Irrational beliefs in depression.

To examine the hypothesis that certain types of irrational beliefs covary with the severity of depression, 156 undergraduates completed the Beck Depression Inventory and R. G. Jones's Irrational Beliefs Test (IBT), which measures the extent to which a person adheres to 10 of the core irrational beliefs described by A. Ellis (1962). Correlational analyses revealed that depression was related most strongly to high self-expectations, frustration reactivity, overconcern about possible misfortunes in the future, helplessness, and the total IBT score. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Irrational beliefs and self-reported depressed mood.

30 undergraduates completed the Depression Adjective Check List daily for 14–28 days to evaluate differences in depressed mood level and variability across time among Ss grouped on the basis of irrational beliefs, as measured by the Idea Inventory. As hypothesized, high levels of irrational thinking were associated with greater intensity and variability of depressed mood. Data provide partial confirmation for A. Ellis's (1962) theory of emotional disturbance, which holds that persons whose thinking is more dominated by irrational beliefs are more influenced by unpleasant experiences. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Irrational beliefs, anger, and anxiety.

Administered to 382 undergraduates measures of irrational beliefs, general anxiety, and general anger to investigate their relationship. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and 2 self-report measures of irrational beliefs and anger were used. Analyses showed that personal perfection, anxious overconcern, blame proneness, and catastrophizing were predictors of general anger. Anxious overconcern, problem avoidance, catastrophizing, and personal perfection were significant regression factors for the full range of general anxiety. Demand for approval replaced personal perfection in this order for the regression on extreme anxiety groups. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Irrational beliefs and perceptions of marital conflict.

To test the hypothesis that observers would attribute more negative qualities to relationships of disagreeing spouses than to relationships of agreeing spouses, particularly when the observers held irrational beliefs, 54 undergraduates completed the Irrational Beliefs Test and reported their impressions of actors portraying couples on videotape. Disagreeing couples were rated as experiencing more negative feelings, sharing less affection, having less intact relationships, and being less compatible than agreeing couples. Observers high in irrational beliefs reported more negative impressions of disagreeing couples than those low in irrational beliefs, when rating feelings and affection. Females were more likely to perceive compatibility than males. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Irrational beliefs and the arousal of emotional distress.

Evaluated the extent to which endorsement of irrational beliefs as measured by the Irrational Beliefs Test (IBT) was associated with subjective, physiological, and cognitive indices (e.g., Trait scale of the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory and Fear of Negative Evaluation Questionnaire scores) of emotional distress in response to a stressful event delivered in a controlled experiment. 62 undergraduates served as Ss. Beliefs relevant to the stressor were more associated with negative cognitions than was either a belief less relevant to the stressor or general irrational thinking. However, a measure of the fear of negative evaluation was more frequently associated with measures of distress than were irrational beliefs. The equivalent and perhaps greater predictive utility of a more parsimonious, less inferential individual difference variable was interpreted as challenging the construct validity of the IBT and perhaps questioning the necessity of postulating the existence of irrational beliefs in accounts of the arousal of emotional distress. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Irrational reactions to negative outcomes: Evidence for two conceptual systems.

According to cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST), individuals have 2 systems for processing information, a rational system and an experiential system. Research conducted under norm theory (NT) has provided impressive evidence of an if only (IO) effect associated with postoutcome processing of aversive events that are highly consistent with formulations in CEST. Two studies involving vignettes adapted from NT were conducted that tested 4 hypotheses and corollaries derived from CEST. It was demonstrated, in support of hypotheses, that the IO effect can be obtained with ratings of one's own and of a protagonist's specific behaviors, as well as with ratings of a protagonist's diffuse emotions (the usual procedure); that a rational orientation decreases the IO effect; that increasing the intensity of outcomes increases it; and that priming the experiential system reduces people's ability to subsequently think rationally. The theoretical and research implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Irrational schematic beliefs and psychological distress in caregivers of people with traumatic brain injury.

Objective: To investigate the relation between irrational schematic beliefs and psychological distress in caregivers of persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Design: Cross-sectional mail survey. Participants: One hundred sixteen caregivers of persons with TBI living in the Australian states of Victoria and Queensland who were members of community support groups and brain injury associations. Measures: The Irrational Beliefs Inventory, Brief Symptom Inventory, income satisfaction, degree of personality and behavior change in the TBI individual, and injury severity. Results: Hierarchical regression analyses showed that after controlling for the effects of characteristics of the caregiving situation and the individual with TBI, greater adherence to irrational beliefs was related to higher levels of global psychological distress. Specifically, irrational beliefs related to Worrying were associated with all areas of psychological distress. Conclusion: Results support the cognitive theory proposal that irrational beliefs play an important role in the adaptation to TBI caregiving. Findings suggest the inclusion of cognitive therapy strategies in interventions for caregivers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-esteem and reactions to failure: The mediating role of overgeneralization.

Previous research has shown that low self-esteem individuals are more likely than their high self-esteem counterparts to have adverse affective, cognitive, and behavioral reactions to failure or negative feedback. The present field study tested the hypothesis that self-esteem differences in response to negative feedback are mediated by the greater tendency of low- than high self-esteem persons to overgeneralize the implications of negative feedback to other aspects of their identities. The results supported the hypothesis. Theoretical and practical implications of the results and limitations of the study are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of causal attributions on affective reactions to success and failure.

Assessed the impact of outcome (success vs failure) and attribution (internal vs external) on affect in an achievement setting. Following the theorizing of B. Weiner et al (1978, 1979), it was anticipated that the outcome manipulation would determine general positive and negative affective reactions, whereas the attribution manipulation would influence affects related to self-esteem. 53 female undergraduates received success or failure feedback on a social accuracy test and were induced to attribute their performance to either an internal (ability) or an external cause (characteristics of the task). A factor analysis revealed 3 dimensions: Negative Affect, Positive Affect, and Self-Esteem. ANOVA indicated that the nature of the attribution influenced all 3 forms of affective reactions. Success produced greater positive affect, less negative affect, and higher self-esteem than failure only when ability attributions were induced. Although additional analyses offered some support for the presence of affects influenced solely by outcome, the majority of analyses supported the notion that attributions are the primary determinants of affective reactions to success and failure. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causal attributions, causal dimensions, and affective reactions to success and failure.

Evaluated, in 2 studies, which of 3 theoretical models best describes the interrelations of causal attributions, causal dimensions, and affective reactions to success and failure. Study 1 used an experimental methodology requiring 99 undergraduates to imagine themselves in different achievement situations, whereas Study 2 involved the investigation of the affective reactions of 161 undergraduates to performance on a midterm examination. Results indicate that causal attributions and causal dimensions had joint and independent effects on affective reactions to success and failure. Implications for a theoretical model of the relation between attribution processes and affect are discussed. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's beliefs about the causes of success and failure in school settings.

A total of 144 1st-, 3rd-, and 5th graders were interviewed to determine what they saw as probable causes for success or failure in 4 situations: performing in a school testing situation, doing well or poorly in an art project for the classroom, playing football, and catching frogs. Open-ended data were coded into 19 categories using a modified version of T. Elig and the 1st author's (1975) Coding Scheme of Perceived Causality. Causal explanations differed across the 4 situations. Testing situations were seen as the most internalized and the most under the control of the child. Some grade level, ability level, and sex differences in the types of categories used were also found. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Global self-esteem and specific self-views as determinants of people's reactions to success and failure.

A critical question in self-esteem research is whether people's reactions to success and failure are guided by their global self-esteem level or by their more specific beliefs about their abilities and attributes. To address this issue, the authors led participants to experience success or failure on an alleged test and then assessed their cognitive and emotional reactions to these outcomes. In Experiment 1, specific self-views predicted participants' cognitive reactions to their performance outcomes, whereas global self-esteem predicted participants' emotional reactions to their performance outcomes. In Experiment 2, global self-esteem predicted participants' emotional reactions to their performance outcomes even after participants' beliefs about their more specific abilities and attributes were taken into account. These findings suggest that when it comes to understanding people's emotional reactions to success and failure, the effects of global self-esteem are not reducible to the way people think about their constituent qualities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuroticism and the Irrational Health Belief Scale.

Comments on the study by A. J. Christensen, P. J. Moran, and J. S. Wiebe (see record 1999-10189-008) which provides initial validation of the Irrational Health Belief Scale (IHBS). The current authors address Christensen et al's finding that neuroticism was not a significant predictor of health practices. They believe that the role of neuroticism as a preditor and the ability of the IHBS to account for significant variance may depend on which measure of neuroticism is used. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Caregiver beliefs and dysphoric affect directed to difficult children.

It was predicted that affective responses of caregivers occur as an interactive function of child characteristics and adult attributions. Mothers in counseling at a child-abuse agency identified one of their children as relatively difficult (and more subject to discipline) and a second child as relatively easy; objective observations revealed that difficult children were more socially unresponsive and acted more inappropriately than did their easier siblings. Sibling pairs were videotaped interacting with unrelated mothers from the general community. Facial and vocal affect directed to difficult children was more dysphoric than that directed to their siblings—in particular among women who attributed relatively high control to children and low control to adults over unsuccessful caregiving. A similar relation between affect and attributions was found for related mothers. Adults with low-control attributions were interpreted as having a low threshold of affective reactivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trait anxiety and beliefs regarding danger and threat to self-esteem.

Administered the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to 46 Ss, who were then asked to rate the degree of threat or danger involved in several hypothetical situations. Results support R. Lazurus' theory that chronic or dispositional anxiety is significantly related to beliefs that the environment is physically dangerous and threatening to self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Irrational beliefs, optimism, pessimism, and psychological distress: a preliminary examination of differential effects in a college population

A study was made of the prevalence of voice disorders and their risk factors in teaching professionals of Logro?o, Spain. A prevalence and case-control study was made, including interviews, ENT examination, videostrobolaryngoscopy, perceptual evaluation of hoarseness, basic aerodynamic tests, the physical range of phonation, and a physical analysis of the acoustic signal. The prevalence of voice disorders among Logro?o teachers was 17.7% (confidence interval: 12.1-25%). Nodular lesions (8.1%) were the most frequent pathology, followed by hyperfunctional dysphonia (4.1%), chronic laryngitis (2.7%), polyps (1.4%), hypofunctional dysphonia (0.7%), and submucous suffusion (0.7%). Voice disorders were more prevalent in women (19.3%) than in men (15.6%), and among teachers of the lowest grades: 36.4% in nursery schools, 25% in elementary school, and 20.8% in junior school. The width and depth of classrooms, larger number of students, longer classroom hours, and noise level were related with the frequency of voice disorders.     

Children's attention to beliefs in interactive persuasion tasks.

Whether and when children can apply their developing understanding of belief to persuasion was examined using interactive puppet tasks. Children selected 1 of 2 arguments to persuade a puppet to do something (e.g., pet a dog) after hearing the puppet's belief (e.g., "I think puppies bite"). Across 2 studies, 132 children (ages 3-7 years) engaged in these persuasion tasks and in false-belief reasoning tasks, presented in puppet and story formats. Belief-relevant argument selection increased with age, as did appropriate reasoning about false beliefs, and occurred more in puppet than story tasks. Results suggest that improvements in belief reasoning in early childhood may be reflected in social interactions such as persuasion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dream interpretation and false beliefs.

Dream interpretation is a common practice in psychotherapy. In the research presented in this article, each participant saw a clinician who interpreted a recent dream report to be a sign that the participant had had a mildly traumatic experience before age 3 years, such as being lost for an extended time or feeling abandoned by his or her parents. This dream intervention caused a majority of participants to become more confident that they had had such an experience, even though they had previously denied it. These findings have implications for the use of dream material in clinical settings. In particular, the findings point to the possibility that dream interpretation may have unexpected side effects if it leads to beliefs about the past that may, in fact, be false. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional reactions to surgery.

Evaluated the stress effects of major surgery on 26 white male patients. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Kincannon's Mini-Mult version of the MMPI were given 18-24 hr. before surgery and 3-9 days postsurgery after the S was informed he was recovering without complications. Mean STAI A-State scores were much higher prior to surgery than after; STAI A-Trait scores were essentially the same. Patients with high- and low-A-Trait scores showed similar presurgery-postsurgery changes in A-State. Scores on the Mini-Mult were essentially unchanged by the stresses associated with surgery. Results indicate that the threat of imminent surgery produced elevations in anxiety as an emotional state, but did not affect anxiety proneness (A-Trait). (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recipient reactions to aid.

Presents a comprehensive review of research and theory on reactions to help, organized in terms of 4 conceptual orientations (equity, attribution, reactance, and threat to self-esteem). For each orientation, the basic assumptions and predictions are discussed, supportive and nonsupportive data are reviewed, and an overall appraisal is offered. Threat to self-esteem is proposed as an organizing construct for research on reactions to help, and a model based on this construct is presented. It is argued that a formalized threat-to-self-esteem model is more comprehensive and parsimonious for predicting reactions to help than are equity, attribution, or reactance models. (111 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)