The comparative concurrent validities of the Shipley Institute of Living Scale and the Henmon-Nelson Tests of Mental Ability

Grit in adolescence is protective of late-life cognition: non-cognitive factors and cognitive reserve

Various psychological assets have been shown to protect against late-life cognitive impairment by promoting cognitive reserve. While factors such as educational attainment and IQ are well-established contributors to cognitive reserve, noncognitive factors, such as grit, have not been studied in this regard. We examined the contribution of adolescent grit, indexed by high school class rank controlling for IQ, to late-life cognition and its decline among approximately 4000 participants in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, a random sample of high school graduates followed from 1957 to 2011. Adolescent grit significantly predicted both immediate and delayed memory at ages 64 and 71, over and above the contribution of IQ. While the relative contributions of IQ and grit to immediate memory were comparable, grit was a stronger predictor of delayed memory. Cognitive reserve has noncognitive, as well as cognitive, components.

Effect of Symptom Information and Intelligence in Dissimulation

This study employed the Basic Personality Inventory (BPI) to differentiate various types of dis-simulation, including malingered psychopathology and faking good, by inmates. In particular, the role of intelligence in utilizing symptom information to successfully malinger was examined. On admission to a correctional facility, 161 inmates completed the BPI under standard instructions and then again under instructions to fake good (n = 55) or to malinger psychotic (n = 35), posttraumatic stress disorder (n = 36), or somatoform (n = 35) psychopathology. Unlike symptom information, intelligence evidenced some support for increasing inmates’ effectiveness in malingering, although there was no relationship between higher intelligence and using symptom information to successfully evade detection. Overall, the BPI was more effective in detecting malingered psychopathology than faking good. Implications for the detection of dissimulation in correctional and forensic settings are discussed.

Workplace Skills Development

Youth are the future of a country and their workplace skills are vital for a society’s growth and development. Unattached youth, neither at school nor at employment, pose a great challenge to the society. This study examines the impact of certain factors on unattached youth workplace skill development. Using a group of 322 unattached Jamaican youth who were recruited by the Jamaican National Youth Service, this study investigates certain individual differences such as five personality factors (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism), cognitive ability, and gender’s impact on workplace skills development among this group of Jamaican unattached youth using the multilevel modeling (MLM) analysis. The findings indicated that certain individual characteristics such as neuroticism and agreeableness have significant impact on their workplace skills development. Based on these results, career counseling and development should be considered to help unattached youth to develop their workplace skills to reach their potential.