Attributions and expectations: a confluence of vulnerabilities in mild depression in a college student population

The reformulated model of learned helplessness assumes that attributional style has its impact on depression in part through the intermediary effect of pessimistic or negative expectations about the occurrence of future outcomes. A possible logical next step in testing the model is to measure jointly attributions and expectations and to examine their combined (interactive) contributions. We used a short-term longitudinal design to examine whether attributional style works in combination with other factors, such as expectations, to predispose individuals to depression. Consistent with the initial theoretical analysis, the interaction of attributional style and expectations predicted depression on the Beck Depression Inventory 6 weeks later. We also found that attributional style predicted depression 6 weeks later in interaction with initial level of depression. These findings support our confluence hypothesis, which assumes that vulnerability factors can combine interactively and qualify the effects of attributional style. These interaction-effect findings have implications for currently popular cognitive theories of depression and for previous research on vulnerability to depression that has examined only the effects of single cognitive variables (such as attributional style) considered alone. Further study is also necessary to determine the nature of the overlap of the effects of expectation and initial level of depression.     

Achievement-related expectations and aspirations in college women

Two hundred unmarried female undergraduates (129 juniors, 71 seniors) participated in an investigation of the thesis that achievement in women is hindered by depressed occupational and educational aspirations, which are in turn influenced by a cluster of a cluster of achievement-related expectations. The study examined correlations among five achievement-related expectations (sex-role conception, expectations about the consequences of role-inappropriate achievement, expectations for success, peer expectations, and perceived discrimination), occupational and educational aspirations, and indices of past achievement and ability. The data support the hypothesized relation between expectations and aspirations. Sex-role conception, expectations of positive consequences from success, expectations of negative consequences from success, expectations for success, female peer expectations, and perceived discrimination were each significantly related to aspirations (p<.05 or above, in all cases). The implications of these findings, along with the high intercorrelations of expectation variables and results from path and factor analyses, are that there is considerable consistency in what women expect from themselves and their social environment, and that these expectations influence women's aspirations.This article is based in part on a dissertation submitted by the author to the faculty of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the doctoral degree. This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant #2TO1MH0661316PO. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Drs. D. Wayne Osgood, Lawrence Severy, Kathleen Wells, John Forward, and Mr. Robert Burton in the preparation of this article, and Brynn Beacom, her research assistant, in the conduct of the study.     

The relationship between employee attitudes and conflicting expectations for lying behavior

In this study, the author explores the relationship between conflicting ethical expectations for lying behavior and employee attitudes. In a sample of 140 full-time employees, the findings indicated that as the difference between formal codes of ethics and supervisor expectations for lying behavior increases, intentions to turnover and expressed feelings of intrapersonal role conflict increase, and job and organizational satisfaction and affective commitment decrease. However, conflicting ethical expectations were not significantly associated with a commitment to continue in the job.     

Cultural influences for college student language brokers

Children from immigrant families often translate communication for parents, a process known as language brokering (LB). LB begins in childhood, but may continue through emerging adulthood, even when individuals are in college. We surveyed 1,222 university students with two immigrant parents and compared non-language brokers, infrequent language brokers, and frequent language brokers on a variety of ethnic, cultural, and identity measures. Significant differences emerged for cultural heritage value orientation, ethnic identity, and dimensions of acculturation with frequent language brokers scoring highest, infrequent language brokers scoring in the middle, and non-language brokers scoring the lowest on these measures. There were no significant differences on acculturative stress among these three groups. These results suggest that LB experiences may contribute to the development of psychological assets for ethnic minority, emerging adults from immigrant families.     

Initiation of dates and anxiety among college men and women

A dating questionnaire was completed by 248 undergraduate college students who were either dating someone in an exclusive relationship or were not going steady. Responses to this questionnaire by students not going steady with someone indicated that 54 college-age men were more active at initiating and more successful at getting dates than the 70 women. However, between one-half and three-fourths of the college women reported having initiated dates with men. Both sexes experienced considerable anxiety while initiating a date which suggests a self-help system might be designed to ameliorate this problem.     

Social support and college student contraceptive use

Sources of social support for contraceptive use were examined in a survey of 280 sexually active college students (132 female and 148 male) aged 17-23 years. Variables measured were contraceptive use at last intercourse, perceived social support for contraceptive use, and motivation to comply with these sources of support. Friends and partners were identified as equally supportive, but only partner support was related to contraceptive use. Among nonusers of an effective method, best friend support exceeded partner support. Finally, students reported more motivation to comply with their partners than with friends or parents. Men were even less likely to comply with support provided by a best friend than women. The finding that parental support was not an important factor suggests that contraceptive use is best promoted through the self-disclosure and open discussion young adults enjoy with peers. Moreover, a desire to please one's sexual partner seems to outweigh advice provided by a best friend. Thus, contraceptive promotion among young adults should be targeted not only at potential users, but also at sexual partners. The potential of such an approach is demonstrated by this study's finding that young men were willing to use condoms when encouraged by their partner, despite widespread dislike of this method.     

Caste attitudes of college students in India

Data from college students in North and South India tend to support our earlier findings of a positive relationship between the educational level and the degree of liberalism (Anant, 1972). With few exceptions a higher percentage of students than respondents from the general population gave liberal responses to most of the items in our questionnaire. A higher percentage of North and South Indian students gave liberal responses to items dealing with general attitudes toward caste-system and toward interaction with Harijans (former ‘untouchables’), but the differences were reversed in the responses to items dealing with special privileges for the depressed castes.     

Evidence for positive mood buffering among college student drinkers

Positive experiences play an important role in buffering the effects of negative experiences. Although this process can play out in a myriad of contexts, the college context is one of particular importance because of significant concerns about student stress levels and alcohol abuse. Building on evidence that at least some students drink in response to negative experiences, we considered the possibility that positive moods would moderate college student negative mood-drinking relationships. Using a Web-based daily process study of 118 (57% women) undergraduate student drinkers, the authors reveal that positive moods indeed buffer the effects of negative moods on student drinking, depending on the mood and drinking context. Furthermore, the buffering of ashamed mood appears to explain the buffering of other negative moods. Implications of these findings are considered in terms of the relationship between negative self-awareness and drinking to cope.     

Negative schemas and depression in normal college student volunteers

The present research explored the intrinsic relationship of self-reported depressive symptoms and cognitive distortions as proposed by Beck and others. A devised scale of cognitive distortions was correlated with scores on the Beck Depression Inventory for 67 college volunteers. A significant value of 0.59 was found, supporting our hypothesis. There were no sex differences on either scale.     

Economic indicators predict changes in college student optimism for life events

This investigation explored the extent to which an economic recession predicted changes in college students' optimism about the length and quality of their futures. In a cross‐sectional design, college students in the United States rated their likelihood of divorcing, being unhappy in their career, and living past age 60, at time points before, during, and in the aftermath of an economic recession (2007–2010). Economic indicators, particularly gas prices, predicted decreased optimism as the indicators worsened. After the recession, however, optimism rebounded. The findings reveal that people's expectations for their personal futures are generally sensitive to the state of the national economy.     

Academic optimistic bias: Implications for college student performance and well-being

Although optimism has several benefits, there are potential drawbacks associated with “too much of a good thing”. Within an academic context, a possible determinant of the adaptiveness of optimistic bias is whether students have a sense of control over academic outcomes: optimistically-biased (OB) achievement expectations paired with perceptions of academic control may enhance performance and well-being; optimistic bias in the absence of perceived control may result in disappointment, poor performance, and diminished well-being. The current longitudinal study examined academic control cognitions (ACC) among OB college students (n = 319) versus non-optimistically biased (non-OB) students (n = 321). We also examined the effects of academic optimistic bias on composite measures of college performance (perceived success, final psychology course grades, cumulative GPA, course attrition) and well-being (positive and negative emotions, health behaviors, future optimism) 6 months later; and determined whether ACC accounted for those associations. Significant MANCOVAs showed OB students had greater ACC, better subsequent well-being, and outperformed their non-OB counterparts. These well-being and performance differences remained significant after statistically accounting for initial aptitude and ACC. Overall, academic optimistic bias was accompanied by perceived controllability over scholastic outcomes, yet beyond the effects of ACC, optimistic bias was associated with better year-end performance and well-being. Findings have implications for maximizing the successful transition of first-year college students.     

Instructor's transformational leadership: university student attitudes and ratings

We extend leadership research by examining the effect of an instructor's transformational leadership on university students. 120 undergraduate students provided ratings for their instructors on Charisma, Intellectual Stimulation, and Individual Consideration as well as the Instructors' Performance and the Students' Involvement in class. Multiple regression analyses indicated that Intellectual Stimulation and Charisma together accounted for 66.3% of the variance in the prediction of Instructor's Performance ratings. In turn, Intellectual Stimulation and Individual Consideration combined to account for 55.1% of the variance in predicting Student Involvement.     

High school and college students' attitudes toward rape

This study explored the relationship between agreement with myths about rape and the tendency to blame the victim in a sample of high school and college students. It was found that high school males believed more strongly than did both high school females and college males in myths about rape, and they assigned greater blame to the victims of rape. For both high school males and females, belief in myths about rape was associated with assigning more blame to the victims.