Predicting emotional distress from self-control, ego-resiliency, and self-concept clarity in conjunction with life events.

摘要

The following research study focused on determining what factors serve to explain emotional distress in a normal population. Three dimensions of personality involving the self were evaluated: self-control, ego-resiliency, and self-concept clarity. Emotional distress was evaluated by the assessment of symptomatology of depression and anxiety and components of self-esteem. Personality factors derived from self-report measures of self-control, ego-resiliency, and self-concept clarity in conjunction with life events, particularly events that had a negative personal impact, were found to predict different aspects of emotional distress. Over time, prediction of depression, anxiety, and self-esteem continually improved when earlier levels of emotional distress were modeled with personality characteristics and life events. Interactions between increase in negative life events and low self-concept clarity and between increase in negative life events and poor ego-resiliency were found to account for increase in level of somatic-vegetative depression to a significant degree above the main effect for change in negative life events. Post-hoc testing also revealed that longitudinal instability (involving both increases and decreases) in aspects of depression and self-esteem was predictable from self-concept clarity.