TESTING COMPETING FACTOR MODELS UNDERLYING THE PRIVATE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS SCALE WITH HONG KONG CHINESE ADOLESCENTS

Age-related changes in the impact of valence on self-referential processing in female adolescents and young adults

Adolescence is a period of self-concept development. In the current study, females aged 11–30 years (N = 210) completed two self-referential tasks. In a memory task, participants judged the descriptiveness of words for themselves or a familiar other and their recognition of these words was subsequently measured. In an associative-matching task, participants associated neutral shapes to either themselves or a familiar other and the accuracy of their matching judgements was measured. In the evaluative memory task, participants were more likely to remember self-judged than other-judged words and there was an age-related decrease in the size of this self-reference effect. Negative self-judgements showed a quadratic association with age, peaking around age 19. Participants were more likely to remember positive than negative words and there was an age-related increase in the magnitude of this positivity bias. In the neutral shapes task, there were no age-related changes in the self-reference effect. Overall, adolescent girls showed enhanced processing of self-relevant stimuli when it could be used to inform their self-concept and especially when it was negative.

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Negative self-judgements showed a quadratic association with age, peaking around age 19.

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Participants correctly recognized more self-judged than other-judged words and more positive than negative words.

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The magnitude of the self-reference effect, remembering more self- than other-judged words, showed an age-related decrease.

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The magnitude of the positivity bias, remembering more positive than negative words, showed an age-related increase.

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When stimuli were neutral shapes rather than evaluative words, there was no age-related change in the self-reference effect.

Desirability Associated with the Expression of Self-Consciousness in a French Population

The most frequently used scale for measuring self-consciousness is Fenigstein et al.’s Self-Consciousness Questionnaire (SCQ; 1975) , which measures dispositional self-consciousness along three dimensions: private self-consciousness, public self-consciousness, and social anxiety. This study is a replication of a previous study ( Davies, 1985 ), which investigated the dimensions of private and public self-consciousness. In particular, we were interested in the effects of impression-management response biases associated with the SCQ. Our participants, who were students in technical training or nursing school, completed the SCQ after having received instructions to give a good impression of themselves, a bad impression, or to respond honestly. The results highlight the desirability associated with the expression of various dimensions of self-consciousness.

Assessing metacognitive skills in waking and sleep: a psychometric analysis of the Metacognitive, Affective, Cognitive Experience (MACE) questionnaire

The Metacognitive, Affective, Cognitive Experience (MACE) questionnaire was designed to assess metacognition across sleep and waking (Kahan & LaBerge, 1996). The present research evaluates the psychometric properties of the MACE. Data from two recent studies (N=185) were used to assess the inter-item consistency, test-retest reliability, and factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity of the MACE. Results show that the MACE is a reliable measure with good construct validity. Exploratory factor analyses revealed one self-regulation and two monitoring factors. One monitoring factor emphasized monitoring internal conditions; the other emphasized monitoring external conditions. This factor structure is consistent with the Metacognitive Model (Nelson & Narens, 1990). Tests of convergent and discriminant validity suggest that the MACE is assessing metacognition and is appropriately related to similar constructs such as mindfulness and self-consciousness. The implication of these findings as well as suggestions for research and clinical applications of the MACE are discussed.

Self-consciousness and death cognitions from a terror management perspective

Two studies explored the connection between self-consciousness and death cognitions. In Study 1 (n = 56), a positive association was found between accessibility of death-related thoughts and the ruminative dimension of self-consciousness. In Study 2 (n = 212), a mortality salience induction led to higher validation of cultural worldviews (a more severe perception of social transgressions) than a control group, but only among individuals with lower self-consciousness, whereas participants characterized by higher self-consciousness did not make increased use of this cultural anxiety buffer. Rather, their naturally heightened death awareness led them to react to social transgressors in a neutral condition in the way usually found only after a mortality salience induction. Gender could not alternatively account for these findings. The results are explained in terms of terror management theory. It is suggested that a high level of self-consciousness may serve as an internal death reminder, leading to greater cultural worldview validation on a regular basis.