This proposed study was inspired by the concept in Aristotle’s virtue ethics theory that a good life is necessarily an ethical one. The following work intends to expand previous literature on this topic by exploring an accessible potential method through which ethicality (and thus, well-being) can be increased, and also a possible explanation of how this process might occur. Past research has indicated that mindfulness training can increase both prosociality and well-being, and additionally that higher ethicality is connected to higher well-being. Reduced self-focus has been found to mediate these relationships. The proposed 30 day study makes use of a daily mindfulness training app to explore its effects on participants’ ethicality and well-being, and examines whether reduced self-focus mediates these potential relationships. Results are expected to show that that, first, increased mindfulness leads to increased ethical behavior, mediated by reduction in self-focus; and second, that increased mindfulness leads to an increase in well-being, mediated both by increased ethical behavior and by reduction in self-focus. Ultimately, the intention of this study is to find support for the benefits of cultivating a more loving and interconnected world, as well as the means by which to do so.

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Syftet med denna avhandling var att undersöka på vilket sätt och i vilken utsträckning blyga personer skiljer sig från icke-blyga personer med avseende på deras attributionsmönster. Resultaten från 3 kvantitativa och 1 kvalitativ studie visar en något annorlunda bild av hur blyghet relaterar till social kognition jämfört med tidigare forskning i området. Följande 4 huvudsakliga slutsatser drogs. (1) Blyga personer har inte nödvändigtvis en snedvriden social kognition eftersom de uppvisade en mindre aktörs–observatörsskillnad jämfört med icke-blyga personer. (2) Det är sannolikt att blyga och självfokuserade personer bedömer sina emotionella reaktioner som orsakade av stabila interna orsaker snarare än mindre stabila interna och externa orsaker. Om blyga personer är mindre självfokuserade så tenderar dessa personer ändå att uppvisa detta attributionsmönster. (3) Blyghet snarare än beteendemässig inhibition har betydelse för vilka orsaker som tillskrivs emotionella reaktioner medan blyghet och beteendemässig inhibition interagerar när det gäller i vilken grad fritt valda orsaker upplevs vara orsakade av interna respektive externa faktorer. En slutsats av dessa resultat är att fortsatt forskning bör fokusera hur människor i sin vardag förklarar sina egna och andra människors beteenden och reaktioner. (4) Mycket blyga personer kan uppleva identitetsförvirring samt kan ha en ambivalent önskan om att vara blyg samtidigt som blygheten försvinner. Trots att dessa resultat pekar på ganska allvarliga konsekvenser av att vara blyg så verkar blyghet generellt betraktas i ett ganska positivt ljus. / The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how and to what degree shy individuals differ from non-shy individuals regarding their attributional patterns. The results from 3 quantitative and 1 qualitative study paint a somewhat different picture of how shyness is associated with social cognition compared to previous research in the field. The following 4 main conclusions were drawn. (1) Being shy does not necessarily imply distorted social cognitions since shy people exhibited less of a self–other difference compared to non-shy people. (2) Being self-focused and shy means that emotional reactions are likely to be perceived as caused by stable internal causes rather than less stable internal and external causes. If shy people are self-focused to a lesser extent there is still a tendency for these individuals to exhibit this attributional pattern. (3) Shyness is more important than behavioral inhibition in determining ascriptions of causes to emotional reactions, whereas shyness and behavioral inhibition interact in determining people’s perceptions of the degree to which freely chosen causes are caused by internal and external factors, respectively. One conclusion of these findings is that future research needs to focus on how people in everyday life really explain their own and other people’s behaviors and reactions. (4) Very shy people can experience identity confusion as well as a conflicting wish to stay shy and to overcome shyness at the same time. Even though these results imply quite severe consequences of being shy, in general shyness seems to be viewed in quite a positive light.

Background: Based on the assumptions that depersonalization symptoms are relevant for test anxiety maintenance, we examined their frequency, psychological predictors, association with anxiety symptoms, and association with test performance. Sampling and Methods: In Study 1, 203 students rated their test anxiety severity and depersonalization in their last oral examination. In Study 2, we assessed test anxiety 1 week before an oral examination, depersonalization, safety behaviors, self-focused attention, and negative appraisals of depersonalization directly after the examination, and post-event processing 1 week later among 67 students. Results: In Study 1, 47.3% reported at least one moderate depersonalization symptom. In Study 2, test anxiety and negative appraisals of depersonalization significantly predicted depersonalization. Depersonalization was linked to a higher intensity of safety behaviors and post-event processing but not to self-focused attention. It was not related to performance. Conclusion: Results are limited by the non-random sampling and the small sample size of Study 2. However, by showing that depersonalization contributes to the processes the maintenance of test anxiety, the findings confirm that depersonalization – normally understood as an adaptive mechanism to cope with stressful events – can become maladaptive.

臨床研究發現，提高自我注意容易提高個體的負向情緒，反之，提高負向情緒容易觸發個體的自我注意程度，而高自我注意、負向情緒又正是憂鬱者的主要特徵。由於高自我注意跟負向情緒具有負相關，再根據過去文獻分析，推論高自我注意跟負向情緒之間可能具有共變關係。 循著Carver & Scheier的自我調適理論、Pyszczynski & Greenberg的憂鬱者的自我調適維持理論、Higgins的自我落差理論等脈絡前行，並分析有關目標設定、自我效能、憂鬱者對自我表現之主觀感受、自我滿意度等研究後，發現憂鬱者內在傾向於設定自己無法達成的目標，因此容易產生「目標--現況之間具有落差」的現象。本研究主張，差距現象乃是憂鬱者之高自我注意、負向情緒關係的中介因素，並將差距現象區分為客觀差距（事前自我效能評估--目標設定）、主觀差距（事後自我效能評估--主觀感受）。這兩者可能影響自我注意、負向情緒之關係。基於研究興趣，再探討「事前自我效能評估--實際自我效能」差距與「事後自我效能評估--實際自我效能」差距，這兩者並不會影響自我注意、負向情緒之關係。 本研究為了解自我注意、負向情緒、差距現象三者之關係，針對輕度憂鬱、一般大學生，以社交表現（與陌生人初次之談話）為主題，設計兩個實驗，探討（一）自我注意、負向情緒是否具有共變關係。（二）輕度憂鬱大學生在社交方面是否具有差距現象。（三）輕度憂鬱大學生的差距現象，是否為自我注意、負向情緒之共變關係之中介因素。（四）輕度憂鬱大學生的實際社交表現是否受到差距現象的影響。 根據本研究的實驗結果發現： （一）輕度憂鬱大學生之自我注意與負向情緒之間具有負相關，但在實驗操弄的情況下，兩者並沒有明顯共變關係。 （二）輕度憂鬱大學生在社交表現方面，和一般大學生大致相同，沒有顯著的客觀、主觀差距現象。而造成差距現象不明顯的原因，在於憂鬱大學生的社交表現一樣好、一樣受歡迎。然而憂鬱大學生對自己表現之評分較一般大學生為差，顯示憂鬱大學生的社交自信不足。 （三）輕度憂鬱大學生之客觀、主觀差距現象不構成高自我注意與負向情緒之中介因素。然而，憂鬱大學生對自我表現的主觀評價與滿意度確實顯著低於一般大學生，顯出憂鬱者習慣自我貶低的特質。 （四）輕度憂鬱大學生之社交表現並不受客觀、主觀差距現象之影響。 （五）在「事前自我效能評估--實際自我效能」差距與「事後自我效能評估--實際自我效能」差距方面，憂鬱大學生之差距量皆顯著小於非憂鬱大學生，顯示自評的社交實力與實際社交實力仍稍有不同，且一般大學生對自評社交能力的高估情況較顯著，反映出社交自信較憂鬱大學生高。 由於實驗結果並不支持本研究之假設，探討其可能原因為： （一）受試者特性：本研究所抽樣之政大學生之憂鬱程度相當輕微，而且在社交表現上並不比同輩差，因此在社交上之差距現象不明顯，無法看出差距現象是否足以構成自我注意、負向情緒之中介因素。另外，不同受試者具有不同的先天自我注意傾向，可能影響實驗結果。 （二）自我注意的內涵：本實驗操弄之自我注意採用「編故事」方式進行，並不會引發個體的挫折，因此無法引起強烈情緒變動。 （三）實驗測量的問題：以實驗操弄雖能暫時改變個體之情緒與注意力，然而操弄所得的情緒與注意力很容易受到外在干擾而改變、或隨著時間變化而消退。 綜合以上結果與探討，對未來研究之建議如下： 建議未來針對憂鬱症狀較高之憂鬱者，選定不同的實驗作業，在受試者不知情的情況下，利用非紙筆類的測量工具，在數個時間點重覆測量情緒與注意力的變化，再度檢驗差距現象對憂鬱者「自我注意--負向情緒」之共變關係。