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Our study compared the impact of administering Symptom Validity Tests (SVTs) and Performance Validity Tests (PVTs) in in-person versus remote formats and assessed different approaches to combining validity test results. Using the MMPI-2-RF, IOP-29, IOP-M, and FIT, we assessed 164 adults, with half instructed to feign mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and half to respond honestly. Within each subgroup, half completed the tests in person, and the other half completed them online via videoconferencing. Results from 2 ×2 analyses of variance showed no significant effects of administration format on SVT and PVT scores. When comparing feigners to controls, the MMPI-2-RF RBS exhibited the largest effect size (d = 3.05) among all examined measures. Accordingly, we conducted a series of two-step hierarchical logistic regression models by entering the MMPI-2-RF RBS first, followed by each other SVT and PVT individually. We found that the IOP-29 and IOP-M were the only measures that yielded incremental validity beyond the effects of the MMPI-2-RF RBS in predicting group membership. Taken together, these findings suggest that administering these SVTs and PVTs in-person or remotely yields similar results, and the combination of MMPI and IOP indexes might be particularly effective in identifying feigned mTBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personality traits play a role in prosocial behavior in relation to containment measures intended to tackle the COVID‐19 pandemic. Empirical findings indicated that individuals high in socially aversive traits such as callousness are less compliant with containment measures. This study aimed to add cross‐cultural data on the relationship between antisocial traits and adherence to COVID‐19 containment measures. The sample consisted of 4,538 adults recruited by convenience in nine countries (Australia, Brazil, England, Iraq, Iran, Italy, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States). Statistical analyses indicated two latent profiles from our sample, empathic and antisocial, and six COVID‐19 containment‐measure‐related factors using measures covering antisocial traits (PID‐5), empathy (ACME), global personality pathology (LPFS‐BF), and COVID‐19 behaviors and beliefs. Through MANCOVA, the antisocial profile consistently showed less compliance and concern about the COVID‐19 containment measures, even when controlling for demographics and local pandemic covariables. The network analysis indicated a lack of empathy and callousness as crucial traits of the predisposition to non‐compliant behavior. In elaborating on prosocial campaigns in community emergencies, our cross‐cultural findings would need to consider personality traits that focus on antisociality, anticipating similar associations and potential impacts in future disease outbreaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Emotional intelligence (EI) is a field of study that is receiving increasingly attention in the literature, due to its relevance to a series of aspects of human psychological and social functioning. Aims: This study used archival data from an Italian sample encompassing 885 nonclinical adults, to contribute to the study of the validity and reliability of the Trait Meta Mood-Scale (TMMS), a widely used measure of self-perceived EI. Method: Statistical analyses focused on internal consistency, factor structure and concurrent validity of an Italian TMMS version. Results: Results confirmed previous international studies supporting the cross-cultural adaptability of the TMMS, showing adequate reliability and validity indexes for all TMMS scores. Conclusions: EI may be measured via self-report. Its relationship to psychopathology, however, deserves more research, as certain components of EI correlate positively with psychological suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotion Regulation (ER) is an important aspect of every-day behavior relevant to both clinical and diagnostic practice. To date several studies have investigated the psychometric properties of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz and Roemer 2004) scores, however, the extent to which the DERS is affected by the gender and/or age of the respondents has so far been only poorly investigated. Furthermore, no studies have yet offered suggestions or guidelines on how to interpret different DERS scores. To fill this gap, the current study aimed at: (a) investigating with two relatively large Italian samples the influence of gender and age on DERS scores; (b) introducing a new approach to develop age and gender adjusted normative reference values for the DERS; (c) providing suggestions on how to interpret the resultant, age and gender adjusted, T-transformed, DERS scores. The results of our analyses show that within our first Italian sample ( n = 808), DERS scores tended to decrease with age, whereas gender had a small impact on them. Moreover, and more importantly, our age and gender adjusted, T-transformed, DERS scores calculated based on this first sample almost perfectly matched the scores produced by a second, independent, nonclinical Italian sample ( n = 404). Our findings thus support the effectiveness of our method to generate normative reference values for the DERS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY. Introduction: The present contribution intends to examine the construct of organizational relational climate as a therapeutic treatment factor in residential treatment settings. In these settings quality of environment, emotional atmosphere and living itself become the subject of community work. In this sense the therapeutic educational group becomes a treatment instrument. The objective is then to devise a questionnaire that may function as a sort of 'thermometer' to measure the health/discomfort of the work group. Methods: Starting from previous research studies, an ad hoc questionnaire was administered to 173 therapeutic community operators working all over Italy. Data analyses focused mainly on validation procedures that led to the construction of the final version of the instrument. Results: Based on these statistical procedures, the final version of the question- naire is composed of 30 items from which three factors emerge. Conclusions: The data proceeding from the research seem comforting as to the ability of the instrument to examine the functioning aspects of educational groups in Therapeutic Communities. That seems to lay the foundations for a further course of reflections and possible interventions through supervision and training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project provides information on how Italian adult nonpatients perform on the Rorschach test administered and scored following Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS) guidelines (Exner, 1995). Lis, Zennaro, Calvo, and Salcuni (2001) reported previously initial data for 101 of the nonpatients who were administered this instrument between July 1998 and February 2001 by graduate and postgraduate students in a 2-year research course at the Psychotherapy School of the University of Padua. The current study extends that previous work and includes information on an additional 148 participants gathered between April 2001 and March 2004, for a total of 249 individuals. Exclusion criteria are described and interrater reliability statistics at the response level for scoring segments are reported using both percent of agreement and iota. Comprehensive System findings are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the impact of administration and inquiry skills on Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 1974, 1991, 1993) protocols collected for the Italian adult nonpatient reference sample. The same research team collected CS protocols on two occasions. The initial reference sample (N = 212; Lis, Rossi, & Priha, 1998) was collected under the supervision of experienced psychologists who carefully studied CS administration and scoring procedures (Exner, 1986, 1990, 1993). The second sample (N = 101; Lis, Zennaro, Calvo, & Salcuni, 2001) was collected after the team obtained additional and sustained CS training from Rorschach workshops certified instructors. Both samples were scored, reliably but they showed large differences on many codes, with protocols from the second sample being richer and more complex than the first. The results indicate that administration skills can have a dramatic impact on CS protocols and may contribute to variations in samples collected by different investigators. Training standards should be devised to insure uniform administration procedures are followed when collecting CS protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS; Meyer, Viglione, Mihura, Erard, & Erdberg, 2011 ) was introduced to overcome some possible limitations of the Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 2003 ) while continuing its efforts to link Rorschach inferences to their evidence base. An important, technical modification to the scoring system is that R-PAS interpretations are based on both standard scores and complexity-adjusted scores. Two previous U.S. studies reported good to excellent interrater reliability (IRR) for the great majority of R-PAS variables; however, IRR of complexity-adjusted scores has never been investigated. Furthermore, no studies have yet investigated R-PAS IRR in Europe. To extend this literature, we examined R-PAS IRR of Page 1 and Page 2 raw and complexity-adjusted scores with 112 Italian Rorschach protocols. We collected a large sample of both clinical and nonclinical Rorschach protocols, each of which was coded separately by 2 independent raters. Results demonstrated a mean intraclass correlation of .78 (SD = .14) for raw scores and.74 (SD = .14) for complexity-adjusted scores. Overall, for both raw and complexity-adjusted values, most of the variables were characterized by good to excellent IRR.

The Developmental Index (DI) has recently been introduced as a composite Rorschach measure of psychological development and maturation, which can be used both with the Comprehensive System (Exner, 2003), and with the recently developed Rorschach Performance Assessment System (Meyer, Viglione, Mihura, Erard, & Erdberg, 2011). As the DI is new, and its validity has not yet been investigated with independent non-U.S. samples, we tested the correlation between DI and age using 3 relatively large samples, 2 of which were from outside the United States (total N = 902). Other Rorschach variables presumably associated with maturation, such as complexity and productivity, were also investigated. As expected, the DI significantly correlated with age, with small variations across the 3 samples. Importantly, the correlation between DI and age remained statistically significant also after controlling for productivity (i.e., the number of responses) and complexity.

Chronic and life-threatening neurodegenerative diseases may be associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therefore, the current study was an investigation of the prevalence of PTSD in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and identification of significant determinants of PTSD. Two hundred thirty-two MS patients were consecutively recruited and screened for the presence of PTSD with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, corroborated by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. Furthermore, participants were administered the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Fatigue Severity Scale. Twelve patients (12/232, i.e. 5.17 %) were diagnosed as suffering from PTSD. Levels of education, anxiety and depression were significant determinants of the presence of PTSD. The role played by the levels of education, anxiety and depression in determining the presence of PTSD has been discussed. Further research on the psychological features of neurodegenerative diseases is urgently needed in order to plan appropriate treatments and improve patients' quality of life.