The study examined the relationship among social connectedness, dysfunctional interpersonal behaviors, and psychological distress. The authors specifically hypothesized that the direct negative effect of social connectedness on psychological distress would be mediated by dysfunctional interpersonal behaviors. Prior to testing the hypothesis, the authors revised the original Social Connectedness Scale (SCS; R. A Lee and S. B. Robbins, 1995). Studies 1 and 2 describe the revision...

Levels of loneliness are relatively stable across most of adult life, but correlates of loneliness show age differences. We review evidence of age differences in associations between loneliness and individual differences in health behaviors, stress exposure, physiological stress responses, appraisal and coping, and restorative processes. The effects of each of these pathways endow loneliness with the capacity to accelerate the rate of physiological decline with...

Recent scientific work has established both a theoretical basis and strong empirical evidence for a causal impact of social relationships on health. Prospective studies, which control for baseline health status, consistently show increased risk of death among persons with a low quantity, and sometimes low quality, of social relationships. Experimental and quasi-experimental studies of humans and animals also suggest that social isolation is a major...

Self-focused attention is considered to be a cognitive characteristic of depression. However, some articles report that self-focused attention is also related to anxiety. This study examines the differential relationships of self-focused attention to depression and anxiety. The Preoccupation Scale, Self-rating Depression Scale, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory T-Form were administered to 454 undergraduate students. The results showed a partial correlation between self-focused attention and anxiety that...

The resting state brain networks, particularly the Default Mode Network (DMN), have been found to be altered in several psychopathological conditions such as depression and anxiety. In this study we hypothesized that cortical areas of the DMN, particularly the anterior regions - medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex - would show an increased functional connectivity associated with both anxiety and depression. Twenty-four healthy participants...

Describes studies showing that excessive involvement in one's self increases one's risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). A preliminary study found a connection among self-involvement (SI), Type A (coronary prone) behavior, anger intensity, and high blood pressure. Later studies showed that self-involved patients were more likely to have recurrent heart attacks and poorer heart muscle contraction, could not exercise as long on a treadmill, and...

Self-esteem has become a household word. Teachers, parents, therapists, and others have focused efforts on boosting self-esteem, on the assumption that high self-esteem will cause many positive outcomes and benefits—an assumption that is critically evaluated in this review.Appraisal of the effects of self-esteem is complicated by several factors. Because many people with high self-esteem exaggerate their successes and good traits, we emphasize objective measures of...

The Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale assesses 7 sources of self-esteem in college students: academics, appearance, approval from others, competition, family support, God's love, and virtue. In confirmatory factor analyses on data from 1,418 college students, a 7-factor model fit to the data acceptably well and significantly better than several plausible alternative models. The subscales all have high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, are distinct from other...

The 3 major self-evaluation motives were compared: self-assessment (people pursue accurate self-knowledge), self-enhancement (people pursue favorable self-knowledge), and self-verification (people pursue highly certain self-knowledge). Ss considered the possession of personality traits that were either positive or negative and either central or peripheral by asking themselves questions that varied in diagnosticity (the extent to which the questions could discriminate between a trait and its alternative) and...

It is assumed that people seek positive self-regard; that is, they are motivated to possess, enhance, and maintain positive self-views. The cross-cultural generalizability of such motivations was addressed by examining Japanese culture. Anthropological, sociological, and psychological analyses revealed that many elements of Japanese culture are incongruent with such motivations. Moreover, the empirical literature provides scant evidence for a need for positive self-regard among Japanese and...