Defining hope as a cognitive set that is composed of a reciprocally derived sense of successful (a) agency (goal-directed determination) and (b) pathways (planning of ways to meet goals), an individual-differences measure is developed. Studies demonstrate acceptable internal consistency and test-retest reliability, and the factor structure identifies the agency and pathways components of the Hope Scale. Convergent and discriminant validity are documented, along with evidence suggesting that Hope Scale scores augmented the prediction of goal-related activities and coping strategies beyond other self-report measures. Construct validational support is provided in regard to predicted goal-setting behaviors; moreover, the hypothesized goal appraisal processes that accompany the various levels of hope are corroborated.

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The will and the ways: development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope.

Development and validation of measures of social phobia scrutiny fear and social interaction anxiety

Time perspective (TP), a fundamental dimension in the construction of psychological time, emerges from cognitive processes partitioning human experience into past, present, and future temporal frames. The authors’ research program proposes that TP is a pervasive and powerful yet largely unrecognized influence on much human behavior. Although TP variations are learned and modified by a variety of personal, social, and institutional influences, TP also functions as an individual-differences variable. Reported is a new measure assessing personal variations in TP profiles and specific TP biases. The five factors of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory were established through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and demonstrate acceptable internal and test–retest reliability. Convergent, divergent, discriminant, and predictive validity are shown by correlational and experimental research supplemented by case studies.

https://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/9783319073675-c2.pdf?SGWID=0-0-45-1489760-p176762044

Putting Time in perspective : A valid, reliable individual-differences metric

Described in the psychiatric literature since the nineteenth century, obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD) could be clearly identified by written accounts centuries earlier. According to present-day psychiatric classification schemes, obsessions are recurrent ideas, thoughts, images or impulses which provoke intense subjective discomfort. Afflicted individuals resist them at first, usually by engaging in some repetitive thoughts or actions designed to reduce the level of discomfort provoked by the obsessions. Rituals take the form of washing or cleaning to remove contamination, checking to verify that no damage has occurred, putting things in precise order, repeating actions to prevent some disaster from occurring, hoarding or saving things to retain important information, as well as various types of mental rituals such as praying, repeating thoughts, and counting. Both obsessions and compulsions are usually recognized by the individual as excessive or unreasonable.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Terror management theory (TMT; J. Greenberg, T. Pyszczynski, & S. Solomon, 1986) posits that people are motivated to pursue positive self-evaluations because self-esteem provides a buffer against the omnipresent potential for anxiety engendered by the uniquely human awareness of mortality. Empirical evidence relevant to the theory is reviewed showing that high levels of self-esteem reduce anxiety and anxiety-related defensive behavior, reminders of one's mortality increase self-esteem striving and defense of self-esteem against threats in a variety of domains, high levels of self-esteem eliminate the effect of reminders of mortality on both self-esteem striving and the accessibility of death-related thoughts, and convincing people of the existence of an afterlife eliminates the effect of mortality salience on self-esteem striving. TMT is compared with other explanations for why people need self-esteem, and a critique of the most prominent of these, sociometer theory, is provided.

/pdf/why-do-people-need-self-esteem-a-theoretical-and-empirical-22ytlmb2p5.pdf

Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review.

The goal of this study was to describe the construction of scales for measuring- state (A-State) and trait (A-Trait) anxiety that would be suitable for use in interamerican, cross-cultural research. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, et al., 1970) was translated into Spanish with the assistance of psychologists from 10 different Latin Amer­ican countries. To evaluate the reliability and equivalence of the Spanish and English forms of the STAI, these scales were given in counterbalanced order to bilingual 5s in Texas and Puerto Rico. In both samples, high item- remainder correlations and alpha coefficients ranging from .82 to .95 estab­lished the internal consistency of the Spanish A-State and A-Trait scales. Evidence of the equivalence of these scales was provided by correlations be­tween the Spanish and English forms that ranged from .83 to .94. High test-retest reliability was also found for the Spanish A-Trait scale but not for the A-State scale. As expected, the A-State scale was influenced by transitory situational stress, whereas the A-Trait scale was stable over time. It was concluded that the Spanish STAI provides internally consistent and reliable scales for measuring state and trait anxiety which are essentially equivalent to the English STAI A-State and A-Trait scales.

/pdf/the-state-trait-anxiety-inventory-2npzk8pw9s.pdf

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory

Psychiatric patients at the San Juan Veterans Administration Hospital were given the Spanish version of che WAIS, the Escala de Inteligencia Wechsler para Adultos (EIWA), and the Spanish edition of Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). The STAI A-State scale was administered immediately before the EIWA (A-State-i), and, again, immediately after the EIWA (A-State-2). A short form of the STAI A-State scale was also given immediately after each of the eleven EIWA subtests. Significant negative correlations of the STAI A-Trait scale and the A-State-2 scale were obtained with the EIWA Full Scale, the Verbal and Performance scales, the “Wechsler Triad,” and the Timed and Untimed EIWA subtests. In addition, scores on each EIWA subtest were inversely correlated with the Short Form A-State scales, except for Vocabulary and Analogies. Patients with high A-Trait scores showed higher levels of A-State intensity while performing on the EIWA than low A-Trait patients. Moreover, the A-State levels of the HA-Trait patients tended to increase during their performance on the EIWA, while level of A-State for the LA-Trait patients remained relatively constant from the beginning to die end of the EIWA.

Angel Martinez-Urrutia

Papers

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory

The relationship between State-Trait Anxiety and intelligent in Puerto Rican psychiatric patients