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.     

An Assessment of Social Phobia and Social Anxiety and their Relation to Self-Consciousness

Abstract

The translation of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) into Icelandic was submitted to a psychometric assessment. Two hundred sixty-three university students participated in the study. In addition to the SPAI they filled in Fenigstein, Scheier and Buss' (1975) Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS) as well as Spielberger's (1983) State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). A principal components analysis of the SPAI yielded as expected an agoraphobia and a social phobia factor. As expected the Social Anxiety Scale of the SCS correlated much more strongly with the Social Phobia than the Agoraphobia Scale. The correlation of the Social Phobia Scale with the Social Anxiety Scale was substantially higher than its correlation with any other anxiety measure. The relationships between the Social Phobia Scale and Public versus Private Self-Consciousness were moreover in accordance with theoretical expectations as well as prior research. Generally the discriminant and convergent validity of the Icelandic translation of the Social Phobia Scale as a measure of social anxiety is supported.     

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.     

The psychological conditions that predict work engagement among tertiary education employees

This study investigated the extent to which the psychological conditions and job characteristics predicted work engagement amongst higher education employees (n?=?149, females?=?60%) from a South African University. The participants completed a variety of instruments on psychological conditions of work, job characteristics and work engagement viz; the Work Engagement Scale (WES), Psychological Meaningfulness Scale (PMS), Job Enrichment Scale (JES), Work-Role Fit Scale (W-RFS), Co-Worker Relations Scale (C-WRS), Psychological Availability Scale (PAS), Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS), Job Resources Scale (JRS), Outside Activities Scale (OAS), Psychological Safety Scale (PSS), Supervisory Relations Scale (SRS) and the Co-Worker Norms Scale (CWNS). Data analysis applied multiple regression to predict work engagement from psychological meaningfulness, psychological availability and job characteristics and also to determine the mediation effect of psychological condition of availability on the relationship between work engagement and job characteristics (resources). Findings suggest psychological meaningfulness to predict work engagement and to mediate the relationship between job characteristics and work engagement. Psychological resources for work engagement should emphasise a sense of meaningfulness as a resource for work participation.     

Social anxiety in body dysmorphic disorder

Although clinical impressions suggest that patients with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) experience distress in social situations, social anxiety in BDD has received little investigation. This study examined social anxiety in 81 patients with BDD and change in social anxiety with pharmacotherapy. Subjects completed the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SADS) and were assessed with measures of BDD symptomatology. Participants in a placebo-controlled fluoxetine trial completed measures at baseline and endpoint. The mean SADS score was 1.3 SD units higher than nonclinical sample means but consistent with other clinical sample means. Social anxiety was significantly correlated with BDD severity. Greater depressive symptoms as well as comorbid avoidant personality disorder, but not comorbid social phobia, were also associated with higher SADS scores. Social anxiety did not improve more with fluoxetine than placebo, yet it improved significantly more in fluoxetine responders than in nonresponders. Understanding social anxiety in BDD has implications for reducing rates of misdiagnosis and treatment dropout.     

Psychometric Properties of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory, the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents, the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, and the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale in an Adolescent Spanish-Speaking Sample

The relationship among several social anxiety measures and a semistructured interview in an adolescent Spanish-speaking sample is examined. Construct validity and test-retest reliability were tested. A principal axis factor analysis was also explored. Results revealed good construct validity and alpha coefficients for the assessment instruments such as the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI), the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A), the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNES) and the Social Avoidance Distress Scale (SADS). Among these, data strongly support the validity of the Social Phobia and Difference measures of the SPAI and Total SAS-A score as assessment measures in the adolescent population even in non-American cultures and languages. Furthermore, results appear to support the presence of a single higher-order dimension, social anxiety, as measured by the instruments used in this study.     

Department of Education,The University of Newcastle,New South Wales,Australia 2308.

We examined the loci of social anxiety in a sample of 385 Australian adult subjects (186 men and 199 women, mean age 30.63 years). Responses to the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale, the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (Watson & Friend, 1969), and the Public and Private Self-Consciousness Scale (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975) were intercorrelated. The results suggested that for some socially anxious people who are privately shy, the locus of their anxiety is cognitive, whereas for others who are more concerned with performance, the locus is behavioral.     

Assessment of the Fenigstein,Scheier, and Buss Self-Consciousness Scale: A Swedish Translation

The psychometric properties of a Swedish translation of Fenigstein, Scheier, and Busses (1975) Self-Consciousness Scale are reported, The three-factor structure of the Self-Consciousness Scale was replicated in a sample of 241 undergraduate university students and in a sample of 225 female high school students. In a sample of 175 male high school students, the three-factor structure was not confirmed. items assumed to reflect Private and Public Self-consciousness, collapsed into one factor. Test-retest reliabilities and internal consistency of the subscales were consistent with prior research. Significant gender differences in Public Self-consciousness and Social Anxiety are reported. Women scored higher than men.     

The Suicidal Narrative and Its Relationship to the Suicide Crisis Syndrome and Recent Suicidal Behavior

In this study, we introduce the construct of the suicidal narrative, a hypothetical personal narrative linked to imminent suicide, and explore its relationship to near‐term suicidal risk and the suicide crisis syndrome (SCS). Psychiatric outpatients (N = 289) were administered the Columbia Suicide‐Severity Rating Scale (C‐SSRS), Suicide Crisis Inventory (SCI), and Suicide Narrative Inventory (SNI), a novel instrument combining the documented risk factors of Thwarted Belongingness, Perceived Burdensomeness, Humiliation, Social Defeat, Goal Disengagement, and Goal Reengagement. Dimensional measures of past month, lifetime, and past suicidal phenomena, incorporating ideation and behavior, were calculated from the C‐SSRS. Structural equation modeling was used to explore the interaction among variables. Factor analysis of the SNI yielded two orthogonal factors, termed Interpersonal and Goal Orientation. The former factor was comprised of Perceived Burdensomeness, Social Defeat, Humiliation, and Thwarted Belongingness, the latter of Goal Disengagement and Goal Reengagement. The Interpersonal factor correlated with both SCS severity and suicidal phenomena in each time frame and the Goal Orientation factor with no other variable. As hypothesized, the proposed model was significant for the past month only. Our findings support the construct of the suicidal narrative and its function as a near‐term suicidal risk factor.     

大学生网络交往与网络利他行为的关系:自尊与公我意识的作用

以湖北湖南三所高校大一至大四416名全日制大学生为被试,采用《大学生网络交往行为量表》、《自尊量表》、《公我意识量表》和《大学生网络利他行为量表》,对大学生的网络交往、自尊、公我意识以及网络利他行为的情况进行调查,探讨自尊是否在网络交往和网络利他行为之间起中介作用,以及这个过程是否受到公我意识的调节。结果显示：（1）网络交往对网络利他行为具有正向预测作用;（2）自尊在网络交往和网络利他行为间起部分中介作用;（3）自尊的中介效应受到公我意识的调节,即在高公我意识水平下,自尊能正向影响个体的网络利他行为;在低公我意识水平下,自尊对网络利他行为的影响不显著。研究结果有助于揭示大学生网络利他行为的形成机制,对大学生网络利他行为的干预有一定的启示意义。     

The effect of true and false feedback on blushing in women

The effect of true and false feedback of facial blood flow on blushing and embarrassment was investigated in high (n=24) and low (n=24) scorers on the Blushing Propensity Scale. Feedback was given while the participants sang and read aloud. Blushing while singing habituated rapidly in both groups and was not affected by true feedback. Blushing still developed in high scorers when given false-negative feedback of blushing when they first sang, whereas low scorers did not blush. False-positive feedback of blushing while reading aloud increased embarrassment, but facial blood flow decreased. High scorers gave higher ratings for embarrassment and blushing than low scorers during most of the tasks. The findings suggest that people who think that they are prone to blushing feel more self-conscious but generally do not blush more intensely or frequently than people with low blushing propensity scores during clearly embarrassing or innocuous social encounters. However, expecting to blush might actually increase the likelihood of embarrassment and blushing in potentially embarrassing situations.     

Comparing the relative fit of various factor models of the self-consciousness scale in two independent samples

Research shows that using highly self-aware participants yields studies of higher reliability, validity, and statistical power; dispositional self-awareness is commonly measured using the Fenigstein Self-Consciousness Scale (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975). This study used confirmatory factor analysis to compare various factor models that may underlie that scale. Two independent student samples (296 from Bernstein, Teng, & Garbin, 1986, and 350 from a large Canadian university) completed the scale. Using 6 fit criteria, results from both samples supported the Burnkrant and Page (1984) 4-factor model, namely, that self-consciousness consists of 3 principle scales: Social Anxiety, Public Self-Consciousness, and Private Self-Consciousness (divided into Internal State Awareness and Self-Reflectiveness). We discuss the psychometric implications of enhancing scale reliability, validity, and self-awareness.     

Mindfulness in Iran and the United States: Cross-Cultural Structural Complexity and Parallel Relationships with Psychological Adjustment

In theory, mindfulness has a role to play in resolving intercultural conflicts. This suggestion rests upon the relatively untested presumption that mindfulness operates similarly across cultures. In a test of this presumption, university students from two countries that are often in conflict at the governmental level, Iran (N = 723) and the United States (N = 900), responded to the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (Brown and Ryan Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84(4):822–848, 2003), along with an array of other psychological measures. This Mindfulness Scale displayed structural complexities in both societies, but a measurement invariant subscale was nevertheless identified. Similar cross-cultural evidence of concurrent validity was obtained in relationships with wide-ranging measures of adjustment. Nonsignificant linkages with Public Self-Consciousness and Self-Monitoring demonstrated discriminant validity in both societies. These data identified mindfulness as a cross-culturally similar psychological process that could plausibly have a role in resolving intercultural conflicts.     

Validity of Two Questionnaires to Assess Social Fears: The Dutch Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory and the Blushing, Trembling and Sweating Questionnaire

This report evaluates some psychometric properties of the Dutch Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI-N) as well as a newly developed instrument to assess fear of showing somatic symptoms among social phobic, the Blushing, Trembling and Sweating Questionnaire (BTS-Q). Results support the reliability and discriminative validity of the Dutch SPAI and the BTS-Q. Both questionnaires are able to discriminate social phobics from a community sample. Social phobics with fear of blushing, trembling, and sweating as the main complaint could be discriminated from social phobics without fear of blushing, trembling, and sweating as the main complaint using the BTS-Q. In contrast with expectations derived from cognitive models of social phobia, social phobics with fear of blushing, trembling, and sweating did not have stronger dysfunctional beliefs about (the social consequences of) blushing, trembling, and sweating than social phobics without such fears.     

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.     

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.     

Insight, rumination, and self-reflection as predictors of well-being

Dispositional private self-focused attention variables such as insight, internal self-awareness (ISA), and self-reflectiveness (SR) have been found to relate to well-being. The present study sought to determine which dispositional private self-focused attention variables have the most predictive power for subjective well-being as measured by the Satisfaction With Life Scale (E. Diener, R. A. Emmons, R. J. Larsen, & S. Griffin, 1985) and for a eudaemonic form of well-being as measured by the Psychological Well-Being Scale (C. D. Ryff, 1989). A total of 121 college student participants completed an online version of the Self-Consciousness Scale-Revised, the Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire, the Self-Reflection and Insight Scale, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, and the Psychological WellBeing Scale. Results of a multivariate regression analysis using the Self-Consciousness Scale-Revised's (M. F. Scheier & C. S. Carver, 1985) subfactors of SR and ISA, the Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire's (P. D. Trapnell & J. D. Campbell, 1999) subscales of Rumination and Reflection, and the Self-Reflection and Insight Scale's (A. M. Grant, J. Franklin, & P. Langford, 2002) Self-Reflection and Insight subscales revealed that the Insight subscale was the only statistically significant predictor (a positive predictor) for all 6 dimensions of psychological well-being. Insight was also the only significant positive predictor for satisfaction with life. The Rumination subscale was a significant negative predictor for 3 dimensions of psychological well-being, and the Reflection subscale was a significant positive predictor for 1 dimension. Implications of dispositional self-awareness variables and their relation to dimensions of well-being are discussed.     

Cognitive Correlates of Boredom Proneness: The Role of Private Self-Consciousness and Absorption

The contributions of private self-consciousness and absorption in explaining boredom proneness were investigated. University students enrolled at a public university in the southeastern United States completed a packet containing the Boredom Proneness Scale (BPS; R. Farmer & N. D. Sundberg, 1986), the Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS; A. Fenigstein, M. F. Scheier, & A. H. Buss, 1975), the Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS; A. Tellegen & G. Atkinson, 1974), the Need for Cognition Scale (NCS; J. T. Cacioppo, R. E. Petty, & C. F. Kao, 1984), and a demographic questionnaire. Scores on the Boredom Proneness subscale, Internal Stimulation, which indicates the difficulty in keeping oneself interested and entertained, were significantly lower for individuals high in absorption (a measure of attention). Individuals high in positive self-awareness, representing awareness of one's internal states, reported lower overall boredom. Individuals high in negative self-awareness, which focuses on evaluation and judgment, reported increased total boredom proneness scores. Implications of these findings for the treatment of boredom proneness and future research are discussed.     

The relationship between blushing propensity,social anxiety and facial blood flow during embarrassment

To investigate blushing in relation to blushing propensity scores and core elements of social anxiety, facial blood flow was monitored in 86 normal volunteers during an embarrassing task (singing a children's song). Increases in facial blood flow were greater in women than men, as were scores on the Blushing Propensity and Fear of Negative Evaluation scales. In addition, high scores on the Blushing Propensity and Social Interaction Anxiety scales were associated with large increases in facial blood flow during singing. However, this appeared to be due primarily to social anxiety because the association between blushing propensity scores and changes in facial blood flow disappeared when social interaction anxiety scores were taken into account. These findings suggest that people generally base their beliefs about blushing on cues other than changes in facial blood flow. Social anxiety may augment increases in facial blood flow during embarrassment, independently of expected or perceived blushing.