The capability for suicide (CS) is the capacity to conduct lethal suicide attempts. According to the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide (IPTS), lethal suicidal behavior occurs when individuals have both suicidal desires and CS. Most of the empirical literature on CS has supported the major hypothesis that the construct moderates the relationship between suicidal desires and actual suicide attempts. However, there has been increasing evidence that contradicts the main features and roles of CS. This study was aimed to review the studies on CS and address the inconsistency between the IPTS and some of the empirical studies. To this end, studies on the conceptual features and measurement of CS were reviewed. Moreover, studies on the role of CS in the relationship between the suicidal desires and suicide attempts were examined. Finally, studies on the causes of CS were reviewed. The results showed that the moderating role of CS in the relationship between the suicidal desires and suicide attempts are strongly supported by the empirical literature. However, there were several limitations in the measures of CS. There were also concerns on the basic features of the concept and hypothesis on the relationships between painful and provocative experiences and CS. Several means to overcome the limitations of prior studies were suggested in this study.
The objective of this study was to explore how apologies can be used effectively for prevention and treatment of school-based violence among middle and high school students. More specifically, the study examined the components of apology students wanted when they are hurt seriously by their friends and how those apology components were related to healing. Criterion variables of healing were anger reduction, forgiveness and relationship restoration. The study sample consisted of 680 middle and high school students. The measures included two harm scenarios, the Anger before Apology Scale, the Apology Components Scale, the Healing Scale, and the Korean Forgiveness Scale-Short Form. Results showed that participants’ evaluation of the significant components of an apology were as follows in descending order of their significance: taking responsibility, expressing remorse and empathy, offering compensation, promising forbearance, and a request for forgiveness. Exploratory factor analyses on the Apology Components Scale(ACS) suggested that the ACS had two factors. ‘Compensation Component’(CC) included only offering compensation and ‘Components except Compensation(’CEC) included four components. Also the students wanted more CEC than CC. Finally, the apology components were significantly correlated with all of criterion variables of healing. Closer examination on the factors related to the apology components showed that CEC had significant correlations with all criterion variables. However, CC had a significant correlation only with relationship restoration.
The objective of this study was to prove the hypothesis that ego-dystonic obsession is associated with the splitting of self-structure. A survey using the Padua Inventory-Washington State University Revision (PI-WSUR) and the Revised Obsessional Intrusions Inventory (ROII) was administered to 431 university students. Based on the survey, 27 students were screened out as the autogenous obsession (AO) group, 27 as the reactive obsession group (RO), and 29 as the control group. Self-Ambivalence Measure (SAM) was used to measure self-reports of divided self-structure. The AO and RO groups showed higher ambivalence levels as compared to the control group, and no significant difference was observed between the two obsession groups. The Self-Aspect Test (SAT) was conducted to measure self-structure. The AO and RO groups showed lower degrees of harmony among self-aspects than in the control group, but there was no difference between the two obsession groups. Compartmentalization (φ) and Differential Importance (DI), couple indicators of SAT reflecting structural splitting were analyzed. The AO and RO groups had high compartmentalization with low DI (namely, negative compartmentalization). Conversely, the control group showed low compartmentalization with high DI (namely, positive integration). The study’s implications and limitations were also discussed, as well as directions for future studies.
Self-affirmation buffers distress and defensive responses in various threatening situations. The objective of this study was to examine whether or not self-affirmation would have the same effect on the relationship between trait anxiety and social performance perception in a social threatening situation. Eighty college students completed a trait anxiety scale and participated in the experiment. In the experiment, half of the participants were asked to write about self-affirmation, and the others wrote about a general value. They were then requested to make a 3 minute presentation, which was recorded. After the presentation, each participant evaluated his/her own performance and other two raters assessed it independently. The assessment included the detailed ratings of performance and the evaluation of overall impression. A negative bias score was calculated by subtracting the subjective assessment score from the objective score. Results revealed that self-affirmation have a moderating effect on the relationship between the trait anxiety and subjective evaluation, as well as the trait anxiety and evaluation bias. This therefore suggests that self-affirmation does have positive effect on social performance on subjective perception. Finally, the implications and limitations of the study and suggestion were discussed.
The purpose of this study was to determine the associations between personality traits (i.e., psychopathy and narcissism) and aggression in the context of frustraion. The frustration-provoking situations were divided into ego-threatening or achievement-failure, depending on whether or not negative evaluative self-information were involved, and the associations between psychopathy and narcissism levels and types of aggression were examined in each context. A total 192 undergraduate students completed a set of questionnaires psychopathy, narcissism and self-esteem. Subsequently, participants were randomly assigned to either plan failure or ego-threat situation, and were asked to read a scenario that described respective frustration event. Physical and verbal aggression were then measured using the Aggression Questionnaire and the Competitive Reaction Time Task. Results from hierarchical regression models revealed that, higher levels of psychopathy associated with levels of physical and verbal aggression in both plan failure and ego-threat situations. Additionally, high levels of narcissism led to high levels of verbal aggression in the ego-threat situation. Theoretical and clinical implications as well as limitations of the study were also discussed.
The Weight Concern Scale (WCS) was developed in North America to identify female students at risk of developing eating disorders. The aim of the present study was to validate the Korean version of the Weight Concern Scale in a South Korean female sample. Six hundred and fifty-six women completed the Weight Concern Scale and Body Shape Questionnaire. Based on results from exploratory factor analysis, a unidimensional structure was found to be appropriate. Confirmatory factor analysis for cross validation purposes revealed that the single factor model fit the data well. The internal consistency of the Weight Concern Scale was good, and it showed a significant correlation with the Body Shape Questionnaire, supporting convergent validity. Finally, implications and limitations of these results were discussed.
The purpose of this study was to construct a short version of the Gambling Abstinence Self-efficacy Scale (GASS-9) based on Gambling Abstinence Self-efficacy Scale (GASS) and confirm the validity of the GASS-9, which is optimal for the clinical sample in Korea. Two thousand nine hundred and forty five problem/pathological gamblers (male 96.8%) seeking treatment completed the GASS. They were randomly divided into two groups. Explanatory factor analysis was performed on the clinical data sample for group 1(1,472) to construct GASS-9, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed on clinical sample group 2(1,473), and the validity was confirmed. Based on explanatory factor analysis on the clinical data sample for group 1, GASS-9 consisting of three factors (negative emotion, financial pressure, gambling stimulus) and nine items was constructed. These three factors accounted for 75.36% of the total variance. Reliability and validity were confirmed using the clinical sample group 2. Results from the CFA suggested that three-factors consisting of nine items was appropriate in goodness of fit. GASS-9 showed good convergent validity, discriminant validity, criterion-related validity, and sensitivity to change. A cutoff-score of ≤37 for the total score of GASS-9 was found to have 58.24 sensitivity and 68.67 specificity for the problem gambling. The implications and limitations of the present study along with suggestions for future research are discussed.
The objective of this study was to determine the effects of pain threat and ego depletion on attentional bias for pain-related stimuli. This study was carried out on 85 university students in D city, Republic of Korea. The results showed that the interaction effect of ego depletion and pain threat on the first fixation latency index was significant. In the low ego depletion level, high pain-related threat group had a faster first fixation to pain-related words than neutral words, whereas the results for the low pain-related threat group were the vice versa. However, in the high ego depletion level, there was no significant effect on the pain-related threat groups for the first fixed duration. In addition, the interaction effect of group and word type on the first fixation duration index was marginally significant. In the low ego depletion level, high pain-related threat group had a longer fixation to pain-related words than neutral words, whereas the results for the low pain-related threat group were the vice versa. However, in the high ego depletion level, there was no significant effect on the pain-related threat groups for the dwell time index was not significant. This study provided empirical grounds for the effect of ego depletion on the relationship between pain threat and attention bias. And this study provides an idea for Attentional Bias Modification intervention. The results of this study can be applied for the maximum effect of Attentional Bias Modification intervention.
The aim of this study was to determine the moderation effects of emotion regulation strategies in the relationship between insomnia and aggression. The study employed a total of 387 participants. They were asked to complete the Korean version of the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI-K), the Emotion Regulation Strategy Questionnaire (ERSQ), and the hostility subscale of Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Using correlation and regression analyses, the moderation effect of emotion regulation strategies in the relationship between insomnia and aggression were tested. The result of the study showed that there was significant moderation effect of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in the relationship between insomnia and aggression. It was also observed that the relationship between insomnia and aggression was insignificant for those who employed less maladaptive emotion regulation strategies; however, for those who used maladaptive emotion regulation strategies frequently, the more severe the insomnia score, the more chance of increased aggression. Among cognitive, experiential, and behavioral emotion regulation strategies, the relationship between insomnia and aggression was moderated by maladaptive cognitive and experiential emotion regulation strategies. In conclusion, it was established that maladaptive emotion regulation strategies may be a risk factor in the relationship between insomnia and aggression. However, adaptive emotion regulation strategies may not serve as a protective factor.
This study examined whether emotion regulation and mindfulness would explain the mechanism of pet effect. Previous research revealed some inconsistencies in terms of pet effect on psychological health. Based on previous findings, the present study aimed to find a moderator that might change the relationship between pet ownership and happiness. We examined mindfulness as a moderator and support-seeking emotion regulation as a mediator. A one-time online survey was administered to 423 adults in Korea. Our results showed that support-seeking emotion regulation mediated the relationship between pet ownership and happiness. In addition, the path from support-seeking emotion regulation to happiness depended on the acceptance subtype of mindfulness. The mediating effect was stronger for individuals with a high level of acceptance than for those with a low level of acceptance. Implications and limitations of these results were discussed at the end.
This study examined the relationship between prolonged grief symptoms and problematic drinking and more specifically the mediating role of emotion dysregulation. For this study, 566 Korean adults who had lost their loved ones completed Prolonged Grief Disorder Scale(PG-13), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale(DERS), Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test(AUDIT), and Bereavement Questionnaires. The data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. A multiple group analysis was also conducted to investigate whether the mediation models differ according to the cause of death (chronic illness, traumatic bereavement). The results are as follows: prolonged grief symptoms confirmed a correlation with problematic drinking. Two study models were used. In model 1, the complete mediation model was adopted, in which prolonged grief symptoms indirectly affected problematic drinking through emotion dysregulation. While in the second model, the partial mediation model of emotion dysregulation was established in the relationship between the prolonged grief symptoms and the subordinate variables (the amount and frequency of alcohol consumption, alcohol dependence, and problems caused by alcohol). This mediating model differed with varying cause of death. Based on these results, the implications of grief counseling and psychotherapy were suggested, and suggestions for follow-up study were discussed.
The purpose of this study was to identify the dual mediating effects of psychological acceptance and traumatized self-systems in relationships between childhood interpersonal trauma and relationship addiction. The subjects for this study were 271 adults that have experienced interpersonal trauma in their childhood. The questionnaires used in this study were the Trauma Antecedents Questionnaire(TAQ), Acceptance & Action QuestionnaireⅡ(AAQ-Ⅱ), Traumatized Self-System Scale(TSSS) and Relationship Addiction Questionnaire (RAQ-30). SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 was employed in data analysis. The data analysis includes reliability, descriptive statistics, correlation, measurement model and structural model analyses. The results of this study were as follows: First, relationship addiction was positively correlated with the childhood interpersonal trauma, traumatized self-system was negatively correlated with psychological acceptance. Second, the sequential-mediating effect psychological acceptance and traumatized self-system between childhood interpersonal trauma and relationship addiction was significant. Implications and limitations of this study were discussed. Suggestions and recommendations for future study were presented.
The following study was conducted to identify the linkage of the two pathologies by observing the correlation of the high comorbid rate of depression and disordered eating behavior. The study examines whether self-silencing and emotion dysregulation mediated in a sequential manner in the relationship between depression and disordered eating behavior. For this, 266 participants, 20-30% of whom were female, completed Depression scale(CES-D), The Korean Version of Eating Attitude Test-26(KEAT-26), Silencing-The-Self-Scale(STSS), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale(K-DERS). The data collected was then analyzed using SPSS 24.0 and Process Macro 2.16. The results indicate that self-silencing and emotion dysregulation both mediated the relationship between depression and disordered eating behavior. These findings proved self-silencing and emotion dysregulation as mechanisms linking depression and disordered eating behavior. More so, it was also observed that both self-silencing and emotion dysregulation mediated sequentially. The study suggested that in the case of high level of depression, self-silencing behaviors that suppressed both the thoughts and emotions of the participants, may pose difficulty in controlling emotions and in turn lead to disordered eating behavior. The limitations and implications for future work are also discussed.
One characteristic of addiction is that individuals tend to avoid the feeling of unhappiness by escaping to addiction. Recently, the rapid development of technology has increased the problem of smart phone addiction in the society. The severity of this problem is highly mark in ages 10s and 20s, and they suffer from social and interpersonal difficulties due to smart phone addiction. Particularly high depression and decreased subjective happiness can intensify addiction symptoms. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of depression and happiness on smart phone addiction in university students. The results depicted that smart phone addiction has a positive correlation with depression, and negative correlation with happiness. In addiction, the results indicated that happiness has more influence on smart phone addiction than depression. The findings of the study suggest that interventions to increase the feeling of happiness and decrease the depression are required to prevent and recover from smart phone addiction. The study concludes with some limitations of the present study and suggestions for further research.