This article reports the development, validation, and correlates of a self-report measure of boredom proneness. The 28-item Boredom Proneness (BP) Scale demonstrates satisfactory levels of internal consistency (coefficient alpha = .79) and test-retest reliability (r = .83) over a 1-week interval. Evidence of validity for the BP is supported by correlations with other boredom measures and from a set of studies evaluating interest and attention in the classroom. Other hypothesized relationships with boredom were tested, with significant positive associations found with depression, hopelessness, perceived effort, loneliness, and amotivational orientation. Additional findings indicate boredom proneness to be negatively related to life satisfaction and autonomy orientation. The relationship of boredom to other affective states is discussed, and directions for future research are outlined.

Acquiescence, or the tendency to respond to descriptions of conceptually distinct personality attributes with agreement/affirmation (acceptance acquiescence) or disagreement/opposition (counter-acquiescence), has been widely recognized as a source of bias that can substantially alter interitem correlations within scales. Acquiescence is also known to operate differently among some groups of persons; it is, for example, more pronounced among individuals with less formal education. Consequently, the biasing effects of acquiescence are of particular concern when the dimensionality underlying the item set of a measure is examined with representative samples comprised of persons with varying levels of educational attainment and evaluated with correlation-based statistical methods such as factor analysis. In the present study, we extended our earlier research by investigating the biasing effect of acquiescence on personality factor structures derived from the full-scale version of the Big Five Inventory (BFI) when administered to a large sample (N = 1,427) selected to be representative of Germany's adult population. Consistent with previous findings based on a short-scale version of the BFI, factor analyses of the unadjusted BFI item set failed to replicate the expected Big Five-factor structure in the low/medium and high educational groups, with distortions in factor structure more pronounced in the former group. Once acquiescence was controlled in the item responses for both groups, however, the obtained factor structures were consistent with the Big Five framework. The implications of acquiescence on the evaluation of the factor structure of personality inventories and for the validity of personality assessments are discussed.

The psychometric properties of the newest version of the Temperament and Character Inventory, the TCI-R, were evaluated in a large (n = 727) community sample, as was the TCI-140, a short inventory derivative. Facets-to-scale confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses of the TCI-R did not support the organization of temperament and character facet scales within their superordinate domains. Five of the 29 facet scales also displayed relatively low internal consistency (α < .70). Factor analyses of the TCI-140 item set yielded only limited support for hypothesized item-to-scale memberships. Harm Avoidance, Novelty Seeking, and Self-directedness items, in particular, were not well differentiated. Although psychometrically comparable, the TCI-R and the TCI-140 demonstrate many of the limitations of earlier inventory versions. Implications associated with the use of the TCI-R and TCI-140 and Cloninger's theory of personality are discussed. KeywordsTemperament and Character Inventory; TCI-R; TCI-140; psychometric evaluation Cloninger's (1986Cloninger's ( , 1987aCloninger's ( , 1998Cloninger's ( , 2003 "unified biosocial" model of personality has had considerable influence within psychiatry and psychology during the last 20 years. This model, for example, has served as a framework for investigations into the stability of personality over time (Sigvardsson, Bohman, & Cloninger, 1987), the cross-cultural commonality versus specificity of personality traits , the continuity of normal and pathological personality attributes (Cloninger & Svrakic, 1992), and the differentiation among various forms of pathological personality traits (Svrakic, Whitehead, Przybeck, & Cloninger, 1993). Studies based on Cloninger's biosocial model have also examined individual differences in associative and instrumental learning (Corr, Pickering, & Gray, 1995;Farmer et al., 2003), personality variability within families of disorders (e.g., the eating disorders; Fassino et al., 2002), and the identification of distinct groups of persons within diagnostic classes (e.g., among alcoholics; Cannon, Clark, Leeka & Keefe, 1993;Cloninger, 1987b).Other lines of research within this framework have explored the heritability (Ando et al., 2002;Heath, Cloninger, & Martin, 1994) and genetics (Cloninger, 1998;Herbst, Zonderman, McCrae, & Costa, 2000) of personality, as well as brain functions and processes associated with personality variations (Hansenne et al., 2000;Peirson et al., 1999). Applied research based on Cloninger's model has evaluated responses to therapies as a function of variations of temperament and character dimensions (Joyce, Mulder, McKenzie, Luty, & Cloninger, 2004;Sato et al., 1999). As illustrated by these examples, Cloninger's theory of personality has been Please address editorial correspondence to: Richard F. Farmer, Oregon Research Institute, 1715 Franklin Blvd. Eugene, Oregon 97403, Tel: 541-484-2123, ext. 2124, Fax: 541-484-1108 Fossati et al., 2007), and Swedish and German (Brändström, Richter, & Nylander, 2003). To our k...

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Findings from the present study indicate that NSSI is a common form of behavior among adolescent youth. There is, however, considerable heterogeneity among those with NSSI histories, with about 40 % at particularly high risk for ongoing distress, future acts of intentional self-harm, and suicidal behavior.

Background Despite its importance as a public health concern, relatively little is known about the natural course of cannabis use disorders (CUDs). The primary objective of this research is to provide descriptive data on the onset, recovery, and recurrence functions of CUDs during the high-risk periods of adolescence, emerging adulthood, and young adulthood based on data from a large prospective community sample. Methods Probands (N = 816) from the Oregon Adolescent Depression Project (OADP) participated in four diagnostic assessments (T1 – T4) between ages 16 and 30, during which current and past CUDs were assessed. Results The weighted lifetime prevalence of CUDs was 19.1% with an average onset age of 18.6 years. Although gender was not significantly related to age of initial CUD onset, men were more likely to be diagnosed with a lifetime CUD. Of those diagnosed with a CUD episode, 81.8% eventually achieved recovery during the study period. Women achieved recovery significantly more quickly than men. The recurrence rate (27.7%) was relatively modest, and most likely to occur within the first 36 months following the offset of the first CUD episode. CUD recurrence was uncommon after 72 months of remission and recovery. Conclusion CUDs are relatively common, affecting about 1 out of 5 persons in the OADP sample prior to age 30. Eventual recovery from index CUD episodes is the norm, although about 30% of those with a CUD exhibit a generally persistent pattern of problematic use extending 7 years or longer.

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Background:The relationship between personality and depressed mood is not well understood. The present research sought to clarify the contributions of personality to an understanding of the development, course, and maintenance of depressed mood over time. . Results: Whereas three of the seven personality dimensions were significantly and uniquely associated with depressed mood at T 1 , only harm avoidance emerged as a significant unique positive predictor of depressed mood at T 2 . When participants were grouped according to the level of stability versus change in depressed mood during the 4-year period, reward dependence, self-directedness , and cooperativeness were found to be significantly lower among those low in depressed mood at T 1 who subsequently evidenced moderate to high levels of depressed mood at T 2 when compared to those with low depressed mood on both assessment occasions. Additional analyses indicated that those who evidenced moderate to high levels of depression at T 1 and T 2 were distinctly higher on harm avoidance and lower on self-directedness when compared to those who had consistently low or variable levels of depressed mood across the two assessment occasions. Conclusions: Findings from this research are discussed in terms of personality-related vulnerability and risk factors for future episodes of depressed mood. Depression and Anxiety 26:371-381, 2009.