Individual differences in embarrassment: Self-consciousness,self-monitoring and embarrassibility

Embarrassment has been conceptualized as a self-presentational difficulty resulting from a concern with our observable behaviour and a desire to conform and to please others. Thus, individuals particularly concerned with these aspects of their behaviour (i.e. publicly self-conscious and other-directed) are likely to be particularly susceptible to embarrassment. This experiment was designed to investigate this possibility. The Self-consciousness Scale (SCS), Self-monitoring Scale (SMS) and the Embarrassibility Scale (ES) were administered to over 100 Ss. The factor structures obtained in the present study were compared with those obtained in previous studies and revealed an almost exact correspondence for the SCS, a close correspondence for the SMS and little correspondence for the ES. There was a predicted significant positive correlation between the ES and the Public Self-consciousness subscale of the SCS (i.e. a concern for observable behaviour) and the Other-directedness subscale of the SMS (i.e. a desire to conform and please others). Two aspects of the results are discussed: the possibility that the ES is unidimensional and implications of individual differences in the process of embarrassment for investigating coping strategies.     

Chronic blushing,self-consciousness,and social anxiety

This study was designed to investigate factors associated with chronic blushing. One hundred seven self-defined chronic blushers completed the Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS), the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SADS), and two single-item ratings for severity and effect of blushing. Mean SADS scores obtained in the present study were not dissimilar to those obtained in studies of DSM-III-defined socially phobic patients. There was a predicted significant positive correlation between the severity/effect of blushing and the SADS and the Public and Private Self-Consciousness and Social Anxiety subscales of the SCS. The implications of the results for understanding chronic blushing are discussed.     

Comparing personality constructs of risk-taking behavior

Canadian subjects (N = 120) completed four psychological scales. Three of the scales were directly related to risk-taking behavior. These were the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS V; Zuckerman, 1979), the Tension Risk Adventure Inventory (TRAI; Keinan et al., 1984) and the Telic Dominance Scale (TDS; Murgatroyd et al., 1978). In addition, subjects completed the Desire for Control Scale (DCS; Burger and Cooper, 1979) to investigate the role of desire for control in risk-taking. The results indicated (1) significant differences between age and sensation seeking (2) a four-factor structure for the TRAI following factor analysis with this Canadian sample (3) numerous intra- and inter-scale relationships obtained from correlation analyses of and (4) four major dimensions arising from PCA of the four inventory scales.     

Religion and Health: Anxiety,Religiosity, Meaning of Life and Mental Health

We examined the association among anxiety, religiosity, meaning of life and mental health in a nonclinical sample from a Chinese society. Four hundred fifty-one Taiwanese adults (150 males and 300 females) ranging in age from 17 to 73 years (M = 28.9, SD = 11.53) completed measures of Beck Anxiety Inventory, Medical Outcomes Study Health Survey, Perceived Stress Scale, Social Support Scale, and Personal Religiosity Scale (measuring religiosity and meaning of life). Meaning of life has a significant negative correlation with anxiety and a significant positive correlation with mental health and religiosity; however, religiosity does not correlate significantly anxiety and mental health after controlling for demographic measures, social support and physical health. Anxiety explains unique variance in mental health above meaning of life. Meaning of life was found to partially mediate the relationship between anxiety and mental health. These findings suggest that benefits of meaning of life for mental health can be at least partially accounted for by the effects of underlying anxiety.     

ES、iNOS及bFGF在桥本氏甲状腺炎中表达的研究

采用S-P法检测17例HT患者甲状腺组织切除标本和9例正常甲状腺组织标本中ES、iNOS及bFGF的表达并分析其之间的相关性,以探讨三者在HT发生发展中的作用。结果HT组中ES、iNOS及bFGF的表达程度均明显高于正常组（P均〈0.05）,其中ES与bFGF表达无显著相关性（P〉0.05）,ES与iNOS、bFGF与iNOS的表达均呈显著正相关（r=0.531,r=0.723,P均〈0.05）。结论为在HT中,高表达的ES、iNOS及bFGF在其发生和发展中可能具有重要作用,为研究其病理生理变化和发病机理提供了理论依据。     

Antecedents and consequences of retirement planning and decision-making: A meta-analysis and model

In this study, meta-analytic procedures were used to examine the relationships between retirement planning, retirement decision and their antecedent and consequences. Our review of the literature generated 341 independent samples obtained from 99 primary studies with 188,222 participants. A small effect size (ES) for antecedents of retirement planning (poor health, negative working conditions and positive attitudes toward retirement) was obtained (ranging from r = .05 to r = .19), whereas a medium ES was obtained for work involvement and job satisfaction (r = −.31 and r = −.34). Regarding retirement decision, lower effect sizes were obtained. Effect sizes for the relationships with consequences were medium for retirement planning and bridge employment (r = .28), for retirement decision-volunteer work (r = .26), and for retirement decision-retirement satisfaction (r = .26). Structural equation analysis using the pooled correlation matrix allowed us to test a more complex model. Potential moderator variables were examined, and it was found that they explained only a small percentage of variability of primary studies. Results are discussed, and theoretical and empirical implications are suggested.     

Relationship satisfaction for heterosexual women compared to lesbians and men in a sample of faith communities from Topeka, Kansas

A modified version of the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale was administered to 239 women who belonged to 8 different faith communities in Topeka, Kansas in 2001. 12 members of a Metropolitan (gay and lesbian) church identified themselves as lesbians. Lesbian respondents reported significantly higher relationship satisfaction scores than heterosexual women (Cohen's d = 0.69). Controlling for number of children and social desirability reduced the regression coefficient for sexual orientation to a statistically nonsignificant level. Using a matched sample of 12 heterosexual women compared with the lesbians yielded a nonsignificant result (ES = 0.31). Nevertheless, although not statistically significant, comparisons between lesbians and heterosexual women continued to feature effect sizes that represented higher satisfaction for lesbians with no children or with only one child when compared to heterosexual women with no children or only one child. It is apparent that methodology made a difference in the results obtained in this comparative study of lesbian and heterosexual relationships. It was also observed, among members of churches other than the Metropolitan church, that relationship satisfaction was significantly lower (d = 0.22) among females than males, including among wives compared to husbands; significant linear and cubic relationships between a single-item measure of relationship social desirability and relationship satisfaction were also observed.     

Spiritual Well-Being, Cortisol, and Suicidality in Croatian War Veterans Suffering from PTSD

We present our preliminary results of work that aims to observe the relationship between the cortisol level, the level of spiritual well-being, and suicidal tendencies in Croatian war veterans suffering from PTSD. The survey was conducted on 17 PTSD veterans who completed the Spiritual Well-Being Scale and the Beck Hopelessness Scale. The plasma cortisol level was obtained by venepuction at 8.00, 12.00, 13.00, 16.00, and 22.00 h. Results showed that veterans with higher spiritual well-being scores had lower cortisol levels, and evening cortisol levels showed significant correlation with suicidal risk. The results of the present study could be a stimulus for further investigation into spiritually based interventions, exploring their impact both on mental status and physical health.     

Determinants of Perceived Stress in Adolescence: The Role of Personality Traits,Emotional Abilities,Trait Emotional Intelligence,Self-Efficacy,and Self-Esteem

The aim of the current study was to examine the explanatory power of personality traits, emotional abilities, trait emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and self-esteem in predicting perceived stress in adolescents. The data were collected from 406 high school students, aged 18-22 years (M_age = 18.47, SD = 0.64). Perceived stress was assessed with the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10). Personality traits were measured with the Eysenck Personality Short Scale (EPQ-R-S), emotional abilities were assessed with two performance tests, the Emotional Intelligence Scale – Faces (SIE-T), and the Emotion Understanding Test (TRE), and trait emotional intelligence was measured with a selfreport questionnaire (the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale, SEIS). The Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) were also used. Results indicate that the strongest determinant of perceived stress in adolescents was high neuroticism. Perceived stress was also determined by low self-efficacy and self-esteem, as well as high extraversion and psychoticism. Women reported higher perceived stress than men. There also were differences in the determinants of perceived stress between graduate and nongraduate students. The obtained results suggest that the development of high self-esteem and high self-efficacy may contribute to perceptions of lower stress in adolescents and may be especially valuable for neurotic individuals and for women, who are more exposed to stress.     

Differences in alexithymia and emotional awareness in exhaustion syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome

Symptoms of Exhaustion Syndrome (ES) and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) are overlapping and create difficulties of differential diagnosis. Empirical studies comparing ES and CFS are scarce. This study aims to investigate if there are any emotional differences between ES and CFS. This cross‐sectional study compared self‐reported alexithymia and observer‐rated emotional awareness in patients with ES (n = 31), CFS (n = 38) and healthy controls (HC) (n = 30). Self‐reported alexithymia was measured with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale‐20 (TAS‐20) and emotional awareness with an observer‐rated performance test, the Level of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS). Additionally, depression and anxiety were scored by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results show that patients with ES expressed higher self‐reported alexithymia in the TAS‐20 compared to HC, but had similar emotional awareness capacity in the observer‐rated performance test, the LEAS. Patients with CFS expressed more difficulties in identifying emotions compared to HCs, and performed significantly worse in the LEAS‐total and spent more time completing the LEAS as compared to HC. Correlation and multiple regressions analyses revealed that depression and anxiety positively correlated with and explained part of the variances in alexithymia scores, while age and group explained the major part of the variance in LEAS. Findings of this study indicate that emotional status is different in patients with ES and CFS with respect to both self‐reported alexithymia and observer‐rated emotional awareness. Emotional parameters should be approached both in clinical investigation and psychotherapy for patients with ES and CFS.     

Empathic development during adolescence: religiosity,the missing link?

While theories regarding the development of empathy hypothesise increased empathy scores during adolescence, data among adolescent samples tend not to find such a relationship. The present paper proposes religiosity as the missing link to account for this discrepancy between theory and findings, on the theory that decreasing religiosity during adolescence is likely to depress empathy scores at precisely the same time as increasing cognitive skills are likely to enhance empathy development. Data from 569 school children, aged 11–17 years, who completed both the Junior I₆ Empathy Scale and the Attitude towards Religion Scale ASC4B, demonstrate that, while there is no direct correlation in the sample between age and empathy, there is a significant positive correlation between age and empathy after controlling for differences in levels of religiosity.     

Passion,grit and mindset in young adults: Exploring the relationship and gender differences

The main aim of the study was to explore the associations between passion, grit and mindset in a group of young Icelandic adults. The sample consisted of 146 participants. The eight item Passion Scale was used to assess passion, and the Grit-S scale was used to assess grit. Mindset was measured with the Theories of Intelligence Scale (TIS). The scale has 8-items.The results show significant difference between female and male in the passion factor only, in favor of males. In addition the results indicated a significant correlation between all factors for the group as a whole; passion and grit, r = .435; passion and mindset, r = .260; grit and mindset, r = .274. The results for the gender separate indicate a same pattern for the females, significant correlation between all the factors; passion – grit, r = .382, passion-mindset, r = . 299 and grit-mindset, r = .356. For the males the pattern was different. Significant correlation was between passion-grit, r = .500 and for passion-mindset r =.260. For grit-mindset there was not significant correlation r = .215. The results indicate gender differences in associations between passion, grit and mindset.     

Enjoyment of sexualization: is it different for men?

We elucidated the Enjoyment of Sexualization (ES) construct in a sample of 206 female and 118 male undergraduate students. Our male ES Scale had high reliability, and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a univariate structure was appropriate for both men and women. ES added to the prediction of self‐esteem and number of sexual partners (but not body shame) after controlling for self‐objectification; gender did not moderate these relationships. The relationship between ES and number of sexual partners was moderated by attractiveness such that individuals who believed themselves to be more attractive had more sexual partners at high levels of ES. Furthermore, ES was distinguishable from the conceptually‐related self‐objectification construct with regard to Big Five personality. Finally, results suggested that ES might be less harmful than self‐objectification.     

Locus of control and achievement in child psychiatric inpatients

The relationship between the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children (Nowicki & Strickland, 1973) and academic achievement was examined in a sample of 66 child psychiatric inpatients. Previous studies had suggested that this measure correlated with achievement in normal samples (Nowicki & Strickland, 1973) but not in populations of male juvenile offenders (Little & Kendall, 1978). The product-moment correlation between the Nowicki-Strickland Scale and the Peabody Individual Achievement Test was significant. However, when the effect of IQ was controlled for in a partial correlation, there was no significant correlation. Discussion focuses on the relationship between these results and other findings in the area of locus of control, intelligence, and achievement.     

Self-Reported Attachment Patterns and Rorschach-Related Scores of Ego Boundary,Defensive Processes,and Thinking Disorders

An Associative Elaboration Scale and an Integration Scale were constructed for evaluating Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) protocols. Interrater reliabilities and the correlation between the two scales were determined for a selection of TAT cards. The Integration Scale was dropped from further analyses, because its interrater reliabilities were low and it correlated highly with the Associative Elaboration Scale. The relation between the Associative Elaboration Scale and age was then investigated for randomly selected patients aged 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15. There tended to be a rapid increase in Associative Elaboration scores up to age 11 and then little or no increase in scores. There was no significant relation between Associative Elaboration and IQ.     

Effects of foreperiod interval upon reaction time, alpha blocking, and heart rate under variable conditions with reduced learning factors

The present experiment was to investigate the effects of foreperiod interval upon reaction time (RT), alpha blocking, and heart rate (HR) under conditions in which learning factors and conditional probability were minimized. Twenty college students were given a series of 44 randomized foreperiod intervals (0–30 sec). The fastest RT was obtained at 0.6 sec foreperiod. Alpha blocking provided the same trend as that of RT, showing that the 0.6 sec foreperiod yielded the largest alpha blocking. Positive correlation was observed between the speed of RT and alpha blocking (r = 0.56, p<0.001). HR curve was different from those of RT and alpha blocking. No significant correlation was obtained between RT and HR. The results were discussed, particularly, in terms of the theory of classical conditioning.     

Passion,grit and mindset in the ages 14 to 77: Exploring relationship and gender differences

This study aims to investigate the relationship between passion, grit and mindset across the life span. The sample consisted of 917 participants between 14 to 77 years old. The eight item Passion Scale was used to assess passion, and the Grit-S scale to assess grit. Mindset was measured with the Theories of Intelligence Scale (TIS). The scale has 8-items.The results showed that for the group as a whole there was a significant relationship between passion and grit (r = .325); passion and mindset (r= .166) and grit and mindset (r= .167).For the female group (N = 502) the correlation was significant for the three factors: between passion and grit (r = .311), for passion and mindset (r = .195), and grit and mindset (r = .170). For the male group (N = 415) the correlation between the factors was also significant: for passion and grit (r = . 362), for passion and mindset (r = . 161), and grit and mindset (r = . 163).For the youngest age groups (14–19, 20–36, 37–53) the correlation between passion and grit was significant: 14–19: r = .588; 20–36: r = .317; 37–53: r = . 491. For the two oldest age groups the correlation was not significant. For passion and mindset the correlation was significant for the two youngest age group only. 14–19: r = .226; 20–36: r = . 161. For grit and mindset there was significant correlation for age group 2 only. 20–36: r = . 195).These findings might be potentially important for better understanding of the relationship between these constructs positively related to learning, achievement, well-being and life satisfaction.     

Oral administration of the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale

The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) is a performance‐based measure of emotional awareness. This study examined whether the LEAS is suitable to be administered orally by administering two half‐forms of the LEAS to literate participants; one orally and one in written format. In doing so, this study raised questions regarding the internal reliability and statistical equivalence of the LEAS half‐forms. Despite this, results showed no significant difference between oral and written administration. Further, the correlation between scores obtained through oral and written administration was no less than the correlation between the LEAS‐A and LEAS‐B half‐forms. Together, these results suggest that, in circumstances where administering the written format of the LEAS is not possible, this scale may be administered orally.     

Love styles, shyness, and patterns of emotional self-disclosure

Previous research has shown a relationship between love styles and shyness. This study explored the possibility that this effect may be due to differences in patterns of self-disclosure associated with shyness. University student participants (N = 143) completed the Love Attitudes Scale, the Emotional Self-Disclosure Scale, and the Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale. Correlations between the measures were calculated and significant results ranged from r = .18 to .30. Findings supported previous research in showing significant relationships between shyness and love styles; self-disclosure showed no relationship with shyness but did show some direct associations with love style scores. Results are discussed in relation to the importance of self-disclosure in relationship development.     

大学生手机成瘾与学习投入的关系:自我控制的中介作用和核心自我评价的调节作用

为考察手机成瘾、自我控制、核心自我评价和学习投入之间的关系,本研究采用手机成瘾量表、自我控制双系统量表、核心自我评价量表以及学习投入量表对628名大学生进行问卷调查。结果显示：（1）手机成瘾可以负向预测大学生学习投入;（2）控制系统和冲动系统在手机成瘾与学习投入的关系中起并行中介作用;（3）手机成瘾对学习投入的直接预测作用受到核心自我评价的调节。研究结果揭示了手机成瘾对学习投入的作用机制,拓展了核心自我评价的研究视角,对于学习投入的干预工作有一定实践意义。