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Background/objective: Grazing has been associated with poor weight loss or weight regain in obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery, but research remains scarce and complicated by the use of different non-validated measures. The aim of this paper is to describe the validation of the Rep(eat)-Q, a self-report measure developed to assess grazing, and investigates its relationship with BMI and psychopathology.Subjects/methods: 1223 university students and community participants (non-clinical; Study A) and 154 pre-bariatric and 84 post-bariatric patients (Study B) completed a set of self-report measures, including the Rep(eat)-Q (worded in Portuguese), to assess disordered eating, depression, anxiety, stress and impulsivity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses tested the factor structure; internal consistency construct, convergent and divergent validity were also tested.Results: The Rep(eat)-Q scales showed good internal consistency (α ≥ 0.849) and temporal stability (rsp = 0.824, p < 0.000). Factor analyses generated two subscales: compulsive grazing and repetitive eating. Significant correlations (p < 0.05) were found between the Rep(eat)-Q and BMI in the non-clinical population and weight loss and weight regain in the bariatric sample. Generally, the correlations with psychological distress were weak (rsp < 0.4). Strong and significant (rsp≥0.4; p's < 0.05) correlations were found between compulsive grazing and eating disorder psychopathology. Repetitive eating subscale was inversely correlated with cognitive restraint (rsp -0.321, p < 0.05) and directly correlated with uncontrolled eating and emotional eating (rsp = 0.754; rsp = 0.691; p < 0.05).Discussion/conclusion: The Rep(eat)-Q is a valid measure to assess grazing in non-clinical and in bariatric surgery populations. Grazing can be conceptualized on the spectrum of disordered eating behavior, and appears associated with loss of control over eating. Considering the link between grazing and weight outcomes, the Rep(eat)-Q represents a necessary strategy for the systematic screening of grazing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely assumed that responses on the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) represent long-term (trait) attitudes to eating behaviour. However, the questionnaire requires agreement with a number of food related statements, and it is possible that some are easier to agree with when assessed hungry than sated. To test this potential state-dependency, participants completed a 100 mm visual analogue scale rating of their current hunger at the time they completed the TFEQ. Data were collected from two cohorts: Cohort 1 (507 women and 119 men) completed both measures on paper, while the hunger rating was computerised in Cohort 2 (179 women). Regression analysis revealed significant effects of rated hunger on scores on the hunger (TFEQ-H) and disinhibition (TFEQ-D) but not restraint (TFEQ-R) subscales, with higher TFEQ-H and TFEQ-D scores when participants were more hungry. In addition, 61 women and two men from Cohort 1 completed the measures on two separate occasions. Here, scores on TFEQ-H were higher on days when these participants were hungrier, but no differences in TFEQ-D or TFEQ-R were found. Overall these data suggest TFEQ-H could be interpreted as an indirect measure of current hunger, that scores on TFEQ-D are partly moderated by hunger but TFEQ-R is a more trait-like measure of restraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Personality and Assessment [Mischel, W. (1968). Personality and assessment. New York: Wiley] challenged personality psychology to commit to the idea that behavior emerges from an interaction of personality characteristics and situational forces. To understand the mechanisms driving person–situation interaction, personality psychologists often study behavioral regularities such as consistency, stability, coherence, and explainability. The current paper articulates such regularities via profile analysis of cross-situational behavioral contingencies, it articulates profile normativeness and distinctiveness as important considerations in profile analysis of behavioral contingency, it integrates an idiographic profile approach with a more traditional nomothetic approach, and it discusses conceptual and methodological implications. Importantly, the profile perspective provides a useful framework that integrates previous examinations of behavioral regularities and that points to new questions advancing personality psychology’s pursuit of person–situation integration. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Portfolio theory (from the field of finance) provides an explicit means for understanding the relationship between individual components of a complex system and their relationship to the overall structure and behavior of that system over time. This paper models the self-concept as a portfolio (self-portfolio) composed of multiple self-schemas of differing degrees of evaluative valence. The self-schemas are organized according to their mean level of activation over time and their associated variability of activation over time. Using simulation data (Study 1) and also daily self-ratings provided by a sample of college students (n =65) collected via the internet over a 60 day interval (Study 2), the organizational structure of the individual self-schemas and their mean levels of variability in activation over time are shown to give rise to the overall evaluative valence of the self-concept and the way in which it changes over time. Implications of applying models from outside of psychology to study phenomena of interest to scientific psychology are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: According to the majority of the textbooks, the history of modern, scientific psychology can be tidily encapsulated in the following three stages. Scientific psychology began with a commitment to the study of mind, but based on the method of introspection. Watson rejected introspectionism as both unreliable and effete, and redefined psychology, instead, as the science of behaviour. The cognitive revolution, in turn, replaced the mind as the subject of study, and rejected both behaviourism and a reliance on introspection. This paper argues that all three stages of this history are largely mythical. Introspectionism was never a dominant movement within modern psychology, and the method of introspection never went away. Furthermore, this version of psychology’s history obscures some deep conceptual problems, not least surrounding the modern conception of “behaviour,” that continues to make the scientific study of consciousness seem so weird. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: According to the linguistic category model (), a person’s behavior can be described at varying levels of abstraction from concrete (e.g., “Lisa slaps Ann”) to abstract (e.g., “Lisa is aggressive”). Research has shown that language abstraction conveys information about the person whose behavior is described (). However to date, little research has examined the information that language abstraction may convey about describers themselves. In this paper, we report three experiments demonstrating that describers who use relatively abstract language to describe others’ behaviors are perceived to have biased attitudes and motives compared with those describers who use more concrete language. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The following paper examines the application of the principles of operant conditioning to the prediction of individual behavior in an organizational setting. The review centers about the extended operant conditioning model of Jablonsky and DeVries (Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1972, 7, 340-358). Conceptual errors, such as in an incorrect application of negative reinforcement and an incomplete operant conditioning framework are discussed. Several suggestions for future models are given. Examines the application of the principles of operant conditioning to the prediction of individual behavior in an organizational setting. Review centering on the extended operant conditioning model of Jablonsky and DeVries; Discussion of conceptual errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]