http://psychopen.eu This feed aggregates journal articles from all PsychOpen GOLD Journals that have been published in the last 6 months. en-US https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Thu, 26 Mar 2026 15:10:29 GMT Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT 86400 https://psychopen.eu/images/PsychOpenGOLD_logo.png https://psychopen.eu PsychOpen GOLD https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/21469 Mon, 09 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Biolinguistics BIOLING https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/19307 Mon, 09 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT A central research question in the history of generative grammar has been whether natural languages fall within the class of context-free languages or occupy a higher position in Chomsky’s hierarchy for formal grammars. This research regained attention in recent years because grammatical abilities of non-human species have been investigated to evaluate the (alleged) uniqueness of human language. In this context, identifying the locus of complex grammatical abilities is particularly important. Out of the four papers that proved human language to be context-sensitive, three built their demonstration on clearly syntactic constructions. A fourth paper (Culy, 1982) focused on Bambara and claimed that this language is context-sensitive in its morphology. In this note we systematically investigate whether context-sensitivity indeed lies in the morphology in Bambara, conclude for a positive answer and discuss this finding at the light of the debate between lexicalist and non-lexicalist approaches. Biolinguistics BIOLING https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/21633 Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Bernd Bierl eloquently proposes an ambitious synthesis towards biological linguistics. This synthesis aims to establish a new bio-ethological linguistics based on 4E cognition. It considers the foundational ethology of authors like Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen to be its biological basis. Rather than developing the biolinguistics inspired by Noam Chomsky, which also has its roots in early 20th-century European ethology, the author considers it an inadequate naturalization and suggests subsuming it under a conception of language as behavior, within the context of embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended (4E) cognition. This reply presents some critical observations on this proposal, highlighting the inadequate interpretation of the biolinguistic approach and the potential shortcomings of the proposed research program. Biolinguistics BIOLING https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/21311 Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Biolinguistics BIOLING https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/20603 Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT This article proposes a theoretical framework for a Bio-Ethological 4E Linguistics that integrates ethology, biolinguistics, and embodied cognition within a single biological continuum. It argues that the persistent division between linguistic internalism and behavioral biology has produced two incomplete naturalisms—one mental without life, the other biological without mind. By aligning Tinbergen’s four questions of ethology (mechanism, ontogeny, function, evolution) with the four dimensions of 4E cognition (embodiment, enaction, embeddedness, extension), the paper reconstructs language as an evolved form of biological sense-making rather than an abstract code. Classical ethology—represented by Tinbergen, Lorenz, Hinde, and Hess—anticipated many principles later formalized in enactive and embodied theories of mind, while contemporary 4E approaches have yet to ground their concepts in the empirical study of behavior. The proposed synthesis restores that missing continuity by treating linguistic interaction as a living process of regulation within ecological and social systems. Language, on this view, functions as an adaptive interface linking individual cognition to collective life. The article concludes with a programmatic agenda for a unified science of communication that spans neurobiological mechanisms, developmental dynamics, social coordination, and cultural evolution. A Bio-Ethological 4E Linguistics thus redefines language as life expressing itself through meaning—an approach that re-joins the study of mind with the study of behavior and situates linguistics within the broader biology of living systems. Biolinguistics BIOLING https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/19021 Thu, 04 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT A core component of a successful artificial general intelligence would be the rapid creation and manipulation of grounded compositional abstractions and the demonstration of expertise in the family of recursive hierarchical syntactic objects necessary for the creative use of human language. We evaluated the recently released o3 model (OpenAI; o3-mini-high) from ChatGPT and discovered that while it succeeds on some basic linguistic tests relying on linear, surface statistics (e.g., the Strawberry Test), it fails to generalize basic phrase structure rules; it fails with comparative sentences involving semantically illegal cardinality comparisons (‘Escher sentences’); it fails to correctly rate and explain acceptability dynamics; and it fails to distinguish between instructions to generate unacceptable semantic vs. unacceptable syntactic outputs. When tasked with generating simple violations of grammatical rules, it is seemingly incapable of representing multiple parses to evaluate against various possible semantic interpretations. We ran all of these prompts multiple times again through the API and provide basic accuracy scores. In stark contrast to many recent claims that artificial language models are on the verge of replacing the field of linguistics, our results suggest not only that deep learning is hitting a wall with respect to compositionality (Marcus, 2022), but that it is hitting [a [stubbornly [resilient wall]]] that cannot readily be surmounted to reach human-like compositional reasoning simply through more compute. Biolinguistics BIOLING https://bioling.psychopen.eu/index.php/bioling/article/view/17229 Wed, 08 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT This paper draws a deep connection between smuggling (Collins, 2005) and labeling (Collins, 2002; Chomsky, 2013, 2015), showing that the movement of the smuggler in a smuggling derivation can be triggered by the labeling algorithm. Biolinguistics BIOLING https://cpe.psychopen.eu/index.php/cpe/article/view/17941 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Background: The network theory describes mental disorders as a network of interacting symptoms. While most research on the network theory is based on network analyses of symptom data, little is known about mental health professionals´ attitudes towards this theory. Clinical expertise could offer a valuable additional perspective on the validity of the theory and its applications to clinical practice. Method: Mental health professionals rated their agreement with propositions of the network theory regarding the phenomenology, aetiology, and treatment of mental disorders in an online survey. Further, the acceptability and appropriateness of possible applications were evaluated. We calculated descriptive statistics and examined associated factors with regression analyses. Results: The participating psychotherapists (n = 183), specialized physicians (n = 45), and clinical psychologists (n = 29, total n = 257) largely agreed with the network theory’s propositions regarding the phenomenology of mental disorders and treatment effects. Appraisal of the network theory regarding the aetiology of mental disorders, regarding important treatment targets, and regarding acceptability and appropriateness of possible applications was mixed. A theoretical background in cognitive behavioural therapy and previous knowledge of the network theory were associated with a stronger agreement in most domains. Conclusions: The fundamental assumptions of the network approach seem to resonate with mental health professionals, while the consequences for the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders were questioned. Our findings indicate that the general conceptualization of mental disorders as symptom networks seems to align with mental health professionals’ perceptions but, at the same time, emphasizes the novelty and limited specificity of the theory’s implications for clinical practice. Clinical Psychology in Europe CPE https://cpe.psychopen.eu/index.php/cpe/article/view/17975 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Background: Despite efforts to integrate psychotherapy, the field remains fragmented into distinct theoretical orientations and practical approaches. Prejudices held by psychotherapists towards those from other theoretical orientations may hinder cooperation in research and clinical practice. This study examines stereotypes among psychotherapists from different theoretical orientations and practical approaches (‘psychotherapy schools’) towards their in-group and out-group colleagues. Method: The cross-sectional online study assessed socially shared evaluations of ‘warmth’ and ‘competence’ from the stereotype content model in a sample of 586 German psychotherapists (60.9% licensed; 39.1% in training) from different psychotherapy schools (34.5% psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapists, 19.8% psychodynamic psychotherapists, 28.7% cognitive behavioural therapists, and 17.1% systemic therapists). Linear mixed-effects models were used to examine differences in evaluations based on the rater’s and the rated psychotherapy school. Results: The psychotherapists' assumed socially shared evaluations of ‘warmth’ and ‘competence’ varied depending on their psychotherapy school affiliation, with significantly higher evaluations assigned to their in-groups than to their out-groups. Conclusion: The results indicate in-group biases in the social perception of psychotherapists with different theoretical orientations, representing potential barriers to inter-group contact and collaboration. Addressing prejudices is key to strengthening integrative competence in both research and clinical practice. Clinical Psychology in Europe CPE https://cpe.psychopen.eu/index.php/cpe/article/view/15687 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Background: Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a prevalent mental disorder characterised by fear of negative evaluation. Although effective treatment approaches are available, access remains limited due to psychological and organisational barriers. Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) has shown promising results and may facilitate an easy and more resource-efficient access to treatment. Method: We developed an app-based self-help intervention for SAD based on the Clark and Wells treatment program, implemented as an unguided smartphone application, which was evaluated in this quasi-experimental pre-post pilot study consisting of N = 33 patients with a primary diagnosis of SAD. Feasibility was assessed through usage parameters and qualitative feedback. Effectiveness was evaluated in regard to SAD and depression, using clinician-rated measures (LSAS, QIDS-C) at post-treatment (12 weeks) and self-report measures (SPIN, SCQ, BDI-FS) at midpoint and post-treatment. Additionally, moderating effects of usage parameters on symptom reduction were examined. Results: Clinician- and self-reported SAD symptoms were significantly reduced at post-measurement (within-group effect sizes LSAS: η2 = .54; SPIN: η2 = .47), with 52% of patients achieving a clinically significant improvement. Despite moderate overall adherence, the amount of conducted behavioural experiments moderated reduction in self-reported SAD symptom severity and SAD-related cognitions. Open feedback supported feasibility and acceptability of the app. Conclusion: In conclusion, findings provide preliminary support for feasibility, acceptability, and potential effectiveness of Mindable: Soziale Phobie. A randomised controlled trial will further evaluate the effectiveness and explore the impact of therapist guidance. Clinical Psychology in Europe CPE https://cpe.psychopen.eu/index.php/cpe/article/view/17121 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Background: Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterized by an excessive preoccupation with perceived appearance flaws, often accompanied by repetitive behaviors such as frequent mirror checking. It is further associated with severe occupational and social impairments, depression, and high levels of suicidality, including suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and completed suicide. Given the high rates of depression and suicidality found in BDD, this study aimed to examine whether BDD symptoms may also be directly linked to suicidality, independent of depressive symptoms. Method: A mediation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationships between BDD symptoms, depression, and suicidality. Cross-sectional data were collected through an online self-test for BDD, assessing BDD symptoms, depression and suicidality. A total of 1,256 participants (aged 18–71; 72% female) met DSM-5 criteria for BDD (based on self-report). Results: Depressive symptoms partially mediated the relationship between BDD symptoms and suicidality. However, a direct association between BDD symptoms and suicidality was also observed, indicating that suicidality in individuals with BDD is not solely attributable to comorbid depressive symptoms. Conclusion: The findings underscore the need for thorough suicidality assessments in individuals with BDD, regardless of the presence of depressive symptoms. This further highlights the importance of targeted interventions to address suicidality in this population. Clinical Psychology in Europe CPE https://cpe.psychopen.eu/index.php/cpe/article/view/17279 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Background: The increasing popularity of mental-health information on social media platforms such as TikTok is raising concerns regarding misinformation. Previous research is limited to single disorders and videos in the English language only. Our objective was to investigate the quality of mental health information on German-language TikTok for a broader spectrum of disorders. Method: Thirty German-language TikTok-videos of each of the six most viewed hashtags on mental disorders (attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, autism, anxiety disorder, narcissism and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)) were classified regarding authorship and rated either as “correct”, “overgeneralized”, “incorrect” or “subjective experience”. The modified DISCERN (mDISCERN) and the Global Quality Scale (GQS) were used to rate reliability and quality of information for patients. Results: The 177 videos finally included in this study gathered a total of 94,348,220 views and 19.2% (n = 34) of the videos were rated as correct, 33.3% (n = 59) as incorrect, 18.1% (n = 32) as overgeneralized and 29.4% (n = 52) as personal experience. Chi-Square tests and Kruskal-Wallis tests showed significant relationships between either authorship or diagnosis and quality and reliability. Videos on PTSD and videos by expert authors showed the best and videos on narcissism and videos by laypeople the worst overall results. Conclusion: With around half of the analyzed videos supplying incorrect information, the quality of German-language TikTok mental health content is insufficient. Differences in the quality of content seem to be influenced by the topic and the authorship. Healthcare institutions and clinicians should be aware of this, educate patients accordingly, and could improve the quality of information by participating in online discourses. Clinical Psychology in Europe CPE https://cpe.psychopen.eu/index.php/cpe/article/view/22213 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT No abstract available. Clinical Psychology in Europe CPE https://cpe.psychopen.eu/index.php/cpe/article/view/15691 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Background: Body checking (BC) is widespread among healthy populations and in individuals with eating disorders (EDs), body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and illness anxiety disorder (IAD). Etiological models of these three disorders originate from research on obsessive-compulsive disorder and propose a short-term reduction of negative affect after BC. However, as empirical evidence shows a heterogenous pattern regarding the reduction of negative affect, the primary objective of this study was to test the etiological models in a cross-over laboratory experiment. Method: After induction of negative affect, N = 102 healthy females underwent a 10-min BC task, in which they were randomly assigned to perform ED-, BDD-, or IAD-related BC, and a 10-min control checking condition of checking the characteristics of two vases. Before and after each task, participants completed state questionnaires on affect and disorder-specific pathology. Results: The results revealed increased negative affect and disorder-specific pathology from before to after BC, but a reduction of these variables after the control checking condition. Conclusion: Thus, contrary to expectation, the theory explaining reduced negative affect in compulsive checking may not directly be applicable to ED-, BDD-, and IAD-related BC in healthy populations, thus providing evidence of the dysfunctionality of BC in the short term. Clinical Psychology in Europe CPE https://cpe.psychopen.eu/index.php/cpe/article/view/15801 Fri, 28 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Background: This study addresses a research gap by identifying depressive symptom trajectories from adolescence to emerging adulthood in a German community sample using a person-centered approach. Method: The sample consisted of 3,682 adolescents and young adults (49.3% self-identified as female; age at T1: 15–19 years, M = 17.03, SD = 0.88) assessed in seven annual waves of the German Family Panel Pairfam. Latent class growth analysis was conducted with sociodemographic variables (gender, family status, parental education, economic deprivation, immigration background) and depressive symptoms, as assessed by the State-Trait Depression Scales. Results: Five depressive symptom trajectories were identified: stable low symptoms (34%), intermediate onset with decreasing symptom trajectory (8%), intermediate onset with slow increasing symptom trajectory (46%), intermediate onset with strong increase symptom trajectory (9%) and stable high symptoms (4%). Female gender and economic deprivation were predictors for all four classes associated with higher depressive symptoms with reference to the class with stable low depressive symptoms. Family status and immigration status lost their predictive impact for membership in depressive symptom trajectories when economic deprivation was included. Conclusions: Interventions should target the underlying etiological factors of female gender and economic deprivation being risk factors for trajectories of depression, taking into consideration the complexity and interaction of biopsychosocial and political variables in the development of depressive disorders. Clinical Psychology in Europe CPE https://cpe.psychopen.eu/index.php/cpe/article/view/15877 Fri, 28 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Context: Childhood trauma is more prevalent among individuals with substance use disorders compared to the general population, representing a significant public health concern. The presence of comorbid dissociative symptoms poses a significant challenge for psychological care. Objectives: We conducted a systematic review of the literature, using the PRISMA method, to establish the relationship between dissociative experiences and substance misuse in adults who have experienced traumatic childhood events. Method: We used electronic databases (PubMed, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, Web of Science and ProQuest) up to August 2023. Studies were selected which included adults over 18 years old who had been exposed to one or more traumatic events in childhood, and which jointly assessed Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and dissociation, using quantitative methodology. The review included both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, with the risk of bias assessed using the AXIS tool and the Qualitative Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. The results are entered in a table and analyzed using a narrative summary. Results: Among the 18 included studies, encompassing a total of 6,451 participants, the majority (n = 10) showed a significant positive correlation between dissociative experiences and SUD. The studies collectively indicate a general trend: childhood traumatic antecedents can influence the severity of dissociative symptomatology and SUD. Discussion: These results are discussed in greater depth in relation to the two main theories explaining the link between SUD and dissociation, namely self-medication and chemical dissociation theory. This paper clarifies the relationship between dissociation and substance use in a population traumatized in childhood, although the heterogeneity of the studies necessitates a cautious interpretation of this primary finding. Clinical Psychology in Europe CPE https://cpe.psychopen.eu/index.php/cpe/article/view/17321 Fri, 28 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Background: Structured diagnostic interviews (SDIs) are frequently used in science and are highly recommended for diagnosing mental disorders in clinical practice. However, the actual SDI familiarity and use among psychotherapy practitioners is limited. To identify opportunities for training improvement and ensure a frequent SDI application by future practitioners, data on SDI experiences and beliefs among current psychotherapy trainees is essential. Method: N = 233 psychotherapy trainees completed an online survey that included questions about their SDI experiences, use, beliefs, and their estimation of patient SDI satisfaction and acceptance. In addition, adherence to psychotherapeutic orientation and personality factors were assessed. Correlation between SDI satisfaction and familiarity was computed. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to predict trainees’ SDI satisfaction by beliefs about SDIs. Exploratory correlations between SDI satisfaction, adherence to psychotherapeutic orientations, and personality factors were analyzed. Results: SDI familiarity was significantly related to trainees’ overall SDI satisfaction. Both positive (e.g., “SDIs are efficient”) and negative (e.g., “SDIs disturb the relationship to patients”) beliefs about SDIs predicted trainees’ overall satisfaction. Small relationships were found between SDI satisfaction and adherence to psychotherapeutic orientation, but none to personality factors. Conclusion: Psychotherapy training programs should provide sufficient opportunity for SDI practice to promote trainee satisfaction. Training providers should address trainees’ beliefs and concerns, underline advantages of SDIs, and inform about actual SDI acceptance among patients to resolve prejudice. Trainees’ personality appears to be less relevant to SDI satisfaction, but further investigations are needed. The findings have important implications for overcoming barriers to the use of structured diagnostic interviews. Clinical Psychology in Europe CPE https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/17625 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT This study explores the role of cognitive reserve (CR) as a protective factor in late adulthood, focusing on its associations with cognitive performance, dysfunctional beliefs, and motivational orientation. A total of 100 older adults aged 65 to 93 completed standardized assessments: the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire (CRIq), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and the Dysfunctional Beliefs Questionnaire (DBQ). Motivation was also assessed through qualitative responses categorized into thematic domains. Correlation analyses revealed that higher CR was significantly associated with better cognitive functioning (r = .62, p Europe's Journal of Psychology EJOP https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/17499 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT According to creative writing experts, adding conflict to dialogue improves story quality and audience reaction to that story. This idea draws from the widely held theory that conflict is vital for dramatic stories. Yet despite conflict’s seeming centrality, experimental research into its effects is limited. We take a small step in addressing this shortfall, by examining whether one type of conflict — adversarial dialogue — improves story quality, and audience response. In a pilot, and two similar studies, we manipulated stories to create different levels of conflictual dialogue, in repeated measures experiments. Forty-seven participants in the first study and 194 in the second, read stories with different levels of conflict, and then rated them on a series of measures (the Perceived Quality Index in the first experiment, the Audience Response Scale, with supplementary questions on boredom and story quality in the second). While the conflict manipulation was successful, it produced no significant difference in these outcome measures in the two experiments. These results do not support the study hypothesis that manipulating isolated adversarial dialogue has a positive effect on stories but would be compatible with alternative theories of conflict in stories. Europe's Journal of Psychology EJOP https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/17937 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Nowadays, digital devices (DD) overuse is an increasing risk factor to develop anxiety, depression and sleep disturbances in young population. Objectives: This study aims to validate the Digital Addiction Scale for Children (DASC) in Spanish, the second most spoken language globally, and to examine its relationship with anxiety, depression, and sleep patterns in children and adolescents. Methods: A sample of 977 children aged 9 to 14 completed self-reported measures of sleep duration, the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) and the DASC. The statistical analyses, including confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, McDonald’s omega, and Pearson correlations, revealed that the DASC has a bifactorial structure and good reliability. Results: Higher problematic DD levels were associated with increased anxiety and depression symptoms and reduced sleep hours. Although the DASC-Spanish version shows only partial gender and age invariance, it demonstrates strong psychometric properties, supporting its use in psychological practice and research. Conclusions: The observed correlates of the Spanish-DASC with anxiety, depression, and sleep; emphasize its relevance in the presence of negative emotional symptoms and for the promotion of psychological well-being and health in late childhood and adolescence. Europe's Journal of Psychology EJOP https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/14559 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Objective: By 2021, researchers reported limited access to evidence-based mental health interventions in Ukraine, which became more crucial after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Evidence-based practice in psychology (EBPP) requires professionals to consider equal contributions of the best available research, practical experience, and the context of the unique client. This study aimed to reveal the possible predictors of EBPP implementation among Ukrainian psychologists (n = 366) by developing and testing multivariable prediction models. Methods: The research design followed the methodology of “Transparent reporting of a multivariable prediction model for individual prognosis or diagnosis” — TRIPOD checklist. The online survey included a questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics, educational and professional background, and a purposely developed part regarding the knowledge, attitudes, and utilization of the EBPP approach. Results: Regression analysis revealed different prediction models for the belief that the respondent implements EBPP and the intensity of EBPP elements implementation, explaining 24.4% and 18.5% of their variance with 3 and 5 predictors, respectively. Conclusion: Psychologists believed they were implementing EBPP when they used interventions/methods with proven efficacy, were members of psychological associations, and assessed their knowledge regarding EBPP higher. However, more intensive use of EBPP elements was predicted by a psychologist’s experience in personal therapy and supervision, a positive attitude toward EBPP elements, membership in a psychological association, and a perceived level of knowledge regarding EBPP. The belief that the psychologist’s practice aligns with the EBPP requirements and the intensity of using EBPP elements had a rather moderate correlation. Europe's Journal of Psychology EJOP https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/14761 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Discussions about potential intervention targets, antecedents, and consequences of conspiracy beliefs often rely on comparing bivariate correlations, which can mask intricate patterns. Therefore, the present study adopts a multivariate network approach to gain nuanced insights into the relationships between personality variables and conspiracy mentality. Established and less-studied correlates of conspiracy mentality (i.e., bedtime procrastination, life satisfaction, locus of control, neuroticism, political cynicism, self-efficacy, and self-esteem) were examined together in network models at the aggregate score level and item level. Notably, network stability was examined across different samples before (N = 403) and during (N = 193) the COVID-19 pandemic. The main findings are: (a) the strength and sign of the relationships were often stable across bivariate and network analyses (e.g., positive relationships between political cynicism and conspiracy mentality), however, there were exceptions, such as an inconsistent link between life satisfaction and conspiracy mentality; (b) while many network relationships and centrality indices were similar before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, some noteworthy exceptions indicate that interventions targeting implausible conspiracy beliefs may benefit from tailoring to external circumstances; (c) certain influential network elements were identified that could inform future interventions (e.g., increasing politicians' transparency and accountability). Europe's Journal of Psychology EJOP https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/17375 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine relations of formal volunteering (FV) rates to neuroticism, socioeconomic grade (SEG), trust of neighbors, and racial/ethnic diversity (RED) in 316 local authority districts (LADs) in England to determine the replicability of earlier research on the US states. Method: A national indicator dataset provided the percentage of adults who engaged in FV in each LAD during 2008. LAD neuroticism scores were based on internet responses of 386,375 UK residents to the Big Five Inventory. SEG was based on four occupation grades from the 2011 UK census. RED was based on 2011 UK census data and the premise that maximum diversity occurs when each racial/ethnic group has equal proportions. Based on 2009 to 2015 data, the neighbor trust variable indicates the percent of persons in each LAD who believe they can trust their neighbors. The present research employed correlation and multiple regression strategies. It also evaluated the impacts of spatial autocorrelation. Results: LAD FV rates correlated negatively with neuroticism and RED, and positively with SEG and trust. The most important finding is that the significant negative relation between RED and FV was rendered nonsignificant or was greatly reduced when trust was controlled in sequential multiple regressions. Adjusting for spatial autocorrelation or not, the results were substantively the same. Conclusions: These results essentially replicate those of two earlier analyses using US states. Findings strongly suggest that trust is a mediator between RED and FV. Speculative interpretations focus on relations between homophily, RED, and trust. Europe's Journal of Psychology EJOP https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/13155 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT The preservation of peace is a key concern of the Cameroonian people and the subject of debate within the political class. The public’s marked interest in this issue prompted us to look at social representations of peace in Cameroon through the prism of religious commitment. Adopting a structural approach to social representations, we conducted a study among respondents with different levels of religious commitment (N = 156). Data collected via free association and characterization questionnaires were submitted to hierarchical and Q-sort analyses. Results indicated that unity is the factor that best characterizes peace. A comparative analysis of the organization of representations between groups with different levels of religious commitment failed to reveal any major differences. Based on the elements identified by participants, we argue that proximity to the object is the main factor underlying the construction of social representations of peace in Cameroon. Europe's Journal of Psychology EJOP https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/17957 Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT COVID-19 has profoundly impacted physical and mental health worldwide, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations, including immigrants. While subjective health (SH) is widely used as a measure of well-being, little is known about how personal values influence SH differently between immigrants and nonimmigrants during crises. This study explores the relationship between personal values and SH, focusing on differences between immigrant and nonimmigrant groups. Using data from the European Social Survey (ESS), we analyzed responses from 32,963 individuals across 20 countries (Round 10: 2020–22). Multilevel modeling showed that Axis_open (Openness to change over Conservation) was positively associated with SH in both immigrant and nonimmigrant groups. However, Axis_self (Self-transcendence over Self-enhancement) was not significant among nonimmigrants, while in the immigrant group, higher Axis_self scores were significantly associated with poorer SH. These findings underscore the importance of considering cultural and migratory contexts when addressing the health implications of personal values. Europe's Journal of Psychology EJOP https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/15335 Fri, 28 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Objectives: Our study underscores the relevance of focusing on parent-adolescent dyads in order to understand the interplay between school trust, engagement and satisfaction with the school by testing a model in which school engagement mediates the association between trust in the school and satisfaction with the school. Methods: We use an actor-partner-interdependence-model to test the mediating role of school engagement between trust and satisfaction with the school in 506 parent-adolescent dyads in Romania. Results: The results show that when these variables are jointly evaluated in parent-adolescent dyads, only student engagement is a significant dyadic (couple) mediator, such that it is positively predicted both by student and parental trust in the school and predicts both student and parental satisfaction with the school. Our results also reveal a partner only effect on parental school engagement that is positively predicted by student trust in the school. Moreover, our results also reveal that parental trust in the school has a positive association with parental as well as student satisfaction with the school. An emergent result is that female students report a higher engagement and satisfaction with the school than male students do. Conclusions: In line with our results, we urge school administrators to provide resources and create platforms for a joint involvement of parents and adolescents in relevant school-related activities. Europe's Journal of Psychology EJOP https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/17201 Fri, 28 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Self-esteem and self-compassion are both associated with psychological well-being, but they differ in their underlying mechanisms. Some studies have found that self-compassion mediates the relationship between self-esteem and well-being, yet they have overlooked the distinct roles of its cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. This study examined whether specific self-compassion facets mediate the relationship between self-esteem and well-being, using the Italian adaptation of the Sussex-Oxford Compassion Scales (SOCS), whose psychometric properties were also assessed. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 408 Italian high school and undergraduate healthcare students. Participants completed the SOCS, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale. The Italian SOCS was psychometrically evaluated through confirmatory factor analyses and showed good validity and reliability. Correlations and path analyses were used to examine the mediating roles of cognitive, affective, and behavioral self-compassion facets. Emotional and behavioral components of self-compassion — such as “feeling for one’s suffering”, “tolerating uncomfortable feelings”, and “acting to alleviate suffering” — significantly mediated the link between self-esteem and well-being. These facets accounted for 39% of its variance, while cognitive components did not show significant effects. These findings highlight the importance of affective and behavioral self-compassion in therapeutic interventions, emphasizing their role in enhancing well-being. Europe's Journal of Psychology EJOP https://gep.psychopen.eu/index.php/gep/article/view/13967 Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Encouraging plant-based food consumption among western consumers is vital for reducing the environmental impacts of animal agriculture. This study examined whether a default nudge intervention increased plant-based milk consumption in a UK university café using an ABAB experimental design. During the intervention phases, the default milk option was changed from dairy to oat milk. In the first intervention phase, customers were approximately three times more likely to consume plant-based milk when oat milk was the default option (from 16.6% to 51.9%). However, this effect was smaller in the second intervention phase compared to the first (from 51.9% to 46.0%), questioning the intervention’s long-term impact. Comparable data in the university’s second café (where no intervention occurred) found no differences in plant-based milk intake during the study period, suggesting that changes in plant-based milk consumption were due to the default nudge. Based on this intervention, the milk-based carbon footprint per drink reduced by an estimated 25%–34%. These findings suggest that, in a UK university café context, default nudges can encourage plant-based milk consumption and reduce dairy intake. This provides implications for adopting sustainable default nudges in the university and wider food sector to help reduce the environmental impacts of animal agriculture. Global Environmental Psychology GEP https://gep.psychopen.eu/index.php/gep/article/view/12843 Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT The study aimed to investigate the relationship between character strengths and sustainable consumption. Moreover, the study examined differences in character strengths between individuals who follow vegan/vegetarian diets and those who are omnivores. Participants were 203 adults between 18 and 68 years. Significant correlations were found between sustainable consumption of food and the character strengths of kindness, forgiveness, curiosity, love of learning, prudence, zest, and judgment, and between sustainable consumption of clothes and the character strengths of hope, kindness, love, curiosity, love of learning, gratitude, and zest. Sustainable food consumption was predicted by spirituality, curiosity, prudence, and diet preference, and sustainable consumption of clothes was predicted by kindness, curiosity, and diet preference. To conclude, the study has revealed some relations between character strengths and sustainable consumption, hinting that inner transformational qualities could be essential to behaving sustainably. However, the relations are weak. This study can only be seen as a first step towards a deeper analysis of internal transformative qualities for sustainable behavior. In general, well-powered intervention studies with fostering values or connectedness must be conducted to investigate if internal transformative qualities are relevant for a change toward sustainable behavior. Global Environmental Psychology GEP https://gep.psychopen.eu/index.php/gep/article/view/11705 Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Providing households with consumption feedback can effectively reduce water and energy use. However, the efficacy may depend on the medium and frequency of the messages. In this longitudinal study spanning over two years, we report two experiments on household water use read via meter in the United Kingdom: one manipulating the frequency of feedback (N = 13,047), and one comparing the medium (email vs. paper) of the feedback messages (N = 18,896). Overall, the feedback interventions reduced water consumption by around 2%. There were no differences in delivering the treatment monthly vs. 3-monthly, and paper messages were effective, but emails were not. Almost all households reduced their consumption, although the effect was variable. These results inform psychological interventions and cost-effective messaging for water districts and perhaps other types of utilities. Global Environmental Psychology GEP https://jbdgm.psychopen.eu/index.php/JBDGM/article/view/253 Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Correction to: Düvel, N., & Altemeier, F. (2025). Open Science practices and new statistics in the Yearbook of Music Psychology: A bibliometric analysis. Jahrbuch Musikpsychologie, 33, Article e229. https://doi.org/10.5964/jbdgm.229 Jahrbuch Musikpsychologie / Yearbook Music Psychology JBDGM https://jbdgm.psychopen.eu/index.php/JBDGM/article/view/225 Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT When listening to music, people are able to separate the various parts or streams that the respective piece is made of, depending on their musical experience and aural training. Specific musical expertise affects these analytical listening skills, but different studies have shown that differences between experts and amateurs are smaller than often anticipated and depend heavily on the adequacy of the task for amateurs. The present replication study of Kopiez and Platz (2009) has investigated in a convenience sample (N = 97) whether a presumably obvious clash of keys between solo and accompaniment can be detected. In an incomplete study design, participants listened to two pieces of music (jazz and classical) with solos each played by one of two instruments (trumpet and saxophone) in either a clashing or fitting condition. Participants' musical training and perceptual abilities showed a medium correlation with the harmoniousness ratings difference between the clashing and fitting stimuli. Overall, the clashing version of the classical piece was rated as less harmonious than the jazz piece. These results are in line with similar research and raise questions concerning the appropriate research method to investigate the perception of participants with various degrees of expertise. Jahrbuch Musikpsychologie / Yearbook Music Psychology JBDGM https://jbdgm.psychopen.eu/index.php/JBDGM/article/view/227 Wed, 17 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Deliberate Practice (DP) is a fundamental aspect of musical expertise. Measuring DP in child musicians could provide useful information about its role in determining progress towards higher levels of expertise. This study aims to develop and validate a standardized instrument for measuring the level of DP that child musicians exhibit in their practice routine. The questionnaire is intended to be used by music teachers, parents and child musicians. The Deliberate Practice in Music Inventory (DPMI, Passarotto et al., 2022) for adult musicians was revised and simplified for the use with children by experienced musicians and music educators. The resulting child DPMI (cDPMI) consisted of 11 items, grouped into a main scale and four subscales. Analyses of data collected from a sample of primary school children, their parents, and teachers confirmed the appropriateness of the factor structure of the new questionnaire with good fit indices. The cDPMI main scale and subscales showed acceptable internal consistency in the parents and teachers groups, but internal consistency indices fell below the acceptable level in the children group. The cDPMI was invariant across groups of users (i.e., children, parents, and teachers) and times of measurement. Finally, the cDPMI main scale and subscales were significantly correlated with related personality traits and self-regulatory behaviors, suggesting its convergent validity. In conclusion, the new cDPMI is a standardized and valid instrument for measuring DP in child musicians, although it appears to be particularly suitable as an external evaluation tool for parents and teachers and less suitable as a self-assessment tool for primary school children. Jahrbuch Musikpsychologie / Yearbook Music Psychology JBDGM https://jbdgm.psychopen.eu/index.php/JBDGM/article/view/229 Fri, 14 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Open science practices and the use of the so-called new statistics can be understood as countermeasures to the crisis of confidence in psychology criticising questionable research practices. To trace developments toward improved research standards in German and German speaking music psychology research, a bibliometric analysis of research reports published in the Yearbook of Music Psychology (Vol. 22–32, 2012–June 2024) was conducted. Metadata from all articles were extracted and cleaned, and additional variables related to open science and new statistic practices were coded manually. The final dataset included 79 research reports, 59 of which reported quantitative studies. Since Volume 28, most quantitative papers included statements regarding the availability of data and materials, as well as disclosures of funding sources and potential conflicts of interest. However, none of the studies reported a preregistration. Effect sizes and p-values were frequently reported but only around half of the papers included confidence intervals. An international and interdisciplinary comparison revealed similar trends while also identifying areas where practices in the Yearbook were either comparatively high or contained some of the known problems and need improvement. The analysis offers a detailed overview of the evolution of publication practices in the Yearbook over the past decade. By providing empirical insights into the uptake of open science and statistical reporting standards, the study contributes to the ongoing development of both the Yearbook of Music Psychology and the broader field of music psychology. These findings may also inform editorial policies and future research practice more generally. Jahrbuch Musikpsychologie / Yearbook Music Psychology JBDGM https://jbdgm.psychopen.eu/index.php/JBDGM/article/view/205 Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Understanding the relationships between different pitches as a form of tonality is a key element of listening skills in Western tonal music. Tonal hierarchies (i.e., genre-dependent differing prominence of tones) are reflected in the internal representations of tonal hierarchies (IRTH) in long-term memory. Over the past 40 years, research on how individuals—primarily students aged 6 to 15, as well as adults—acquire IRTH has yielded varied and sometimes contradictory conclusions about the timeline and underlying mechanisms of this process. This review aims to synthesize the evidence and critically examine potential reasons for the heterogeneity in prior findings. To this end, two approaches were applied. First, a Bayesian three-level meta-analysis of 60 effect sizes from 16 studies, reported in 13 articles, revealed a medium difference in IRTH sensitivity between younger and older participants. Second, a model comparison analysis based on cross-sectional data from a single study revealed a non-linear growth dynamic, with a larger increase during adolescence as the best model solution to describe the relationship between sensitivity and age. We also examined the considerable heterogeneity observed within and between studies, particularly how task-specific features of the operationalizations might account for these differences. These findings contribute to the development of theoretical models of music-related skill acquisition and suggest directions for future research. Jahrbuch Musikpsychologie / Yearbook Music Psychology JBDGM https://jbdgm.psychopen.eu/index.php/JBDGM/article/view/217 Thu, 09 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Movement sensations and impulses triggered by listening to music can have very different qualities and, in everyday life, can lead to physical actions such as dance movements if the music is sufficiently enjoyable, at a sufficient volume and in a suitable situation. In order to address the qualitative diversity of movement sensations, we present the DGA, a new measurement instrument. It is based on a factor analysis of an already existing dataset and is able to differentiate between three fundamental dimensions of perceived rhythmic structures when listening to music: roll, drive and pulse. Digital methods of data collection (web scraping, APIs, digital audio sampling and online survey) in combination with structural equation modelling (SEM) and robust statistical analysis methods (LMMs) are used to investigate whether the new measurement instrument also proves itself in a large stimulus pool of k = 448 pop music pieces in terms of model fit, reliability and discriminant validity. For this purpose, after calculating factor scores from n = 1775 collected listener ratings, genre differences that occurred with regard to the sensation of movement when listening to short pop song excerpts are evaluated. Analysis results show that the DGA exhibit good model fit and reliability even with a large number of musically diverse stimuli and thus can fulfil its claim to map different phenomenological aspects of movement impulses in its measurements with comparatively less influence from personal liking. Jahrbuch Musikpsychologie / Yearbook Music Psychology JBDGM https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/15185 Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT The relative importance of knowledge of discrete facts (e.g., 12 + 5 = 17) or abstract concepts (e.g., mathematical equality) is debated and contributes to the math wars; the different assumptions and approaches of mathematics educators and cognitive scientists who study mathematical learning. Stepping back and approaching the issue using the properties of the controlled semantic cognition system could move the debate forward. The system supports conceptual learning across domains, and represents concepts as common properties of related experiences or things. These properties can be generalized across exemplars, contexts, and time and can be expressed across modalities. The concepts emerge slowly through statistical learning and will be shaped by the frequency and variety of exposures to experiences and things that share common features. The properties of the system help to explain why the ways in which math problems are presented (e.g., in textbooks) lead to conceptual understandings or misunderstandings; why repeated and varied (e.g., different surface structure) solving of problems that tap the same concept are required for concept learning; and, why mathematical concepts can be expressed through gesture, language, or visually. The approach has implications for improving children’s mathematical development. Journal of Numerical Cognition JNC https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/17029 Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Patterning knowledge encompasses the ability to notice and use predictable sequences, and identifying, extending, and describing patterns in objects and numbers are core to mathematical thinking. Identifying the pattern rule (e.g., the unit of repeat) is often considered an indicator of patterning understanding. The goal of the current paper is to consider potential operationalizations of repeating patterning understanding, as well as expand the toolkit for measuring repeating patterning understanding. The Early Patterning Assessment (EPA) is a research instrument that can be given online or in person, using mostly selected-response items. Across four rounds of data collection in the U.S. (n = 244) and one study in Türkiye (formerly known as Turkey) (n = 107), the repeating patterning measure was a reliable measure for 4-7-year-old children, with scores increasing with age. It was also easier and faster to administer than past assessments that used constructed response items. IRT Rasch models were used to assess construct validity and identify the difficulty level of different types of items, within a Construct Modeling Approach (Wilson, 2023). Complete the pattern was the easiest task, and explicitly identifying the unit of repeat was the most difficult task. We considered three potential indicators of repeating patterning understanding and suggest operationalizing children’s understanding of repeating patterns as demonstrating spontaneous use of correct procedures across multiple tasks and pattern units. Journal of Numerical Cognition JNC https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/19523 Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT A bidirectional relationship between conceptual and procedural understanding in the development of arithmetic skills has often been reported. We investigated whether domain-specific longitudinal predictors of procedural arithmetic performance at the beginning of primary school also predict conceptual understanding two years later. We assessed conceptual and procedural understanding of arithmetic and mathematical reasoning in 195 UK children (mean age 8 years 2 months) in Year 3. Conceptual understanding was defined as children’s understanding of principles underlying arithmetic procedures. Performance on a speeded arithmetic task was taken as an indicator of children’s procedural understanding of arithmetic. The same children had been assessed in Year 1 on potential cognitive and numerical predictors including number transcoding, symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude comparison, arithmetic performance, verbal and visuo-spatial working memory, and non-verbal reasoning. A structural equation model including arithmetic performance, number transcoding and non-verbal cognitive skills measured in Year 1 predicted 33% of the variance in conceptual understanding in Year 3. Arithmetic performance and number transcoding in Year 1 were also significant longitudinal predictors of both procedural arithmetic understanding and mathematical reasoning in Year 3. When we ran a second structural equation model without arithmetic performance in Year 1, number transcoding and non-verbal cognitive skills remained the only significant longitudinal predictors of conceptual understanding in Year 3. Our study highlights substantial similarities as well as some differences in the longitudinal predictors of conceptual versus procedural understanding of arithmetic in early primary school. Journal of Numerical Cognition JNC https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/15049 Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT This longitudinal study investigates the role of domain-general cognitive abilities in predicting domain-specific numerical abilities across early school years. Using von Aster and Shalev's four-step developmental model of numerical cognition (2007) and Ackerman's general theory of skill acquisition (1988), we examined how cognitive abilities (e.g., phonological processing, verbal working memory) contribute to children's counting knowledge, digit magnitude comparison, and number line estimation from kindergarten through second grade. The sample comprised 296 children (50.3% girls), who began participation at approximately six years (Mage = 6.7 years). Findings highlight the influence of domain-general cognitive functions throughout early numerical development. Specifically, phonological processes and processing speed significantly predict prior to formal education, while verbal working memory and nonverbal logical reasoning become more important after starting formal education. While the importance of certain domain-general abilities increases over time, others decline. Our results align with both von Aster and Shalev's (2007) model (positing that cognitive demands increase when learning new, more complex numerical abilities) and with Ackerman's (1988) theory (suggesting that reliance on cognitive abilities decreases as skills become more automated). Together, these frameworks complement each other, offering a comprehensive understanding of how cognitive abilities support numerical development. Our study highlights the important role of early cognitive abilities in forming the foundation for successively more complex numerical skills. While each framework provides valuable insights, integrating them may better capture the complexities of early numerical development. These findings emphasize the varying roles of domain-general cognitive abilities and the nuanced trajectories depicted by these theoretical models. Journal of Numerical Cognition JNC https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/17621 Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Understanding how non-numerical visual features systematically distort numerosity perception holds promise for unveiling the processes that give rise to our visual number sense. Recent studies show that increasing visual coherence systematically increases perceived numerosity, with this effect strengthening over development (DeWind et al., 2020; Qu, Bonner, et al., 2024; Qu et al., 2022). Here, we investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying the coherence illusion from a view of perceptual decision processes. Specifically, we applied a drift diffusion model (DDM) to a previously described dataset from participants aged 5-30 tested in an ordinal numerical comparison task with color entropy systematically manipulated (Qu et al., 2022). By jointly modeling choice data and response times, we decomposed numerical discrimination performance into distinct decision components: the speed of numerical evidence accumulation (drift rate), the amount of evidence required for a decision (boundary separation), and the response bias reflecting a prior tendency of selecting one side over the other. We found that color coherence affected only the drift rate but not response bias or boundary separation, demonstrating that color coherence distorts numerical calculation through biased accumulation of evidence of quantity. Moreover, the impact of coherence on the drift rate coefficient increased with age as quantitative information is accumulated more efficiently over development. Our results offer a framework for understanding how numerical illusions arise from perceptual decision-making dynamics. Journal of Numerical Cognition JNC https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/16725 Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT This study allows for the examination of associations between components of the home mathematics environment – including parents’ formal numeracy practices, math attitudes, and numeracy expectations – and children’s development of math problem solving skills following the transition into formal school. Sixty-six children from three schools in the Southeastern United States were assessed six times across kindergarten and first grade using a battery of academic and cognitive measures – including a task that evaluated children’s strategy use and accuracy while solving basic arithmetic problems. Parents reported the frequency with which they engaged in formal numeracy practices in the home, their attitudes towards mathematics, and their numeracy expectations for their child. Results from growth curve models, controlling for parents’ education and children’s working memory, revealed that neither parents’ numeracy practices nor their expectations accounted for differences in children’s development, but that children with parents who held more negative views towards math entered kindergarten with lower math problem-solving skills (both accuracy and strategy use) than their peers. However, children who entered kindergarten with lower skills demonstrated greater improvement in their scores over the course of the two years. Findings highlight the importance of examining aspects of the home mathematics environment other than numeracy practices – such as parents’ math attitudes – as they relate to children’s mathematical development. Journal of Numerical Cognition JNC https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/16587 Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT We examined how different types of negative emotional states (anger, disgust, sadness) influence arithmetic performance, and whether this influence is modulated by the types of arithmetic operations and moderated by adults’ age. Younger and older adults verified addition and multiplication problems that were superimposed on emotionally negative (angry, disgust, sad) or neutral images. Emotionally negative images were matched on both arousal and valence. We found that different negative emotional stimuli had different effects on arithmetic performance. We also found that these effects differed for addition and multiplication problems, and were moderated by participants’ age. More specifically: (a) younger adults were more impaired by sad stimuli than older adults while solving addition problems; (b) older adults but not younger adults solved multiplication problems more slowly following disgust and sad stimuli than emotionally neutral stimuli and (c) anger stimuli did not affect younger and older adults’ performance while solving addition and multiplication problems. These findings shed important lights on how different negative emotional stimuli influence arithmetic performance and how this influence changes with age during adulthood. Journal of Numerical Cognition JNC https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/14075 Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT An important source for the difficulties students face with fractions is the natural number bias (NNB), which refers to the phenomenon of applying natural number properties in fraction tasks, even when this is inappropriate (e.g., 1/4+1/3 = 2/7). The present longitudinal study investigates whether this misconception is related to the development of mathematics state anxiety in the domain of fractions. The results indicated that, when a group of students with a clear NNB profile (n = 38) improved their fraction arithmetic understanding they showed an increase in state anxiety measured after the fraction arithmetic task. These results complement previous research by showing that a clear misconception, namely the natural number bias, might influence the development of students’ fraction state anxiety. Importantly, the increase in fraction state anxiety in the low-performing NNB group is not a characteristic of low performing students in general, as a significant decrease in fraction state anxiety was found in low-performing students without signs of the NNB (n = 37). The study highlights the importance of looking at different subgroups of students, as different developmental patterns can be found within qualitatively different groups of students. Journal of Numerical Cognition JNC https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/11371 Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Children learn the cardinalities of the first numbers one, two, three and four before they learn how counting tracks cardinality for all numbers. It may be that when children start to understand counting, they also discover how numbers relate to one another in a structured number system. Do children who understand that the cardinality of a set is the last number assigned after counting each item (cardinal principle knowledge) also understand that each number represents the cardinality of the set created by adding one to an empty set for every count it takes to reach that number (a recursive understanding of the successor function)? We tested this by assessing children’s early recursive understanding of the successor function in relation to their cardinality knowledge. Children who were not yet cardinal principle knowers already demonstrated a recursive understanding of the successor function within the limits of their cardinality knowledge. Our findings suggest that children have some structural knowledge of the number system before learning how counting tracks cardinality. We discuss how continued counting practice may eventually allow children to expand this knowledge across all numbers. Journal of Numerical Cognition JNC https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/14255 Thu, 16 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Spatial skills are critical for learning in STEM areas and are affected by spatial anxiety and working memory. Prior work also showed that there are interaction effects between spatial anxiety and verbal working memory (WM) on spatial skills, such that the negative relation between spatial anxiety and spatial skills is stronger among higher- than lower-verbal WM children. To date, this interaction effect has not been found for visuospatial WM. However, a recent meta-analysis showed that both verbal WM and visuospatial WM are impaired by anxiety to a similar extent. The current study hypothesized that visuospatial WM interacts with spatial anxiety on spatial skills and that this interaction effect gets stronger as age increases. We investigated spatial anxiety, visuospatial WM, and two spatial skills (mental transformation and mental rotation) in 402 U.S. children in first to fourth grades. We found a significant three-way interaction of spatial anxiety, visuospatial WM, and grade level on mental transformation skill: only fourth-graders with high visuospatial WM showed a significant relation between spatial anxiety and lower mental transformation skills, whereas low-visuospatial WM fourth-graders and children in Grades 1 to 3 did not show this relation. However, this effect was not significant for children’s mental rotation skills. We discuss the results in terms of age-related differences in visuospatial WM and strategy use, as well as differences between the mental transformation and mental rotation tasks. Our findings indicate that the interaction effect between spatial anxiety and working memory on spatial skills extends beyond verbal WM to visuospatial WM and becomes more pronounced as children's age increases. Journal of Numerical Cognition JNC https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/22751 Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT No abstract available. Journal of Social and Political Psychology JSPP https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/16703 Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Structured intergroup programs provide a unique opportunity for youth in divided societies to come together and engage in shared activities. This research examines what makes such programs effective, drawing on cross-sectional survey findings from youth participants (N = 431) in an initiative that embeds intergroup contact within a sports program facilitated by the same global organization across Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Israel, and South Africa. Our hypotheses focus on the pivotal roles of cross-group friendships and empowerment in shaping intergroup contact intentions, ingroup-oriented reconciliation efforts, and self-efficacy development – outcomes crucial for bridging communities in divided societies. Using structural equation modeling, we find that program duration directly and indirectly predicts self-efficacy, whereas it predicts intergroup contact intentions and reconciliation efforts only indirectly through cross-group friendships and empowerment. Combining survey results with qualitative data, this paper highlights two important mechanisms for the success of structured intergroup contact programs and offers practical strategies for fostering them. Journal of Social and Political Psychology JSPP https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/16085 Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT These studies take a dissonance theory perspective to understanding why individuals support Donald Trump as president of the United States despite accusations that he has engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal activity. Participants from the US provided open-ended responses to questions that asked why they support Trump and how they justify their support given the allegations against him. Study 1 was conducted in 2019 two months before Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. In this study, 7 categories of reasons for supporting Trump, and 3 categories of justification despite allegations, were identified. Study 2 was conducted in 2019 two days after a vote to impeach Trump. Study 3 was conducted in 2022 two days after Trump was arraigned for his involvement in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol Building. Results from Studies 2 and 3 replicated the categories of support and justification. Across studies, the reasons given to justify support of Trump despite allegations of wrongdoing were stating that they disbelieved the allegation, claiming that others do similar misdeeds, and stating that they care about his policies, not his personal life. The current results suggest that individuals in a naturalistic context may choose a number of different strategies in response to information that conflicts with their important beliefs, including denying the veracity of information, increasing the importance of consonant information, directing attention to the immoral acts of others, and making cognitions irrelevant to the dissonant relationship. Study 3 provided evidence that some of these processes may be influenced by dissonance discomfort. These results are unlike those of most laboratory research on dissonance theory, in which participants are given only one dissonance reduction opportunity. Journal of Social and Political Psychology JSPP https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/16037 Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Research on the relationship between attitudes towards politics, student participation, and citizenship competencies remains scarce in Latin America, with most studies focused on primary and secondary education, and even fewer conducted in public or private universities. This study examines that relationship, as well as the mediating role of student participation between attitudes towards politics and citizenship competencies. The sample consisted in undergraduate students (n = 489; mean age = 21.20 years; SD = 3.47) from commercially oriented private universities in Chile, which are characterized by low levels of student participation. Three separate questionnaires were administered to measure each variable. Using descriptive analyses and structural equation modelling (SEM), the associations among the variables were analyzed. Results showed that attitudes towards politics do not directly predict citizenship competencies, but are indirectly associated through student participation, which itself was found to be acceptably related to both constructs in a direct and independent manner. The findings suggest that engagement in academic university activities can function as a formative space that connects student’s attitudes towards politics with the emergence of the competencies required for active citizenship. This research highlights the importance of fostering participatory environments within these types of institutions to strengthen democratic capacities, while also suggesting the inclusion of personal variables and diverse university contexts in future studies. Journal of Social and Political Psychology JSPP https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/14485 Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT In much of social psychology, citizenship has been examined and understood in terms of how it proceeds from nationhood and how various versions of nationhood can be mobilised to exclude others. In this paper, we deviate from this line of scholarship to identify and examine practices by which constructions of citizenship are developed to inform nation-formation. We examine how versions of territory, national belonging, and history are intertwined in the construction of citizenship through a discursive and rhetorical examination of debates on Indian citizenship at two momentous occasions for India: the drafting of India’s constitution (1946-50) and the Citizen Amendment Act 2019. Analysis shows that citizenship policies were evaluated in terms of whether they realised the rights and entitlements of Hindus to the territory of India outside of the Indian nation-state. The findings then show that belonging to a territory is a salient resource in negotiating citizenship, and this can in turn work to support or undermine the idea of a nation-state. Journal of Social and Political Psychology JSPP https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/15491 Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Drawing on goal systems theory (Kruglanski et al., 2002), this preregistered study explored the relationships between political and non-political goals among individuals with varying levels of political engagement. We conducted 40 semi-structured qualitative interviews with activists, non-activists, and former activists from Poland and Norway. We identify three recurrent relationships between political and other life goals, such as work, relationships, health, and basic psychological needs: (1) suppression, where non-political goals eclipse activism or vice-versa; (2) conflict, experienced as chronic trade-offs that often precipitate burnout; and (3) facilitation, whereby non-political goals enable sustained engagement. These relationships manifest as four distinct goal structures. Activists typically displayed either a “juggling” structure that continuously balances multiple commitments, or a “political-dominant” structure in which the cause overrides alternative goals. Non-activists most often subordinated political aims, whereas former activists described a fluctuating “all-or-nothing” structure—initial single-minded commitment followed by strategic withdrawal when costs outweighed perceived impact. Cross-nationally, Polish participants reported more multi-issue activism and acute work–activism conflicts than Norwegians, potentially reflecting longer working hours and political dissatisfaction. Our findings corroborate goal systems theory by showing how dynamic configurations of goal relations underpin trajectories of engagement, disengagement and re-engagement. Journal of Social and Political Psychology JSPP https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/14435 Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT The colonial wound signifies the contemporary societal structures which undermine, maim, and destroy the humanity of colonised subjects. In South Africa, the colonial wound manifests in different ways. We see the colonial wound at work in the country’s disproportionately high rates of racialised poverty and State violence, Afrophobia, and ongoing land dispossession. Addressing the colonial wound demands a kind of decolonial healing that transcends bio-psycho-social models. We understand such healing as radical healing. Although several scholarly conceptions of radical healing have been advanced, there have been few attempts to engage with how marginalised communities conceptualise and enact healing in relation to coloniality. As such, relatively few studies have explored the complexities of practicing and conceptualising radical healing within a decolonial framework. The present study aims to speak to this gap. In this study, we engaged with three marginalised South African communities, facilitating six group discussions on radical healing. In bringing the southern African concept of lekgotla (a collective process of deliberation) to bear on critical discourse analysis, we examined the discourses upon which participants drew in the group discussions to construct radical healing. Although several discourses were identified in the data, two were most pertinent to the objectives of this study. The first discourse, Contested Signification, spoke to the inherent variability within radical healing conceptualisations and practices, where the second discourse, Healing Practicalities, evoked the pragmatic struggles inherent to practicing radical healing through a collective and community-led process. In our concluding reflections, we consider what participants’ discursive constructions of radical healing might teach us about the colonial wound and, against this, what it means to take up decolonial radical healing practices in and beyond the discipline of psychology. Journal of Social and Political Psychology JSPP https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/15791 Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT By using Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), we identified eight profiles, each representing different combinations or "alloys" of the authoritarian syndrome and associated sociopolitical attitudes. Our findings reveal that authoritarian dispositions do not uniformly correlate with overt prejudice or resentment; instead, they manifest in complex, socially influenced forms. While some profiles exhibit strong authoritarian aggression and conspiracy beliefs tied to manifest right-wing extremism, others demonstrate more contained or even absent devaluation tendencies. The study also uncovers gender-specific variations in authoritarian processing, with certain profiles being predominantly male or female. These insights emphasize the role of societal conditions in shaping authoritarian dynamics and underscore the persistent threat posed by particular authoritarian profiles. Journal of Social and Political Psychology JSPP https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/17397 Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT This article proposes a comprehensive taxonomy of the diverse types of “leftism”, grounded in historical and materialist analysis, to inform future comparative research on political systems and ideology. More specifically, it discusses (1) the taxonomic confusion over leftism and liberalism, (2) the plausible overlap between the liberal-conservative and left-right metaphors, (3) leftists as a distinct group versus liberals, (4) leftists as different groups from each other, and (5) the implications of the above for political, psychological research, and activism, in the hope of encouraging debate, advancing our understanding of social reality, and improving cooperation and conflict resolution. Journal of Social and Political Psychology JSPP https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/16013 Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT In 1994, the United Nations human security taxonomy signaled a major shift from security as preservation of the nation-state towards a broader and more recent ‘decagonal’ model of human security (entailing everyday needs for personal, health, food, cyber, community, economic, national, environmental, political and, most recently, global security). Building on those foundations, this paper proposes a psychological theory of human security. The latter we propose is a question of ‘systems fit’ between everyday needs and priorities to official responses during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. During COVID-19 lockdowns in 2021, across Australia and New Zealand, we asked N = 2,162 Australasians whether they had each type of security, how important each type was to them, and what each of the 10 sub-types of security meant to them. On face value, a pandemic is a primary threat to national public health. In everyday life, however, all 10 dimensions of human security remained salient and interconnected. Journal of Social and Political Psychology JSPP https://meth.psychopen.eu/index.php/meth/article/view/16517 Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Accurate estimation of standard errors (SEs) is essential in SEM as they quantify the uncertainty of parameter estimates, are fundamental to computing test statistics, and ensure robust population inferences. This study evaluated SEs within the Local Structural-After-Measurement (LSAM) framework, a two-step approach to SEM. Two simulation studies examined analytic and resampling-based SE methods under varying conditions, including normal and nonnormal data, different sample sizes, and both correct and misspecified models. The nonparametric bootstrap yielded near-unbiased SEs under nonnormality, even when models were misspecified, while the parametric bootstrap performed well under normal conditions with correct model specification. The analytic two-step method performed well under normal conditions but showed increased bias with nonnormal data and smaller samples. The robust two-step method reduced this bias in larger samples, though some underestimation remained in small-sample and misspecified conditions. To complement SE bias results, 90% coverage rates were assessed. Findings confirm LSAM’s capability for accurate SE estimation in challenging research contexts. Methodology. European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences METH https://meth.psychopen.eu/index.php/meth/article/view/16411 Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT In social sciences, researchers often compare relations between constructs, referred to as “structural relations”, across a large number of groups. This paper proposes Mixture Multigroup Bayesian SEM (MixMG-BSEM), a novel method for comparing structural relations across many groups while accounting for approximate measurement invariance in factor loadings. Traditional methods often assume exact measurement invariance, which may not reflect real-world data where small differences in measurement parameters commonly occur across many groups. MixMG-BSEM addresses this by using Multigroup Bayesian CFA with small-variance priors to allow for these small differences, and groups are then clustered based on their structural relations using Mixture Modeling. This is done in a stepwise estimation procedure built on the structural-after-measurement approach. By combining cluster-specific structural relations with small between-group differences in measurement parameters, MixMG-BSEM obtains a clustering that is driven only by the structural relations. The robustness and effectiveness of MixMG-BSEM are demonstrated through a simulation study. Methodology. European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences METH https://meth.psychopen.eu/index.php/meth/article/view/18093 Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT In behavioral sciences, researchers frequently employ mediation analysis with longitudinal data. A common scenario involves the 1 → 1 → 1 mediation model, where the Predictor X, Mediator(s) M, and Outcome Y are all measured at different occasions (Level 1) within individuals (Level 2). The standard 1 → 1 → 1 mediation model approach fits two multilevel models, one for the mediator and one for the outcome, with two random intercepts and three random slopes in total. However researchers often exclude random slopes from multilevel models and only include random intercepts to account for non-independence across observations of the same individual. We demonstrate that ignoring random slopes in the 1 → 1 → 1 mediation model can result in biased average indirect effect estimators, as well as underestimated standard errors. We provide code from open source and free statistical software that can be used by practitioners to fit the 1 → 1 → 1 mediation model. Methodology. European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences METH https://meth.psychopen.eu/index.php/meth/article/view/17405 Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Understanding how humans observe and interpret actions is vital for social interaction. Point-light displays (PLDs), which depict actions using only joint movements, are widely used to study this process. Recently, PLAViMoP — an open-access database of 3D PLDs covering everyday actions, fine-motor skills, sports movements, facial expressions, social interactions, and robotic actions — has been introduced to facilitate the use of PLDs. PLAViMoP includes a search engine and metadata for each sequence, including movement type, label, actor sex, and age. In complement to the database, here we present a novel methodology that integrates eye-tracking data into the PLD reference frame, allowing gaze behavior and action kinematics to be jointly analyzed (i.e., in a unified dataset). This combined approach offers new insights into action perception and has broad applications in health, sports, and occupational settings. It also offers a promising tool for continuous psychophysical studies of the perception of biological movement. Methodology. European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences METH https://meth.psychopen.eu/index.php/meth/article/view/13215 Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT The aim of the article is to refine a calibration method already presented and used to improve the information provided by the scales of frequency in questionnaires by combining it with data from time use diaries. In other words, this study proposes improvements to an existing calibration method aiming at “adjusting” the data gathered through items — which is useful for the analysis of phenomena with relatively long time cycles, but also notoriously subject to bias — with the data gathered through daily diaries — which are less subject to distortion, but generally only suitable for analysing phenomena with short or very short time cycles. In some cases, in fact, the calibration model already proposed may be problematic since, as we shall see, it could introduce another possible cause of bias. Such distortion could become relevant in certain situations and can be remedied by the proposed refinement with the new calibration model under consideration here. Finally, to highlight the advantages of the proposed method, we will develop with practical applications, comparisons by applying the presented models on data on religious practice collected in a large survey conducted in Italy in 2008. It should be specified, however, that the applicability of the proposed model is not limited to this example and can be extended to other contexts and types of data. Methodology. European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences METH https://meth.psychopen.eu/index.php/meth/article/view/16863 Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT This paper presents the SUSHIJA (Scoping, Updated, Systematic, Holistic, Interpretive, Joint, and Adaptive) Framework for conducting scoping reviews in an innovative manner. The framework is developed to address limitations of traditional scoping reviews. The SUSHIJA framework has several inclusive features such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven automation of literature reviews and data extraction, critical appraisal of the involved literature, iterative thematic mapping of the included articles, and even a living review component to extract and synthesize new studies in real-time. SUSHIJA framework also considers stakeholder input and incorporates visual tools. Methodology. European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences METH https://meth.psychopen.eu/index.php/meth/article/view/17093 Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT Likert scales are widely used to measure agreement levels, typically on a structurally and linguistically symmetrical scale. In non-English settings, literal translations of scale anchors often produce awkward or asymmetrical phrases that deviate from everyday language, potentially affecting data validity. This study examines the impact of translations through an online experiment with 532 Slovenian smartphone users, randomly assigned to two groups. One group used structurally symmetrical translations (GroupSA), while the other used more natural but asymmetrical translations (GroupCA) to measure constructs related to information security within Protection Motivation Theory. GroupCA showed significant correlations with the dependent variable for all predictors, consistently higher Composite Reliability and Average Variance Extracted, slightly higher means, and lower skewness and kurtosis. Additionally, “Completely agree” was chosen more often than the less familiar “Strongly agree.” These results highlight the influence of translation choices on survey outcomes, emphasizing the need for careful linguistic adaptation in cross-cultural research. Methodology. European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences METH https://meth.psychopen.eu/index.php/meth/article/view/17705 Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT Scientific claims, and the way they are tested, must be unambiguous and flexibility must be disclosed. Grounded in Popper’s principle of falsification, we suggest the Falsification Assessment Form (FAF). The form aims to identify ambiguity and undisclosed flexibility in the entire research process with 11 items covering hypothesis formulation, data processing, analysis, and alternative explanations. It also collects information on transparency measures, such as preregistration. The form was developed through consensus among the authors and refined via a collaborative feedback assessment of 19 experts. It is intended for original, quantitative research, it highlights potential issues and requires authors to provide detailed responses. FAF is meant to be a structured qualitative audit framework. It can be used to identify concerns in published research, improve the quality of papers during peer review, or guide rigorous study planning from the outset. We open up further refinement and testing of FAF to the scientific community. Methodology. European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences METH https://miss.psychopen.eu/index.php/miss/article/view/20545 Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT The current high rate of academic dropout in the university system necessitates early identification of first-year students' intentions to drop out to detect potential risk cases. This paper reports a linguistic adaptation of the revised version of the Early University Dropout Intentions Questionnaire (EUDIQ-R) and an analysis of its psychometric properties in an Argentine population. Participants were 747 first-year university students from Argentina. The instrument was adapted to the local idiom. The internal three-factor structure of the EUDIQ-R was then verified through confirmatory factor analysis. The internal consistency was adequate. Factorial invariance analysis verified the metric equivalence of the instrument's structure between samples of students from Argentina and Spain. Finally, evidence of concurrent validity was obtained using an instrument that assesses academic engagement. This study provides adequate evidence of the validity and reliability of the EUDIQ-R, which can be used to identify early dropout intentions in first-year university students. Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences MISS https://miss.psychopen.eu/index.php/miss/article/view/20841 Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Relationship disillusionment—perceiving that one’s romantic relationship is not meeting expectations and getting worse and viewing one’s spouse/partner in an increasingly negative light—has been shown to predict likelihood of relationship breakup, independent of relationship satisfaction, commitment, and duration. Current versions of the Relationship Disillusionment Scale (RDS), the leading measure in this area, have 11 or more items. The present research examined properties (factor loadings, internal consistency and test-retest reliability, convergent and concurrent criterion validity, and dyadic correlations) of full-length RDS measures in three datasets to identify a small number of items that could comprise a psychometrically sound short form of the RDS. A three-item RDS version emerged, which performed comparably well to full-length versions. Hence, we recommend the RDS-3 for use in future research when survey length is an issue (e.g., daily diary studies; surveys taken on mobile phones). Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences MISS https://miss.psychopen.eu/index.php/miss/article/view/19995 Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Reliable instruments are essential for studying perceptions of individuals convicted of sexual offences across cultural contexts. This study evaluates the psychometric properties of the Perceptions of Sex Offenders Scale (PSO) among Norwegian students in nursing, social education, social work, and police education (N = 282). Using confirmatory factor analysis, we tested the fit of the PSO’s original three-factor structure. The model showed mixed fit (RMSEA = .072; SRMR = .072; CFI = .86; TLI = .84). Internal consistency was satisfactory for Sentencing and Management and Stereotype Endorsement (α = .82 and .70), but low for Risk Perception (α = .53). Internal validity indices were uneven: composite reliability was acceptable for Sentencing and Management and Stereotype Endorsement (CR = .89 and .71), but not for Risk Perception (CR = .58), and AVE values were below recommended thresholds across factors, particularly for Risk Perception (AVE = .227). Free-text responses indicated that participants primarily had rape and child sexual abuse in mind when responding to the PSO. Overall, the PSO shows promise in a Norwegian student context, but the Risk Perception dimension appears to require refinement before the scale can be used confidently for research and educational purposes. Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences MISS https://miss.psychopen.eu/index.php/miss/article/view/20141 Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences MISS https://miss.psychopen.eu/index.php/miss/article/view/16923 Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT There are two main points of reference to Frankfurt School's authoritarianism research. On the one hand, scholars who, following Fromm (1932), seek to identify a contemporary social character under conditions of post-Fordist capitalism emphasize that the authoritarian character has been replaced by a flexible, entrepreneurial self. On the other hand, research on authoritarianism still relies on adaptations of the F-scale developed by Adorno et al. (1950) (e.g., Altemeyer, 1981; Beierlein et al., 2014; Oesterreich, 1998; Decker et al., 2022). At the same time, certain new forms of authoritarianism are being identified (Amlinger & Nachtwey, 2025). In this paper, we aim to bridge this tension by introducing a measurement tool for a contemporary “affirmative social character” adapted to flexible capitalism, and to explore the relationship between this social character and authoritarian tendencies. Based on a German sample (N = 1,196), we develop the 28-item Aff-Scale to measure the adaptive authoritarian tendencies aligned with the demands of 21st-century meritocracy. The scale captures five dimensions: affirmation, self-optimization, flexibility & mobility, solutionism, and libertarianism. Validation measures included traditional authoritarianism (KSA-3; Beierlein et al., 2014), right-wing extremism (FR-LF; Heller et al., 2020), and sociodemographic variables. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the multidimensionality (CFI = 0.927; RMSEA = 0.048) but showed a need for further validation. Internal consistency was good (Cronbach's α = .83; ω = .64) and the expected correlations with RWA and educational-, social status and age were significant. Despite its limitations, the Aff-scale is a useful tool for examining a 21st century social character and contributes to a better understanding of modernized forms of authoritarianism. Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences MISS https://miss.psychopen.eu/index.php/miss/article/view/21335 Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Correction to: Monstadt, F. C. (2025). Measuring Democratic Values in Primary School Children: Development and Confirmatory Factor Analysis of a New Survey Instrument. Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences, 7, Article e16247. https://doi.org/10.5964/miss.16247 Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences MISS https://miss.psychopen.eu/index.php/miss/article/view/16537 Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Previous research suggests that the concept of Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) may be no longer sufficient to explain attraction to contemporary right-wing movements. Using data from two correlational studies in Germany (N = 469) and the United States (N = 314), we developed the 9-item Modern Comprehensive F Scale (MCF-9), integrating all nine facets from the California F Scale (Adorno et al., 1950). Validation criteria included right-wing political and antidemocratic attitudes, antisemitism, xenophobia, and donation preferences. Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirmed the one-dimensionality of MCF-9. The scale showed good internal consistency (ω = .87 in Germany; ω = .90 in the U.S.), and had strong positive associations with RWA, and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). Notably, MCF-9 accounted for additional variance in all validation criteria (up to 17% in Germany; up to 20% in the U.S.) beyond two established RWA scales, positioning it as valuable contemporary measure. Limitations and implications are discussed. Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences MISS https://miss.psychopen.eu/index.php/miss/article/view/16247 Fri, 21 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT The internalization of democratic values in childhood is essential for fostering resilient democracies. Despite its importance, research on democratic values in children remains scarce due to methodological challenges. This study aims to develop and evaluate the factorial validity of a new survey instrument measuring five democratic values (participation, equality, following rules, renunciation of violence, and freedom of opinion) in primary school children. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed using data from 429 third- and fourth-grade pupils in Germany to assess the instrument’s validity. CFA results indicate that most scales—particularly equality, following rules, and renunciation of violence—demonstrate structural validity, while the scales for participation and freedom require further revision. Limitations of the study include the text-heavy survey design and the moderate sample size, precluding advanced invariance testing. Nevertheless, this study provides initial evidence for the feasibility of employing CFA to validate measures of democratic values in children and highlights important directions for future research to enhance the reliability and validity of these instruments. Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences MISS https://miss.psychopen.eu/index.php/miss/article/view/16909 Fri, 21 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT The paper presents a comprehensive validation of a model for measuring Right-Wing Extremist Attitudes (RWE-A) in Germany, utilizing five repeated cross-sectional surveys from the so-called Mitte-survey (2014–2023), a representative population survey conducted every two years. Building on a long tradition of attitude research, the study examines an 18-item scale representing six theoretically grounded subdimensions: (1) support for a right-wing dictatorship, (2) national chauvinism, (3) trivialization of National Socialism, (4) xenophobia, (5) anti-Semitism and (6) social Darwinism. The survey instrument has been in use in Germany for 20 years, developed by a consensus of experts, to record such an extreme right-wing world view. We tested the psychometric properties of the scale using confirmatory factor analysis and multiple group comparisons, focusing on measurement invariance over time and across demographic subgroups. Our results confirm a coherent, stable second-order factor structure for RWE-A, invariant across all survey waves and most population strata. Notably, also anti-Semitism remains closely tied to the overall construct of RWE-A. The study detects a significant decline in RWE-A from 2014 to 2021, followed by a marked increase in 2023. Latent mean differences indicate a growing polarization in the population. Demographic analyses show consistent associations between RWE-A and lower education, older age, residence in East Germany, and right-wing political self-identification. Voting preferences reveal a sharp increase in RWE-A among supporters of the far-right party “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD). The findings underline the reliability and construct validity of the RWE-A scale and highlight its importance for longitudinal monitoring and comparative research on anti-democratic attitudes. Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences MISS https://miss.psychopen.eu/index.php/miss/article/view/16983 Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT This study examines the structure of Group-Focused Enmity (GFE) among majority and ethnic minority populations in Belgium using second-order Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). While GFE has been widely studied in majority populations, its configuration among minorities remains underexplored. Using data from the 2020 Belgian National Elections Study (BNES) and the Belgian Ethnic Minorities Elections Study (BEMES), we compare measurements of GFE between majority Belgians and Belgians of Turkish and Moroccan descent. While a 2nd-order factor measuring GFE can be distinguished in both groups, measurement invariance tests reveal important differences in its constellation. While anti-Muslim sentiment dominates GFE among majority Belgians, antisemitism is the central component among Belgians of Turkish and Moroccan descent. These findings highlight the group-specific nature of the structure of interrelated prejudices. Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences MISS https://phair.psychopen.eu/index.php/phair/article/view/20587 Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Efforts to reduce meat consumption amongst adults have had mixed success. Recent research has pointed to children as one group who may have more morally inclusive attitudes towards non-human animals, yet less is known regarding their efforts to abstain from meat consumption. Using a retrospective survey with a sample of emerging adults in the UK (pre-screen study n = 1063, M age = 22.5, main study n = 461, M Age = 22.2), this study documents that approximately half of participants reported having thought about stopping eating meat while they were growing up (i.e., before they finished secondary school). In turn, half of these participants did stop for a period ranging from days to permanent abstinence. Parental support was a strong predictor of being able to stop eating meat. Most participants started eating meat again, largely for reasons of taste and convenience. Together these findings point to youth as a leveraging point for greater uptake of plant-based food options, although current pragmatic and structural barriers limit youth efforts to do so. Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations PHAIR https://phair.psychopen.eu/index.php/phair/article/view/22091 Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations PHAIR https://phair.psychopen.eu/index.php/phair/article/view/20421 Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Despite longstanding calls for scientific consensus on the definitions and categorisation of animal-restrictive dietary groups (Ruby, 2012; Rosenfeld, 2018), significant discrepancies remain. Urgency to address this issue is only growing, as dietary diversity increases. Without a shared conceptual and methodological framework, the field risks hindering theoretical integration and meta-analytic work. In this commentary, we highlight two key considerations in dietary group categorisation, calling for greater clarity, consistency and collaboration to strengthen cumulative progress in the field. Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations PHAIR https://phair.psychopen.eu/index.php/phair/article/view/20003 Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations PHAIR https://phair.psychopen.eu/index.php/phair/article/view/19613 Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations PHAIR https://phair.psychopen.eu/index.php/phair/article/view/19183 Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations PHAIR https://phair.psychopen.eu/index.php/phair/article/view/18523 Thu, 04 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Reducing consumption of animal products is crucial to addressing the climate crisis. Educational interventions have shown promise in promoting plant-based diets, but the picture is not yet clear. Across two interventions, we examined whether brief, targeted video interventions could influence real-world dietary behaviours in university settings. Study 1 (n = 39) employed food vouchers as a behavioural measure, revealing a significant effect: participants who watched a video focusing on the environmental tolls of animal agriculture (versus plant-based foods) were 2.5 times more likely to redeem their vouchers for vegetarian/vegan meals compared to the control group. Study 2 expanded the intervention scope (employing both an environmental- and ethics-focused intervention) and altered the outcome measure (measuring selection of vegan vs non-vegan meals at a university formal dinner). Study 2 (n = 102) effectively reduced selections of meals containing meat, but the effect was weaker than in Study 1. Methodological differences and sample limitations may explain the effect size discrepancies. These interventions highlight the potential of educational interventions for meat reduction in university contexts. To expand on this study’s results, we encourage future research to explore sustained dietary changes post-intervention, rather than single meal choices, and to test a variety of intervention videos. Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations PHAIR https://phair.psychopen.eu/index.php/phair/article/view/17951 Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Wild animals suffer from many naturally occurring harms such as starvation, diseases, and conflicts with other animals, yet little research has been conducted on how people view the natural suffering of wild animals. In this paper we introduce the Attitudes towards Wild Animal Welfare (AWAW) scale. The AWAW scale consists of four subscales: caring about wild animal welfare, support for intervening in nature, idyllic views of nature, and intervention ineffectiveness beliefs. Items were pretested and verified across four preregistered studies (N = 2866). The factors demonstrated good reliability and strongly correlated with related measures, including general animal attitudes, speciesism, and support for specific wild animal welfare interventions. The idyllic view factor showed weaker correlations with other measures but was retained due to its theoretical significance. All four factors predicted a decision to give a bonus payment to a wild animal charity. Our aim is that the scale will facilitate further psychological research on wild animal welfare and, in turn, inform interventions and policies aimed at reducing the suffering of wild animals. Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations PHAIR https://phair.psychopen.eu/index.php/phair/article/view/17919 Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Food preparation plays a key role in shaping how people perceive meat: It helps people to dissociate meat from its animal origin and allows them to eat meat without experiencing conflict. However, experimental research in this area mostly disregards or confounds two food preparation steps: disassembling and cooking. To test how disassembling and cooking affect perceptions about meat dishes, we conducted secondary analyses of a sample of omnivores from a U.S.-representative dataset (N = 1,189). In this study, participants indicated meat perceptions (self-report) in response to a picture of one meat dish that varied in the degree of disassembling (i.e., whole parts vs. chopped/minced) and cooking (i.e., raw vs. cooked). Leveraging this experimental setup, multi-level analyses revealed that disassembling and cooking reduced compassion elicited by meat dishes. Disassembling also decreased general emotional arousal, while cooking reduced negative evaluations, conflict experiences in felt ambivalence, and specific negative emotions such as disgust and anger, while increasing valence perceptions more generally and the desire to eat the dish. Moreover, psychological network analyses showed that the relations of meat-related perceptions with each other do not differ significantly between food preparation steps. By offering nuanced insights into how food preparation affects conflict experiences as well as other affective and attitudinal meat-related perceptions, this research offers various theoretical and practical implications. We therefore discuss key considerations for future research on meat-related perceptions and identify when and which interventions may be most necessary and effective in encouraging reduced meat consumption. Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations PHAIR https://rpio.psychopen.eu/index.php/rpio/article/view/17157 Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT With artificial intelligence (AI) getting more integrated into working life, the question is how to use it in a human-centered way to promote resources such as team cohesion, belonging, and support. While these factors are crucial to reaching common targets, not every AI system and application raises the same expectations to provide those resources. This online vignette study aims to answer the question how different role conceptualizations of AI can influence team cohesion in a hybrid team. Two hundred and seventeen (217) participants were randomly divided into two experimental conditions, i.e., to work with AI as a teammate or as a tool. They were then asked to evaluate their team perception while working with the AI, and their trust in the system. While the vignette manipulation of the different AI framings was unsuccessful, further analyses were carried out by separating the participants using their own rating of the AI role. The results show that team cohesion is significantly higher when AI is perceived as a teammate. Moreover, trust in AI has a significant influence on the team perception. Perceiving AI as a teammate leads to higher team cohesion compared to seeing it as a tool, moderated by the participant’s trust in the AI. Research for People in Organziations RPIO https://rpio.psychopen.eu/index.php/rpio/article/view/16191 Fri, 28 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Volunteering is increasingly viewed as crucial for personal and organizational growth. Employers value volunteer experience, and scholarships frequently require proof of volunteering, underscoring its importance for skill development and career progress. This paper investigates the proposition that volunteering can be a valuable addition to human resource (HR) development. It begins by defining volunteering within an HR context and analyzing the advantages and challenges it presents to employees and organizations. The article then investigates the motivational structure of volunteering, which is shown to be driven by multiple motives, often overlapping with those in paid jobs. This finding indicates that similar psychological factors influence volunteering and paid work. The positive spillover effects of corporate volunteering in profit and non-profit organizations enhance its desirability. However, its implications for human resource development remain underexplored. Considering volunteering from an HR perspective allows organizations to better understand how voluntary engagement can contribute to skill development, value alignment, and long-term employability. Thus, this perspective enables a more strategic integration of volunteering into learning and development agendas, also to integrate volunteering in internal structures and culture. To preserve the voluntary nature of voluntary activities and avoid instrumentalization, a humanistic approach centered on empathy and unconditional appreciation for volunteers is recommended. Organizations should seek volunteering experience from job candidates while actively supporting and facilitating volunteer opportunities, taking responsibility for a robust system. Research for People in Organziations RPIO https://rpio.psychopen.eu/index.php/rpio/article/view/18551 Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT not applicable Research for People in Organziations RPIO https://sotrap.psychopen.eu/index.php/sotrap/article/view/14305 Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Defilement is one of the most traumatic experiences a child can experience, with the consequences lived almost throughout the entire lifetime of the victim. Yet, statistics show that defilement cases are on the rise in Ghana, with little being done by the State to stem the tide. This paper critically analyses the incidence of defilement from three perspectives, namely, law, sociology, and psychology. The paper first discusses what defilement is under Ghanaian law (the law), how society deals with the victims and perpetrators of defilement (the sociology), and the psychological effect of defilement on the victims (the psychology). Using a combination of systematic review and the practitioner analysis approach to research, the paper identifies the consequences of defilement on the victim in Ghana, the problems with the definition, scope, and adjudication of defilement cases in Ghana, and offers some useful recommendations to deal with the rising incidence of defilement in Ghana. A major finding of this paper is that the rising cases of defilement in Ghana are the result of the failure of law, sociology, and psychology. Therefore, to combat this canker, an eclectic approach combining the three domains is highly recommended. Sexual Offending: Theory, Research, and Prevention SOTRAP https://sotrap.psychopen.eu/index.php/sotrap/article/view/12893 Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT Background: Effective reintegration into the community requires tailored treatment programs that address criminogenic needs. Ultimately, these efforts are essential to maintaining public safety. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate whether our outpatient program met the criminogenic needs of participants. Method: Between 2008 and 2023, treatment needs of a sample of 955 male sexual offenders were assessed using the Static-99 tool and standardized risk levels. Results: A significant 63.5% of the offenders exhibited treatment needs. Among the total population, 56% were undertreated, 14% overtreated, and 30% adequately treated. Therapy in sociotherapeutic facilities had a significant influence on over- and undertreatment. Conclusion: The degrees of treatment based on standardized risk levels are proving to be very valuable in forensic outpatient care, underscoring an urgent requirement for more individualized treatment strategies. Sociotherapeutic interventions play a key role in reducing undertreatment. Sexual Offending: Theory, Research, and Prevention SOTRAP https://sotrap.psychopen.eu/index.php/sotrap/article/view/14281 Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Sexual sadism has been central to conceptualizing sexual homicide typologically, diagnostically, and behaviourally. Although about a third of cases involve sexual sadism, its reliable ascertainment is challenging, which is concerning given consequences of making or missing the diagnosis. This study examined 297 sexual homicide cases from Australia and New Zealand recruited from official online legal sources and evaluated the application of seven sexual sadism measures (clinical and research diagnoses, two typological approaches, and three behavioural scales). There were high correlations between all measures except clinical diagnosis. We confirmed scale and inter-rater reliability, convergent and concurrent validity, and external validity of behavioural scales. Rates of sexual sadism ranged from 4% for clinical diagnosis to 45% using the recommended Sexual Sadism Scale (SeSaS) Part 1 cut-off of 4. But other approaches identified between 1 in 5 and 1 in 3 cases. Cut-off scores of 5 on the SeSaS Part 1, 6 on the Sexual Homicide Crime Scene Rating Scale for Sexual Sadism (SADSEX-SH), and 6 on the Massachusetts Treatment Centre Sadism Scale (MTCSS) appeared equivalent and identified around 30% of cases. Offence and offender characteristics correlated with sadism ascertained with the SeSaS and SADSEX-SH were equivalent and as expected from the literature. We conclude that the SeSaS and SADSEX-SH are equivalent scales, but the recommended SeSaS Part 1 cut-off of 4 may be too low in sexual homicide cases. We make practical recommendations for a structured professional judgment approach to diagnosing sexual sadism disorder. Sexual Offending: Theory, Research, and Prevention SOTRAP https://sotrap.psychopen.eu/index.php/sotrap/article/view/15759 Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT We present a targeted comparative analysis of two international samples of men incarcerated for sexual recidivism. A total of 30 men were interviewed: 16 from Norway and 14 from North America. The two jurisdictions from which these men were drawn represent the opposite ends of a global continuum of approaches to justice and punishment. We follow Rimer and Holt’s (2023) methodological approach and examine comparatively the way participants described their lived experience of custody, community release, and subsequent reoffending. Although all participants were convicted of crimes that carry the heaviest social stigma, the legislation and structural stigma to which they were subject were distinct. Many participants in both groups attributed their reoffending (at least in part) to systemic inadequacies of the criminal justice regime to which they were exposed. We discuss how these perceived inadequate responses of both countries appear in recidivism narratives in turn. First, we juxtapose the North American system (which was described as “too harsh”) with the comparatively relaxed Norwegian system (which was “too soft”). Second, we consider how treatment was offered (or mandated) in both jurisdictions and describe how there appears to be “no way out” of treatment for the North American men, and yet no way “into” treatment for the Norwegian men. Finally, we compare the men’s perspectives of being “set up to fail” with “too many hoops” in North America and “no safety net” in Norway. The relevance of their narratives for informing best practices is described and general policy implications within a framework of quaternary prevention are discussed. Sexual Offending: Theory, Research, and Prevention SOTRAP https://spb.psychopen.eu/index.php/spb/article/view/16541 Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT We examined the impact of dispersion and volume of product ratings on product preferences. Earlier work shows that extremely positive exemplars have a disproportionate influence on people’s decision-making when they seek desirable outcomes. We examined if the occurrence of both extremely positive and extremely negative review ratings changed people’s preferences, even if the average review ratings remained similar, in a within-person experiment that simulated an online purchasing website. Participants (N = 281 adults residing in the USA) repeatedly chose one out of four products with review ratings. We experimentally varied the dispersion and volume of these rating scores. As hypothesized, individuals preferred products accompanied by a high volume and highly dispersed set of review ratings. The results hold important implications for understanding the influence of reviews on consumer purchasing intentions and behavior. Social Psychological Bulletin SPB https://spb.psychopen.eu/index.php/spb/article/view/15869 Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT A paper recently published by Turner-Zwinkels et al. (2025) contains a peculiar set of findings: using cross-sectional analyses of international survey data, one study found that the more partisans agree with their co-partisans on matters of policy and ideology, the less they like the party they all support, whereas in another study these variables were uncorrelated. These negative and null relationships are counter-intuitive and conflict with prior findings showing that greater perceived ideological similarity tends to increase liking. Turner-Zwinkels et al. suggest these results could be a product of optimal distinctiveness theory. However, I suggest that this result is a statistical artefact caused by collider bias. I explain how collider bias could create this result even if the true relationship between liking and ideological similarity is positive. I demonstrate the plausibility of this explanation using simulations and a re-analysis of Turner-Zwinkels et al.’s data. Social Psychological Bulletin SPB https://spb.psychopen.eu/index.php/spb/article/view/13261 Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Experiments that manipulate the presence of mimicry generally find that mimicry benefits the mimicker. These results led to the "mimicry-as-a-social-glue" hypothesis, which considers mimicry as a mechanism responsible for starting and maintaining social relations. There are two novel aspects in the present pre-registered experiment. First, the experiment examines temporal aspects by including four conditions: no mimicry, mimicry during the first five minutes, the last five minutes, or mimicry present throughout the interaction. By doing so, we contribute to ongoing efforts to standardise mimicry methodology. Second, this explores the underexplored issue of potential costs associated with mimicry and challenges the "mimicry-as-a-social-glue" hypothesis. The results demonstrate a relationship between temporal factors and the effects of mimicry. Participants who were mimicked during the final five minutes of the interaction reported significantly lower self-esteem compared to those mimicked during the initial five minutes. However, no significant differences in self-esteem were found between the no mimicry condition and mimicry during the first five minutes, nor between the final five minutes condition and mimicry sustained throughout the entire interaction. Similarly, no significant differences were observed between the no mimicry condition and the condition in which mimicry was sustained for the entire interaction. These findings suggest that the costs and benefits associated with mimicry depend on its temporal dynamics. Social Psychological Bulletin SPB https://spb.psychopen.eu/index.php/spb/article/view/15377 Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Asians and Asian Americans have experienced increased discrimination due to COVID-19. Building on the rejection-identification model (RIM; Branscombe et al., 1999) and the rejection-disidentification model (RDIM; Jasinskaja-Lahti et al., 2009), we sought to examine how COVID-19 discrimination has impacted Asian Americans’ identities and well-being. Asian and Asian American individuals currently residing in the United States were recruited to participate in our study. The relations between perceived COVID-19 discrimination, identification, and well-being were examined correlationally (Study 1) and experimentally (Studies 2 and 3). Across 3 studies, COVID-19 discrimination is associated with increased levels of anxiety and stress but decreased identification with being American. At the same time, perceived discrimination was unrelated to participants’ Asian (Study 1, 2, and 3) and specific ethnic (Study 3) identities. In Study 2, we experimentally demonstrated that reading about the negative impact of COVID-19 on Asian Americans interacted with perceived discrimination to decrease the extent to which participants identified as American, which has implications for anxiety and stress. Results from Study 2 supported the RDIM predictions and was replicated in a US-born sample in Study 3. Our studies suggest that Asian and Asian Americans’ well-being is harmed through the decrease of a positive identity (i.e., being an American) without the compensation of another positive identity (i.e., being Asian or being a specific ethnicity) to protect them from the negative impactive of COVID-19 discrimination. Thus, Asian Americans need support now more than ever. Social Psychological Bulletin SPB https://spb.psychopen.eu/index.php/spb/article/view/12465 Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Intellectual humility (IH), the recognition of one’s intellectual limitations, is a promising characteristic to tackle societal conflicts such as affective political polarization. Despite increasing research on IH in recent years, most research has been conducted in the USA, probably due to a lack of scales that are validated in languages other than English. Our objective was to offer researchers in the German context several IH measures to choose from depending on their specific research question. Therefore, we validated and compared four established IH scales within the German context. Items of three widely-used IH scales (CIHS, SIHS, LIHS) were translated from English into German by two independent researchers, rated by experts (n = 8), and pre-tested (n = 13). We then assessed the structural, convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of the scales plus an existing Swiss-German IH scale (IHS) in a preregistered online-survey (N = 698), representative for Germany regarding age, gender, and education. Discriminant validity was assessed via social desirability, cognitive closure, need for cognition, HEXACO honesty-humility, and openness, and incremental validity regarding affective polarization. Results showed that the IHS did not meet all of our pre-registered criteria, potentially due to cross-cultural differences between Germany and Switzerland. However, the three translated scales were comparable to the original English scales regarding structural, convergent, and discriminant validity. The SIHS showed the best incremental validity in predicting less affective polarization towards opinion-based outgroups. Limitations and directions for future research regarding IH in German-speaking contexts are discussed. Social Psychological Bulletin SPB https://spb.psychopen.eu/index.php/spb/article/view/14139 Fri, 10 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Altruism may not be a unitary concept but may include behaviorally dissociable subfactors. Here, we examined the effects of social distance within and across group boundaries on three facets of altruism: help giving, peer punishment, and moral courage. Using real-life scenarios presented as vignettes, participants were asked to indicate the likelihood that they would engage in the described behaviors across three different social settings: a familiar low-distance in-group, an unfamiliar high-distance in-group, and a hostile out-group. We used the Inclusion of Others in Self (IOS) scale to measure perceived closeness to members of the described social group. We hypothesized that help giving would be most and moral courage least sensitive to variations in social distance. In both studies, results revealed no significant differences in help giving across variations in social distance but a higher self-reported likeliness to show morally courageous acts in the familiar and close in-group compared to the other groups. The results for peer punishment were only partially consistent, following a similar pattern to moral courage. IOS scores discriminated between high and low-distance in-groups, as expected, but did not discriminate well between a high-distance in-group and hostile out-group. On the other hand, facet-specific trait scores correlated significantly with vignette responses. When the three facets were considered together across all vignettes, in-group favoritism became apparent. The studies contribute to our understanding of the social context conditions of altruistic behaviors and call for the refinement of experimental and self-report measures in the study of altruistic behavior. Social Psychological Bulletin SPB