View Of Self Research Articles

Confucianism and Ethics in the Western Philosophical Tradition II: A Comparative Analysis of Personhood

AbstractThis Philosophy Compass article continues the comparison between Confucian and mainstream Western views of personhood and their connection with ethics begun in Confucianism and Ethics in the Western Philosophical Tradition: Fundamental Concepts (CEWI), by focusing on the Western self conceived as an independent agent with moral and political rights. More specifically, the present article briefly accounts for how the more strictly and explicitly individualistic notion of self dominating Western philosophy has developed, leading up to a recent debate in modern Western rights theory between Herbert Fingarette and Henry Rosemont, Jr., two contemporary Western philosophers who are both steeped in Confucian thought as well as moral and political philosophy. This compares and contrasts Confucian principles with some basic to modern Western rights theory and the more individualistic view of self they entail. In the end, a new view of personhood and “free will” is offered that synthesizes insights from the Confucian treatment of persons as being essentially interdependent with the Western treatment of persons as being essentially independent. [Correction added after online publication 31 May 2010: Sentence changed.]

The meaning and mental health consequences of long-term immigration detention for people seeking asylum

The aim of the present research was to examine the experience of extended periods of immigration detention from the perspective of previously detained asylum seekers and to identify the consequences of these experiences for life after release. The study sample comprised seventeen adult refugees (sixteen male and one female; average age 42 years), who had been held in immigration detention funded by the Australian government for on average three years and two months. They were interviewed on average three years and eight months following their release and had been granted permanent visa status or such status was imminent. The study employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to explore detention and post-detention experiences, and mental health some years after release. The qualitative component consisted of semi-structured interviews exploring psychological well-being, daily life, significant events, relationships, and ways of coping throughout these periods. This was supplemented with standardised quantitative measures of current mental health and quality of life. All participants were struggling to rebuild their lives in the years following release from immigration detention, and for the majority the difficulties experienced were pervasive. Participants suffered an ongoing sense of insecurity and injustice, difficulties with relationships, profound changes to view of self and poor mental health. Depression and demoralisation, concentration and memory disturbances, and persistent anxiety were very commonly reported. Standardised measures found high rates of depression, anxiety, PTSD and low quality of life scores. The results strongly suggest that the psychological and interpersonal difficulties participants were suffering at the time of interview were the legacy of their adverse experiences while detained. The current study assists in identifying the characteristics of prolonged immigration detention producing long-term psychological harm.

Childhood Emotional Abuse and the Attachment System Across the Life Cycle: What Theory and Research Tell Us

The purpose of this article is to review the theoretical and empirical literature regarding the normative development of the attachment system from infancy through adulthood, and then discuss deviations from the normal developmental pathways that occur in response to emotionally abusive parenting (e.g., strong rejection, intrusive or controlling, hostile, or frightening behavior). A theoretical model grounded in attachment theory is presented describing the development of maladaptive interaction patterns in adult romantic relationships. The model proposes that early emotional abuse engenders insecure attachment, which impairs emotional regulation, fosters negative views of self and others that support maladaptive coping responses, interferes with social functioning and the capacity for intimate adult attachments, contributes to poor mental health, and consequently shapes the quality of romantic relationships.

Arts Impact: Lessons From ArtsBridge

Arts Impact summarizes lessons learned at the ArtsBridge Program. It is informed by in-depth participant observation, logic modeling, and quantitative evaluation of program impact on K-12 students in inner city schools and arts students at the University of California Los Angeles over a two year period. The case study frames its analysis through a literary overview of the following social issues: 1) how educational attainment relates to poverty in California; 2) the importance of the creative economy in Los Angeles; and 3) the failure of California to reach federally mandated goals in arts education--particularly for under-resourced neighborhoods. Data finds statistically significant positive impacts on participants’ views of self and others. This case study suggests important roles for higher education partnerships with under-resourced K-12 schools, the significance of quality teacher preparation in the arts at the university level, and the positive impact of arts education for empowering student and teacher learning.

Going beyond psychopathology-positive emotions and psychological resilience

Byline: G. Swaminath, B. Ravi Shankar Rao 'It was quite sudden. I was sitting alone in a room on the first floor of my uncle's house. I seldom had any sickness, and on that day there was nothing wrong with my health, but a sudden violent fear of death overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to account for it, and I did not try to account for it or to find out whether there was any reason for the fear. I just felt "I am going to die" and began thinking what to do about it. It did not occur to me to consult a doctor or my elders or friends; I felt that I had to solve the problem myself, there and then. The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inwards and I said to myself mentally, without actually framing the words: "'Now death has come; what does it mean? What is it that is dying? This body dies." And I at once dramatized the occurrence of death. I lay with my limbs stretched out stiff as though rigor mortis had set in and imitated a corpse so as to give greater reality to the enquiry: I held my breath and kept my lips tightly closed so that no sound could escape, so that neither the word "I" nor any other word could be uttered. "Well then, " I said to myself, "this body is dead. It will be carried stiff to the burning ground and there burnt and reduced to ashes. But with the death of this body am I dead? Is the body 'I'? It is silent and inert but I feel the full force of my personality and even the voice of the 'I' within me, apart from it. So I am Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the Spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death. That means I am the deathless Spirit."[sup] [1] True Grit The yogic path of self-enquiry and the enlightenment process of the 17-year-old Ramana (later Ramana Maharishi of Tiruvannamalai), took place in a flash and he emerged a jnana yogi , of the highest order, with a large following, many of whom visit his ashram for meditation and peace. Carl Jung spoke highly of Ramana's realisation, and also of its being typically Indian, with its emphasis on the identification of the Self with God.[sup] [1] Such an experience would be customary for many of our anxious patients. The intense, sudden violent fear of death, along with anticipatory anxiety of recurrence and avoidance, drives many to seek emergency solace at hospitals, as well as long-term management using prescription drugs which reduces these symptoms. The extraordinary psychological resilience of Ramana in being able to overcome this intense fear through self-observation, sublimation and asceticism to emerge a superior being is legendary as well as noteworthy. Affective style, one of the most salient characteristics of emotion, is the extraordinary heterogeneity in how different individuals respond to the same emotionally provocative challenge.[sup] [2] The focus of mental healthcare has too often been on understanding and alleviating negative emotional states, such as anxiety, depression, abuse, prejudice and disharmony among others. Focus was lacking on how a majority of people manage to live lives of dignity and purpose, despite all difficulties, and this is now being addressed.[sup] [3] 'Positive psychology' is the study of ordinary human strengths and virtues.[sup] [3] It asks, "What is the nature of the effectively functioning human being, who successfully applies evolved adaptations and learned skills?".[sup] [3] Positive psychology recognizes that persons who carry even the weightiest psychological burdens, can care about much more in their lives, than just the relief of their suffering.[sup] [4] Troubled persons often want more satisfaction, contentment, and joy, not just less sadness and worry. They want to build their strengths, not just correct their weaknesses, or removal of their suffering.[sup] [4] They want lives imbued with meaning and purpose.[sup] [4] The fostering of positive emotion and the building of character may help-both directly and indirectly-to alleviate suffering and to undo its root causes. …

Self-discrepancies in work-related upper extremity pain: Relation to emotions and flexible-goal adjustment

Recurrent pain not only has an impact on disability, but on the long term it may become a threat to one’s sense of self. This paper presents a cross-sectional study of patients with work-related upper extremity pain and focuses on: (1) the role of self-discrepancies in this group, (2) the associations between self-discrepancies, pain, emotions and (3) the interaction between self-discrepancies and flexible-goal adjustment. Eighty-nine participants completed standardized self-report measures of pain intensity, pain duration, anxiety, depression and flexible-goal adjustment. A Selves Questionnaire was used to generate self-discrepancies. A series of hierarchical regression analyses showed relationships between actual–ought other, actual–ought self, actual–feared self-discrepancies and depression as well as a significant association between actual–ought other self-discrepancy and anxiety. Furthermore, significant interactions were found between actual–ought other self-discrepancies and flexibility, indicating that less flexible participants with large self-discrepancies score higher on depression. This study showed that self-discrepancies are related to negative emotions and that flexible-goal adjustment served as a moderator in this relationship. The view of self in pain and flexible-goal adjustment should be considered as important variables in the process of chronic pain.

A Literary and Historical Background of Martyrdom in Iran

Martyrdom in Iran and the Middle East is a phenomenon that has been subject to a plethora of religious exegesis. However, scholars, often not having prescribed to the Aristotelian notion of poetics, have not only ignored the literary aspects of this phenomenon in the Middle East but have also failed to realize the poetics that exist within the parameters of religious and Koranic exigencies of martyrdom. This article summarizes and creates reference points for the morphology of a contemporary phenomenon, which finds its prototype not only in the tragic events of Karbala but also in literary occasions that long preceded it in Iran. This paradigm is found to be quite sufficient when dealing with martyrdom in Iran, which with the onslaught of the Safavids was provided with the proverbial “trigger” for its already long-standing literary canons. The importance of a lover-beloved relationship in accordance with a martyr's view of self as pertains to his or her actions in the face of God, country, and man under the rubric of some historical and literary events and productions throughout Iranian history is also epmhasized.

Indigenous Ecopsychology: Lessons From the Teachings of a Ukrainian Sage

The article presents a summary of teaching related to nature, spirituality, and health developed by Ukrainian sage Porfiriy K. Ivanov (1898–1983), whose teachings have been devoutly followed by many individuals across the former Soviet Union and many places around the world. In addition, Ivanov’s teachings are interpreted within a depth psychological and ecopsychological framework. The three themes common across Ivanov’s philosophy, such as embracing a nondual nonsplitting view of self and Nature, connecting to the Web of life, and actively engaging in transformation of self and others, are highlighted.

Television Images: Exploring How They Affect People's View of Self and Others

Through television, many different images of ethnic, cultural, and ability groups are presented. Different people perceive these images in different ways. These perceptions affect how people value themselves and judge and interact with others. This article first summaries research on TV images and people's meaning and reaction to them. Second, it presents an exercise during which participants realize the meanings and values of themselves and others they acquire from TV images and the meanings as well as values others can learn from TV images. The exercise is a good beginning of critical analysis of television images of different ethnic, cultural, and ability groups.

Contesting heritage: language, legitimacy, and schooling at a weekend Japanese-language school in the United States

Researchers have shown that the maintenance of a minority language has positive effects on the minority students' view of self, educational attainment, and career opportunities (Cho 2000; Wright and Taylor 1995). In the research for this article, however, we found that such a focus on the effects of heritage-language education on the students is of limited usefulness in analyzing the complex processes of heritage-language education. Based on our ethnographic study at a weekend Japanese-language school in the United States, we illustrate contestations among administrators, students, and parents regarding the legitimacy of two types of Japanese heritage-language program and diverse subjectivities of heritage-language students that are causes and effects of such contestations. We suggest approaching heritage-language education not merely as an effort to enhance awareness of one's heritage or an instruction in language but also as a schooling process in which legitimacy of the knowledge and ways to achieve it are contested in the process of students and parents navigating what school offers, the students' linguistic proficiencies, their future educational prospects, and their diasporic subjectivities.

Wilderness therapy within an adolescent sexual offender treatment programme: A qualitative study

Wilderness therapy is a core component of the adolescent sexual offender treatment programme offered by the SAFE Network Inc. However, little is known about how wilderness therapy contributes to the overall outcomes of adolescents completing the programme. This paper presents an exploratory investigation of the function and process of wilderness therapy within SAFE's treatment programme. Thematic analysis based on participant observation, semi-structured interviews with adolescent participants and semi-structured interviews with therapists involved in the programme was conducted. The analysis found four interdependent themes related to function and process of wilderness therapy: enhanced relationships, view of self, intensity of the experience and aiding disclosure. These themes are discussed in relation to the literature relevant to wilderness and group therapy.

Adult Attachment, Cognitive Distortions, and Views of Self, Others, and the Future Among Child Molesters

A conceptual framework derived from attachment theory was tested examining adult romantic attachment; views of self, world/others, and the future; and cognitive distortions in a sample of 96 child molesters receiving sex offender treatment and 92 nonoffending males. Results showed a significant main effect for child molester status, with nonoffending controls reporting fewer negative perceptions of self, others, and the future; and fewer cognitive distortions regarding adult-child sex. With the exception of views of others, significant interactions were also found between child molester status and attachment categories. However, the patterns of interactions were theoretically counterintuitive and illustrated areas for future research. Overall, the findings supported theoretically based hypotheses, suggesting that attachment theory may be useful in the conceptualization and treatment of child molesters.

Predictors of Hopelessness Among Clinically Depressed Youth

Factors that distinguish depressed individuals who become hopeless from those who do not are poorly understood. In this study, predictors of hopelessness were examined in a sample of 439 clinically depressed adolescents participating in the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS). The total score of the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) was used to assess hopelessness at baseline. Multiple regression and logistic regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the extent to which variables were associated with hopelessness and determine which cluster of measures best predicted clinically significantly hopelessness. Hopelessness was associated with greater depression severity, poor social problem-solving, cognitive distortions, and family conflict. View of self, view of the world, internal attributional style, need for social approval, positive problem-solving orientation, and family problems consistently emerged as the best predictors of hopelessness in depressed youth. Cognitive and familial factors predict those depressed youth who have high levels of hopelessness.

The Influence of Dating Relationships on Friendship Networks, Identity Development, and Delinquency

Prior research has documented general associations between dating and delinquency, but little is known about the specific ways in which heterosexual experiences influence levels of delinquency involvement and substance use. In the current study, we hypothesize that an adolescent's level of effort and involvement in heterosexual relationships play a significant role in forming the types of friendship networks and views of self that influence the likelihood of delinquency involvement and substance use. Analyses based on a longitudinal sample of adolescent youth (n = 1,090) show that high levels of dating effort and involvement with multiple partners significantly increases unstructured and delinquent peer contacts, and influences self‐views as troublemaker. These broader peer contexts and related self‐views, in turn, mediate the path between dating relationships, self‐reported delinquency, and substance use. Findings also document moderation effects: among those youths who have developed a troublemaker identity and who associate with delinquent peers, dating heightens the risk for delinquent involvement. In contrast, among those individuals who have largely rejected the troublemaker identity and who do not associate with delinquent friends, dating relationships may confer a neutral or even protective benefit. The analyses further explore the role of gender and the delinquency of the romantic partner.

Empty mindfulness in humanistic psychotherapy.

When mindfulness is divorced from its Buddhist foundations, it runs the danger of becoming a reified technique. Paradoxically, this lessens its potential for transformation in psychotherapy or behavioral medicine. Traditionally, mindfulness is a skillful means to encourage nonattachment by loosening identification with the contents of consciousness. This helps liberate people from the suffering inherent in illusory views of self as a fixed, graspable “thing.” We are not who we think we are: the mind is not I. The Zen practice of “empty” mindfulness emphasizes a fluidity of being in which we find ourselves by forgetting ourselves, immersed in undivided activity.

Teaching and Learning Guide for: The Globalization of Self: Role and Identity Transformation from Above and Below

Teaching and Learning Guide for: The Globalization of Self: Role and Identity Transformation from Above and Below

Signs and symptoms of depression and principles of nursing intervention.

Depression is a universal experience, which affects approximately 15 percent of the population at any one time. Depression can be conceptualized as occurring on a continuum from first-level transitory to middle-level to severe-level depression. It involves an alteration in mood characterized by feelings of sadness and loss of interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, the client's usual activities and pastimes. Alterations in thought, motor activity, somatic sensations, and social relationships are also associated with depression. Severe depression can also be associated with delusional thought patterns. Finally, depression can vary in length of duration; it can be transitory and short-lived or ongoing and chronic. Assessment of individual, family, and community factors is important in identifying the factors relevant to planning individualized care for the depressed client and his/her family. Nursing diagnosis includes problems of low self-esteem, feelings of despondency, suicidal thoughts/impulses, and vegetative signs of depression. Nursing interventions are guided by certain principles, and are best evaluated when expected client behaviors have been projected. In conclusion, the overwhelming majority of those who experience depression recover and achieve a higher level of wellness than before the depression; that is, if they use the opportunity to develop a more realistic view of self, others, and their world relationships.

Reconceptualizing the Self

This article is an invited commentary on Moscovitch’s (2009) paper “What Is the Core Fear in Social Phobia? A New Model to Facilitate Individualized Case Conceptualization and Treatment .” The crux of Moscovitch’s argument is that current models of social phobia fail to conceptualize the nature of social fears correctly. Moscovitch proposes that the self is the phobic stimulus and should be the target of exposure treatment, rather than social situations. This commentary evaluates Moscovitch’s claim and agrees that distorted views of self are at the heart of the disorder, but contests the idea that the self can be conceptualized as a phobic stimulus. Instead, we need to recognize that all individuals have multiple self-representations and that access to a current working self depends on a set of retrieval mechanisms that involve both the contents of self-knowledge and the way that this information is stored. The application of these ideas to social phobia is discussed. In the final section of the commentary, I discuss Moscovitch’s contributions to treatment derived from his new model and outline some additional methods of working with the self, including imagery rescripting.

Personality: The Universal and the Culturally Specific

There appears to be a universal desire to understand individual differences. This common desire exhibits both universal and culturally specific features. Motivations to view oneself positively differ substantially across cultural contexts, as do a number of other variables that covary with this motivation (i.e., approach-avoidance motivations, internal-external frames of reference, independent-interdependent views of self, incremental-entity theories of abilities, dialectical self-views, and relational mobility). The structure of personality traits, particularly the five-factor model of personality, emerges quite consistently across cultures, with some key variations noted when the structure is drawn from indigenous traits in other languages. The extent to which each of the Big 5 traits is endorsed in each culture varies considerably, although we note some methodological challenges with comparing personality traits across cultures. Finally, although people everywhere can conceive of each other in terms of personality traits, people in collectivistic cultures appear to rely on traits to a lesser degree when understanding themselves and others, compared with those from individualistic cultures.

Do Assets Affect Well-Being? Perceptions of Youth in a Matched Savings Program

ABSTRACTThis article presents data from a qualitative study of a youth savings account program. In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 youth ages 14–19 between November 2004 and February 2005 who were participants in the Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment (SEED) national demonstration project. Our findings focus on youths' perceptions of the psychological, behavioral, and social impacts of savings-program participation. Five of our hypothesized effects were found including: (1) fiscal prudence, (2) view of self, (3) future orientation, (4) sense of security, and (5) financial knowledge. Youth did not generally perceive that savings participation had impacts on: (1) family interactions, or (2) community involvement. Following the presentation of findings, our discussion centers on implications for theory building, research, and policy and program design.