Perfectionism dimensions, perfectionistic attitudes, dependent attitudes, and depression in psychiatric patients and university students.

P. L. Hewitt and G. L. Flett's (1991b) model of perfectionism dimensions (i.e., self-oriented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed perfectionism) was compared with A. T. Beck's model (G. P. Brown & A.T. Beck, 2002) of dysfunctional attitudes (i.e., perfectionistic attitudes [PA] and dependent attitudes [DA]) in predicting depression in 70 psychiatric patients and 280 university students. Socially prescribed perfectionism uniquely predicted both PA and DA. Dysfunctional attitudes failed to consistently predict additional variance in depression beyond perfectionism dimensions (and vice versa). Evidence for Hewitt and Flett's specific vulnerability hypothesis and Beck's specific cognitive vulnerability hypothesis was equivocal. Beck's conceptualization of perfectionism as a unitary cognitive style obscures important information by overlooking the distinction between the self-related and socially based features of perfectionism. Hewitt and Flett's conceptualization of perfectionism as 3 distinct personality traits allows for precise conclusions by recognizing the differential contribution of the self-related and socially based features of perfectionism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationships between sociotropic and autonomous personality styles and depressive realism in dysphoric and nondysphoric university students.

Examined the hypothesis that Ss' responses to depressive realism tasks are not only a function of mood state, but also a function of sociotropic and autonomous personality style. In the 1st experiment, 74 undergraduates who scored high or low on a measure of sociotropy and high or low on a measure of dysphoria were exposed to a depressive realism paradigm in which they engaged in dyadic interaction with a friend. Following the interaction, Ss' estimates of their performance were compared with the evaluations of their friend. In the 2nd experiment, 79 undergraduates who scored high or low on a measure of autonomy and high or low on dysphoria were exposed to a computerized success/failure task. The results across both experiments did not support the depressive realism hypothesis, in that the Ss' degree of realism, distortion and/or bias generally varied as a function of both personality style and mood state in the predicted directions. Implications of these findings for the depressive realism literature are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The place of thinking in an ideal university.

"As behavioral scientists and as citizens we believe in and we exercise free and open intellectual inquiry and the main point of this paper is simply to say that we should also do this as teachers." Major sections are: Education for Excellence, Idiographic Press, Movement Toward the "New Think," and Ultimate Criteria. "The primary place of thinking is not in the curriculum, nor in the lacture room, nor at the faculty meeting. These are places for supportive thinking." The teacher's purpose is to encourage the individually different student to aim his learning talents toward socially worthwhile goals. In the "honest and uncomplicated relationship, between two self-respecting individuals, is the best place to find thinking in an ideal university." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schematic processing and self-reference in clinical depression.

Investigated differences in self-schema content among 16 clinical depressives, 16 nondepressed psychiatric control patients, and 16 normal nondepressives (18–65 yr old females administered the Beck Depression Inventory and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression). Ss were required to make structural (Small letters?), semantic (Means same as a given word?), and self-referent (Describes you?) ratings on depressed- and nondepressed-content personal adjectives. Ratings were followed immediately by an incidental recall period in which Ss recalled as many of the adjectives as possible. In accord with predictions generated from a self-as-schema model, adjective recall was greater for the self-referent rating task, relative to the other tasks. Furthermore, consistent with the content-specificity component of this model, both normal and nondepressed psychiatric controls displayed superior recall only for self-referenced, nondepressed-content adjectives. Also, depressives displayed significantly enhanced recall only for depressed-content adjectives rated under the self-referent task. Results support the proposal of A. T. Beck et al (1979) that an efficient negative self-schema exists, specific to the disorder of depression. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Origins of adolescents' ideal self: An intergenerational perspective.

The present longitudinal study traced the ideal self of 120 adolescents to the ideals that parents hold for themselves and for their children. Ideals were assessed using Q sorts for personality attributes and life goals. After permutation analysis was used to control for random similarity, moderate parent-child ideal-self similarity was evident. Three intermediate transmission steps accounted for this intergenerational similarity: (a) transfer of parents' ideal self to ideals for their children, (b) children's perception, and (c) acceptance of these parental ideals. The last 2 processes related to parenting practices, with parental warmth augmenting parent-child concordance and restrictiveness reducing it. Compared with boys' ideal self, that of girls was more similar to the ideals that parents hold for their children and for themselves. Analyses of patterns over time suggested a growth of ideal-self stability across adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The prevalence of addiction among university students.

Compares demographic and methodological differences between 2 self-report studies on the prevalence of drug addiction among North American University students. A far higher prevalence of addiction was reported among students at a university in Wisconsin (D. R. Cook; see record 1988-26796-001) than among students at a university in British Columbia, Canada (B. K. Alexander, 1985; B. K. Alexander and A. R. Schweighofer, 1988). It is concluded that the Wisconsin procedure inflated the prevalence data by not ensuring that the Ss defined addiction consistently and by imposing a dichotomous choice on the continuous dimension of addictive involvement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phenomenal, ideal, and projected conceptions of self.

The relationship between the phenomenal, ideal, and projected self concepts in normal, neurotic, and paranoid schizophrenic Ss is investigated by comparing a self rating of present personal characteristics (phenomenal self) and ideal personal characteristics (ideal self) with the TAT hero characteristics of each S based on five TAT stories (projective self). The results indicate that normals have positive attitudes towards the self on a realistic basis. The paranoid schizophrenic group revealed positive self attitudes which were reflective of self enhancing defenses and were based on unrealistic self appraisal. The neurotic group maintained negative self attitudes based on a realistic perception of disturbances within the self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schematic approach to the attributional processing of actions and occurrences.

Measured the time 64 undergraduates took to read and comprehend information (consensus vs distinctiveness) regarding a behavioral event (actions vs occurrences) and how long they took to answer various questions about the event. For each of 32 trials, a computer recorded Ss' event-comprehension time, information-comprehension time, and question-answering time. Results indicate that both information-comprehension and question-answering times were relatively shorter for experimental conditions involving actions/distinctiveness and occurrences/consensus. When Ss had to make inferences that were based on person attribution, question-answering times were shorter for actions; when the inferences were based on object attribution, question answering times were shorter for occurrences. Findings are consistent with the model linking actions with reasons and occurrences with causes and support the hypothesis that people develop attributional schemas of the types action–reasons–distinctiveness and occurrences–causes–consensus. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schematic effects of social attitudes on information processing and recall.

Examined the proposal that social attitudes have schematic effects on the processing of attitude-relevant information. It was predicted that (a) such attitudes schemata would be bipolar, with information organized around "agree" and "disagree" poles; (b) attitude-relevant information would be more easily processed and, hence, judged more readily if it fits these schematic poles; and (c) schematic fit would also facilitate recall of attitude-relevant information. 23 undergraduates were asked to make pro/anti and agree/disagree ratings of 54 attitude statements on 3 issues. Ratings and decision times were recorded. The next day, Ss engaged in a free-recall task. Both schematic hypotheses were supported: Faster judgments and higher recall were found with items that were extremely agreed or disagreed with than with items that elicited less extreme agree/disagree ratings. It is shown that these effects are not due to idiosyncracies of either individual items or individual Ss. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self versus ideal self: A comparison of five Adjective Check List indices.

Defined 5 self vs ideal-self measures on the 300-item Adjective Check List. Overall congruence was indexed by the phi coefficient for items and by the sum of the absolute differences on standard scores for the 24 scales (D-T). The absolute differences on the 24 scales were also correlated and factored in 2 samples: 100 American Air Force officers (mean age, 33.6 yrs) and 95 Italian young men (mean age, 15.5 yrs) applying for a national precollege military training school. Three factors common to both samples were identified. D-1, D-2, and D-3 measures of dissimilarity were obtained by summing the absolute differences on just those scales assignable to each of the 3 factors. Analyses of observers' ratings in the sample of American officers revealed phi, D-T, and D-1 to be indicative of superior personal and social adjustment and D-2 to suggest goal-oriented efficiency and diligence. D-3 had unfavorable connotations. It is concluded that internal components of self-ideal congruence have differential implications that over all measures will obscure or even fail to detect. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-talk and emotional intelligence in university students.

The purpose of this study was to examine self-talk, year of university study, and gender as predictors of emotional intelligence in a diverse sample of 126 undergraduate participants (42 male, 84 female). Self-talk has been discussed in the literature as a means of enhancing self-awareness and self-regulation, both of which are considered important in the construct of emotional intelligence. Participants completed self-report questionnaires on self-talk and emotional intelligence. The results indicated that year of study and self-talk were significant predictors of emotional intelligence and were associated with emotional intelligence in a positive direction. Contrary to expectation, gender was not a significant predictor. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of potential future research directions for the study of self-talk and emotional intelligence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Voicing the self: From information processing to dialogical interchange.

Dialog implies an interchange between mutually influencing voices. Two metaphors playing a major role in contemporary research are analyzed from such a perspective: the computer metaphor, in which the self is studied as an information-processing device, and the narrative metaphor, in which story and storytelling are guiding principles for the self. It is argued that, on the metaphorical level, the computer and the narrative analogy allow voice and intersubjective exchange to play important roles in self-organization. In actual research, however, these elements are neglected. Theoretical and empirical arguments emphasize the relevance of the dialogical view for the study of the self. Finally, the role of dominance in inter- and intrapersonal processes and the relevance of collective voices for contemporary psychology are sketched. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and general psychopathology in university students.

Examined the relationship between self-reported depression and a number of self-report measures of other forms of maladaptive functioning in a subclinical population. Seven questionnaires, including the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory—Form Y, completed by 443 undergraduates yielded 17 different pathology scales. All of the scales were significantly intercorrelated. Furthermore, a factor analysis yielded a 2-factor solution with the 1st factor, composed of all but 3 scales, accounting for 50% of the total variance. Chi-square analyses revealed that only 5–20% of the Ss were cross classified as high on one measure and low on another. Results are discussed with reference to the ability of self-report measures to differentiate discrete forms of psychopathology in both subclinical and psychiatric populations. It is concluded that caution is needed in extrapolating findings from studies with students scoring high on the BDI. (85 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

宣传社会主义荣辱观加强大学生理想信念教育

社会主义荣辱观是培养社会主义“四有”新人的题中应有之义。我们应当把树立社会主义荣辱观渗透到大学生思想政治教育的各个环节中去。理想信念教育作为大学生思想政治教育的核心，更应宣传社会主义荣辱观，加强其世界观、人生观和价值观的教育。这对于加强大学生理想信念教育，推进高校思想政治教育改革，具有重大的现实意义。     

Close partner as sculptor of the ideal self: Behavioral affirmation and the Michelangelo phenomenon.

This work incorporates concepts from the behavioral confirmation tradition, self tradition, and interdependence tradition to identify an interpersonal process termed the Michelangelo phenomenon. The Michelangelo phenomenon describes the means by which the self is shaped by a close partner's perceptions and behavior. Specifically, self movement toward the ideal self is described as a product of partner affirmation, or the degree to which a partner's perceptions of the self and behavior toward the self are congruent with the self s ideal. The results of 4 studies revealed strong associations between perceived partner affirmation and self movement toward the ideal self, using a variety of participant populations and measurement methods. In addition, perceived partner affirmation—particularly perceived partner behavioral affirmation—was strongly associated with quality of couple functioning and stability in ongoing relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Friendship satisfaction in Korean and Canadian university students.

Two studies explored predictors of friendship satisfaction (viewed here as high positive feelings and low negative feelings) in Korean and Canadian university students. Study 1 investigated friendship functions and conflict-resolution styles; Study 2 investigated if cross-cultural resolution differences in friendship expectations and collectivism account for observed differences in friendship variables. Canadian students fulfilled more friendship functions, and Korean students reported more asymmetrical conflict management, but the differences were generally not significant after controlling for friendship expectations and collectivism. In both countries, friendship satisfaction was similarly associated with fulfillment of friendship functions and egalitarian conflict management. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-discrepancies in clinically anxious and depressed university students.

Self-discrepancy theory proposes that anxiety and depression are the result of different types of conflicting self-beliefs. This study examined self-discrepancies in 4 groups of university students who completed a questionnaire assessing levels of self-discrepancy and were characterized by the following disorders: (1) depression, (2) anxiety, (3) both anxiety and depression, or (4) no psychiatric disorder. As predicted, Ss with anxiety or depressive disorders had higher levels of self-discrepancy than normal Ss. Depressive Ss had higher levels of actual:ideal discrepancies than nondepressive Ss. Anxious Ss (with or without depressive disorders) had higher levels of actual:ought discrepancies than nonanxious Ss (normals and depressed-only Ss). Results provided general support for self-discrepancy theory in accounting for depressive and anxiety disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)