The self-consciousness scale: a discriminant validity study

A recent Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS) measures Private and Public Self-Consciousness and Social Anxiety. The present research was intended to establish discriminant validity for the two Self-consciousness components with respect to several other variables. 105 male undergraduates completed the SCS, the Otis Test of Mental Ability, an abbreviated Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (measuring need for achievement), a Test Anxiety Questionnaire, and the EASI Temperament Survey. Private Self-consciousness did not correlate significantly with any other measure. Public Self-consciousness correlated weakly with the temperaments of Sociability and Emotionality. The Self-consciousness components of the SCS thus appear to be relatively independent of the other measures tested.     

Introversion,neuroticism, empathy and embarrassibility

Previous research suggests that actors particularly susceptible to embarrassment are likely to be sensitive to others (especially to others' views), inhibited and overconcerned with their public image. That is, they are likely to be empathic, but neurotic introverts. This experiment was designed to investigate this possibility. The EPQ, Hogan Empathy Scale (HES) and Embarrassibility Scale (ES) were administered to over 100 Ss. The factor structures obtained in the present study for the latter two scales were compared with those obtained in previous studies and revealed a close correspondence. There was a predicted significant negative correlation between E and embarrassibility and a significant positive correlation between N and embarrassibility. Contrary to expectation, empathy was significantly negatively correlated with embarrassibility, although this was largely accounted for by the Social Self-confidence and Nonconformity subscales of the HES. Three aspects of the results are discussed: the multidimensionality of the HES; whether the ES is uni- or multidimensional and implications of the results for our understanding of embarrassibility.     

Assessment of private and public self-consciousness: a Dutch replication

In the present article a replication of a study by Fenigstein, Scheier and Buss (1975), who constructed a Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS), is reported. The SCS was translated into Dutch, and its properties and its relation to Locus of Control was investigated. The norms and reliability coefficients presented are consistent with prior research. Also the results of a factor analysis that yielded the three factors: Private, Public Self-consciousness, and Social Anxiety are consistent with these findings. However, Private Self-consciousness did not correlate significantly with Locus of Control.     

Social Concern and Delinquency: An Empirical Assessment of a Novel Theory

Using the Pathways to Desistance data, this study provides a test of Agnew’s social concern theory. Social concern is hypothesized to reduce criminality through four components: care about the welfare of others, desire for close ties, moral intuitions, and desire to conform. The analyses provide support for the theory’s core contentions. Care about others and moral intuitions are negatively associated with delinquency. Further, social concern partly mediates the effects of social learning, strain, social bond, self-control, and social support on delinquency. Findings indicate that social concern theory is a promising approach that merits continued theoretical refinement and empirical assessment.     

Depressed and Nondepressed Students: Differences in Interpersonal Perceptions

The purpose of this research was to study the patterns of interpersonal behavior of depressed students. Depressed participants rated themselves lower than non-depressed controls on assertiveness and initiation of interactions and significantly higher than controls on concern about what others think, introversion, and submissiveness. Depressed participants also scored significantly higher than controls on measures of dependency, self-criticism, and the need to please others. Ratings of depressed participants by their roommates were not correlated with depressed participants' self-reports. In contrast, most subscale self-ratings and roommate ratings for the nondepressed participants and their roommates were significantly correlated.     

Depressed and nondepressed students: differences in interpersonal perceptions

The purpose of this research was to study the patterns of interpersonal behavior of depressed students. Depressed participants rated themselves lower than non-depressed controls on assertiveness and initiation of interactions and significantly higher than controls on concern about what others think, introversion, and submissiveness. Depressed participants also scored significantly higher than controls on measures of dependency, self-criticism, and the need to please others. Ratings of depressed participants by their roommates were not correlated with depressed participants' self-reports. In contrast, most subscale self-ratings and roommate ratings for the nondepressed participants and their roommates were significantly correlated.     

I'm Embarrassed for You: The Effect of Valuing and Perspective Taking on Empathic Embarrassment and Empathic Concern

Much research has investigated the cognitive‐perceptual factors that promote empathic concern. However, little research has investigated such factors for a related emotion: empathic embarrassment. We suggest that 2 factors promote empathic embarrassment for a target in a compromising situation: liking the target, and imagining oneself in the target's situation. Results revealed that liking a socially compromised target increases both empathic concern and empathic embarrassment (Experiment 1). Furthermore, imagining the person's thoughts and feelings increases empathic concern and a desire for future exposure to the person, whereas imagining oneself in the person's situation primarily increases empathic embarrassment (Experiment 2). Implications of these results for future empathy research and applications for those who suffer from chronic embarrassability are discussed.     

When Do Motives to Sexually Please a Male Partner Benefit Women’s Own Sexual Agency?

Motivation to please a partner sexually, also known as sexual communal strength (SCS), has been positively associated with sexual and relationship functioning, particularly for partners. We used a critical sexuality studies approach to examine SCS as it relates to women’s own sexual agency. We also examined the potential moderating role of partner sexual coercion, defined as persistent pressure to attain sex. Specifically, we investigated whether frequency of partner sexual coercion moderates the effect of SCS on three different aspects of women’s sexual agency: sexual desire, sexual refusal assertiveness, and relational power. Participants were 172 U.S. women in dating relationships with men who responded to self-report measures. Results showed that SCS was positively related to women’s own sexual desire, regardless of how often women experienced partner sexual coercion. SCS and partner sexual coercion frequency were associated with sexual refusal assertiveness: The least assertive women reported both higher SCS and more frequent partner coercion. Sexual coercion frequency was negatively related to women’s relational power, regardless of their own SCS. These findings support educational and clinical interventions to reduce sexual coercion and suggest the concept of SCS be further refined to better account for the potential roles sexual coercion and heterosexual norms play more broadly.

     

“Bad Girls” Say No and “Good Girls” Say Yes: Sexual Subjectivity and Participation in Undesired Sex During Heterosexual College Hookups

Young people’s sexuality is often discursively constructed within the confines of a masculine/feminine binary that minimizes young women’s sexual subjectivity (i.e., desire, pleasure, and agency) while taking young men’s subjectivity for granted. Accordingly, young women who acknowledge themselves as sexual subjects are constructed as “bad girls” who incite males’ purportedly uncontrollable desire and, thus, invite undesired sexual attention. However, there is reason to hypothesize that young women who view themselves as sexual subjects may be less likely than other women to engage in undesired sexual activity (i.e., sex that their partners desire, but they do not desire for themselves). In this study, I used data from the Online College Social Life Survey (N = 7255) to explore relationships between two measures of sexual subjectivity (i.e., pleasure prioritization and sexual agency) and college women’s participation in undesired sexual activity during hookups (i.e., performance of undesired sexual acts to please a partner and succumbing to verbal pressure for intercourse). Logistic regression analyses suggest that pleasure prioritization and sexual agency are associated with lower odds of performing undesired sexual acts to please a partner—and sexual agency is associated with lower odds of succumbing to verbal pressure for intercourse. These findings point to the importance of sexuality education that includes discussions of women’s sexual subjectivity.     

An assessment of the dimensionality of moos' social climate scale

A revised form of the Social Climate Scale (SCS) containing nine of the 14 subscales was given to 145 staff and 143 boys at a state training school for delinquents. A first principal factor was extracted from the item-correlation matrices for staff and boys, respectively. This factor was named Value, because of its representation of an evaluative item dimension. A factor model was used to test whether this Value factor might account for the significant subscale intercorrelations found in these samples. Maximum likelihood factor analysis of the subscale correlation matrices for both groups provided the test for this model. Through a least-squares rotation procedure on the maximum likelihood factor loadings, the Value factor was identified as the source of most of the subscale dependence. Implications for validation of the SCS and other related questionnaires by Moos are discussed.     

An interdependence analysis of commuting decisions

The current research advances an interdependence analysis of commuting decisions (i.e. commuting by car versus public transportation), delineating the determinants of an individual's outcomes in terms of own decisions, other commuters' decisions, and the combination or interaction of own and others' decisions (Kelley & Thibaut, 1978). Consistent with hypotheses, findings revealed that a concern with comfort led to a higher overall personal preference for the car, and a lower overall preference for others to commute by public transportation, when compared to a concern with travel time. Additionally, consistent with the claim that commuter decisions are also guided by considerations broader than a concern with individual outcomes, findings revealed that individuals with prosocial orientations (i.e. those concerned with maximizing collective outcomes) in combination with high levels of trust (i.e. believing in the honesty and cooperative intentions of others) exhibited a greater overall personal preference for public transportation, and a reduced desire to avoid other commuters, relative to individuals with a prosocial orientation and low levels of trust, or a proself orientation (i.e. those concerned primarily with maximizing own outcomes), regardless of levels of trust. Finally, consistent with the current interdependence analysis, intention to commute by car was positively associated with not only overall personal preference for the car, but also with the desire to avoid other commuters. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Self-Consciousness Scale in Chinese College Students

Fenigstein, Scheier, and Buss's (1975) 3-factor model, Burnkrant and Page's (1984) 4-factor model, and Mittal and Balasubramanian's (1987) 5-factor model of the Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS) were tested using the revised SCS (Scheier & Carver, 1985b) on 2 convenience samples of 201 and 179 Chinese college students. Burnkrant and Page's (1984) 4-factor model showed superiority over the other 2 models in confirmatory factor analysis. It is concluded that the division of the private self-consciousness subscale is adequate, whereas the division of the public self-consciousness subscale is not justified.     

Pleasure and displeasure from the body: Perspectives from exercise

We investigated some types of triggers of embarrassment and their personality correlates. A total of 161 undergraduates indicated how embarrassed they would be in a variety of situations classified a priori into three types. The types were based on the kind of trigger they embodied and were derived in part from current theories of embarrassment. Several analytic techniques, including factor analysis, suggested that there are at least three sorts of situations people find embarrassing: committing a faux pas, being the centre of attention, and threatening another's social identity. We created a subscale for each subtype of trigger. Embarrassibility on each subscale was correlated with embarrassibility on the others, but the reliabilities of the subscales substantially exceeded their intercorrelations. Some personality variables, for example, Neuroticism (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975) correlated with all subscales, whereas other personality variables correlated differentially, for example, Revised Self-Monitoring (Lennox & Wolf, 1984), Interaction Anxiousness (Leary, 1983), and Rejection Sensitivity (Downey & Feldman, 1996). We believe, contrary to previous suggestions (Edelmann & McCusker, 1986), that there are subtypes of triggers of embarrassment and they they roughly correspond to the different causes of embarrassment as proposed by various theorists. We discuss the implications of our results for theories of embarrassment.     

Desperately Seeking Approval: The Importance of Distinguishing Between Approval and Recognition

Victoria Davion confuses seeking approval with the desire for recognition of and respect for one's difference. Ironically, when she asserts that the desire to please others provides an incentive to do well (and thus constitutes a positive aspect of competition) Davion undermines her argument that competition enhances one's sense of self. Rather than enhancing one's sense of self, striving to win approval from others sabotages one's ability to rely on her own judgment and take moral responsibility for herself.     

Bibliotherapy for low sexual desire: evidence for effectiveness

This study examines the effectiveness of bibliotherapy for low sexual desire among women, which is the most frequent sexual concern brought to counselors. Forty-five women responded to an advertisement for participation in a study on low sexual desire and were assigned to either the intervention or the wait-list control group. The intervention group completed the Hurlbert Index of Sexual Desire (HISD; Apt & Hurlbert, 1992) and the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI; R. Rosen et al., 2000), read the self-help book under study in 6 weeks, and completed the measures a second time. The control group completed the same measures 6 weeks apart. Results demonstrated that the intervention group made statistically greater gains over time as compared with the control group on measures of sexual desire (HISD and FSFI Desire subscale), sexual arousal (FSFI Arousal subscale), sexual satisfaction (FSFI Satisfaction subscale), and overall sexual functioning (FSFI Total Score). A subset of participants in the intervention group participated in a 7-week follow-up study, and these participants maintained their gains in sexual desire and overall sexual functioning. Findings have important implications for future research on the efficacy of bibliotherapy generally and for low sexual desire specifically. Results also have vital implications for the treatment of low sexual desire.     

Restraint,eating disorders and need to achieve in state and public school subjects

This paper examines the relationship of social class, need to achieve and restraint to attitudes toward food, eating and weight related behaviour. The Binge-eating questionnaire (BEQ), Restraint Scale (RS), Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI) and Achievement Need Questionnaire (ANQ) were administered to 96 state school girls and 88 public school girls. The factor structure of the BEQ, RS and EDI obtained in the present study were compared with subdivisions of the scales suggested by previous studies and revealed a close correspondence. Public school subjects, who were predominantly from social classes 1 and 2, obtained significantly higher scores on the Binge-eating subscale of the BEQ and the Concern with Dieting and Weight Fluctuation subscales of the RS. State school subjects, who were predominantly from social classes, 3, 4 and 5, obtained significantly higher scores on the vomiting subscale of the BEQ and the Maturity Fears and Bulimia subscales of the EDI. There were no significant main effects of achievement need with the exception of the Perfectionism subscale of the EDI and no significant interactions. Possible reasons for the apparent social class variations in eating problems are discussed.     

学前儿童害羞与社会适应：师幼关系的调节作用

本研究对360名幼儿进行为期一年半的追踪,探讨害羞幼儿的社会适应和师幼关系在害羞与社会适应之间的调节作用。幼儿母亲完成儿童社会偏好量表,幼儿教师完成师幼关系量表和对儿童社会适应的评价。结果表明,害羞与儿童人际技能和口头主张显著负相关,与内化问题、不合群行为和同伴排斥显著正相关;师幼关系与儿童社会适应相关,并在害羞与儿童社会适应之间具有调节作用。     

Theory-based bias correction in dispositional inference: The fundamental attribution error is dead,long live the correspondence bias

Social psychological research has repeatedly shown that perceivers draw correspondent dispositional inferences from observed behaviour even when this behaviour was highly constrained by situational factors (i.e., the correspondence bias). Even though this phenomenon has been proposed to be multiply determined, the most common explanation is still that perceivers ubiquitously consider situational factors to have little impact on human behaviour (i.e., the fundamental attribution error). The present chapter offers a critical analysis of the available empirical evidence on the correspondence bias from the perspective of theory-based bias correction. It is concluded that the correspondence bias results from a number of different processes associated with the application of perceivers' causal theories about situational influences on human behaviour. However, there is no evidence for the assumption that the correspondence bias is due to causal theories implying that situational factors have little impact on human behaviour. Theoretical and empirical implications are discussed.