Metacognitive awareness and prevention of relapse in depression: Empirical evidence.

Metacognitive awareness is a cognitive set in which negative thoughts/feelings are experienced as mental events, rather than as the self. The authors hypothesized that (1) reduced metacognitive awareness would be associated with vulnerability to depression and (2) cognitive therapy (CT) and mindfulness-based CT (MBCT) would reduce depressive relapse by increasing metacognitive awareness. They found (1) accessibility of metacognitive sets to depressive cues was less in a vulnerable group (residually depressed patients) than in nondepressed controls; (2) accessibility of metacognitive sets predicted relapse in residually depressed patients; (3) where CT reduced relapse in residually depressed patients, it increased accessibility of metacognitive sets; and (4) where MBCT reduced relapse in recovered depressed patients, it increased accessibility of metacognitive sets. CT and MBCT may reduce relapse by changing relationships to negative thoughts rather than by changing belief in thought content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Seeking self-evaulative feedback: The interactive role of global self-esteem and specific self-views.

People who verify a negative self-view expose themselves to criticism and rejection. Because people with low global self-esteem are hurt more by negative feedback than are people with high global self-esteem, the authors predicted that they would be less apt to verify a negative self-view in a more specific domain. Three investigations found support for this hypothesis. In all 3 investigations, high self-esteem participants sought (or tended to seek) self-verifying feedback, even if it was negative, but low self-esteem participants sought (or tended to seek) positive feedback, even if it was nonself-verifying. These findings show that low self-esteem people are especially concerned with self-protection and that global self-esteem and specific self-views interact to guide people's responses to self-evaluative feedback. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Secure and Defensive High Self-Esteem.

Long-standing theories have suggested high self-esteem (SE) can assume qualitatively different forms that are related to defensiveness. The authors explored whether some high-SE individuals are particularly defensive because they harbor negative self-feelings at less conscious levels, indicated by low implicit SE. In Study 1, participants high in explicit SE but low in implicit SE showed the highest levels of narcissism--an indicator of defensiveness. In Studies 2 and 3, the correspondence between implicit and explicit SE predicted defensive behavior (in-group bias in Study 2 and dissonance reduction in Study 3), such that for high explicit-SE participants, those with relatively low implicit SE behaved more defensively. These results are consistent with the idea that high SE can be relatively secure or defensive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metacognitive influences on study time allocation in an associative recognition task: An analysis of adult age differences.

The current study evaluated a metacognitive account of study time allocation, which argues that metacognitive monitoring of recognition test accuracy and latency influences subsequent strategic control and regulation. The authors examined judgments of learning (JOLs), recognition test confidence judgments (CJs), and subjective response time (RT) judgments by younger and older adults in an associative recognition task involving 2 study–test phases, with self-paced study in Phase 2. Multilevel regression analyses assessed the degree to which age and metacognitive variables predicted Phase 2 study time independent of actual test accuracy and RT. Outcomes supported the metacognitive account—JOLs and CJs predicted study time independent of recognition accuracy. For older adults with errant RT judgments, subjective retrieval fluency influenced response confidence as well as (mediated through confidence) subsequent study time allocation. Older adults studied items that had been assigned lower CJs longer, suggesting no age deficit in using memory monitoring to control learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implicit Self-Attitudes Predict Spontaneous Affect in Daily Life.

In 2 studies, the authors examined the degree to which implicit self-attitudes predicted people's spontaneous affective experiences in daily life. Across both studies, implicit attitudes toward the self (as measured by Implicit Association Tests) strongly predicted negative feeling states (as measured by computerized experience-sampling procedures), suggesting that implicit self-attitudes may be linked to changes in undifferentiated negative affect. Explicit attitudes toward the self generally did not account for these relations. Findings extend understanding of the factors that contribute to experienced affect and are the first to empirically link implicit self-attitudes with phenomenological affective experience in real-life settings over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

I Like Myself but I Don't Know Why: Enhancing Implicit Self-Esteem by Subliminal Evaluative Conditioning.

On the basis of a conceptualization of implicit self-esteem as the implicit attitude toward the self, it was predicted that implicit self-esteem could be enhanced by subliminal evaluative conditioning. In 5 experiments, participants were repeatedly presented with trials in which the word I was paired with positive trait terms. Relative to control conditions, this procedure enhanced implicit self-esteem. The effects generalized across 3 measures of implicit self-esteem (Experiments 1-3). Furthermore, evaluative conditioning enhanced implicit self-esteem among people with low-temporal implicit self-esteem and among people with high-temporal implicit self-esteem (Experiment 4). In addition, it was shown that conditioning enhanced self-esteem to such an extent that it made participants insensitive to negative intelligence feedback (Experiments 5a and 5b). Various implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processes in auditory hallucinations: attributional biases and metacognition

BACKGROUND: Cognitive models suggest that auditory hallucinations are experienced when mental events are misattributed to an external source; therefore, this study was designed to examine attributional biases in patients experiencing auditory hallucinations. The study also examined the role of metacognitive beliefs in the experience of auditory hallucinations, as some theories have implicated metacognition in the development and maintenance of auditory hallucinations. METHODS: Fifteen participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia experiencing auditory hallucinations were compared with 15 non-hallucinating schizophrenics and 15 non-psychiatric control subjects on several measures, including an immediate source monitoring task and a questionnaire assessing metacognitive beliefs. RESULTS: Results indicated that patients experiencing hallucinations exhibited the predicted bias towards misattributing internal events to an external source, as measured by ratings of internality of responses in a word association task. All groups had lower perceived levels of internality and control for emotionally salient words, which provides further evidence for the importance of emotional content in hallucinations. Patients experiencing hallucinations were found to score higher than the other two groups on metacognitive beliefs about uncontrollability and danger and positive beliefs about worry. In addition, a logistic regression analysis showed that beliefs about uncontrollability and danger were predictive of whether subjects experienced auditory hallucinations or not. CONCLUSIONS: These results offer considerable support to cognitive bias models of auditory hallucinations, particularly those that implicate metacognition.     

When does self-esteem relate to deviant behavior? The role of contingencies of self-worth.

Researchers have assumed that low self-esteem predicts deviance, but empirical results have been mixed. This article draws upon recent theoretical developments regarding contingencies of self-worth to clarify the self-esteem/deviance relation. It was predicted that self-esteem level would relate to deviance only when self-esteem was not contingent on workplace performance. In this manner, contingent self-esteem is a boundary condition for self-consistency/behavioral plasticity theory predictions. Using multisource data collected from 123 employees over 6 months, the authors examined the interaction between level (high/low) and type (contingent/noncontingent) of self-esteem in predicting workplace deviance. Results support the hypothesized moderating effects of contingent self-esteem; implications for self-esteem theories are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can We Really Do Without Self-Esteem? Comment on Crocker and Park (2004).

Because self-esteem plays a central role in managing anxiety and provides a superordinate goal that organizes much human behavior, the authors conclude that it would be extremely difficult and probably impossible for people to stop pursuing self-esteem. Although they agree that investment in others' welfare may circumvent some of the negative consequences of self-esteem pursuit, the authors argue that the self-esteem implications of other-oriented behavior will inevitably be a powerful motivating force. Finally, the authors propose that self-esteem derived from self-determined standards of value may reduce defensiveness, closed-mindedness, and indifference to others, as well as promote personal growth, but they acknowledge the daunting barriers to the attainment of such self-determined bases of self-worth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of help seeking for emotional distress among Chinese Americans: Family matters.

Using data from the Chinese American Psychiatric Epidemiological Study, the authors examined longitudinal predictors of help seeking for emotional distress in a community sample of 1,503 Chinese Americans. Specifically, they assessed the relative contribution of family relational variables (e.g., levels of family support and family conflict) in predicting help seeking for medical, mental health, and informal services. After traditional need, predisposing, and enabling factors were controlled for in hierarchical logistic regression analyses, family conflict predicted both mental health and medical service use, whereas family support was not predictive of help seeking. In addition to family conflict, mental health service use was predicted by negative life events, emotional distress, and insurance coverage. Implications of the findings for assessing and treating Asian American clients are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low self-esteem prospectively predicts depression in adolescence and young adulthood.

Low self-esteem and depression are strongly correlated in cross-sectional studies, yet little is known about their prospective effects on each other. The vulnerability model hypothesizes that low self-esteem serves as a risk factor for depression, whereas the scar model hypothesizes that low self-esteem is an outcome, not a cause, of depression. To test these models, the authors used 2 large longitudinal data sets, each with 4 repeated assessments between the ages of 15 and 21 years and 18 and 21 years, respectively. Cross-lagged regression analyses indicated that low self-esteem predicted subsequent levels of depression, but depression did not predict subsequent levels of self-esteem. These findings held for both men and women and after controlling for content overlap between the self-esteem and depression scales. Thus, the results supported the vulnerability model, but not the scar model, of self-esteem and depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Instruction begins in the home: Relations between parental instruction and children's self-regulation in the classroom.

The study examined the effectiveness of 3 aspects of parental instruction for predicting children's self-regulation in school. Fathers, mothers, and their children (52 families) were visited in their homes the summer before the child entered 3rd grade. Metacognitive content (task and strategy information), manner of instruction (small steps at an appropriate pace), and emotional support were coded from parents' instructions to their children for a problem-solving task. Children's self-regulatory behaviors in the classroom were assessed the following school year. Two patterns of relations were observed. Manner of instruction predicted children's attention to instructions and help-seeking in the classroom. Metacognitive content of instructions did not predict these aspects of self-regulation. In contrast, metacognitive content of instructions presented in an understandable manner with emotional support predicted children's monitoring and metacognitive talk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Relationship Between Self-Esteem Level, Self-Esteem Stability, and Cardiovascular Reactions to Performance Feedback.

The authors examined the notion that individuals with unstable high self-esteem possess implicit self-doubt. They adopted the framework of the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat and assessed spontaneous cardiovascular reactions in the face of success versus failure performance feedback. Study 1 revealed predicted interactions between feedback condition, self-esteem level, and self-esteem stability, such that participants with unstable high self-esteem exhibited relative threat (a negative reaction) in the failure condition, whereas those with stable high self-esteem exhibited relative challenge (a positive reaction). Study 2 replicated these results and provided additional evidence against plausible alternative explanations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting achievement early and late in the semester: The role of motivation and use of learning strategies.

Relations among motivation, learning strategy use, and achievement were examined. Questionnaires were group administered to 283 high school students in geometry classes early and late in the semester. Path analyses were used to determine the effects of motivation (ability perceptions, expectancies, and perceived value) and use of learning strategies (metacognitive, general cognitive, geometry specific, and effort) on achievement early and late in the semester. Early, both expectancies and value predicted the use of strategies; expectancies and use of geometry specific and effort strategies influenced grades. Later, value predicted strategy use; geometry self-concept and metacognitive strategy use influenced grades. No sex differences were found. Results concerning motivation are congruent with previous reports. Strategy use findings suggest that teachers emphasize the use of content specific strategies early in a new course and metacognitive strategies later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Superior perception of phasic physiological arousal and the detrimental consequences of the conviction to be aroused on worrying and metacognitions in GAD.

Although people suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) often report arousal symptoms, psychophysiological studies show no evidence of autonomic hyperarousal. Hypersensitivity toward and catastrophic interpretation of phasic arousal cues may explain this discrepancy. The authors tested (a) whether GAD sufferers perceive nonspecific skin conductance fluctuations (NSCFs), an indicator of phasic autonomic arousal, better than controls do and (b) whether the conviction to be aroused contributes to the maintenance of worrying and metacognitive beliefs about worrying. Thirty-three GAD sufferers and 34 healthy controls participated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to detect their own NSCFs during a signal detection task. GAD sufferers accurately detected more of their NSCFs than did controls, who tended to miss NSCFs. In Experiment 2, participants were instructed to relax following worry induction. While relaxing, they received nonveridical feedback indicating either arousal or relaxation. Arousal feedback conserved negative metacognitive beliefs regarding worrying and also maintained negative mood and worry exclusively in GAD participants. These findings suggest that superior perception of phasic arousal cues and their catastrophic misinterpretation increases worrying, negative metacognitive beliefs about worrying, and anxious mood in GAD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spouses' provision of health-related support and control to patients participating in cardiac rehabilitation.

The authors examined spouses' provision of health-related support and control as predictors of health behavior and mental health among patients participating in cardiac rehabilitation (N = 94 couples). Cross-sectional analyses revealed that spouses' support was positively associated with patient health behavior. Prospective analyses of change over 6 months (N = 65 couples) revealed that spouses' support predicted increased patient mental health, whereas spouses' control predicted decreased patient health behavior and mental health. Findings suggest that spouses' efforts to facilitate patients' healthy lifestyle behaviors are associated with patients' health behavior and mental health, but not always as spouses might intend. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Caution: Fragile! Regulating the interpersonal security of chronically insecure partners.

The authors present and test a model of interpersonal insecurity compensation. According to this model, perceivers detect targets' chronic insecurities about interpersonal acceptance, become vigilant about upsetting targets, and respond with affective exaggeration, which involves cautiously inflating positive thoughts and feelings about targets and concealing negative sentiments. Results of 3 studies support this model across a variety of relationship types. Perceivers who detected targets' chronic insecurities concealed negative sentiments when they believed their sentiments would be observed by targets (Study 1), converged with other perceivers in their self-reported affective exaggeration to insecure targets (Study 2), and reported vigilance about upsetting targets, which predicted perceivers' enhanced cognitive processing of targets' daily insecurity and intensified their tendencies to exaggerate affections in response to that insecurity (Study 3). Perceivers' affective exaggeration appeared to enhance chronically insecure targets' perceptions of being valued by perceivers, but it also predicted perceivers' reduced relationship satisfaction (Studies 2 and 3). Results underscore the active, but perhaps dissatisfying, regulation of relationships with chronically insecure relationship partners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cost of lower self-esteem: Testing a self- and social-bonds model of health.

The authors draw upon social, personality, and health psychology to propose and test a self-and-social-bonds model of health. The model contends that lower self-esteem predicts health problems and that poor-quality social bonds explain this association. In Study 1, lower self-esteem prospectively predicted reports of health problems 2 months later, and this association was explained by subjective reports of poor social bonds. Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 but used a longitudinal design with 6 waves of data collection, assessed self-reports of concrete health-related behaviors (i.e., number of visits to the doctor and classes missed due to illness), and measured both subjective and objective indicators of quality of social bonds (i.e., interpersonal stress and number of friends). In addition, Study 2 showed that poor-quality social bonds predicted acute drops in self-esteem over time, which in turn predicted acute decreases in quality of social bonds and, consequently, acute increases in health problems. In both studies, alternative explanations to the model were tested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Costly Pursuit of Self-Esteem.

Researchers have recently questioned the benefits associated with having high self-esteem. The authors propose that the importance of self-esteem lies more in how people strive for it rather than whether it is high or low. They argue that in domains in which their self-worth is invested, people adopt the goal to validate their abilities and qualities, and hence their self-worth. When people have self-validation goals, they react to threats in these domains in ways that undermine learning; relatedness; autonomy and self-regulation; and over time, mental and physical health. The short-term emotional benefits of pursuing self-esteem are often outweighed by long-term costs. Previous research on self-esteem is reinterpreted in terms of self-esteem striving. Cultural roots of the pursuit of self-esteem are considered. Finally, the alternatives to pursuing self-esteem, and ways of avoiding its costs, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metacognition, states of mind, cognitive biases, and interpersonal cycles: Proposal for an integrated narcissism model.

A narcissistic personality can be seen as arising from a number of separate dimensions of mental life: (a) a characteristic set of states of mind; (b) alterations in metacognitive skills--in particular a difficulty in accessing one's own inner states, desires, and emotions--and a difficulty in understanding another's mind from a decentrated perspective; (c) the sensation that experiences are not being shared with a relevant other and that one does not belong to real-life groups; (d) characteristic methods of regulating one's self-image and self-esteem through cognitive biases; (e) the use, in most cases, of values, rather than emotional experience and interpersonal regulation, for regulating behavior; and (f) characteristic dysfunctional interpersonal cycles. In this work the authors propose an integrated model that describes how the disorder perpetuates itself and suggest some hierarchies of importance between the elements portrayed above. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)