Lothar Laux

Presentation of self in coping with anger and anxiety: an intentional approach

Abstract An intentional approach to coping is outlined addressing the issue of what persons want to achieve in coping with emotions. Four dimensions of coping intentions are proposed: Problem solving, regulating emotional distress, protecting self-esteem, and managing social interactions. Special reference is given to presentational intentions defined as attempts to communicate self-images. Guided by a specificity view of emotion anxiety- and anger-related coping reactions and intentions are described. The theoretical approach is illustrated by an exploratory study in which verbal scripts for a social anxiety and an anger episode were used. One hundred and two male and female students reacted to the episodes by reporting their emotional responses, coping reactions, and coping intentions. The results indicate marked differences in coping reactions and intentions between the two emotions. Demonstrating resistance turned out to be the pronounced theme in coping with anger, while smoothly preserving a favorab...

Self-Monitoring und Authentizität: Die verkannten Selbstdarsteller

Zusammenfassung: Zentrale Grundannahmen von Snyders Self-Monitoring-Konzeption werden in Frage gestellt: Wir kritisieren insbesondere, das Personen, die sowohl hohe Authentizitatsneigung als auch hohe Selbstdarstellungsfahigkeiten aufweisen, in seinem Ansatz unberucksichtigt bleiben. In einer Fragebogenstudie (N = 329) haben wir den Zusammenhang zwischen Self-Monitoring und Authentizitat untersucht. Dabei wurde die Unidimensionalitat des Self-Monitoring-Konstrukts zugunsten der Unterscheidung von akquisitiver und protektiver Selbstdarstellung aufgegeben. Dementsprechend haben wir deutsche Ubertragungen der Revised-Self-Monitoring-Scale (akquisitive Selbstdarstellung) und der Concern-for-Appropriateness-Scale (protektive Selbstdarstellung) eingesetzt. Auch die deutsche Version von Snyders Self-Monitoring-Skala und eine von uns entwickelte Authentizitatsskala wurden vorgelegt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, das nur protektive Selbstdarstellung negativ mit Authentizitat assoziiert ist. Akquisitive Selbstdarstellung ...

The relationship between self-presentation styles and coping with social stress

The need for a joint consideration of self-presentation and coping is emphasized. In doing so, differences between the acquisitive style and the protective styles of self-presentation were explored with respect to coping intentions and reactions. A video simulating the situation just before a public speech was presented to 168 students as a social stress scenario. High protective compared with low protective self-presenters were more engaged in avoidance coping and more concerned with intentions that indicate avoidance of social disapproval. Furthermore, they tended to use non-authentic self-presentation and were less engaged in entertaining the audience. An almost opposite pattern of results emerged for high acquisitive compared with low acquisitive self-presenters. Implications of these findings for Snyders self-monitoring theory include the differentiation between acquisitive self-monitors, protective self-monitors, high self-monitors (high on both styles) and low self-monitors (low on both styles).

Person‐centred coping research

In this concluding article we discuss the three approaches to biographical stress and coping research presented in this issue, under four main headings. The first topic comprises the comparison of the three approaches with regard to their biographical features. In a second part we turn to the issue of coping and examine differences as well as similarities between the coping concept of Hans Thomae, on the one hand and that of Lazarus and Folkman on the other hand. The third and fourth of our discussion points deal with two central topics, that are accentuated in present personality psychology: the person‐situation issue and the idiographic‐nomothetic debate. With regard to both topics, we discuss the ideas and research findings which Lazarus and Folkman, as well as Thomae are contributing to these issues. We conclude our discussion of biographical approaches to stress and coping by proposing a person‐centred approach, that can be regarded as a further development of theoretical conceptualizations contained in the approaches of Lazarus and Thomae.

Soziale Sättigung: das Ende der Persönlichkeitstests in der Postmoderne?

Zusammenfassung: Kenneth Gergen vertritt die These, das Individuen im Zeitalter der Postmoderne einer enormen Zunahme sozialer Beziehungen ausgesetzt sind. Als Folge davon nahern sie sich einem Zustand der sozialen Sattigung, der durch die Besetzung des Selbst mit vielfaltigen Sichtweisen gekennzeichnet ist. Da diese Sichtweisen disparat und oft widerspruchlich sind, folgert Gergen, das das Verhalten von Individuen nicht langer durch Personlichkeitstests, die stabile Eigenschaften voraussetzen, vorhergesagt werden kann. Um diese Schlusfolgerung zu uberprufen, fuhrten wir eine Fragebogenuntersuchung durch. Eine soziale Sattigungs-Skala wurde entwickelt und mehr als 200 Personen zusammen mit anderen Masen, darunter Skalen zur Erfassung von Authentizitat und Self-monitoring, vorgegeben. Hoch sozial und niedrig sozial gesattigte Personen unterschieden sich nicht im Ausmas der Vorhersagbarkeit. In einer Clusteranalyse ergaben sich drei Personlichkeitstypen: Modernisten und zwei Formen von Postmodernisten, die ...

Differentiating anxiety and depression: the State-Trait Anxiety-Depression Inventory

ABSTRACT The differentiation of trait anxiety and depression in nonclinical and clinical populations is addressed. Following the tripartite model, it is assumed that anxiety and depression share a large portion of negative affectivity (NA), but differ with respect to bodily hyperarousal (specific to anxiety) and anhedonia (lack of positive affect; specific to depression). In contrast to the tripartite model, NA is subdivided into worry (characteristic for anxiety) and dysthymia (characteristic for depression), which leads to a four-variable model of anxiety and depression encompassing emotionality, worry, dysthymia, and anhedonia. Item-level confirmatory factor analyses and latent class cluster analysis based on a large nation-wide representative German sample (N = 3150) substantiate the construct validity of the model. Further evidence concerning convergent and discriminant validity with respect to related constructs is obtained in two smaller nonclinical and clinical samples. Factors influencing the association between components of anxiety and depression are discussed.

Differentielle Psychologie und Persönlichkeitsforschung. Manfred Amelang and Dieter Bartussek, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart. 2nd edition, 623 pp. DM 98

It is a difficult task to write textbooks on personality psychology. As Herrmann (1969) notes in the preface to the first edition of his textbook on personality psychology, there is always the danger that textbooks ‘present the reader a collection of outdated knowledge and premature approaches’. Today, it has not become easier to distinguish between outmoded concepts that are appropriate for textbooks, and premature approaches without prospects. Consider, for example, the person-situation controversy of the recent years: Depending on theoretical viewpoints, this controversy has either resulted in an elaboration of trait approaches or in the development of alternative approaches in the form of different variants of interactionism that were long overdue. Indeed, it depends on such fundamental viewpoints whether the flood of current research is either integrated into well-proved textbook structures, or whether new perspectives are sought which help to organize the confusing picture that arises from many single research contributions. i n any case, priorities have to be set because it is impossible to portray differential psychology and personality psychology comprehensively and in detail. Amelang and Bartussek decided to emphasize the description and explanation of individual differences in the light of empirical research. They stress this intention by entitling their textbook Differentielle Psychologie und Personlichkeitsforschung. Contrary to the more conventional usage, Amelang and Bartussek do not use the terms personality psychology or personality research synonymously with differential psychology. Rather, they conceive personality psychology as a subdivision of differential psychology that deals with temperamental differences, i.e. personality psychology in the narrow sense. Personality psychology is distinguished from the realm of ability (e.g. intelligence and creativity), and the latter is the second domain of differential psychology that the authors deal with in greater detail. We believe that it is justified only for historical reasons to equate the two domains temperament and personality. And, in fact, the authors go beyond a narrow definition of personality psychology when they discuss behavioural and cognitive personality constructs that can hardly be subsumed under the definition of temperament. The textbook is subdivided into five major sections. The introductory section ‘Basic issues in differential psychology’ is followed by a section on ‘Research methods in differential psychology’. The third section covers ‘Domains of individual differences’ and Section 4 ‘Determinants of individual differences’. This distinction between domains and determinants of individual differences corresponds to Herrmann’s (1969) distinction between the description and the explanation of personality. In the final fifth section, entitled ‘Consequences of individual differences’, the authors discuss current developments of the interactionism and consistency debate. In contrast to other recent German introductions to personality psychology (Fisseni, 1984; Mogel, 1985), theoretical positions do not provide the pre-eminent structure of Amelang and Bartussek’s book. An exception is Section 3, where basic theoretical orientations in personality psychology, i.e. factor-analytic approaches, psychodynamics, behaviourism, and cognitive approaches, are described and used for a discussion of research strategies and results which are typical for the respectivc theoretical frameworks. According to Wittmann’s