Psychological Attributes, Cognitive Abilities and Behaviour. Dieter Wolke & Zach Estes

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1 Psychological Attributes, Cognitive Abilities and Behaviour Dieter Wolke & Zach Estes Sources of information 1. UKHLS Consultation Meeting on Psychological Attributes, Cognitive Abilities and Behaviour on 28 June 2007 at the RSS (led by Dieter Wolke and Zach Estes). 2. s received directly or via by UKHLS Consultation Website 3. Mention of important dimensions during the Biomarker and Health Advisory Committee meeting in London 4. Screening of the available measures within the BHPS (assistance of Thomas Siedler) and other longitudinal studies. The proposals at the consultation meeting and the suggestions by s could fill a full assessment programme of about 5 to 6 hours in the psychological field. The full report of the topics included or raised at the consultation meeting are available on the consultation web pages. However, a number of topics were raised by several people both in the consultation meeting, in s, in the reading of various longitudinal studies and some also during the Biomarker and Health Indicator Advisory Committee meeting. The core topics that emerged were: 1) Personality Measurement There was agreement that the UKHLS should include some personality assessment based on the Big Five dimensions (extraversion versus introversion; agreeableness versus antagonism; conscientiousness versus lack of direction; neuroticism versus emotional stability; openness versus closedness to experience). The major instruments are the Big Five Inventory (BFI-44) with 44 items or the NEO-PI-R that has 60 items. Both of these instruments are too long to be included in the UKHLS. A 10-item short version of the Big Five Inventory (BFI-10; Rammstedt & John, 2007, J. Res. Personality, 41, ) loses some validity but is nearly as good in discrimination of different personality styles as the long version and has good retest reliability. 1

2 Alternatively, the TIPI (Gosling et al, 2003, J. Res. Personality, 37, ) may be a useful measure to screen for personality characteristics. 2) Cognitive Ability and Achievement Various sources proposed the assessment of general cognitive abilities, achievements, and education. This may be partly done via record linkage. i) General cognitive ability. There was agreement that a measure should be taken of the g-factor of intelligence. IQ is one of the strongest predictors of resilience at times of adversity, and it is the single best predictor (combined with anti-social behaviour) of adult adjustment. There are now short screening tests for the g-factor of intelligence available such as in the automated Cantab system. These could be carried out on the computer in self administration by the participants. Specific assessments that have been suggested include the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading; the Spot the Word Task; the Symbol Digit Modality Task; and a short version of the Ravens matrices. This whole topic still needs to be investigated to decide on the best and most valid and reliable short version test. It is anticipated that general cognitive ability can be assessed in one of the waves within a 10 minute assessment period. Because IQ is relatively stable over time (starting from about 8 years of age), it does not need to be repeated for several waves (exception: young children or the very old). ii) Specific Cognitive Ability A short reading test (as has been done in the Dunedin Study) of about 2 minutes for estimating the general reading level of the participants would be valuable for questionnaire completion to take into account (how well questionnaires have been completed). Further specific cognitive abilities which have been suggested are: a) Problem solving skills drawback is that tests of problem solving tend to be relatively time-consuming. b) Attention regulation. Assessment could take the form of a continuous performance test (which would be time-consuming) or specific tests of attention (e.g., identifying objects under time pressure). c) Educational achievement -- acquired via record linkage. 2

3 iii) Social Relationships within the Family All the sources emphasised that a most central and innovative part of the UKHLS has to be the detailed measurement of social relationships within the family and within the wider community. The Biomarker and Health Indicator Committee further emphasised that the good measurement of the social environment is a pre-requisite for detecting gene-environment interactions. Here the emphasis should be on particularly good or adverse experiences within the family. a) Particularly adverse experiences. These are usually experiences of victimisation within the family that represent extreme forms of poor relationships within families or with peers or co-workers. Examples include experiences of sexual, physical abuse or neglect, domestic violence within the family, and experiences of being bullied or excluded within the family, at school or at the workplace. Adverse experiences are particularly important in studies of gene/environment interaction (e.g. development of anti-social behaviour (Caspi et al 2002)). They also often have severe long-term consequences and contribute to a cycle of anti-social behaviour. b) General quality of relationship. Some of the suggestions provided related to an assessment of the attachment styles within the family. One of the problems is that these are difficult to report and usually require intensive interviewing and interviewer-based rating of the attachment style. However, it should be investigated whether there are some scales available that approximate an assessment of the type of attachment relationships. These are relevant for relationships between adults, between children and adults, and in particular between the generations (e.g., with grandparents). c) Social Support. Social support is an important variable in protecting against adverse outcomes. Measure types that have been suggested are measures of general social support, in particular the extremes (someone who can lend you money in an emergency situation, someone you can leave your children with etc) or measures of social inclusion. d) Stress and Hassles. If normal variations in stress add up over time, they can be detrimental both to general relationships and health. There are some daily hassle scales available for the measure of normal variations in stress. Other 3

4 suggestions included short life event scales and measures of the degree of chaos within the family (which could be rated by the interviewer). This includes, for example, a rating of the dirt and soiling of the household which can be assessed with the YUK index which previously showed excellent correlation to developmental outcome in children (Skuse et al, 1992). e) Neuromotor and Motor Perception Abilities It was suggested that the general neuromotor and motor development or motor perception skills could be assessed with standardised assessments such as following a maze, standing on one leg, stepping backwards etc. Short versions of motor test batteries could be developed. 3) Other suggestions of specific areas i) Dr Rahman in particular suggested an assessment of human sexual orientation. He has provided scales ranging from 1 to 6 items. Related to this there were also questions about internet use within the home (e.g., social relationships, pornography, etc). It was appreciated that this could not be assessed in wave 1 or wave 2 and would need a specific module. ii) There was a general suggestion to explore how household decisions are made regarding finances and other issues. Related to this were also suggestions to measure perception of risk and the ability to statistically reason or being guided by emotions. There would be an opportunity to use new measurements of creating conflict situations which need to be solved by the individual to study altruism in decision making. iii) There were suggestions of measurements of attitudes which spanned from attitudes to the environment, attitudes towards entrepreneurship values and political attitudes. Some of these will have been dealt with in other consultancy workshops. iv) There was a suggestion of measuring mindfulness and empathy and sympathy which could be relevant in understanding the social relationships between people. 4

5 v) A very important area which was mentioned within the psychology field was measuring the eating behaviour and lifestyle of individual considering the current obesity epidemic. 4) Summary A wide range of suggestions were made, some which are considered to be core. The core areas that should be assessed are: social relationships within the family including normal variations and their extremes (victimisation) also including experiences in the wider world (emphasis: innovative approaches). General cognitive ability and literacy should definitely be assessed within the UKHLS. This only needs to be done at intermittent time intervals not repeated across every assessment situation (innovative use of computer self-administration). Short screening of personality should be done at regular intervals (however, does not need to be repeated every wave). There should be a general measure of stress or life events experience within the family. Cognitive abilities specific cognitive abilities should be assessed via record linkage (educational achievement) and specific assessment of attention (innovative and interesting attention test). 5