Happiness and despair on the catwalk: Need satisfaction,well-being,and personality adjustment among fashion models

According to self-determination theory, well-being and healthy personality development depend on the fulfillment of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, relatedness, and competence. However, various contextual features can interfere with need satisfaction and undermine well-being. We hypothesized that fashion models, who are often valued for superficial reasons (i.e., their looks) and who may not have regular opportunities to cultivate deep relationships or exercise personal control on the job, might experience lower psychological need satisfaction, less well-being, and less optimal personality adjustment. Two studies were conducted in which professional fashion models (N?=?56 in Study 1; N?=?35 in Study 2) were compared to approximately equally large groups of non-models. Fashion models reported slightly lower need satisfaction and well-being but greater personality maladjustment (personality disorder features). Mediation analyses in Study 1 suggested that the lower well-being among models was explained via unfulfilled basic needs. These findings further substantiate the importance of basic need satisfaction for well-being and optimal adjustment.     

Infertility and Adjustment in Women: The Effects of Attachment Style and Social Support

The moderating effects of two psychological resources—attachment style and perceived social support—on adjustment were studied in 109 infertile women, examining the effects of duration of infertility and of primary (the woman has no child of her own) versus secondary (the woman already has a child of her own) infertility. Subjects were administered questionnaires measuring marital adjustment, psychological distress, and well-being. A model viewing attachment style and social support as moderators between stress psychological well-being was explored. The results showed that among the objective characteristics, only duration of infertility had any impact on the psychological measures. Furthermore, the psychological resources were highly associated with the adjustment scores in general. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that attachment style and social support both were related to marital quality and to psychological well-being and that these two resources function as stress moderators. It was concluded that attachment style and social support are important resources for individuals in times of stress, as exemplified in the infertility situation.     

Real Relationship: The “Something More” of Psychotherapy

Although it often operates silently, the personal relationship is a part of everything that transpires between therapist and client. Following the psychoanalyst Ralph Greenson's (1967) early lead, the term Real Relationship is used to capture this personal aspect of psychotherapy. It is divided into two elements, realism and genuineness; and both these elements are further divided into magnitude and valence aspects. Research on the real relationship is almost nonexistent, and to an important extent this is due to the lack of a reliable, valid, and convenient measure. The author is involved in a research project aimed at developing such measures from both the client and therapist perspective. Examples of items are provided.     

Differences in First Graders' School Adjustment: the Role of Classroom Characteristics and Social Structure of the Group

We examined differences among classes in academic and psychosocial aspects of school adjustment. The sample consisted of 1241 6-7-year-olds in 71 classes from 49 schools. Multilevel analyses showed that 83.5% of the variance was at the child level, 10.3% at the class level, and 6.2% at the school level. Thus, for the part of the variance that was not at the child level, differences among classes were more important than differences among schools. To identify relevant class factors, we focused on classroom characteristics and aspects of the social structure in the class such as integration and openness. Classroom and teacher variables were relatively unimportant compared to social structure indices that yielded significant correlation indicators of social interaction and intellectual competence and explained part of their variance at the class level. This suggested that the structure of the social relations contributed to differences among classes in several aspects of school adjustment.     

Psychological Adjustment to Breast Cancer

Breast cancer remains a highly prevalent and extraordinarily stressful experience for hundreds of thousands of women each year in the United States and around the world. Psychological research has provided a picture of the emotional and social impact of breast cancer on patients' lives, and of factors associated with better versus worse adjustment. Psychosocial interventions have been beneficial in decreasing patients' distress and enhancing their quality of life. Recent research also suggests that psychological factors may be related to potentially important biological disease-related processes. In addition to providing an understanding of the psychological factors in breast cancer, research in this area has provided a framework for research on adaptation to health-related stress in general.     

Personality Dysfunction and the Management of Chronic Medical Illness: A Community Health Sample

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of personality disorders on perceived health status, self-efficacy for management of the chronic illness, and physician perception of patient health. A total of 607 patients with self-identified chronicillness(es) volunteered to participate in the study. Out of this sample, 147 had collaborative physician data indicating a chronic illness. The final sample was 143 due to incomplete data. Results suggested that maladaptive personality characteristics, as measured by the Short-Form of the Coolidge Axis II Inventory (SCATI), were related to a number of important factors that influence self-management of chronic illnesses. When the personality constellations were broken into 3 groups (normal, subclinical, and clinical) significant differences were found on the 3 groups of dependent variables (Subjective Health, Self-Efficacy, Physician Appraisal) for the different personality disorders. These data provide useful information on several factors that influence effective disease management. Clinical implications and directions for future research are provided.     

中学生同伴交往接受和拒绝的归因研究

本研究参考国外相关量表的设计,结合我国实际,编制了中学生人际归因风格问卷,考察了人际归因风格和人格特征两个维度对中学生在同辈群体中的社会测量地位的影响程度。结果表明,这两者共同影响中学生的社会测量地位,被拒绝学生对正性事件的归因与其他学生存在显著差异,对负性事件的归因不存在显著差异。这提示我们,可以通过改变被拒绝学生不适当的人际归因方式来改善其同伴关系。     

Parent-Adolescent Relationship and Adolescent Psychological Functioning among African-American Female Adolescents: Self-Esteem as a Mediator

African-American female adolescents living in urban areas are at increased risk for adverse adjustment outcomes. The present study accomplished two goals. First, the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship across age groups was examined for differences among younger (i.e., 12'14) versus mid-range (i.e., 15'16) versus older (i.e., 17'18) adolescents. Second, self-esteem was examined as a possible mediator of the relationship between the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship and adolescent psychological functioning in a sample of 608 African-American urban adolescent females. With regard to developmental shifts in the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship, midrange adolescents reported a significantly poorer relationship with their mother than older adolescents. Results also indicated that self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between parent-child relationship and adolescent psychological functioning. Mental health professionals can broaden their interventions that aim to improve adolescent psychological functioning by either focusing on the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship or adolescent self-esteem.     

Study of the adjustment of Western expatriates in Taiwan ROC with the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire

The present paper examined the validity of the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). As criteria of validity three levels of adjustment were used. The study took place among a sample of expatriates ( N = 102) during their assignment in Taiwan. The MPQ has scales for cultural empathy, open-mindedness, social initiative, emotional stability and flexibility. The MPQ scales appeared to be predictive of expatriates' personal, professional and social adjustment. In all three domains, emotional stability appeared most consistently as a predictor of adjustment. Social initiative was an additional strong predictor of psychological well-being, as was cultural empathy of satisfaction with life and of the amount of social support in the host country. Flexibility was a predictor of job satisfaction and social support. The study also examined the effects of marital status on adjustment. Married expatriates showed higher levels of adjustment than expatriates who were single or separated.     

Possible antecedents and developmental implications of shame in young girls

The objectives of this study were to assess the effects of parenting style and child emotionality on the development of proneness to shame in young girls, and the mediating effect of shame on the development of adjustment problems. Eighty‐eight girls were assessed twice, at 3 and 5 years of age, along with their mothers and fathers. Shame was assessed by observations (reactions to failure and criticism); parenting style and child emotions (fearfulness, sadness, anger) were measured using parent reports; and adjustment problems were assessed by parent and teacher reports. Girls were more likely to show shame at age 5 when both their mothers and fathers had been relatively authoritarian at age 3; their emotional dispositions did not have any direct longitudinal effects on shame. Authoritarian parenting predicted subsequent internalizing problems as assessed by teachers, but there was no evidence for a mediational effect of shame. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.