Harrie Vorst

... Jelte M Wicherts* Harrie CM Vorst ... meer eenduidig vijf stemmingsgebieden zouden meten: Spanning, Depressie, Boosheid, Kracht en Vermoeidheid (Wald & Mellenbergh, 1 ... In 1995 is een interne handlei-ding verschenen (Van der Ark, Marburger, Mellenbergh, Vorst &amp ...

In the first study the BVAQ was administered to a sample of Dutch students (n=375), a sample of French-speaking Belgian students (n=175), and a sample of English students (n=129). Cronbach's alpha was found to be about the same in the three samples (means of subscales about ...

This article describes the construction and validation of the Amsterdam Alexithymia Scale (AAS) and explores some of the nomological net of alexithymia. Four correlational studies are presented. The internal structure of the AAS is explored by factor analyses on items. Correlations of the AAS with sex and (Guilford) intellectual abilities are established. Mean scores of three different professional groups are compared. Correlations between the AAS and several clinical and personality scales are determined. Students served as subjects in all studies (347<n<559). The 20-item AAS has a stable 5-factor structure, covering 5 defining features of alexithymia: difficulties in, respectively, experiencing emotions, fantasizing, analyzing emotions, differentiating between emotions and verbalizing emotions. The AAS showed to be reliable. The AAS scores were independent of verbal and nonverbal IQ. As expected, the AAS scores turned out to be significantly lower in a group of dramatic art students and significantly higher in a group of math and artificial intelligence students, when compared to psychology students. The AAS scores correlated negatively with extroversion, positively with social inadequacy and not with neuroticism. Finally, correlations between the AAS and the Adjective Check List scores indicated that alexithymia is associated with, respectively, a neglect of own needs and impulses, a reduced capability to understand social situations and a tendency to stick to rules rigidly, to flee into social isolation, to be submissive, to avoid commitment and to experiences of lack of personal meaning in life. The AAS is the first instrument measuring the 5 defining features of alexithymia reliably and validly.

The notion of personality traits implies a certain degree of stability in the life span of an individual. But what about generational effects? Are there generational changes in the distribution or structure of personality traits? This article examines cohort changes on the Big Five personality factors Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience, among first-year psychology students in The Netherlands, ages 18 to 25 years, between 1982 and 2007. Because measurement invariance of a personality test is essential for a sound interpretation of cohort differences in personality, we first assessed measurement invariance with respect to cohort for males and females separately on the Big Five personality factors, as measured by the Dutch instrument Five Personality Factors Test. Results identified 11 (females) and 2 (males) biased items with respect to cohort, out of a total of 70 items. Analyzing the unbiased items, results indicated small linear increases over time in Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness and small linear decreases over time in Neuroticism. No clear patterns were found on the Openness to Experience factor. Secondary analyses on students from 1971 to 2007 of females and males of different ages together revealed linear trends comparable to those in the main analyses among young adults between 1982 onward. The results imply that the broad sociocultural context may affect personality factors.

... Fantasizing 2 Before I fall asleep, I imagine all kinds of events, encounters and conversations.* 7 I have few daydreams and fantasies. 12 I often use my imagination.* 17 I have little interest in fantasies and weird stories. 22 I hardly ever fantasize. ...

We examine the cognitive neuroscience of the five components of the alexithymia syndrome, and propose a classification of alexithymia types based on psychobiological traits. Literature review. The following neural structures have been shown to be prominent in emotional function: right and left hemisphere, corpus callosum, anterior commissure, anterior cingulate, prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and insular cortex. The specific relevance of these structures to alexithymia is discussed. The following conclusions and/or propositions are presented: The right hemisphere produces a global, nonverbal overview of emotional information; the left hemisphere seems dedicated to analysing emotions and higher explicit emotional cognitions. Both orbitoprefrontal cortices are important in affective aspects of alexithymia, while right temporal cortex is involved in cognitive aspects. Two subparts of anterior cingulate fulfil functions in the affective and cognitive dimensions of alexithymia. The amygdalae are involved in both cognitive and affective aspects. All structures mentioned can modulate one another. The role of interhemispheric information transfer via the corpus callosum and the anterior commissure is also discussed. The evidence that that cognitive processing of emotional information inhibits affective processing of such information is discussed in terms of its implications for a theory of alexithymia subtypes.

... A. MICHIEL HOL, HCM VORST, and GJ MELLENBERGH POLYTOMOUS CAT: MODE EFFECTS AND EFFICIENCY ... The MS (24 items) was selected from the original scale of 48 items with the program Mokken scale analysis for polytomous items (MSP; Molenaar, Van Schuur ...

Two subtypes of dyslexia (phonological, visual) have been under debate in various studies. However, the number of symptoms of dyslexia described in the literature exceeds the number of subtypes, and underlying relations remain unclear. We investigated underlying cognitive features of dyslexia with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. A sample of 446 students (63 with dyslexia) completed a large test battery and a large questionnaire. Five factors were found in both the test battery and the questionnaire. These 10 factors loaded on 5 latent factors (spelling, phonology, short-term memory, rhyme/confusion, and whole-word processing/complexity), which explained 60% of total variance. Three analyses supported the validity of these factors. A confirmatory factor analysis fit with a solution of five factors (RMSEA = .03). Those with dyslexia differed from those without dyslexia on all factors. A combination of five factors provided reliable predictions of dyslexia and nondyslexia (accuracy >90%). We also looked for factorial deficits on an individual level to construct subtypes of dyslexia, but found varying profiles. We concluded that a multiple cognitive deficit model of dyslexia is supported, whereas the existence of subtypes remains unclear. We discussed the results in relation to advanced compensation strategies of students, measures of intelligence, and various correlations within groups of those with and without dyslexia.

In this article, both economics and psychology were used to derive predictors of uni- versity students' discipline choice. From economics the idea of utility maximization was used. Using psychological theory non-monetary profits of education were made explicit. Freshmen of nine dierent university disciplines (law, history, economics, psychology, political sciences, English linguistics, Spanish linguistics, medical bi- ology, and dentistry) evaluated thirteen