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Showing papers in "Journal of Personality in 2004"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Tests for curvilinearity failed to indicate any drawbacks of so-called overcontrol, and the positive effects remained after controlling for social desirability, so low self-control is a significant risk factor for a broad range of personal and interpersonal problems.
Abstract: What good is self-control? We incorporated a new measure of individual differences in self-control into two large investigations of a broad spectrum of behaviors. The new scale showed good internal consistency and retest reliability. Higher scores on self-control correlated with a higher grade point average, better adjustment (fewer reports of psychopathology, higher self-esteem), less binge eating and alcohol abuse, better relationships and interpersonal skills, secure attachment, and more optimal emotional responses. Tests for curvilinearity failed to indicate any drawbacks of so-called overcontrol, and the positive effects remained after controlling for social desirability. Low self-control is thus a significant risk factor for a broad range of personal and interpersonal problems.

4,985 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Reappraisal has a healthier profile of short-term affective, cognitive, and social consequences than suppression and issues in the development of reappraisal and suppression are considered to provide new evidence for an increasingly healthy emotion regulation profile during adulthood.
Abstract: Individuals regulate their emotions in a wide variety of ways. Are some forms of emotion regulation healthier than others? We focus on two commonly used emotion regulation strategies: reappraisal (changing the way one thinks about a potentially emotion-eliciting event) and suppression (changing the way one responds behaviorally to an emotion-eliciting event). In the first section, we review experimental findings showing that reappraisal has a healthier profile of short-term affective, cognitive, and social consequences than suppression. In the second section, we review individual-difference findings, which show that using reappraisal to regulate emotions is associated with healthier patterns of affect, social functioning, and well-being than is using suppression. In the third section, we consider issues in the development of reappraisal and suppression and provide new evidence for a normative shift toward an increasingly healthy emotion regulation profile during adulthood (i.e., increases in the use of reappraisal and decreases in the use of suppression).

1,968 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that the health benefits advanced by positive emotions may be instantiated in certain traits that are characterized by the experience of positive emotion, including psychological resilience and positive emotional granularity.
Abstract: For centuries, folk theory has promoted the idea that positive emotions are good for your health. Accumulating empirical evidence is providing support for this anecdotal wisdom. We use the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 1998; 2001) as a framework to demonstrate that positive emotions contribute to psychological and physical well-being via more effective coping. We argue that the health benefits advanced by positive emotions may be instantiated in certain traits that are characterized by the experience of positive emotion. Towards this end, we examine individual differences in psychological resilience (the ability to bounce back from negative events by using positive emotions to cope) and positive emotional granularity (the tendency to represent experiences of positive emotion with precision and specificity). Individual differences in these traits are examined in two studies, one using psychophysiological evidence, the second using evidence from experience sampling, to demonstrate that positive emotions play a crucial role in enhancing coping resources in the face of negative events. Implications for research on coping and health are discussed.

1,304 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that acute threats to the social self increase proinflammatory cytokine activity and cortisol and that these changes occur in concert with shame, which support a stressor- and emotional response-specificity model for psychobiological and health research.
Abstract: Our program of research focuses on shame as a key emotional response to "social self" threats (i.e., social evaluation or rejection). We propose that shame may orchestrate specific patterns of psychobiological changes under these conditions. A series of studies demonstrates that acute threats to the social self increase proinflammatory cytokine activity and cortisol and that these changes occur in concert with shame. Chronic social self threats and persistent experience of shame-related cognitive and affective states predict disease-relevant immunological and health outcomes in HIV. Across our laboratory and longitudinal studies, general or composite affective states (e.g., distress) are unrelated to these physiological and health outcomes. These findings support a stressor- and emotional response-specificity model for psychobiological and health research.

641 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In a quiet but consistent way, a new subdiscipline of personality psychology—narrative identity research—has emerged, and it is clear that there is a body of midcareer and younger empirical researchers who place narrative identity at the center of personality.
Abstract: In a quiet but consistent way, a new subdiscipline of personality psychology—narrative identity research—has emerged. Its organizing concern is how individuals employ narratives to develop and sustain a sense of personal unity and purpose from diverse experiences across the lifespan (McAdams, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2001). Partly obscured by its interweavings with clinical, developmental, and cognitive psychology, as well as links to social psychology (e.g., Baumeister, Wotman, & Stillwell, 1993; Gergen, 1992; Sarbin, 1986), and the related social sciences of sociology and anthropology, it has sometimes seemed too diffuse or chameleonlike to identify. Finding allies in philosophy (Ricoeur, 1984), psychoanalysis (Schafer, 1981; Spence, 1982), narrative therapy (White & Epston, 1990) and literature (e.g., Lau, 2002; Bruner & Weisser, 1991), it may have appeared too humanities-oriented to be considered a part of scientific inquiry. With its roots in the personological perspective of Henry Murray (1938), it may have been written off by some as too grand in design and similar to Murray’s noble, but daunting, efforts to capture all of the complexity of human personality. Now, however, it is clear that there is a body of midcareer and younger empirical researchers who place narrative identity at the center of personality. In the language of McAdams’s (1995) framework of personality, this group draws on Level 1 ‘‘Trait’’ measures,

597 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The value of the interpersonal tradition in personality psychology is illustrated for not only research on the health consequences of hostility, anger, and aggressiveness, but also for the general study of the effects of emotion, personality and other psychosocial characteristics on physical health.
Abstract: The related traits of hostility, anger, and aggressiveness have long been suggested as risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD). Our prior review of this literature (Smith, 1992) found both considerable evidence in support of this hypothesis and important limitations that precluded firm conclusions. In the present review, we discuss recent research on the assessment of these traits, their association with CHD and longevity, and mechanisms possibly underlying the association. In doing so, we illustrate the value of the interpersonal tradition in personality psychology (Sullivan, 1953; Leary, 1957; Carson, 1969; Kiesler, 1996) for not only research on the health consequences of hostility, anger, and aggressiveness, but also for the general study of the effects of emotion, personality and other psychosocial characteristics on physical health.

509 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Grounding the arguments in socioemotional selectivity theory in possible ways to tailor contexts such that disadvantages are avoided, the implications of the predicted cognitive and behavioral changes for physical health are considered.
Abstract: After providing an introductory overview of socioemotional selectivity theory, we review empirical evidence for its basic postulates and consider the implications of the predicted cognitive and behavioral changes for physical health. The main assertion of socioemotional selectivity theory is that when boundaries on time are perceived, present-oriented goals related to emotional meaning are prioritized over future-oriented goals aimed at acquiring information and expanding horizons. Such motivational changes, which are strongly correlated with chronological age, systematically influence social preferences, social network composition, emotion regulation, and cognitive processing. On the one hand, there is considerable reason to believe that such changes are good for well-being and social adjustment. On the other hand, the very same motivational changes may limit health-related information-seeking and influence attention, memory, and decision-making such that positive material is favored over negative information. Grounding our arguments in socioemotional selectivity theory, we consider possible ways to tailor contexts such that disadvantages are avoided.

505 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results suggest heightened reactivity to stressors in older adulthood, perhaps due to kindling effects, and changes in the aging brain may explain this effect.
Abstract: The current study examined whether stress reactivity becomes stronger or weaker with age. Daily stress and daily negative affect were modeled using 1,012 subjects from the National Study of Daily Events (NSDE), an 8-day daily diary study. Age ranged from 25 to 74. Data were modeled using within-person HLM techniques. Daily stress and neuroticism interacted in their effect on daily negative affect. There was a stronger association between daily stress and negative affect for persons high in neuroticism as compared to those low on the trait. In addition, daily stress and age interacted in their effect on daily negative affect. There was a stronger association between daily stress and negative affect for older as compared to younger adults. Results suggest heightened reactivity to stressors in older adulthood, perhaps due to kindling effects. Changes in the aging brain may explain this effect. Our investigations illuminate the complexities that characterize the set of associations among negative affect, stress, personality, and age, and point to potential aging or cohort effects.

485 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Assortative mating in a newlywed sample showed strong similarity in age, religiousness, and political orientation, but little similarity in matrix reasoning, self- and spouse-rated personality, emotional experience and expression, and attachment.
Abstract: We conducted a comprehensive analysis of assortative mating (i.e., the similarity between wives and husbands on a given characteristic) in a newlywed sample. These newlyweds showed (a) strong similarity in age, religiousness, and political orientation; (b) moderate similarity in education and verbal intelligence; (c) modest similarity in values; and (d) little similarity in matrix reasoning, self- and spouse-rated personality, emotional experience and expression, and attachment. Further analyses established that similarity was not simply due to background variables such as age and education and reflected initial assortment (i.e., similarity at the time of marriage) rather than convergence (i.e., increasing similarity with time). Finally, marital satisfaction primarily was a function of the rater's own traits and showed little relation to spousal similarity.

472 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results suggest that use of conditional regard as a socializing practice can promote enactment of the desired behaviors but does so with significant affective costs.
Abstract: Parents' use of conditional regard as a socializing practice was hypothesized to predict their children's introjected internalization (indexed by a sense of internal compulsion), resentment toward parents, and ill-being. In Study 1, involving three generations, mothers' reports of their parents' having used conditional regard to promote academic achievement predicted (a) the mothers' poor well-being and controlling parenting attitudes, and (b) their collge-aged daughters' viewing them as having used conditional regard, thus showing both negative affective consequences from and intergenerational transmission of conditional regard. Study 2 expanded on the first by using four domains, including both genders, and examining mediating processes. College students' perceptions of their mothers' and fathers' having used conditional regard in four domains (emotion control, prosocial, academic, sport) were found

458 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: New instruments to assess coping through emotional approach are developed and validated, demonstrating that items measuring emotion-focused strategies in published coping questionnaires are confounded with distress and self-deprecation.
Abstract: Researchers studying stress and coping processes have attempted to identify which coping strategies are most adaptive in stressful encounters. A generally accepted conclusion has been that emotion-focused coping processes are associated with dysfunctional outcomes. Studies from our and other research teams challenge the "bad reputation" of emotion-focused coping by demonstrating that items measuring emotion-focused strategies in published coping questionnaires are confounded with distress and self-deprecation. We have developed and validated new instruments to assess coping though acknowledging, understanding, and expressing emotion, that is, coping through emotional approach. Longitudinal and experimental studies using these new scales have documented the adaptive potential of emotional-approach coping in the context of several types of stressors, including infertility, breast cancer, and chronic pain. However, characteristics of the environmental context, stressful experience, and individual are important moderators of the relations of emotional-approach coping and health-related outcomes. Potential mediators and moderators of coping through emotional approach, clinical relevance of the construct, and directions for research are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Individual differences in the four dimensions of 10 self-defining memories collected from 103 undergraduates to scores of self-restraint, distress, and repressive defensiveness, as measured by the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory were compared.
Abstract: This study examines four dimensions of self-defining memory (specificity, meaning, content, and affect) and their relationship to self-restraint, distress, and defensiveness. The development and valida- tion of a protocol for measuring specificity, meaning, and affect in self- defining memories is discussed. Specificity is operationalized as the temporal and detailed specificity of the narrative. Meaning refers to the participant's stepping back from the narrative to derive higher personal meaning or a life lesson. Affect reflects subjective emotion upon recall. Agreement between two raters scoring 1040 memories was k 5 .83 for specificity and k 5 .72 for meaning. The protocol is compatible with Thorne and McLean's scoring system for content (the types of events in memories). The current study compared individual differences in the four dimensions of 10 self-defining memories collected from 103 undergradu- ates to scores of self-restraint, distress, and repressive defensiveness, as measured by the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory. Memory specificity was inversely related to repressive defensiveness, while greater memory meaning was linked to moderate and high levels of self-restraint. Memory content and affect predicted individuals' degree of subjective distress. Based on these findings, the authors discuss the place of self-defining

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is hypothesized that low social competence and negative emotional states may mediate relations between a harsh early family environment and physiological/neuroendocrine responses to stress, as well as long-term health outcomes, and evidence is reported that the model characterizes self-rated health, cortisol responses to Stress, and, in males only, elevated cardiovascular responses tostress.
Abstract: A harsh early family environment is related to mental and physical health in adulthood. An important question is why family en- vironment in childhood is associated with these outcomes so long after its initial occurrence. We describe a program of research that evaluates a model linking these variables to each other. Specifically, we hypothesize that low social competence and negative emotional states may mediate relations between a harsh early family environment and physiological/ neuroendocrine responses to stress, as well as long-term health outcomes. We report evidence that the model characterizes self-rated health, cortisol responses to stress, and, in males only, elevated cardiovascular responses

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Four themes of personal growth (integrative, intrinsic, agentic, and communal) in adults' stories of life transitions in careers and religions are identified in terms of narrative meaning making, the mature and happy person, and intentional self-development via life transitions.
Abstract: This study identified four themes of personal growth (integrative, intrinsic, agentic, and communal) in adults' stories of life transitions in careers and religions. Specific themes were expected to relate differentially to two forms of personality development (social- cognitive maturity and social-emotional well-being) and to transition satisfaction. Integrative themes correlated primarily with social-cognitive maturity (ego development; Loevinger, 1976), whereas intrinsic themes correlated primarily with social-emotional well-being. Agentic-growth themes correlated primarily with transition satisfaction, whereas commu- nal-growth themes correlated primarily with global well-being. Themes of agentic and communal growth also differentiated the two types of transitions studied—changes in careers and changes in religions—in ways that both supported and contradicted traditional notions of those transitions. We discuss these findings in terms of narrative meaning making, the mature and happy person, and intentional self-development via life transitions. This paper explores how stories of life transitions relate to personality development. Life transitions represent periods of heightened self- Jack J. Bauer, Northern Arizona University, and Dan P. McAdams, The Foley Center for the Study of Lives, Northwestern University.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Content analysis of the narrative data revealed that for both samples Neuroticism was positively associated with an emotionally negative life-narrative tone, Agreeableness was correlated with narrative themes of communion, and Openness was strongly associated with the structural complexity of life narrative accounts.
Abstract: Dispositional traits and life narratives represent two different levels of personality that have not previously been empirically linked. The current study tested five hypotheses connecting Big-Five traits to life-narrative indices of emotional tone, theme, and structure. Students (Study 1) and adults (Study 2) completed a self-report measure of the Big-Five traits and provided extended written accounts of either ten (students) or eight (adults) key life-narrative scenes, including life high points, low points, and turning points. Content analysis of the narrative data revealed that for both samples Neuroticism was positively associated with an emotionally negative life-narrative tone, Agreeableness was correlated with narrative themes of communion (e.g., friendship, caring for others), and Openness was strongly associated with the structural complexity of life narrative accounts. Contrary to prediction, however, Conscientiousness was not consistently associated with themes of agency (e.g., achievement, self-mastery) and Extraversion was unrelated to positive narrative tone. The results are discussed in the context of contemporary research and theorizing on the narrative study of lives and the relation of narrative research in personality to more conventional, trait-based approaches.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Across the four life periods, Americans provided more memories of individual experiences and unique, one-time events and focused on their own roles and emotions, while Chinese were more inclined to recall memories of social and historical events and placed a great emphasis on social interactions and significant others in their memory narratives.
Abstract: One hundred and eight European American and Chinese adults, aged between 38 and 60, participated in this questionnaire study. They each recalled 20 memories from any period of their lives. Memory content was analyzed as a function of culture (U.S. and China), life period (childhood, youth, early midlife, and peak midlife), and gender (female and male). Across the four life periods, Americans provided more memories of individual experiences and unique, one-time events and focused on their own roles and emotions. In contrast, Chinese were more inclined to recall memories of social and historical events and placed a great emphasis on social interactions and significant others in their memory narratives. Chinese also more frequently drew upon past events to convey moral messages than did Americans. In addition, memory content evidenced age-related increases in both autonomous and social orientations. Findings are discussed in light of the self-definitional and directive functions of Autobiographical memory in the context of culture.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: How functional brain imaging, using an individual-differences approach in the processing of emotional stimuli, has begun to reveal the neural basis of extraversion and neuroticism, two traits that are linked to both emotion and health are outlined.
Abstract: This review outlines how functional brain imaging, using an individual-differences approach in the processing of emotional stimuli, has begun to reveal the neural basis of extraversion (E) and neuroticism (N), two traits that are linked to both emotion and health. Studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging have shown that individual differences in participants' E and N scores are correlated with individual differences in brain activation in specific brain regions that are engaged during cognitive-affective tasks. Imaging studies using genotyped participants have begun to address the molecular mechanisms that may underlie these individual differences. The multidisciplinary integration of brain imaging and molecular genetic methods offers an exciting and novel approach for investigators who seek to uncover the biological mechanisms by which personality and health are interrelated.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Which kinds of self-defining memories show spontaneous references to larger meanings, and listener responses to two kinds of meaning-lessons and insights, are examined, for understanding the development of meaning in self-Defining memories and the collaborative construction of identity.
Abstract: This study examined which kinds of self-defining memories show spontaneous references to larger meanings, and listener responses to two kinds of meaning-lessons and insights. Narratives of three self-defining memories and episodes of telling the memories to others were collected from each of 168 late adolescents (M age=19). Narratives were coded for event type (relationship, mortality, achievement, and leisure) and for references to tension and to meaning (lesson or insight). Narratives of memorable episodes of having told the memories to others were coded for listener response (positive or negative). References to meaning emerged in one-fourth of the memory narratives, and meaning was more common for self-defining memory narratives that contained references to tension. Memories that reportedly had not been told to others in the past showed the same proportion of meaning as did memories that had been told to others (23%), with insights more prevalent than lessons. For memories that had been told to others, insights were more likely to be accepted by listeners than lessons. Implications were discussed for understanding the development of meaning in self-defining memories and the collaborative construction of identity.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Unlike adolescents, older and, especially, young adults report having learned lessons about themselves or having gained a life philosophy from the wisdom-related event, which highlights both similarities and differences in the life span manifestation of experienced wisdom.
Abstract: Autobiographical memory narratives concerning times in which individuals said, thought, or did something wise were collected from adolescents and young and old adults. This ''wisdom of experience'' procedure is shown to be a valid means of studying experienced wisdom in everyday lives across the life span. Results show that all age groups use experienced wisdom to transform negative to positive life situations and are equally likely to link these experienced wisdom events to larger temporal life periods. Young and older adults also relate wisdom experiences to the life story by explaining how they are connected to later life consequences or to the direction that their life has taken. Unlike adolescents, older and, especially, young adults report having learned

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This Dynamic Model of Affect (DMA) proposes that under conditions that promote maximal information processing, positive and negative affective systems function relatively independently, while under conditions characterized by uncertainty, including pain and stress, the affects become strongly inversely related.
Abstract: We describe a program of research examining how the relationship between positive and negative affect varies both between individuals and within individuals over time. This Dynamic Model of Affect (DMA) proposes that under conditions that promote maximal information processing, positive and negative affective systems function relatively independently. In contrast, under conditions characterized by uncertainty, including pain and stress, the affects become strongly inversely related. Included in our consideration are potential individual differences in the ability to sustain affective differentiation during pain and other stressors and the implications of this model for perceptions of social relations and for interventions to improve well-being among the chronically ill.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results showed that the trait of social responsibility assessed at age 21 predicted family, work, and substance use outcomes at midlife (age 43 and age 52) and the implications for personality, health, and personality development are discussed.
Abstract: The present study tested the relationships among conscientiousness-related traits, social-environmental factors that affect health, and substance-use behaviors across a 30-year period from age 21 to age 52 in the Mills Longitudinal study of women (N=99). Results showed that the trait of social responsibility (a facet of conscientiousness) assessed at age 21 predicted family, work, and substance use outcomes at midlife (age 43 and age 52). In turn, marital quality, duration of marriage, divorce, participating in paid work, status level of work, and marijuana consumption were associated with changes in social responsibility. The implications for personality, health, and personality development are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The present results suggest that the degree of orthogonality of the Big Five traits depends on the source of the data, and a single informant produces Big five traits that are intercorrelated, whereas diverse informants tend to produce a much more orthogonal structure.
Abstract: Multitrait-multimethod analyses were used to examine the degree of convergent and discriminant validity of the Big Five. Phase 1 examined self-reports of the Big Five across three measurement occasions. Self-reports of the Big Five traits were stable, but were moderately intercorrelated. Phase 2 examined assessments of the Big Five across different types of informants (self, peer, and parent). Assessments converged across types of informants and, importantly, there was no evidence of correlation between the Big Five traits across the perspectives of different types of informants. The present results suggest that the degree of orthogonality of the Big Five traits depends on the source of the data. A single informant produces Big Five traits that are intercorrelated, whereas diverse informants tend to produce a much more orthogonal structure. Discussion focuses on methodological considerations in examining levels of convergent and discriminant validity and the theoretical implications for understanding personality assessments and the relationship between three-and five-factor models of personality.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Findings demonstrate that the goals of the self play a major role in both the encoding and accessibility of autobiographical memories, and provide support for Erikson's psychosocial theory of development (1950, 1997).
Abstract: Older adults recalled memories from each decade of life. Memories were classified in terms of the psychosocial stages to which their content corresponded. For the majority of memories it was found that age at encoding corresponded to when specific psychosocial stages would have been most likely to have occurred. In a second experiment older adults recalled memories to cues drawn from psychosocial stages and the same pattern of findings was observed. These findings demonstrate that the goals of the self play a major role in both the encoding and accessibility of autobiographical memories, and they also provide support for Erikson's psychosocial theory of development (1950, 1997).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Outcomes associated with PE Fit included greater personality consistency and changes in personality in the direction of higher self-esteem and lower agreeableness and neuroticism.
Abstract: Continuity and change in Person-Environment Fit (PE Fit) and its relation to personality development was studied in a 4-year longitudinal study of college students (N=305). PE Fit demonstrated moderate rank-order stability and small increases in mean-levels over time. Antecedents to PE Fit included gender (being male), high academic ability, low agreeableness, and low neuroticism. Outcomes associated with PE Fit included greater personality consistency and changes in personality in the direction of higher self-esteem and lower agreeableness and neuroticism. The implications of the findings for personality development are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The different possible ways in which individuals configure the relationship among potentially conflicting identifications in the process of identity formation are portrayed and the possible implications of the concept of "configuration" for identity theory are discussed.
Abstract: This paper deals with the theoretical construct of "identity configuration." It portrays the different possible ways in which individuals configure the relationship among potentially conflicting identifications in the process of identity formation. In order to explicate these configurations, I analyzed narratives of identity development retold by individuals describing personal identity conflicts that arise within a larger context of sociocultural conflict. Thirty Jewish modern orthodox young adults were interviewed regarding a potentially conflictual identity issue (i.e. their religious and sexual development). Their deliberations, as described in the interviews, were examined, and four different configurations were identified: a configuration based on choice and suppression; an assimilative and synthesizing configuration; a confederacy of identifications; and a configuration based on the thrill of dissonance. The different configurations are illustrated through exemplars, and the possible implications of the concept of "configuration" for identity theory are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results are interpreted as indicating that, while happiness may require us to avoid thinking about what might have been, maturity might require an awareness of the losses and sacrifices of adulthood.
Abstract: Divorced women, who had been married for an average of 22 years, wrote narrative descriptions of their best possible future selves before the divorce (retrospectively) and after the divorce, rated the salience of these narratives, and completed measures of SWB and ED. Independent raters coded the narratives for amount of elaboration (i.e., vivid detail). The salience of the lost possible self was negatively related to SWB while the salience of the current possible self was positively related to SWB. Elaboration of the found possible self was associated with concurrent ED as well as ED two years later. Lost self elaboration interacted with time since divorce to predict ED, controlling for age and Time 1 ED. Results are interpreted as indicating that, while happiness may require us to avoid thinking about what might have been, maturity might require an awareness of the losses and sacrifices of adulthood.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The present research investigates whether Openness to Experience and Boundaries in the mind are related to conservatism, and the exceptionally strong correlations between conservatism and the BoundariesIn the mind facet scales.
Abstract: The present research investigates whether Openness to Experience and Boundaries in the mind are related to conservatism In the first study, significant relationships between several scales of the Boundaries in the mind questionnaire and indicators of conservative beliefs were obtained in an adult sample (N=78) as well as in a sample of political party activists (N=44) In the second study, these negative relationships between conservatism and thin boundaries were replicated in an adult sample (N=225) Moreover, two dimensions representing Boundaries in the mind were identified, one positively related to Openness to Experience and negatively to conservatism and the second showing high positive correlations with Neuroticism The exceptionally strong correlations between conservatism and the Boundaries in the mind facet scales Opinions about organizations, Opinions about beauty, truth, Edges, lines, clothing and Opinions about peoples, nations, groups are discussed, as well as the weak relationships between economic conservatism and Openness to Experience

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Range and Differentiation of Emotional Experience Scale (RDEES) was developed to test the role of emotional complexity in ego maturity and interpersonal adaptability, and results supported all of the hypotheses.
Abstract: Two studies explored the nature and psychological implications of individual differences in emotional complexity, defined as having emotional experiences that are broad in range and well differentiated. Emotional complexity was predicted to be associated with private self-consciousness, openness to experience, empathic tendencies, cognitive complexity, ability to differentiate among named emotions, range of emotions experienced daily, and interpersonal adaptability. The Range and Differentiation of Emotional Experience Scale (RDEES) was developed to test these hypotheses. In Study 1 (N=1,129) students completed questionnaire packets containing the RDEES and various outcome measures. Study 2 (N=95) included the RDEES and non-self-report measures such as peer reports, complexity of representations of the emotion domain, and level of ego development measured by a sentence completion test. Results supported all of the hypotheses, providing extensive evidence for the RDEES's construct validity. Findings were discussed in terms of the role of emotional complexity in ego maturity and interpersonal adaptability.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An evolving program of research demonstrates the value of integrating emotion, personality, and health, and highlights the bidirectional relationship between clinical problems and basic research.
Abstract: This article reviews a program of research on alexithymia, emotional disclosure, and health. The article first describes two lines of research and then outlines current work attempting to integrate these lines. The first research line involves basic correlational studies on alexithymia's link to health problems; these studies suggest that alexithymia is a potential risk factor for symptoms and illness behavior, although not necessarily organic disease. The second research line involves experimental studies of the health effects of emotional disclosure via expressive writing or talking; these studies suggest that disclosure improves health on average, but that the effects are not that robust and that various moderators likely are involved. The next section of the article describes recent attempts to integrate the two research lines by examining how baseline levels of alexithymia influence the effects of emotional disclosure; these analyses suggest that alexithymia interferes with or attenuates the health benefits of disclosure. Finally, the article describes initial forays into research on interventions with the alexithymic patients. This evolving program of research demonstrates the value of integrating emotion, personality, and health, and highlights the bidirectional relationship between clinical problems and basic research.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Need to evaluate was shown to predict a variety of important attitude-relevant cognitive, behavioral, and affective political processes beyond simply holding attitudes.
Abstract: Need to evaluate (NE) is a personality trait that reflects a person's proclivity to create and hold attitudes; people high in NE are especially likely to form attitudes toward all sorts of objects. Using data from the 1998 National Election Survey Pilot and the 2000 National Election Survey, NE was shown to predict a variety of important attitude-relevant cognitive, behavioral, and affective political processes beyond simply holding attitudes: NE predicted how many evaluative beliefs about candidates a person held, the likelihood that a person would use party identification and issue stances to determine candidate preferences, the extent to which a person engaged in political activism, the likelihood that a person voted or intended to vote, the extent to which a person used the news media for gathering information, and the intensity of emotional reactions a person felt toward political candidates. Thus, NE appears to play a powerful role in shaping important political behavior, emotion, and cognition.