A multi-process model of self-regulation: influences of mindfulness, integrative self-knowledge and self-control in Iran

Validity Evidence for the Brief Self-Control Scale in the Spanish Adult Population: A Systematic Study

The Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS) has been widely studied across languages and populations. However, research examining the Spanish version is scant and limited to the adolescent population. Our aim here was to provide validity evidence for use of the BSCS with Spanish adults by analyzing and comparing the psychometric properties of different versions of the scale (13-item, 10-item, 9-item, 8-item, and 7-item). Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the internal structure based on one-factor and two-factor models. Results obtained in a sample of 676 Spanish adults showed adequate fit indices for the two-factor structure of the 9-item, 8-item, and 7-item versions of the BSCS, although only the 9-item and 8-item BSCS were found to be invariant across gender. Item homogeneity and reliability of factor scores for these two versions (9-item and 8-item) were satisfactory. We also provide novel validity evidence based on relationships with indicators of psychological adjustment and wellbeing. Scores on the 9-item and 8-item BSCS correlated with life satisfaction, flourishing, self-esteem, distress, depression, and loneliness, and hence both may be suitable for use in mental health assessment contexts.

The many foibles of Likert scales challenge claims that self-report measures of self-control are better than performance-based measures

Self-control and executive functioning are often treated as highly related psychological constructs. However, measures of each rarely correlate with one another. This reflects some combination of true separability between the constructs and measurement differences. Traditionally, executive functioning is objectively measured as performance on computer-controlled tasks in the laboratory, whereas self-control is subjectively measured with self-report scales of predispositions and behaviors in everyday life. Self-report measures tend to better predict outcomes that should be affected by individual differences in control. Our two studies show that the original version of Tangney, Baumeister, and Boone's brief self-control scale (consisting of four positive and nine negative items) strongly correlates with self-esteem, mental health, fluid intelligence, but only weakly with satisfaction with life and happiness. Four variants of the original scale were created by reverse-wording the 13 original items and recombining them to form, for example, versions with all positive or all negative items. As the proportion of items with positive valence increased: (1) the outcomes with strong correlations in the original scale weakened and the weak correlations strengthened and (2) the mean overall scores increased. Both studies replicated a common finding that the original scale yields two factors in an exploratory factor analysis. However, the second factor is generated by method differences, namely, having items with both positive and negative valence. The second factor is induced by the common practice of reverse-coding the items with negative valence and the faulty assumption that Likert scales are equal-interval scales with a neutral-point at midscale.

Recollections of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Complexities of Religious Coping and Muslim Religious and Psychological Adjustment in Afghanistan

Religious coping is a double-edged sword. Clarification of the psychological benefits for positive religious coping requires statistical controls for negative religious coping and vice versa. This study sought to further explore the complexities of Muslim religious coping by extending the analysis to Afghans who coped with the sufferings associated with recollections of childhood and adolescent sexual abuse. Two hundred Dari Persian-speaking Afghan university students (122 identified having experience of childhood sexual abuse) self-reported on variables that measure religious orientation, religious coping, Muslim experiential religiousness, mental health, and child abuse. Results showed that negative religious coping interfered with the possibly beneficial effects of positive religious coping on mental health and child abuse. After controlling for negative religious coping, the associations of positive religious coping became obvious. In addition, Muslim spirituality moderated the associations of religious coping with mental health outcomes and child abuse: for people with higher Muslim spirituality, positive religious coping associated with better mental health, and negative religious coping associated with less child abuse. Implications for religious coping and combating trauma in a religious context are discussed.

Validation and Adaptation of the Brief Self-Control Scale With Spanish Adolescents: Factorial Structure and Evidences of Reliability, Validity, and Factor Invariance Across Gender and Age

During adolescence, the difficulty to control impulses is especially notable. The Brief Self-Control Scale has been used in different countries for years to study associations between self-control and other variables. However, its factor structure is not completely clear, and it is necessary to have a scale with psychometric assurances that evaluates self-control in adolescents. The aim of this study was to examine the factorial structure of the Brief Self-Control Scale and to provide evidences of reliability, validity, and factor invariance across gender and age in a sample of Spanish adolescents. Participants were 693 adolescents from Southeastern Spain, aged 13 to 18 years. Data supported an excellent fit to a two-dimensional model and evidences of reliability, validity and factor invariance across gender and age were obtained. This study provides new data on the two-dimensionality of self-control. The need of this tool becomes increasingly relevant to the susceptibility of new emerging addictions, such as mobile phones or internet.

Self-Worth and Self-Knowledge in Iranian Patients Seeking Cosmetic Surgery: A Comparative Study

Prior research has reported a psychological impairment in patients seeking cosmetic surgery. However, the role of other variables such as contingencies of self-worth and self-knowledge has been ignored. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine new psychological structures, contingencies of self-worth, and self-knowledge among patients seeking cosmetic surgery. Eighty patients (47 female and 33 male; mean age = 28.98, SD = 8.32; 40 seeking cosmetic surgery and 40 seeking surgical treatment) were randomly recruited from the Shahid Motahhari clinic in Shiraz, Iran. The patients completed the Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale, Integrative Self-Knowledge Scale, Subjective Vitality Scale, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21. The results showed that, compared to the surgical treatment group, self-worth in patients seeking cosmetic surgery was found to depend on their appearance and the approval of others. Further, the self-knowledge in patients seeking cosmetic surgery was lower than that of patients seeking surgical treatment. In addition, there were no significant differences between the two groups in vitality, depression, anxiety, and stress. It can be concluded that patients seeking cosmetic surgery have lower self-knowledge and their self-esteem depends on their appearance and the approval of others.

Quiet ego, self-regulatory skills, and perceived stress in college students

OBJECTIVE

Examine the unique contributions of self-control and grit subscales (perseverance, interest consistency) as potential mediators of the relationship between quiet ego characteristics and less perceived stress in college students.

PARTICIPANTS

Data from 1117 college students were collected between October, 2015 and May, 2016.

METHODS

The sample was split randomly into exploratory and confirmatory samples. Multiple mediator models were tested with PROCESS module (SPSS v. 24) in both samples.

RESULTS

Hypotheses were largely confirmed with self-control fully mediating the link between quiet ego and perceived stress in both samples.

CONCLUSIONS

Although many self-regulatory constructs may argue for their positive impact on college student outcomes, interventions that strengthen self-control, and not grit, may be most promising to reduce perceived stress. Further, interventions to strengthen quiet ego characteristics may be beneficial for strengthening self-control in college students.

Biofunctional Understanding and Conceptual Control: Searching for Systematic Consensus in Systemic Cohesion

For first generation scientists after the cognitive revolution, knowers were in active control over all (stages of) information processing. Then, following a decade of transition shaped by intense controversy, embodied cognition emerged and suggested sources of control other than those implied by metaphysical information processing. With a thematic focus on embodiment science and an eye toward systematic consensus in systemic cohesion, the present study explores the roles of biofunctional and conceptual control processes in the wholetheme spiral of biofunctional understanding (see Iran-Nejad and Irannejad, 2017b, Figure 1). According to this spiral, each of the two kinds of understanding has its own unique set of knower control processes. For conceptual understanding (CU), knowers have deliberate attention-allocation control over their first-person "knowthat" and "knowhow" content combined as mutually coherent corequisites. For biofunctional understanding (BU), knowers have attention-allocation control only over their knowthat content but knowhow control content is ordinarily conspicuously absent. To test the hypothesis of differences in the manner of control between CU and BU, participants in two experiments read identical-format statements for internal consistency, as response time was recorded. The results of Experiment 1 supported the hypothesis of differences in the manner of control between the two types of control processes; and Experiment 2 confirmed the results of Experiment 1. These findings are discussed in terms of the predicted differences between BU and CU control processes, their roles in regulating the physically unobservable flow of systemic cohesion in the wholetheme spiral, and a proposal for systematic consensus in systemic cohesion to serve as the second guiding principle in biofunctional embodiment science next to physical science's first guiding principle of systematic observation.

Contingencies of Self-Worth and Psychological Distress in Iranian Patients Seeking Cosmetic Surgery: Integrative Self-Knowledge as Mediator

BACKGROUND

Although previous studies have shown that people applying for cosmetic surgery experience high-intensity psychological distress, important variables that function as protective factors have rarely been the subject of study in this population. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the role of low and high self-knowledge in experiencing psychological distress and contingencies of self-worth to appearance and approval from others and to identify the mediatory role of the integrative self-knowledge in patients seeking cosmetic surgery.

METHODS

Eighty-eight patients seeking cosmetic surgery were selected and completed the contingencies of self-worth and integrative self-knowledge scales, as well as the depression, anxiety and stress scale. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and path analysis using 5000 bootstrap resampling.

RESULTS

The results of MANOVA showed that patients seeking cosmetic surgery with high self-knowledge had lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress compared to patients with low self-knowledge. They also gained lower scores in contingencies of self-worth to appearance and approval from others. The results of path analysis indicated that self-knowledge is a complete mediator in the relationship between contingencies of self-worth to appearance and approval from others and psychological distress.

CONCLUSION

Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that self-knowledge as a protective factor plays a major role in relation to the psychological distress experienced by the patients seeking cosmetic surgery. In fact, by increasing self-knowledge among this group of patients, their psychological distress can be decreased.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE IV

This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Religious and Psychological Implications of Positive and Negative Religious Coping in Iran

This study examined the religious and psychological implications of religious coping in Iran. University students (N = 224) responded to the Brief Positive and Negative Religious Coping Scales along with measures of Religious Orientation, Integrative Self-Knowledge, Self-Control, Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, Self-Esteem, Guilt, Shame, and Self-Criticism. As in previous research elsewhere, Positive Religious Coping was stronger on average than Negative Religious Coping, and Positive and Negative Religious Coping predicted adjustment and maladjustment, respectively, In addition, this study demonstrated that direct relationships between Positive and Negative Religious Coping appeared to be reliable in Iran; that Positive Religious Copings was broadly compatible with, and Negative Religious Coping was largely irrelevant to, Iranian religious motivations; and that Negative Religious Coping obscured linkages of Positive Religious Coping with religious and psychological adjustment.

How Does Employee Mindfulness Reduce Psychological Distress?

As pointed out by Hyland, Lee, and Mills (2015), the most prominent effect of mindfulness is a significant decrease in experienced stress levels, and one of the most popular mindfulness interventions is mindfulness-based stress reduction. When it comes to psychological stress, desirable outcomes are both expected and documented for employees who adopt a mindful approach to work. But how are these beneficial effects happening, exactly?

Integrative self-knowledge and marital satisfaction

Married Iranian couples (N = 210) responded to the Integrative Self-Knowledge Scale along with a measure of marital satisfaction, the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) Big Five, and an index of interpersonal problems. Integrative self-knowledge correlated positively with marital satisfaction, positively with all but the extraversion Big Five traits, and negatively with three indices of interpersonal problems. Integrative self-knowledge also mediated a number of personality relationships with marital satisfaction. Spouse-ratings of personality confirmed the adaptive implications of integrative self-knowledge for marriage. Linkages with questionnaire response styles supported the description of integrative self-knowledge as a measure of both self-insight and self-development. Results confirmed the potential of integrative self-knowledge for studying self-regulatory processes and suggested that the enhancement of self-knowledge may be a useful goal in efforts to strengthen marriages.