Stress-Buffering Effects of Self-Complexity

Reduced Affective Spillover or Self-Regulatory Processes

Bibliographic Data

ID15411468
AuthorsKlaus Rothermund (0000-0002-9350-5272, Universität Trier, corresponding author), Christian Meiniger (Universität Trier)
Year2004
Volume3
Issue3
Pages263-281
Publication date2004-06-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSelf and Identity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1529-8868 • E-ISSN: 1529-8876
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13576500444000056
OpenAlexW2017508332
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited37

Stress-buffering effects of high self-complexity can be explained by two different theoretical models. According to the affective spillover model (Linville, ), a large number of independent self-aspects prevents a generalization of affect after negative but also after positive events. According to the self-regulatory processes model, a large number of self-aspects promotes efficient self-regulation, which is restricted to negative events. Effects of negative and positive events on subsequent changes in depression were investigated in a prospective design. Having a large number of self-aspects was found to attenuate adverse effects of negative events on depression, irrespective of the distinctness of the self-aspects. No buffering effects were observed regarding the relation between positive events and depression. The self-regulatory processes model also predicts that for people with a large number of self-aspects, an increasing number of positive experiences should be generated in response to high levels of stress. This prediction was tested and confirmed in a second part of the study. Notes Other types of self-regulation typically involve goal-directed attempts to actively change or overcome a problematic situation (e.g., investing time and effort, strategic planning, acquiring competence). Although these problem-focused types of self-regulation represent important means to reach personal goals, their relation to self-complexity is less direct: Active goal pursuit and problem solving involves maintaining a focus on the problematic situation and an inhibition of distracting information that is not related to the current goal (Kuhl, ; Rothermund, ). Other self-aspects thus have only a weak influence on problem-focused processes of self-regulation. Deviations concerned (1) the selection of adjectives for the trait sort: slightly more adjectives were presented to increase the reliability and content validity of the self-complexity measure, (2) the specific time of assessment of the self-complexity measure: self-complexity was assessed after the life-event measures, a possible influence of the events on the self-complexity measures can therefore not be ruled out in the present study, which however, should not influence the estimation of interactive effects, and (3) the life-event scales: a different measure of negative events was employed in the present study, and in addition to the negative events scales, participants also completed measures of positive life-events. Fourty-seven of a total of 276 participants did not provide a complete data set because they failed to appear on at least one of the four measurement occasions. One participant produced an outlier value on the Time 1 measure of depression (a value that was more than two interquartile ranges above the third quartile of the distribution, i.e., a “far out value” according to Tukey, ). One additional participant produced outlier values on the self-complexity measures. Data from these two participants were excluded from the analyses. f 2 Deviations concerned (1) the selection of adjectives for the trait sort: slightly more adjectives were presented to increase the reliability and content validity of the self-complexity measure, (2) the specific time of assessment of the self-complexity measure: self-complexity was assessed after the life-event measures, a possible influence of the events on the self-complexity measures can therefore not be ruled out in the present study, which however, should not influence the estimation of interactive effects, and (3) the life-event scales: a different measure of negative events was employed in the present study, and in addition to the negative events scales, participants also completed measures of positive life-events. represents the ratio of variance that is explained by a predictor to the error variance and is recommended as a measure of effect strength for multiple regression analysis (Cohen, ). We compared the group that participated in both parts of the study with the group that participated only in the first part of the study on the measures that were assessed in the first part. On average, participants of the latter group formed significantly less self-aspects and reported a larger number of both negative and positive events. No significant differences emerged regarding depressive tendencies and distinctness nor did the pattern of emotional buffering effects differ between these groups (all |t| < 1.43, ns). Separate analyses that were conducted for the two groups revealed that the emotional buffering effect of NE × NSA was statistically significant in one-sided tests within each of the two groups. An anonymous reviewer suggested this analysis

Affect (linguistics · Depression (economics · Developmental psychology · Generalization · Microeconomics · Regulatory focus theory · Spillover effect · Stress (linguistics · Communication · Mathematics · Mental Health Research Topics · Psychological and Temporal Perspectives Research · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub