Levels Of Self-criticism Research Articles

The relationships between self-criticism, submissive behavior and depression among Turkish adolescents

The purpose of this research was to study the relationships between two dysfunctional forms of negative self-evaluation: Comparative Self-Criticism and Internalized Self-Criticism, submissive behavior and depression. Subjects were 235 high school students and 157 university students who completed The Levels of Self-Criticism (LOSC), the Submissive Acts Scale (SAS) and the Beck Depression Inventory. Multiple regression analyses showed that Comparative Self-Criticism and submissive behavior are independent predictors of depression in both high school and university students whereas no such relationship was demonstrated for Internalized Self-Criticism. These findings provide support for sensitivity to external standards rather than internal ones in middle and late adolescence being relevant to depression.

The Levels of Self-Criticism Scale: comparative self-criticism and internalized self-criticism

The Levels of Self-Criticism (LOSC) Scale was designed to measure two dysfunctional forms of negative self-evaluation: Comparative Self-Criticism (CSC) and Internalized Self-Criticism (ISC). An initial pool of 34 items was subjected to reliability and item analyses with 282 participants. From these analyses, a final scale of 12 items for CSC and 10 items for ISC was developed. These scales were then validated with 144 participants. As predicted, CSC and ISC were moderately correlated with each other. Each scale was uniquely and predictably related to other measures of personality, attachment, and conflict resolution, and these relationships did not appear to be primarily due to general relationships with Neuroticism. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.

Self-criticism in generalized social phobia and response to cognitive-behavioral treatment

Excessive self-criticism is a putative psychological vulnerability for depression, and recent findings suggest it may be important in social phobia as well. The present study investigated the role of self-criticism in predicting outcome to cognitive-behavior therapy for generalized social phobia. Eighty-four patients were assessed before and after treatment using a latent social phobia factor based on six different symptom measures. A hierarchical regression analysis was used to sequentially enter baseline severity of social phobia symptoms, interpersonal dependency (another depressogenic vulnerability), depressed mood state, and changes in the latter two variables in response to treatment. In the final model, change in level of self-criticism over the course of treatment was significantly associated with social phobia outcome. Implications of these findings for understanding psychological processes in social phobia are briefly discussed. Further research is needed to determine whether some social phobia patients with excessive self-criticism might benefit from treatment augmentation to more intensively target their core beliefs about self-worth.

III. Manifestations of Chaos and Control in the Life Experiences of Individuals with Eating Disorders: Explorations through Qualitative Email Discourse

The thematic direction of this thesis was initially guided by casual observations made during work as an assistant psychologist in a residential clinic for clients with eating disorders. Issues around control have, however – through being manifest in the actual symptoms of restriction and purging – developed anecdotal linkage to eating disorders. These themes are further developed by the interpersonal theory of Hilde Bruch (1973, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983; Bruch et al., 1988), which models anorexia nervosa as a ‘desperate effort to establish a sense of control to counteract deficits in the sufferer’s sense of effectiveness and the self-concept’. Bruch’s notions have been supported by recent quantitative research that identifies high levels of self-criticism, alongside low levels of self-esteem and perceived internal control, as prevalent among individuals with eating disorders (Unnewehr and Basler, 1989; Williams et al., 1990, 1993; Bers and Quinlan, 1992). The research and literature also identifies areas that, individually, can be considered facets of these general themes: (a) Abuse/trauma – impact of submission/guilt/unpredictability (Rice, 1996; Rorty and Yager, 1996); (b) Family background/key relations – characteristically turbulent, chaotic, overmeshed, and ambivalent relations (Lawrence, 1984; Palazzoli et al., 1989; Eme and Danielak, 1995);

Coping strategies of health personnel during economic crisis: A case study from Cameroon

Severe economic crisis compelled many governments in Sub-Saharan Africa to adopt structural adjustment programmes. This was accompanied by price increases and cuts in the salaries of civil servants. We explored how health personnel in one province of Cameroon coped with this situation, and what the perceived effects on service quality were. Key informant and focus group interviews with government and mission (church) health personnel; interviews with service users to validate the findings. Government health personnel had experienced larger cuts in salaries than their mission counterparts; they no longer received allowances and incentives still available to mission personnel and appeared more demotivated. Most government and mission personnel reported legal after-hours income raising activities. Government personnel frequently reported additional 'survival strategies' such as parallel selling of drugs, requesting extra charges for services, and running private practices during work hours. There was a high level of self criticism among government personnel indicating a dissonance between their attitude and practices. They considered these practices negative and harmful for service users. Remedial action is urgent. Options include reinstating allowances for good performance and ensuring regular supervision without blaming individual health workers for problems caused by the state of the health system.

Dependency and Distress at Summer Camp

Examined the relation of dependency to psychological distress among youngsters adapting to summer sleep-away camp. Levels of dependency, self-criticism, and psychological distress were assessed in three groups of campers: children attending a neighborhood day camp, children who were returning to sleep-away camp, and children who were attending sleep-away camp for the first time. Psychological distress was assessed in terms of depression and low self-esteem. The results supported the prediction that dependency would be more predictive of distress for children at sleep-away camp (particularly for names) than at day camp. The specificity of dependency as a vulnerability factor during attachment-related transitions was supported by showing that children's level of self-criticism was not differentially related to distress for the three groups of campers. Results are discussed within the framework of the Personality-Event Congruence Model of Depressive Vulnerability.

Self-criticism in adulthood and recalled childhood experience.

We investigated in a sample of 75 medical students the hypothesis that higher levels of self-criticism, a major vulnerability factor for depression, are related to retrospective reports of less satisfactory parenting, even when the potentially confounding factors of mood state and social desirability response set are controlled. At each of 2 measurement times, there were significant cross-sectional correlations between parental ratings and both depression and self-criticism, but the associations with self-criticism were no longer significant when depression was controlled. However, even after controlling for the effects of mood state and social desirability, persons with high levels of self-criticism at both measurement points (high trait self-criticism subjects) reported significantly worse relationships with their mothers than did the remaining subjects. They were also more likely to report below average relationships with both parents jointly.

Family origins of adolescent self-criticism and its continuity into adulthood.

We used a prospective longitudinal design to examine the relation between parenting experiences at age 5 and level of self-criticism at age 12 and the stability of self-criticism from age 12 to age 31 in 156 subjects. The results showed that mothers' reports of parenting behaviors that reflect restrictiveness and rejection were related to the development of self-criticism, particularly when received from the same-sex parent. Partial correlational analyses revealed that the parenting-self-criticism relations remained significant when the mother's report of the child's early temperament was statistically controlled. The results also showed that for women, self-criticism was very stable from early adolescence to young adulthood. By contrast, there was no relation between self-criticism at ages 12 and 31 for men; however, there was a strong relation for men between age 12 self-criticism and inhibited aggressive impulses at age 31.

Family origins of adolescent self-criticism and its continuity into adulthood.

We used a prospective longitudinal design to examine the relation between parenting experiences at age 5 and level of self-criticism at age 12 and the stability of self-criticism from age 12 to age 31 in 156 subjects. The results showed that mothers' reports of parenting behaviors that reflect restrictiveness and rejection were related to the development of self-criticism, particularly when received from the same-sex parent. Partial correlational analyses revealed that the parenting-self-criticism relations remained significant when the mother's report of the child's early temperament was statistically controlled. The results also showed that for women, self-criticism was very stable from early adolescence to young adulthood. By contrast, there was no relation between self-criticism at ages 12 and 31 for men; however, there was a strong relation for men between age 12 self-criticism and inhibited aggressive impulses at age 31.

Maintaining reduced levels of self-criticism through relapse-prevention treatment

Maintaining reduced levels of self-criticism through relapse-prevention treatment

Reflections on Planning Practice In An Age of Reaction

At a time when community planning has set aside utopian ideas of the good society, critical theory provides a starting point for the analysis of the advanced industrial society In place of a unitary vision of the good society it offers a mechanism for finding it The article suggests a program for planning practice which is based on an examination of the relationship between planning theory and planning practice The tasks of planners in this time of adver sity should be to rediscover and enrich content, to locate this content in a true political context, to mount a new level of self-criticism, to develop instruments of tactical reason, and to emphasize the planner's role of educator.