Social problem-solving deficits and hopelessness, depression, and suicidal risk in college students and psychiatric inpatients.

The Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised was used to examine the relations between problem-solving abilities and hopelessness, depression, and suicidal risk in three different samples: undergraduate college students, general psychiatric inpatients, and suicidal psychiatric inpatients. A similar pattern of results was found in both college students and psychiatric patients: a negative problem orientation was most highly correlated with all three criterion variables, followed by either a positive problem orientation or an avoidance problem-solving style. Rational problem-solving skills emerged as an important predictor variable in the suicidal psychiatric sample. Support was found for a prediction model of suicidal risk that includes problem-solving deficits and hopelessness, with partial support being found for including depression in the model as well.

Relations between problem orientation and optimism, pessimism, and trait affectivity: a construct validation study.

This study investigated the construct validity of the Positive and Negative Problem Orientation scales of the Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised (SPSI-R) by examining the relations between these scales and measures of optimism, pessimism, and trait affectivity. Consistent with expectations based on social problem-solving theory, positive problem orientation was found to have a relatively large amount of variance in common with optimism and positive affectivity, and negative problem orientation was found to share a large amount of variance with pessimism and negative affectivity, but not enough to be considered redundant in either case. Positive problem orientation was found to add significant incremental validity to the prediction of adaptive problem-engagement coping even after partialing out the variance associated with optimism and positive affectivity. In addition, negative problem orientation was found to add unique variance to the prediction of psychological distress even after controlling for pessimism and negative affectivity.

Relation between social problem-solving ability and subsequent level of psychological stress in college students.

A prospective design was used to examine the relation between social problem-solving ability and later psychological stress in college students during the first semester of the academic year. A new social problem-solving inventory measured not only general ability, but also more specific components of the problem-solving process (e.g., problem orientation, problem-solving skills; D'Zurilla & Nezu, 1990). The results of a hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that general problem-solving ability was negatively related to later stress, even after prior stress level and number of life problems were controlled. More specific analyses indicated that subjects' problem orientation was a better predictor of stress than their problem-solving skills. Results are discussed in terms of the possible stress-reducing effects of perceived control and successful problem resolution.