Division I men and women athletes do not differ on perceptions of worth

Historically, especially prior to the increased interest in women's athletics with the passage of Title IX in 1972, there have been negative perceptions of women as athletes. If these social perceptions still hold in part today, as is indirectly suggested by unequal press coverage and less basic support for women athletes, one might predict that collegiate female athletes would rate themselves lower on self-esteem and worth than collegiate male athletes. 176 Division I male (n = 90) and female (n = 86) athletes rated their perceptions of self on the Worth Index which measures basic human worth, personal security, performance, and physical self; these are divided into intrinsic (unconditional worth) measures and behavior or performance (conditional worth) measures. There were no significant sex differences in the ratings of any aspect of perceived worth, in contrast to prior results among non-athletes. In spite of less support given to women athletes, perhaps the long-term high-intensity competition that is required to reach Division I status tends to eliminate sex differences in self-worth.     

Mindfulness,Self-Esteem,and Unconditional Self-Acceptance

Ellis (Ellis, A. (1996), Psychotherapy, 22(1), 149–151) has been a longstanding critic of the concept of self-esteem and has offered the notion of unconditional self-acceptance as an alternative. Other researchers have suggested that cultivating mindfulness––attention directed towards one’s immediate experiences with an attitude of non-judgment––also offers a healthier alternative to self-esteem (Ryan, R. M., & Brown, K. W. (2003) Psychological Inquiry, 14(1), 71–76). This study examined the relationship between mindfulness, self-esteem, and unconditional self-acceptance. A sample of 167 university students completed two measures of everyday mindfulness, and measures of self-esteem and unconditional self-acceptance. Positive correlations were found between mindfulness, self-esteem, and unconditional self-acceptance. Mindfulness skills may offer a means to cultivate unconditional self-acceptance and to shift from an emphasis on self-esteem as a measure of worth. This paper was based on data collected for the first author's Master's project.     

Universal worth: construct and scale development

Although research has demonstrated that narcissistic, contingent, and unsubstantiated forms of self-esteem correlate with undesirable behavior patterns, other researchers have searched for prosocial forms of belief in one's worth. Universal worth is proposed as the belief that (a) one is valued by a deity; (b) one's value is not contingent on success or failure; and (c) one is not valued by a deity more or less than others are valued. The Universal Worth Scale (UWS) was developed to measure this set of beliefs. Psychometric analyses showed that UWS scores were both internally consistent and temporally stable. Although scores on this scale were correlated with measures of constructs that were expected to be associated, the pattern of correlations suggests that UWS scores measure a distinct construct. Future research is suggested to explore universal worth in relation to sociometer theory and terror management theory, and within the continued search for prosocial foundations of self-worth.     

Parent–child gender interaction in the relation between retrospective self-reports on parental love and current self-esteem

A retrospective questionnaire study investigated the relation between current self-esteem in adult men ( n =34) and women ( n =99) and self-reported experience of parental "unconditional positive regard" during childhood. For both men and women the perception of the father's unconditional regard was significantly related to self-esteem. For women only a weak relation was found between the reported experience of maternal regard and self-esteem in adulthood; a comparison of younger and older women showed that this relation was weaker for younger women. The results were interpreted in terms of a greater ambivalence in women towards the mother, possibly as a result of women's more complex separation and identification processes; the difference between younger and older women could indicate that this ambivalence decreases over the years. The implications of this interpretation for the validity of retrospective accounts is discussed, suggesting that the validity could increase over the years.     

The Contingencies of Interpersonal Acceptance: When Romantic Relationships Function as a Self-Affirmational Resource

Existing research suggests that people with high, but not low, self-esteem use their dating partners' love and acceptance as a resource for self-affirmation when faced with personal shortcomings. The present research examines the role that perceived contingencies of acceptance play in mediating these effects. In Experiment 1, we activated either conditional or unconditional working models and then gave experimental participants failure feedback on an intelligence test. In Experiment 2, we activated thoughts of rejection (or control thoughts) and then gave experimental participants feedback suggesting that their romantic partners would discover their secret sides. Experiment 1 revealed that low and high self-esteem women both embellished their partners' love and acceptance to compensate for self-doubt when the unconditional audience was primed. When rejection was primed in Experiment 2, however, high self-esteem men reacted to the self-threat by doubting their partners' love. These findings suggest that people with low self-esteem may not typically use their relationships to self-affirm because contingencies linking failure to rejection and acceptance to success are chronically accessible in their interpersonal schemas.     

Irrational beliefs and unconditional self-acceptance. I. Correlational evidence linking two key features of REBT

In a study with 102 non-clinical adults, relationships between measures of irrational beliefs, unconditional self-acceptance, self-esteem and the Big-5 personality dimensions were investigated. As expected, unconditional self-acceptance was highly correlated with self-esteem. In line with key tenets of REBT, individuals who scored highly on unconditional self-acceptance scored low on irrational beliefs even after self-esteem had been partialled out. Unconditional self-acceptance was found to be significantly (negatively) correlated with Neuroticism but not with other Big-5 personality dimensions. Irrational beliefs were found to correlate positively with Neuroticism and negatively with Openness. Factor analysis of the unconditional self-acceptance scale did not show a simple one-dimensional structure. A revised version of the scale comprising those items that did not load on a self-esteem factor produced a purer measure of unconditional self-acceptance that did not correlate significantly with self-esteem. The findings have implications for investigating unconditional self-acceptance in studies of therapeutic outcome.     

Unconditional Self-Acceptance and Responses to Negative Feedback

Rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT; Ellis, 1995) contends that esteeming oneself—favorably or unfavorably—is illogical (implying an objective basis for evaluating global worth) and counterproductive (making one prone to depression in the wake of setbacks, anxiety otherwise). A healthier outlook requires unconditional self-acceptance (USA). We evaluated predictions regarding USA in a nonclinical university student sample. Consistent with REBT, participants scoring high on a USA questionnaire, controlling for self-esteem level, reported being low in proneness to depression and in self-esteem lability. They also were more objective in evaluating their performance on a public speaking task and were less apt to denigrate people who provided negative evaluations of their speeches. Predictions regarding impression management, willingness to try another speech, and mood or state self-esteem reactivity to feedback were not supported. Discussion focused on implications for research on USA as well as applied implications for therapy or prevention programs.     

Gender differences in perceptions of leadership

A study was conducted to examine gender differences in perceptions of leadership. Subjects (N=320) were assigned to same-sex groups of four to six members. The groups participated in a leaderless group discussion and then assessed characteristics of their own and their peers' leadership. The subjects also completed a self-esteem inventory. Correlational analyses revealed that when evaluating their peers, both men and women associated being a leader and having leadership skills with an authoritarian leadership style. In self-perceptions, however, women associated having positive leadership skills with an authoritarian style, but men associated their own leadership skills with a democratic style. The self-esteem of both genders was differentially related to their perceptions of leadership style. These results suggest that men and women hold a leadership stereotype which equates the leadership skills of their peers with an authoritarian style of leadership. However, women but not men base their assessments of their own leadership skills on this leadership stereotype.     

劳教戒毒者自我价值感特点的初步研究

探讨劳教戒毒者的自我价值感特点,对劳教戒毒者的改造和矫治工作具有一定的意义。本研究用黄希庭编制的自我价值感量表对160名劳教戒毒者进行测量。结果表明：劳教戒毒者在总体自我价值感、一般自我价值感及特殊自我价值感的大多数分量表上均显著低于正常成年人,而他们在自我价值感的多数分量表上均未见有性别、职业和婚姻状况上的差异。     

Unconditional Self-Acceptance and Psychological Health

Low self-esteem is usually considered unhealthy, but according to rational-emotive behavior therapy, any level of self-esteem reflects a dysfunctional habit of globally evaluating one's worth; it would be preferable to accept oneself unconditionally. This hypothesis was tested by examining several correlates of scores on a novel questionnaire measure of unconditional self-acceptance (USA). In a nonclinical adult sample, statistically controlling for self-esteem, USA was inversely correlated with anxiety symptoms and with narcissism, positively correlated with state mood after imaginal exposure to negative events. Other predicted associations of USA (with depression, happiness, and self-deception) either were not evident or became nonsignificant when self-esteem was taken into account. Discussion centered on the conceptual and operational distinctions between self-esteem and self-acceptance.     

Behavioral and psychological implications of body dissatisfaction: Do men and women differ?

The relationships of body satisfaction, self-esteem, dieting, and exercise were studied in 92 men and women. Men and women did not differ in degree of body dissatisfaction as assessed by three different measures. However, on the direction of body dissatisfaction, men were as likely to want to be heavier as thinner, whereas virtually no women wished to be heavier. Although overall body esteem was correlated with self-esteem for both men and women, measures of weight dissatisfaction were not associated with self-esteem for women. The normative nature of weight dissatisfaction for women today may serve to buffer its effects on self-esteem. Women reported exercising for weight control more than men, and exercising for weight control was associated with disregulated eating.     

Menstrual-related perceptual changes in women with premenstrual syndrome: Factors to consider in treatment

The state-dependent model of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) suggests that women's perceptions of daily stressors are affected by menstrual cycle phase. Our objective was to further examine the applicability of this model to perceptions of specific kinds of daily stressors and to explore its generalizability to perceptions involving significant others. Thirty-two undergraduate women, 10 PMS and 22 asymptomatic controls, completed the Daily Stress Inventory (DSI) and the Daily Rating Form (DRF) for 35 days. Questionnaires measuring perceived social support and self-esteem were completed premenstrually and postmenstrually. Results indicated that all women perceived a greater number of stressors as being severe premenstrually as compared to postmenstrually. Furthermore, all women perceived a lesser number of signifcant others as being present in their social support network premenstrually. However, only the PMS women were less satisfied with their social support and had more negative self-esteem premenstrually as compared to postmenstrually. Results are discussed within the context of designing treatment intermentions for women with PMS.     

Gender moderates the relation between implicit and explicit self-esteem

Relative to men, women are more strongly socialized to trust their feelings and intuitions. We thus expected that the association between implicit and explicit self-esteem would be stronger for women than for men. That is, if implicit self-esteem contains a large intuitive, experiential or affective component, then people who are in touch with their feelings and intuitions should be more likely to report explicit self-esteem scores that are congruent with their implicit self-esteem scores. Six studies supported this idea by showing that the association between implicit and explicit self-esteem is indeed stronger for women than for men. This finding held in three different cultures and for two different measures of implicit self-esteem. We discuss the implications of this finding for debates regarding the nature and validity of implicit self-esteem.     

A Comparison of Repetitive Negative Thinking and Post-Event Processing in the Prediction of Maladaptive Social-Evaluative Beliefs: A Short-Term Prospective Study

Theoretical models propose that transdiagnostic and disorder-specific repetitive thinking processes each interact with individual environmental conditions to predict symptoms. The current study aimed to test this hypothesis in the context of social anxiety. Specifically, we aimed to predict future maladaptive social-evaluative beliefs (high standard, conditional, and unconditional beliefs) from: (a) the transdiagnostic tendency to engage in repetitive negative thinking (RNT), (b) the social anxiety-specific tendency to engage in post-event processing (PEP), and (c) the interaction of these repetitive thinking tendencies with the frequency of recent negative social events and social anxiety levels. An initial undergraduate sample (N = 331) was recruited and 215 participants completed measures of the constructs of interest at two time points within an acceptable timeframe (average 8.44 days apart). Using hierarchical linear modelling, significant interactions were only obtained for conditional and unconditional beliefs with a specific component of PEP that focuses on thinking about the past involved in prediction. Follow-up simple slopes analyses indicated mainly no change in these beliefs or decreasing trajectories over time for different combinations of levels on the predictor variables. However, for participants with high social anxiety levels who experienced a high number of recent negative social events, those who reported low levels of thinking about the past exhibited a pattern of increasing trajectories for conditional and unconditional beliefs. These findings indicate that RNT and PEP differ in their ability to predict social-evaluative beliefs, and highlight the importance of research comparing different types of repetitive thinking to better understand these processes.     

Acceptance and need for approval as moderators of self-esteem and satisfaction with a romantic relationship or closest friendship

According to predictions of self-esteem theorists, the association between self-esteem and satisfaction with a relationship will be negative under perceptions of high acceptance and positive under perceptions of low acceptance; consistency theorists make the opposite prediction. The author primarily sought to test those predictions. By completing 4 measures, 88 female and 62 male students described their main current romantic relationship (defined as being in love and physically intimate), and 54 female and 32 male students described their relationship with their closest friend. Results supported only the self-esteem predictions for the romantic relationship. Contrary to this perspective, need for approval did not mediate this effect. In addition, self-esteem was significantly and positively correlated with satisfaction with the romantic relationship under high but not low need for approval.     

SOCIOCULTURAL INFLUENCE AND APPEARANCE-BASED REJECTION SENSITIVITY AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

The present research examined the influence of parents, peers, and the media in predicting college students' Appearance-based Rejection Sensitivity (Appearance-RS)—the degree to which individuals anxiously expect to be rejected based on their physical appearance. Given that women are socialized to be more appearance-focused than men, women were hypothesized to show greater Appearance-RS in response to sociocultural influences than men. A survey was administered to 220 students at a large public university in the United States. Overall, women showed greater sensitivity to appearance rejection than men. Specifically, perceptions of peer conditional acceptance based on appearance were associated with Appearance-RS among women. In addition, the more women and men internalized media ideals and felt media pressure to look attractive, the more sensitive they were to appearance rejection. No significant effects of parental influence were found. Thus, peer conditional acceptance predicted Appearance-RS among women, and media influence predicted Appearance-RS among women and men.     

Young Adult Women’s Reports of Their Male Romantic Partner’s Pornography Use as a Correlate of Their Self-Esteem, Relationship Quality, and Sexual Satisfaction

Pornography is both prevalent and normative in many cultures across the world, including United States’ culture; however, little is known about the psychological and relational effects that it can have on young adult women involved in heterosexual romantic relationships in which their male partners view pornography. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between men’s pornography use, both frequency and problematic use, on their heterosexual female partner’s psychological and relational well-being among 308 young adult college women. In addition, psychometric properties for the Perceived Partner’s Pornography Use Scale are provided. Participants were recruited at a large Southern public university in the United States and completed an online survey. Results revealed women’s reports of their male partner’s frequency of pornography use were negatively associated with their relationship quality. More perceptions of problematic use of pornography was negatively correlated with self-esteem, relationship quality, and sexual satisfaction. In addition, self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between perceptions of partner’s problematic pornography use and relationship quality. Finally, results revealed that relationship length moderated the relationship between perceptions of partner’s problematic pornography use and sexual satisfaction, with significant dissatisfaction being associated with longer relationship length.     

Effects of food-pellet size on rate,latency, and topography of autoshaped key pecks and gapes in pigeons.

Four pigeons responded under autoshaping contingencies in which different conditional stimuli (red or green keylights) were associated with unconditional stimuli of different magnitudes (large or small food pellets) over successive trials within a session. Both topography (beak opening or gape) and strength (rates and latencies of key pecks and gapes) of responding during the conditional stimuli depended on the magnitude of the correlated unconditional stimulus. Key-peck and gape rates were higher and latencies were shorter in large-pellet trials than in small-pellet trials. Gape amplitudes varied directly with pellet size, although conditional and unconditional gapes were larger than either pellet. These findings were replicated when the key colors were presented either on one or two keys and after reversals of the color-size correlations. Because the unconditional stimulus was varied through pellet size, magnitude was not confounded with food-access duration or quality. These results demonstrate the effects of the magnitude of the unconditional stimulus, in that rates and latencies of both key pecks (which are directed movements toward the key) and gapes (which are independent of the bird''s position and key properties) varied with pellet size. Gape measures were unique in that two dimensions (response strength and topography) of a single response class varied simultaneously with magnitude.     

Use of the conditional reflex to assess the temporal characteristics of curarization effects on heart rate responding

A Pavlovian methodological counterpart to the use of druginduced changes in operant rates of responding was used to assess the temporal characteristics of d-tubocurarine chloride effects on the heart rate conditional reflex in rats. After a stable conditional reflex had been established, the base heart rate, as well as the unconditional and conditional reflex, was monitored during administration of the drug. A sizable behavioral effect was reflected in all three measures, including a temporary abolition of the conditional and unconditional reflexes. An interpretation of these results was discussed, and further development and application of this specific methodology was explored.     

Sex differences in the nature,realism, and correlates of body image

The present study examined sex differences in the nature and realism of body-image satisfaction, and the extent to which sex and sex role ideology moderated the relationships of body image to other indices of self-esteem and well-being. Accordingly, scales assessing body cathexis, self-esteem, depression proneness, and sex role ideology, as well as a questionnaire assessing perceptions of weight and dieting activities, were completed by 135 college women and 129 college men. As expected, women indicated significantly greater dissatisfaction with their bodies than did men. Women were likely to perceive themselves as overweight or slightly overweight, regardless of their actual weight, and most wanted to lose weight. Men who were dissatisfied tended to perceive themselves as underweight and wanted to gain rather than to lose weight. For both sexes, less positive attitudes to ward one's body were related to lower levels of self-esteem, although the relationship was significantly stronger for women than for men. The relationship between body attitudes and self-esteem was of approximately equal magnitude among traditional vs feminist women. For both sexes, more negative attitudes towards one's body were related to greater proneness to depression. Implications for further research are discussed.