Domain-specific Construct Research Articles

Development and validation of the domain-specific climate change distress scale

Climate change is one of, if not the greatest, global challenges of this century, as its consequences can have a wide range of impacts on society, the environment, and the personal lives of many individuals. Consequently, many people experience severe psychological distress in the form of fears, anxieties, or worries, elicited by one, some, or all these different consequences. Thus, climate change distress can be conceptualized as a domain-specific construct. We conducted a literature review and a qualitative lay survey to develop the Domain-Specific Climate Change Distress Scale (DCCDS), with a generic climate change distress domain and six sub-domains (ecology, existence, food supply, future generations, society, and wealth). In the first study, we validated this structure with a bifactor-(S-1) model and refined the scale according to its psychometric properties. In a second study, we showed convergent and discriminant validity with the respective constructs. In a third study, we demonstrated the external validity of the scale by investigating the relation of its sub-domains to fear reactions to real-life news excerpts and willingness to donate to different charity organizations. Each sub-domain showed incremental validity over the generic domain. The scale had adequate psychometric properties and stability over three measurement timepoints in German gender-balanced convenience samples. We thus conclude that the domain-specific conceptualization of climate change distress yields important diagnostic benefits and could provide important insights into the future handling of climate change distress on a political, socio-cultural, and personal level.

General versus domain-specific grit in the work context.

Researchers have questioned whether grit should be conceptualized and measured as a global (i.e., domain-general) or domain-specific construct. Although evidence is beginning to appear that grit in educational and sport contexts may be measured as domain-specific, it has not yet been explored in the organizational context. The objective of this research was to study the psychometric properties of grit as domain-specific for subsequently analyzing if such domain-specific grit (labor grit) improves the predictive validity of different organizational results. A sample of 326 active workers was used (Myears = 37.52; SD = 9.85). Their grit levels in the general domain and specific domain were evaluated, as well as their main personality traits and other organizational results such as work engagement and work performance. The grit instrument as domain-specific showed excellent reliability (ω = 0.92), and the unidimensionality of the instrument was confirmed. The results point to the fact that giving an organizational connotation to the grit items does not improve the predictability of the results. However, labor grit adds incremental validity over personality traits and work engagement to predict task and contextual performance (Δr2 = 0.13), but not to predict counterproductive behavior.

Overparenting, Loneliness, and Social Anxiety in Emerging Adulthood: The Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation

Emerging adults frequently report feelings of loneliness and social anxiety owing to changes in their social environment, instabilities, and transitions. One of the risk factors that could contribute to emerging adults’ social well-being is overparenting. We examined the association between overparenting, loneliness, and social anxiety among emerging adults and investigated the potential mediating role of emotion regulation as a mechanism that might account for the association. Overparenting was operationalized as a domain-specific construct comprising various aspects of emerging adults’ lives (i.e., academic, health, financial, and relational). College students ( N = 287) participated in a short-term longitudinal study and responded to self-reported measures on overparenting, emotion regulation, loneliness, social anxiety, and demographics. Findings from structural equation modeling suggested that relational overparenting was related to higher levels of loneliness and social anxiety among emerging adults and that this association was mediated by emotion regulation. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Domain-Specific Greed.

Greed, the insatiable and excessive desire and striving for more even at the expense of others, may be directed toward various goods. In this article, we propose that greed may be conceptualized as a domain-specific construct. Based on a literature review and an expert survey, we identified 10 domains of greed which we operationalized with the DOmain-SPEcific Greed (DOSPEG) questionnaire. In Study 1 (N = 725), we found support for the proposed structure and convergent validity with related constructs. Bifactor-(S-1) models revealed that generic greed is differentially related to the greed domains, indicating that generic greed primarily captures a striving for money and material things. In the second study (N = 591), we found that greed domains had incremental validity beyond generic greed with regard to corresponding criteria assessed via self- and other-reports. We conclude that greed can be conceptualized as a domain-specific construct and propose an onion model reflecting this structure.

Dynamics of Global and Organizational Self-Esteem at Work

ABSTRACT Self-esteem represents one of the most important workers’ resources, and has been studied from two different perspectives conceiving self-esteem (1) as a global (i.e., global self-esteem, GSE), or (2) as a domain-specific construct (i.e., organization-based self-esteem, OBSE). To our knowledge, no study has addressed the dynamic relations between these two different self-esteem expressions and their concurrent value as useful work-related personal resources. In this study, we addressed this issue using six-wave longitudinal data weekly gathered from N = 279 full-time workers. We privileged the analysis of the dynamic relationships between GSE and OBSE at the state level, with a close eye on their different impacts on important organizational outcomes. Results from Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel models revealed that GSE and OBSE did not predict each other over time, despite being concurrently closely associated within each wave. The same close relation between GSE and OBSE was observed at a trait level. Importantly, rigorous concurrent predictive models revealed that neither GSE nor OBSE predicted or were predicted by the outcomes considered in the present study (i.e., job satisfaction and work engagement). We deeply discussed the implications of these results for refining our understanding of the value of these important self-esteem expressions at work.

Emotional Intelligence and Risk Behaviour: A Risk Domain-Dependent Relationship.

It is widely accepted that emotions exert a strong influence on risk decision-making. Despite this, the literature studying the role of emotional intelligence (EI) on the tendency to engage in risky behaviour is scarce, and the results appear to be inconclusive. The present study delves into the relationship between EI and risk behaviour through various risk contexts (Ethical, Health, Financial, Social, and Recreational domains). We also examined whether this relationship is age and gender-dependent. A Spanish sample of 1435 participants (Mage = 29.84, from 18 to 70; 61.9% women) was assessed for levels of EI and risk-taking by the TMMS and DOSPERT scales. The results revealed that EI was negatively related to risk behaviour in the Ethical and Health domains and positively related to the Social and Recreational domains. Moreover, we confirmed the influence of gender and age on both EI and risk behaviour. EI is differentially related to risk behaviour depending on the risk domain studied, supporting the idea that risk is a domain-specific construct. We suggest that higher levels of EI could be adaptive for risk behaviour regardless of the direction of the relationship. Practical implications and future lines of research are discussed.

Individual's Reproductive Strategies Moderates the Association Between Facial Width-to-Height and Risk-Taking Propensity.

Previous research has yielded mixed findings on the relationship between facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), an androgen-dependent feature, and risk-taking propensity. We argue that mixed findings might result from overlooked variables. Given that risk-taking propensity might be ultimately linked to a search for mating opportunities, we analyze if reproductive strategies moderate the relationship between fWHR and risk-taking propensity. Our results, obtained from a sample of 434 male participants, show a positive association between fWHR and recreational and social risk-taking only for men who are more motivated to focus on mating effort over offspring survival. This finding aligns with research arguing that risk-taking may be a mating strategy since being social and recreational risk-prone might illustrate physical and psychological qualities and improve one's ability to attract mates. Our results support the notion that risk-taking might be a domain-specific construct. Overall, our research is in line with recent findings suggesting that the impact of testosterone exposure on risk-taking propensity is best understood when considering the role of contextual variables. Consequently, we add to previous research that studies related to risk-taking propensity should account for reproductive strategies.

Development of the Chemistry Mindset Instrument (CheMI) for use with introductory undergraduate chemistry students

Chemistry education research has increasingly considered the role of affect when investigating chemistry learning environments over the past decade. Despite its popularity in educational spheres, mindset has been understudied from a chemistry-specific perspective. Mindset encompasses one's beliefs about the ability to change intelligence with effort and has been shown to be a domain-specific construct. For this reason, students’ mindset would be most relevant in chemistry if it were measured as a chemistry-specific construct. To date, no instrument has been developed for use in chemistry learning contexts. Here we present evidence supporting the development process and final product of a mindset instrument designed specifically for undergraduate chemistry students. The Chemistry Mindset Instrument (CheMI) was developed through an iterative design process requiring multiple implementations and revisions. We analyze the psychometric properties of CheMI data from a sample of introductory (general and organic) chemistry students enrolled in lecture courses. We achieved good data-model fit via confirmatory factor analysis and high reliability for the newly developed items, indicating that the instrument functions well with the target population. Significant correlations were observed for chemistry mindset with students’ self-efficacy, mastery goals, and course performance, providing external validity evidence for the construct measurement.

Unsupervised speech representation learning for behavior modeling using triplet enhanced contextualized networks

Speech encodes a wealth of information related to human behavior and has been used in a variety of automated behavior recognition tasks. However, extracting behavioral information from speech remains challenging including due to inadequate training data resources stemming from the often low occurrence frequencies of specific behavioral patterns. Moreover, supervised behavioral modeling typically relies on domain-specific construct definitions and corresponding manually-annotated data, rendering generalizing across domains challenging. In this paper, we exploit the stationary properties of human behavior within an interaction and present a representation learning method to capture behavioral information from speech in an unsupervised way. We hypothesize that nearby segments of speech share the same behavioral context and hence map onto similar underlying behavioral representations. We present an encoder-decoder based Deep Contextualized Network (DCN) as well as a Triplet-Enhanced DCN (TE-DCN) framework to capture the behavioral context and derive a manifold representation, where speech frames with similar behaviors are closer while frames of different behaviors maintain larger distances. The models are trained on movie audio data and validated on diverse domains including on a couples therapy corpus and other publicly collected data (e.g., stand-up comedy). With encouraging results, our proposed framework shows the feasibility of unsupervised learning within cross-domain behavioral modeling.

Using the Risk-Return Model to Explain Gambling Disorder Symptoms in Youth: An Empirical Investigation with Italian Adolescents

Historically, individual differences research has sought to explain problem-gambling severity in adolescence by means of unitary "risk-taking" traits, such as sensation seeking and impulsivity, implying that these personality traits account for risk-taking tendencies across different types of behaviors and situations. However, increasing empirical evidence suggests that risk taking seems to be better conceptualized as a domain-specific construct. In the current study, we adopted a psychological risk-return framework, which posits that perceptions of perceived risks and benefits predict gambling risk attitudes, which in turn, account for variance in Gambling Disorder (GD) symptoms in adolescents. The study involved 296 Italian adolescents (68% boys, Mage = 17.76, SD = 1.17). Participants completed the risk-taking, risk perception, and expected benefits scales from the Adolescent Domain Specific Risk Taking (DOSPERT) scale (Barkley-Levenson et al. in Dev Cognitive Neurosci 3: 72-83, 2013), as well as the Gambling Behavior Scale for Adolescents (GBS-A; as reported (Primi et al. in Gambling Behavior Scale for Adolescents in, Hogrefe, Florence, 2015) were administered. Consistent with predictions, risk-taking scores for the Gambling domain predicted adolescent gambling outcomes, relative to the other DOSPERT risk-domains (Ethical, Health/Safety, Recreational, Social). Additionally, we found that greater Gambling risk perceptions were associated with lower risk-taking scores, whereas greater perceived expected benefits were associated with higher risk-taking scores. Moreover, we found significant indirect effects between perceived risks and benefits and problem-gambling severity, mediated via Gambling risk-taking scores, though expected benefits demonstrated a stronger indirect effect. These results have important implications for practice as they emphasize that specific interventions aimed at preventing problem gambling in adolescents should address their perceptions about gambling benefits.

General vs health-specific consideration of immediate and future consequences to explain eating and exercise behavior in a Norwegian student population: A randomized survey experiment.

Over several decades, the consideration of future consequences (CFC) construct has been used to explain and predict health behaviors. However, the reported associations between CFC and health behaviors are relatively weak, leading to the low explanatory power of the models. Recent research suggests that CFC can be a domain-specific construct. In this study, we explored the psychometric properties of the Norwegian CFC-general and CFC-health questionnaires in terms of factor structure and discriminant and convergent validity and tested the association between the general and domain-specific CFC and exercise and eating behaviors. In a randomized survey experiment, 1,001 university students were assigned to either a CFC-general or a CFC-health questionnaire. In the tested models, two dimensions of CFC, consideration of immediate consequences (CFC-I) and consideration of future consequences (CFC-F), were independent variables. The exercise and eating behaviors, measured both as self-evaluated behaviors and self-reported frequency measures, were dependent variables. The results showed that in both CFC-general and CFC-health, CFC-I and CFC-F are distinct dimensions that differentially explain variance in health behaviors. A domain-specific CFC-health explained a significantly higher amount of variance in self-reported eating and exercising behaviors than a general CFC. Self-evaluated health behaviors were better explained by CFC than self-reported behavioral frequencies. Practical implications of the findings and avenues for future research are discussed.

Citizen grit: Effects of domain-specificity, perseverance, and consistency on political judgment

Tenaciousness and persistence contribute to achievement in key areas such as school and work. Research on Grit has helped demonstrate such effects, but also has raised questions regarding whether Grit is best examined as a global or a domain-specific construct, whether it is most insightful to treat Grit as a single property or to model its perseverance and consistency domains separately, and what Grit contributes to analyses that is not already captured by extant constructs highly correlated with Grit measures. These questions are addressed in the present study, with focus on the possible impact of Grit on the nature and quality of citizens' judgments in the political sphere, and with data from 2500 respondents on a nationally representative U.S. survey. Analyses reveal domain-specific Grit effects on political knowledge, rejection of conspiracy theories, and differentiation between high- and low-quality political candidates. In contrast with research that has identified strong effects for Grit's perseverance dimension, effects on political judgment emanate primarily from consistency of interest.

What worries first-year students? Psychometric properties of the Student Worry Scale.

The transition to university can be stressful for first-year university students. Despite the fact where the feeling of worry is a shared symptom by various mental health issues, there is a lack of studies that investigate into this matter. As worry is a domain-specific construct, there is a need for a valid and reliable measure of worry specifically for university students. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Student Worry Scale (SWS), particularly in terms of its validity and reliability. For this purpose, the current study recruited a sample of 295 first-year students to evaluate the psychometric properties of SWS. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a five-factor structure of SWS, which explained 55.7% of the total variance. The yielded five factors were general worries, financial-related concerns, significant other's well-being, academic concerns, and social adequacy concerns. Inter-correlations between the five factors were all significant (r ranged between 0.395 and 0.625). The SWS demonstrated good internal consistency in this study (Cronbach's alpha ranged between 0.786 and 0.941). Overall, the SWS is psychometrically evidenced to be a reliable and valid content-based worry measure specifically for university students.

General and domain-specific cognitive reserve, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia risk in older women

IntroductionIn a geographically diverse sample of women, we asked whether cognitive reserve (CR) is best viewed as a general or cognitive domain-specific construct and whether some cognitive reserve domains but not others exert protective effects on risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia. MethodsEstimates of general and domain-specific CR were derived via variance decomposition in 972 cognitively intact women from the Women's Health Initiative Study of Cognitive Aging and Women's Health Memory Study Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Women were then followed up for 13 years. ResultsGeneral CR was the strongest predictor of reduced risk for both MCI and dementia, compared to domain-specific CR measures. Verbal memory, figural memory, and spatial CR were independently protective of MCI, but only verbal memory was independently associated with reduced risk for dementia. DiscussionCognitive reserve is a heterogenous construct with valid quantitative measures identifiable across different neuropsychological processes associated with MCI and dementia.

Examining the domain specificity of grit

Researchers have questioned whether grit should be conceptualized and measured as a global- (i.e., domain-general) or domain-specific construct. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is value in conceptualizing and measuring grit as a domain-specific construct. 251 intercollegiate student-athletes completed three versions of the Grit Scale (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007) to measure grit in the context of sport, school/academe, and life in general. Results of a repeated-measures MANOVA revealed that grit levels varied as a function of situational context. Participants reported significantly higher grit in sport than in school and life in general. Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the school-specific measure of grit accounted for significant amounts of incremental variance in respondents' grade point average beyond the variance explained by the global measure of grit. Results indicate that there is merit to conceptualizing and measuring grit as a domain-specific construct in different achievement domains.

Validation of the German Version of the Sexual Self-Esteem Inventory for Women and its Application in a Sample of Sexually and Physically Abused Women

Results regarding the association between global self-esteem and sexual behavior suggest the importance of a domain-specific construct—so-called sexual self-esteem (SSE). Prior studies suggested that SSE is malleable and found a negative impact of sexual abuse on SSE. In the present study, the German translation of the Sexual Self-Esteem Inventory-Short Form (SSEI-SF) by Zeanah and Schwarz (1996) was validated via an online survey with 557 women and then investigated in a clinical sample of women suffering from PTSD following sexual and physical abuse compared with healthy controls (n = 130). We examined differences in SSE depending on the type of abuse. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed adequate model fit, with acceptable-to-excellent reliability (α = .78–.94) and sound convergent and discriminant validity. As expected, SSEI-SF scores were significantly lower in the clinical sample than those in the healthy control group. Within the clinical sample, there were no significant differences in SSE between clients who had experienced sexual abuse and those who had experienced physical abuse, but a history of sexual abuse was significantly linked to lower SSE and SSE was related to both sexual behavior and sexual satisfaction. In conclusion, our study supports the validity and applicability of the German version of the SSEI-SF. Results regarding the differences in SSE between survivors of abuse and healthy controls contribute to the further understanding of female sexuality and have implications for treatment.

Adolescents consider the future differently depending on the domain in question: Results of an exploratory study in the United Kingdom

The study of Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) construct has increased substantively in recent years. Underlying these developments is the presumption that consideration of the future is uniform across all domains, and not a domain-specific construct. Building on work undertaken previously, the present study used 30 researcher-derived items to assess the domain specificity of consideration of the future in three large samples of adolescents in the United Kingdom. A psychometrically valid and reliable 18-item scale measuring consideration of the future in four domains emerged. Domain specificity was supported on two levels: a good fitting multidimensional model of CFC; and low to moderate factor correlations for the four domains measured by the 18-item scale. The study suggests that adolescents are considerate of future outcomes to different degrees, depending on the domain, and the implications of this with regard to future research are discussed.

Academic Grit Scale

This study aims to develop and to validate a academic domain-specific construct of grit, the academic grit. In this paper, an explanation is provided why there is a need to stratify the construct and why the proposed construct needs to adopt constructs. The researcher seeks to develop and validate an instrument that measures academic grit which, in turn, a more precise predictor of academic success.

Who Turns Green with Envy? Conceptual and Empirical Perspectives on Dispositional Envy

Previous research has conceptualized dispositional envy as a general construct that does not vary across comparison domains. In five studies (N = 1393), we examine dispositional envy as a domain–specific construct. In Study 1, we present the development of a domain–specific measure of dispositional envy. Across samples from different populations and two countries (Studies 2 and 3), the measure is shown to have good reliability, construct validity and stability over three months, highlighting the trait–like character of the construct. State levels of envy were also examined in the academic domain (Study 4) and in dyadic interactions between unacquainted participants (Study 5). Results show a Person × Situation Interaction effect (i.e. Dispositional Envy × Situation) on experiences of envy. By placing domain–specific dispositional envy into a network of similar and dissimilar constructs, the current findings serve as a foundation for drawing conclusions about the nature of dispositional envy. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology

Structure of academic self-handicapping — Global or domain-specific construct?

Given the well-documented negative effects of academic self-handicapping, researchers should be able to (a) draw valid conclusions about the nature and magnitude of these maladaptive effects, and (b) create efficient intervention procedures that help reduce self-handicapping. To accomplish these goals, reliable knowledge about the structure of academic self-handicapping is needed. In this article, I therefore analyzed the domain specificity of academic self-handicapping by assessing the use of handicapping strategies across different school subjects in two samples of German high school students. In Studies 1 and 2, confirmatory factor analyses revealed better fit indices for domain-specific compared to domain-general models. Moreover, the subject-specific handicapping factors were differentially related to students' subject-specific self-concept, interest, and achievement. I conclude that academic self-handicapping should be seen from a domain-specific perspective yielding important implications for educational practitioners.