بررسي تاثير خودآگاهي براختلالات روابط بين فردي دانشجويان‌

A Study of the Effect of Self - Consciousness on Interpersonal Problems among University Students

Introduction Cognitive psychologists believe that adaptation to the environmcntal necessities is the function of intelligent structure and is the cause of survival of the organism (Glaxerfeld, lY4(\). Self-consciousuess as one of the most important requirements of adaptation is thc product of cognitive development as well as its intertwining components such as affections and emotions. Self-consciousness is affected by and developed through social interactions and interpersonal relationships during the life-span of the person (Harter, 14Y4). Realo and Allik (1498) showed that self-consciousness IS a mulLidimentional construct. TIley found that self-consciousness has three main dimensions including private self-consciousness, public selfconsciousness, and social anxiety which have influences on the mental health of indi viduals. Some researchers in the field of mental health revealed that interpersonal problems such as interpersonal sensitivity, ambivalence, aggression need for social approval and lack of sociability are significant predictors of personality disorders (Horowitz, ct al., 1988). Since there is not any published research regarding the issues of selfconsciousness and relationship with others with Iranian samples, the present study was planned to investigate the relationships among the dimensions of self-consciousness and interpersonal problems of the universuy students. 25 Research Questions The following four questions were organized according to the mam variables as well as demographic factors: I. Which of the 5-dimensions of the interpersonal problems are predicted by the private self-consciousness? 2. Which of the 5-dilllensions of the interpersonal problems are predicted by the public self-consciousness? 3. Which of the 5-dilllensions of the interpersonal problems are predicted by the social anxietyʹ) 4. Do demographic factors including gender aud agc predict interpersonal problems? Methods Participants: Three hundred and thirty four undergraduate students (197 females and 137 males) from Shiraz University participated iii this study. These students were selected by the cluster sampling method. The average age and the standard deviation of the subjects were 20 and 2 years respectively. Instruments: The Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS) (Realo and Allik, 1998) and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (HP) (Horowitz, et al.. 1988) were used as measuring instruments. The construct validity of each of the instruments were investigated by the inter-correlation-, among subscales. The patterns of these inter-correlations confirmed the validity of the instruments. Alpha Cronbach coefficients of the three -ubscalcs of SCS (pri vatc self-consciousness, public self-consciousness, and social anx iery) and the five subscales of lIP (interpersonal sensitivity, ambivalcncy, aggression. need for social approval, and lack of sociabiluy ) varied from .57 to .g4 which indicated a sufficient reliability across subscales. Results Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that interpersonal sensitivity, interpersonal ambivalency, aggression, need for social approval and lack of sociability were strongly and positively predicted by social anxiety. Results also showed that public self-consciousness is a positive predictor of interpersonal sensitivity and social approval. In addition. the 26 findings illustrated that therc is no significant relationship hetwccn demographic factors and interpersonal problems. except between gender and aggression. Discussion and conclusion In general. the present stndy showed that self-consciousness IS a multidimensional construct which has a complex relationship with interpersonal problems. Social anxiety as one of these dimensions IS a positive predictor of interpersonal problems. Public self-consciousness predicted interpersonal sensitivity. In addition. private self-consciousness did not predict any of the interpersonal problems. These findings suggest that involving the students with social interactions and cooperative experiences may reduce their social anxiety. These results were in concordance with the findings of Reulo and Allik (1998). Regarding public self-consciousness, results indicated that those students who were more conscious. were also more sensitive to interpersonal relationship and very conservative in their relationships. In contrast to the expectations. the data showed that increasing the level of self-consciousness does not necessary create a better relationship with others.