Narcissism and coach interpersonal style: A self-determination theory perspective.

Athletes' sport experiences are often influenced by the interpersonal styles of communication used by their coaches. Research on personality antecedents of such styles is scarce. We examined the link between a well-researched personality trait, namely narcissism, and two types of coaching interpersonal style, namely autonomy-supportive and controlling styles. We also tested the mediating roles of dominance and empathic concern in explaining the relations between narcissism and the two coaching interpersonal styles. United Kingdom-based coaches (N = 211) from various sports completed a multi-section questionnaire assessing the study variables. Regression analyses revealed a positive direct relation between narcissism and controlling coach behaviors. Furthermore, empathy (but not dominance) mediated the positive and negative indirect effects of narcissism on controlling and autonomy-supported interpersonal styles, respectively. We discuss these findings in terms of their implications for coaching and the quality of athletes' sport experiences.

When do individuals help close others improve? The role of information diagnosticity.

On the basis of the self-evaluation maintenance model (SEM; Tesser, 1988), it was hypothesized that individuals give less improving information to relationally close (rather than distant) others, out of concern for being outperformed by close others in the future. Further, this effect only occurs if diagnostic and valid criteria for success are present. Three studies confirmed the hypotheses. In Studies 1 and 2, participants gave less improving information to familiar than to unfamiliar others in a domain (academics) in which diagnostic assessment criteria (grades) were available. This pattern was not found in a domain (social life) without diagnostic criteria. These results were replicated in Study 3, in which relative performance and diagnosticity of assessment criteria were manipulated and amount of improving information given to friends and strangers was measured. Diagnosticity of comparison information is an important addition to the SEM model.

Memory for in-group and out-group information in a minimal group context: the self as an informational base.

The authors argue that persons derive in-group expectancies from self-knowledge. This implies that perceivers process information about novel in-groups on the basis of the self-congruency of this information and not simply its valence. In Experiment 1, participants recalled more negative self-discrepant behaviors about an in-group than about an out-group. Experiment 2 replicated this effect under low cognitive load but not under high load. Experiment 3 replicated the effect using an idiographic procedure. These findings suggest that perceivers engage in elaborative inconsistency processing when they encounter negative self-discrepant information about an in-group but not when they encounter negative self-congruent information. Participants were also more likely to attribute self-congruent information to the in-group than to the out-group, regardless of information valence. Implications for models of social memory and self-categorization theory are discussed.

Women's experience following a cardiac event: the role of the self in healing.

This study explored the role of the self in the experiences of women living with cardiovascular disease. The study, which used a naturalistic design, involved interviewing 13 women with a diagnosis of coronary heart disease (CHD) and analyzing their reports through constant comparative analysis. For women, living with CHD was characterized by changing images of the self. Women reported engaging in processes involving seeking meaning, creating mastery, and accepting the self. These processes were marked by the overarching theme of connectedness with significant others. The study findings enhance understanding of the role of the self in recovery for women with diagnosed CHD.

Among friends? An examination of friendship and the self-serving bias.

Do friends bound each other's self-enhancement tendencies? Do friends display the self-serving bias (SSB; i.e. taking individual credit for success but blaming a partner for failure)? Dyads consisting of either friends or strangers engaged in an interdependent-outcomes creativity test, received bogus success or failure feedback at the dyadic level, and made responsibility attributions for the joint test performance. Strangers displayed the SSB. Friends, in contrast, refrained from the SSB: they shared responsibility for both successful and unsuccessful test outcomes. Friendship does place boundaries on self-enhancement.

Free-response self-discrepancies across, among, and within FFM personality dimensions.

An approach for personality-based self-discrepancy (PBSD) measurement is proposed, whereby self-beliefs and incongruities among their contents are assessed with respect to five-factor model (FFM) semantic dimensions. Selves Questionnaire attributes from 191 college students were coded against L. R. Goldberg's (1990) FFM factor analysis to construct personality scores for actual, ideal, and ought self domains, as well as several PBSD indices. Multivariate analyses were conducted to test self-discrepancy and personality-structure hypotheses, and to demonstrate this strategy's operational flexibility. Profile analyses indicated that empirical self-discrepancies depend upon whether and how personality structure is incorporated. Methodological alterations influenced self-discrepancy findings negligibly. Initial evidence for PBSD construct validity and predictive specificity is presented, and the approach's implications, advantages, and extensions are discussed.

On the self-protective nature of inconsistency-negativity management: using the person memory paradigm to examine self-referent memory.

How do individuals remember feedback that is inconsistent or negative? According to the inconsistency-negativity resolution model, individuals are motivated to reduce uncertainty and resolve inconsistency even when threat to self is potential. They more deeply process and better remember negative self- than other-referent information. According to the inconsistency-negativity neglect model, individuals are motivated to protect the self against threat. They engage in more shallow processing and remember less negative self- than other-referent information. Participants read and recalled either self- or other-referent mixed-valence information. The neglect model was supported in personality and minimal feedback settings. A chronometric exploration of processing mechanisms and the ruling out of a retrieval interference account clarified aspects of the model. Individuals are hypersensitive to threat potential: They will protect the self against even hypothetical threat.

In search of self-definition: motivational primacy of the individual self, motivational primacy of the collective self, or contextual primacy?

Four investigations examined the dynamics between the individual self (self-representation independent of group membership) and the collective self (self-representation derived from group membership). Relative to participants whose collective self was threatened, participants whose individual self was threatened (a) considered the threat more severe, (b) experienced a more negative mood, (c) reported more anger, and (d) derogated to a greater extent the source of threat. In addition, a self-description task indicated that participants generate more aspects of their individual than collective self. These effects occurred even when confounding variables (i.e., accessibility of the selves, group identification, individualism and collectivism, importance of threat domain) were controlled. The individual self is motivationally primary.

Central and peripheral self-conceptions are differentially influenced by mood: tests of the differential sensitivity hypothesis.

This article proposes a differential sensitivity hypothesis, according to which central (i.e., relatively high in personal descriptiveness and importance) and peripheral (i.e., relatively low in personal descriptiveness and importance) self-conceptions are differentially influenced by mood: Peripheral self-conceptions are subject to a mood-congruency bias, whereas central self-conceptions are unaffected by mood. In 4 experiments, participants were first placed into a sad, neutral, or happy mood state through a guided imagery task and later completed behavior self-descriptiveness ratings, trait self-descriptiveness ratings, and trait self-descriptiveness judgmental latencies. Strong support for the differential sensitivity hypothesis was obtained. Peripheral self-conceptions were influenced by mood because they were less elaborated and consolidated and were held with lower certainty, thus increasing the likelihood for the occurrence of constructive, affect-infusing processes (J.P. Forgas, 1995a).

Behavioral and characterological attributional styles as predictors of depression and loneliness: review, refinement, and test.

The literature on self-blame and depression reveals two interrelated problems. First, although R. Janoff-Bulman's (1979) conceptualizations of self-blame are clear, empirical operationalization is difficult and has resulted in approaches that do not capture the richness of the constructs. Second, past research has produced inconsistent findings. A comprehensive literature review revealed that the inconsistencies are related to the method of assessing attributions. A correlational study designed to more accurately represent the self-blame conceptualization revealed that both behavioral and characterological self-blame contribute uniquely to depression and loneliness. Supplementary results regarding circumstantial attributions and regarding attributional styles for success were presented. Empirical issues regarding possible methodological refinements and effect size, as well as the value of categorical approaches to the study of attributional style were discussed.