Level of self-esteem and contingencies of self-worth: unique effects on academic, social, and financial problems in college students

The unique effects of level of self-esteem and contingencies of self-worth assessed prior to college on academic, social, and financial problems experienced during the freshman year were examined in a longitudinal study of 642 college students. Low self-esteem predicted social problems, even controlling for demographic and personality variables (neuroticism, agreeableness, and social desirability), but did not predict academic or financial problems with other variables controlled. Academic competence contingency predicted academic and financial problems and appearance contingency predicted financial problems, even after controlling for relevant personality variables. We conclude that contingencies of self-worth uniquely contribute to academic and financial difficulties experienced by college freshmen beyond level of self-esteem and other personality variables. Low self-esteem, on the other hand, appears to uniquely contribute to later social difficulties.     

大学生的职业自我概念清晰度与抑郁的关系:性别与性别平等观的调节作用

尽管抑郁的影响因素得到了比较多的探讨,但是鲜有研究探讨职业自我概念清晰度与抑郁的关系以及性别和性别平等观在其中的作用。根据生涯发展理论和自我差异理论,本研究探讨了大学生职业自我概念清晰度与大学生抑郁的关系,并考察了性别和性别平等观在二者关系之间的调节作用。通过对463份大学生的数据进行实证分析发现：（1）职业自我概念清晰度与大学生抑郁负相关;（2）职业自我概念清晰度与抑郁的关系存在显著的性别差异;（3）职业自我概念清晰度、性别和性别平等观对大学生抑郁存在三重交互作用。当个体持有高性别平等观时,男性和女性的职业自我概念清晰度都与抑郁负相关。当个体的性别平等观较低时,女性的职业自我概念清晰度与抑郁正相关。研究结果对于大学生的职业发展和心理健康教育具有重要实践意义。     

自我概念、自立人格与师范生教师职业成熟度的关系

采用师范生教师职业成熟度问卷、田纳西自我概念量表和青少年学生自立人格量表对986名师范生进行调查,考察自我概念、自立人格对师范生教师职业成熟度的影响。结果表明:(1)师范生的自我概念与其自立人格、教师职业成熟度及其职业态度和职业能力均存在显著的正相关;师范生的自立人格与其教师职业成熟度、职业态度和职业能力也存在显著正相关;(2)师范生的自我概念主要通过影响其自立人格间接地正向预测教师职业能力;自我概念不仅可以直接显著地正向预测教师职业成熟度和职业态度,还可以通过影响个体的自立人格进而间接地正向预测教师职业成熟度和教师职业态度。这一结果表明自立人格在自我概念影响教师职业能力的关系中起着完全中介作用,而在自我概念影响教师职业成熟度和教师职业态度的关系中起着部分中介作用。     

Loneliness within a nomological net: An evolutionary perspective

Loneliness is characterized by feelings of social pain and isolation and has both heritable and unshared environmental underpinnings. An evolutionary theory of loneliness is outlined, and four studies replicate and extend prior research on the characteristics of lonely individuals. Studies 1 and 2 indicate that loneliness and depressed affect are related but separable constructs. Study 3 confirms that lonely, relative to nonlonely, young adults are higher in anxiety, anger, negative mood, and fear of negative evaluation, and lower in optimism, social skills, social support, positive mood, surgency, emotional stability, conscientiousness, agreeableness, shyness, and sociability. The set of six personality factors associated with loneliness (surgency, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, shyness, and sociability) do not explain the associations between loneliness and negative mood, anxiety, anger, optimism (pessimism), self-esteem, and social support, as each association remained statistically significant even after statistically controlling for these personality factors. Study 4 used hypnosis to experimentally manipulate loneliness to determine whether there were associated changes in the participants’ personality and socioemotional characteristics. Results confirmed that loneliness can influence the participants’ personality ratings and socioemotional states.     

Double dissociation between implicit and explicit personality self-concept: the case of shy behavior

Using the trait of shyness as an example, the authors showed that (a) it is possible to reliably assess individual differences in the implicitly measured self-concept of personality that (b) are not accessible through traditional explicit self-ratings and (c) increase significantly the prediction of spontaneous behavior in realistic social situations. A total of 139 participants were observed in a shyness-inducing laboratory situation, and they completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) and explicit self-ratings of shyness. The IAT correlated moderately with the explicit self-ratings and uniquely predicted spontaneous (but not controlled) shy behavior, whereas the explicit ratings uniquely predicted controlled (but not spontaneous) shy behavior (double dissociation). The distinction between spontaneous and controlled behavior was validated in a 2nd study.     

Collective self-esteem: role of social context among Asian-American college students

The present study explored several layers of individual and contextual variables as related to collective self-esteem among 304 Asian-American college students. The findings suggested that variables, such as immigration generation status and cultural identification, were significantly associated with Private collective self-esteem (personal evaluation of one's ethnic group), while contextual variables, including number of same-ethnicity peers and community ethnic composition, were associated with Public collective self-esteem (judgment of how other people evaluate one's ethnic group). In addition to these variables, age and fluency of heritage language were positively related to Membership esteem (how worthy one feels as a member of one's ethnic group). For the Importance of identity (the importance of ethnic group membership to one's self-concept), cultural identification, number of same-ethnicity peers, and perceived campus climate were statistically significant. The implication of the present findings for future research is discussed.     

Shyness and Relationship Satisfaction: Evaluating the Associations Between Shyness,Self-Esteem,and Relationship Satisfaction in Couples

In the present study we explored the relationship between personality characteristics and relationship satisfaction in couples. Using a sample of 14,807 couples from the RELATE dataset, a model was tested examining the direct and indirect (via self-esteem) associations between personality traits (i.e., shyness) and relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, the model assessed shyness, self-esteem, and relationship satisfaction for both partners in the relationship. The results indicated that higher levels of shyness were associated with lower self-esteem in individuals, as well as lower relationship satisfaction. Implications of results and the use of partner ratings of personality indicators are discussed.     

Sex-role self-concept and attitudes related to occupational daydreams and future fantasies of college women

This study explored the relationship of sex-role self-concept and general attitudes toward women's roles to patterns of career preferences and to career salience among 50 undergraduate women. Sex-role self-concept was measured by the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, and attitudes by the Attitudes Toward Women Scale. Patterns in career preferences were determined by studying the degree of gender dominance in past occupational daydreams as well as in present college major and intended future occupation. Career salience was measured using a content analysis of written future fantasies. Sex-role self-concept was related to past occupational preferences, with masculine-typed women showing a pattern of nontraditional daydreams compared to those of feminine-typed women. Attitude variables were related to present career choices, with liberal women in more male-dominant fields than conservative women. Both self-concept and attitude variables were related to career salience, measured by the proportion of fantasies about the future devoted to work themes. Masculine women showed evidence of more career salience than androgynous or undifferentiated women, and liberal women more than conservative women.     

Mentoring others: A dispositional and motivational approach

Dispositional and motivational variables related to the propensity to mentor others and to the provision of career and psychosocial mentoring were examined. Results indicated that prosocial personality variables (other-oriented empathy, helpfulness) related to willingness to mentor others and also accounted for unique variance beyond variables associated with life and career stages. Other-oriented empathy related to actual experience as a mentor. Results also indicated that motives for mentoring others differentially related to psychosocial and career mentoring.     

Development and initial validation of an implicit measure of humility relative to arrogance

Data from two studies describe the development of an implicit measure of humility and support the idea that dispositional humility is a positive quality with possible benefits. In Study 1, 135 college students completed Humility and Self-Esteem Implicit Association Tests (IATs) and several self-report measures of personality self-concept. Fifty-four participants also completed the Humility IAT again approximately 2 weeks later and their humility was rated by close acquaintances. The Humility IAT was found to be internally and temporally consistent. Implicit humility correlated with self-reported humility relative to arrogance, implicit self-esteem, and narcissism (inversely). Humility was not associated with self-reported low self-esteem, pessimism, or depression. In fact, self-reported humility relative to arrogance correlated positively with self-reported self-esteem, gratitude, forgiveness, spirituality, and general health. In addition, self-reported humility and acquaintance-rated humility correlated positively; however, implicit humility and acquaintance-rated humility were not strongly associated. In Study 2, to examine the idea that humility might be associated with increased academic performance, we examined actual course grades of 55 college students who completed Humility and Self-Esteem IATs. Implicit humility correlated positively with higher actual course grades when narcissism, conscientiousness, and implicit self-esteem were simultaneously controlled. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

The relationship between self-concept and selected academic and personal factors

One-hundred sixty-five high school students were the subjects in a study to determine if selected personal and academic variables were predictive of self-concept scores. The full model was moderately predictive of self-esteem, accounting for approximately 46% of the variance of the criterion variable. Also, it was found that, as a subset of variables, both academic and personal variables made a significant, unique contribution to the prediction of self-concept scores. Of the eleven independent variables used in this study, it was noted that grade point average, extracurricular activities, health, and home life individually made a unique contribution to the prediction of self-concept scores. These four variables also were found to be significantly correlated with self-concept. Other independent variables found to be significantly correlated with self-concept were: parents married and parents divorced. However, these variables were not considered as making a unique contribution to the prediction of self-concept.     

Creativity in Middle Childhood: Influence of Perceived Maternal Sensitivity,Self-esteem,and Shyness

This study aimed to examine the relationship between maternal sensitivity and affect, as perceived by the child, and childhood creativity. Self-esteem and shyness were considered mediating factors. A total of 151 elementary school pupils were tested on verbal and pictorial creativity, self-esteem, and perceived maternal affect and sensitivity. Their teachers assessed each child’s shyness in their relations at school. A Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model of the causal relationships among the study’s variables was tested. Results supported this theoretical model of causality. Maternal sensitivity had a significant, direct, positive effect on self-esteem, and a direct negative effect on shyness. In addition, self-esteem had a direct positive effect on verbal creativity and shyness had a negative direct effect on verbal and pictorial creativity. The indirect effect of maternal sensitivity on verbal creativity was significant via both self-esteem and shyness. The findings were discussed in terms of their implications for child development.     

Personality, career decision self-efficacy and commitment to the career choices process among Chinese graduate students

This study examined the mediating effect of career decision self-efficacy on the relationship between the Five-Factor Model of personality and the career commitment process (i.e., vocational commitment and the tendency to foreclose) in a sample of 785 Chinese graduate students. The multiple regression analyses showed that neuroticism and conscientiousness related significantly to progress in vocational commitment both directly and indirectly through career decision self-efficacy. High agreeableness related to less premature foreclosure. In addition, career decision self-efficacy associated with greater progress in vocational commitment but also a strong tendency to foreclose. The implications for career development theory and practice are discussed.     

Relationships of career adaptabilities with explicit and implicit self-concepts

Career adaptability is a psychosocial construct that incorporates a set of essential resources to one's career development. The adaptability resources' relevance is even higher when it comes to former communist countries, such as Romania, where job security and stability were seen as central benefits for workers. The aim of this study was to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the stable underpinnings of career adaptabilities by exploring their relationships with aspects of the self that are driven by automatic processes and that are less affected by self-presentation biases. A sample of 359 participants completed the Career Adapt Abilities Scale (CAAS)-Romanian form, out of which a subsample of 212 participants also completed a set of scales comprising explicit and implicit measures of conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and self-esteem. Results revealed nonsignificant additive contributions of the implicit self-concept measures over what was already explained by the explicit self-concepts. The most noticeable effect resides in the significant interaction between explicit and implicit self-esteem in relation to control, confidence, and overall adaptability. These results reveal that individuals with high explicit and low implicit self-esteem perceive themselves as being the most adaptable. Notably, these results were obtained using a Romanian version of CAAS that possesses very good psychometric properties (i.e., excellent internal consistencies, the same four-factor multidimensional solution, replicated patterns of associations between CAAS and explicit self-concepts of personality).     

The contribution of self-efficacy beliefs to dispositional shyness: on social-cognitive systems and the development of personality dispositions

This longitudinal research explored the impact of self-efficacy beliefs on self-reported tendencies to experience shyness in interpersonal encounters among a population of adolescents studied over a two-year period. Self-efficacy measures, taken at the initial measurement period, included indices of perceived self-efficacy for forming and maintaining social relationships, dealing effectively with parents, managing negative emotions, and expressing positive emotions towards others. Levels of self-reported shyness as well as emotional stability were assessed also at time 1, with shyness measured again at the follow-up assessment two years later. Structural equation modeling indicated that two of the four self-efficacy measures uniquely contributed to levels of shyness reported at time 1, and that perceptions of social self-efficacy uniquely contributed to shyness at time 2 even when considering the effects of time 1 shyness levels. Emotional stability did not uniquely contributed to time 2 shyness after considering the relation between shyness at the first and second measurement points. The broad implications of social-cognitive analyses for the study of personality development are discussed.     

Correlates of minimal dating

Researchers have associated minimal dating with numerous factors. The present author tested shyness, introversion, physical attractiveness, performance evaluation, anxiety, social skill, social self-esteem, and loneliness to determine the nature of their relationships with 2 measures of self-reported minimal dating in a sample of 175 college students. For women, shyness, introversion, physical attractiveness, self-rated anxiety, social self-esteem, and loneliness correlated with 1 or both measures of minimal dating. For men, physical attractiveness, observer-rated social skill, social self-esteem, and loneliness correlated with 1 or both measures of minimal dating. The patterns of relationships were not identical for the 2 indicators of minimal dating, indicating the possibility that minimal dating is not a single construct as researchers previously believed. The present author discussed implications and suggestions for future researchers.     

Assessment of the efficacy of a peer mentoring program in a university setting

In the present study, the efficacy of a formal mentoring program applied to fourth and fifth year students of the Psychology Faculty of the Complutense University is assessed. In this program, fifth-year students took on the role of mentors and fourth-year students, the role of mentees. To assess the efficacy, the group of mentors was compared with a group of non-mentors and the group of mentees with a group of non-mentees, before and after the program, taking into account the variables related to career development function (knowledge acquired of the academic setting and satisfaction with the career of Psychology) and the psychosocial function (self-concept, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and involvement). The results show a statistically significant increase in the knowledge acquired about the academic setting as a consequence of the program, both in the group of mentors and in the group of mentees. Moreover, the mentors achieved a better average grade in the subjects of the specialty of Work Psychology. There were no statistically significant differences between the experimental group and the control group in satisfaction with the career of Psychology, or in self-concept, self-esteem, or self-efficacy.     

Relationship of age,sex, and educational groups to career decisiveness

Five educational groups, composed of a total of 369 students, ranging from high school freshmen to college juniors, were administered the Career Decision Questionnaire, a scale designed to measure antecedents of educational-vocational indecision. It was determined that age was an extremely important factor in career decidedness, sex was not an important variable in determining decidedness, and certain educational groups stood out as significant factors associated with level of career decisiveness. Students enrolled in career orientation classes were clearly more undecided than students enrolled in 12th-grade vocational classes, college preprofessional classes, and more general groups of high school students. Interaction among variables and the measurement of career decidedness are discussed, with applications for counseling considered.