Social support,organizational characteristics,psychological well-being,and group appraisal in three self-help group populations

This study examined the relationship of three social support and three organizational variables to two well-being and two group appraisal variables among 144 members of Compassionate Friends, Multiple Sclerosis, and Overeaters Anonymous self-help groups. An anonymous questionnaire was the major research instrument. Receiving social support was not significantly related to depression or anxiety but was positively related to perceived group benefits and group satisfaction. Providing social support and friendship were each positively related to one well-being and one group appraisal variable. Bidirectional supporters (i.e., individuals high on both receiving and providing support) reported more favorable well-being and group appraisal than Receivers, Providers, and Low Supporters. At the group level of analysis (n = 15 groups), groups with higher levels of role differentiation, greater order and organization, and in which leaders were perceived as more capable contained members who reported more positive well-being and group appraisal. The implications for future research and professional consultation to self-help groups are discussed.     

认知评价、心理控制感、社会支持与高考压力关系的研究

采用问卷法,随机选取河北省三类中学(重点、普通、私立)324名高三考生为被试,考察了学生对高考的认知评价、心理控制感、社会支持与高考压力的关系.结果表明:(1)重点中学、普通中学学生心理控制感显著高于私立中学学生,女生在社会支持的寻求上显著高于男生;(2)积极认知评价、心理控制感和社会支持与高考压力有显著负相关,而消极认知评价与高考压力有显著的正相关;(3)消极认知评价、心理控制感和社会支持对高考压力有直接影响;而积极认知评价通过心理控制感和社会支持间接影响高考压力.     

Underlying Circuits of Social Support for Bullied Victims: An Appraisal‐Based Perspective on Supportive Communication and Postbullying Adjustment

This study examined the working mechanisms of social support for victims of bullying. Structural equation modeling analyses based on retrospective survey data (N = 448) revealed that the effects of supportive messages varied distinctively, depending on the content of the messages; emotional and esteem support enhanced, but network support impeded, positive reappraisal (the effects of informational support were not significant). Except for that which was related to network support, discrepancy between desired and received support was associated with less positive appraisal. Finally, positive appraisal was found to enhance victims' postbullying adjustment both behaviorally and psychologically. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications with reference to the literature on social support and coping of bullied victims.     

A SECOND LOOK AT BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATION SCALES

Latham, Fay, and Saari (1979) discussed the development of behavioral observation scales (BOS) for the appraisal of foremen and managers. They present arguments and data in support of BOS and made several conclusions regarding the relative superiority of BOS versus other appraisal formats, particularly behavioral expectation scales. This critique of their article suggests that most of their conclusions are beset by conceptual problems, questionable statistical analyses, and/or a disregard of previous research.     

Another Search for the “Hot” Cognitions: Appraisal, Irrational Beliefs, Attributions, and Their Relation to Emotion

One study examined the hypothesized status of appraisal and irrational beliefs relative to attributions, as proximal antecedents of emotion. In our study, which looked at 4 pairs of functional and dysfunctional negative emotions (i.e., concern/anxiety, sadness/depression, remorse/guilt, annoyance/anger), undergraduates (N = 120) reported on their attributions, appraisal, irrational beliefs, and emotions during past encounters associated with various negative events. Congruent with both Smith and Lazarus' (1993) appraisal theory and Ellis' (1994) cognitive theory of emotion, the results of this study indicate that the emotions (both functional and dysfunctional negative emotions) were more directly associated with appraisal and with irrational beliefs (dysfunctional negative emotions only) than they were with attributions. Also, irrational beliefs were strongly associated with appraisal; while demandingness (DEM) was associated more with primary appraisal, awfulizing/catastrophizing, low frustration tolerance, and global evaluation of human worth (including self-downing) were associated more with secondary appraisal. Dysfunctional emotions seem to involve primary appraisal associated with DEM while functional emotions involve primary appraisal associated with preferences. These findings lend to support the status of appraisal and irrational beliefs as the proximal cognitive antecedents of emotion and the status of irrational beliefs as a differencing factor between functional and dysfunctional emotions.     

Predictors of Participation in Performance Appraisal: A Voluntary System in a Blue-Collar Work Environment

Organisations have long acknowledged the value of performance appraisal in both administration decisions and in motivating employees. However, it would appear that most empirical research has focused on compulsory systems designed for use with executives and managers (Bannister and Balkin 1990; Ilgen, Fisher and Taylor 1979; Klein 1989). The reluctance to implement appraisal systems with lower level and base-grade employees may be due to several factors, including employee and union resistance to compulsory systems of appraisal (Nankervis 1990). Faced with this problem, appraisal can be viewed by appraisees and appraisers as an `innovation'. In a climate with growing emphasis on participative management styles, self-regulated or voluntary systems of performance appraisal may become increasingly prevalent and important. Thus, 476 base-grade (shop floor) employees of an Australian government business enterprise completed a survey regarding issues such as attitude to performance appraisal, source credibility, system satisfaction, anticipated feedback, perceived consequences of participation and intention to enter the system. Roger's (1983) innovation-decision model was utilised in the structure and analysis of the data and provided useful insights regarding the factors which are related to participation in a voluntary system of performance appraisal. Findings indicated that attitude towards, and support of, performance appraisal in general, perception of consequences of performance appraisal, satisfaction with the supervisor, anticipated feedback, and awareness and knowledge of the system in place in the organisation, were important in predicting the decision to adopt or reject the performance appraisal scheme.     

Experimentally testing Taylor's stress,coping and adaptation framework

Abstract

Taylor (1995) constructed a comprehensive framework of stress and adaptation, which considers internal and external resources/impediments as moderators, based on previous studies and models. However, most past research used correlation designs and has not taken into account all of the framework's components within one study. This study tested the effects of the event (minor, major), primary appraisal (benign, severe), coping (problem-focused coping (PFC) versus emotion-focused coping), external resources (with/without social support), and internal impediments (hostility), on estimated distress (dependent variable) in written imagined stressful daily scenarios. All components except hostility were experimentally manipulated within subjects in the scenarios. The scenarios were rated by 281 Dutch students. The variables event, appraisal, and social support significantly and independently affected estimated distress. Event and appraisal synergistically interacted in relation to estimated distress. Finally, appraisal interacted with coping such that the distress-reducing effects of PFC occurred only in benign events, while coping did not affect estimated distress in severely appraised events. This study experimentally tested most components of Taylor's framework, and showed that events, appraisal, and social resources were independent determinants of estimated distress, and that appraisal interacts in a complex manner with the event and with coping.     

Exploring teenagers' adaptive and maladaptive thinking in relation to the threat of hiv infection

Abstract

Teenagers' HIV-preventive cognitions were explored within a protection motivation theory framework. Five hundred and seven adolescent men and women from two cohorts (sixteen and eighteen) completed a confidential postal questionnaire. The effect of demographic variables, previous sexual experience and appraisal of threat and coping resources upon HIV-relevant cognitions was investigated using path analysis. Cognitions promoting (adaptive) and inhibiting (maladaptive) preventive behaviour were considered. Anticipated condom use, intention to limit number of sexual partners and willingness to consider an HIV antibody test were included as adaptive HIV-preventive cognitions. Coping appraisal measures were strongly associated with anticipated condom use but threat appraisal measures were not. Gender, previous sexual experience, coping appraisal measures and denial accounted for 33% of the variance in anticipated condom use. Overall the results provided qualified support for Protection Motivation Theory. Implications for health education are highlighted.     

Application of a stress and coping model to antenatal depressive symptomatology

This study examined the utility of a stress/coping model of antenatal depressive symptomatology. The direct and moderating effects of appraisal, coping resources and coping strategies on depression were explored. A total of 242 primiparous women completed questionnaires during the third trimester of pregnancy. Predictors included life events, coping resources (social support, quality of women's earlier relationships with parents), appraisal (threat, self-efficacy) and coping strategies (wishful thinking, positive reappraisal, problem solving, emotional approach). Results of regression analyses indicated that higher depression was related to higher stressful life events, threat appraisal and wishful thinking coping, and lower positive reappraisal coping. The expected stress exacerbation effects of wishful thinking on depression were supported. There was no support for the expected stress buffering effects of coping resources and coping strategies on depression. Findings provide preliminary support for the use of a stress/coping model to guide future research into psychosocial predictors of antenatal depression.     

Procedural fairness in performance appraisal: Beyond the review session

Utilizing an organizational justice perspective, this cross-organizational study developed procedural fairness dimensions for the appraisal review session and two contextual domains of the performance appraisal process. The contextual domains were: (a) the structure, policies, and support characterizing the formal appraisal system, and (b) the appraisal-related interactions that occur throughout the year between supervisors and subordinates. In addition, relationships of the three procedural variable sets and their respective individual variables with three fairness (two distributive justice and one global) criteria were assessed. Procedures from the session and system domains were found to be most useful for predicting the fairness criteria.     

Surviving the Kosovo Conflict: A Study of Social Identity, Appraisal of Extreme Events, and Mental Well-Being

Our study examined the role of social identity processes in determining how individuals evaluate, deal with, and are affected by severe events of war. We reasoned that for those who experience such events collectively and who identify strongly with their group, primary appraisal will be filtered through the prism of social identity. In a sample of Kosovo Albanians who had survived the armed conflict in 1999, we found that those who were able to evaluate the war as affirming their group identity presented lower levels of depressive mood and anxiety and higher levels of self-efficacy. Furthermore, this process of war appraisal affected the process of secondary appraisal. Specifically, positive war appraisal increased availability of support from close others and reduced the importance of positive individual coping strategies in dealing with extreme events. Conversely, negative war appraisal reduced availability of support from close others and reduced the importance of negative coping strategies in dealing with extreme events.     

An assessment of manager/subordinate perceptions of performance appraisal effectiveness

This study postulates that performance appraisal will be effective to the extent that managers and subordinates have a shared perception of its purpose and function and the degree to which it meets the needs of both groups. A two part research project was conducted to: 1) identify manager/subordinate perceptions of the purposes served by the formal performance appraisal process; 2) determine the extent to which these purposes are being satisfied in organizational practice; and 3) assess if managers and subordinates have a shared perception of the effectiveness of the appraisal process. The sample for the study included 36 managers and 143 subordinates from a division of a large Midwest service organization. The results were mixed with regard to the appraisal system effectively accomplishing its diverse goals. However, in general, there was support for the notion that both managers and subordinates find the appraisal process to be a worthwhile organizational practice. Approximately 70% of the respondents indicated that they would participate in the appraisal program whether they were required to do so or not.     

The relationship among genital herpes simplex virus, stress, and social support

Despite widespread popular belief in the activation of recurrent lesions in genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) by psychosocial stress, little empirical evidence supports that contention. This study retrospectively examined the role of stress in activation of HSV lesions as mediated by social support. Participants were 59 volunteers who had self-reported culture-positive genital HSV for at least 10 months. Measures of stress proneness (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; STAI-Trait), recent stressful events (Schedule of Recent Events; SRE), and subjective appraisal of stress (global self-rating) were administered along with measures of general social support and herpes-specific social support. When retrospective reports of HSV symptoms were examined using a multiple-regression approach, duration of disease and amount of herpes-specific social support were found to be significant moderators of the relation between stress and number of HSV recurrences in the preceding 12 months. When duration of disease was short (less than 4 years), stress (SRE) and number of recurrences were positively associated; when disease duration was longer, there was no relationship. Similarly, at low levels of herpes-specific social support, a positive relation between stress (SRE) and number of recurrences was found. However, at higher levels of herpes-specific social support, no association was found. No relation was found between stress proneness (STAI-Trait) and HSV symptoms. However, subjective appraisal (global rating) of stress in the preceding 12 months was positively and significantly correlated with reported number of recurrences. Results are discussed in terms of their clinical implications.     

When Meaning Matters: Coping Mediates the Relationship of Religiosity and Illness Appraisal with Well-Being in Older Cancer Patients

When individuals face serious, traumatic illnesses such as cancer, religion can contribute to their coping processes and psychosocial adjustment. In the current study, we examined the relationship between religiosity conceptualized as the religious meaning system, illness appraisal, and psychological well-being with religious and nonreligious coping as potential mediators of this relationship among older cancer patients. In a cross-sectional design, 215 older Polish patients (60–83 years of age; 80% Catholic, 9% Protestant) with gastrointestinal cancer completed measures of religiosity, illness appraisal, religious coping, nonreligious coping, and psychological well-being. Using structural equation modeling analysis, we found support for our model depicting a mediated relationship between religiosity, illness appraisal, and psychological well-being. Three forms of coping—negative religious, problem focused, and meaning focused—were key mechanisms in the relationship between the religious meaning system, positive and negative illness appraisal, and psychological well-being. These findings suggest that both religious factors (religiosity and religious coping) and nonreligious factors (illness appraisal and nonreligious coping) can operate together in influencing older cancer patients’ well-being.     

Family emotional climate and health: Testing conveyance of effects via psychobiological mediators

Using the Biobehavioral Family Model and data from five Midlife in the United States projects (N = 793), this study tests whether allostatic load and negative affect reactivity convey the effects of categorizations of family emotional climate on health appraisal and morbidity (chronic conditions) across 20 years. Results indicated that negative family emotional climate (high strain, low support/parental affection) was indirectly associated with health appraisal 20 years later via negative affect reactivity at 10 years. Ambivalent family emotional climate (high strain/support) was directly associated with greater morbidity. Allostatic load did not serve as a significant mediator in the models tested. Findings suggest that family emotional climates marked by strain and intensity may be especially problematic for health, partly by exacerbating negative affect reactivity.     

Social support and victims of crime: Matching event,support, and outcome

Investigated the buffering properties of six types of social support (three perceived, three received) with regard to four psychological consequences (depression, anxiety, fear of crime, hostility) of criminal victimization (violent crime, property crime). These relationships were examined using longitudinal data collected from a sample composed of representative subsamples of victims and nonvictims. Effects of the perceived support measures (perceived appraisal support, perceived tangible support, self-esteem) were more pervasive than those of the received support measures (received informational support, received tangible support, received emotional support). Perceived support consistently exhibited buffering effects, protecting both violent and property crime victims against various symptoms they would have otherwise experienced. The stress-buffering capabilities of received support were limited to informational and tangible help protecting victims of violence from experiencing excessive fear. These findings are discussed in the context of recent theoretical developments concerning the stress-support matching hypothesis.     

Predictors of Appraisal and Psychological Well-Being in Alzheimer's Disease Family Caregivers

The objective of this study was to test a model of stress, appraisal, and adaptation in 114 family caregivers of patients diagnosed with dementia of the Alzheimer's type (white non-Hispanic, N = 64; Hispanic-American, N = 50). Results of structural equation analysis show that appraised caregiver burden played a central role in determining the psychological well-being of family caregivers. The findings indicate that this mediating variable, negative caregiver appraisal, was predicted by increased functional limitations and behavioral disturbances in the patient, poorer perceived physical health, and lower levels of perceived emotional support. Contrary to a priori hypotheses, functional limitations in the patient also exhibited a direct association with caregiver depression. Further, patient cognitive impairment and caregiver ethnicity were not related to caregiver appraisal. Overall, these results support the role of appraised burden in mediating the relationships between caregiving factors and the adaptational outcome of depression. The implications of these findings, limitations of the study, and future directions are discussed.     

The Impact of Social Support on the Relationship between Trauma History and PTSD Symptoms in Motor Vehicle Accident Victims

The present study examined how different types of social support differentially moderated the relationship between trauma history characteristics and the development of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSS) following a motor vehicle accident (MVA). Two hundred thirty-five MVA victims self-reported levels of social support and trauma history, and were evaluated for PTSS 6- and 12-months post-MVA. Results indicated that after controlling for gender, injury severity and income, number of prior trauma types and subjective responses to prior traumatization predicted subsequent PTSS (ps < .05). Appraisal social support was a significant moderator of the total number of types of trauma (appraisal: 6-months β = -.16, p < .05; 12-months β = -.17, p < .05) and subjective physical injury during the prior trauma (appraisal: 6-months β = -.14, p < .05; 12-months β = -.19, p < .05) in predicting PTSS. Results underscore the importance of examining both trauma history and social support as multi-dimensional constructs and suggest merit to addressing social support in trauma victims with a prior trauma history.     

The how and the when of the social cure: A conceptual model of group- and individual-level mechanisms linking social identity to health and well-being

In this article, we aim at theoretical specification and integration of mechanisms proposed within the Social Identity Approach to Health and Well-being. We differentiate group-level and individual-level effects of shared social identity by distinguishing three different aspects: individual identification, group identification, and individually perceived group identification. We discuss specific group-level mechanisms (i.e., mutual social support and collective self-efficacy) and individual level-mechanisms (i.e., attribution and appraisal processes regarding stressors and resources) for each of the three aspects. A core conclusion is that the positive effects of shared social identity on health and well-being crucially depend on its close relationship with social support, and that although social support is an interindividual phenomenon, it is intraindividual mechanisms—attribution and appraisal—that shape the psychological partnership between social identity and social support. Therefore, we put special emphasis on cross-level interactions between group- and individual-level mechanisms, which have been widely neglected in earlier research.     

Cognitive appraisal,vulnerability and coping: An integrative analysis of appraisal and coping mechanisms

Research on stress has generally concluded that stress occurs within the person as a result of their cognitive appraisal of experience. However although a number of cognitive theories of emotion exist, an integrative analysis of cognitive appraisal and vulnerability to stress has not been produced. This report contains two studies. Study 1 draws together the major variables identified in the literature in an analysis of their power to differentiate between a clinical sample (n = 48), a self-help group (n = 54), and a control sample (n = 509). The analysis shows that achievement motivation, attributional style, problem-solving style, emotional reactivity; hopelessness, perceived control and perceived social support are significant discriminators. In a second study the relationship between these variables and aspects of life stress, work stress, life satisfaction, depression, anxiety, and positive affect were investigated. Again the data support an explanatory role for these variables. The suggestion is that these variables can be utilized in an integrative model of cognitive appraisal in the stress process to guide intervention.