The roles of self-esteem and self-consciousness in the Wortman-Brehm model of reactance and learned helplessness.

Studied the conditions under which failure would enhance or inhibit subsequent task performance. Based on the theory of C. B. Wortman and J. W. Brehm (1975), it was expected that small amounts of failure would produce reactance (manifested by improved performance at a subsequent task); large amounts would lead to learned helplessness (i.e., impaired later performance). It was further expected that individual differences in self-esteem and private self-consciousness would serve as moderator variables for the effects. In Exp I, 78 college students were exposed to either a small amount or no failure before working on an anagrams task. As predicted, Ss high in self-consciousness, who showed greater reactance arousal in attitude change studies, performed better on the anagrams task than Ss low in self-consciousness in the small-failure condition, but not in the no-failure condition. In Exp II, 119 Ss were pretreated with either a small amount of failure, an extended amount of failure, or no failure before working on the task. A significant Self-Esteem by Helplessness Training interaction emerged. Low self-esteem Ss (low SEs) performed marginally better than did high SEs in the small-failure condition but significantly worse than high SEs in the extended-failure condition. Questionnaire data from Exp II were consistent with the notion that enhanced performance reflected reactance, whereas impaired performance signified helplessness. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-consciousness, self-esteem, and success–failure as determinants of alcohol consumption in male social drinkers.

Tested the proposition that alcohol is consumed as a function of the quality of past performances and of the individual's level of private self-consciousness. 120 adult male Ss were randomly given success or failure feedback on an intellectual task. They then participated in a separate "wine-tasting" experiment in which they were allowed to regulate alcohol consumption. As predicted, high self-conscious Ss who had received failure feedback drank significantly more than did high self-conscious Ss who received success feedback. Consumption by low self-conscious Ss fell between these extremes and did not vary as a function of success and failure. Ss' scores on the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List indicated that these results were mediated by differential sensitivity to the positive or negative implications of success/failure by high and low self-conscious Ss. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optimism, coping, and health: Assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies.

Describes a scale measuring dispositional optimism, defined in terms of generalized outcome expectancies. Two preliminary studies, involving a total of 438 male and 336 female undergraduates, assessed the scale's psychometric properties and its relationships with several other instruments. The scale was then used in a longitudinal study of symptom reporting among 79 male and 62 female undergraduates. Ss were asked to complete 3 questionnaires 4 wks before the end of a semester. Included in the questionnaire battery were the measure of optimism, a measure of private self-consciousness, and a 39-item physical symptom checklist. Ss completed the same set of questionnaires again on the last day of class. Consistent with predictions, Ss who initially reported being highly optimistic were subsequently less likely to report being bothered by symptoms (even after correcting for initial symptom-report levels) than were Ss who initially reported being less optimistic. This effect tended to be stronger among Ss high in private self-consciousness than among those lower in private self-consciousness. Discussion centers on other health related applications of the optimism scale and the relationships between the theoretical orientation of the scale and several related theories. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Public versus private expectancy of success: Confidence booster or performance pressure?

In Exp I, private expectancies of success were manipulated by having 38 male and 26 female undergraduates complete a confidential preliminary test that was rigged to cause either success or failure. Ss furnished confidential self-reports of expectancies and were informed that their audience expected them to succeed in an anagram-solving task. Results show that Ss' private expectancies of success improved performance, while audience's expectations of success lowered performance. Findings were strongest for Ss low in trait self-consciousness and for males. In Exp II, 30 undergraduates completed a personality questionnaire and were told they had an integration score of 75. Ss were (1) told they were expected to do well on the basis of past research findings, (2) told they were expected to do well on the basis of the experimenter's theory, or (3) given no information about expectations. Results show that Condition 1 raised performance while Condition 2 lowered performance. Findings fit a model holding that audience expectations of success constitute performance pressure that harms performance except when substantial private confidence is created. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consciousness of body: Private and public.

A body consciousness questionnaire administered to 188 undergraduates yielded 2 separate factors: Private (awareness of internal sensations) and Public Body Consciousness (awareness of observable aspects of body). For each factor, norms, test–retest reliability data, and correlations with other personality measures (Self-Consciousness Inventory, Hypochondriasis scale of the MMPI, and the Emotionality scale of the EASI [Emotionality, Activity, Sociability, Impulsivity] Temperament Survey) are presented. An experiment on reaction to ingestion of caffeine revealed that only Ss high in private body consciousness or high in both private body consciousness and private self-consciousness were stimulated by caffeine; individual differences in public body consciousness and in private self-consciousness alone had no impact. Findings have implications for biofeedback, false physiological feedback, and excitation transfer. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Private self-consciousness, self-awareness, and the reliability of self-reports.

Two studies found that individuals high in private self-consciousness provide self-reports of greater reliability across time than individuals low in private self-consciousness. In addition, Study 2 found that a successful manipulation of self-awareness did not affect test–retest reliability of self-reports among Ss either high or low in private self-consciousness. The hypothesis that individuals high in private self-consciousness have articulated self-schemata of greater temporal stability than individuals low in private self-consciousness received support. The discussion considers (a) how private self-consciousness, but not self-awareness, influenced test–retest reliability of self-reports, (b) how private self-consciousness and self-awareness may both influence, albeit differentially, the criterion-related validity of self-reports, and (c) the possibility that current models of self-consciousness–self-awareness require reformulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of public and private self-consciousness on the public expression of personal beliefs.

Examined the joint effects of private and public self-consciousness (SC) on attitudinal consistency. 113 male undergraduates (categorized as high and low private and high and low public SC) reported their own attitudes toward punishment. Later, each S was asked to write an essay in which he restated his attitude. Immediately prior to writing the essay, S learned that he would also be discussing his opinion with either a partner who held an attitude opposite to his own or a partner whose attitude was unknown. As predicted, the attitudes expressed in the essays of high public SC Ss were more moderate than those expressed by low public SC Ss. One effect of this moderation strategy was to lower the correlation between privately held and publicly expressed beliefs among Ss high in public SC. In contrast, attitudinal consistency was substantial among Ss who were low in public and high in private SC. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Havana daydreaming: A study of self-consciousness and the negative reference group among Cuban Americans.

Reasoned that the Castro government in Cuba represents an important negative reference group for Cuban Americans in the US. Exp I asked 43 Cuban-American undergraduates to give their opinions on issues surrounding the liberalization of relations between Cuba and the US. As expected, opinions were more opposed to such liberalization when an ostensible representative of the Castro government was quoted as favoring it than when no mention was made of the Castro government. Exps II and III (137 Ss) tested the prediction that utilization of negative reference groups would be mediated by dispositional self-consciousness. In Exp II, Ss gave their opinions after favorable opinions had been attributed to officials of the Castro government. Opposition among these Ss was positively correlated with their public self-consciousness but was unrelated to private self-consciousness. Exp III replicated the effect of public self-consciousness when the reference group was salient but yielded an ambiguous effect for an experimental manipulation of self-focus. Findings appear to confirm the role of dispositional self-consciousness in reference-group behavior. Moreover, they appear to suggest that Ss used their opposition to the negative reference group for self-presentational purposes rather than for self-definitional purposes. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resolving the relationships between placebos, misattribution, and insomnia: An individual-differences perspective.

Hypothesized that insomniacs who are more attentive to internal bodily processes would be more apt to yield a reverse placebo effect (i.e., go to sleep faster when given an "arousal" placebo and vice versa), whereas those attentive to external stimuli would be more likely to be directly influenced by the suggested effects of the placebo. 30 insomniac college students completed trait measures of private body consciousness, private self-consciousness, and self-esteem. Ss were given placebos to take before bedtime and were told that the capsules had arousing or relaxing side effects. As predicted, Ss with high private body consciousness exhibited a stronger reverse placebo effect than did Ss low on this dimension. Subsequent analyses revealed that this effect was entirely attributable to the low- rather than to the high-self-esteem Ss. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perspective taking and self-awareness: Drawing an E on your forehead.

Self-awareness theory assumes that individuals direct their attention outward or back on themselves as a function of characteristics of the situation. Taking this theory literally, it was hypothesized that Ss taking a self-focused perspective would draw a capital letter E on their forehead such that the E would be oriented for the external perspective of an observer. Ss' whose attention was directed outward would draw an E that would appear backward to another person. As hypothesized, in 3 experiments with 175 female undergraduates, Ss in high self-focus conditions significantly more often than low self-focus Ss drew an E on their forehead oriented toward the perspective of an outside observer, even though they believed they could not be observed by anyone else. Self-focus was induced using a video camera placed either to the side of the S (Exp I) or behind the S (Exp II), where it could not record how the E was drawn. In Exp III, an audiotape recorder was used to induce self-focused attention. The results demonstrate that an external, reflexive visual perspective could be induced by an auditory self-focusing manipulation. Furthermore, in Exp III, when situationally induced self-focus was low, Ss who were high in public self-consciousness (as measured by the Self-Consciousness Scale) were more likely to draw the E from an external perspective than were Ss low in public self-consciousness. Degree of private self-consciousness was unrelated to perspective taking. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When public and private self-foci clash: Self-consciousness and self-disclosure reciprocity during the acquaintance process.

Assessed in 2 experiments the responses of undergraduate Ss who differed in public and private self-consciousness to the intimate or nonintimate self-disclosures of a same-sex confederate. Results of both experiments revealed that Ss scoring high on either aspect of self-consciousness and low on the other reciprocated the intimacy of the confederate's disclosures, whereas Ss scoring either high or low on both self-aspects failed to partake in reciprocal self-disclosure. Experiment 2 provided additional information about the processes that underlie these self-consciousness effects on self-disclosure reciprocity. Taken together, the results imply that a strong and predominant focus on either the public or private aspects of self makes one more contingently responsive to the disclosures of a new acquaintance, whereas a strong concurrent focus on both self-aspects can divide one's attention, thereby limiting the extent to which either self-attribute guides self-disclosure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learned helplessness in task-orienting versus performance-orienting testing conditions.

Fifth- and 6th-grade subjects (Ss; 51 boys and 59 girls) were classified as low or high in effort orientation based on the number of items in the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire for which lack of effort was selected as an explanation for failure. On a computerized, 2-choice discrimination learning task, half of the Ss were given directions designed to reduce concerns about performance and to direct attention toward the task ("task-orientation" instruction condition); half were given "performance-orienting" instructions. The computer was programmed to ensure that all Ss failed to solve all four problems. Analyses of problem-solving strategies revealed that fewer low-effort-orientation Ss used effective strategies in the performance- than in the task-orienting condition. The instructions did not affect the proportion of high-effort orientation Ss who used effective strategies. The results suggest that task-orienting strategies may facilitate the performance of children who tend to de-emphasize the role of effort. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social identification effects in group polarization.

Tested a model of group polarization derived from social identity theory, proposing that if group members conform to group norms, attitude polarization could occur only if group members perceive those norms as more extreme than they "objectively" are. In Exp I, 60 undergraduates perceived attitude-relevant information attributed to speakers who were categorized as a group as representing a more extreme position of the issue than when the same information was attributed to noncategorized individuals. Attitude polarization occurred when Ss believed the information came from their in-group. As predicted, this polarization resulted from Ss' adoption of the "extremitized" in-group norm. In Exp II, categorization was manipulated by focusing 42 Ss on their group performance or on their individual performance. When Ss were focused on their group membership, group norms were perceived as more extreme, and attitude polarization due to conformity to these extremitized norms occurred. When Ss were focused on their individual performance, no extremitization occurred, and attitudes shifted to a more neutral position on the issue. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

An adaptive typological approach to psychiatric screening.

Tested the feasibility of an adaptive typological approach to psychiatric screening using 9 MMPI code types as prototypal of more comprehensive systems of differential diagnosis. Ss were 1,350 White adult psychiatric outpatients (over 18 yrs of age) whose intake MMPIs fell within 1 of the 9 selected code types. Each code type was represented by 100 Ss in the developmental sample and 50 Ss in the cross-validational sample. Those 69 items that displayed the highest level of statistical difference in endorsement percentage between 2 and/or among several groups were used as predictor variables in a stepwise multiple discriminant-function analysis. The criterion was code type on the standard form. Results indicate that the percentage of correct classifications (when a case was classified into that code type for which he/she obtained the highest probability) was 61% after 30 items and rose to only 69% after 69 items. A variety of decision rules and cutoff points were applied to the data; all demonstrated (a) the ability to discriminate among the groups after the introduction of only 20–30 items into the stepwise program, and (b) the phenomenon of "diminishing returns" with the introduction of more items. There was a point relatively early in testing (30 items) at which it was possible to eliminate most groups from further consideration and beyond which it was counterproductive to introduce more items if one's aim was a 1st-level molar categorization. Implications for branched adaptive testing are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of socioeconomic status on children's classification and free recall.

29 kindergarten and 29 1st-grade children were divided into 3 SES levels based on their parents' education level (college, high school, or less than high school) and given 2 sort/recall tasks on sets of pictures that could be organized on the basis of familiar taxonomic or complementary relations. On 1 task, Ss sorted pictures into identical groupings on 2 consecutive trials prior to recall; on the other task, Ss sorted the pictures only once. It was found that Ss from college-educated families were more apt to sort items on the basis of taxonomic relations than Ss from high-school-educated and less-than-high-school-educated families. However, there were no significant differences in levels of recall or clustering. Results indicate that young children from low-SES homes will demonstrate high levels of memory performance when tasks are constructed so that they are familiar with the relations among the to-be-remembered items. The appropriateness of distinguishing children's cognition in terms of A. R. Jensen's (see record 1969-09740-001) Level I vs Level II dichotomy is discussed in light of recent research examining the role of knowledge base on children's memory functioning. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Componential modeling of alternative strategies for performing spatial tasks.

Tested single-strategy and strategy-shifting models in a stratified random sample of 30 male high schoolers and undergraduates to explore relations among aptitude, spatial task solution strategy, and task performance. Results show that different models fit different Ss on each of 3 task steps (encoding, synthesis, and comparison), suggesting that different Ss used different strategies for solving the same items. Some of the best fitting models specified that Ss frequently and flexibly switch strategies in keeping with variations in item demands (a form of adaptive, within-task learning). For the encoding and synthesis steps, significant performance differences were found among Ss using different strategies. Aptitude may have affected strategy choice. Evidence for 2 types of strategy shifting (route and sequence shifting) was found. The shift models help explain individual differences in problem-solving processes employed in complex tasks such as the ones administered in this study. The strategy-shift models are appended. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-evaluation and assessments of performance by self and others.

Explored the relationship between self-esteem, the perception of competence, and actual competence when performance is attributed to oneself or to someone else. 44 male and 43 female undergraduates with high and low self-esteem performed a concept-formation task and evaluated their performance; 1 wk later they either rerated their own performance after watching a videotape of their previous session or rated the videotaped performance of "another S," actually a model who mimicked their previous performance. High-self-esteem Ss perceived themselves as doing better on the task than low-self-esteem Ss, although their performance was actually comparable. The 2 groups' evaluations differed only when they thought they were assessing themselves and not when they felt they were evaluating someone else. Potential mechanisms accounting for the differences in self-evaluations are explored. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attentional focus and locus of performance causality as determinants of equity behavior.

168 undergraduates divided reward between themselves and a competitor following performance on a task in which they were either responsible or not responsible for the results. While receiving performance feedback and allocating reward, Ss either faced a mirror (self-focused condition) or a nonreflecting surface (not-self-focused condition). The equity norm was followed when Ss were responsible for their performance, although the degree of differentiation between recipients was much more extreme among self-focused allocators than among not-self-focused allocators. The equality norm was followed when Ss were not responsible for their performance, regardless of their attentional focus. Results show that equity behavior is exacerbated by self-awareness when the Ss sees himself or herself as responsible for relative performance differences. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postperformance attributions and task persistence among Type A and B individuals: A clarification.

Tested the hypothesis that Type A (coronary-prone) Ss would be more self-serving than Type B (noncoronary-prone) Ss in their attributions for success and failure. It was also hypothesized that task persistence would differ among Type A's and B's and would be dependent on task difficulty and perceived task diagnosticity. 78 undergraduates classified on the basis of scores on the Jenkins Activity Survey as Type A's and B's attempted multiple sets of anagrams that were either easy or difficult. Persistence was measured by the number of anagram sets attempted, and, after task performance, attributions for success and failure were assessed. Results support both hypotheses. Type A's took more credit for success than for failure, whereas Type B's did not provide reliably different attributions for success and failure. Furthermore, Type A's persisted longer at the task when it was difficult and when it was viewed as relatively low in information value. Type B's persisted longer at the task when it was difficult but viewed as relatively high in information value. Results are discussed in the context of current debates regarding the responses of Type A's and B's to performance settings. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)