Integrative Self-knowledge Research Articles

Contributions of Cognitive-Motivational Factors to the Sense of Identity

This study addressed the relationship between sense of personal identity and thinking dispositions such as need for cognition, reflection, and integrative self-knowledge as well as modes of coping with self-related discrepancies through either excessive assimilation or accommodation. Participants were 544 young adults. The correlation and path analyses revealed, as expected, that need for cognition and integrative self-knowledge positively influenced one’s sense of identity, while over-responsiveness to discrepant information about the self influenced it negatively. The effects of reflection and imperviousness to discrepancies appeared more complicated and varied. Together, the findings confirm the importance of cognitive-motivational variables in the development and maintenance of a sense of identity, and suggest that gender differences in their relative significance may deserve additional research attention.

Contextualized self-views and sense of identity

Research has yielded conflicting views of the adaptiveness of features of self-structure. Particularly interesting are the implications of contextually-based self-concept variability for the capacity to organize one's self-experience into a stable and coherent identity. In the past, this issue has been addressed from two contrasting perspectives: the fragmentation and the flexibility (specialization) hypothesis. This paper adds to the literature by examining the mediating and moderating effects of cognitive-motivational dispositions on the relationship between trait overlap among self-aspects and sense of personal identity. The analyses suggest this relationship is more complex than previously believed. There was no direct effect of overlap on sense of identity. However, support was found for moderated mediation: higher overlap was associated with higher integrative self-knowledge, which was in turn related to enhanced sense of identity, and the strength of this relation increased with the level of need for cognition (second-stage moderator). Yet, this was true only for individuals low and moderate in reflective self-focus (first-stage moderator).

Moral Affects, Empathy, and Integrative Self-Knowledge in Iran

In the more individualistic West, guilt promotes and shame interferes with empathic sensitivity. This investigation sought to determine if similar results would appear in the presumably more interdependent cultural context of Iran. Iranian university students ( N = 220) responded to guilt and shame scales along with measures of other-oriented empathy and empathic distress. As in the West, guilt predicted greater other-oriented empathy, shame correlated positively with empathic distress, and relationships with integrative self-knowledge, self-esteem, covert narcissism, depression, and anxiety confirmed guilt and other-oriented empathy as adaptive and shame and empathic distress as maladaptive. Integrative self-knowledge mediated shame but not guilt relationships with other measures. In contrast to Western findings, Iranian women did not score higher on shame, and guilt correlated positively with empathic distress. These data confirmed Iranian parallels with the previously reported dynamics of empathy and moral affects in the West, but Iranian differences also pointed toward the need for additional research.

Integrative Self-Knowledge and Marital Satisfaction

ABSTRACT 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.

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

Self-regulation presumably rests upon multiple processes that include an awareness of ongoing self-experience, enduring self-knowledge and self-control. The present investigation tested this multi-process model using the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and the Integrative Self-Knowledge and Brief Self-Control Scales. Using a sample of 1162 Iranian university students, we confirmed the five-factor structure of the FFMQ in Iran and documented its factorial invariance across males and females. Self-regulatory variables correlated negatively with Perceived Stress, Depression, and Anxiety and positively with Self-Esteem and Satisfaction with Life. Partial mediation effects confirmed that self-regulatory measures ameliorated the disturbing effects of Perceived Stress. Integrative Self-Knowledge and Self-Control interacted to partially mediate the association of Perceived Stress with lower levels of Satisfaction with Life. Integrative Self-Knowledge, alone or in interaction with Self-Control, was the only self-regulation variable to display the expected mediation of Perceived Stress associations with all other measures. Self-Control failed to be implicated in self-regulation only in the mediation of Anxiety. These data confirmed the need to further examine this multi-process model of self-regulation.

Mindfulness and integrative self‐knowledge: Relationships with health‐related variables

This study examined how mindfulness and integrative self-knowledge were related to health-related issues. Men in general population (n = 103) and coronary heart disease samples (n = 101) completed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, the Integrative Self-knowledge Scale, the Type 2 subscale of the Interpersonal Reactions Inventory, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Anxiety and Depression Scales. In both samples, there was a moderate positive correlation between mindfulness and integrative self-knowledge and they were negatively correlated with all health-related variables. However, only integrative self-knowledge explained independent variance in health-related variables. Specifically, in both samples, the relationship between mindfulness and health-related variables was mediated by integrative self-knowledge. Mindfulness and integrative self-knowledge are related domains of self-awareness that are associated with a range of health-related variables. These relationships are robust across samples drawn from general population and patients with coronary heart disease. The finding that integrative self-knowledge explained additional variance in the health-related variables after the contribution of mindfulness had been accounted for suggests that reflective self-awareness in integrative self-knowledge may make a unique contribution to the explanation of individual differences in health variables.

The Validity and Reliability of the Turkish Version of the Integrative Self-knowledge Scale

The aim of this research is to examine the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Integrative self -knowledge Scale (ISKS; Ghorbani, Watson, & Hargis, 2008). Participants were 396 university students (277 were female and 119 were male) from Sakarya University. The results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the three dimensional model was well fitted and Chi-Square value (x2=108. 38, df=49, p=0. 00) which was calculated for the adaptation of the model was found to be significant. The goodness of fit index values of the model were RMSEA=.055, NFI=.97, CFI=.98, IFI=.98, RFI=.96, GFI=.96, and SRMR=.041. The internal consistency coefficients of three subscales were .74, .77, and .83, respectively. The overall internal consistency coefficient of the scale was .86. The corrected item-total correlations of ISKS ranged from .37 to .67. Overall findings demonstrated that this scale had high validity and reliability scores and that it may be used as a valid and reliable instrument in order to assess self-knowledge levels of individuals.

Varieties of openness in Tehran and Qom: psychological and religious parallels of faith and intellect-oriented Islamic religious reflection

This study examined whether faith and intellect-oriented religious reflection would be polarised in Iranian Muslins as they appear to be in American Christians. Iranian students at a university in Tehran and at an Islamic seminary in Qom responded to Faith and Intellect-Oriented Islamic Religious Reflection measures along with scales recording various forms of religious commitment and psychological openness. Both types of religious reflection and the Intrinsic Religious Orientation predicted greater Integrative Self-Knowledge, Openness to Experience, and Need for Cognition and also interacted in ways suggesting complexity in Muslim thought. Comparisons between Tehran and Qom students supported the same conclusion. The Quest Religious Orientation had limited relevance for understanding Muslim commitments. The Extrinsic Personal Religious Orientation predicted greater and the Extrinsic Social Religious Orientation predicted lower psychological openness. These data contrasted with previous evidence of polarisation in the religious reflection of American Christians. They also argued against any simple equation of Muslim commitments with cognitive and religious rigidity.

Self-Compassion in Iranian Muslims: Relationships With Integrative Self-Knowledge, Mental Health, and Religious Orientation

Although a Buddhist construct, self-compassion may have implications for understanding psychological adjustment cross-culturally. In Iranian Muslims, the Self-Compassion Scale correlated positively with integrative self-knowledge, self-esteem, and basic need satisfactions and negatively with depression and anxiety. Negative linkages with depression and anxiety continued to appear in partial correlations controlling for self-esteem, replicating a result previously observed in the United States. Integrative self-knowledge fully or partially mediated all self-compassion relationships with psychological adjustment. Integrative self-knowledge also became even more predictive of self-compassion at higher levels of an intrinsic religious orientation. These data further confirmed the cross-cultural significance of self-compassion and supported the suggestion that Muslim psychological adjustment is enhanced through sincere religious efforts to get closer to God through self-knowledge.

Integrative Self-Knowledge and the Harmony of Purpose Model in Iranian Autoimmune Patients

Teleological coherence theoretically underlies healthy immunological and psycho-neural responses to stress and should be lacking in autoimmune patients. An Integrative Self-Knowledge Scale served as a plausible psychological measure of teleological coherence in Iranian Autoimmune, Non-Autoimmune, and Healthy Student groups. Participants also responded to measures of perceived stress and to the Levels of Self-Criticism Scales, Hopkins Symptom Checklist, and Inventory of Interpersonal Problems. Autoimmune patients displayed the lowest Integrative Self-Knowledge, highest perceived stress, and greatest evidence of psychological disharmony. Integrative Self-Knowledge correlated negatively with perceived stress and psychological disturbances and partially mediated the relationship of perceived stress with interpersonal problems. Integrative Self-Knowledge may usefully clarify the psychosomatic dynamics of autoimmune patients.

The Relation of Perceived Parenting with Integrative Self-knowledge

This study investigated the relation of perceived parenting (including involvement, autonomy support and warmth dimensions) with integrative self-knowledge. 352 students aged 18-20 (142 boys, 210 girls) completed the Perception Of Parents Scale (Grolnick, Deci, & Ryan, 1997) and Integrative Self-Knowledge scale (Ghorbani, Watson, & Hargis, 2008). The results indicated that perceived autonomy support and warmth were positively associated with integrative self-knowledge. Also, perceived autonomy support and then warmth (especially of the mother) can predict changes of integrative self-knowledge. It can be concluded that the person's autonomy support is one of the most effective factors in developing the self-knowledge.

Integrative Self-Knowledge and Mental Health

An Integrative Self-Knowledge (ISK) construct displays tendencies to engage in a cognitive process of uniting past, present, and desired future self experience into a meaningful whole. The present study examined relationships between ISK and Mental Health in Iranian population. One hundred and forty students filled ISK, GHQ-28, MHI-18, Depression and Anxiety scales. Obtained data were analyzed with using of Pearson's correlation coefficients and regression analysis. Result revealed that Self- Knowledge processes were positively associated with mental health and negatively with General Health Scores, Depression and Anxiety. As hypothesized, regression analyses revealed that ISK was the positive predictor of Mental Health.

Dialogical Validity of Religious Measures in Iran: Relationships with Integrative Self-Knowledge and Self-Control of the “Perfect Man” (Ensān-e Kāmel)

According to the ideological surround model of research, a more “objective” psychology of religion requires efforts to bring etic social scientific and emic religious perspectives into formal dialog. This study of 245 Iranian university students illustrated how the dialogical validity of widely used etic measures of religion can be assessed by examining an emic religious perspective on psychology. Integrative Self-Knowledge and Self-Control Scales recorded two aspects of the “Perfect Man” ( ensān-e kāmel) as described by the Iranian Muslim philosopher Mortazā Motahharī. Use of these instruments in correlation and multiple regression procedures identified Intrinsic, Extrinsic Personal, Religious Interpretation, Extrovertive Mysticism, Prayer Fulfillment, Universality, Connectedness, and Religiosity Scales as adaptive in their implications for a Muslim psychology of religion. Religious Crisis had maladaptive and Extrinsic Social, Introvertive Mysticism, and Quest Scales had ambiguous implications. These data illustrated how etic forms of understanding can clarify and can be clarified by emic insights.

Self-Knowledge and Narcissism in Iranians: Relationships with Empathy and Self-Esteem

Self-knowledge is a Muslim psychological ideal, but social theory suggests that the dynamics of narcissism and self-esteem may challenge the stability of Muslim society. In Iranian university students, an Integrative Self-Knowledge Scale displayed relationships with narcissism, self-esteem, and empathy that reflected relative mental health; and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory included factors that pointed toward adjustment as well as maladjustment. Evidence that narcissism predicted positive forms of self-functioning was more obvious in men than in women. Outcomes further confirmed that self-knowledge is as an adaptive process in Iran and that narcissism and self-esteem may have noteworthy implications for understanding Muslim society.

Comparative analysis of integrative self‐knowledge, mindfulness, and private self‐consciousness in predicting responses to stress in Iran

Previous research has established that awareness of self-experience is a stress resistance resource. The present study conducted an analysis of measures that record different aspects of self-awareness (private self-consciousness, mindfulness, and integrative self-knowledge) to explain this stress-resistance effect in a sample of Iranian university students (N = 186). These students responded to Mindfulness Attention Awareness, Private Self-Consciousness, Integrative Self-Knowledge, and Perceived Stress Scales just before the stress of a 20-day final examination period, and they then responded to Symptom Checklist and Vitality measures at four-day intervals during the final examinations. Prior to final examinations, the three self-awareness variables correlated positively with each other and negatively with perceived stress. Regression analyses of the data obtained during final examinations identified mindfulness to be a better operationalization of this stress-resistance resource than private self-consciousness. Specifically, mindfulness but not private self-consciousness was a positive predictor of vitality and a negative predictor of symptoms. Hierarchical regression analyses also demonstrated that mindfulness and integrative self-knowledge both explained resistance to physical symptoms, while integrative self-knowledge functioned as a protective factor toward one's vitality. These data confirm the positive impact that self-awareness has during stress and highlight the importance of considering both mindfulness and integrative self-knowledge in understanding stress-resistance processes.

Relationships between Self- and Peer-reported Integrative Self-knowledge and the Big Five Factors in Iran

An Integrative Self-Knowledge (ISK) Scale measures tendencies to engage in a cognitive process of uniting past, present, and desired future self-experience into a meaningful whole. In the present project, 288 Iranian university students responded to the ISK and Big Five scales and rated their dormitory roommates on these characteristics as well. These procedures most importantly revealed a positive correlation between self- and peer-reported ISK. Self-reported ISK also predicted higher levels of self-reported Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience, and this pattern of relationships appeared with the peer-report data as well. In these results and also in correlations of the self- with peer-report scales, associations of ISK with greater Emotional Stability and Openness to Experience were especially noteworthy. This study confirmed the validity of the ISK scale and the adaptive behavioral significance of what it measures.