The relationship between HIV disclosure and adjustment

In many cases, sharing the diagnosis of HIV can help people to adjust to their diagnosis. However, several factors may impede this process. A secondary data analysis of 50 HIV-positive adults found that African Americans delayed sharing their diagnosis with others longer than Euro-Americans. In addition, those who perceived more stigma against HIV took longer to tell someone and took longer to adjust to their diagnosis. Implications for practice and research are posited.     

The psychological relationship between lightness and saturation

Lightness and saturation, though independent in a physical sense, have often been seen to be psychologically related. The first experiment uses a multidimensional scaling technique to again verify this nonindependence for untrained Os. A further experiment, using a matching technique, quantifies this relationship, giving the extent of the error in lightness for varying levels of saturation. This relationship is found to be independent of hue if saturation is measured by the colorimetric purity of the hue. Errors in value (lightness on the Munsell system) were found to be linearly related to colorimetric purity.     

社交退缩与儿童的社会适应之间的关系

本研究的目的是探讨社交退缩与儿童的社会适应之间的关系。 共有145名11岁儿童(M=129个月,SD=6.5个月,60名男孩,85名女孩)参与了本研究。本研究运用实验室观察程序,采用儿童游戏观察量表(Play Observation Scale)对儿童在两个自由游戏情景中的社交退缩行为进行编码,采用教师报告法和儿童自我报告法测量了儿童的适应情况。研究结果发现,焦虑退缩行为更多的与男孩的适应问题有关,而安静退缩更多的与女孩的适应问题如孤独感、抑郁等有关。结果表明社交退缩的各个亚型与其社会适应之间的关系是不同的,且性别在其中起着调节作用。     

Holland's theoretical signs of consistency and differentiation and their relationship to academic potential and achievement

The study was designed to assess Holland's theoretical signs of consistency and differentiation as measures of academic aptitude and achievement. Holland postulates that levels of consistency and differentiation on the Self Directed Search (SDS) may be used to assess a person's educational-vocational potential, achievement, or status. Using the SDS and a sample of investigative male subjects (N = 127), Holland's theoretical signs of consistency and differentiation were tested on measures of academic aptitude and achievement over a four year college period. Academic aptitude was assessed by the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and academic achievement by cumulative grade point average (GPA) over a four year college period. The findings show significant differences on SAT scores for the sign of differentiation but no significant differences for GPA over a four year college period. The results also show no significant differences on SAT or GPA for the sign of consistency. Future research is recommended on Holland's theoretical signs before they can be incorporated into a complete and useful diagnostic system.     

The relationship between exercise motives and psychological well-being

The aim of the present study was to use the self-determination model of exercise motives to examine the relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic motives for exercise and a number of measures of psychological well-being. Undergraduate students purporting to exercise regularly (N = 227; 102 men, 125 women) were split into 2 groups: those exercising for less than 6 months and those exercising for 6 months or more. The respondents were asked to complete measures of exercise motivation, self-esteem, psychological well-being, and stress. Among individuals exercising for less than 6 months, a number of extrinsic motivations for exercise were significantly related to poorer psychological well-being. Among individuals exercising for 6 months or more, a number of intrinsic motivations were significantly related to better psychological well-being. The present findings suggest that researchers can use self-determination theory to understand the relationship between exercise motivation and psychological well-being.     

The relationship between sex role identity and marital adjustment

One hundred forty-four maritally distressed clinic couples and 138 nonclinic couples participated in a study investigating the relationship between individual sex role identity and marital adjustment. Subjects completed Baucom's (1976) masculinity (MSC) and femininity (FMN) scales, and either the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS; Spanier, 1976) or the Marital Adjustment Scale (MAS; Locke & Wallace, 1959). As predicted, femininity was related to positive marital adjustment; masculinity was related as well, but perhaps to a lesser degree. Androgyny within a relationship was found to be highly desirable, whereas marriages involving undifferentiated individuals were more likely to be distressed.     

The relationship between positive psychological characteristics and longer telomeres

Objective: Longer telomeres are associated with better health and longevity. This research investigated the relationship between positive psychological dispositional traits and telomere length. Positive traits examined were typical high positive affect, typical low negative affect, life satisfaction, trait mindfulness, trait emotional intelligence, general self-efficacy and optimism.

Design and Measures: One hundred and twenty women and men, with a mean age of 40.92, completed measures of positive characteristics and provided samples for telomere length analysis.

Results: Together the positive dispositional characteristics explained significant variance in telomere length, R = .40. Among the individual characteristics, greater optimism and higher emotional intelligence were associated with longer telomeres after adjustment for age and gender and the association between optimism and telomere length remained significant after adjusting for age and gender as well as the other positive characteristics, with a partial correlation r of .30.

Conclusion: These results in conjunction with previous research findings provide a platform for further exploration of biological pathways connecting positive characteristics such as optimism to telomere length and investigation of the impact of increasing a characteristic such as optimism on telomere functioning.     

The relationship between gender role ideals and psychological well-being

Previous research on the influence of gender roles upon psychological health has found that most effects may be due to participants' levels of masculine traits alone. This study investigated whether individual gender role ideals moderate the relationship between gender roles and psychological well-being. Eighty-three psychology undergraduate students of European descent were given a battery of measures of gender role and psychological well-being. Results of analysis of these tests suggest that the degree to which participants' gender-specific traits represent met or unmet ideals is a better predictor of psychological adjustment than personal gender role alone. Results also suggest that gender roles can diminish psychological well-being by creating conflict between personal beliefs about the nature of appropriate behavior and the actual demands of life situations. Theoretical implications and future research directions are discussed.     

An enhanced examination of Holland's consistency and differentiation hypotheses

The research support for Holland's concepts of consistency and differentiation has been equivocal (Nauta, 2010). To provide a reexamination of these concepts, a new method of operationalizing Holland's constructs of consistency and differentiation using the cosine fit function to the RIASEC score profile is proposed. The relation of these new indices to career certainty, congruence and the moderation of the congruence–certainty relation were examined in a sample of 118 college students (study 1). Support was found for the superiority of the cosine fit definitions of consistency and differentiation over the traditional representations. The cosine fit indices were further examined in a second study on 167 adults examining interest stability over 15 years. The cosine fit indices of consistency and differentiation were related to both occupational stability over 15 years and career satisfaction. The results suggest that the concepts of differentiation and consistency may still have merit but only with more exact methods of specification.     

Role of identity integration on the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and psychological adjustment of multiracial people

This study examined relations between perceived racial discrimination, multiracial identity integration (i.e., racial distance and racial conflict), and psychological adjustment (i.e., distress symptoms, positive affect, and negative affect) of 263 multiracial adults, using an online cross-sectional survey design. As hypothesized, higher levels of perceived racial discrimination was related to lower levels of psychological adjustment (i.e., higher distress symptoms and negative affect). Also, higher levels of multiracial identity integration with low racial conflict was related to higher levels of psychological adjustment (i.e., lower distress symptoms and negative affect), whereas higher levels of multiracial identity integration with low racial distance was related to higher levels of psychological adjustment (i.e., lower negative affect). Finally, multiracial identity integration (i.e., lower racial conflict) moderated the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and psychological adjustment (i.e., negative affect) with results suggesting multiracial identity integration related to low racial conflict buffers the negative effects of perceived racial discrimination on psychological adjustment. Findings from this study are discussed in terms of future research on the psychological well-being of multiracial individuals and implications for clinical practice with multiracial adults.     

The relationship between psychological skills usage and competitive anxiety responses

Objectives. To investigate equivocal findings within the literature addressing the relationship between competitive anxiety responses and psychological skills. Intensity (i.e. level) and direction (i.e. interpretation of intensity as facilitative or debilitative) dimensions of competitive state anxiety and self-confidence were examined in performers with different levels of psychological skills usage.Design. Cross-sectional design assessing psychological constructs during competition. The independent variable was psychological skill usage (“high” and “low” groups) and dependent variables were competitive anxiety responses.Method. Non-elite competitive swimmers (N=114) completed a modified version of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) which examined both intensity and direction dimensions prior to racing. Following the event these participants completed the Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS) which measures psychological skills usage. Based on the TOPS scores the swimmers were dichotomised using post-hoc median-split into high and low usage groups for certain psychological skills.Results. MANOVAs revealed significant differences in the CSAI-2 scores between the high and low usage groups for the skills of relaxation, self-talk and imagery. ANOVAs indicated significant differences on all CSAI-2 subscales for relaxation groups, and differences on cognitive intensity, somatic direction and self-confidence for self-talk groups, and self-confidence for the imagery groups.Conclusions. Non-elite swimmers, in contrast with previous research examining elite swimmers (Hanton, S. & Jones, G. (1999a). The acquisition and development of cognitive skills and strategies: I. Making the butterflies fly in formation. The Sport Psychologist, 13, 1–21), primarily use relaxation strategies to reduce and interpret their anxiety intensity levels as facilitative, relying minimally on other psychological skills.     

The relationship between vocational interest differentiation and career undecidedness

Fifty-four female and thirty male students over 20 years old were administered the Career Decision Scale and the six occupational scales of the Vocational Preference Inventory in order to test the hypothesis that indecision is negatively related to occupational interest differentiation in an adult population. Interest differentiation did not appear to be a reliable indicator of vocational undecidedness.     

The relationships between objective and subjective ratings of disfigurement severity, and psychological adjustment

Although the role of the objectively and subjectively rated severity of appearance problems is often debated, the impact of severity upon psychological adjustment has yet to be explored fully. In this study, 400 patients with a range of physical differences in appearance were recruited through general plastic surgery outpatient clinics and waiting lists. Patients completed the Derriford Appearance Scale 24 (DAS24), a measure of psychological distress and behavioural dysfunction related to self-consciousness of appearance. Severity in the outpatient group was objectively rated by plastic surgeons, and severity amongst the waiting-list group was subjectively rated by the patients themselves. Multiple regression modelling demonstrated a linear relationship between subjective adjustment and severity, with greater perceived severity associated with poorer adjustment. Similar modelling demonstrated a weak but statistically significant quadratic relationship between objectively rated severity and adjustment for normally visible, but not for normally non-visible differences of appearance. Moderate, rather than mild or severe objective severity was most related to poor adjustment.     

The role of experiential avoidance in the relationship between faith maturity,religious coping,and psychological adjustment among Christian university students

In the current study, the authors investigated the relationship between faith maturity, religious coping, experiential avoidance (EA), and psychological maladjustment (depression, anxiety, and stress) among a sample of Christian college students (N?=?84). Findings revealed a strong positive correlation between faith maturity and positive religious coping, and weak negative correlations between faith maturity and negative religious coping and maladjustment. Moreover, a weak negative correlation emerged between positive religious coping and maladjustment, as well as a moderate positive correlation between negative religious coping and maladjustment. Finally, consistent with the proposed hypothesis, EA partially mediated the link between negative religious coping and psychological maladjustment, although EA played no mediating role with positive religious coping and maladjustment. Further studies are needed to replicate and generalise these preliminary findings.     

A clarification of Holland's construct of differentiation: The importance of score elevation

In J. L. Holland's (1985, Making Vocational Choices (2nd ed.), Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall) theory of vocational choice, the construct of differentiation refers to the degree to which an individual's interests are clearly defined and is operationalized in the present study as the numerical difference between an individual's highest and lowest scores on the General Occupational Theme scales (GOT) of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) (D. P. Campbell and J. C. Hansen, Manual for SVIB-SCII (3rd ed.), Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Univ. Press). Techniques for measuring differentiation do not account for the elevation of an interest profile; thus, subjects with strong interests (all high scores) are treated as equivalent to subjects with weak interests (all low scores). The present study examined the custom of treating all undifferentiated subjects as if they were equal, by dividing subjects into High-Score Undifferentiated (HSU) and Low-Score Undifferentiated (LSU) groups, based on the elevation of the highest GOT score. Compared to the LSU subjects, HSU subjects (a) were more likely to have SCII profiles which were internally consistent, (b) had a higher mean cumulative grade point average, (c) had a higher mean Academic Comfort score, and (d) were more likely to persist in college. These results suggest that accounting for score elevation does reveal differences between HSU and LSU subjects and that future studies should not treat undifferentiated subjects as a homogeneous group.     

Individual differences in core affect variability and their relationship to personality and psychological adjustment

How people's feelings change across time can be represented as trajectories in a core affect space defined by the dimensions of valence and activation. In this article, the authors analyzed individual differences in within-person affective variability defined as characteristics of core affect trajectories, introducing new ways to conceptualize affective variability. In 2 studies, participants provided multiple reports across time describing how they were feeling in terms of core affect. From these data, characteristics of participants' core affect trajectories were derived. Across both studies, core affect variability was negatively related to average valence, self-esteem, and agreeableness, and it was positively related to neuroticism and depression. Moreover, spin, a measure of how much people experienced qualitatively different feelings within the core affect space, was related more consistently to trait measures of adjustment and personality than other measures of within-person variability, including widely used measures of within-person single-dimension standard deviations.