Changes In Self-perception Research Articles

Older Drivers and Cataracts: Measures of Driving Performance Before and After Cataract Surgery

Cataracts are the main cause of reversible vision impairment in older adults. An investigation examined how cataracts and cataract surgery affected driving performance and determined whether any changes in driving performance could be predicted by self-reported perceptions of driving and vision. Twenty-eight older participants with bilateral cataracts and eighteen age-matched control participants with normal vision were tested. All were licensed drivers. Driving and vision performance were measured before cataract surgery, after first-eye surgery, and again after second-eye surgery for the cataract participants and on three separate occasions for the control group. Driving performance was assessed on a closed-road circuit. Visual acuity and contrast sensitivity were also measured at each test session. Self-perceptions of vision and driving were assessed with the Activities of Daily Vision Scale (ADVS). The participants with cataracts had significantly poorer ( p <.05) driving performance at the first visit compared with the control participants for a range of measures of driving performance, which significantly improved to the level of the control participants following cataract extraction. Self-perceived changes in driving performance assessed with the ADVS were not strongly related to the actual changes in driving performance recorded. Together these findings indicate that participants with cataracts have poorer driving and vision performance than age-matched control participants and that cataract surgery can result in significant improvements in driving, which are not predicted by self-reported measures such as the ADVS.

The New Saint Petersburg: Trapped in Time?

The naming of St. Petersburg follows a distinct pattern. Emerging in the context of early modern Russia, the city gained a name that, through its Dutch and German, rather than Russian, connotations signaled some degree of cultural openness. The choice was very much in line with the overall attempt to bring Russia in touch with the Enlightenment and make it part of European civilization, thereby breaking the isolation caused by Russia's somewhat peripheral location in Europe. Petrograd, the name used for a short period after World War I, expressed a different logic. Spurred by the anti-German feelings that prevailed in 1914, burg was translated into the Russian grad. Moreover, the religious connotations were dropped. With Peter the Great and Russia's own history as a point of departure, the name represented a step in the direction of national closure. Leningrad, the name assumed in 1924 five days after Lenin's death, strengthened this feature even further. Naming obviously matters, and my concern here is with how we might interpret the recent reemergence of the old name of St. Petersburg, a name originally given by Tsar Peter I after his patron saint, Peter the Apostle. The question is what such a renaming, passed through a popular referendum in September 1991 and complicated by the fact that the city was also administratively detached from the surrounding Leningrad region with its old Soviet-era name, means both in the new Russia and, more generally, in post-Wall Europe. City names are often societally deeply rooted and sedimented. If they are changed, it is probably for rather profound reasons. So, what spurred the return of the name St. Petersburg? What hides behind the city's radically different view of itself and how has the new name been thematized in the discourse that has followed, remembering that the impact of renaming may be enabling as well as constraining? In what way have these changes in self-perception, signaling an ability to break with previous mental and political borders, been reflected in the policies pursued vis-a-vis the intra-Russian as well as the external environments? Are the changes merely symbolic or do they express a broader background and have more concrete consequences in public policies? The argument to be developed here, though a constructivist approach that focuses on the boundary practices, both intellectual and material, of a regional actor, may provide essential insights not just about St. Petersburg itself but also the unfolding of political space both in Russia and in the EU-Russia relationship more generally. Turning Back or Looking Forward? There is no doubt that abandoning the Soviet-era name of Leningrad implies a repositioning of the city in both temporal and spatial terms. It does so in providing the St. Petersburg with an old/ new symbolic frame, distinguishing the city from the Leningrad oblast and lifting it out of a number of constraints embedded in the city's posture in the context of the socialist project. There is, at least in principle, much power involved in the move. Installing such a lens, or prism, tapping into an alternative memory, allows the city to see itself--and perhaps also Russia at large--in a different perspective. Going back to the name St. Petersburg brings back memories of a time when Russia endeavored to be part of a singular European civilization, instead of striving for a distinct one of its own. The name chosen enables the emergence of new, more relational, and perhaps increasingly self-reflective, visions. The move in the sphere of symbolisms has at least potentially a liberating impact, with some elements residing in the past being restored in order to provide for an altered sense of place and belonging. An interpretation along these lines has been presented by a group of German scholars. (2) In their view, St. Petersburg is not just linking itself with an historical European identity, but is again in tune with time and able to cope with various aspects of change in being truly post-Soviet. …

Changes in self-perceptions of competence and intrinsic motivation among elementary schoolchildren.

Children's perceived competence and intrinsic motivation are assumed to be very high at the outset of schooling. However, how they change and how they relate to each other and to academic achievement across early schooling years remain open to question. This 3-year longitudinal study was aimed at examining the following questions. Do children's perceived competence and intrinsic motivation about reading and mathematics change across the first 3 years of schooling? Do their perceived competence and intrinsic motivation differ according to academic domains? Do their perceived competence and intrinsic motivation relate to their academic achievement in each academic domain? A total of 115 elementary schoolchildren (63 boys and 52 girls) were examined in first grade (mean age = 84,5 months, SD =.67) and for the next 2 years. Children responded to questionnaires about their perceived competence and intrinsic motivation in reading and mathematics. Year-end grades in these two subjects were used as a measure of performance. Changes in perceived competence and intrinsic motivation, and between-year intercorrelations, were observed to differ according to academic domains and gender. Intrinsic motivation did not make a significant contribution to academic achievement at either school grade or in any academic domain, whereas perceived competence was significantly related to achievement at each school grade in both reading and mathematics. Differences between boys and girls observed in this study were not linked to a specific domain and cannot be attributed to gender-role stereotypes. Girls appeared to be more precocious in differentiating their competence and intrinsic motivation according to academic domain, as well as in being able to process and integrate information about their ability from past performances in a domain to judge their competence in the same domain.

Nasal deformity and interpersonal problems.

Several studies in facial plastic surgery have suggested that changes in body image that initiate a positive psychological cycle play an important role in a successful outcome. The change in the patient's self-perception leads to a sense of well-being, rather than there being a direct impact from the changed features. One area in which this change in self-perception may be manifest is in the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships. Due to the impact of negative body image preoperatively, we hypothesized that patients with nasal deformity may have problems with their interpersonal relationships. This theory was tested using the IIP-32: a short version of the inventory of interpersonal problems. A prospective trial was undertaken of 27 rhinoplasty patients with nasal deformity and 16 septoplasty patients without nasal deformity, the latter group used as a control. The results show that the null hypothesis that the two groups are from the same population on all dimensions of the IIP-32 cannot be rejected (total mean score 0.753). From this data, it seems that patients with nasal deformity have no more difficulties in their interpersonal relationships and, as such, this particular issue cannot be used in support of rhinoplasty surgery.

Determinants of self-perceived changes in health status among pre- and early-retirement populations.

Using data from the 1992 and 1994 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), this study described reasons reported by pre- and early-retirement populations for perceived changes in global health status over a 2-year period. It then analyzed the association between self-perceptions of change and the actual changes in objective health conditions, controlling for demographics, emotional health status, and the changes in work status and health-affecting habits. The results were compared to the determinants of self-ratings of health at wave 2. Existing or increasing impairments in functional abilities were found to contribute to self-perceptions of decline. However, a diagnosis of new chronic disease and the experience of a major medical event per se did not universally contribute to self-perception of decline. The relationship between cross-sectional self-ratings of health and objective health conditions was more straightforward. Self-perception of improvement among people with serious health problems most likely owed to medical interventions and improvement in symptoms, the most frequently mentioned reasons for perceived improvement, and reflected the subjects' selective optimization and resiliency.

Self-discrepancies, attentional bias and persecutory delusions.

Persecutory delusions appear to involve abnormal attentional biases to threat-related information, particularly information related to the self. The present study aimed to investigate attentional biases to different types of perceived threat and changes in self-perception in response to exposure to such threat-related material. Discrepancies between actual self, ideal self and perceived others' self-representations were assessed in three groups of participants; 13 people experiencing persecutory delusions, 11 people in a psychiatric comparison group, and 13 in a non-psychiatric comparison group. An adaptation of the emotional Stroop task was then used as an experimental manipulation of attentional bias to five different types of threat (sociotropic, autonomic, physical, ego threats from others, and self-directed ego threats). Self-discrepancies were then again assessed. Before administration of the emotional Stroop task, there were no significant differences between the groups in terms of their self-actual:self-ideal and self-actual:other-actual discrepancies. However, after the administration of the Stroop task, significant differences between the clinical groups were observed, mirroring significant reductions in self-actual:self-ideal discrepancies and significant increases in self-actual:other-actual discrepancies in the paranoid participants. This paper is novel in repeating the assessment of self-discrepancies after the processing of threat-related information. These findings are consistent with Bentall, Kinderman, and Kaney's (1994) model of paranoid ideation and findings reported by Kinderman and Bentall (2000).

Induced changes in the consumption of coffee alter ad libitum dietary intake and physical activity level

Dietary trials with subjects on a freely selected diet may be affected by unwanted behavioural changes. Few studies, if any, have examined changes in coffee consumption and possible concomitant changes in diet and health-related habits. The aim of the present study was to examine whether induced changes in coffee consumption lead to changes in food habits and leisure-time physical activity. Healthy, non-smoking coffee-drinkers (n 214) were asked to change their coffee habits in a controlled clinical trial on the metabolic effects of coffee. The participants were asked to maintain their usual dietary habits. Self-perceived changes in diet and physical activity during the 6-week intervention period were assessed at the end. In the analyses, the participants were rearranged into groups reflecting the difference in coffee intake during the trial as compared with habitual intake. Associations with changes in food intake or physical activity were analysed by Spearman rank correlation. Changes in intake of ‘chocolate, sweets’ (r 0·179, P<0·05), ‘cakes, sweet biscuits, pastry’ (r 0·306, P<0·001), and ‘jam’ (r 0·198, P<0·05) showed positive associations with change in coffee intake during the trial. Negative associations were found for ‘dishes with fish’ (r -0·204, P<0·01) and many of the drinks as well as with physical activity (r -0·164, P<0·05). Induced changes in coffee intake seem to alter ad libitum intake of several foods. The recognized associations between health behaviours may have physiological explanations.

The Effects of Video Feedback on Self-Perception of Performance: A Replication and Extension

Video feedback has been shown to increase performance estimates on the part of speech anxious individuals (R. M. Rapee & K. Hayman, 1996). The present experiment tested a video feedback condition against 2 control conditions. A possible moderator of video feedback effects, the degree to which participants underrated their initial speech, was also tested, as was the possibility of mediation of video feedback's effects by increases in self-efficacy. Participants were 90 speech anxious undergraduate students. Although video feedback showed transitory effects across the sample as a whole, the effect was consistently positive for participants who highly underrated their first speech. Self-efficacy was an important predictor of change in self-perception of performance, but was not a mediator of video feedback's effects.

Cancer as a Life Transition: A Relational Approach to Cancer Wellness in Women

Receiving a diagnosis of cancer is a traumatic event and changes one's life forever. The period of initial diagnosis and treatment is indeed a life transition, regardless of the prognosis. It precipitates a change in self-perception, physically, emotionally, and interpersonally. It changes how a woman sees herself, her family, and her world. Simultaneously the woman is confronted with many decisions to make regarding treatment options and the management of personal, familial, and work related responsibilities. People have the opportunity to reflect on old decisions and to make new decisions. Inevitably one is confronted by mortality. The management of this illness is done in the context of a complex network of relationships with family, friends, coworkers, doctors, other medical personnel, and clergy. Often it is the clinical social worker who is in the position of facilitating access to and participation in resources for care. Many women join healing communities or wellness centers to find a model of care and achieve a state of well-being that utilizes and encourages the support of these relationships. Understanding the importance and impact of these relationships can help clinical social workers facilitate cancer wellness in their clients and advocate better on their behalf. The intent of this paper is to understand the concept of cancer wellness as a relational approach and to promote its place in integrative clinical social work practice.

Creating Identities?

• Summary: Support groups for people with a mental illness have been in existence for over 40 years. The current consumerist agenda constructs people with a mental illness as consumers of mental health services such as support groups. To explore the range and type of support groups in New South Wales, Australia, an empirical study based upon interviews with a purposive sample of respondents with experience of using support groups and a postal questionnaire was conducted. • Findings: From the study it became apparent that (so-called) consumers were challenging the construction of themselves as consumers of services. Instead they were asserting that their contribution to the treatment and management of their illness was closer to that of ‘expert’ than of consumer. • Application: From these findings, we argue that this reconstruction of their self-perceptions suggests that people with a mental illness are challenging the consumerist agenda and acting as social citizens. This change in self-perception by mentally ill people should be addressed by policymakers and practitioners in all forms of social work practice.

Betreuungsbedürfnisse schizophrener Patienten im Jahr nach Klinikentlassung in der Versorgungsregion Dresden

An initial cohort of 115 patients with chronic schizophrenia was studied during the period of care provided by community psychiatry programmes in the Dresden region one month and 12 months post hospital release using, among other instruments, the Berliner Bedürfnisinventar (Berlin Inventory of Care Needs). Thus a subjective need structure was identified over a one-year period, which is related primarily to autonomic basic social competence, a qualitatively sophisticated level of competence with regard to bonding and relationships, as well as (at least threatening) elements of social disintegration. Features characteristic of the course of disease (e.g. length of illness, changes in the psychopathological symptoms) and a factor of self-perceived disorder-related personal changes are the decisive predictors of how the extent of care needed will develop during the study period. Conclusions result from perceived deficits of care (e.g. with regard to employment/occupation). They pertain to a further content and institutionalized establishment of care-providing elements, which are not yet (currently) offered in a system of care that is being restructured along the lines of community psychiatry following German reunification. These conclusions fortify results of an analysis of normative needs for care and the current structure of community-based psychiatric care in the Dresden region.

Teachers leading their own professional growth: self-directed reflection and collaboration and changes in perception of self and work in secondary school teachers

Addressing the themes of transformation and professional growth as self-directed phenomena, and supported by a multi-disciplinary collaboration of secondary school teachers, this study was designed to investigate professional growth as an individually reflective and authentically collaborative phenomenon. Of interest to this researcher was some of the ways in which self-directed professional learning, personal and shared reflection, and authentic collaboration – in a supportive study group environment – could create changes in teachers' perceptions of themselves and their work, and catalyse professional growth. It was of interest whether these changes would be reflected in a cluster of effects on perception associated with the focus group intervention.

Beauty, Dominance, and the Mating Game: Contrast Effects in Self-Assessment Reflect Gender Differences in Mate Selection

An experimental study examined the effects of exposure to physically attractive and dominant same-sex individuals on self-assessments. Consistent with prior findings on mate selection, it was predicted that women’s self-assessments of their mate value would be adversely affected by exposure to highly physically attractive women and would be relatively unaffected by exposure to socially dominant women. Conversely, men’s self-assessments of their mate value were expected to be more affected by the social dominance than by the physical attractiveness of the men to whom they were exposed. Findings for self-assessed judgments of desirability as a marriage partner were in line with hypotheses. Results fit with earlier findings suggesting that such effects may be caused by changes in the perceived population of competitors rather than direct changes in self-perceptions of physical appearance or dominance. Overall, findings are supportive of models assuming domain-specific rather than domain-general cognitive processes.

Evaluation of ocular safety

Ninety-six patients with metastatic melanoma treated with two consecutive tirapazamine-cisplatin combination chemotherapy regimens were followed for signs of therapy-related ocular toxicity. Baseline and follow-up data were obtained such that each patient acted as his own control. A battery of vision-related tests was performed. These included: best corrected visual acuity, color vision, retinal fundus examination and electro-oculograms (EOG). A brief health-related quality of vision test was administered at each follow-up visit to detect and evaluate self-perceived changes in visual status. In the first study, 48 patients received i.v. tirapazamine over 2 h at 260 mg/m2 (group 1) while in the second study 48 patients (group 2) received i.v. tirapazamine at 390 mg/m2. Visual system assessment was conducted at three timepoints: first at baseline, then at 6 weeks post-baseline, i.e. after two courses of chemotherapy and visit two upon discontinuation of therapy. There was no difference in visual acuity between group 1 and group 2 at baseline, follow-up 1 or at follow-up 2. Grouped data indicate that visual acuity was not affected by either dosage of chemotherapy. Group 1 at baseline found 15% below the normal EOG cutoff point, increasing to 23% at follow-up 1 and increasing at follow-up visit 2 to 33%. Group 2 demonstrated the same EOG findings, but the results were more magnified: baseline, 24%; follow-up 1, 44%; and follow-up 2, 44%. After eliminating those with abnormal color vision baselines, 21% (nine of 42) group 1 patients demonstrated abnormal color vision total error scores at follow-up 1 and 16.7% (four of 24) at follow-up 2. Few individuals showed changes in the higher dosage group. With the exception of one person in each dosage group, all changes were along the blue-yellow (tritan) axis, which is associated with acquired color defects. Of 96 patients examined, proven fundus changes were found in only four subjects. These fundus findings included retinal hemorrhages, retinal nerve fiber layer infarcts (cotton wool spots) and small retinal pigment epithelium detachments. There was no systematic statistical significant difference among the various measures of visual system outcome between groups or test times. Data from all tests for individual patients in both groups reveals a sporadic distribution of changes in visual system tests. If toxicity were pronounced, one would expect consistency in the findings and all or most of the assessment tests would be abnormal for a particular patient. However, patients who were abnormal on one measure of acuity were not necessarily abnormal on the other measures.

An evaluation of the use of defeat-induced loss of status in the rat as a model of loss of self-esteem and depression in humans

Social defeat by Tryon Maze Dull rats, resulting in loss of rank of a previously dominant rat, has recently been advanced as a model of loss of self-esteem and depression in humans. However, before loss of rank in animals can be assessed as a model of human depression, certain requirements must be fulfilled: (1) a situation must be developed in which rank can be determined, and this assessment must, under normal circumstances, remain stable if it is to be the baseline against which experimental manipulations are measured; (2) it must be established that defeat of a dominant animal does indeed cause a change in rank for that animal; and (3) once these practical requirements have been fulfilled, to be a “model of depression,” antidepressant treatment must be seen to reverse the loss of rank caused by defeat. Each of these points is considered in turn. (1) So far, a situation has not been discovered in which social hierarchies are produced that are both unequivocal and stable. (2) Defeat seems to have very variable effects, the variability being most likely due to natural variation in the quality of the defeat “experience” for the recipient. (3) Antidepressant treatment has not yet been shown to reverse the effects of defeat for more than a single test session. In addition, it has not been demonstrated that loss of rank actually produces a lowering of self-esteem in the animal as opposed to helplessness. If the change in self-perception does not change the value the animal attributes to itself, but rather the level of ability the animal attributes to itself, then the model breaks down. Consequently, at this time, the predictive validity of the model has not yet been established. Furthermore, its construct validity may be low. In summary, much more work is required before defeat-induced loss of status in the rat can be properly assessed as a model of loss of self-esteem and depression in humans, although it may be bedevilled by theoretical weaknesses even at this early stage. Aggr. Behav. 24:297–305, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

An evaluation of the use of defeat‐induced loss of status in the rat as a model of loss of self‐esteem and depression in humans

Social defeat by Tryon Maze Dull rats, resulting in loss of rank of a previously dominant rat, has recently been advanced as a model of loss of self-esteem and depression in humans. However, before loss of rank in animals can be assessed as a model of human depression, certain requirements must be fulfilled: (1) a situation must be developed in which rank can be determined, and this assessment must, under normal circumstances, remain stable if it is to be the baseline against which experimental manipulations are measured; (2) it must be established that defeat of a dominant animal does indeed cause a change in rank for that animal; and (3) once these practical requirements have been fulfilled, to be a “model of depression,” antidepressant treatment must be seen to reverse the loss of rank caused by defeat. Each of these points is considered in turn. (1) So far, a situation has not been discovered in which social hierarchies are produced that are both unequivocal and stable. (2) Defeat seems to have very variable effects, the variability being most likely due to natural variation in the quality of the defeat “experience” for the recipient. (3) Antidepressant treatment has not yet been shown to reverse the effects of defeat for more than a single test session. In addition, it has not been demonstrated that loss of rank actually produces a lowering of self-esteem in the animal as opposed to helplessness. If the change in self-perception does not change the value the animal attributes to itself, but rather the level of ability the animal attributes to itself, then the model breaks down. Consequently, at this time, the predictive validity of the model has not yet been established. Furthermore, its construct validity may be low. In summary, much more work is required before defeat-induced loss of status in the rat can be properly assessed as a model of loss of self-esteem and depression in humans, although it may be bedevilled by theoretical weaknesses even at this early stage. Aggr. Behav. 24:297–305, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Three-year changes in self-perceived oral health status in an older Canadian population.

Although change is a central goal of oral health care interventions, little attention has yet been paid to change in self-perceptions of oral health status. This is an important omission, given the current emphasis on assessing health outcomes. This paper reports the results of a study which examined changes over a period of three years in self-perceived oral health among 611 community-dwelling Canadians aged 50 years and over. Change in self-perceptions was measured by means of a global transition item and change scores derived from repeat administrations of four subjective oral health status indicators. Overall, 20.5% reported that their oral health had deteriorated over the three-year observation period, 68.5% that it had remained the same, and 10.5% that it had improved. There was a significant association between these global change categories and change scores for the four subjective indicators. Because of the small number of edentulous subjects, the analysis of baseline characteristics predicting change was confined to dentate subjects. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were used to compare the two groups reporting change with those whose oral health status remained stable over the observation period. The results suggest that, when compared with this reference group, those who deteriorated and those who improved were similar in some respects but distinct in others. Those who improved appeared to have specific oral conditions at baseline causing pain. Those who deteriorated had poor oral health in general and came from more disadvantaged backgrounds. However, the explanatory power of logistic regression models predicting change in self-perceived oral health was poor when judged in terms of model sensitivities. This was to be expected, given that the models did not include variables documenting the incidence of disease, receipt of dental care, or changes in social and personal circumstances over the observation period.

Interpreting unknown worlds: functions of metonymic conceptualization in William Golding's The Sea Trilogy

William Golding's Sea Trilogy (1991) presents the reader with a number of problems, notably how to link the remote spatio-temporal location of the narrative with the author's explicit intention of commenting on present-day society. This article argues that the reader's task is facilitated by the use and frequent recontextualization of conventional metonymies. Metonymy is defined as a conceptual mechanism, extending beyond rhetorical one-word substitutions. In the particular case of this narrative, Golding continues a stylistic feature already noted in Lord of the Flies (1954), where changes in self-perception are marked by means of changes in outward appearance. A series of conceptual metonymies in The Sea Trilogy, functioning to highlight conventional beliefs, structures the development of an important episode and facilitates the reader's interpretation of thematic material.

Cues to action in the process of chaning lifestyle

This research has been carried out in order to evaluate cues to action in health behavior. Which cues produce changes and how does the process of change proceed? In-depth qualitative interviews based on the Grounded Theory Method were made with 21 40-year-old men. Ten men were interviewed three times during a 1-year period to trace the process of change. In total 40 interviews were carried out during 1989–1990. All the interviewees were randomly selected from the population registers in the municipalities of Aarhus and Vejle. The main themes of the interviews are changes in previous health behavior, motivation for intentions to change in health behavior, and the role of health education in the process of change. Health behavior determinants seem to be knowledge, attitude, confidence, social influence, experiences and possibilities for change. Individuals typically exhibit a wide range of these determinants which makes it difficult to affect behavioral change through health education. Cues to action seem to arise from social influence, experiences, or underlying shifts in the possibilities of change. Experiences and social influence due to the health behavior in question seem to initiate changes in confidence, attitude and thereby motivation to change. Cues to action arising from these determinants are categorized as own illness or illness among friends and relatives, changes in self-perception, exceeded limits determined by the behavior in question, and social pressure. Shifts in the possibilities for change, such as change of partner or other life events, produce changes also affecting health behavior. A strategy to initiate changes in health behavior could be to create cues to action through personal experiences in the context of a specific health behavior or to establish contact to people when they are experiencing new life circumstances.

Developmental changes in self-perception: The role of gender in a preadolescent clinical population

Research indicates that gender and psychopathology are interrelated and that the nature of this relationship changes over the course of development. Rates of incidence for psychological distress reflect both gender and age differences. Furthermore, the expression of emotional problems is also related to gender. Some symptom patterns, for example, are more likely experienced by females than males. This study examines how psychological disturbance, operationalized as magnitude of symptomatology, interacts with development, or chronological age, in order to predict a child's self-perception. Forty-eight children involved in psychotherapy and their mothers were sampled for this research. It was found that for girls and not boys self-perception diminished with age. Results were interpreted in light of recent feminist theory on female development.