Assessment of dispositional embarrassability

Abstract

Embarrassability, the propensity for an individual to experience embarrassment, has been frequently acknowledged as an important personality characteristic. The present research sought to explore the dispositional features of embarrassability by the psychometric development of 25-item measure, the Susceptibility to Embarrassment Scale (SES). The SES was designed to describe the personality characteristics of easily embarrassed persons rather than reactions to potentially embarrassing situations. The results indicated that the SES was an internally consistent and temporally stable measure. Its items were uncontaminated by social desirability. Assessments of construct validity suggested that the scale was a valid measure of embarrassability, and specifically a better measure of dispositional components of embarrassability than the only alternative measure of the construct. The location of the SES within the Big Five structure of normal adult personality is presented as well as its relationship with measures of deviant personality.     

Self-Construing In Former Child Soldiers

This article presents a repertory grid study of young people who had experienced civil war in Sierra Leone, some as child soldiers and others as noncombatants. Unexpected findings included that the former combatants viewed themselves more favorably than did noncombatants. The findings are discussed in terms of individual and social construing processes, drawing on narratives and interview and focus group responses obtained from the participants in the larger investigation of which this study was part. Particular consideration is given to the role of forgiveness.     

Rising Up From Down Under: A Response To Adams-Webber On Cognitive Psychology And Personal Construct Theory

This article is a response to Adams-Webber's (1990) critique of my discussion of the relation between personal construct theory and cognitive psychology (Warren, 7990). Several points of specific disagreement are raised in an effort to clarify my own position. Furthermore, this clarification highlights the need for “integrationist” perspectives to clearly and directly address the problems, as well as the prospects, of relating personal construct theory to other perspectives in psychology.     

Personal Constructs of Mind-Body Identity in People Who Experience Medically Unexplained Symptoms

“Medically unexplained symptoms” (MUS) refers to chronic physical symptoms without a clear medical cause, which produce significant levels of distress and functional impairment. This project modified the repertory grid technique to explore how twenty participants experiencing MUS construed self and others in bodily and psychological ways. Findings suggested that symptoms are well integrated within participants' wider mind–body construct systems. Increased distance between how self in general is construed compared to self when symptoms are worst was associated with reduced anxiety. Measuring intrapersonal and interpersonal implicative dilemmas suggested that moral and relational construing of identity is affected by MUS.     

Reconstructing An Erection and Elaborating Ejaculation: Personal Construct Theory Perspectives on Sex Therapy

Abstract

Personal construct psychotherapy has rarely been applied to sexual disorders. In this paper a constructivist approach is contrasted with alternative methods of treating such problems on three related dimensions concerning whether it (1) is introspective or extraspective, (2) views the complaint as representing a personal construction or faulty mechanism, or (3) aims toward personal or normative goals. It will be illustrated by reports of the treatment of two men presenting with sexual complaints, and its technical eclecticism will be compared with integrative trends in sex therapy.     

Body checking and avoidance in ethnically diverse female college students

Although body checking and avoidance behaviors are common in women with eating disorders, minimal research has examined the nature or correlates of these behaviors in ethnically diverse female college students without eating disorders. Self-identified European American (n = 268), Asian American (n = 163), Latina (n = 146), and African American (n = 73) women completed self-report measures of body checking and avoidance, thin-ideal internalization, eating pathology, and clinical impairment. Results indicated that European and Asian American women reported significantly more body checking and avoidance than African American and Latina women. Generally, correlates of body checking and avoidance were consistent across ethnic groups: Regression analyses indicated that type of ethnicity predicted body checking and avoidance; and ethnicity, body checking, and body avoidance predicted eating pathology and clinical impairment. These associations suggest that body checking and avoidance are not benign behaviors in diverse nonclinical women.     

Right-Wing Authoritarianism, Party Identification, and Attitudes Toward Feminism in Student Evaluations of the Clinton-Lewinsky Story

This study explored the relationship among undergraduates' right-wing authoritarianism (as measured by the RWA scale), attitudes toward feminism, party identification, gender, and attitudes about the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship. Factor analysis yielded three subscales, reflecting participants' evaluations of Clinton's morality, the affair, and Kenneth Starr (the independent counsel). Republican identification was related to each subscale and also mediated the relationship between RWA and two subscales, which illustrates how party identification channels the expression of personality variables in partisan contexts. In addition, RWA—especially those items tapping aggression—was directly related to negative evaluations of Clinton, which suggests a punitiveness going beyond the mere channeling of opinions by party identification. Attitudes toward feminism were unrelated to the subscales, possibly because feminism supporters viewed Clinton's policies positively but his behavior negatively. However, females did give significantly lower evaluations of Clinton and the affair.     

Success and Gender: Determining the Rate of Advancement for Intercollegiate Athletic Directors

Since the demise of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), female sport administrators have continued their struggle to reestablish their place as athletic directors. The purpose of this study was to assess the rate of advancement (success ratio) of intercollegiate athletic directors, with a primary focus on gender. Athletic directors from 157 NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association) member institutions participated in the study. The preliminary results confirmed the expected findings that hegemonic masculinity was entrenched within intercollegiate athletics. The success ratio of male athletic directors differed from that of female athletic directors, and the difference was significant (p ≤ .05). The success ratio for men was higher than the ratio for women. Further analyses, however, showed that female athletic directors had higher success ratios than their male peers at lower level institutions. Although parity in numbers has not yet been achieved across the NCAA, the glass ceiling at Division I institutions may begin to crack as more women achieve success at the lower level institutions.     

The dimensions of stage theories

Stage theories are commonly used to represent the structure of cognitive processes in the domains of cognitive processing and cognitive development. Hierarchical unidimensional theories consisting of a single sequence of stages through which development proceeds in one direction only have predominated. However, a review of stage theories revealed that a two-dimensional, interactive (multidimensional) structure is warranted. Particularly in the area of cognitive development, results of research have supported subdivision of the stages of prominent unidimensional theories. Following this trend a small number of theorists have developed multidimensional theories, most of which consist of a sequence of stages in which each stage contains a number of subsidiary stages or levels. The emergence of a similar trend in other domains is examined, and the prospects of using an existing multidimensional framework to enable future comparisons and integration of different stage theories is explored.