hunter interviewed 101 patients attending a pain clinic and administered a range of self-report and assessment scales.  The scales covered areas of perceived pain intensity; attitudes to the pain; functional disability; mental health and wellbeing and available social support, as well as measures of resilience and self-reliance.

The results showed clear association between greater pain intensity and poor coping scores.  The measures of coping (scores showing fear of movement and of re-injury, evidence of catastrophising, depression and disability) were negatively associated with measures of resilience and self-efficacy.  Importantly, for this group, there was a significant positive relationship between resilience and the likelihood of the patient attending work.  However, the very strong relationship between pain intensity and depression, which explained much of the variance in a hierarchical regression of the variables, illustrates the difficulties faced by clinicians in treating these patients.

For further information, please see the following article:

Newton-John TR, Mason C, & Hunter M (2014). The role of resilience in adjustment and coping with chronic pain. Rehabilitation psychology, 59 (3), 360-5 PMID: 25019306

***Our hearty congratulations go to Christie Mason on her recent graduation with a Clinical Doctorate.***

Cognitive Psychology Group Colloquium

When: Thursday 16th October, 12-1pm
Where: Keats Reading Room, Psychology Building
 

Prof. Michael Humphreys, University of Queensland

Dr. Kerry Chalmers, University of Newcastle

Title: Episodic Memory

The distinction between episodic and semantic memory dominates most introductions to the study of human memory.  However, in practice this distinction is often ignored.  In an effort to understand whether the distinction is really important and whether it is the best way to introduce students to the study of memory we look at the history of the episodic/semantic distinction.  The object is to understand the problems the distinction addresses and to evaluate the possibility of defining episodic memory. We also consider why it is so difficult to answer questions about whether non-human animals and young children have episodic memories.

JUST PUBLISHED: A Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy of an Integrated Smoking Cessation Intervention among Mental Health Patients

Depending on diagnosis and setting, between 33 and 90 per cent of people with mental illness smoke tobacco, both in Australia and worldwide. As a result, tobacco-related diseases are one of the leading causes of mortality among this population subgroup. A paucity of research to date has examined the efficacy of cessation strategies to assist people with mental illness to quit smoking. However, limited findings have suggested that aids that have been found to be effective for the general population of smokers, including counselling and nicotine replacement therapy, are also efficacious for people with mental illness. The introduction of smoke free policies within mental health inpatient settings in Australia and other countries has created an opportunity to intervene and address the health and social inequities experienced by people with acute mental illness. An admission to a smoke-free psychiatric inpatient facility, where nicotine dependence was adequately treated, has been shown to increase patient self-efficacy to make longer term changes to their smoking. However without the provision of support post discharge, preadmission smoking levels typically resume.

To assess the efficacy of integrating inpatient smoking care with community based support upon discharge, a randomised controlled trial is being undertaken across four mental health inpatient settings within the Hunter New England Local Health District, New South Wales, Australia.  All inpatients will be approached, assessed for eligibility and, if applicable, offered the opportunity to participate. All adult inpatients that smoked and had the capacity to give consent were eligible, regardless of their readiness to change or diagnosis. At the time of recruitment, participants were allocated to receive either standard hospital care or 16 weeks of support post discharge (consisting of NRT and supportive telephone calls).

As follow-up data collection is not yet complete, the outcomes of this trial have not been ascertained. However, analysis of process data suggests this project was well received by mental health inpatients; a finding that is contrary to current beliefs surrounding persons with mental illness receptivity to the offer of smoking care.  Of the 2,317 patients approached, 91% agreed to discuss smoking with the research staff and, of the eligible patients, on average 65-70% agreed to participate (N = 754). Among the participants who were eligible to receive support post discharge (n= 379), 84% opted to utilise psychosocial and/or pharmacological support in the community. These findings suggest that people with mental illness are receptive to the offer of smoking cessation care and choose to utilise such care when offered.

For further information, please see the following article:

Metse, A., Bowman, J., Wye, P., Stockings, E., Adams, M., Clancy, R., Terry, M., Wolfenden, L., Freund, M., Allan, J., Prochaska, J., & Wiggers, J. (2014). Evaluating the efficacy of an integrated smoking cessation intervention for mental health patients: Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial Trials, 15 (266), 1-7 DOI: 10.1186/1745-6215-15-266

or contact Alex Metse.

JUST PUBLISHED: The Dance of Communication: Retaining Family Membership Despite Non-Speech Dementia

As the majority of people in developed countries will be touched in some way by dementia in the 21st century, current ways of interacting in dementia care may no longer be acceptable. In particular, when people with dementia appear uncommunicative, their retained awareness and ability to interact is often dismissed or overlooked. Facing social isolation and further decline, many languish with unmet needs for human interaction. However, the intimacies of family interaction in dementia care settings point to a brighter future.

A recently published article by Bruce Walmsley and Lynne McCormack filmed speech and non-speech relational communication within families that included a member with severe dementia and limited or absent speech. Exploring the phenomenon of retained awareness, the researchers sought to understand the reciprocal efforts used by all family members to engage in alternative patterns of communication.

Interactive patterns revealed ‘in-step’ interactions that stimulated spontaneity and reciprocity and ‘out-of-step’ interactions that heightened frustration and anxiety. Family interactions could be ‘in-step’ and ‘out-of-step’ depending on relatives’ presumptions of awareness, timing of response, perceived interpretation, and what appeared to be pre-existing relational patterns. This study also found that retained awareness may exist at a level previously unrecognised in people with minimal or absent speech as a result of severe dementia. Awareness fluctuated from sensory and perceptual levels to complex movement, goal directed behaviour and self-awareness.

This study recognised the difficulty of interpreting awareness related to individual experience, especially in light of minimal speech. However, interactions and expressions of emotion were considered to represent underlying awareness in light of the observed family interactions. By exploring the lived experience of families, it revealed the efforts and willingness of all family members to retain family membership. As a pilot study, it offered a platform for future studies exploring changes in awareness and communication as individuals move from moderate to severe dementia. Importantly, this study reminds us that people with dementia may be more aware and communicative than first assumed. 

For more information about this work please see the following journal article:

Walmsley, B., D., & McCormack, L. (2014). The dance of communication: Retaining family membership despite severe non-speech dementia Dementia, 13 (5), 626-641 DOI: 10.1177/1471301213480359

or contact Dr Lynne McCormack at Lynne.McCormack@newcastle.edu.au

JUST PUBLISHED: Decision Making on the Go: The Case of Australian Football League Umpires

Welcome back to the Just Published section of the School of Psychology's Newsline. Hot off the press this month is work by PhD candidate Nathan Elsworthy and his colleagues. Below Nathan explains his recently published research:

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Believe it or not, Australian Football League (AFL) umpires are human...they do make mistakes (only about 6 per game). Umpires award about 44 free kicks per game, with many other decisions (about 2,000) often going unnoticed. So 6 errors out of about 2,000 decisions is pretty good! This is even more impressive when you consider the physical aspect of their role, whereby they cover between 10-12 km per game. Low intensity exercise has been shown to be beneficial to cognitive performance, however, at near maximal intensities such as those often completed by umpires, the ability to correctly perceive perceptual information is limited. As such, our study examined how the position and movement of an AFL umpire may impact their decision-making accuracy.

Umpire coaches review every free kick decision made by the umpire and classify them as correct, missed or unwarranted. We used this information to identify when and where free kicks were awarded, and to identify the umpire movement at this time. This approach identified the instantaneous speed when a decision was made, and how far they were positioned from play. We also assessed their movement demands prior to a free kick being awarded by examining the GPS devices worn by umpires during these games.

Umpires were often positioned between 15-20 m from the ball when a free kick was awarded, however this did not impact on their decision-making accuracy, nor did their movement speed at the time of a decision. However, increased running speed 5 seconds prior to a decision resulted in a greater likelihood of an error being made. These increased running demands may elicit various physiological changes, which negatively impact the umpires’ information processing abilities. So, although umpires make the correct decision in most circumstances, this study identified that by limiting their high intensity activity, they may be less likely to make an error.

For more information about this research, please contact Nathan Elsworthy and/or check out the following journal article:

Elsworthy, N., Burke, D., Scott, B., Stevens, C., & Dascombe, B. (2014). Physical and decision-making demands of Australian football umpires during competitive matches Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 14 (2), 401-410 DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000567

Stop-Signal Task: Methods, Statistics, and Applications.

The School of Psychology is proudly hosting a talk by Dr. Dora Matzke,
Department of Psychological Methods, University van Amsterdam. See
the attached flyer for details, including:

TITLE: A Bayesian parametric approach for the estimation of stop-signal
reaction time distributions.

WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 13th March 12-1pm, AVLG17 (videoconferenced to room AV3 in Ourimbah).

ABSTRACT: The cognitive concept of response inhibition is frequently measured using the stop-signal paradigm. In this paradigm, participants perform a two-choice reaction time task where, on some of the trials, the primary task is interrupted by a stop-signal that instructs participants to withhold their response. The dependent variable of interest is the latency of the unobservable stop response (stop signal reaction time or SSRT). Recently, Matzke, Dolan, Logan, Brown and Wagenmakers (2013) have developed a Bayesian parametric approach that allows for the estimation of the entire distribution of SSRTs. The Bayesian parametric approach is based on the assumptions of the horse race model and rests on the concept of censored distributions. The method assumes that SSRTs are ex-Gaussian distributed and uses Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling to obtain posterior distributions for the model parameters. First, I will illustrate the use of the Bayesian parametric approach with published stop-signal data. I will then introduce BEESTS, a user-friendly software implementation of the Bayesian parametric approach that can be applied to individual as well as hierarchical data structures. I will conclude by discussing possible extensions and future research directions.

PRESENTATION: The neuroscience of attention, by Dr. Søren Kyllingsbæk (Copenhagen). Thursday 19th December 10:30am-11:30am

The School of Psychology is proudly hosting a talk by Dr. Søren Kyllingsbæk, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen.  If you're interested in meeting with Dr. Kyllingsbæk while he visits Newcastle, please email Dr. Ami Eidels (ami.eidels@newcastle.edu.au).


TITLE: A Neural Theory of Visual Attention

WHERE: Keats Reading room (Aviation Building, AVLG17).

WHEN: Thursday 19th December 2013, 10:30am-11:30am.

ABSTRACT: The neural theory of visual attention (NTVA) developed by Bundesen, Habekost, and Kyllingsbæk (2005) is a neural interpretation of Bundesen’s (1990) theory of visual attention (TVA). The theory accounts both for a wide range of attentional effects in human performance (reaction times and error rates) and for a wide range of effects observed in firing rates of single cells in the primate visual system. NTVA provides a mathematical framework to unify the two fields of research—formulas bridging cognition and neurophysiology. I will present NTVA and related new theoretical ideas regarding visual encoding and visual short-term memory.

JUST PUBLISHED: Personal Qualities Assessment Across Cultures

Myself (Miles Bore), Don Munro and David Powis have spent the last 15 years developing and testing personality questionnaires and ability tests for use in the selection of medical students. While much of the focus of our research has been the use of these tests in Australia and the UK, we have also had opportunities to trial the tests in countries where English is not the first language such as Sweden, Israel, Japan, Taiwan, Nepal and Fiji. Recently we were approached by Saharnaz Nedjat from Tehran University of Medical Sciences asking if we would be interested in running the Personal Qualities Assessment tests with her in Iran. We leapt at the chance of course!

We emailed three tests to Tehran for translation into Persian: the Mental Agility Test (a 48-item high powered IQ test), the Mojac Moral Orientation Scale and our Self-Appraisal Inventory which measures the personality traits of Involvement (being empathic, confident with others and not aloof or narcissistic), Resilience (being emotionally stable and not neurotic) and Self-Control (being conscientious and not disorderly). The tests were then back-translated into English so we could check that all 240 questions in the battery, not to mention the instructions for each test, had maintained their original meaning: quite a detailed job! After checking back and forth with Saharnez on a handful of questions that were proving difficult to translate we finally had it all sorted. The real test of this was whether the tests actually worked when given to applicants in Tehran.

The tests were administered to a cohort of medical students at Tehran and the findings reported in a recently published article for the journal Medical Teacher. While the article presents only basic analysis (mean differences between students who entered directly from secondary education compared to those who entered with a tertiary degree) it is the finding that the tests performed reliably when translated into Persian that pleased us most. More detail on that and other cross-cultural comparisons are for another paper.

For more details, please see the following journal article:
Nedjat, S., Bore, M., Majdzadeh, R., Rashidian, A., Munro, D., Powis, D., Karbakhsh, M., & Keshavarz, H. (2013). Comparing the cognitive, personality and moral characteristics of high school and graduate medical entrants to the Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran Medical Teacher, 35 (12), 1632-1637 DOI: 10.3109/0142159X.2013.826791

Further information can be found at the Personal Qualities Assessment website: http://www.pqa.net.au/