Personality U400

1
Personality U400

• Self-Contemplation, Rumination, and Congruence

2
Introspection

• Introspect to better know oneself
• Associated with Anxiety and Depression
• Two kinds of Introspection
• Self-Contemplation
• Analyze Self past, present, future
• Easily engage and disengage process
• Produces Self-Knowledge
• Example questions I frequently think about
  what kind of person I am I usually examine my
  reasons for doing things

3
Introspection, cont.

• Two kinds of Introspection, cont.
• Rumination
• Focus on negative event, difficult problem to
  solve
• Once started, difficult to stop
• May produce anxiety depression
• Example questions I often find myself worrying
  about something I often lose sleepover my
  worries

4
Research Study on Self-Contemplation and
Rumination (Colvin Block)

• Self-Contemplation and Rumination measures
  completed at age 18 and 23
• Clinical Examiners rate personality using
  California Adult Q-sort
• Results
• Self-Contemplation and Rumination were
  uncorrelated (r.00)
• Women ruminate more than men
• No gender difference for self-contemplation

5
Personality Correlates of Self-Contemplation and
Rumination

• Self-Contemplation related to
• Dependable, Satisfied with Self, Interesting
  Person, Warm, Compassionate, Charming
• Rumination related to
• Lacking meaning in life, moody, nervous, fearful,
  anxiety that produces bodily symptoms, delays or
  avoids action

6
Congruence of Self Experience

• Maintaining Congruence is daily task
• Self and Behavior/Experience must correspond
• Incongruence
• Mismatch between self and experience
• Incongruence causes Anxiety

7
Controlling Anxiety Due to Incongruence

• Two Step Process
• Subception awareness of discrepant experience
  before it reaches consciousness
• Defense Process
• Distortion -- distort experience to be
  consistent with self
• Denial deny existence of incongruent experience
• Incongruence can result due to Good or Bad
  experiences