Children's appraisal of moderately stressful situations

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianne Hood ◽  
Thomas Power ◽  
Laura Hill

This study investigated 2 questions: (1) do children show consistent styles of appraisal across a range of moderately stressful events?, and (2) what are the adjustment and parenting correlates of individual differences in children's appraisal style? Ninety-nine 3rd though 5th grade children and their mothers participated. For each of 6 vignettes involving moderately stressful situations, children responded to 10 items assessing children's appraisal of these events. Mothers completed a self-report measure of parenting practices and children reported on their psychological adjustment. Participants showed moderate levels of consistency in their appraisal of the events across situations, and 6 appraisal styles were identified that reflected the nature of appraisal aggregated across situations. These styles showed meaningful patterns of association with child psychological symptoms and parenting practices. Children showing the victim appraisal style reported the highest levels of anxiety and school dislike, whereas children showing the inconvenience and take responsibility styles reported the lowest level of conduct problems. Parenting style was associated with the appraisal style of boys but not girls. Specifically, boys of authoritative mothers were more likely than other boys to show the inconvenience and take responsibility appraisal styles and less likely to show the victim style.

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 227-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abira Reizer ◽  
Mario Mikulincer

Abstract. In the current series of studies, we developed a self-report measure of mental representations of caregiving (MRC). Study 1 (N = 841) describes the development and factor structure of the MRC scale. Studies 2-4 provided convergent, discriminant, and construct validity of the MRC scale, by examining its associations with attachment dimensions, empathy, emotional control, relational interdependent self-construal, communal orientation, and value priorities. Study 5 revealed significant associations between caregiving representations and parenting attitudes (desire to have a child, feelings toward parenthood, and expectations of self-efficacy as a parent). Overall, the results provide highly consistent evidence for the reliability and validity of the new MRC scale. The implications of individual differences in mental representation of caregiving for prosocial behavior and helping are discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom J. Barry ◽  
Bram Vervliet ◽  
Dirk Hermans

Anxiety disorders are often treated by repeatedly presenting stimuli that are perceptually similar to original stimuli to which fear was originally acquired. Fear can return after it is extinguished because of the differences between these stimuli. It may possible to attenuate return of fear by manipulating attention to the commonalities between feared stimuli and extinction stimuli. After acquiring fear for an animal-like stimulus by pairing with an electro-cutaneous shock, fear was extinguished by repeatedly presenting a similar stimulus. During extinction participants were asked questions that instructed them to attend towards the features in common between the acquisition and extinction stimulus or towards the unique features of the extinction stimulus. Return of fear was assessed by presenting a second perceptually similar stimulus after extinction. Participants showed a return in skin conductance responding after extinction in the unique condition, and not in the common condition. Both groups showed a return in self-report ratings of US expectancy. Neither group showed a return in fear potentiated startle, but there was evidence that this may have been due to individual differences in emotional attentional control. Our conclusions are limited by the use of a self-report measure of emotional attentional control and the absence of limits on the length of time participants could take to answer the extinction questions. It may be possible to enhance extinction and prevent a return of the physiological aspects of fear by manipulating attention during extinction. However, this does not appear to influence explicit expectancy of aversive outcomes. Individual differences in attentional control may influence this process.


2008 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willibald Ruch ◽  
René T. Proyer

Ruch and Proyer (2008) provided preliminary evidence for the validity of gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at) by showing that a group of individuals diagnosed as gelotophobic could be discriminated from groups of shame-based neurotics, non shame-based neurotics, and normal controls by means of a self-report measure. The present study reanalyzes data aimed at identifying the set of items best suited for measuring gelotophobia and estimates the prevalence of gelotophobia in the four groups (N = 863). The application of several criteria led to a final list of 15 statements. Cut-off points for a slight, pronounced, and extreme expression of gelotophobia were defined. In the group of those clinically assessed as having gelotophobia, the cut-off points were exceeded by approximately 31%, 39%, and 22%, respectively. Only 7.1% did not exceed the cut-off point, suggesting that the self-report measure validly determines the presence of and measures the intensity of gelotophobia. Close to 12% of the normal controls exceeded the cut-off points, suggesting that gelotophobia can be studied as an individual differences variable among normal individuals.


2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Wilhelm ◽  
Michael Witthöft ◽  
Stefan Schipolowski

The Cognitive Failure Questionnaire (CFQ) is a well-known and frequently used self-report measure of cognitive lapses and slips, for example, throwing away the candy bar and keeping the wrapping. Measurement models of individual differences in cognitive failures have failed to produce consistent results so far. In this article we establish a measurement model distinguishing three factors of self-reported cognitive failures labeled Clumsiness, Retrieval, and Intention forgotten. The relationships of the CFQ factors with a variety of self-report instruments are investigated. Measures of minor lapses, neuroticism, functional and dysfunctional self-consciousness, cognitive interference, and memory complaints provide evidence across several studies for the interpretation of self-reported cognitive failures as an aspect of neuroticism that primarily reflects general subjective complaints about cognition. We conclude that self-report measures about cognition ought to be interpreted as expressing worries about one’s cognition rather than measuring cognitive abilities themselves.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janneke K. Oostrom ◽  
Lisanne M. de Rijke ◽  
Alec W. Serlie ◽  
Brigitte Heldeweg

Individual differences in communication styles. Does personality explain our way of communicating? Individual differences in communication styles. Does personality explain our way of communicating? The aim of this study was to empirically support the structure of the communication styles within the Social Style model by relating these to personality. The communication styles in the Social Style model consist of assertiveness, responsiveness, and an indicator that represents versatility or flexibility in the use of communication styles. Prior to communication styles training, 153 participants invited a number of co-workers and supervisors to rate their communication styles. We examined the extent to which the communication styles as rated by co-workers and supervisors could be explained by a self-report measure of personality. The regression analyses showed that extraversion is the most important predictor of responsiveness. Assertiveness was predicted by extraversion, self-presentation, and agreeableness (negative relationship). Versatility was predicted by agreeableness, neuroticism (negative relationship), and openness to experience (negative relationship). Given these relationships, it seems that communication styles are partly determined by personality. Organizations should take this into account when their employees participate in communication styles training.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-258
Author(s):  
Javier A. Granados Samayoa ◽  
Russell H. Fazio

The current research presents a novel perspective regarding individual differences in intertemporal choice preferences. We postulate that such differences are partly rooted in individuals’ valence weighting proclivities—their characteristic manner of weighting positive and negative valence when constructing an initial evaluation. Importantly, valence weighting bias should predict intertemporal choice most strongly (a) for those who are relatively low in trait self-control and (b) when the magnitude of the available rewards is relatively small, because these two factors are associated with lesser motivation/resources to deliberate extensively about one's decision. More specifically, we propose that those with a more positive weighting bias give greater weight to the clearly positive immediate reward that is under consideration, and under these conditions, the resulting appraisal shapes choice more strongly. Using a performance-based measure of valence weighting tendencies, a hypothetical intertemporal choice task, and a self-report measure of trait self-control, we provide evidence for our hypothesis.


1978 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 423-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert G. Turner

Two experiments were conducted to identify individual differences variables which were significantly related to performance on a paired-associates task of noun imagery. In Exp. 1, a self-report measure, the Paivio Imagery Scale, significantly differentiated subjects who spontaneously employed imagery to remember noun pairs of medium imagery/medium concreteness from those who did not. Under instructions to use imagery, verbal ability but not self-reported habits of imagery was significantly related to performance for low imagery/low concrete pairs. In Exp. 2, the significant effects for verbal ability in Exp. 1 were replicated and extended to medium imagery/medium concrete words. In addition, neither spatial ability nor self-reported habits of imagery added significant increments to explained variability on the noun tasks after verbal ability had been entered into the predictive equation. It was concluded that the Paivio Imagery Scale was a measure of preference for strategy, not ability, and that ability to image nouns was an expression of verbal ability. The consistency of these results with theoretical proposals of Paivio (1971) was noted.


2000 ◽  
Vol 177 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Chadwick ◽  
Susan Lees ◽  
Max Birchwood

BackgroundWe present a revised Beliefs About Voices Questionnaire (BAVQ–R), a self-report measure of patients' beliefs, emotions and behaviour about auditory hallucinations.AimsTo improve measurement of omnipotence, a pivotal concept in understanding auditory hallucinations, and elucidate links between beliefs about voices, anxiety and depression.MethodsSeventy-one participants with chronic auditory hallucinations completed the BAVQ–R, and 58 also completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.ResultsThe mean Cronbach's α for the five sub-scales was 0.86 (range 0.74–0.88). The study supports hypotheses about links between beliefs, emotions and behaviour, and presents original data on how these relate to the new omnipotence sub-scale. Original data are also presented on connections with anxiety and depression.ConclusionsThe BAVQ–R is more reliable and sensitive to individual differences than the original version, and reliably measures omnipotence.


Author(s):  
Thomas E. Nygren ◽  
Rebecca J. White

Decision strategies are often characterized as being intuition-based or analytically-based. The use of these strategies is proposed to be associated with individual differences in propensity toward using different decision making styles. A reliable self-report measure, the Decision Making Styles Inventory (DMI), consisting of 15 items on each of three scales was constructed. The items were found to differentiate among an “analytical”, an “intuitive”, and a “regret-based” emotional decision making style. The analytical and intuitive scales were found to predict differences in performance in a complex dynamic decision making task. on a decision making subtask, a greater general reliance on an analytical decision making style was found to lead to poorer performance. Greater reliance on a more intuitive approach had no effect on this subtask, but was found to predict better performance as workload levels increased. These findings suggest that human performance may be significantly influenced when either a more intuitive or analytical decision style is used. Implications for training the adaptive decision maker are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Estudillo ◽  
Wong Hoo Keat

The 20-Item Prosopagnosia Items (PI-20) was recently introduced as a self-report measure of face recognition abilities and as an instrument to help the diagnosis of prosopagnosia. In general, studies using this questionnaire have shown that observers have moderate to strong insights into their face recognition abilities. However, it remains unknown whether these insights are equivalent for the whole range of face recognition abilities. The present study investigates this issue using the Mandarin version of the PI-20 and the Cambridge Face Memory Test Chinese (CFMT-Chinese). Our results showed a moderate negative association between the PI-20 and the CFMT-Chinese. However, this association was driven by people with low and high face recognition ability, but absent in people within the typical range of face recognition performance. The implications of these results for the study of individual differences and the diagnosis of prosopagnosia are discussed.


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