The Relationship Between Perceived Parental Attitudes and Shyness among Turkish Youth: Fear of Negative Evaluation and Self-esteem as Mediators

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between three perceived parental attitudes and shyness, testing self-esteem and fear of negative evaluation as mediators. The study used a total of 492 undergraduate students in Turkey. Data was collected through measures of shyness, fear of negative evaluation, self-esteem, and perceived parental attitudes. The proposed model was estimated using path analysis. Goodness of fit statistics showed that the model fit the data well. Results indicated that parental acceptance/involvement predicted self-esteem; perceived parental strictness/supervision predicted fear of negative evaluation; and perceived parental psychological autonomy predicted self-esteem. Self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between parental acceptance/involvement and shyness, whereas it fully mediated the relationship between parental psychological autonomy and shyness. Fear of negative evaluation fully mediated the relationship between parental strictness/supervision and shyness. In addition, the relationship between self-esteem and shyness was partially mediated by fear of negative evaluation. The findings provided evidence for the propositions that parental attitudes are important in the development of self-image and fears of rejection which result in the experience of shyness.     

Looking to happy tomorrows with friends: Best and close friendships as they predict happiness

Friendships are an important source of happiness. The present study (n = 280) investigated the role of friendship quality and conflict in happiness and examined the feature of friendship that best predicted happiness. Information was gathered about the quality and conflict of the best, first and second close friendships of the individual. Results revealed that best friendship quality was the only significant predictor of happiness; however, individuals were happier when they experienced high quality first close friendships in conjunction with a high quality best friendship. Results also revealed that first close friendship quality buffered the negative impact of first close friendship conflict. The companionship feature of the best and first close friendship appeared as the strongest predictor of happiness. Findings were discussed in light of the literature and suggestions for future research were made.     

Counterfactuals vs. conditional probabilities: A critical analysis of the counterfactual theory of information

Cohen and Meskin 2006 Cohen, Jonathan and Meskin, Aaron. 2006. An Objective Counterfactual Theory of Information. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 84: 333–352. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] recently offered a counterfactual theory of information to replace the standard probabilistic theory of information. They claim that the counterfactual theory fares better than the standard account on three grounds: first, it provides a better framework for explaining information flow properties; second, it requires a less expensive ontology; and third, because it does not refer to doxastic states of the information-receiving organism, it provides an objective basis. In this paper, I show that none of these is really an advantage. Moreover, the counterfactual theory fails to satisfy one of the basic properties of information flow, namely the Conjunction principle. Thus, I conclude, there is no reason to give up the standard probabilistic theory for the counterfactual theory of information.     

A Path Model of Meaning in Life among University Students: The Roles of Gratitude,Self-Concept Clarity and Self-Construal

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The current study aimed to investigate the relationships between meaning in life (presence of meaning, search for meaning), self-construal (integration,...