Dispositional optimism,self‐framing and medical decision‐making

Self‐framing is an important but underinvestigated area in risk communication and behavioural decision‐making, especially in medical settings. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship among dispositional optimism, self‐frame and decision‐making. Participants (N = 500) responded to the Life Orientation Test‐Revised and self‐framing test of medical decision‐making problem. The participants whose scores were higher than the middle value were regarded as highly optimistic individuals. The rest were regarded as low optimistic individuals. The results showed that compared to the high dispositional optimism group, participants from the low dispositional optimism group showed a greater tendency to use negative vocabulary to construct their self‐frame, and tended to choose the radiation therapy with high treatment survival rate, but low 5‐year survival rate. Based on the current findings, it can be concluded that self‐framing effect still exists in medical situation and individual differences in dispositional optimism can influence the processing of information in a framed decision task, as well as risky decision‐making.     

Transracial adoptees bridging heritage and national cultures: Parental socialisation,ethnic identity and self‐esteem

Transracial adoptees represent a specific group of immigrants who experience unique immigration processes that bring them face‐to‐face with two cultural backgrounds: that of their heritage culture on one hand and that of their national culture on the other hand. However, there is a scarcity of studies focused on the way these processes unfold within adoptive families. This study was aimed at exploring how transracial adoptees cope with the construction of their ethnic identity. Administering a self‐report questionnaire to 127 transracial adoptees and their mothers, for a total of 254 participants, we first investigated the association between mothers' cultural socialisation (enculturation and preparation for bias strategies) and adoptees' ethnic identity (i.e. ethnic identity exploration and ethnic identity affirmation dimensions). We then investigated whether ethnic identity affects self‐esteem by testing the hypothesis that national identity moderates the relationship between ethnic identity and self‐esteem. Results revealed that mothers' enculturation (but not their preparation for bias) supported adoptees' ethnic identity exploration, which in turn was positively associated with ethnic identity affirmation. Moreover, we confirmed the moderation effect: ethnic identity affirmation enhanced the level of self‐esteem, but only for those adoptees who perceived a higher degree of national identity affirmation.     

Self‐enhancement,crash‐risk optimism and the impact of safety advertisements on young drivers

In Study 1, young drivers (aged between 16 and 29 years, N=314) rated their driving attributes relative to their peers. They also rated their likelihood of being involved in a crash relative to their peers (crash‐risk optimism), their crash history, stereotype of the young driver, and concern over another health issue. A self‐enhancement bias was found for all items in which self/other comparisons were made. These items formed two major factors, perceived relative driving ability and perceived relative driving caution. These factors and perceived luck relative to peers in avoiding crashes significantly predicted crash‐risk optimism. In Study 2, an experimental group of young drivers (N=173) watched safety advertisements that showed drinking and dangerous driving resulting in a crash, and a control group (N=193) watched advertisements showing people choosing not to drive after drinking. Each group then completed the self/other comparisons used in Study 1. The same factors were found, but only driving caution significantly predicted crash‐risk optimism. The experimental group showed more self‐enhancement on driving ability than the control group. In both studies, men showed substantially more self‐enhancement than women about their driving ability. Implications for safety interventions are discussed.     

The Relevance of Self‐Evaluations for Students' Career Optimism

This study investigated how people's beliefs regarding their vocational abilities (i.e., career decision self‐efficacy) are associated with their perceived academic control, self‐liking, and self‐competence. It also assessed the relevance of these 4 types of self‐beliefs for personal job optimism among 268 Croatian college students. Results indicated that participants' career decision self‐efficacy and perceptions of their chances of finding jobs nationwide were significant predictors of personal job optimism. Furthermore, the influences of self‐competence and perceived academic control on personal job optimism were mediated by career decision self‐efficacy. These results extend previous research and may be informative for vocational guidance interventions.     

Influence of Self‐Affirmation on Responses to Gain‐ Versus Loss‐Framed Antismoking Messages

Self‐affirmation has been shown to reduce biased processing of threatening health messages. In this study, the impact of self‐affirmation on college smokers' reactions to gain‐ versus loss‐framed antismoking public service announcements (PSAs) was examined. A consistent pattern of interaction was observed wherein self‐affirmation produced more favorable responses to loss‐framed PSAs and more unfavorable responses to gain‐framed PSAs. Self‐affirmation also reduced smoking intention in the loss frame condition and increased antismoking self‐efficacy across framing conditions. These findings are discussed in light of previous research linking self‐affirmation to increased message scrutiny.     

Risk perception and behavior: Pessimism,realism, and optimism about aids-related health behavior

Abstract

This study investigates the perceived risk of becoming infected with HIV for heterosexuals with multiple sexual partners, examines cognitive and motivational antecedents of biases in risk perception, and relates these biases to behavior. We obtained a moderate degree of optimism in a longitudinal study based on a sample of 535 visitors of a STD clinic. Further analyses—after classifying subjects as “pessimists”, “realists”, or “optimists”—revealed that pessimists were extremely pessimistic and optimists remarkably optimistic. Optimism increased with perceived control and decreased with prior experience, supporting a cognitive explanation of optimism. The data also provided some support for a motivational explanation: optimists who scored higher on a defensive coping style were more optimistic about their risks. Contrary to other findings, we found a positive relation between optimism and intentions to reduce risks. Furthermore, results revealed that optimists showed lower levels of subsequent behavioral risk. It was concluded that optimists were not unrealistically optimistic about their personal vulnerability. but rather that pessimists were unrealistically pessimistic. Previous behavior was found to be the best predictor of subsequent behavior. Although measures of perceived risk were also related to subsequent behavior, their predictive power was rather modest.     

Perceived emotion suppression and culture: Effects on psychological well‐being

Whether the negative effects of emotion suppression on psychological well‐being are applicable cross‐culturally is a long‐debated topic. The present study attempted to shed light on this debate, focusing on the effects of perceived emotion suppression and examining the psychological processes leading from perceived emotion suppression to lower psychological well‐being. We used a scale manipulation to lead 196 American and 213 Chinese participants to perceive themselves as having suppressed their emotions to a greater or lesser extent and then measured their life satisfaction. As expected, both the American and Chinese participants reported lower life satisfaction in the high‐suppression condition than in the low‐suppression condition; this negative effect was mediated by positive affect and moderated by self‐esteem. Specifically, perceived high emotion suppression decreased positive affect, which in turn led to lower well‐being. This effect was observed only for those with low self‐esteem, but the patterns and mechanisms were consistent cross‐culturally.     

Risk factors for nonsuicidal self‐injury in Japanese college students: The moderating role of mood regulation expectancies

Self‐injurious behavior is increasing among college students, and is common in both psychiatric and nonclinical populations. People's engaging in self‐injury is associated with childhood maltreatment, poor negative mood regulation expectancies, and depression. During times of distress, maltreated children without healthy coping strategies tend to have impairment in mood regulation, which contributes to engaging in self‐injury. This study investigated differences between nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) and non‐self‐injury groups in history of childhood maltreatment, negative mood regulation expectancies, and depression in a sample of Japanese college students. We also assessed risk factors for self‐injurious behavior, including mood regulation expectancies as a moderator of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and NSSI. Participants were 313 undergraduate students, who completed anonymous self‐report questionnaires—Deliberate Self‐Harm Inventory, Child Abuse and Trauma Scale, Negative Mood Regulation Scale, and short version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression Scale. Ten percent (n = 31) of all participants had injured themselves. Consistent with past literature, participants with self‐injury history reported more severe childhood maltreatment, poorer mood regulation expectancies, and more depression, compared to non‐self‐injurers. Frequency of NSSI positively correlated with childhood maltreatment and depression, and negatively correlated with negative mood regulation expectancies. Regression analysis revealed that stronger expectancies for negative mood regulation interacted with maltreatment to predict self‐injury: More maltreatment was associated with more self‐injury, particularly among those with weaker expectancies. Results suggested childhood maltreatment, low expectancies for negative mood regulation, and depression predicted self‐injury. Consistent with our moderation hypothesis, strong expectancies for negative mood regulation buffered the effects of childhood maltreatment, reducing the risk for self‐injury.     

Behavioral Self‐Regulation,Early Academic Achievement,and the Effectiveness of Urban Schools for Low‐Income Ethnic Minority Children

The independent and joint associations between child behavioral self‐regulation ability and school effectiveness in relation to academic achievement were examined in a sample of low‐income African American (n = 132) and Latino (n = 198) children attending kindergarten and first grade across a large metropolitan area. Child behavioral self‐regulation and school effectiveness were positively associated with both reading and mathematics performance. School effectiveness moderated the effect of behavioral self‐regulation on reading but not math achievement. Lower child behavioral self‐regulation during early elementary school was associated with lower reading achievement the following year but only among children attending less effective schools. Behavioral self‐regulation was not related to reading achievement among children attending more effective schools. Implications of these findings for policies addressing disparities in early academic achievement are discussed.     

Anxiety disorders in 8–11‐year‐old children: Motor skill performance and self‐perception of competence

Ekornås, B., Lundervold, A. J., Tjus, T. & Heimann, M. (2010). Anxiety disorders in 8–11‐year‐old children: Motor skill performance and self‐perception of competence. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 271–277. This study investigates motor skill performance and self‐perceived competence in children with anxiety disorders compared with children without psychiatric disorders. Motor skills and self‐perception were assessed in 329 children aged 8 to 11 years, from the Bergen Child Study. The Kiddie‐SADS PL diagnostic interview was employed to define a group of children with an anxiety disorder without comorbid diagnosis, and a control group (no diagnosis) matched according to gender, age, and full‐scale IQ. Children in the anxiety disorder group displayed impaired motor skills and poor self‐perceived peer acceptance and physical competence compared with the control group. Two‐thirds of the anxious boys scored on the Motor Assessment Battery for Children (MABC) as having motor problems. The present study demonstrated impaired motor skills in boys with “pure” anxiety disorders. Anxious children also perceived themselves as being less accepted by peers and less competent in physical activities compared with children in the control group.     

Dynamic self‐representation of interdependent Chinese: The effect of bicultural experience

The process of globalisation has increased the opportunity for Chinese individuals to utilise influences from other cultures that differ from their own collectivistic culture. The explorations of the impact of acculturation on Chinese individuals' self‐construals have become intriguing. Thus, we recruited German‐Chinese (N = 192) people who live in Germany and had direct bicultural experiences, as well as Mainland‐Chinese (N = 192) people who live in Mainland China and had internalised a second culture through more indirect means of exposure. We investigated their accessibility to both interdependent and independent cultural frameworks using temporal self‐construal priming. The results showed that priming effects were observed in both cultural groups. However, the self‐construals of the German‐Chinese participants were more flexible than those of Mainland‐Chinese under self‐construal priming. Also, the results suggested that women were easier to be influenced by direct bicultural experiences, due to their private and collective self were different between the two cultures. These findings provide evidence regarding the opinion that individuals could use influences from more than one culture. More importantly, these results suggest that the acculturation induced by direct bicultural experiences facilitates cultural frame switching.     

The Impact of Self‐Affirmation on Health Cognition,Health Behaviour and Other Health‐Related Responses: A Narrative Review

There is growing evidence that self‐affirmation – the process of reflecting upon cherished values or attributes – may have implications for health. Postulated effects range from reducing the defensive resistance to unwelcome health‐risk information to ameliorating the physiological response to stress. In this, the first detailed review of the literature on self‐affirmation and health, we summarise what is known. Self‐affirming can increase acceptance of unwelcome health‐risk information, especially among those at greatest risk. Self‐affirmed participants typically also report more intention to change behaviour postmessage. There is evidence that certain effects of self‐affirming may endure. Self‐affirmation has also been shown to have beneficial effects on the response to stress. There is, however, currently only limited evidence of actual health‐behaviour change following self‐affirmation. We discuss reasons for this and consider key research questions for the next phase of research.     

Self‐Report and Psychophysiological Responses to Fear Appeals

This study was designed to assess the relationship between self‐report and psychophysiological responses to fear appeals and behavioral changes elicited by these. Ninety‐two subjects watched one of four messages that varied in level of threat (high vs. low) and efficacy (high vs. low). Concomitantly, psychophysiological measures (heart rate and skin conductance) were registered. Perceived threat and efficacy varied according to the characteristics of the message. High‐threat messages elicited significantly different levels of autonomic arousal than low‐threat messages. Following of behavioral recommendation was higher among subjects who were exposed to the high threat / high efficacy stimulus, those who reported high perceived threat, and for those who showed an autonomic response pattern related to the facilitation of attentional processes.     

Parental involvement,adolescents' self‐determined learning and academic achievement in Urban China

Self‐determined learning is essential to academic success. The motivational resources development model argues that parents promote academic success in their children indirectly by nurturing self‐determined learner. In this study, applying a structural equation modelling and using data collected from 8th graders in Zhuhai, China (n = 1009) in 2012, we aim to answer 2 research questions: (a) What forms of parental involvement are highly correlated with self‐determined learning and (b) Can self‐determined learning fully mediate the relationship between parental involvement and students' academic performance? We find that parental leisure involvement is positively and significantly associated with the development of self‐determined learning, which in turn is significantly and positively correlated with academic achievement. Parental provision of structure or parental academic assistance is not significantly associated with students' self‐regulation and students' academic achievement.     

Concurrently examining unrealistic absolute and comparative optimism: Temporal shifts,individual‐difference and event‐specific correlates,and behavioural outcomes

Researchers have spent considerable effort examining unrealistic absolute optimism and unrealistic comparative optimism, yet there is a lack of research exploring them concurrently. This longitudinal study repeatedly assessed unrealistic absolute and comparative optimism within a performance context over several months to identify the degree to which they shift as a function of proximity to performance and performance feedback, their associations with global individual difference and event‐specific factors, and their link to subsequent behavioural outcomes. Results showed similar shifts in unrealistic absolute and comparative optimism based on proximity to performance and performance feedback. Moreover, increases in both types of unrealistic optimism were associated with better subsequent performance beyond the effect of prior performance. However, several differences were found between the two forms of unrealistic optimism in their associations with global individual difference factors and event‐specific factors, highlighting the distinctiveness of the two constructs.     

Does Unrealistic Optimism Change Following a Negative Experience?1

One important counteracting force that may decrease the effects of unrealistic optimism is personal experience with threat. To examine this hypothesis, several groups were examined who had been exposed to varying degrees of threat. It was found that only those who had been exposed to the most severe threat (being hospitalized after a road accident) showed differential comparative risk estimates from those who had experienced no threat. Differences between these two groups were also found for their self‐reported risk behavior. The generality of the debiasing effect was assessed by examining risk perceptions in other domains. It was found that the effect was domain specific.     

Job insecurity and creativity: The buffering effect of self‐affirmation and work‐affirmation

It is well documented that job insecurity is a detrimental work stressor. The literature aimed at counteracting the adverse outcomes of job insecurity has focused on either individual differences, which are less amenable to modification, or organizational‐level interventions, which largely depend on organizational initiatives. This study introduced a self‐affirmation intervention to working adults and examined whether self‐affirmation could weaken the negative association between job insecurity and creativity. In order to enrich self‐affirmation theory and increase the applicability of the intervention to the workplace, this study also investigated whether work‐affirmation could attenuate the negative relationship between job insecurity and creativity. In a quasi‐experiment with employees recruited from Mturk, I found that a negative link between job insecurity and creativity, but not among those who were given an opportunity to affirm one's value (i.e., self‐affirmation) or one's work (i.e., work‐affirmation).     

Investigating the relationship between past contraceptive behaviour,self‐efficacy,and anticipated shame and guilt in sexual contexts among Norwegian adolescents

What are the relationships between self‐efficacy when communicating to the partner about use of contraception, stopping undesired intercourse, and perceived self‐conscious emotions in sexual contexts? How does past contraceptive behaviour influence perceived self‐efficacy? These research questions were studied among 399 10th grade students with coital experience in the county Nordland in Norway. Two dimensions of perceived emotional responses were identified in a hypothetical situation related to communicating to the partner about use of contraception, namely Shame and Emotional intimacy. Two dimensions were also identified with regard to anticipated emotional responses in a hypothetical situation related to stopping undesired intercourse: Guilt and responsibility and Emotional intimacy. Most of the boys and girls reported that they would react with positive emotions in both hypothetical situations. Path models were constructed with the affective dimensions and self‐esteem as mediating variables between past contraceptive behaviour and contextual self‐efficacy. Past behaviour influenced communication self‐efficacy indirectly via Shame, and Shame had a direct effect upon self‐efficacy. Guilt and responsibility had a direct effect upon stop‐self‐efficacy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Empathy,culture and self‐humanising: Empathising reduces the attribution of greater humanness to the self more in Japan than Australia

People tend to ascribe greater humanness to themselves than to others. Previous research has indicated that this “self‐humanising” bias is independent of self‐enhancement and robust across cultures. The present study examined the possible role of empathy in reducing this bias in Japan (N = 80) and Australia (N = 80). Results showed that unlike Australians, Japanese participants who recalled personal experiences of empathising with others were less likely to self‐humanise than those in a neutral condition. The effect of the empathy manipulation was not observed in Australia. The findings suggest that empathy may reduce self‐focus and enable perceivers to appreciate the full humanness of others, but this effect may be culturally contingent.     

Subjective Social Standing and Conflict Tactics Among Young Kenyan Men

Efforts to reduce intimate partner violence in sub‐Saharan Africa generally approach the issue through the lens of women's empowerment. These efforts include foci on women's relative power in the relationship, educational background, and earning potential. The social status of men has largely been ignored, reducing the potential to involve them in efforts to demote intimate partner violence. In this study we consider whether a man's perceived social status predicts conflict tactics, and whether these tactics are mediated by loneliness and collective self‐esteem from a community‐based sample in semi‐rural Kenya (n = 263). We find that men who reported lower perceived social status also reported significantly more frequent violent conflicts with their intimate partners. This association was significantly, and completely, mediated by lower collective self‐esteem and higher loneliness. There was no direct association between subjective social status and negotiation‐based conflict tactics, although there was an indirect association. Men with higher perceived social status reported higher collective self‐esteem, and men with higher collective self‐esteem reported more negotiation‐based conflict tactics. These findings inform efforts to reduce intimate partner violence by involving men, showing potential to reduce violence by building self‐esteem among men—particularly those with lower perceived social status.