Reactive attitudes are distinctively moral emotions that occur when a moral harm has occurred. Recent studies in moral psychology suggest that our reactive attitudes may be influenced by factors extraneous to moral evaluation, such as hunger, sleep deprivation, and negative moods. I argue that these influences lead us to sanction unfairly. Even though reactive attitudes may be a natural response to perceived moral wrongdoing, we cannot justifiably inflict undeserved harm. However, if we can learn to recognize and eliminate the effects of these irrelevant influences, then we can use our reactive attitudes productively in holding others morally accountable.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the clinical phenomenon of destructive narcissism. Contemporary Kleinian and neo-Kleinian theoretical perspectives provided the interpretative perspective on the complexities of inaccessible personalities and subtle forms of internal destructiveness. Four research questions were formulated to interrogate the individual and collective experiences of three male patients whose internal worlds seem to be governed by rigid intrapychic structures organized around the dictatorship of a constellation of seemingly impenetrable defensive strategies. These questions were as follows: 1. What emotional states, actions and experiences of self and others characterize the clinical phenomenon designed as destructive narcissism and distinguish it from other forms of character pathology? 2. What early developmental experiences and relationships may have pre-disposed individuals to the development of this type of character pathology? 3. How are the psychodynamic processes of destructive narcissism structured and configured in the psychotherapeutic process and progress? 4. What are the transference/countertransference psychotherapeutic manifestations of the psychodynamics of destructive narcissism? The illustrative-didactic case study method was utilized to discuss pertinent aspects of each patient. This included their early developmental histories, inter- and intrapersonal relationships, their current mental state, defensive strategies and their stated reasons for commencing psychotherapy. In addition, the structure of the psychotherapeutic process with these patients was reviewed in depth. Various psychic and personality features, as unveiled through this process were discussed, as well as the implications of these for the therapeutic endeavor. The features chosen for discussion were: Firstly, the constellation of the internal object world, the capacity for symbolic thought and defensive organizations. Secondly, therapeutic ambivalence, which made psychotherapy untenable, was explored in conjunction with transference/countertransference issues. Thirdly, the shadow sides of psychotherapeutic change with these patients were considered and the issues of therapeutic failure and other treatment possibilities were examined. It was concluded that there need be an important shift with regard to the psychotherapeutic goals for those patients whose condition may be chronic, and for whom it appears that psychotherapy is of little benefit. In essence, the intent of psychotherapy with these patients is to reach the healthy sane patient of the patient within the pathological organization. Attempts to unravel the perverse gratification and protection derived from the domination of the narcissistic structure may not be enough, and the patient's collusion with the internal destructive gang should also be exposed. If this can be achieved, the patient may come to accept the existence of a part of himself as truly destructive. This, in turn, cannot be disowned, therefore the patient has to live with it. Thus, in destructive narcissism, the challenge for the therapist is the extremely difficult task of disentangling the patient's pain from the idealization of internal destructiveness. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

D.Phil. / “This thesis is a study about life, broken relationships, friendships, adapting to change and personal growth. It is a study about nurturing oneself and developing those qualities within oneself that will ensure a life of quality, harmony and inner peace. Autoethnography is an unconventional research method that is seldom used in qualitative research circles – the social sciences or human resource management spheres in South Africa. The contents of this thesis will be presented to an audience of social psychologists, social scientists, human resource managers, academics, school principals, teachers, parents, and divorcees, couples contemplating divorce, youth leaders and personal, interpersonal and professional leadership facilitators. The intention is to provide the reader with the opportunity to learn vicariously through the reading of the stories of other human beings, to identify with these stories and, as a result, to feel motivated to effect personal and social change. Reading about others enables us to learn more about ourselves and to feel in community with other human beings. This work presents an autoethnographic account of divorce and the emotional ramifications of this experience. Performance in the workplace is routinely compromised when individuals within the workplace are emotionally distressed. This thesis aims at highlighting the way in which coping strategies may motivate personal growth that will, in turn, enable the individual to adapt positively to change while performing optimally in the workplace. This work is set in the teaching environment of a primary school. The stories presented illustrate the myriad issues that are laid bare when worlds drift apart. Each story highlights challenges that will need to be addressed during the divorce process. The issues addressed in this thesis include love, compassion, leadership, values, principles, friendship, self-esteem, ego, selfexpression and forgiveness. The successful resolution of each challenge and the subsequent learning process will result in personal growth and a pervasive feeling of inner peace and harmony.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationships between personality-centered and issue-centered approaches to a study of attitudes. The relationships will be sought through examination of the essential characteristics of the ideas behind each approach and by exposing the same population to both of the data-gathering methods employed by these researchers, i.e., Rokeach's Dogmatism Scale, and Sherif, et al.'s Method of Ordered Alternatives.

Currently, the etiology of obesity is conceptualized as a confluence of environmental, socioeconomic, behavioral, biological and genetic factors. With regard to behavioral factors, some have suggested that a failure of self-control may contribute to the difficulty of an overweight/obese individual because of their inability to resist food or maintain physical activity. Recent research proposed that self-control could be described as similar to a muscle that can be fatigued. Thus, if an individual engages in a self-control task they have lessened ability to utilize self-control on a subsequent task. Theory also suggests self-control may be fueled by a finite resource, identified as blood glucose. The role blood glucose plays is important to understand, especially in overweight and obese populations, as they may be more likely to be insulin resistant. In effect overweight and obese individuals are less likely to adequately process glucose. Therefore overweight/obese individuals might react to self-control tasks differently than normal weight individuals. Participants who were considered normal weight, overweight, and obese were recruited from the UNT research pool. They answered questions about their trait self-control in daily life and engaged in either a task that required them to exert self-control (e.g., resist crossing out a letter unless criteria is met) or a control task (e.g., cross out a letter without restriction). All participants then engaged in a subsequent self-control task to assess if engaging in the initial self-control task reduced performance on the subsequent self-control task compared to the control task. The current research findings were not in line with previous research, in that a depletion effect in self-control was not observed; in neither the normal weight individuals nor the overweight and obese groups. There were several limitations that may have contributed to these findings including; higher DSC than observed in the general population and a possible adaptation effect due to the duration of the self-control tasks, which is in keeping with subsequently published research.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of two forms of perspective-taking training on interpersonal and ideological identities of 18- to 21-year-old college students. The primary predictions of the study were that social perspective-taking training would have its greater effect on interpersonal identity and that ideological perspective-taking training would have its greater effect on ideological identity. Ninety-six subjects were pretested for the study. Subject loss occurred due to attrition and the elimination of subjects who scored above set criterion for inclusion in the study. A total of 50 participants who were assigned to one of two treatment groups or to the control group completed the study. Both experimental and control subjects were engaged for two one-hour sessions per week for four weeks. Subjects completed posttesting the week following the last week of training. Nonparametric tests and repeated measures analysis of variance were computed for the pretest and posttest scores. Advances in ideological identity were observed for both the social and ideological perspectivetaking groups. Neither training was effective in promoting interpersonal identity. There was some evidence that formal operational skills also were advanced from social perspective-taking training. The validity and reliability of the measures used were discussed in conjunction with discussion of the findings. Implications for future research and clinical applications were presented.

A comparison was made of two types of hypnotic suggestions. Twenty seven subjects in two groups participated in eight weekly one-hour group hypnotic sessions. All subjects were given the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, and were weighed pre, post and at four month follow-up. Both types of hypnotic suggestions were equally effective in helping individuals lose weight. The average weight loss was 10 pounds at follow up. Both groups showed improvement on the personality tests. Those who received the ego-strengthening hypnotic suggestions showed more improvement and more long lasting improvement than did those who received the specific hypnotic suggestions.

No description available.

The present study examined gender differences in relationship to ego integrity resolution of Erikson's stage theory and the need for control in the older adult ranging from 55-90 years of age. Erikson's ego integrity versus despair was measured with a subscale found in Measures of Psychological Development by Hawley (1988). The need for control was measured with a scale developed by Burger and Cooper (1979). Because of social roles, it was first predicted that males would score higher on resolution of ego integrity and lower on the need for control. The mean resolution of integrity score for males (N=31) was 16.35 and for females (N=56), it was 16.27. The mean of need for control for males was 98.68 and for females was M=93.20. Secondly, it was predicted that the lower age group (55 - 64 years old) would have a lower mean resolution of integrity score than the middle age group (65 - 74 years old) and that the high age group (75 years and up) would have a higher mean resolution of integrity score than the middle age group. However, results displayed the mean score for the lower age group was 16.50, for the middle age group it was 16.84; the high age group it was 15.35. Thirdly, it was predicted that the lower age group (55 - 64 years old) would have a higher mean of need for control score than the middle age group (65 - 74 years old), and that the high age group (75 and up) would have a lower need for control score than the middle age group. The mean score for the lower age group was 97.50, the middle age group, was 98.16 and for the high age group it was 88.69. A two factor (gender by age) ANOVA performed on the resolution of integrity and the need for control measures. However, no significant results were found. All of the hypotheses were rejected because no statistical significance was obtained. Limitations of the study included the size of the sample. It was too small. There were 87 participants, with 31 males and 56 females and only 5 males were in the high age group. It would be recommended for future research to examine a larger and more diverse sample. Future researchers may also wish to reconsider the age for resolution of integrity, because of the changes in lifestyle, medical innovations, and venues of employment, persons of 55 years of age may be too young to relate to the eighth stage of Erikson's stage theory. Future researchers may also want to consider the need for control measure predicting isolation, loneliness, loss of purpose and depression often associated with the aging.

Although the self is central to human beings and has been pondered on for thousands and thousands of years, its nature remains unknown to us. Many want to solve the question of self but where does one even begin? Philosophers have investigated the self for hundreds if not thousands of years, and many theories and concepts exist. In more recent years it has become possible for science to investigate the self through the use of psychoactive substances. Most notably is the use of drug-induced ego-dissolution, where individuals report a state of self devoid of many of the characteristics that would normally be considered crucial for our everyday lives. This has created new circumstances, it is no longer solely philosophy that can investigate the self, but also science. By measuring the brain activity of participants who are experiencing this ego-dissolution, information about a disrupted self can be gathered. And by using this data more can be known about the normal state of self than ever before. Even though current research is young, it has still revealed certain elements of the self, such as the importance of connectivity between multiple brain regions. These findings strongly support the materialist network approach to the self, which philosophers are taking note of. Although many of the findings are of interest, they can still be underwhelming due to the vagueness of the exact nature of ego disruption being investigated and the lack of sophistication regarding the conceptualization of self.