L. Joan Olinger

Factor structure of the dysfunctional attitude scale in a student population

The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale-Form A (DAS-A) was completed by 664 university students and the results were factor-analyzed. Approximately 61% of the variance was accounted for by two factors, labelled Performance Evaluation and Approval by Others. Analyses conducted on two subsamples indicated that the obtained factor solution was stable. The present results are discussed with respect to personality subtypes hypothesized to be vulnerable to depression.

Humor, coping with stress, self-concept, and psychological well-being

This paper provides an overview of our current research program focusing on the relationships between humor, self-concept, coping with stress, and positive affect. This research builds upon past work demonstrating a moderating effect of humor, wherein high humor individuals display less negative affect for adverse life circumstances than low humor individuals. The three studies described here address several limitations ofthis moderator research. These include a need to empirically document the precise relationship between humor and self-concept, a need tofocus on the cognitive appraisals underlying the moderator effect, and a need to specifically examine the enhancing effects of humor by measuring positive mood states in response to various life events. Overall, the findings from these studies indicate that greater levels of humor are associated with (1) a more positive self-concept when considered in terms of actual-ideal discrepancies, self-esteem, and Standards for self-worth evaluation. (2) more positive and self-protective cognitive appraisals in theface of stress, and (3) greater positive affect in response to both positive and negative life events. Tahen together, these findings offer empirical supportfor the proposal that humor, in addition to buffering the effects of stress, may also play an important role in enhancing the enjoyment of positive life experiences. We conclude by briefly describing future research directions in the empirical study of humor. Ever since Norman Cousins (1979) published an account of bis recovery from a serious disease through humor and laughter, much attention has been given in the populär media to the importance of humor for physical and psychological health. Over the years a number of psychological theorists, including Sigmund Freud, Rollo May, Gordon Allport, and Humor 6-1 (1993), 89-104. 0933-1719/93/0006-0089

Dysfunctional attitudes and stressful life events: An interactive model of depression

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Dysfunctional attitudes, stress, and negative emotions

The focus of this research was the proposal that depressive symptomatology results from the interaction of an individuals dysfunctional attitudes with stressful life events that impinge on those attitudes. In Study 1, subjects completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS), and the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale-Contractual Conditions (DAS-CC). The DAS measures dysfunctional attitudes presumed to be characteristic of individuals cognitively vulnerable to depression. The DAS-CC is a modified version of the DAS, designed to measure the presence or absence of specific life events that might impinge directly on an individuals dysfunctional attitudes. Consistent with the proposed interactive model, the results from Study 1 indicated that the combination of high DAS-CC and high DAS scores successfully predicted high depression scores. This significant life events by vulnerability interaction was also predicted and found in Study 2, where subjects completed a different measure of stressful life events (the Life Experiences Survey), along with the DAS and BDI. Additional findings from the two studies revealed that those individuals scoring high on the DAS displayed more frequent thoughts about past, present, or expected future life difficulties than those individuals scoring low on this measure, and that they also rated these events as having a greater degree of importance and emotional impact. Furthermore, individuals with high DAS scores displayed increased levels of perceived stress, relative to individuals with low DAS scores. These findings were discussed in terms of a vulnerability model of depression that highlights the role of dysfunctional attitudes and appraisals in enhancing stress levels.

Stressful events, dysfunctional attitudes, coping styles, and depression

This research examined several hypotheses relating to the proposed moderating effect of dysfunctional attitudes on the relationship between stressful events and mood disturbance. Participants in Study 1 completed the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Daily Hassles Scale. As predicted, dysfunctional attitudes significantly moderated the relationship between the reported frequency of microstressors and dysphoria. Study 2 extended these findings by means of a laboratory experiment in which participants completed a video task under both minimally and moderately stressful social evaluative conditions. In further support of the proposal that dysfunctional attitudes enhance stress appraisals and negative emotions, individuals scoring high on the DAS displayed increased levels of physiological arousal, anxiety, and self-consciousness throughout the experimental procedures. In addition, these individuals perceived greater disapproval and rejection on the part of the experimenter in the moderately stressful condition than did individuals scoring low on the DAS. Findings from these two studies were discussed in terms of the role of dysfunctional attitudes in stress appraisals, and negative emotions such as anxiety and dysphoria.

Dysfunctional attitudes, mild depression, views of self, self-consciousness, and social perceptions

Abstract The present research examined the nature of stressful events and coping strategies reported by individuals with varying levels of dysfunctional attitudes. This research is based upon a self-worth contingency model of depression. In this model it is proposed that individuals with a large number of dysfunctional attitudes are cognitively vulnerable for depression, and display increased depressive symptomatology when stressful events prevent them from meeting their rigid and unrealistic contingencies for self-worth. Consistent with this model both cross-sectional and longitudinal findings from two studies indicated that vulnerable individuals exhibited significantly increased depressive symptomatology when stressful events impinged on their dysfunctional contingencies for self-worth. In addition, the present findings revealed that vulnerable individuals employed aberrant coping styles when dealing with their personally stressful events, with increased self-isolation being especially prominent.

Vulnerability to depression, mild depression, and degree of self-schema consolidation

In this research we propose that certain individuals display a cognitive vulnerability to depression, centering around their dysfunctional attitudes for evaluating self-worth. In Study 1, participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS), and the Self-Consciousness Questionnaire. Participants also indicated which adjectives, in a set of depressed and nondepressed content adjectives, were self-descriptive. Depressed individuals, relative to nondepressed, endorsed fewer nondepressed and more depressed content adjectives, and also reported higher levels of public self-consciousness, social anxiety, and private self-consciousness. As predicted by the self-worth model, vulnerable individuals (those scoring high on the DAS) evidenced increased levels of public self-consciousness and social anxiety, even when nondepressed. In contrast, and again as predicted by the self-worth model, an increase in private self-consciousness and an overall decrease in positive self-schema content were found to be concomitants of depression (and thus not evident in vulnerable individuals when nondepressed). In Study 2, participants completed the BDI, the DAS, the Assertion Inventory, the Social Support Questionnaire, and a Social Skills Rating form. As expected, increasing levels of depression were associated with increased perceptions of assertion problems, poorer social skills, and diminished available social support and satisfaction. In further accord with the self-worth model, vulnerable individuals, even when nondepressed, reported assertion and social skills difficulties, and provided lower perceived satisfaction ratings for social relationships. Taken together, these findings were then discussed in terms of a self-worth contingency model of depression.

Chapter 5 Telic Versus Paratelic Dominance as A Moderator of Stress

The present study investigated the degree of consolidation of self-schema content in mildly depressed individuals, individuals cognitively vulnerable to depression (but currently nondepressed), and nonvulnerable-nondepressed controls. All three groups of subjects were presented with pairs of adjectives involving one depressed and one nondepressed content adjective, and were asked to decide which of the two adjectives described them the best (or least). Following this, subjects rated each adjective on a 9-point degree of self-reference scale. On the basis of these two types of self-referent judgments, a measure of decision inconsistency was computed for each subject. In accord with predictions generated from a self-schema model of depression, similar decision inconsistency scores were found for mildly depressed and vulnerable-nondepressed individuals. In turn, both of these groups revealed greater decision inconsistencies than normal controls (the nonvulnerable-nondepressed group). Using the inconsistency measure as an index of the degree of consolidation of self-schema content, these findings suggest that relatively poor consolidation of depressed and nondepressed self-schema content may relate to both the etiology and maintenance of depression.

Coping Humour, Stress, and Cognitive Appraisals

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses a reversal theory conceptualization of stress that leads to the prediction that certain—that is, paratelic dominant—individuals may thrive on moderate amounts of stress while being adversely affected by a lack of stressors in their lives. It also describes empirical investigations that provide support for these hypotheses. A reversal theory account suggests that stress is not always deleterious or noxious, but may be invigorating for some people, providing them with an enhanced sense of challenge and excitement. Thus, a distinction may be made between “good stress” and “bad stress” or between “eustress” and “distress.” Reversal theory suggests that the differences between these two reside in the metamotivational state of the individual, experiencing the stressors. Reversals between telic and paratelic modes are likely to occur during the processes of stress appraisal and coping, and that the adaptational outcomes will differ, depending on the particular reversals that take place. The concept of metamotivational states and reversals between reversal theory and optimal arousal theories are unique to reversal theory, and lead to unique predictions regarding changes in individuals over time.