Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

And shoutouts to @shannonsauerzavala.bsky.social and the TIPS Lab crew for being patient with this paper-in-a-year-and-a-half! 🥳

It was just accepted at Psych Assessment today so the published version should be available soon.

6

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

So if you want to capture between-person differences, use any instructions but if you might want to capture within-person differences, matching the instructions to your timeframe is probably the way to go.

Feedback, comments, and questions very much welcome!

1 1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

We think focusing people on a consistent timeframe improves their within-person reliabilities but keeping other aspects of the measures consistent ensures we're still assessing the same personality construct. 👯

1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

Within-person relations with anxiety, depression, quality of life, & functioning:

✅ Generally stronger for weekly instructions (as expected)

osf.io/gznav/files/...

OSF

osf.io

1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

Within-person means & standard deviations:

Weekly instructions condition:
⬇️ Somewhat lower means (as expected)
⬆️ Higher standard deviations (as expected)

1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

Are they measuring the same underlying personality construct?

✅ Generally, yes!

Although model fit significantly improved for some measures when we let the 2 instruction conditions differ, these improvements were fairly modest & mostly with the NEO (general personality).

1 1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

Test-retest reliability:

✅ Generally .70+ in both conditions, although typically higher in the general instructions condition

1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

Within-person internal consistencies:

✅ Adequate-to-good in the weekly instructions condition

❌ Poor-to-questionable in the general instructions condition

1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

Between-person internal consistencies:

✅ Excellent and generally the same regardless of randomization condition

1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

We randomly assigned 257 University of Kentucky undergrads to complete 6 weekly personality assessment batteries that either:
(a) asked about their personality in general or
(b) over the prior week

1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

If we're assessing personality when we think it might change (like in treatment), asking people repeatedly how they are in general might get weird 😵‍💫

If I've only had a week of therapy, my personality can't have changed much *in general* but might be shifting a lot.

1 1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

Most personality measures ask people how they are *in general* or don't specify a timeframe for people to consider, which makes sense when we want to capture how people are in general but do so at one timepoint.

For example, the BFI-2: www.colby.edu/wp-content/u...

www.colby.edu

1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

We know personality changes over our lifespan (h/t @dingdingpeng.the100.ci & @ajwright.bsky.social), but what about the granular changes contributing to it?

Or when we want to test for personality changes in treatment? psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/201...

Can we just use the same measures for each?

APA PsycNet

psycnet.apa.org

1 1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 22h

When we measure personality multiple times in a study, does it matter if we ask people about their personality *in general* or *since the last time point*?

Turns out: yes!

We found differences in internal consistency, Ms, & SDs but not in the underlying constructs 🧵

doi.org/10.31234/osf...

https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/tb94v_v1🧵

1 9 40

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 6d

Update! We'll be accepting applications until 11:59pm ET on Sunday, Nov 30! 📆

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 19d

Postdoc with us in Columbus! 🌰

I'm pumped to recruit a 1-2 year postdoc working on:
- mechanisms of change in treatment
- treatment personalization
- emotion reg

With a breakdown of:
50% research
30% treatment
20% mentorship/collaboration/conferences

osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/OSUCareers/j...

Post Doctoral Scholar

Screen reader users may encounter difficulty with this site. For assistance with applying, please contact [email protected]. If you have questions while submitting an application, pleas...

osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 14d

What’s Columbus like, you ask? Here are some scenes!

Golden foliage on campus 🍁
Making friends with a praying mantis 😺
LCD Soundsystem 🎧
Columbus Pride (feat. several clinical grad students)! 🌈

4

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 14d

Re-upping this thread for anyone thinking about applying for grad school who wants to know what life in Columbus is like!

(I’m also more than happy to answer questions, snap pics, or provide food recs as needed to give you a better sense of Columbus & OSU 🌰)

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · Nov 21

And I should clarify for everyone who wasn’t on Twitter 1-2 months ago:

For anyone considering Ohio State for grad school, but only knows ohio as a meme, I'm gonna try to tweet about what Columbus can actually be like!
That way you can see if you can imagine yourself here or not #WhyColumbus

1 1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 19d

Please check it out, share the post with anyone you think might be a good fit, and absolutely reach out via DM or email with any particular questions!

I'll leave it open as long as folks need, though the first deadline we have listed is Oct 2.

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 19d

Plus, you'd get to collaborate with awesome people at OSU like Jen Cheavens & Dan Strunk as well as people around the country, like @shannonsauerzavala.bsky.social
at UK, Kateri McRae at Denver, & Christian Waugh at Wake Forest.

a man says we do this we do this together in front of a window

ALT: a man says we do this we do this together in front of a window

media.tenor.com

1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 19d

We have a great team with a graduate student, post-bac, and undergrad RA's: u.osu.edu/mattlab/

Columbus is an incredibly livable place (see my past tweets for evidence) and OSU has so many resources to run all kinds of projects.

Mood, Anxiety, & Transdiagnostic Treatment Lab at OSU

u.osu.edu

1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 19d

This is an ideal spot for someone interested in an academic career in emotion reg/treatment/personality research.

You'd also be seeing patients as part of two studies:
1. matching skills to anxiety pts
2. our NIH R33 award on BPD Compass: reporter.nih.gov/project-deta...

RePORT ⟩ RePORTER

reporter.nih.gov

1

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 19d

Postdoc with us in Columbus! 🌰

I'm pumped to recruit a 1-2 year postdoc working on:
- mechanisms of change in treatment
- treatment personalization
- emotion reg

With a breakdown of:
50% research
30% treatment
20% mentorship/collaboration/conferences

osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/OSUCareers/j...

Post Doctoral Scholar

Screen reader users may encounter difficulty with this site. For assistance with applying, please contact [email protected]. If you have questions while submitting an application, pleas...

osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

1 19 16

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · 28d

Things are rough in the world right now so it’s a little relief to enjoy the rainbows in the Mirror Lake fountain on campus 🌈⛲️

Fountain with a rainbow band surrounded by shrubs and trees

2

Reposted by Matt Southward

Lorenzo Lorenzo-Luaces, PhD @lluaces.bsky.social · Sep 7

Come to think of it it’s insane psychotherapy works at all. Somebody told you something or told you to DO something and it helps with a problem you’ve had for a long time 🧐

3 1 10

Matt Southward @mattsouthward.bsky.social · Sep 5

Just enjoying an 8:30pm stroll through the warm summer breeze in Schiller Park #ColumbusThings

Schiller Park in Columbus, Ohio at dusk with a dog, tennis court, line of clouds, and a nearly full moon

3