An investigation of self-ambivalence in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Individuals vulnerable to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are hypothesized to have ambivalence about their self-worth, morality and lovability [Guidano, V., & Liotti, G. (1983). Cognitive processes and emotional disorders. New York: Guildford Press]. The purpose of this study was to examine whether self-ambivalence was associated with OCD phenomena and beliefs relevant to OCD. It also examined whether patients with OCD had higher levels of self-ambivalence compared to non-clinical controls and patients with other anxiety disorders. Participants were 73 OCD patients, 50 patients with another anxiety disorder, 225 non-clinical undergraduate students and 43 non-clinical community controls. They completed measures of self-ambivalence, OCD phenomena, OCD-relevant beliefs, depression, anxiety and self-esteem. Self-ambivalence was significantly associated with OCD phenomena and OCD-relevant beliefs, after controlling for self-esteem, depression and anxiety. Further, OCD participants were significantly more ambivalent than the non-clinical groups, but did not differ from anxious controls. It was argued that these results provide a basis for extending the cognitive-behavioural model of OCD to include ambivalent self-perceptions as a component of the cognitive mechanisms relevant to the disorder.     

“Me”, “We”, and Materialism: Associations between Contingent Self-Worth and Materialistic Values across Cultures

Abstract

Individuals with high levels of externally contingent self-worth tend to base their self-esteem on factors such as appearance, competitive success, and others’ approval. Such tendencies might also elevate people’s focus on material possessions. However, cultural moderation of these associations has yet to be explored. A cross-cultural survey among Chinese and Dutch college students examined the link between externally-based contingent self-worth and materialistic values, as well as the mediating roles of need to belong and need for self-enhancement. An initial multi-group path analysis indicated a stronger link between externally contingent self-worth and materialism for Chinese students than for Dutch students. For both Chinese and Dutch students, externally contingent self-worth was positively related to materialistic values, need to belong, and need for self-enhancement. Need to belong and need for self-enhancement were positively linked with materialism, and need to belong and need for self-enhancement mediated the link between externally contingent self-worth and materialism. Though the indirect effect via self-enhancement was somewhat stronger among Chinese participants, this research demonstrates that people’s externally contingent self-worth might be a factor predicting materialism across cultures, with need to belong and need for self-enhancement playing similar roles as underlying processes in different societies.     

Self-esteem maintenance processes: why low self-esteem may be resistant to change

If most people desire to maximize feelings of self-worth, how do we explain the persistence of low self-esteem? Results from four studies suggest that people with low self-esteem may be less likely to accept positive feedback from themselves than from an outside source but equally likely to accept negative feedback from the self and an outsider. When the self was the source of positive feedback, people high, but not low, in self-esteem incorporated the feedback into their self-views; in contrast, when positive feedback came from a knowledgeable external source, both high and low self-esteem people accepted it. Finally, when self-generated feedback was negative, participants low in self-esteem accepted it. The authors discuss how these findings shed light on the maintenance of low self-esteem.     

Reducing contingent self-worth: A defensive response to self-threats

Previous research shows that people with high self-esteem cope with threats to the self by reducing the extent to which their self-worth is contingent on the threatened domain (Buckingham, Weber, & Sypher, 2012). The present studies tested the hypothesis that this is a defensive process. In support of this hypothesis, Study 1 (N = 160), showed that self-affirmation attenuates the tendency for people with high self-esteem to reduce their contingencies of self-worth following self-threat. Furthermore, Study 2 (N = 286), showed that this tendency was more prevalent among people with defensive self-esteem than among those with secure self-esteem. The present studies imply that reducing contingent self-worth after self-threat is a defensive process. We discuss implications for theories of contingent self-worth.     

青少年自我价值感量表研究结果的元分析

采用元分析法对1998年到2011年间使用青少年自我价值感量表为工具的研究结果进行整合分析。结果发现,近十年来青少年自我价值感水平在各维度或层次上高于全国常模,且没有显著的性别差异;与年级常模相比,多数因子高于常模,中学生部分特殊自我价值感因子与常模差异不显著;青少年自我价值感的年代效应显著;研究目的、报告质量、地区、出版年代等因素仅对某些特殊自我价值感有影响,而对总体自我价值感没有系统的影响。     

Mood, personality disorder symptoms and disability in obsessive compulsive hoarders: a comparison with clinical and nonclinical controls

Hoarding is a symptom of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), as well as a diagnostic criterion for obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD). One recent study suggests that people who suffer from compulsive hoarding report more general psychopathology than people who do not [Frost, R.O., Krause, M.S., & Steketee, G. (1996). Hoarding and obsessive compulsive symptoms. Behavior Modification, 20, 116-132]. The present study addressed whether persons with OCD hoarding exhibit more depression, anxiety, OCD and personality disorders symptoms than community controls, OCD nonhoarders, or other anxiety disorder patients. Disability was also examined. Hoarding subjects were older than the other three groups, but age did not account for any of the differences observed among the groups. Compared to controls, OCD hoarding, nonhoarding OCD and anxiety disorder patients showed elevated YBOCS scores, as well as higher scores on depression, anxiety, family and social disability. Compared to nonhoarding OCD and anxiety disorder patients, OCD hoarding patients scored higher on anxiety, depression, family and social disability. Hoarding subjects had greater personality disorder symptoms than controls. However, OCD hoarding subjects differed from OCD nonhoarding and anxiety disorder subjects only on dependent and schizotypal personality disorder symptoms. The findings suggest that hoarding is associated with significant comorbidity and impairment compared to nonhoarding OCD and other anxiety disorders.     

The costly pursuit of self-esteem

Researchers have recently questioned the benefits associated with having high self-esteem. The authors propose that the importance of self-esteem lies more in how people strive for it rather than whether it is high or low. They argue that in domains in which their self-worth is invested, people adopt the goal to validate their abilities and qualities, and hence their self-worth. When people have self-validation goals, they react to threats in these domains in ways that undermine learning; relatedness; autonomy and self-regulation; and over time, mental and physical health. The short-term emotional benefits of pursuing self-esteem are often outweighed by long-term costs. Previous research on self-esteem is reinterpreted in terms of self-esteem striving. Cultural roots of the pursuit of self-esteem are considered. Finally, the alternatives to pursuing self-esteem, and ways of avoiding its costs, are discussed.     

Feared identity and obsessive-compulsive disorder

We tested predictions from cognitive-behavioural theory that people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) regard their intrusions as revealing unacceptable aspects of their character. We compared an OCD sample with anxious controls (AC) and non-anxious controls (NAC) on a measure of the extent to which intrusions led to negative inferences about the self, assessed the discrepancy between their actual and feared self, and recorded the traits making up the feared self. The OCD sample did not differ from AC on self-discrepancies, but did differ from both control groups on the measure of negative inferences about the self. In addition, the feared self of the OCD sample was significantly more likely to consist of bad and immoral traits.     

Contingencies of self-worth

Research on self-esteem has focused almost exclusively on level of trait self-esteem to the neglect of other potentially more important aspects such as the contingencies on which self-esteem is based. Over a century ago, W. James (1890) argued that self-esteem rises and falls around its typical level in response to successes and failures in domains on which one has staked self-worth. We present a model of global self-esteem that builds on James' insights and emphasizes contingencies of self-worth. This model can help to (a) point the way to understanding how self-esteem is implicated in affect, cognition, and self-regulation of behavior; (b) suggest how and when self-esteem is implicated in social problems; (c) resolve debates about the nature and functioning of self-esteem; (d) resolve paradoxes in related literatures, such as why people who are stigmatized do not necessarily have low self-esteem and why self-esteem does not decline with age; and (e) suggest how self-esteem is causally related to depression. In addition, this perspective raises questions about how contingencies of self-worth are acquired and how they change, whether they are primarily a resource or a vulnerability, and whether some people have noncontingent self-esteem.     

Contingencies of self-worth, academic failure, and goal pursuit

Two studies examine the effects of failure on explicit and implicit self-esteem, affect, and self-presentation goals as a function of people's trait self-esteem and academic contingency of self-worth. Study 1 shows that participants with low self-esteem (LSE) who receive failure feedback experience lower state self-esteem, less positive affect, and less desire to be perceived as competent the more they base self-worth on academics. In contrast, participants with high self-esteem (HSE) who strongly base self-worth on academics show a slight boost in state self-esteem and desire to be perceived as competent following failure. Study 2 shows that following failure, academically contingent LSE participants downplay the importance of appearing competent to others and associate themselves with failure on an implicit level. Taken together, these findings suggest that academically contingent HSE people show resilience following failure, whereas academically contingent LSE people experience negative outcomes and disengage from the pursuit of competence self-presentation goals.     

The pursuit of self-esteem: contingencies of self-worth and self-regulation

Successful self-regulation is defined as the willingness to exert effort toward one's most important goals, while taking setbacks and failures as opportunities to learn, identify weaknesses and address them, and develop new strategies toward achieving those goals. Contingencies of self-worth can facilitate self-regulation because people are highly motivated to succeed and avoid failure in domains of contingency. However, because boosts in self-esteem are pleasurable and drops in self-esteem are painful, protection, maintenance, and enhancement of self-esteem can become the overriding goal. Several pitfalls for self-regulation can result, especially when tasks are difficult and failure is likely. In this article, we describe a program of research examining these self-regulation pitfalls associated with contingent self-worth and suggest that learning orientations, particularly the willingness to embrace failure for the learning it affords, foster successful self-regulation even in people with highly contingent self-esteem.     

Self-reflection and feelings of self-worth: When Rosenberg meets Heisenberg

The more people think about their attitude toward some issue, the stronger their attitude becomes. The present research examined whether this strengthening effect also applies to self-evaluative attitudes. In four studies, we had some participants complete a self-evaluation measure before rating their momentary feelings of self-worth (Studies 1, 2, and 4) or implicit self-feelings (Study 3). In all four studies, evaluative self-reflection led low self-esteem participants to feel worse about themselves and high self-esteem participants to feel better about themselves. We did not find this self-esteem polarization effect when more general emotions of happiness and sadness were measured (Study 2) or when participants reflected on non-evaluative aspects of themselves (Study 4). These findings suggest that evaluative self-reflection has different consequences for low self-esteem people than for high self-esteem people, and that order effects in personality research may represent actual changes in self-feelings rather than methodological confounds.     

Contingencies of Self-Worth

Abstract— We argue that the importance of self-esteem lies in what people believe they need to be or do to have worth as a person. These contingencies of self-worth are both sources of motivation and areas of psychological vulnerability. In domains of contingent self-worth, people pursue self-esteem by attempting to validate their abilities and qualities. This pursuit of self-esteem, we argue, has costs to learning, relationships, autonomy, self-regulation, and mental and physical health. We suggest alternatives to this costly pursuit of self-esteem.     

Measuring self-esteem in context: the importance of stability of self-esteem in psychological functioning

In this article, I report on a research program that has focused on the joint roles of stability and level of self-esteem in various aspects of psychological functioning. Stability of self-esteem refers to the magnitude of short-term fluctuations that people experience in their current, contextually based feelings of self-worth. In contrast, level of self-esteem refers to representations of people's general, or typical, feelings of self-worth. A considerable amount of research reveals that self-esteem stability has predictive value beyond the predictive value of self-esteem level. Moreover, considering self-esteem stability provides one way to distinguish fragile from secure forms of high self-esteem. Results from a number of studies are presented and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Less pain and more to gain: why high-status group members blame their failure on discrimination.

Members of high-status groups are more likely than members of low-status groups to blame their failure on discrimination and are less likely to blame it on themselves. This tendency was demonstrated in 3 experiments comparing men and women, White and Black students, and members of experimentally created high- and low-status groups. Results also showed that when making an attribution to discrimination, high-status group members were less likely to experience a threat to their social state self-esteem, performance perceived control, and social perceived control and were more likely to protect their performance state self-esteem. These findings help to explain why high-status group members are more willing to blame their failure on discrimination by showing that it is less harmful for them than for low-status group members.     

Attachment styles and contingencies of self-worth

Previous research on attachment theory has focused on mean differences in level of self-esteem among people with different attachment styles. The present study examines the associations between attachment styles and different bases of self-esteem, or contingencies of self-worth, among a sample of 795 college students. Results showed that attachment security was related to basing self-worth on family support. Both the preoccupied attachment style and fearful attachment style were related to basing self-worth on physical attractiveness. The dismissing attachment style was related to basing self-worth less on others' approval, family support, and God's love.     

Narcissism and the self-evaluation maintenance model: effects of social comparison threats on relationship closeness

When threatened with an upward social comparison with a close other in a self-relevant domain, people may reduce either the self-relevance of the ability being compared or their perceived closeness to the other person (Tesser, 1988). Those high in the trait of narcissism may be more likely to push away others who outperform them. Participants and nominated close others completed online measures of narcissism, contingent self-worth, and relationship closeness. Subsequently, participants heard that their friend performed better (or equivalently) on a "competitive spirit" test. Participants higher in narcissism significantly reduced the closeness of their relationships after a threat but did not reduce the relevance of competitiveness to their self-worth.     

Affective Traits, Responses to Conflict, and Satisfaction in Romantic Relationships

Participants described their current and past romantic relationships on a variety of measures, as well as their typical behavioral responses to conflict in intimate relationships. Consistent with studies of initial social encounters, participants who were high in trait positive affect (PA) described their current relationships as being of higher quality than did low PA individuals. Participants who were high in PA were also more likely to currently be in a relationship than were other people. Negative affect emerged as a predictor of the amount of conflict that characterized people's past romantic relationships. Analyses further revealed that the link between PA and relationship quality was mediated by high PA individuals' reluctance to engage in active destructive responses and propensity to engage in active, constructive responses to conflict with their partner.