Personality Tests

The dimensionality of Maslach's (1982) 3 aspects of job burnout--emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment--was examined among a sample of supervisors and managers in the human services. A series of confirmatory factor analyses supported the 3-factor model, with the first 2 aspects highly correlated. The 3 aspects were found to be differentially related to other variables reflecting aspects of strain, stress coping, and self-efficacy in predictable and meaningful ways. Implications for better understanding the burnout process are discussed.

Despite growing evidence that depression is linked with self-focused attention, little is known about how depressed individuals become self-focused or, more generally, about what arouses self-focus in everyday life. Two experiments examined the hypothesis that affect itself induces self-focused attention. In Experiment 1, moods were manipulated with an imagination mood-induction procedure. Sad-induction Ss became higher in self-focus than did neutral-induction Ss. Experiment 2 replicated this effect for sad moods by means of a musical mood-induction procedure and different measures of self-focus. However, Experiment 2 failed to support the hypothesis that happy moods induce self-focus. The results have implications for mood-induction research, self-focused attention, and recent models of depression.

Abstract: Frontal lobe functions include a range of cognitive, emotional, and social abilities that enable goal-directed behavior. Although a number of studies have plotted the development of frontal lobe functions in childhood, few have extended into the adolescent years. There is also little information on which cognitive and emotional components of frontal functioning may be correlated. The aims of this study were to identify and compare age effects on different components of frontal functioning in childhood and adolescence and to examine whether abstract reasoning skills were associated with levels of emotional intelligence and social sensitivity. Twenty children (ages 9-18) were recruited from the local community for a study of normal adolescent brain development. All subjects were free of psychiatric or developmental disorders, as determined by a structured interview. Subjects completed a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery, as well as self-report measures of social sensitivity (anxiety) and emotional intelligence. Significant age effects were found for measures of abstract reasoning, response inhibition, and attentional set shifting. Levels of social anxiety increased moderately with age, although not significantly at this sample size. Abstract reasoning skills correlated positively with levels of social anxiety but not emotional intelligence. The pattern of results suggests differential developmental trajectories across various cognitive and emotional domains of frontal lobe functioning in childhood and adolescence. Increased abstract reasoning ability may be associated with increased vulnerability to social anxiety during this period.

Shame-proneness has been found to be related to anger arousal and a tendency to externalize attributions for one's own behavior, both common features of men who assault their wives. The present study examined a potential origin of a shame-prone style by analysing reports of shaming experiences by ones' parents as reported by a population of assaultive males. Significant relationships were found for recollections of shaming actions by parents on adult anger, abusiveness (as reported by the men's wives), and a constellation of personality variables related to abusiveness in prior research. These associations maintained even after corrections were made for response sets such as social desirability. These shaming actions were largely comprised of recollections of parental punishment that were public, random, or global. The role of shame experiences in disturbances of self-identity and rage is discussed.

Aim:  This study was concerned with correlates of suicidal ideation among patients with chronic complex dissociative disorders.Method:  Participants were 40 patients diagnosed as having either dissociative identity disorder or dissociative disorder not otherwise specified according to the DSM-IV. The Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule, the Dissociative Experiences Scale, the Somatoform Dissociation and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaires, the Spielberger Trait Anger Inventory, the Beck Suicidal Ideation Scale, and the Borderline Personality Disorder section of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders were administered to all patients.Results:  Patients with suicidal ideas (n = 15) had concurrent somatization disorder more frequently than the remaining patients. Having significantly high scores on both trait and state dissociation measures, their dissociative disorder was more severe than that of the patients with no suicidal ideation. They had elevated scores for childhood emotional abuse, physical abuse and emotional neglect. Concurrent somatization disorder diagnosis was the only predictor of suicidal ideation when childhood trauma scores and borderline personality disorder diagnosis were controlled.Conclusions:  Among dissociative patients, there is an association between somatization and suicidal ideation. A trauma-related insecure attachment pattern is considered as a common basis of this symptom cluster.