Validating a New Measure of Self-Complexity

The construct of self-complexity has been recognized as important for understanding psychological adjustment. However, research in this area has been impeded by measurement problems. In particular, the most commonly used measure, Linville's (1985, 1987) H statistic, cannot assess this construct appropriately. In this article, we present a new measure designed to tap two components of self-complexity separately: the number of self-aspects and the average distinction among them. We conducted a validation study with 131 Chinese college students. The results indicate that (a) this new measure is not confounded with conscious social desirability bias, (b) it has incremental validity beyond existing measures, and (c) the two components as assessed by this new measure are relatively independent and have different psychological functions. We discuss the implications of these findings for future studies of self-complexity and clinical practice.     

Index to Volume 119

This longitudinal study focused on the causal relationships between self-concept, locus of causality, and academic achievement. The subjects were 212 male and 213 female students at a prestigious secondary school in the central Philippines. Analysis of the panel data indicated that no single network of causal dominance may exist for males and females but did support Weiner's (1979) causal attribution theory in finding that locus of causality was causally predominant over self-concept.     

Antecedents of Self-Esteem of Nepalese and Filipino College Students

Correlates of possible antecedent variables with self-esteem instruments based on the Shavelson model are reported here for 302 Nepalese and 198 Filipino college students. Unlike Western studies using such instruments, the Nepalese and Filipino female students had significantly lower overall self-esteem than their male peers. Like these Western studies, however, the strength of the correlation depended on the particular facet of self-esteem in question.     

Inhibiting word generation with word presentations

The ability to generate words of a given category is found to be impaired when other words of the same category are being heard (Experiments 1-4). Little if any impairment arises from hearing words of a different category (Experiments 1, 2, and 3). This pattern of results occurs with categories defined both semantically (Experiments 1, 2, and 4) and graphemically (Experiment 3). The extent of the impairment is found to be comparable to that which occurs when other words of the same category are studied and recalled prior to generation (Experiment 4). These findings are discussed in the context of other inhibitory phenomena.     

Non-ruminative processing reduces overgeneral autobiographical memory retrieval in students

It has been suggested that overgeneral memory (OGM) represents a vulnerability marker for depression [Williams, J. M. G., Barnhofer, T., Crane, C., Hermans, D., Raes, F., Watkins, E., et al. (2007). Autobiographical memory specificity and emotional disorder. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 122-148]. One important underlying mechanism involved is rumination [e.g., Watkins, E., & Teasdale, J. D. (2001). Rumination and overgeneral memory in depression: Effects of self-focus and analytic thinking. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 353-357; Watkins, E., & Teasdale, J. D. (2004). Adaptive and maladaptive self-focus in depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 82, 1-8]. It is as yet unclear to what extent the relationship between rumination and OGM also applies to nonclinical groups. The present study investigated this relationship in a nonclinical student sample, using an innovative sentence completion procedure to assess OGM. As hypothesized, the experimental induction of a concrete, process-focused (or non-ruminative) thinking style (n=102) led to less OGMs as compared to the experimental induction of an abstract, evaluative (or ruminative) thinking style (n=93). The present results add to the accumulating body of evidence that abstract, evaluative (or ruminative) thinking is a crucial underlying process of OGM, and expand prior literature by extending this idea to nonclinical individuals and by using a new procedure to assess OGM.     

Heightened ruminative disposition is associated with impaired attentional disengagement from negative relative to positive information: support for the “impaired disengagement” hypothesis

Information processing accounts of rumination propose that impaired attentional disengagement from negative information may underpin heightened disposition to experience ruminative brooding in response to negative mood. The present study examined the relationship between individual differences in ruminative disposition and selective attention, using a paradigm capable of distinguishing between biases in the engagement and disengagement of attention. Results showed that higher dispositional ruminative brooding, as measured by both the brooding subscale of the RRS and an in-vivo assessment of ruminative disposition, was associated with greater relative impairment disengaging attention from negative compared to positive stimuli. These findings thus provide support for the “impaired disengagement” account of ruminative brooding.     

When the ends outweigh the means: mood and level of identification in depression

Research in healthy controls has found that mood influences cognitive processing via level of action identification: happy moods are associated with global and abstract processing; sad moods are associated with local and concrete processing. However, this pattern seems inconsistent with the high level of abstract processing observed in depressed patients, leading Watkins (2008, 2010) to hypothesise that the association between mood and level of goal/action identification is impaired in depression. We tested this hypothesis by measuring level of identification on the Behavioural Identification Form after happy and sad mood inductions in never-depressed controls and currently depressed patients. Participants used increasingly concrete action identifications as they became sadder and less happy, but this effect was moderated by depression status. Consistent with Watkins' (2008) hypothesis, increases in sad mood and decreases in happiness were associated with shifts towards the use of more concrete action identifications in never-depressed individuals, but not in depressed patients. These findings suggest that the putatively adaptive association between mood and level of identification is impaired in major depression.     

Making Sense of the Barriers Women Face in the Information Technology Work Force: Standpoint Theory, Self-disclosure, and Causal Maps

Two theoretical perspectives (i.e., standpoint theory and the communication boundary management theory) were used to investigate the comments that 39 female information technology (IT) employees made during focus groups as they discussed issues related to workplace barriers and voluntary turnover. The revealed causal mapping method was used to analyze the women’s responses. Voluntary turnover decisions were influenced by work schedule flexibility, family responsibilities, work stress, job qualities, and lack of consistency in workplace policies. Perceived barriers to promotion were linked to lack of respect, ageism, stress, and work schedule flexibility. Differences emerged between explicitly stated and implicitly embedded responses. Women explicitly discussed issues consistent with previous IT research; however their implicit statements often addressed barriers not commonly linked with IT advancement and turnover concerns.     

Rumination and social problem-solving in depression

We tested the hypothesis that impaired social problem solving in depression is a consequence of state-oriented rumination, which can be ameliorated by improving awareness of mental processes. 32 currently depressed, 26 recovered depressed, and 26 never depressed participants completed the Means Ends Problem Solving Test while randomly allocated to no questions, state-oriented ruminative questions, (e.g. focusing on why you have a problem) or process-focused questions (e.g. focusing on how you decide to solve a problem). In the no question condition, the currently depressed group was significantly impaired at problem solving compared to the never depressed and recovered depressed groups, which did not differ from each other. As predicted, the process-focused questions significantly improved social problem solving in depressed patients, compared to no questions and state-oriented questions, which did not differ from each other. As predicted, compared to the process-focused questions, the state-oriented questions significantly impaired social problem solving in the recovered depressed group. These results are consistent with recent theories and treatment developments which suggest that increased awareness of mental processes can shift people away from ruminative thinking, thereby, reducing depressive relapse.