Marc A. Fournier’s research while affiliated with University of Toronto and other places

Background Differences in social behaviours are common in young people with neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs). Recent research challenges the long-standing hypothesis that difficulties in social cognition explain social behaviour differences. Aims We examined how difficulties regulating one's behaviour, emotions and thoughts to adapt to environmental demands (i.e. dysregulation), alongside social cognition, explain social behaviours across neurodiverse young people. Method We analysed cross-sectional behavioural and cognitive data of 646 6- to 18-year-old typically developing young people and those with NDCs from the Province of Ontario Neurodevelopmental Network. Social behaviours and dysregulation were measured by the caregiver-reported Adaptive Behavior Assessment System Social domain and Child Behavior Checklist Dysregulation Profile, respectively. Social cognition was assessed by the Neuropsychological Assessment Affect-Recognition and Theory-of-Mind, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, and Sandbox continuous false-belief task scores. We split the sample into training ( n = 324) and test ( n = 322) sets. We investigated how social cognition and dysregulation explained social behaviours through principal component regression and hierarchical regression in the training set. We tested social cognition-by-dysregulation interactions, and whether dysregulation mediated the social cognition–social behaviours association. We assessed model fits in the test set. Results Two social cognition components adequately explained social behaviours (13.88%). Lower dysregulation further explained better social behaviours ( β = −0.163, 95% CI −0.191 to −0.134). Social cognition-by-dysregulation interaction was non-significant ( β = −0.001, 95% CI −0.023 to 0.021). Dysregulation partially mediated the social cognition–social behaviours association (total effect: 0.544, 95% CI 0.370–0.695). Findings were replicated in the test set. Conclusions Self-regulation, beyond social cognition, substantially explains social behaviours across neurodiverse young people.

The current research adopted a network‐analytic approach to summarize the changes within the field of personality psychology over a 30‐year span from 1990 to 2019. Bibliographic data from 25,238 articles were used to construct three separate co‐authorship networks respectively representing the patterns of collaboration within each decade of personality research (i.e., 1990–1999, 2000–2009, and 2010–2019). The network properties of each co‐authorship graph suggested that personality researchers have become more interconnected and collaborative with each successive decade. An examination of the semantic content of these articles suggested that the synthesis of clinical and normative trait models, along with the integration of traditional person and situation perspectives, may be driving the increased connectivity and collaboration between researchers. We hope that this novel application of network‐analytic and machine‐learning principles can serve as proof of concept for future efforts to summarize a scientific literature.

Objective and Background How do targets shape consensus in impression formation? Targets are known to play an outsized role in the accuracy of first impressions, but their influence on consensus has been difficult to study. With the help of the recently developed extended Social Relations Model, we explore the structure and correlates of individual differences in consensus (i.e., dissensus). Method Across 3 studies, 187 photographs of targets were rated by 960 perceivers on personality and evaluative traits, as well as being coded for physical cues by trained coders. We explored the within‐target consistency of consensus across traits, as well as its relationship to four categories of theoretically relevant correlates: expressiveness, normativity, positivity, and social categories. Results The tendency to make a consistent impression on others was broadly consistent across traits. High‐consensus targets tended to be more expressive, had more normative physical cues, and were viewed more positively. Conclusions At least in a first impression context, targets may play a unique role in predicting the consensus of personality judgments by providing perceivers with more information to work with, and making a negative impression on others may carry social costs.

The current research adopted a person-centered approach to examine whether people’s experiences of lifetime need frustration interact with their personality trait profiles to predict their problems and pathology from the perspectives of both the interpersonal circumplex (IPC) and the five-factor model (FFM). Data ( N = 1,026) were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Consistent with prediction, lifetime need frustration predicted participants’ overall levels of interpersonal distress and personality pathology. Furthermore, levels of lifetime need frustration predicted the strength of the relationship between participants’ trait profiles (i.e., IPC and FFM) and their corresponding profiles of interpersonal problems and personality pathology. Findings from the present study demonstrate how between-person differences in lifetime need frustration give rise to the within-person organization of psychological maladjustment and highlight the importance of people’s traits in predicting their unique maladaptations to having their basic psychological needs frustrated.

Extant evidence for the relationship between stress and reward sensitivity is inconsistent in direction. The current study aims to offer one explanation for this discrepancy by examining the moderating role of impulsivity. We recruited two groups of participants, who were given a physical stressor (Maastricht Acute Stress Test) and a socio-evaluative stressor (Montreal Imaging Stress Task), respectively (NMAST = 152, NMIST = 192). Combining results from both groups, we found that acute stress blunted reward processing for participants who scored high on behavioral impulsivity in comparison to those who scored low. This moderation effect, however, was not significant for trait impulsivity. Our findings suggest that behavioral measures of impulsivity may be uniquely sensitive to subtle situational factors leading to stress-induced changes in impulsive action.

The alternative model of personality disorders were designed to represent the presence of personality dysfunction (Criterion A) and pathological personality traits (Criterion B). Much of the empirical attention toward this model has been directed toward testing the performance of Criterion B. However, the development of the Levels of Personality Functioning Scale–Self-Report (LPFS-SR) has sparked a growing amount of interest and debate around Criterion A. Specifically, there is significant disagreement in the research examining the validity of the LPFS-SR, with ongoing discrepancies regarding the measure’s underlying structure and measurement of Criterion A. The present study aimed to compare four models (one-factor, four-factor, higher order, and bifactor models) in a sample of 416 adults (49.5% women, 63.5% White) to better understand the structure of the LPFS-SR. This study also built on existing efforts to establish convergent and divergent validity of the LPFS-SR by examining how criteria are related to independent measures of both self and interpersonal pathology. The results from the present study supported a bifactor model. Additionally, the four subscales of the LPFS-SR each captured unique variance above and beyond the general factor. Structural equation models predicting identity disturbance and interpersonal traits demonstrated that while the strongest relationships were found between the general factor and the scales, some support was found for the convergent and discriminant validity of the four factors. This work advances our understanding of the LPFS-SR and provides support for the LPFS-SR as a valid marker of personality pathology in clinical and research settings.

Psychologists have studied the ancient concept of wisdom for 3 decades. Nevertheless, apparent discrepancies in theories and empirical findings have left the nomological network of the construct unclear. Using multilevel meta-analyses, we summarized wisdom's correlations with age, intelligence, the Big Five personality traits, narcissism, self-esteem, social desirability, and well-being. We furthermore examined whether these correlations were moderated by the general approach to conceptualizing and measuring wisdom (i.e., phenomenological wisdom as indexed by self-report vs. performative wisdom as indexed by performance ratings), by specific wisdom measures, and by variable-specific factors (e.g., age range, type of intelligence measures, and well-being type). Although phenomenological and performative approaches to conceptualizing and measuring wisdom had some unique correlates, both were correlated with openness, hedonic well-being, and eudaimonic well-being, especially the growth aspect of eudaimonic well-being. Differences between phenomenological and performative wisdom are discussed in terms of the differences between typical and maximal performance, self-ratings and observer ratings, and global and state wisdom. This article will help move the scientific study of wisdom forward by elucidating reliable wisdom correlates and by offering concrete suggestions for future empirical research based on the meta-analytic findings.

The medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) plays an important role in representing semantic self-knowledge. Studies comparing semantic self-judgments with judgments of close others suggest that interpersonal closeness may influence the degree to which the MPFC differentiates self and other. We used optical neuroimaging to examine if support for competence, relatedness, and autonomy from relationship partners moderates MPFC activity during a personality judgement task. Participants (N = 109) were asked to judge the descriptive accuracy of trait adjectives for both themselves and a friend. Participants who reported lower need fulfillment with their friend showed elevated activity only in the self-judgment condition; in contrast, participants who reported higher need fulfillment with their friend showed similarly high levels of MPFC activity across the conditions. These results are consistent with the idea that the MPFC differentially represents others on the basis of the need fulfillment experienced within the relationship.