Michelle A. Luke

Constructing a self: The role of self-structure and self-certainty in social anxiety

Current cognitive models stress the importance of negative self-perceptions in maintaining social anxiety, but focus predominantly on content rather than structure. Two studies examine the role of self-structure (self-organisation, self-complexity, and self-concept clarity) in social anxiety. In study one, self-organisation and self-concept clarity were correlated with social anxiety, and a step-wise multiple regression showed that after controlling for depression and self-esteem, which explained 35% of the variance in social anxiety scores, self-concept clarity uniquely predicted social anxiety and accounted for an additional 7% of the variance in social anxiety scores in an undergraduate sample (N = 95) and the interaction between self-concept clarity and compartmentalisation (an aspect of evaluative self-organisation) at step 3 of the multiple regression accounted for a further 3% of the variance in social anxiety scores. In study two, high (n = 26) socially anxious participants demonstrated less self-concept clarity than low socially anxious participants (n = 26) on both self-report (used in study one) and on computerised measures of self-consistency and confidence in self-related judgments. The high socially anxious group had more compartmentalised self-organisation than the low anxious group, but there were no differences between the two groups on any of the other measures of self-organisation. Self-complexity did not contribute to social anxiety in either study, although this may have been due to the absence of a stressor. Overall, the results suggest that self-structure has a potentially important role in understanding social anxiety and that self-concept clarity and other aspects of self-structure such as compartmentalisation interact with each other and could be potential maintaining factors in social anxiety. Cognitive therapy for social phobia might influence self-structure, and understanding the role of structural variables in maintenance and treatment could eventually help to improve treatment outcome.

Your Love Lifts Me Higher! The Energizing Quality of Secure Relationships:

Three studies tested and confirmed the hypothesis that secure attachment relationships lead to feelings of security and energy, as well as willingness to explore. In Study 1, priming a secure attachment relationship increased felt security and energy. In Studies 2 and 3, felt energy mediated the effect of (primed) secure attachment relationships on willingness to explore. In Study 3, the effect of (primed) secure attachment relationships on felt energy and willingness to explore was independent of general positive affect. Secure attachments energize partners, thus enabling exploration.

Chapter Five - A Three-Tier Hierarchy of Self-Potency: Individual Self, Relational Self, Collective Self

Abstract The self-system consists of three fundamental components: the individual self, the relational self, and the collective self. All selves are important and meaningful and all are associated with psychological and physical health benefits. However, the selves are not equally important and meaningful. We propose a three-tier hierarchy of the motivational potency of the self-system, with the individual self on top, followed somewhat closely by the relational self, and followed distantly by the collective self. Engaging in competitive testing, we conducted a variety of experiments in which we implemented diverse methods for controlling the accessibility of the selves, introduced different forms of threat or enhancement, sampled several relational and collective selves, measured the independent reaction of each self, and assessed an array of responses to threat or enhancement (e.g., mood, anger, distancing, impact of feedback, derogation of feedback, impact on life, sentiments of “real you,” goals, monetary allocations). The findings were consistent with the three-tier hierarchy of motivational self-potency.

Helping individuals to understand synergistic risks: An assessment of message contents depicting mechanistic and probabilistic concepts

Accumulating evidence shows that certain hazard combinations interact to present synergistic risks. However, little is known about the most effective ways of helping individuals to understand this complex risk concept. More specifically, there is an absence of empirical research that has assessed the relative efficacy of messages that explain either the causal mechanism and/or the probabilistic components of synergistic risks. In an experiment designed to address this issue, we presented participants with messages concerning the synergistic risk of developing esophageal cancer for individuals who consume both tobacco and alcohol. Relative to a control group, we compared the extent to which messages featuring content detailing the underlying biological mechanism, the probabilistic risk, or both improved understanding of the synergistic risk. Our results showed that messages containing details of both the mechanism and probabilistic information were most effective at enabling individuals to understand that the alcohol-tobacco combination presents a synergistic risk. In addition, large improvements in the accuracy of cancer frequency estimates were observed amongst individuals who received probabilistic information, and the highest relative increase in professed willingness to adopt precautionary behaviors was observed amongst individuals who received the mechanism information only. Importantly, these findings could be utilized in the development of a general model for the communication of synergistic risks. Furthermore, in contrast to previous findings, our study demonstrates that risk messages can be both effective and efficient in helping individuals to acquire a greater understanding of synergistic risks. Acquiring such knowledge could lead to significant improvements in risk-related decisions concerning combined hazards.

Managing Competition Risk: A Critical Realist Philosophical Exploration

As firms act to meet competitive challenges, they separately vary their exposure to objectively real risks, and their subjective risk perceptions. Hence the ‘fit’ between each firms subjective risk map and its objective ‘riskscape’ is in constant flux. Realist thought, which emphasizes the separateness of mind from external reality, and sets itself the slow and painstaking task of improving the fit between the two, is therefore universally relevant for risk management. This simple ‘risk realism’ has value for academics wishing to analyse risk management practice and can provide useful working assumptions and procedural guidelines for practitioners. Mindful of both uses, this paper utilizes the philosophical thesis of critical realism to develop ontological and epistemological standpoints that relate specifically to what we call ‘competition risk’. Working from these standpoints we develop parallels between business and military engagements with competition risk. We explore what we treat as ontologically indistinct competition risk issues present across both contexts and conclude that firms can learn much from how the military deals with both ‘regular’ and ‘irregular’ forms of competition risk.

A tutorial on selecting and interpreting predictive models for ordinal health-related outcomes

Ordinal variables are very often objects of study in health sciences. However, due to the lack of dissemination of models suited for ordinal variables, users often adopt other practices that result in the loss of statistical power. In this tutorial, different models from the family of logistic regression models are introduced as alternatives to handle and interpret ordinal outcomes. The models that were considered include: ordinal regression model (ORM), continuation ratio model (CRM), adjacent category model (ACM), generalised ordered logit model, sequential model, multinomial logit model, partial proportional odds model, partial continuation ratio model and stereotype ordered regression model. By using the relationship of hospital length of stay in a public hospital in Mexico with patient characteristics as an example, the models were used to describe the nature of such relationship and to predict the length of stay category to which a patient is most likely to belong. After an initial analysis, the ORM, CRM and ACM proved to be unsuitable for our data due to the transgression of the parallel regression assumption. The rest of the models were estimated in STATA. The results suggested analogous directionality of the parameter estimates between models, although the interpretation of the odds ratios varied from one model to another. Performance measurements indicated that the models had similar prediction performance. Therefore, when there is an interest in exploiting the ordinal nature of an outcome, there is no reason to maintain practices that ignore such nature since the models discussed here proved to be computationally inexpensive and easy to estimate, analyse and interpret.