A theory of emotions: Emotionality as the expression of the self's intentionality

The central theme of this article is the self's quest for personal meaning. The author contends that traditional psychotherapeutic assumptions, such as essentialistic thinking and psychological reductionism—in which clinicians and other social scientists regard the self as an essentialistic entity rather than as an intentional being—have mitigated against meaningful encounter between client and therapist. The author argues for the importance of the long neglected roles of passion, courage and commitment in psychotherapy and human development. He offers a self theory from an existential and intentional position which address these concerns. In this endeavor the author employs philosophical and literary argument, in addition to psychological evidence and clinical case study.This article is based upon a presentation made at the VII World Congress of Social Psychiatry, Lisbon, Portugal, October, 1978.     

Influence of Counselor Spirituality and Training on Treatment Focus and Self‐Perceived Competence

Spirituality is a potential area of concern for counseling clients. This study presents the empirical results of a survey completed by 572 counselors to determine if counselors' spiritual beliefs, experiences, or training had an impact on their focus of therapy or self‐perceived competence. A counselor's personal spirituality, spiritual experience, and spirituality training did significantly influence treatment focus as well as self‐perceived competence to counsel a client with spiritual concerns.     

The Influence of Author Visibility on High School Students Solving a Historical Problem

This study investigated the influence of a visible author (one who writes in the first person, revealing personal beliefs and self) on adolescent students engaged in a historical reading-to-write task. Thirty high school sophomores and juniors were divided into 2 groups: 1 that read a passage from a textbook that featured an anonymous author (one who writes in the third person, revealing little about personal beliefs or self) and another that read a similar text featuring a visible author. Both groups then wrote a 1- to 2-page essay using information from the introductory passage and 6 additional historical documents. A subgroup of 6 of these students (3 from each condition) "thought aloud" through the entire process. Data from student essays and think-aloud protocols were analyzed to determine the influence of various levels of authorial presence on the ways students read, thought, and wrote about history. Students whose task began by reading a visible author tended to hold mental conversations with text authors, making judgments about those authors and thinking more about the history under discussion. The essays they wrote were longer and showed greater personal agency and awareness of audience. The nature of these relations and effects, both for the visible-author group and the anonymous-author group, are discussed.     

The sense of diachronic personal identity

In this paper, I first consider a famous objection that the standard interpretation of the Lockean account of diachronicity (i.e., one’s sense of personal identity over time) via psychological connectedness falls prey to breaks in one’s personal narrative. I argue that recent case studies show that while this critique may hold with regard to some long-term autobiographical self-knowledge (e.g., episodic memory), it carries less warrant with respect to accounts based on trait-relevant, semantic self-knowledge. The second issue I address concerns the question of diachronicity from the vantage point that there are (at least) two aspects of self—the self of psycho-physical instantiation (what I term the epistemological self) and the self of first person subjectivity (what I term the ontological self; for discussion, see Klein SB, The self and its brain, Social Cognition, 30, 474–518, 2012). Each is held to be a necessary component of selfhood, and, in interaction, they are appear jointly sufficient for a synchronic sense of self (Klein SB, The self and its brain, Social Cognition, 30, 474–518, 2012). As pertains to diachronicity, by contrast, I contend that while the epistemological self, by itself, is precariously situated to do the work required by a coherent theory of personal identity across time, the ontological self may be better positioned to take up the challenge.     

From apathy to social activism

The study of social change has neglected the dynamics motivating individuals to join mass movements. Particularly obscure is how apathetic people are transformed into social activists. Considering this problem the author suggests three stages of development through which the individual progresses in attaining a higher level of personal and social maturity. The first stage ‐ dreaming ‐emerges when the individual aspires to change while wishing to avoid the risks involved. The second ‐ the illusion of power ‐ occurs when the hunger for power and the fear of it are mediated. The third ‐ real power ‐ is promoted by the yearning for self‐respect and social acceptance and is manifested by competence in gaining supremacy and actual experience in struggle. As a consequence of this process the individual advances from a subjective self‐image to perceiving himself as a social being; society is humanized by the greater participation of individuals.     

Being Religious: Working at Self-Maintenance and Self-Transformation

We see religion in the things people treat as crucial to what they are and to what they aspire to become, things that make the biggest difference in how people feel about themselves. They may be social aspects or personal (behavioral or characterological) aspects of the self. The things people are militant about, the practices in regard to which they are most scrupulous, and the things about themselves that distress them are indicators of where their religious concerns lie, whatever the subject matter. People work to maintain themselves as they want to see themselves and as they want others to see them; they seek ways to repair damage to their selves. They seek also to transform themselves so as to escape present unhappy definitions of self and to achieve ideal states of being. What needs to be changed may be perceived as aspects of personal self, as attitudes other people have toward otherwise unchangeable aspects of self, or as the entire socio-political system in which people feel trapped. The process by which people manage successfully to transform themselves includes social cooperation, including the formation of groups to provide mutual reinforcement.     

自我相关未来思考:两种基本类型及其主要心理成分比较

自我相关未来思考是个体产生自我相关未来想法的心理加工,它包括未来情景思考和未来个人语义思考两种基本类型。两类思考都需记忆、自我和主观时间三种主要心理成分参与,但参与的具体形式可能有所不同:未来情景思考可能主要依赖于情景记忆和语义记忆、情景自我知识和语义自我知识、经验时间;未来个人语义思考可能主要依赖于语义记忆、语义自我知识和知道时间。三种主要心理成分在两种思考类型中的作用可能是相同的,其中,记忆是原材料,自我起引导作用,主观时间是先决条件。将来可以参照思考未来公众抽象问题的研究进一步明确自我和记忆在未来个人语义思考中的作用,还可以通过探究不同心理成分内部及成分间的交互作用进而了解各成分在自我相关未来思考中的作用机制。     

Mourning the Religious Self: An Experience of Multiplicity,Loss, and Religious Melancholia

The loss of religion is not one thing to all people, nor even one thing to one person. This article asks the question, “when we are talking about the loss of religion, who is mourning what?” The author considers what the loss of religion looks like if we view the self as abiding in both multiplicity and melancholia, and claims that the loss of religion requires a reconfiguration of the inner landscape of centrality and marginality. A clinical example illustrates how one patient’s “loss of faith” calls her to a complex mourning process that includes confronting many personal losses and their relation to her transgendered self.     

The experiences of therapy from the perspectives of carers of people with dementia: An exploratory study

Design: Interviews were conducted with six carers of people with dementia about their experience of receiving counselling/psychotherapy. Interviews were conducted in the carer's own home, and data were analysed thematically using a narrative approach. Findings: Three themes were identified from the data: ‘Still doing the best I can’ (identified as losses and processes of personal growth); ‘Feeling connected and being understood’ (identified as attributes believed to be important within the therapeutic relationship); and ‘Wanting to share information’ (identified as sharing information with someone ‘neutral’). Carers placed emphasis on the age of the therapist and the amount of therapist self‐disclosure. Attending counselling and/or psychotherapy also helped the carer to find a ‘safe space’ to disclose and share concerns. Discussion: Carer loss and personal growth are explored, together with the importance of building therapeutic relationships and, for the therapist, seeking supervision when managing personal self‐disclosure. The theme of therapist self disclosure is explored together with the importance of therapists seeking supervision when managing personal self‐disclosure.     

When “who we are” and “who I desire to be” appear disconnected: Introducing collective/personal self‐discrepancies and investigating their relations with minority students' psychological health

According to Self‐Discrepancy Theory research, perceiving mismatches between personal aspects of the self‐concept is associated with negative psychological consequences, including depression and anxiety. However, the impact of perceiving mismatches between collective and personal self‐aspects is still unknown. In a first step to address this gap, we introduce collective/personal self‐discrepancies—perceived mismatches between a desired self‐aspect and a collective identity. For cultural minority group members (n = 147), collective/personal self‐discrepancies were associated with more severe anxiety and depression symptoms. Bootstrapping analyses suggest that these relations are mediated by self‐discrepancies experienced at the personal level, but only for group members presenting average or high levels of ethnic identification. This study reaffirms the importance of collective identities, especially as potential antecedents of personal aspects of the self‐concept. The findings are further discussed in terms of their significance for cultural minority group members, who often highly identify with their minority groups.     

The stigma of the self

Abstract

After recounting some personal life experiences that sensitized him to the kind of stigma that Erving Goffman systematically explored in his 1963 classic, Stigma, the author, who Is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, introduces hit concept of the stigma of the self. Paradoxically, the stigma of the self may occur when a person is treated as merely normal, and as only a social self and when, a? a consequence, there does not seem to be any recognition of what D. W. Winnicott has termed the true self. Drawing on his studies of the self [in his recently published The Singles Scene: A Psychoanalytic Study of the Breakdown of Intimacy(Alper, 1995)] the author explores the dynamics of what he calls intimacy hunger, an unappreciated but powerful need that, especially after a sufficient period of deprivation has elapsed, cannot be satuifed by a purely social substitute.     

Coming Out in Voices

This paper articulates the personal experiences of a woman with a physical disability who enters therapy to explore issues involving lesbian identity, health and illness, disability oppression and pride, and relationships. Written in the first person, the article uses anecdotes, poetry, and journal entries to chart the author's process of self-discovery. As a woman, a lesbian, and a person with a disability, the author frequently finds herself at odds with the culture around her. This creates conflicts between the author's real self, and the self she must present to others. She discusses how she had learned to "silence the voices" which were not useful in challenging the stereotypes, making others comfortable, or communicating with assistants. The author describes how therapy offered her the opportunity to unlearn the silence, value all of her voices, listen to herself, resolve her internal dilemmas, and develop a deeper sense of self.     

How Might Personal Construct Psychology Benefit from Narrative Approaches?

Constructivist and narrative psychotherapies share an understanding of the self as fragmented, relational, distributed, and discursive. Collaboration of these two modalities might offer a synergistic perspective for working with people. Hermeneutically driven therapy concerns personal development, which is seen as a unique effort of the individual to narrate different stories about him- or herself and others. The therapeutic process is viewed as a raising of awareness about marginalized discourses and empowering alternative voices. Furthermore, the making of an alternative story implies a new understanding of oneself, new interpretation of the past, and anticipation of the future. A case study is presented in which these principles are implemented in therapeutic practice.     

青少年的个人事务自主观念研究述评

个人事务对个体自我感、自主性、情绪情感的发展及其社会化过程有着重要的意义。被儿童和青少年看作是个人事务的事主要有个人隐私、娱乐活动、对朋友的选择和对自己身体的控制等行为。目前,对个人事务自主观念的研究已经成为西方儿童青少年自主性研究的基础和重要方面。文章主要从个人事务自主观念的理论构想,发展的年龄、性别特点,影响因素及其与心理、行为发展关系等几个方面进行了述评。     

Self-regulation and adaptation during and after college: A one-year prospective study

A longitudinal study examined the relation of academic self-regulation to female college students’ adaptation to graduation (n = 104 females). Self-regulation concerns the integration of social values and guidelines into personal values. Results showed that self-regulation in the academic domain was significantly related to lower levels of depressive symptoms over a year and that this relation was equally strong regardless of whether students continued in college or had graduated. Other personal factors, such as college performance, career exploration, and dispositional optimism were unrelated to adaptation. The findings support self-determination theory in showing that it is critical that students internalize the value of school participation as personally important and consistent with their goals.     

Self-Development as a Spiritual Process: The Role of Empathy and Imagination in Finding Spiritual Orientation

According to a dialogical view on self, self-development is characterized by integrating different perspectives in the internal dialogue that constitutes the self. This article explores the spiritual dimension of this process, referring to exchanging and integrating perspectives on what makes one’s life meaningful or fulfilling. It is argued that empathy and imagination are basic capacities for self-development and spiritual orientation, and that art and religion can contribute to this process by functioning as languages of personal resonance.     

Creativity and Aging: Personal Journals and the Creation of Self

This article considers the writing of personal journals as a process through which an individual constructs a linguistic representation of one's self, with the self constituting a narrative. Rather than a fixed narrative, one's life exists as a narrative subject to revision and reinterpretation. Through journal writing, then, one constructs and reconstructs his or her identity. Berman finds the value in personal journals not only in the themes that surface but also in the creative process they reveal. In this article, he examines passages from five journalists that demonstrate this process of creating and revising meaning in one's life.     

Peer victimization and self‐esteem of ethnic minority group children

An experimental study was carried out among Turkish children (10 to 12 years) living in the Netherlands for examining the relationship between peer victimization and self‐esteem. Related to the social psychological distinction between personal and social identity, a distinction was made between personal and ethnic self‐esteem and between personal and ethnic victimization. It was found that personal self‐esteem negatively predicted personal victimization but not ethnic victimization, and ethnic self‐esteem tended to predict ethnic victimization but not personal victimization. Furthermore, peer victimization had a negative causal effect on momentary self‐feelings independent of the level of self‐esteem. In addition, peer victimization based on ethnic group membership had a somewhat stronger negative effect on self‐feelings than victimization based on personal characteristics. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.