Multivariate binary data with multiple binary response variables arise in many areas of research, including biology, psychology, medicine, dentistry, and other empirical sciences. In such data, the...Show moreMultivariate binary data with multiple binary response variables arise in many areas of research, including biology, psychology, medicine, dentistry, and other empirical sciences. In such data, the effect of a predictor on the response variable and the effect of a predictor on the association structure between the response variables is of interest. Multinomial Restricted Unfolding (MRU) is a probabilistic multidimensional unfolding model that can be used to analyse multicategory response variables in the presence of predictors. In this thesis, we investigated an extension of the MRU model to analyse multivariate binary data focusing on how diagnoses of depressive and anxiety disorders are influenced by personality traits and how the association between two disorders is affected by these personality traits. We compared the results using usual and squared Euclidean distances for the main effects and associations MRU models. We have demonstrated that MRU models using squared and usual Euclidean distances can be used to analyse multivariate binary data, representing well the changes in log odds and the changes in log odds ratio. Our results indicated that the MRU models using squared Euclidean distances are more straightforward and easier to be interpreted than those using usual Euclidean distance. However, despite the more complicated interpretation, the model using the usual Euclidean distance is more flexible, which might lead to a better model fit. Regarding the change in log odds of having GAD, the main effects model results indicated a constant change in slope between different pairs of categories that represent GAD. For the associations model, the parallel lines indicate that the change in the slope was constant within a pair of categories that represents GAD but not the same for different pairs of categories. When usual Euclidean distances were used, the change in slope was not constant for both main effects and associations models. Regarding the interpretation rules to express the change in the log odds ratio, the main effects model showed that the association structure does not dependent on the value of the predictor variable. However, for the associations model, the log odds ratio is dependent on the value of the predictor variable, in which a constant change in slope is shown. When using usual Euclidean distances to explore the association structure between two response variables, the change in slope was not constant for both models.Show less
Spatial cognition deficits can be caused by various factors including aging, neurodegenerative disease, stroke, or TBI, and have thus far received inadequate attention in the literature. This study...Show moreSpatial cognition deficits can be caused by various factors including aging, neurodegenerative disease, stroke, or TBI, and have thus far received inadequate attention in the literature. This study aims to further our understanding of spatial cognition in order to progress the field and assist in the assessment and diagnostics of associated deficits in affected populations. Research has outlined the practicality of VR in assessing cognitive complaints. VR can provide ecological validity to navigation assessments and can be used alongside neuropsychological tools to further understand cognitive deficits. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to investigate the relationships of presence and subjective navigation ability with objective navigation performance in VR, and to further examine the effect of gender on navigation performance. The van der Ham et al. (2020) online task battery was used to assess spatial navigation ability by requiring participants to complete five tasks testing landmark, location and path knowledge. The experiment was conducted online on a computer or phone screen. Sense of presence in the virtual environment and subjective navigation ability were measured using the IPQ (Schubert, Friedmann, and Regenbrecht, 2001) and the WQ (Claessen et al., 2016). A test-retest design was employed to investigate the gender differences in performance over time. The results of this study indicate that presence is not a significant predictor of navigation performance in the VR task. However, subjective navigation ability did predict objective navigation performance. Additionally, gender differences were found in performance over time, with males consistently performing better than females. These findings suggest a need to further investigate the different navigation mechanisms used by males and females, and the effect that stereotypical beliefs have on performance. In conclusion, this study determined that assessment of navigation abilities is not affected by experienced presence, and thus can be made accessible in an online format. The findings for gender differences and the relationship between subjective navigation ability and objective navigation performance also have the potential to contribute evidence-based improvements in assessments, diagnostics and rehabilitation interventions. Further research is required to investigate the effect of different levels of immersion on sense of presence and performance as this could affect VR assessment of navigation.Show less
The multiverse analysis can be used as a way of assessing the influence of different analysis choices that could reasonably be made by researchers, instead of only presenting the result of one...Show moreThe multiverse analysis can be used as a way of assessing the influence of different analysis choices that could reasonably be made by researchers, instead of only presenting the result of one research ‘path’ as is often done in studies. While the multiverse analysis increases transparency about the results, it is still unclear how researchers can best summarize the results of this analysis more formally. Moreover, as far as we are aware, no previous studies have examined how the multiverse analysis performs under different research conditions. In this study, we simulated data under different research conditions. In addition, we built a generic multiverse analysis that was used to analyze this data. Two methods were used to summarize the results of this analysis, namely the mean p-value and the harmonic mean p-value (HMP). The results of this study showed that the mean p-value may be the preferred summarization method, as it provides a more conservative estimate of the different paths in the multiverse and has less false-positive results than the HMP in a situation where data was simulated under the null hypothesis. In addition, our study shows that the summarization methods of our multiverse analysis are robust against variations regarding the number of variables that are part of the analysis, the amount of missing data in a dataset and changes in the correlation between variables. However, the summarization methods in our multiverse were not robust against underpowered data. Only if the different research paths in our multiverse analysis had adequate power, the HMP was generally able to find a significant result in at least 90% of cases. However, future research is needed to see if these results can be replicated, since the definition of a generic multiverse analysis may differ depending on the research field.Show less
The decrease of vegetation in cities is a widespread trend that has severe consequences for humanity and the climate alike. Pro-environmental choices such as increasing the vegetation in a garden...Show moreThe decrease of vegetation in cities is a widespread trend that has severe consequences for humanity and the climate alike. Pro-environmental choices such as increasing the vegetation in a garden seem to depend on emotions especially guilt and pride. In the current study it was hypothesized that feelings of guilt led to higher intentions and current environmental behavior to add vegetation to the garden. This cross-sectional study employed an existing dataset with 301 participants that had previously provided information about guilt and pro-environmental choices. Increased feelings of guilt were associated with higher intentions to add vegetation to the garden but not with increased current environmental behavior to do so. Therefore, guilt only seems to influence the intentions to add vegetation to the garden but not the actual behavior.Show less
Building on social perception literature which highlights the importance of morality in human impression formation, this study examines the relationship between brand personality and consumer...Show moreBuilding on social perception literature which highlights the importance of morality in human impression formation, this study examines the relationship between brand personality and consumer purchase intention. More specifically, the study objective is to investigate the effect of brand morality and brand competence on consumer purchase intention and to discover whether these effects are moderated by product involvement. It was hypothesised that brand morality is a stronger predictor of consumer purchase intention than brand competence. Secondly, it was predicted that for low-involving products, the effect of brand morality on consumer purchase intention is stronger than the effect of brand competence, whereas for high-involving products, the opposite was expected. An experiment (N = 216) was conducted to test these predictions. The results show that brand morality is a stronger predictor of consumer purchase intention than brand competence, irrespective of product involvement. The findings highlight the importance of morality in brand perception, indicating that companies of both low- and high-involving products should emphasise their brand’s moral characteristics to increase consumer purchase intention.Show less
Background: Parental verbal threat information is considered to play an important role in the development of childhood anxiety. Attentional biases induced by verbal threat information may increase...Show moreBackground: Parental verbal threat information is considered to play an important role in the development of childhood anxiety. Attentional biases induced by verbal threat information may increase the risk of developing social anxiety disorder. This study aims to investigate the effect of parental verbal threat information about strangers on children’s attention to these strangers. In addition, we explored the potential moderating role of child social anxiety. Method: The sample consisted of 75 9-to-14-year-old children (M= 11.51 years; 39 girls) and their primary caregivers from the community. The children filled in a questionnaire to measure their social anxiety levels. In the lab, the children had to give two speeches about shyness and confidence in front of two different strangers. Before the social performance, the caregiver verbally communicated threat or safety information about the two strangers. The duration of the looks measured the child’s attention to each stranger during the social performance. Results: The parental verbal information did not influence the child’s attention to the stranger during the social performance. No significant moderation of this effect by the child’s social anxiety was observed. Conclusions: Parental verbal threat information about strangers does not influence children’s attention to these strangers. In addition, child social anxiety does not affect the effect of parental verbal information on children’s attention to strangers.Show less
There have been few studies conducted into the effect of victimisation in the context of the bystander effect, wherein one person is mistreated while onlookers take no action to help. Previous...Show moreThere have been few studies conducted into the effect of victimisation in the context of the bystander effect, wherein one person is mistreated while onlookers take no action to help. Previous research indicates that potential impacts may include a feeling of ostracism or an adjustment of perceived social norms. This study explored how participants would react in a dictator game wherein they are given less money than their peers, in circumstances where the peers do or do not try to help, measured by their retaliation against the perpetrator, their psychological needs evaluation and ratings of fairness and justifiedness. No significant differences were found between the two conditions. However, as some research previously suggested, there are differences in coping strategies and responses to mistreatment between individuals. This study found that retaliators also had poorer psychological needs scores for control and self-esteem, rating the perpetrator’s behaviour as unjustified whilst their own vengeful retaliation was, according to them, justified. Future avenues for research are explored.Show less
Background: Social-emotional skills are pivotal for children’s intra- and interpersonal well-being. Social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions have been shown to improve these skills, with self...Show moreBackground: Social-emotional skills are pivotal for children’s intra- and interpersonal well-being. Social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions have been shown to improve these skills, with self-awareness (SA) being the most influential intervention component. However, these interventions apply varying conceptualizations and operationalizations of SA. Therefore, the defining characteristics of SA interventions and their effect on children’s well-being are unknown. Identifying these could help educators, policy makers and researchers to optimise content and accessibility of SA intervention to the benefit of children’s mental health. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to analyse the characteristics and effectiveness of currently available interventions targeting SA in children, and to examine children’s cultural background as potential moderator. Method: Eight electronic databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, EMCARE, ERIC, Cochrane Controlled Register of Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Science and Academic Search Premier) were searched for intervention studies investigating SA interventions in September 2019. Children’s SA was the primary outcome of interest, positive and negative mental health were the secondary. Of 7050 identified studies, 42 were included in the systematic review and 29 in the meta-analysis. Results: It was found that SA interventions had a small to moderate effect on children’s SA (g = 0.31 (0.05), 95% CI [0.21, 0.40], p < .001). Furthermore, they had a positive effect on children’s mental health. Cultural background did not significantly moderate SA intervention effectiveness. There was no evidence for publication bias. Conclusion: Overall, interventions targeting SA can positively influence the level of SA and mental health in children irrespective of their cultural backgrounds.Show less
Can people be motivated to experience an emotion solely due to the belief that this emotion reinforces their ideology? This study investigated whether people would be motivated to experience...Show moreCan people be motivated to experience an emotion solely due to the belief that this emotion reinforces their ideology? This study investigated whether people would be motivated to experience ideology-congruent and -incongruent emotions, if they believed these would reinforce their (left or right) ideology. A repeated-measures design showed that across ideologies, people were more motivated to experience fear when they believed it was ideology-reinforcing than when they had no such belief. Contrary to the hypothesis, for hope, the data suggested motivation to be high regardless of people’s beliefs about its usefulness for their ideology. This study also investigated potential differences between leftists and rightists in their motivation to experience ideology congruent and incongruent emotions. Whilst the data suggested rightists to be generally more motivated to experience both hope and fear, these results had to be disregarded, due to a great gender and age difference between the samples of the leftist and rightist supporters, which influenced the results. The significance and implications of the current findings are discussed.Show less
Even though it is well-known that certain antipsychotic medication such as olanzapine and clozapine can cause weight gain, metabolic disturbances, and other physical and mental complications in...Show moreEven though it is well-known that certain antipsychotic medication such as olanzapine and clozapine can cause weight gain, metabolic disturbances, and other physical and mental complications in people with a psychotic disorder, the relationship between antipsychotic medication and exercise remains not clear. The main goal of this study is to investigate whether there is an association between using a certain type of antipsychotic medication and the amount of exercising in people with a psychotic disorder. First, this study examines whether people with a psychotic disorder that use atypical antipsychotic medication exercise less compared to those that use typical antipsychotic medication. Second, whether people with a psychotic disorder that use clozapine and olanzapine exercise less compared to those that use another type of antipsychotic medication. The data used originates from a longitudinal cohort study named GROUP, a total of 523 people with a psychotic disorder who participated are used in this study. From these 523 participants, a number of 69 used typical antipsychotic medication and 454 participants used atypical antipsychotic medication. In addition, a total of 241 participants from these 523 participants used clozapine or olanzapine, and 282 participants used other antipsychotics. Further, t-tests are used in the analysis to answer the research questions. The results show there is no significant difference in both groups with regards to the two hypotheses. This implies there is no association between using a certain type of antipsychotic medication and the amount of exercising in people with a psychotic disorder.Show less
Background: Communication is important, especially in cancer care. Good communication can positively influence patient outcomes, whereas poor communication can cause harm. Due to COVID- 19 physical...Show moreBackground: Communication is important, especially in cancer care. Good communication can positively influence patient outcomes, whereas poor communication can cause harm. Due to COVID- 19 physical contact decreased leading to remote communication. In addition, general health care was downscaled, resulting in patients potentially receiving limited information about (treatment) changes. Currently, we do not know whether these changes are considered harmful and whether that depends on certain characteristics. Objective: This study aims to determine to which extent communication themes and communication situations within these two themes, are deemed harmful and by whom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the relationship between patients’ age, gender, education and information need, and the changed communication (remote consultations and limited information about (treatment) changes) and specific communication situations. Methods: An online survey study was conducted based on a scoping review and input from researchers, clinicians, and patient representatives. Participants were eligible if they were 18 years or older, had advanced (incurable) cancer and had sufficient command of the Dutch language. Participants were presented with six potentially harmful communication situations (grouped under the themes remote consultations and limited information about (treatment) changes) which they assessed as harmful or not (yes/no). The background characteristics were dichotomised, and the relationships were measured using (logistic) regression analyses. Results: The sample existed of 47 participants, aged between 44-81. Most participants (57%–87%) perceived the communication situations as harmful. The relationships between age, gender, education, and information need and remote consultations, limited information about (treatment) changes and specific communication situations were all non-significant (p > .01). The relationship between education and not checking if the discussed information is remembered was marginally significant, c2(1, N = 46) = 6.21, p = .013 and recorded an odds ratio of 7.29 (95% CI: 1.31 – 40.54). Conclusions: As we suspect telehealth to increase, we suggest creating specific guidelines for remote contact using harmful communication examples and helpful alternatives. Furthermore, we advise physicians to provide explanations about treatment changes and as to why patients are not (or less) involved in decision-making when information provision is limited. Larger and more representative research is needed to replicate and substantiate our findings.Show less
There is a need for replication studies in psychology, yet resources are scarce. Study selection strategies are required that can guide researchers in which studies to prioritise for replication....Show moreThere is a need for replication studies in psychology, yet resources are scarce. Study selection strategies are required that can guide researchers in which studies to prioritise for replication. The goal of this paper was to examine potential selection strategies and to identify possible issues with these strategies. Therefore a quantitative method for Replication Value (RV), inspired by Isager (2019), was proposed. RV determines the relative importance of replicating a study and was defined as impact over uncertainty. The studies in this paper formulated and compared different operationalizations of RV. Web of Science (WoS) was used to extract relevant data on a random sample of papers from WoS’s social psychology category. The first study examined a RV formula using minimal information, with yearly citations as a measure for impact and sample size as a measure for uncertainty. Study 1 also introduced Statcheck as a method to examine potential relations between RV-ranking and erroneous reporting. Study 2 elaborated on study 1, combining p-values with sample size as a measure for uncertainty. As part of this study, p-curve analysis was conducted to find relations between evidential value and paper ranking. Study 3 elaborated further, adding Altmetric score, a measure for societal influence of a paper, as a measure for impact. For all studies, similarity between RV-rankings was examined using Rank-Biased Overlap (RBO). Results tentatively indicate that sample size and citations are measures that can be useful when creating RV-formulas. Adding p-values to the RV-equation wasn’t beneficial, because it hardly changed the ranking of higher ranking papers. The addition of Altmetric score did change the RV-ranking and might be of interest to researchers interested in emphasising societal impact. Overall, this paper lays a groundwork for future RV research, mainly by exploring possible metrics involved in RV equations, but also by pointing out potential issues when using RV equations.Show less
The social dilemma called the anticommons dilemma represents a context in which a scarce resource has multiple owners who can exclude one another from harvesting from that resource. Not much...Show moreThe social dilemma called the anticommons dilemma represents a context in which a scarce resource has multiple owners who can exclude one another from harvesting from that resource. Not much attention has been paid to factors that lead to non-cooperative decisions in this context. Consequently, the present study investigates how the salience of collective consequences (externalities awareness) influences (non-)cooperative choice behavior in people differing in social value orientations (SVO). After SVO was measured and one of the two externalities awareness conditions was presented, the participants (N = 168) had to indicate a minimum price to give a co-owner access to the resource (WTA) in a modified anticommons paradigm. It was expected that when externalities were made salient individuals would display higher levels of cooperation, by indicating lower WTA’s, compared to when externalities were not made salient. Moreover, it was expected that when externalities were not made salient prosocials would display higher levels of cooperation than proselfs, whereas when externalities were made salient this difference would be smaller. Although the effect of externalities awareness and the interaction effect of this factor with SVO was non-significant, exploratory analyses indicated severe underuse of the common resource. The limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are discussed.Show less
