Latent State-trait Research Articles

Correction: Book Review of Longitudinal Structural Equation Modeling with Mplus: A Latent State-Trait Perspective by Geiser

Correction: Book Review of Longitudinal Structural Equation Modeling with Mplus: A Latent State-Trait Perspective by Geiser

Developing, evaluating, and interpreting personality state measures: A framework based on the revised latent state-trait theory

States are increasingly important in personality theory and research. Yet, the assessment of personality states usually relies on ad hoc measures whose development and evaluation are largely separated from theoretical considerations. To enable theory-guided development and evaluation of personality state measures, we introduce a framework based on the revised latent state-trait (LST-R) theory. The theory defines latent states as the expectation of an observed measure given a person in a specific situation, which can be decomposed into latent traits and latent situation-specific state residuals. Consequently, items and scales can be evaluated for their reliability due to latent traits (consistency) and situation-specific influences (specificity). We propose that specificity, in particular, is an appealing property for instruments designed to assess personality states. We illustrate this framework with experience sampling data on personality states. Our framework has implications for both the conceptualisation and the assessment of personality states. On the theoretical side, we provide a formal definition of personality states, which enables integration between trait-, process-, and development-focused theories. On the practical side, we show how using LST-R models allows researchers to develop and evaluate state measures on their own terms rather than applying criteria for trait measures to assess the qualities of state measures.

Comparing the latent state–trait structure of the PANSS in cariprazine-medicated and placebo-controlled patients with acute schizophrenia

After over a hundred years of research, the question whether the symptoms of schizophrenia are rather trait-like (being a relatively stable quality of individuals) or state-like (being substance to change) is still unanswered. To assess the trait and the state component in patients with acute schizophrenia, one group receiving antipsychotic treatment, the other not. Data from four phase II/III, 6-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of similar design that included patients with acute exacerbation of schizophrenia were pooled. In every trial, one treatment group received a third-generation antipsychotic, cariprazine, and the other group placebo. To assess symptoms of schizophrenia, the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) was applied. Further analyses were conducted using the five subscales as proposed by Wallwork and colleagues. A latent state–trait (LST) model was developed to estimate the trait and state components of the total variance of the observed scores. All symptom dimensions behaved more in a trait-like manner. The proportions of all sources of variability changed over the course of the observational period, with a bent around weeks 3 and 4. Visually inspected, no major differences were found between the two treatment groups regarding the LST structure of symptom dimensions. This high proportion of inter-individual stability may represent an inherent part of symptomatology that behaves independently from treatment status.

Young consumers’ impulse buying tendency on social media: an empirical analysis in Vietnam in light of the LST theoretical perspective

Purpose Social commerce has brought about a significant transformation in consumer experience due to diverse factors. As a result, users often find themselves prone to impulsive buying behaviour when exposed to such an environment. Prior research was limited to demonstrating the expanding influence of celebrities on social media and the linkage between social engagement and impulse buying context. Furthermore, the impulse buying tendency of consumers on social media in the context of celebrity posts has yet to be validated. This paper aims to assess the influence of consumer awareness, consumer trust and observational learning on the latent state-trait (LST) theory regarding celebrity posts on impulse buying tendencies. Design/methodology/approach The empirical research builds on a sample survey involving 750 students from the “Big Four” economics universities in Hanoi. The proposed model was analysed using a partial least squares structural equation modelling technique. Findings The authors find that consumer trust and observational learning from celebrity’ posts positively affect impulse buying tendency. Yet celebrity influence awareness directly impacts trust in celebrity’ posts rather than directly impacting impulse buying tendency. Perceiving the importance of interactive and authentic posts by a celebrity in influencing consumers’ purchase behaviour on social media, this research offers valuable insights for stakeholders in the digital celebrity sphere of communication and marketing. Practical implications Perceiving the importance of interactive and authentic posts by a celebrity in influencing consumers’ purchase behaviour on social media, this research offers valuable insights for stakeholders in the digital celebrity sphere of communication and marketing. Originality/value From a theoretical perspective, this expands the applicability of the LST theory in social commerce to promote impulse buying tendencies. Second, this contributes to the literature on the emerging phenomenon of social media celebrities, as existing literature does not clarify their influence on impulse buying behaviour. Third, this research applies the concept of observational learning in online shopping through key features of social media platforms, namely, likes, shares and comments, to investigate their influence on the impulse buying tendency of consumers. Concerning managerial implications, the authors propose practical recommendations for practitioners, particularly those involved or interested in the commercial services industry and social media marketing (namely, celebrities and partner companies).

Comparing revised latent state-trait models including autoregressive effects.

Understanding the longitudinal dynamics of behavior, their stability and change over time, are of great interest in the social and behavioral sciences. Researchers investigate the degree to which an observed measure reflects stable components of the construct, situational fluctuations, method effects, or just random measurement error. An important question in such models is whether autoregressive effects occur between the residuals, as in the trait-state occasion model (TSO model), or between the state variables, as in the latent state-trait model with autoregression (LST-AR model). In this article, we compare the two approaches by applying revised latent state-trait theory (LST-R theory). Similarly to Eid et al. (2017) regarding the TSO model, we show how to formulate the LST-AR model using definitions from LST-R theory, and we discuss the practical implications. We demonstrate that the two models are equivalent when the trait loadings are allowed to vary over time. This is also true for bivariate model versions. The different but same approaches to modeling latent states and traits with autoregressive effects are illustrated with a longitudinal study of cancer-related fatigue in Hodgkin lymphoma patients. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Longitudinal Relations Between Global Self-Esteem and Organizational Self-Esteem and Their Prospective Effects on Job Satisfaction and Work Engagement

Self-esteem represents one of the most important personal resources for workers. However, the value of different forms of self-esteem (i.e., global vs. organization-specific) for work outcomes and their reciprocal associations over time have yet to be examined. This preregistered study examined (1) longitudinal reciprocal relations between global and organizational self-esteem, (2) prospective effects of global and organizational self-esteem on job satisfaction and work engagement, and (3) the role of organizational self-esteem as a mediator of the effects of global self-esteem on job satisfaction and work engagement. Using data on 1014 workers who were assessed annually during the first three years of their careers, we implemented three cross-lagged panel (CLPM) models: the traditional CLPM, the Random Intercept-CLPM, and the Latent State Trait Model. The results from the best fitting model (the Latent State Trait Model), as well as the other two, failed to support our preregistered hypotheses; instead, the findings suggest that global and organizational self-esteem are largely independent, at both the between- and within-person level, and that neither form of self-esteem has important effects on job satisfaction or work engagement.

A general framework for the inclusion of time-varying and time-invariant covariates in latent state-trait models.

Latent state-trait (LST) models are increasingly applied in psychology. Although existing LST models offer many possibilities for analyzing variability and change, they do not allow researchers to relate time-varying or time-invariant covariates, or a combination of both, to loading, intercept, and factor variance parameters in LST models. We present a general framework for the inclusion of nominal and/or continuous time-varying and time-invariant covariates in LST models. The new framework builds on modern LST theory and Bayesian moderated nonlinear factor analysis and is termed moderated nonlinear LST (MN-LST) framework. The MN-LST framework offers new modeling possibilities and allows for a fine-grained analysis of trait change, person-by-situation interaction effects, as well as inter- or intraindividual variability. The new MN-LST approach is compared to alternative modeling strategies. The advantages of the MN-LST approach are illustrated in an empirical application examining dyadic coping in romantic relationships. Finally, the advantages and limitations of the approach are discussed, and practical recommendations are provided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Disaggregating Person- and Situation-Specific Heterogeneity: a Categorical Latent State-Trait Model

Disaggregating Person- and Situation-Specific Heterogeneity: a Categorical Latent State-Trait Model

Latent state-trait and latent growth curve modeling of inhibitory control.

The reliability of inhibitory control task performance as well as the existence of an underlying unitary inhibitory construct have been questioned. The present study is the first to use a trait and state decomposition approach to formally quantify the reliability of inhibitory control and to examine its hierarchical structure. N = 150 participants carried out antisaccade, Eriksen flanker, go/nogo, Simon, stop-signal, and Stroop tasks on three occasions. By applying latent state-trait modeling and latent growth-curve modeling, reliability was estimated and divided into the amount of variance explained by trait effects and trait changes (consistency) and the amount of variance explained by situational effects and effects of Situation × Person interaction (occasion specificity). Mean reaction times for all tasks revealed excellent reliabilities (.89-.99). Importantly, on average, 82% of variance was accounted for by consistency while specificity was rather small. Although primary inhibitory variables revealed lower reliabilities (.51-.85), the majority of explained variance was again trait determined. Trait changes were observed for most variables and were strongest when comparing the first occasion to later ones. In addition, in some variables, those improvements were particularly high in initially underperforming subjects. An analysis of the construct of inhibition on trait level showed that communality between tasks was low. We conclude that most variables in inhibitory control tasks are mainly affected by stable trait effects, but there is only little evidence of a common, underlying inhibitory control construct at trait level. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Modeling Heterogeneity in Temporal Dynamics: Extending Latent State-Trait Autoregressive and Cross-lagged Panel Models to Mixture Distribution Models

Longitudinal models suited for the analysis of panel data, such as cross-lagged panel or autoregressive latent-state trait models, assume population homogeneity with respect to the temporal dynamics of the variables under investigation. This assumption is likely to be too restrictive in a myriad of research areas. We propose an extension of autoregressive and cross-lagged latent state-trait models to mixture distribution models. The models allow researchers to model unobserved person heterogeneity and qualitative differences in longitudinal dynamics based on comparatively few observations per person, while taking into account temporal dependencies between observations as well as measurement error in the variables. The models are extended to include categorical covariates, to investigate the distribution of encountered latent classes across observed groups. The potential of the models is illustrated with an application to self-esteem and affect data in patients with borderline personality disorder, an anxiety disorder, and healthy control participants. Requirements for the models’ applicability are investigated in an extensive simulation study and recommendations for model applications are derived.

Supplemental Material for Latent State–Trait and Latent Growth Curve Modeling of Inhibitory Control

Supplemental Material for Latent State–Trait and Latent Growth Curve Modeling of Inhibitory Control

How consistent is mind wandering across situations and tasks? A latent state-trait analysis.

Mind wandering is often defined as the phenomenon of one's attention drifting away from the current activity toward inner thoughts and feelings. In the laboratory, mind wandering is most frequently assessed with thought reports that are collected while people perform some ongoing activity. It is not clear, however, inasmuch the resulting mind-wandering reports are reflective of person-consistent mind-wandering tendencies and/or situation-driven fluctuations in mind-wandering behavior. To shed light on this question, we tested how consistent mind-wandering reports are across different measurement occasions and tasks to investigate to which extent they indicate individual differences in mind wandering. Results from a latent state-trait analysis showed that mind-wandering reports are occasion-consistent to some extent and also somewhat task-specific. Theoretical implications of these findings are that mind wandering in the laboratory is less affected by situational factors than often assumed, but that individual differences in mind wandering partly depend on the currently ongoing task. Future research should investigate the origins of task-specificity effects on mind wandering and researchers should further incorporate the idea of task-specificity in future theory building. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Self-esteem Stability and Change at Home versus at Work: An Application of the Latent State-Trait Model for the Combination of Random and Fixed Situations (LST-RF)

ABSTRACT Recent research has shown that even stable psychological constructs, like self-esteem, are not static entities. Accordingly, research on state-trait decomposition is growing, but few studies have been conducted on investigating potential differences across situations. In this contribution, we used a Latent State-Trait model for the combination of Random and Fixed situations (LST-RF) to investigate self-esteem state-trait decomposition at home versus at work, in order to examine the impact of the organizational environment on some characteristics of self-esteem stability and change. Workers from various sectors (N = 161) completed a battery at T0 (age, gender, and organizational membership) and then responded to a questionnaire investigating their degree of global self-esteem and self-concept clarity across two days in 8 random situations that were nested within 2 fixed situations (home-work). Results showed that, contrary to our hypothesis, there were no substantial differences in self-esteem state-trait decomposition at home versus at work, while there was a significant mean-level decline of self-esteem when at work (consistent with the Conservation of Resources Theory) which was positively counteracted by organizational membership (according to the Sociometer Theory). In conclusion, we demonstrated that considering fixed situations may advance our knowledge on self-esteem state-trait decomposition.

Supplemental Material for Comparing Revised Latent State–Trait Models Including Autoregressive Effects

Supplemental Material for Comparing Revised Latent State–Trait Models Including Autoregressive Effects

Stability and Change in Subjective, Psychological, and Social Well-Being: A Latent State-Trait Analysis of Mental Health Continuum–Short Form in Korea and the Netherlands

Mental well-being consists of hedonic/subjective, psychological, and social dimensions. Research has yet to determine how much of the variance in these three dimensions is stable or variable over time. This study used data from South Korea (N = 338) and the Netherlands (N = 2,094) to answer this question. Data were collected over a period of approximately 14 months in Korea (four time points) and 10 months in the Netherlands (four time points). The study used the Mental Health Continuum–Short Form (MHC–SF) to measure dimensions of well-being and the Multi-Trait Multi-State model for data analysis. Results showed a moderate degree of stability for the three dimensions, with the proportion of stable variance ranging from 51% to 61% (M = 58%). Item-level analysis provided more detailed insights into item stability, which helped clarify some of the concept-level results. Despite the large differences between Korea and the Netherlands in cultural values and well-being, estimates of stability and change were quite similar across the two countries. However, some modest cross-cultural differences were also found. The study provides insights that can help researchers and practitioners in the selection or construction of well-being items for various research and practical settings.

Teachers' enthusiasm and humor and its' lagged relationships with students' enjoyment and boredom - A latent trait-state-approach

Following Pekrun's (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions, we investigated carry-over effects and cross-lagged relationships between student-perceived teacher enthusiasm and humor and students' enjoyment and boredom both within and between university lectures. We used a latent state-trait approach to acknowledge the role of situational factors in this relationship. Data were collected from 559 university students (76% female, mean age 21.6 years) from seven different lecture courses. We assessed students' self-reported emotions and student-perceived teacher enthusiasm and content-related humor over a period of four lectures at three random points during each lecture course. The analyses revealed that all variables were influenced by previous measures within lectures; however, between lectures, only previous enjoyment and humor influenced the subsequent measure. When students experienced boredom, they perceived less teacher enthusiasm and humor. On the other hand, perceived teacher humor positively affected enjoyment within lectures.

Using structural equation modeling to study traits and states in intensive longitudinal data.

Traditionally, researchers have used time series and multilevel models to analyze intensive longitudinal data. However, these models do not directly address traits and states which conceptualize the stability and variability implicit in longitudinal research, and they do not explicitly take into account measurement error. An alternative to overcome these drawbacks is to consider structural equation models (state-trait SEMs) for longitudinal data that represent traits and states as latent variables. Most of these models are encompassed in the latent state-trait (LST) theory. These state-trait SEMs can be problematic when the number of measurement occasions increases. As they require the data to be in wide format, these models quickly become overparameterized and lead to nonconvergence issues. For these reasons, multilevel versions of state-trait SEMs have been proposed, which require the data in long format. To study how suitable state-trait SEMs are for intensive longitudinal data, we carried out a simulation study. We compared the traditional single level to the multilevel version of three state-trait SEMs. The selected models were the multistate-singletrait (MSST) model, the common and unique trait-state (CUTS) model, and the trait-state-occasion (TSO) model. Furthermore, we also included an empirical application. Our results indicated that the TSO model performed best in both the simulated and the empirical data. To conclude, we highlight the usefulness of state-trait SEMs to study the psychometric properties of the questionnaires used in intensive longitudinal data. Yet, these models still have multiple limitations, some of which might be overcome by extending them to more general frameworks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The impact of personality trait and social experience on youngsters’ intention to purchase impulsively from social commerce platforms

PurposeThis study aims to determine the impact of personality traits and social experience on Indonesian youngsters’ intention to purchase impulsively from social commerce (SC) platforms. Furthermore, latent state-trait, personal traits and social impact were used to determine the factors influencing this impulsive behavior.Design/methodology/approachThis is a theoretical research model with data obtained from 658 Indonesian youngsters between the ages of 18 and 24. The data were prepared using exploratory and confirmatory factors with the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach used to analyze the direct, indirect and moderating effects.FindingsThe result showed that hedonic motivation is the most influential personality trait construct that directly determines youngsters’ purchasing intention, followed by perceived behavior control. Furthermore, their constructs from social experience, namely, subjective norms and peer communication, significantly have an indirect effect on the dependent variable through mediator hedonic motivation and perceived behavior control.Originality/valuePreliminary studies neglected the social interaction process used by youngsters’ in the impulsive purchase of the SC context. Therefore, this research postulated the associated factors by involving their interplay between personal traits and social experience.

Analyzing Stability and Change in Dyadic Attachment: The Multi-Rater Latent State-Trait Model With Autoregressive Effects

Previous research suggests that parental attachment is stable throughout emerging adulthood. However, the relationships between the mutual attachments in the dyads of emerging adults and their parents are still unclear. Our study examines the stability and change in dyadic attachment. We asked 574 emerging adults and 463 parents at four occasions over 1 year about their mutual attachments. We used a latent state-trait model with autoregressive effects to estimate the time consistency of the attachments. Attachment was very stable, and earlier measurement occasions could explain more than 60% of the reliable variance. Changes of attachment over time showed an accumulation of situational effects for emerging adults but not for their parents. We estimated the correlations of the mutual attachments over time using a novel multi-rater latent state-trait model with autoregressive effects. This model showed that the mutual attachments of parents and emerging adults were moderately to highly correlated. Our model allows to separate the stable attachment from the changing attachment. The correlations between the mutual attachments were higher for the stable elements of attachment than for the changing elements of attachment. Emerging adults and their parents share a stable mutual attachment, but they do not share the changes in their respective attachments.

Investigating Female Costumer’s Impulse Buying in Facebook B2C Social Commerce: An Experimental Study

Along with the popularity of social network site, social commerce such as Facebook has rapidly become a promising platform to conduct online advertisings and business activities. Drawing from Latent State Trait theory (LST), we conducted an online experiment to empirically investigate the impact of information quality, picture of product presentation, the number of people’s “Like”, and impulsiveness on female customer’s urge to buy impulsively as well as the interaction effect of environmental cues and individual trait. The results showed that information quality, picture of product presentation, impulsiveness positively affected urge to buy impulsively. Contrary to our expectation, only information quality was found to interact with impulsiveness to jointly influence impulsive buying behavior, while the interaction of impulsiveness with product presentation and the number of like was insignificant. The findings not only help to enrich our understanding about important factors influencing impulse buying within Facebook B2C social commerce but also offer social commerce practitioners better strategy in selling their products and services, specifically for female customers.