Evaluating self-reflection and insight as self-conscious traits

A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of self-reflective writing focused on successful and unsuccessful coping experiences on resilience

Evidence supports the effectiveness of self-reflective training approaches for the development of resilience. Building this work, the objective of this study was to investigate the impact of the focus of coping self-reflective activities on resilience by applying a self-reflection approach to a sample of 254 Australian ministry workers. This randomized controlled trial included three attention-matched conditions: (1) self-reflective writing focused on successful coping, (2) self-reflective writing focused on unsuccessful coping or (3) written descriptions of stressor events alone. Participants were assessed across four time points: prior to, immediately post, 3-months, and 6-months after the intervention. Results demonstrated that self-reflective writing was more effective in enhancing perceived resilience than descriptive writing. Analyses also showed greater maintenance of beneficial effects in the successful self-reflection condition, compared to the unsuccessful condition. These findings support the use of self-reflection training to strengthen individuals' psychological resilience, particularly when focused on successful coping situations for those who initially experience more ruminative thought.

The coping insights evident through self-reflection on stressful military training events: Qualitative evidence from self-reflection journals

Research has demonstrated that adaptive forms of self-reflection on stressor events and insight may strengthen resilient capacities. However, the coping insights that emerge during self-reflection are notoriously under-researched. In this research, we sought to explore the evidence for the self-reflective activities and coping insights drawn from the Self-Reflection and Coping Insight Framework and find evidence of new reflections or insights not captured within the framework. Qualitative analysis was used to examine weekly, written self-reflective journals completed by Officer Cadets involved in a randomised-controlled trial of Self-Reflection Resilience Training. Sixty-eight Officer Cadets who submitted their journals for analysis were included. Journals were analysed using a deductive thematic approach. Findings revealed that self-reflective activities occurred frequently over the course of the intervention. Coping insights were comparatively less frequent, but conveyed complex ideas about the self in the context of stressor exposure, broad principles about stress and coping, and nuanced interpretations regarding the interaction between the efficacy of coping approaches and broader contextual and intrapersonal factors. These findings demonstrate the critical role of coping insight during Self-Reflection Resilience Training, with implications for developing a validated self-report measure of self-reflective activity and coping insight.

Writing Yourself Well: Dispositional Self-Reflection Moderates the Effect of a Smartphone App-Based Journaling Intervention on Psychological Wellbeing across Time

Self-reflection is often viewed positively; paradoxically, however, it is also associated with distress, potentially because of its relationship with rumination. Focusing self-reflection on positive themes may be one way to promote adaptive self-reflection. This study examined whether the disposition to engage in self-reflection motivates use of a journal containing positively focused writing prompts and moderates the benefit gained from it, specifically when rumination is controlled for. For 28 days, participants (N = 152) accessed an app-based mental health intervention containing various features, including the aforementioned journal. Outcomes of self-regulation and psychological wellbeing were assessed, controlling for time spent using other app features. As expected, journaling was associated with improvements in psychological wellbeing but only when baseline self-reflection was average or higher. Journaling was also initially associated with improvements in self-regulation, but this was diminished after controlling for time spent using other app features. Findings suggest self-reflection could be a strength for fostering wellbeing when it is directed in a positive way.

You have to let go sometimes: advances in understanding goal disengagement

While research on tenacious goal pursuit and persistence has evoked a myriad of research efforts, research on goal disengagement has rather been neglected and has been focusing mainly on positive consequences of individual differences in goal disengagement capacities. In recent years, however, research on goal disengagement has seen an upsurge in studies, specifically addressing the conceptualization of goal disengagement, the processes involved, and factors facilitating or undermining it. However, many questions remain unanswered or only partly answered providing numerous opportunities for further investigation. With this special issue of Motivation and Emotion, we aim to stimulate such progress in research on goal disengagement. To this end, this special issue includes empirical studies with cross-sectional, prospective, longitudinal, and experimental designs with a wide range of personal and experimentally induced goals as well as invited commentaries from scholars across different psychological sub disciplines. In this introductory essay, we provide a brief review of the current state of goal disengagement research. We also provide an overview about the contributions to this special issue with reflections related to the current state of research and areas where further advancement in conceptualization and empirical studies is needed.

Effectiveness of multiple scenario simulations of acute and critical care for undergraduate nursing students: A quasi-experimental design

BACKGROUND

Acute care and critical care are among the most challenging tasks in nursing, which requires information, knowledge, and skills across multiple areas. Scenario simulations can teach nursing students how to respond to these challenges in a safe environment, which can also reduce the stress of acute and critical care prior to exposure to a clinical setting. However, few studies have examined whether scenario simulations of acute and critical care can improve the abilities of nursing students.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the effects of acute and critical care scenario simulations for nursing students.

DESIGN

A quasi-experimental design.

SETTING

A department of nursing at a university.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 88 senior nursing students enrolled in a course in acute and critical care nursing volunteered to participate.

METHODS

The experience provided by scenario simulations was guided by the best practice standards of the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning, which recommends outcome measures include a change in knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Students completed three self-assessment instruments before and after completion of the course: simulation learning effectiveness, self-reflection and insight, and satisfaction with the simulation format. Comparisons of pre-test and post-test scores on the self-assessment instruments evaluated the effects of the simulation learning.

RESULTS

Post-test scores for subscale of self-regulation for simulation learning effectiveness and insight were significantly higher compared with pre-test scores (t = -2.85, p < 0.01 and t = -5.23, p < 0.001, respectively). There was also a significant increase for learning satisfaction in post-test, compared with pre-test (t = -3.70, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

The use of scenario simulations for teaching acute and critical care nursing improved self-regulation, insight and learning satisfaction for undergraduate nursing students.

Know Thyself! Predicting Subjective Well-Being from personality estimation discrepancy and self-insight

Discrepancies in views of the Self are suggested to be negatively related to well-being (Higgins, 1987). In the present study, we used a novel concept, Personality Estimation Discrepancy (PED), to test this classic idea. PED is defined as the computed difference between how one view oneself (Self-Perceived Personality) and a standard Big Five test (IPIP-NEO-30). In a pre-registered (osf.io) UK online study (N = 297; Mage = 37, SD = 14) we analyzed: (1) whether PED would predict Subjective Well-Being (SWB; Harmony in Life, Satisfaction with Life, Positive affect, Negative Affect) and Self-Insight, and (2) whether Self-Insight would mediate the relationship between PED and SWB. The results showed that underestimation of Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability indeed is associated with both high SWB and high Self-Insight. However, these effects mostly disappeared when controlling for the Big Five test scores. Furthermore, Self-Insight largely (42.9%) mediated the relationship between the mis-estimation and SWB. We interpret these finding such that the relationship of mis-estimating one's personality with SWB and Self-Insight are mostly explained by the Big Five factors, yet the discrepancy is a dependent feature of scoring particularly high or low on certain personality traits.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03396-1.

Pandemic-activated psychological growth: significance of extraversion, self-consciousness and COVID-19 related anxiety

BACKGROUND

The sense of threat to health and life in the face of a pandemic, accompanied by difficulties imposed by lockdown, may trigger a serious crisis. Among possible consequences of such a crisis may paradoxically be the phenomenon of psychological growth. The aim of this article is to identify predictors of pandemic-activated psychological growth (PPG). The relationships between extraversion, reflective and ruminative self-consciousness and PPG were the subject of our inquiry. Additionally, a question was posed about the indirect effect of self-consciousness on PPG through anxiety.

PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE

The study involved 1206 participants aged 18 to 26 years, who declared that the pandemic situation significantly threatened their important life goals. Procedure: cross-sectional design. Four online short questionnaire-measures were used: the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI), the Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire (RRQ), the Current Self-disposition Scale (CSS), and the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI).

RESULTS

Extraversion and reflective self-consciousness were direct predictors of higher PPG, whereas ruminative self-consciousness was directly related to a lower PPG. There was an indirect effect of ruminative self-consciousness on PPG through COVID-19 related anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS

Although the results do not confirm the permanence of a growth effect, finding PPG predictors considered as beneficial resources for coping with difficult pandemic circumstances appears to be valuable in the current state of affairs.

How self-awareness is connected to less experience of action crises in personal goal pursuit

In this research, we applied a differential perspective to the study of action crises, i.e., being in an intra-psychic decisional conflict whether to pursue or abandon a goal once difficulties in its pursuit arise. In two studies, we investigated the role of individuals’ levels of self-awareness when experiencing such action crises. Both among professional ballet dancers (daily diary, Study 1) and university undergraduates (preregistered experience sampling, Study 2), individuals with greater levels of (dispositional and situational) self-awareness showed an adaptive, that is, problem-solving oriented way of dealing with difficulties in the pursuit of their (training or study) goals. As a consequence, self-awareness contributed to less experience of action crisis during goal pursuit and, as a result, led to better goal performance.

Validation of the Psychological Insight Scale: A new scale to assess psychological insight following a psychedelic experience

INTRODUCTION

As their name suggests, 'psychedelic' (mind-revealing) compounds are thought to catalyse processes of psychological insight; however, few satisfactory scales exist to sample this. This study sought to develop a new scale to measure psychological insight after a psychedelic experience: the Psychological Insight Scale (PIS).

METHODS

The PIS is a six- to seven-item questionnaire that enquires about psychological insight after a psychedelic experience (PIS-6) and accompanied behavioural changes (PIS item 7). In total, 886 participants took part in a study in which the PIS and other questionnaires were completed in a prospective fashion in relation to a planned psychedelic experience. For validation purposes, data from 279 participants were analysed from a non-specific 'global psychedelic survey' study.

RESULTS

Principal components analysis of PIS scores revealed a principal component explaining 73.57% of the variance, which displayed high internal consistency at multiple timepoints throughout the study (average Cronbach's α = 0.94). Criterion validity was confirmed using the global psychedelic survey study, and convergent validity was confirmed via the Therapeutic-Realizations Scale. Furthermore, PIS scores significantly mediated the relationship between emotional breakthrough and long-term well-being.

CONCLUSION

The PIS is complementary to current subjective measures used in psychedelic studies, most of which are completed in relation to the acute experience. Insight - as measured by the PIS - was found to be a key mediator of long-term psychological outcomes following a psychedelic experience. Future research may investigate how insight varies throughout a psychedelic process, its underlying neurobiology and how it impacts behaviour and mental health.

Network analysis of the variables involved in Career Development

Abstract The aim of the study was to identify the relationships between career commitment and the perception of employability, career adaptability, self-reflection and insight of professionals from the southern region of Brazil. Participants were 535 individuals who answered an online questionnaire with sociodemographic questions and scales from career commitment, employability perception, career adaptability, self-reflection and insight, to evaluate the variables of interest in the study. The data were submitted to descriptive and network analysis. The results show a moderate and positive relationship between the variables studied and highlight the centrality and strength of the variables identity, planning and confidence among the analyzed variables. It is concluded that it is essential to encourage professionals to reflect on professional choices and their responsibility with their careers, based on the promotion of self-knowledge. Also, the role of organizations in the development of People Management practices that promote autonomy and relationships of trust stands out.

The coping insights involved in strengthening resilience: The Self-Reflection and Coping Insight Framework

BACKGROUND

Recent theoretical work suggests that self-reflection on daily stressors and the efficacy of coping strategies and resources is beneficial for the enhancement of resilient capacities. However, coping insights emerging from self-reflection, and their relationship to resilient capacities, is an existing gap in our understanding.

OBJECTIVES

Given that insights come in many forms, the objective of this paper is to delineate exemplar coping insights that strengthen the capacity for resilience.

METHODS

After providing an overview of self-reflection and insight, we extend the Systematic Self-Reflection model of resilience strengthening by introducing the Self-Reflection and Coping Insight Framework to articulate how the emergence of coping insights may mediate the relationship between five self-reflective practices and the enhancement of resilient capacities.

RESULTS

We explore the potential for coping insights to convey complex ideas about the self in the context of stressor exposure, an awareness of response patterns to stressors, and principles about the nature of stress and coping across time and contexts.

CONCLUSIONS

This framework adds to existing scholarship by providing a characterization of how coping insight may strengthen resilient capacities, allowing for a guided exploration of coping insight during future research.

[The Structural Analysis of Variables Related to Posttraumatic Growth among Psychiatric Nurses]

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to explain a structural model of posttraumatic growth among psychiatric nurses based on existing models and a literature review and verify its effectiveness.

METHODS

Data were collected from psychiatric nurses in one special city, four metropolitan cities, and three regional cities from February to March 2016. Exogenous variables included hardiness and distress perception, while endogenous variables included self-disclosure, social support, deliberate rumination, and posttraumatic growth. Data from 489 psychiatric nurses were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 19.0 and AMOS 20.0.

RESULTS

The modified model was a good fit for the data. Tests on significance of the pathways of the modified model showed that nine of the 14 paths were supported, and the explanatory power of posttraumatic growth by included variables in the model was 69.2%. For posttraumatic growth among psychiatric nurses, deliberate rumination had a direct effect as the variable that had the largest influence. Indirect effects were found in the order of hardiness, social support, and distress perception. Self-disclosure showed both direct and indirect effects.

CONCLUSION

A strategy to improve deliberate rumination is necessary when seeking to improve posttraumatic growth among psychiatric nurses. Enhancing psychiatric nurses' hardiness before trauma would enable them to actively express negative emotions after trauma, allowing them to receive more social support. This would improve deliberate rumination and consequently help promote psychological growth among psychiatric nurses who have experienced trauma.

Instruments to measure the ability to self-reflect: A systematic review of evidence from workplace and educational settings including health care

INTRODUCTION

Self-reflection has become recognised as a core skill in dental education, although the ability to self-reflect is valued and measured within several professions. This review appraises the evidence for instruments available to measure the self-reflective ability of adults studying or working within any setting, not just health care.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A systematic review was conducted of 20 electronic databases (including Medline, ERIC, CINAHL and Business Source Complete) from 1975 to 2017, supplemented by citation searches. Data were extracted from each study and the studies graded against quality indicators by at least two independent reviewers, using a coding sheet. Reviewers completed a utility analysis of the assessment instruments described within included studies, appraising their reported reliability, validity, educational impact, acceptability and cost.

RESULTS

A total of 131 studies met the inclusion criteria. Eighteen were judged to provide higher quality evidence for the review and three broad types of instrument were identified, namely: rubrics (or scoring guides), self-reported scales and observed behaviour.

CONCLUSIONS

Three types of instrument were identified to assess the ability to self-reflect. It was not possible to recommend a single most effective instrument due to under reporting of the criteria necessary for a full utility analysis of each. The use of more than one instrument may therefore be appropriate dependent on the acceptability to the faculty, assessor, student and cost. Future research should report on the utility of assessment instruments and provide guidance on what constitutes thresholds of acceptable or unacceptable ability to self-reflect, and how this should be managed.

Private Self-consciousness, Self-reflection, Insight and Alcohol Consumption Among Young People and Adults

Abstract Private self-consciousness is a relevant metacognitive capacity in the self-regulation process, with possible implications in alcohol consumption. This research verified the influence of self-reflection and insight, dimensions of private self-consciousness, on drinking behavior. A total of 523 Brazilians, aged from 20 to 39 years old, participated in a survey by answering the Self-Reflection and Insight Scale and the AUDIT test. The results showed that women have higher levels of self-reflection, whereas men have higher levels of insight. With regard to alcohol consumption, young people drink at higher risk levels than adults. Self-reflection and insight were negatively correlated with alcohol consumption. Age and gender differences in the intensity of the correlation between variables and the influence of environmental factors on the regulation of drinking behavior are discussed.

Seeing How Far I've Come: The Impact of the Digital Sexual Life History Calendar on Young Adult Research Participants

The Digital Sexual Life History Calendar (d/SLHC) is a Web-based platform for collecting young adults' sexual histories. In addition to collecting diverse data, the d/SLHC was designed to benefit participants by enabling reflection on their sexual and relationship experiences in the context of other life events and circumstances. In a pilot study of the d/SLHC, survey data were collected to test whether creating a d/SLHC timeline had any impact on sexual well-being. A sample of 18- to 25-year-old participants recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) completed an online survey about sexuality and relationships. Of those, 113 also completed d/SLHC timelines and 262 served as a comparison group. Six months later, participants from both groups were invited to complete a follow-up survey (total N = 249). Repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) results indicated that participants who completed d/SLHC timelines exhibited higher sexual esteem immediately following d/SLHC completion and at follow-up. No changes in sexual esteem were observed in the comparison group, and there were no differences between the groups with regard to sexual health behaviors and outcomes. These findings suggest that sexuality studies may have the potential to yield not only rich data for researchers but also rich experiences for participants.

Self-absorption paradox is not a paradox: illuminating the dark side of self-reflection

Although considered an important component of a healthy personality, self-reflection has not so far been shown to have any specific benefits for mental health. This research addresses this issue by taking into consideration two important suppressor variables, self-rumination and the need for absolute truth. The latter is an innovative variable, defined and presented in this research. The first two studies aimed to validate a new measure that acts as an operational definition of the need for absolute truth. The first study was conducted with two group of participants; the first group consisted of 129 females and 67 males, mean age = 20 years, and the second 182 females and 104 males, mean age = 27. In the second study, participants were 22 females and 18 males, mean age = 20.5. In the final study, conducted with 296 female, 163 male participants (mean age = 37), suppressor effects were tested using structural equation modeling. The results showed that by taking account of these two suppressor variables, particularly the need for absolute truth, the expected relationship between self-reflection and mental health was revealed. The need for absolute truth was shown to be crucial for understanding the effects of self-reflection on mental health, therefore it should be considered in all processes of psychotherapy.

Trait self-focused attention increases sensitivity to nonconscious primes: evidence from effort-related cardiovascular reactivity

A broad range of primes presented outside of awareness - ranging from emotional faces to people's first names - can influence the physiological mobilization of effort during active coping tasks. Who responds more strongly to implicit cues? Based on models of self-awareness, the present research examined how individual differences in self-focused attention influence sensitivity to nonconscious primes. Adults completed a challenging cognitive task in which two kinds of primes were presented (people's first names and words related to the task's difficulty). Trait self-focus significantly interacted with both primes to predict effort, measured as systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity. People high in trait self-focus had significantly higher SBP reactivity when primed with words that made the task seem more important (their first names) and harder (high difficulty words). These findings thus expand the evidence for motivational intensity theory's analysis of implicit processes.

Alexithymia and its impact on quality of life in a group of Brazilian women with migraine without aura

Background

Migraine is a type of primary headache widely known for its impact on quality of life of patients. Although the psychological aspects of the disease are receiving increasing attention in current research, some of them, as alexithymia, are still seldom explored. This study aimed to provide evidence on the relationships between markers of depression, anxiety, alexithymia, self-reflection, insight and quality of life in migraine.

Methods

Forty female outpatients from a Brazilian specialized headache hospital service and a paired control group were compared.

Results

The results revealed that women with migraine had higher levels of depression, anxiety and alexithymia, and lower levels of quality of life, self-reflection and insight, compared to controls. Quality of life in women with migraine was predicted by levels of depression and one alexithymia factor (ability to express emotions and fantasies). A binary regression analysis between clinical and control groups revealed the migraine group to comprise individuals with high anxiety, low quality of life in the physical domain and the presence of a concrete thinking style.

Conclusions

The results highlight the relevance of considering psychological variables in the routine healthcare practices for migraine patients in general, while keeping steady attention to individual case features.

Masked first name priming increases effort-related cardiovascular reactivity

Recent research on motivational intensity has shown that explicit manipulations of self-focused attention (e.g., mirrors and video cameras) increase effort-related cardiovascular responses during active coping. An experiment examined whether masked first name priming, an implicit manipulation of self-focused attention, had similar effects. Participants (n=52 young adults) performed a self-paced cognitive task, in which they were told to get as many trials correct as possible within 5min. During the task, the participant's first name was primed for 0%, 33%, 67%, or 100% of the trials. First name priming, regardless of its frequency, significantly increased cardiovascular reactivity, particularly systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity. Furthermore, the priming manipulation interacted with individual differences in trait self-focus: trait self-focus predicted higher SBP reactivity in the 0% condition, but first name priming eliminated the effects of individual differences. Implications for self-awareness research and for the emerging interest in priming effects on effort are considered.

Trait self-focused attention, task difficulty, and effort-related cardiovascular reactivity

Using motivational intensity theory as a framework, the present experiment examined how individual differences in self-focused attention interact with task difficulty to predict effort, assessed via cardiovascular reactivity. Participants (n = 50) worked on a cognitive task fixed at an easy, medium, or hard level of difficulty, and individual differences in private self-consciousness and self-reflection were measured. Regression models indicated that trait self-focus interacted with task difficulty to predict cardiovascular reactivity, particularly systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity. Participants low and high in trait self-focus showed similar SBP reactivity in the easy and medium conditions, but they diverged in the hard condition: High trait focus was associated with higher SBP reactivity, indicating greater effort, whereas low trait self-focus was associated with low SBP reactivity, indicating disengagement. The findings thus support the motivational intensity approach to effort and its interpretation of self-focus's role in effort mobilization.