Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wyoming, 2006. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on March 20, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 40-48).

This study aimed at examining the association between perfectionism and helpless explanatory style as a function of gender in a Turkish university sample. The sample consisted of 331 undergraduate students from 35 departments of Middle East Technical University. Turkish version of Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS, Oral, 1999) and Depressive Attribution Style Questionnaire (DASQ, Aydin, 1988a) were used to collect data. Factor analysis was employed to the MPS scores to investigate the dimensions of perfectionism as perceived by the participants. MANOVA was conducted to examine a possible relationship between perfectionism and helpless explanatory style as a function of gender. Results of the factor analysis revealed four factors, termed self-oriented, socially prescribed, other-oriented perfectionism, and perfectionist expectations. With regard to the results of the MANOVA no significant associations emerged between perfectionism and helpless explanatory style as a function of gender.

Recent research on creativity has put great emphasis on how multiple systems influence an individual¡¦s development in creativity. The main purposes of this study were (a) to understand the current situation of pupils¡¦ explanatory style, domain knowledge, creative life experience, and technological creativity; (b) to investigate the effects of pupils¡¦ grade, explanatory style, domain knowledge, and creative life experience on their technological creativity; and (c) to analyze the predictive power of pupils¡¦ grade, explanatory style, domain knowledge, creative life experience on their ability group membership of technological creativity. The participants included 418 third to sixth graders sampling from six elementary schools in Taipei City. The employed instruments were The Questionnaire of Children¡¦s Explanatory Style, The Questionnaire of Creative Life Experience, The Test of Technological Creativity, and the scores on the final exam of Science and Living Technology Areas. The employed analysis methods were Descriptives, ANOVA, one-way and two-way MANOVA, Canonical Correlation Analysis, and Discriminant Analysis. The main findings in this study were as follows: 1. There were gender differences on the pupils¡¦ performance of explanatory style, creative life experience, and technological creativity; more specifically, the girls outperformed the boys on explanatory style, creative life experience, and technological creativity. 2. There were grade differences on the pupils¡¦ explanatory style. 3. Although no significant interaction effect of grade ´ explanatory style on technological creativity was found, there were significant main effects of grade on the pupils¡¦ technological creativity. 4. Domain knowledge contributed to the pupils¡¦ performance on technological creativity. 5. Creative life experience had significant effects on the pupils¡¦ technological creativity. Among the indices of both sides, ¡§language and performing arts¡¨ had the highest correlation with technological creativity. 6. Grade, explanatory style, domain knowledge, and creative life experience could effectively predict the pupils¡¦ ability group membership of technological creativity, and grade as well as domain knowledge had better predictive power. Finally, some suggestions were proposed for teachers, relative educational institutions, parents, and further studies.

Background: Individuals experiencing negative and potentially traumatic life events are at increased risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors; however, suicidal outcomes are not inevitable. Individuals who attribute negative life events to external, transient, and specific factors, rather than internal, stable, and global self-characteristics, may experience fewer deleterious outcomes, including suicidal behavior. Aims: This study examines the moderating effect of explanatory style on the relationship between negative life experiences and suicide ideation in a college student sample. Methods: A total of 138 participants (73% female) were recruited from a rural. Eastern college and completed a self-report psychosocial assessment. Results: Optimistic explanatory style mitigates the influence of negative and potentially traumatic life events on thoughts of suicide, above and beyond the effects of hopelessness and depression. Conclusions: Beliefs about the origin, pervasiveness, and potential recurrence of a negative life event may affect psychological outcomes. Optimistic explanatory style was associated with reduced suicide ideation, whereas pessimistic explanatory style was associated with increased thoughts of suicide. Optimistic reframing of negative life events for clients may have treatment implications for the prevention of suicidal activity.

No description available.

Suicidal behavior, including suicide attempt, may result from maladaptive explanatory patterns for past negative life events, in which a person attributes the causes of stressors to internal, stable and global factors. Conversely, an optimistic explanatory style involves perceiving negative life events as external, transient and specific, and may be related to reduced suicide risk. We examined the association between attributional style and lifetime suicide attempts in 135 college students, covarying age, race and ethnicity. Participants provided informed consent and completed an online survey. An optimistic explanatory style was associated with reduced risk of suicide attempt; this effect persisted in a model controlling for hopelessness and depressive symptoms. The manner in which an individual interprets negative life events may buffer against suicidal behavior. Therapeutic strategies to promote an optimistic explanatory style may be successful in the prevention of suicide.

Work context has many consequences for the psychological outcomes of employees. These outcomes also have consequences for the employer through possible loss of productivity, impaired health of employees which may be associated with absenteeism and turnover intention, among others. The literature also shows that these outcomes are not always the same even under similar working conditions. Theorising in cognitive psychology indicates that the way in which an individual appraises a situation may be more important to psychological outcomes than the actual presence of a stressor. Recently, personal resources have been hypothesised to influence these individual differences. Few if any studies have explored such personal resources as moderators in the relationship between work context and psychological outcomes, especially in the South African public service context. Thus, the general aim of this study was to determine whether personal resources (emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and explanatory styles) are moderators in the relationship between work context Gob demands and job resources) and psychological outcomes (psychological well-being and work engagement) in a sample of government employees. A cross-sectional survey research design was implemented. Data were collected from 459 participants with the following measuring instruments, the Job-Demands Resources (JD-R) Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Affectomemter-2 Short-form (AFM.), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) , the Emotional Intelligence Scale (ElS), the General Self-efficacy (GSE) scale, and the Explanatory Style (ES) Questionnaire. A demographic questionnaire was developed by the first author to capture diverse information from the participants relating to gender, turnover intention, post level and so forth. Analyses were conducted mainly in 2 steps. Firstly, multiple regression analyses were used to test the main effects of work context variables on psychological outcomes. Secondly, two-step hierarchical regression analyses were used to test whether personal resources (emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and explanatory styles) moderated the relationship between work context variables and psychological outcomes. Before testing the moderation, all independent variables and moderator variables (dimensions of personal resources) were centred so as to exclude the possibility of any multicollinearity in the regression equation. The results of the study, reported in three articles/manuscripts, showed significant main effects for work context and the personal resources as predictors of psychological outcomes. In the second place, the results also showed that the personal resources used in this study moderate the relationship between work context and psychological outcomes. In the first article, it was concluded that emotional intelligence is of potential value, especially in the public sector that is focussed on optimal service delivery, and where emotional encounters are stock-in-trade. Emotional intelligence is a valuable personal resource to cultivate for establishing, developing, and maintaining positive outcomes in psychological well-being in the workplace. In the second article, it was concluded that as self-efficacy beliefs facilitate actions and behaviour taken by individuals, it is important that feedback and modelling could play an important role especially in service-oriented work contexts that may need self-regulation of emotions. In the third article, it was concluded that as attributional feedback can induce change in how individuals perceive their success or failure in a task, the role of explanatory styles in psychological outcomes could be cultivated through active feedback given to employees on their performance and possibilities of future growth in the organisation. Overall it was concluded that a lack of job resources in the presence of high job demands will undermine psychological outcomes even in the presence of personal resources. Therefore, the consequences for health impairment and negative outcomes cannot be over-emphasised in a situation where job demands outstrip job resources. Employees in the public service require skills such as social and emotional competency, self-efficacy and optimism as these are important tools in dealing with the public. Employees must have initiative, flexibility, motivation to achieve, empathy, self-esteem and confidence, self-control, and group management among fellow employees and the public that is served by them. Although the limitations for this study are related to the fact that it was a cross-sectional research design and data was collected using self-reports, insights were gained about the role of personal resources in the relationship between work context and psychological outcomes. Based on all three articles, it was recommended that cross lagged panel studies may be useful in further clarifying the role of personal resources in longitudinal studies about the relationship between job resources and psychological outcomes and possible upward spirals arising from facilitating these relationships. Aspects of such studies may also include a qualitative assessment of what participants perceive as job resources and personal resources and these help them to achieve their goals. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Work context has many consequences for the psychological outcomes of employees. These outcomes also have consequences for the employer through possible loss of productivity, impaired health of employees which may be associated with absenteeism and turnover intention, among others. The literature also shows that these outcomes are not always the same even under similar working conditions. Theorising in cognitive psychology indicates that the way in which an individual appraises a situation may be more important to psychological outcomes than the actual presence of a stressor. Recently, personal resources have been hypothesised to influence these individual differences. Few if any studies have explored such personal resources as moderators in the relationship between work context and psychological outcomes, especially in the South African public service context. Thus, the general aim of this study was to determine whether personal resources (emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and explanatory styles) are moderators in the relationship between work context Gob demands and job resources) and psychological outcomes (psychological well-being and work engagement) in a sample of government employees. A cross-sectional survey research design was implemented. Data were collected from 459 participants with the following measuring instruments, the Job-Demands Resources (JD-R) Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Affectomemter-2 Short-form (AFM.), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) , the Emotional Intelligence Scale (ElS), the General Self-efficacy (GSE) scale, and the Explanatory Style (ES) Questionnaire. A demographic questionnaire was developed by the first author to capture diverse information from the participants relating to gender, turnover intention, post level and so forth. Analyses were conducted mainly in 2 steps. Firstly, multiple regression analyses were used to test the main effects of work context variables on psychological outcomes. Secondly, two-step hierarchical regression analyses were used to test whether personal resources (emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and explanatory styles) moderated the relationship between work context variables and psychological outcomes. Before testing the moderation, all independent variables and moderator variables (dimensions of personal resources) were centred so as to exclude the possibility of any multicollinearity in the regression equation. The results of the study, reported in three articles/manuscripts, showed significant main effects for work context and the personal resources as predictors of psychological outcomes. In the second place, the results also showed that the personal resources used in this study moderate the relationship between work context and psychological outcomes. In the first article, it was concluded that emotional intelligence is of potential value, especially in the public sector that is focussed on optimal service delivery, and where emotional encounters are stock-in-trade. Emotional intelligence is a valuable personal resource to cultivate for establishing, developing, and maintaining positive outcomes in psychological well-being in the workplace. In the second article, it was concluded that as self-efficacy beliefs facilitate actions and behaviour taken by individuals, it is important that feedback and modelling could play an important role especially in service-oriented work contexts that may need self-regulation of emotions. In the third article, it was concluded that as attributional feedback can induce change in how individuals perceive their success or failure in a task, the role of explanatory styles in psychological outcomes could be cultivated through active feedback given to employees on their performance and possibilities of future growth in the organisation. Overall it was concluded that a lack of job resources in the presence of high job demands will undermine psychological outcomes even in the presence of personal resources. Therefore, the consequences for health impairment and negative outcomes cannot be over-emphasised in a situation where job demands outstrip job resources. Employees in the public service require skills such as social and emotional competency, self-efficacy and optimism as these are important tools in dealing with the public. Employees must have initiative, flexibility, motivation to achieve, empathy, self-esteem and confidence, self-control, and group management among fellow employees and the public that is served by them. Although the limitations for this study are related to the fact that it was a cross-sectional research design and data was collected using self-reports, insights were gained about the role of personal resources in the relationship between work context and psychological outcomes. Based on all three articles, it was recommended that cross lagged panel studies may be useful in further clarifying the role of personal resources in longitudinal studies about the relationship between job resources and psychological outcomes and possible upward spirals arising from facilitating these relationships. Aspects of such studies may also include a qualitative assessment of what participants perceive as job resources and personal resources and these help them to achieve their goals. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

在急速變遷與多元渾沌的現今，如何轉化複雜且遽增的壓力以提升個體本身的幸福感實屬一重要的議題。本研究主要目的在建立生活壓力、解釋風格與情緒幸福感的結構方程式模型，藉以探討之間的影響關係，進而瞭解解釋風格在這關係中所扮演的中介效果。 本研究以兩組各644位政治大學的大學生為研究對象，採問卷調查法施以生活壓力量表、解釋風格量表及情緒幸福感量表，使用的資料分析方法包括：t考驗、單因子變異數分析、因素分析、及結構方程式模型。本研究以第一組樣本探究不同性別與不同年級在研究變項上的差異，接著，經建構與修正模式後提出最終的關係模式，最後，以第二組樣本驗證最終模式的穩定性。主要結果茲分述如下： 一、在背景變項方面： (一)不同性別與不同年級大學生在「生活壓力」與「解釋風格」上有顯著差 異。 (二)不同性別與不同年級大學生在「情緒幸福感」上未有顯著差異。 二、在結構模式方面： (一)課業壓力、人際壓力對解釋風格有直接正向效果。 (二)課業壓力、人際壓力對情緒幸福感有直接負向效果。 (三)解釋風格對情緒幸福感有直接負向效果。 (四)人際壓力能直接影響情緒幸福感，也能透過解釋風格間接影響情緒幸福感。 (五)解釋風格在課業壓力與情緒幸福感間扮演完全中介變項的角色。 (六)最終模式的交叉驗證具有模式穩定性。 最後，根據研究結果提出建議，供諮商輔導實務及未來研究參考。 / With the rapid change and the multicultural context of the modern society, how to deal with the complicated and hastily increased stress and to promote people’s well-being is an important issue. The main purpose of this study is to construct the structural equation modeling (SEM) of stress, explanatory style, and emotional well-being. By this way, the researcher can explore the relationship among the three variables, and know the mediator variable of explanatory style. The participants were two groups of students at National Chengchi University, and each group included 644 college students. The data was collected by questionnaires, including the stress scale, the explanatory style scale, and the emotional well-being scale. Moreover, the data were analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, factor analysis, and SEM. The study, firstly, used the first group to explore the differences of gender and grade, and constructed the final structural model after setting and modifying model. Finally, the researcher used the second group to verify the stability of the model. The main results were summarized as follows: About the background variables: 1.Students with different gender and grade were significantly different in the scores of stress and explanatory style. 2.Students with different gender and grade were not significantly different in the scores of emotional well-being. About the structural model: 1.Academic stress and relationship stress had positive influence on explanatory style directly. 2.Academic stress and relationship stress had negative influence on emotional well-being directly. 3.Explanatory style had negative influence on emotional well-being directly. 4.Relationship stress had influence on emotional well-being directly, and it also affected emotional well-being through explanatory style. 5.Explanatory style was a mediator variable between academic stress and emotional well-being. 6.Through the cross-validation, the final structural model was of model stability. Finally, based on the findings of the study, the researcher made some practical strategies for counselor and some suggestions for further studies.