Nicholas A. Kuiper

Self-Reference and the Encoding of Personal Information

The degree to which the self is implicated in processing personal information was investigated. Subjects rated adjectives on four tasks designed to force varying kinds of encoding: structural, phonemic, semantic, and self-reference. In two experiments, incidental recall of the rated words indicated that adjectives rates under the self-reference task were recalled the best. These results indicate that self-reference is a rich and powerful encoding process. As an aspect of the human information-processing system, the self appears to function as a superordinate schema that is deeply involved in the processing, interpretation, and memory of personal information.

Schematic processing and self-reference in clinical depression.

Differences in self-schema content among 16 clinical depressives, 16 nondepressed psychiatric control patients, and 16 normal nondepressives (women between the ages of 18 and 65) were investigated by having subjects make structural (Small letters?), semantic (Means same as a given word?), and self-referent (Describes you?) ratings on depressedand nondepressed-content personal adjectives. These ratings were then followed immediately by an incidental recall period in which subjects recalled as many of the adjectives as possible. In accord with predictions generated from a self-as-schema model, adjective recall was greater overall for the self-referent rating task, relative to the structural and semantic tasks. Furthermore, consistent with the content-specificity component of this self-schema model, both normal and nondepressed psychiatric controls displayed superior recall only for self-referenced, nondepressed-content adjectives. Also consistent with the content-specificity component of this model, clinical depressives displayed significantly enhanced recall only for depressed-content adjectives rated under the self-referent task. In combination with rating time findings, these results offer empirical support for Becks proposal that an efficient negative self-schema exists, specific to the disorder of depression.

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.

Depression and causal attributions for success and failure.

The present study investigated the effects of depression on causal attributions for success and failure. Specifically, female university students were separated into depressed and nondepressed groups on the basis of Costello--Comrey Depression Scale scores, and then received either 20%, 55%, or 80% reinforcement on a word association task. Following the task, attributions were made for outcome using the four factors of effort, ability, task difficulty, and luck. In accord with predictions generated from a self-serving biases hypothesis, nondepressives made internal (ability, effort) attributions for a successful outcome (80% reinforcement) and external attributions (luck, task difficulty) for a failure outcome (20% reinforcement). As predicted from consideration of the self-blame component of depression, the attributions made by depressives for a failure outcome were personal or internal. Contrary to expectations, depressives also made internal attributions for a successful outcome. The findings for depressives were discussed in relation to the recently revised learned helplessness model of depression, which incorporates causal attributions. For nondepressives, the findings were considered in terms of the self-serving biases hypothesis.

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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Social comparison and negative self-evaluations: An application to depression

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.

COGNITIVE APPRAISALS AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SENSE OF HUMOR: MOTIVATIONAL AND AFFECTIVE IMPLICATIONS

Abstract It is proposed here that distorted views of self may arise and be maintained by certain social cognitions and perceptions. In particular, social comparison processes are identified as potentially important links between the social environment and evaluations of self. Social comparisons can provide much useful information to an individual, but under some circumstances, may also be very damaging. As such, several components of the social comparison process are identified to determine possible individual differences which may constitute a predisposition to chronic negative self-evaluations. Of particular importance are characteristics of the self which may render social comparisons a threatening activity. Also examined are the kinds of attributes or dimensions chosen for comparison, and the nature of the reference others selected. Preliminary evidence is then presented which suggests that depressed individuals, and individuals thought to be at increased risk for developing depressive symptoms, may exhibit differences along these social comparison dimensions. These differences are further discussed in terms of their potential role in maintaining negative self-evaluations in individuals already depressed, and in giving rise to negative self-evaluations in proposed at-risk individuals. Finally, a cognitive vulnerability model of depression is presented to highlight the potentially important role of social comparison processes in both the etiology and maintenance of depression.

A stress and coping model of child maltreatment

Abstract This research examined how sense of humor relates to the cognitive appraisals that individuals make for various events and situations they encounter. In Study 1, participants described both a pleasant and stressful event that had occurred to them in the past month. As predicted by several humor theorists, results showed that more humorous individuals changed their perspective more often for stressful events, and found such changes to be beneficial. Participants in the second study provided cognitive appraisals both before and after completing two drawing tasks. Higher levels of humor were associated with more positive challenge appraisals for both drawing tasks, and lower threat appraisals prior to the first task. In further accord with a positive enhancement effect for humor, this study also found that higher levels of task motivation and positive affect were evident for those individuals with a greater sense of humor. The findings from Study 2 also provided empirical support for several of the basic underlying relationships that are fundamental to cognitive appraisal theory. Discussion focused on the enhancing effects of sense of humor, along with a need to further integrate individual difference research with cognitive appraisal theory. It was also recommended that future research focus more specifically on the multidimensional aspects of sense of humor. These aspects should then be considered relative to other more general personality constructs, such as extraversion and emotionality.

Daily occurrence of laughter: Relationships with age, gender, and Type A personality

Abstract The evolution of theoretical approaches to child maltreatment has progressed to the point of complex, multifactorial models that incorporate parental, child, and ecological variables. These models are briefly reviewed and it is noted that they offer comprehensive descriptions of the potential antecedent factors that may initiate and maintain child maltreatment. The most recent formulations in this domain, however, have now begun to converge on the notion that levels of caregiver stress may play a critical role in determining child maltreatment. Accordingly, this paper describes in detail a stress and coping model of child maltreatment. Drawing from current literature on psychological processes relating to stress and coping, this model documents the various means whereby stress levels may become enhanced in caregivers, and thus contribute to increased child maltreatment. The model encompasses both child neglect and physical abuse, and integrates fundamental findings from these two maltreatment domains with psychological theory and research on stress and coping. In this model, we highlight the critical functions of the caregivers cognitive appraisals and coping strategies in furthering our understanding of explanations of child maltreatment. Additional implications of this stress and coping model for research and clinical practice in the child maltreatment domain are then discussed.