Recent studies attest that depression may be an important psychological factor in a variety of physical health, including cancer. Further, there is a growing body of research showing that only trait depression may be an important factor in cancer; unfortunately, previous scales have not distinguished state depression from trait depression. Thus, in the present study, a series of attempts were made to adapt the State-Trait Depression Inventory developed by Spielberger (1995), which distinguishes state depression from trait depression. In order to accomplish this purpose, two independent studies were conducted. Participants were 204 high school students and 224 college students (Study 1), and 342 college students and 101 adults, representing major areas in Korea (Study 2). Selection of items was primarily based on internal consistencies and factor analyses, resulting in 30 out of 50 items in Study 1, and 20 out of 30 items in Study 2. In addition, test-retest reliabilities, and concurrent validity with the Korean adaptation of the CES-D for the final 20 items of the STDI-K were examined. The findings suggest that the Korean adaptation of the STDI is a reliable and valid inventory.
This study investigated the Type A Behavior (TAB) and anger in cardiovascular patients who had suffered a stroke. The participants were 42 stroke patients who were compared with 36 low back pain patients. TAB and the experience, expression, and control of anger were assessed by the Korean adaptation/translation of the Eysenck and Fulker (1983) TAB scale and Spielberger's (988) State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory. Stroke patients had significantly higher scores than low back pain patients on the TAB Tenseness subscale and the ST AX! Trait Anger Scale. However, logistic regression analysis revealed that trait anger, but not TAB, was an important predictor of stroke. When stroke patients were divided into cerebral infarction vs. hemorrhage groups, the cerebral infarction group had higher STAX! Trait anger, Anger-In, Anger-Out, Anger-Control, and higher TAB Tenseness and Ambition scores than the hemorrhage group. These findings suggested that anger but not TAB was an important psychological factor that contributed to stroke. Differences in TAB tenseness and ambition and the experience and expression of anger were also important determinants of the particular type of stroke that was experienced.
The present study explored the role of marital relationships in the relations between anger expression styles and coronary heart disease (CHD). To begin with. the study examined unhealthy couple types among four possible combinations: Anger- In patients/Anger-In spouses; Anger-In patients/Anger-Out spouses; Anger-Out patients/Anger-Out spouses. and Anger-Out patients/Anger-In spouses. When 133 CHD patients and 133 their spouses were examined, utilizing the Korean adaptation of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI-K. Chon. Hahn. & Lee. 1998). mismatched couples revealed higher morbidity rates. The findings also revealed that, the frequency of smoking and the frequency of alcohol consumption. but not marital dissatisfaction, were found to be significant mediators of the presence of CHD. Thus, the present findings were in favor of a health behavior model, and against a psychosocial vulnerability model (Smith. 1992). When an attempt was made to explore patterns of anger expression styles throughout married life, it was shown that the style of anger expression seemed stable from the early days of the marriage. Finally, the findings are discussed from a cross-cultural perspective, and some implications for future studies are suggested.
This study was to investigate the correlations among Cheong, Chemyon-sensitivity, and stress in Korean culture. In path analysis, the first observed variable named 'Human tenderness and weakness in interpersonal relationships' and the second variable referred to as 'Having much Cheong' of Cheong have an influence on psychological and physical stress. This result revealed that the more one is tender and weak in interpersonal relationships, having much Cheong, the more likely it is that one will be sensitive to psychological and physical stress. Additionally, the more sensitive one is maintaining to social face (i.e., other-shamed Chemyon and self-shamed Chemyon), the more likely it is that one will be sensitive to psychological stress. In addition, self-shamed Chemyon-sensitivity also has an influence on physical stress.
By using the indigenous psychologies approach, this study examines the stress experience of Korean students and adults during an economic crisis in Korea (i.e., 1998, the period in which Korea received economic assistance from the International Monetary Fund). This study also compares the results of a previous study conducted in 1997 by the present authors before the onset of the economic crisis. By using the same questionnaire as in 1997, participants were asked to write, in an open-ended response format, (1) what they consider to be the most stressful, (2) their cognitive and emotional reactions, (3) from whom they received social support, (4) the type of social support received, (5) the type of coping strategy used, and (6) the effectiveness of their coping strategy. The questionnaire was distributed to a total of 878 students and adults: a total of 202 high school students, 134 university students, 273 housewives, and 269 salaried employees. As expected, economic difficulties were listed as the most stressful producing, followed by future uncertainty, job conditions, and family life. In terms of coping strategies, participants were most likely to use self-regulation, saving money, active coping strategies, and avoidance. Around half of the participants reported that they did not receive any social support. Within the sample that received social support, they were most likely to receive support from friends, followed by family members, and colleagues. In terms of type of social support, emotional support was mentioned most frequently. The present results, when compared to the 1997 results, indicate that although the nature of the stressful life-events has changed, the coping strategy and the type of social support received have not changed significantly.
This study was to explore the relations between life stress and body perception (private/public body perception, and body competence), and the mediating effects of problem-focused and/or emotion-focused coping on body perception. The measures utilized in this study were the stress (Choi, 1986) and coping (Kim, 1987) scales for Korean college students, and The Body Consciousness Questionnaire (Miller et al., 1981). Based on their scores on both the stress and coping scales, 193 male and female students were divided into 4 groups: high on stress and problem-focused coping (N=29), high on stress and emotion-focused coping (N=21), low on stress and problem-focused coping (N=25) , and low on stress and emotion-focused coping (N=25). The data were analyzed by the SPSS/PC+ Package. The employed statistical methods were simple correlation analysis, 2 × 2 ANOVA, and stepwise regression analysis. Results were as follows: First, there was a positive relationship between stress and private/public body perceptions, and a negative relationship between stress and body competence. The fact that stress and private/public body perception correlated positively indicates that subjects with a high stress score attend to both their, internal bodily sensations and external body, appearances. Second, both problem and emotion-focused coping were correlated positively - not negatively - with public body perception, and there was no significant negative correlation between coping and private body perception. This result suggests that a self-regulatory function of coping to reduce one's hyper-arousal was not confirmed. Third, a general interactive effect of stress and coping on body perception was not confirmed; however through stepwise regression analysis, the interaction of specific stress and coping improved with just a little more variance to explain the scores of public body perception and body competence. Fourth, it was clear that the effect of stress on private body perception, and the effect of coping on body competence respectively, were significant. Consequently, the mediating effect of coping on the relations between stress and body perception was not confirmed, but only a local interaction of two variables was observed in this study. Collectively, these results indicate that the subjects of this study were not so highly stressed as to need the mediating function of coping.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of moderators on the stress of job loss and mental health. Participants were 357 subjects from a list of unemployed persons supplied by a local (Suwon City area) labor agency. Their psycho-social characteristics, demographic variables, and levels of mental health were measured by means of a set of questionnaires. Psycho-social characteristics included optimism, social support, and self-esteem. Sex, age, education, number of family members, marrage status, religion, and previous jobs were utilized as demographic measures. To measure mental health, SCL-90-R was adopted. Results show that 1) demographic characteristics do not moderate the effects of job loss stress on mental health; 2) psycho-social variables, especially optimism and self-esteem, are powerful moderators on job loss stress and mental health; and 3) social support. which has generally been treated as a representative moderator in stress research, does not function at all as a moderator,. The implications of these findings are discussed.
This study was intended to investigate the types of job stressors and their relationship to the mental health of high school teachers. Thirty high school teachers were asked to describe job stressors using an open-ended questionnaire format. Based on 220 responses obtained, 45 items to measure job stressors were developed. The Questionnaire was distributed to 292 high school teachers. Results of factor analysis of the job stressor scale showed that seven factors were meaningful. These factors were: irrational administration, disrespectful attitude and behavior, shamefulness of the teaching profession, curriculum-related problems, overloaded work, difficulties of student guidance. and interference of students' parents. Among the seven factors, the interference of students' parents ranked the highest. Results of factor analyses of the burnout scale identified three factors consistent with the study of Maslach and Jackson (1981). Results of multiple regression analyses showed that, generally, irrational administration had the highest effect on mental health. Finally, the implications of the results and the limitations were discussed.
The present study was designed to test a number of hypotheses derived from personal construct theory and pain theories by means of the Rep Grid technique with chronic and acute low back pain patients. The subjects were 22 low back pain patients. The instruments were the 12 constructs × 12 elements Rep Grid, a Low Back Pain Questionnaire, the SF McGill Pain Questionnaire, and the BDI. The data were analysed by the INGRID 99 program. The results were as follows: (1) For chronic low back pain patients, self now offered more implications than self without pain and ideal self. (2) Chronic lower back pain patients have difficulty in expressing emotions. Anger, depression and sensitivity toward others are less available to them. suggesting a low level of awareness. (3) For chronic low back pain patients, pain was not superordinate, but they accepted self now with pain. Finally, the results were discussed with reference to the literature and suggestions are made for future research.
In order to examine the effects of a cognitive-behavioral program and a meditation program on early adolescent binge eating, body dissatisfaction, and weight reduction, 16 middle school girls, belonging to a high risk group, were trained in a CBT or CBTMn (CBT+Meditation) training program. Both the CBT and CBTM groups were lower in bulimic symptoms, binge eating and BMI than the waiting-list control group after 6-weeks training. The CBTM group was lower in body dissatisfaction and BMI than the CBT group at the 2-month follow-up. Results were discussed in terms of the results of past studies and future research considerations.
This study was intended to investigate the validity of the model of how psycho-social factors influence adolescent girls' binge eating. Social pressures to be thinner influence much more those adolescent girls with low self-esteem. They are more predisposed to internalize this social pressure as their inner standard, which. will cause them to develop inflexible dieting attitudes and behaviors. Finally. strict dieting attitudes and behaviors will result in binge eating. Data obtained from 360 middle school girls fully support this model. The general goodness of fit index of this model was high (GFI 0.95; AGFI 0.93) and all causal paths were statistically significant (p < .01) in the assumed direction. The implications of these results were discussed in relation to intervention strategies for the prevention and treatment of binge eating and body dissatisfaction of young adolescent girls.