Self-rated Change Research Articles

Long-term changes in Type A behavior: A 27-year follow-up of the Western Collaborative Group Study

This study examined the long-term stability of Type A behavior pattern in the Western Collaborative Group Study for 1180 surviving participants in a 27-year follow-up examination during 1986-1987. Subjects were readministered the Structured Interview (SI), originally developed for this study and first administered at intake in 1960-1961. Subjects were also given the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) and were asked to evaluate their behaviors currently and in the past using two short descriptions of Type A and Type B behaviors. Analyses of changes in global SI ratings, JAS score, and self-ratings showed no relationships between self-perceived changes reported in questionnaires and observed changes when assessed by the SI. Using the SI ratings, 61% of subjects retained their initial classification and 39% of subjects were rated differently, with a higher percentage of those originally typed B being rerated as A than A being rerated as B. Type B subjects rerated as A were significantly younger, retired earlier, reported better health, and were less likely to have been in a managerial or professional position than the subjects who changed from A to B.

Pharmacology of saccadic eye movements in man

The effects of alpha 2-adrenoceptor agonists and antagonists on saccadic eye movements were studied in normal volunteers using the agonist clonidine and the antagonist idazoxan. Changes in blood pressure, heart rate, and several psychological self-ratings were also recorded. Clonidine produced marked slowing of peak saccade velocity, acceleration and deceleration, with deceleration affected more than acceleration, but had no effect on saccade error or latency measurements. In contrast, most saccade parameters were not altered by idazoxan, although fatigue effects were eliminated. Blood pressure, heart rate, and self ratings of alertness were increased by idazoxan and reduced by clonidine, with opposite effects noted on sedation self-ratings. There were no correlations between the clonidine-induced changes in saccade parameters and changes in self-ratings. Although the slowing of some saccade parameters by clonidine may imply that alpha 2-adrenoceptors are involved in control of saccades, it may also be due to sedation. Although alpha 2-adrenoceptor antagonists may abolish fatigue effects, they cannot increase them over baseline values.

Retrospective Versus Actual Pre-Course Self-Assessments

Self-assessments are frequently used to evaluate the effectiveness of medical education programs. The change in learners' self-ratings preto post-course is attributed to the educational intervention. However, participants may also change their understanding of the dimension being measured and hence, adjust their criteria for self-rating (response shift). This study was designed to compare a conventional prelpost course evaluation design with a retrospective pre/post method used to minimize the effect of the response shift. Participants attending a course in 1987 or 1988 designed to improve interviewing and teaching skills completed a faculty self-rating form (a) one month before the course; (b) after the course, assessing their pre-course skill level (retrospective pre-course); and (c) after the course, assessing their present skill level (post-course). Retrospective pre-course ratings were significantly lower than actual precourse ratings in two out of four factors empirically derived from the assessment instrument in 1987 and three of four in 1988. Greater differences preto post-course were found using the retrospective as opposed to the actual pre-course self-ratings. Our findings indicate that the collection of retrospective pre-course and post-course self-ratings at a single point in time demonstrates greater differences than the conventional pre/post evaluation method. Use of the retrospective precourse method is efficient and may be a more accurate evaluation method than the conventional prelpost evaluation.

The Influence of Music Therapy Interventions on Self-Rated Changes in Relaxation, Affect, and Thought in Psychiatric Prisoner-Patients

The Influence of Music Therapy Interventions on Self-Rated Changes in Relaxation, Affect, and Thought in Psychiatric Prisoner-Patients

Premenstrual mood changes and gating of the auditory evoked potential

To assess the effect of the menstrual cycle on a measure of brain physiology known to be affected in psychiatric illness, auditory-evoked electroencephalographic potentials were recorded from 12 women on the day prior to menstruation and nine days after the initiation of their cycle. Eight were normal college students, and four were patients in a premenstrual syndrome clinic. The women showed significant changes in self-ratings of mood between the two recordings. The P50 wave of the auditory-evoked response was evaluated in a conditioning-testing paradigm, in which stimuli were presented in pairs, allowing assessment of putative excitatory and inhibitory processes involved in the gating of central nervous system sensory responsiveness to auditory stimuli. The auditory-evoked potentials were unchanged between the two recording periods. There was also no difference between the women and age-matched male controls. The data suggest that these central nervous system functions are not responsive to hormonal fluxes in menstruation. Since inhibitory gating of the P50 wave is lost in the manic phase of manic-depressive illness, the data also suggest that premenstrual mood changes in normal women do not share electrophysiological properties of mania.

Intimates as agents of social support: Sources of consolation or despair?

We proposed that people's intimates may insulate them against self-discrepant feedback. Individuals who possessed low or high self-esteem (targets) reported to the laboratory accompanied by persons with whom they were involved in intimate relationships (intimates). Some intimates perceived targets in a manner that was congruent with targets' self-conceptions; others perceived targets in a manner that was incongruent with targets' self-conceptions. Targets received bogus feedback that was discrepant with their self-esteem and interacted with either their intimate or a stranger. Targets then completed a measure of self-esteem. As expected, targets changed their self-ratings in the direction of the discrepant feedback when they interacted with either an incongruent intimate or a stranger but not when they interacted with a congruent intimate. Moreover, congruent intimates were just as effective in insulating low self-esteem targets against positive feedback as they were in insulating high self-esteem individuals against negative feedback. Finally, the more targets discussed the feedback, the less self-rating change they experienced. Implications for social support processes and attempts to cope with traumatic events are discussed.

Intimates as agents of social support: sources of consolation or despair?

We proposed that people's intimates may insulate them against self-discrepant feedback. Individuals who possessed low or high self-esteem (targets) reported to the laboratory accompanied by persons with whom they were involved in intimate relationships (intimates). Some intimates perceived targets in a manner that was congruent with targets' self-conceptions; others perceived targets in a manner that was incongruent with targets' self-conceptions. Targets received bogus feedback that was discrepant with their self-esteem and interacted with either their intimate or a stranger. Targets then completed a measure of self-esteem. As expected, targets changed their self-ratings in the direction of the discrepant feedback when they interacted with either an incongruent intimate or a stranger but not when they interacted with a congruent intimate. Moreover, congruent intimates were just as effective in insulating low self-esteem targets against positive feedback as they were in insulating high self-esteem individuals against negative feedback. Finally, the more targets discussed the feedback, the less self-rating change they experienced. Implications for social support processes and attempts to cope with traumatic events are discussed.

A battle of wills: Self-verification versus behavioral confirmation.

When a perceiver forms an expectancy about a target individual that is discrepant with that target's self-conception, whose viewpoint will triumph? Although research on behavioral confirmation argues that perceivers will "win" by causing targets to confirm the expectancy, research on self-verification argues that targets will "win" by bringing perceivers to treat them in a manner that confirms their self-conceptions. The research reported here sought to reconcile these competing viewpoints by considering the certainty of perceivers' expectancies and targets' self-conceptions. Perceivers first formed relatively certain or uncertain expectancies about targets that were inconsistent with targets' self-conceptions. They then interacted with targets, who possessed relatively certain or uncertain self-conceptions, in a series of three successive interview sessions. Analyses of the behavior or targets indicated that self-verification always occurred when targets were certain of their self-conceptions. Self-verification also tended to occur when both perceivers and targets were uncertain of their beliefs. Behavioral confirmation tended to occur only when perceivers were certain of their expectancies and targets were uncertain of their self-conceptions. At the end of the experiment, perceivers had generally abandoned their expectancies, but targets revealed no self-rating change. The conditions under which self-verification versus behavioral confirmation occur are discussed.

When our identities are mistaken: Reaffirming self-conceptions through social interaction.

Although those who have labored to change self-concepts in naturally occurring situations (jave often experienced difficulty, laboratory investigators have reported considerable success in this endeavor. This research sought to reconcile these contradictory findings by examining how people respond behaviorally and psychologically when they receive feedback that disconfirms their self-conceptions. The results showed that self-discrepant feedback produced changes in selfratings only when recipients had no opportunity to reject and refute it. If participants had opportunity to behaviorally discredit discrepant feedback, they did so and subsequently displayed minimal self-rating change. The discussion proposes some important differences between transitory fluctuations and enduring changes in self-ratings and suggests some conditions that must be met before lasting self-concept changes will occur.

Critical Flicker Fusion Frequency (CFF): The Effects of Psychotropic Compounds

Critical Flicker Fusion (CFF) thresholds, self-rated changes in alertness, and psychological test performance levels, are reported from several psychopharmacological studies. CFF thresholds were based upon the average of four measures, using the psychophysical method of limits. The split-half reliability coefficient of the CFF data was highly significant (r = 0.94). In an investigation of C.N.S. stimulants (dexamphetamine, pemoline, methylphenidate), and chlorpromazine, CFF thresholds correlated significantly with self-ratings of alertness (100 mm analogue scale). Under the C.N.S. stimulant, hydergine, CFF thresholds, self-rated alertness levels, and psychological test performance levels, were all significantly raised. CFF level changes under the anxiolytic clobazam may be partially explained with reference to personality ratings; CFF values were generally elevated with high anxiety subjects, and reduced with low anxiety subjects.

Critical Flicker Fusion Thresholds and Their Relationship to Other Measures of Alertness

Critical Flicker Fusion (CFF) thresholds, self-rated changes in alertness, and psychological test performance levels, are reported from several psychopharmacological studies. CFF thresholds were based upon the average of four measures, using the psychophysical method of limits. The split-half reliability coefficient of the CFF data was highly significant (r = 0.94). In an investigation of C.N.S. stimulants (dexamphetamine, pemoline, methylphenidate), and chlorpromazine, CFF thresholds correlated significantly with self-ratings of alertness (100 mm analogue scale). Under the C.N.S. stimulant, hydergine, CFF thresholds, self-rated alertness levels, and psychological test performance levels, were all significantly raised. CFF level changes under the anxiolytic clobazam may be partially explained with reference to personality ratings; CFF values were generally elevated with high anxiety subjects, and reduced with low anxiety subjects.

Goal Setting, T-Group Participation, and Self-Rated Change: An Experimental Study

Choice of a goal for self-change and participation in a T Group were varied in an orthogonal design in an experimental study of the relative effects of goal selection and T-Group participation. The Ss were high school seniors assigned for one semester to one of four conditions: I) both T Group and change goal, II) T Group but not change goal, III) neither change goal nor T Group, or IV) change goal but no T Group. At semester's end all Ss evaluated themselves on their change along the goal dimensions. It was found that students who had participated in a T Group showed significantly more change toward their selected goal than those who had not (F = 6.8, df = 1.32, p < .05). An unanticipated finding was the negative effect of the goal-setting exercise; goal selection seems to have limited the overall benefits of T-Group participation, and for those students who set a goal but did not have T-Group experience, the goal selection seems to have had a negative effect on their global change as well as on their progress toward their change goal. It was concluded that the "revolution of rising expectations" may operate on an individual as well as on a community level; potential change agents should be aware of the dangers this may create.

A study of self-image experience in student psychotherapists.

Ten psychiatric residents were videotaped while each conducted an interview with a different psychiatric patient. The resident himself was videotaped while he watched a playback of the interview and was also monitored physiologically during the playback. Before the experimental procedure and afterwards each resident completed a checklist pertaining to his characteristics as a psychotherapist. The checklist developed for this experiment is advanced as a valid and useful instrument for investigations pertaining to self-concepts of a psychotherapist. Principal component analysis yielded three clear components: “evaluative,” “activity,” and “warmth.” Self-rated change was such that after viewing the playback the residents saw themselves as “better” (p < .10), less “active” (p < .10), and “colder” (p < .02). The initial design had called for use of supervisors' predictions and of ratings of the residents' nonverbal behavior; satisfactory measures were not obtained for these variables. It had been hypothesized that magnitude of self-rated change, regardless of direction, would be correlated with indicators of physiological arousal while viewing the self. This prediction was not supported, but seeing themselves as less “active” was correlated with increased respiratory rate and in multiple linear regression analysis was associated as well with decreased respiration rate variability, decreased heart rate variability, and increased skin resistance during self-viewing. Increased heart rate while viewing self was not correlated with change in self-rating.

Drug effects upon choice behavior in mixed motive games.

It was hypothesized that strategic choice behavior is sensitive to changes in utility or affectively toned expectancies resulting from ingestion of mood-active drugs. A series of symmetrical two-person, mixed motive games was constructed upon the four non-trivial archetypes defined by Rapoport (1967). To heighten conflict, these were played for substantial amounts of real money. D-amphetamine, amobarbital, and a mixture of the two were selected as treatments likely to produce significant affective changes, and hence by hypothesis to alter volitional outcome. Both of the amphetamine conditions produced the expected changes in mood self-ratings. They also significantly influenced several dimensions of choice behavior, thus establishing that the latter are sensitive to mood-active agents. However, the directions of change in choice behavior were not predictable from the directions of mood change, and some could better have been oppositely predicted.

The Supreme Court as a Small Group

self-ratings on general health are more closely related to the attitudinal items and less closely related to a majority of the behavioral items than are self-ratings on health problems. Changes in Self-Ratings of Health: 7. A change in self-health rating from 1952 to 1954 is accompanied by a corresponding change in the attitudinal or behavioral correlates of health from 1952 to 1954, supporting the acceptability of self-ratings of health as valid measures of perceived health. 8. We find an increased relationship between self-health ratings and attitudinal or behavioral correlates of health when we limit our analysis to the consistent or non-changing respondents from 1952 to 1954.

Changes in self-ratings as a method of evaluating counseling.

Changes in self-ratings as a method of evaluating counseling.