Search

The present study examined the way retirees perceive retirement and continue to work post-retirement. Using a longitudinal design, qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed to examine the effect of preoccupation with work on adjustment to retirement. The findings indicate a wide range of attitudes toward cessation of the working life on the eve of retirement. In addition, most retirees reported increased well-being and decreased distress one year after retirement. Although for all participants a correlation was found between adjustment and preoccupation with work on the eve of retirement, no difference in the adjustment measures emerged a year later between those who were fully retired and those who continued to work. The implications of the findings for both personal well-being and social policy are discussed.

A French version of the Self Description Questionnaire--I (SDQ-I) was completed by 1,103 students in Grades 2-6. Strong psychometric properties, a well-defined multidimensional structure, factorial invariance over age, small stereotypic gender differences, largely linear declines in mean levels of self-concept with age, and modest differentiation between academic competence and affect replicate and extend previous research. The authors critically evaluated theory and methodology underlying previous tests of the developmental proposal that self-concept becomes increasingly multidimensional with age. The authors developed and provided strong support for a new differential distinctiveness hypothesis, demonstrating that increasing distinctiveness--substantial age-related declines in correlations among latent factors--varied systematically depending on the extent of association between first-order factors in hierarchical models. Overall, correlations decreased with age, but correlations in the last category of the 3-category a priori classification showed little decline and some increased with age.

Examination of the assumptions underlying consistency perspectives in social and personality psychology reveals that they are based on an independent, individualistic view of the self. lf the self is constructed as relational or interdependent with others, consistency may be less important in social behavior and well-being. Using a variety of measures of well-being, the studies showed that there is a weaker relation between consistency and well-being for individuals with a highly relational self-construal than for those with a low relational self-construal. Study 3 examined the association between the self-construal, consistency, authenticity, and well-being. These findings reveal the importance of a cultural analysis of theories of the self, personality, and well-being for further theory development.

The authors hypothesize that socially excluded individuals enter a defensive state of cognitive deconstruction that avoids meaningful thought, emotion, and self-awareness, and is characterized by lethargy and altered time flow. Social rejection led to an overestimation of time intervals, a focus on the present rather than the future, and a failure to delay gratification (Experiment 1). Rejected participants were more likely to agree that 'Life is meaningless' (Experiment 2). Excluded participants wrote fewer words and displayed slower reaction times (Experiments 3 and 4). They chose fewer emotion words in an implicit emotion task (Experiment 5), replicating the lack of emotion on explicit measures (Experiments 1-3 and 6). Excluded participants also tried to escape from self-awareness by facing away from a mirror (Experiment 6).

This article examines how people judge their likeliness of engaging in negative life events, such as alcoholism or divorce. The authors maintain that most people perceive themselves with an optimistic bias, and often feel their own susceptibly to risk is lower than an average peer.

Three studies suggest that individuals see the existence and operation of cognitive and motivational biases much more in others than in themselves. Study 1 provides evidence from three surveys that people rate themselves as less subject to various biases than the 'average American,' classmates in a seminar, and fellow airport travelers. Data from the third survey further suggest that such claims arise from the interplay among availability biases and self-enhancement motives. Participants in one follow-up study who showed the better-than-average bias insisted that their self-assessments were accurate and objective even after reading a description of how they could have been affected by the relevant bias. Participants in a final study reported their peer's self-serving attributions regarding test performance to be biased but their own similarly self-serving attributions to be free of bias. The relevance of these phenomena to naive realism and to conflict, misunderstanding, and dispute resolution is discussed.

The aim of the study was to assess the construct validity of a Preliminary Self-concept Questionnaire and an Afrikaans version of the Self-description Questionnaire of Marsh, Smith, and Barnes. Questionnaires were administered to 57 boys and 57 girls in Grades 5 and 7. Their self-concepts were rated by their teachers on a teacher's rating scale, based on the four subscales of the Preliminary Self-concept Questionnaire. Correlations among the total scores of the three self-concept measures were calculated, as well as correlations among corresponding subscale scores. These values supported the construct validity of the Preliminary Self-concept Questionnaire and the convergent validity of three of the four subscales.

The twofold retrieval by associative pathways (TRAP) model (L. Garcia-Marques & D. L. Hamilton, 1996) proposes that two distinct modes of retrieval typically underlie recall and frequency estimation. The model accounts for the simultaneous occurrence of greater recall of incongruent information and higher frequency estimation of congruent information. Three experiments provided further tests of the TRAP model. Experiment 1 manipulated cognitive load (at encoding and at retrieval) and the selectivity of the retrieval goal. Under either high load or a selective retrieval goal, incongruent items ceased to be better recalled. Experiment 2 manipulated the accessibility of expectancy-congruent, -incongruent, or -neutral episodes and found corresponding effects in frequency estimates. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that providing part-list retrieval cues inhibits recall but increases frequency estimates. The TRAP model predicted these results.

People who change often report that their old selves seem like 'different people.' Correlational (Study 1) and experimental (Studies 2 and 3) studies showed that participants tended to use a 3rd-person observer perspective when visualizing memories of actions that conflicted with their current self-concept. A similar pattern emerged when participants imagined performing actions that varied in self-concept compatibility (Study 4). The authors conclude that on-line judgments of an action's self-concept compatibility affect the perspective used for image construction. Study 5 shows applied implications. Use of the 3rd-person perspective when recalling past episodes of overindulgent eating was related to optimism about behaving differently at an upcoming Thanksgiving dinner. The authors discuss the effect of self-concept compatibility on cognitive and emotional reactions to past actions and consider the role of causal attributions in defining the self across time.

The author measures levels of modesty and self-enhancement and examines the role of culture and society plays in those measurement. Topics include cross-cultural differences, self-enhancement, and social norms.

Significance of good student self-assessment in understanding of chemical concepts is discussed. For moving beyond rote memorization, developing ability to evaluate work of one's own and of others is necessary. A series of pretests are administered in the first semester of the general chemistry course at Rice University. As part of this series, a new interactive question type gives opportunity to look at ability to self-assess and at its relationship to success on content questions. The languages of chemistry must be learned as part of any chemistry program that succeeds. Students must examine work and find their own errors if they are to learn. Active learning and cooperative learning are important.

This article examines the self-evaluations of students, ranging from 12 to 15 years of age, in a physical education class. The results of the self-evaluations, which measured self-worth, physical self-worth, and students' motivation, demonstrated that most students' self-perceptions fluctuated over a 3 week period.

This article explores women's experiences while engaged in physical activity. The author, examining women who had participated in either aerobics or a wilderness canoe-trip, asserts that the women's experiences positively shaped their sense of physicality (body and self perception) in that they felt physically and socially empowered.

This article reports on a confirmatory analytic study of the Bachman revision (1970) of Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (1965) that was used in the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ALSA). Participants comprised 1,087 elderly people aged between 70 and 103 years (mean 77 years). Five competing factor models were tested with LISREL8. The best-fitting model was a nested one, with a General Self-esteem second-order factor and two first-order factors, Positive Self-regard and Usefulness/Competence. This model was validated with data from a later wave of ALSA. Usefulness and competence have received little attention in the gerontological literature to date. Preliminary results indicate that usefulness/competence may be an important predictor of well-being. Further work is required on the relationships among usefulness, competence, self-esteem, and well-being in elderly people.

This study examined whether global academic self-concept and academic self-efficacy beliefs that vary in domain specificity - globality represent distinct or common underlying dimensions. Participants were 205 university students who completed measures of academic self-concept, global academic self-efficacy, and domain-specific mathematics self-efficacy. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that each of the variables represented separate, though related, latent dimensions of self-perception. Self-efficacy and self-concept were also differentially useful in predicting relatively domain-specific versus global academic and vocational criteria. The implications of these findings for theory and practice related to academic achievement and career development are considered.

The predictive validity of two measurement methods of self-image congruence - traditional versus new - were compared in six studies involving different consumer populations, products, consumption settings, and dependent variables (brand preference, preference for product form, consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction, brand attitude, and program choice). The traditional method is based on tapping the subject's perception of product-user image and the subject's perception of his/her self-image along a predetermined set of image attributes and adding the self-congruity scores across all image dimensions. Three problems were identified and discussed in relation to the traditional method: (1) the use of discrepancy scores, (2) the possible use of irrelevant images, and (3) the use of the compensatory decision rule. The new method is based on tapping the psychological experience of self-congruity directly and globally. The findings demonstrated the predictive validity of the new method over and beyond the traditional method. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Beginning with an open-ended technique in which subjects suggested attributes of self-identity, a forced-choice instrument for measuring the centrality of self-attributes was developed. 143 undergraduates enrolled in psychology courses at a large church-related university were examined. Mean ranks were used to represent the centrality of self-identity attributes. Those mean ranks were analyzed using analysis of variance and factor analysis. Religious and Familial Identifications were most central to self-identity. Self-evaluations were next most central, and Public Labels were least central. While the specific findings were limited somewhat to the group studied, the viability of a centrality model of self-identity was demonstrated.

In this investigation expressed and inferred ratings of self-concept were obtained from the Self-description Questionnaire III for 42 Year-1 undergraduates enrolled in psychology classes. Significant correlations are reported between self-other ratings among all 13 subscales.

Summary. - The Me Scale is a measure of self-concept for use with gifted and talented youth. It focuses on perceptions of self as a highly able or talented person. Expanded and updated norms, based upon a sample of 931 gifted students in Grades 3 to 10, were developed for the Me Scale and presented in this report.

Thirty adolescents who had lived away from home for at least six months were compared on self-concept with 120 adolescents living at home. The latter group was divided into equal numbers of adolescents who were employed, unemployed, school students, and college students. The Offer Self-Image Questionnaire for Adolescents was used to measure self-concept. Other measures used were the Beck Depression Inventory, the Hopelessness Scale of Beck et al., and the Rotter Internal External Locus of Control Scale. These were used to examine the relationship between deficits in self-concept and psychopathology. Environmental factors such as family relationships, employment, school achievement, and friendships were also examined. It was found that homeless adolescents demonstrated significant deficits in five areas of self-concept and a specific pattern of deficits was related to hopelessness. Results were discussed with reference tod the theory that acting-out behavior mitigates the impact of affective disturbance on self concept.

The internal/external frame of reference model (Marsh, 1986) was proposed to explain the development of academic self-concepts for general ability samples. Recent research calls into question the model's applicability for gifted adolescents' academic self-concept development. This model was examined for 131 adolescents participating in a summer program for academically talented students. Results suggest that the model is useful in understanding the academic self-concept development of students who are gifted, with no significant differences among students with demonstrable strengths in mathematics, verbal areas, or both areas. Educators should be aware that exceptional performance in one area, such as mathematics, will probably have a positive impact in mathematics self-concept but a negative impact on other academic self-concepts, such as verbal self-concept., Researchers and practitioners working with children are becoming increasingly aware of the role of affective processes in students' intellectual development. For example, investigators have examined the significance of positive attachments, [...]

Experiment 1 used the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A. G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee, & J. L. K. Schwartz, 1998) to measure self-esteem by assessing automatic associations of self with positive or negative valence. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that two IAT measures defined a factor that was distinct from, but weakly correlated with, a factor defined by standard explicit (self-report) measures of self-esteem. Experiment 2 tested known-groups validity of two IAT gender self-concept measures. Compared with well-established explicit measures, the IAT measures revealed triple the difference in measured masculinity-femininity between men and women. Again, CFA revealed construct divergence between implicit and explicit measures. Experiment 3 assessed the self-esteem IAT's validity in predicting cognitive reactions to success and failure. High implicit self-esteem was associated in the predicted fashion with buffering against adverse effects of failure on two of four measures.

At the beginning and later in the 1995 spring semester, 87 students (23 men and 64 women) in five classes rated themselves according to Spence and Helmreich's 1978 short Personality Attributes Questionnaire which measures traits desirable in both men and women, Instrumental (Masculine or M) and Expressive (Feminine or F), and traits inversely acceptable in men and women (M-F). The mean scores on M-F of women in two sections of one class significantly increased. The mean scores on Femininity of women in another class decreased. Pearson correlations indicated that the subjects had formed a coherent, consistent view that nevertheless did change during the semester. Their changed means suggest that the content of a course might influence an idealized self-image.