Age, Gender, and Socioeconomic Status Differences in Explicit and Implicit Beliefs About Effortlessly Perfect Self-Presentation

Feeling pressure to project an image of effortless perfection -- always appearing to perform with self-confidence and ease --- has been portrayed in the media as an increasingly common mental health vulnerability with potentially serious implications for college women. Despite this, almost no empirical research exists on effortlessly perfect self–presentation (EPSP) or demographic differences in it. • Some recent research suggests that perfectionism is on the rise among young people (Curran & Hill, 2017), and that it is more associated with mental health problems among students with high rather than low socioeconomic status (Lyman & Luthar, 2014). However, these studies did not focus specifically on EPSP, which differs from more typical perfectionism in that it prohibits apparent effort or anxiety while striving for perfection. Of the two published studies on EPSP, one did not examine demographic differences (Flett et al., 2016) and the other found higher endorsement of EPSP among men than among women (Travers et al., 2016). • Anonymous interviews we conducted about EPSP in 40 college students (Glazer et al., in prep) yielded very complex, self-contradictory responses suggesting that beliefs about EPSP may be characterized by stigma and ambivalence. For this reason we decided to focus the current study on indirect and implicit measures of EPSP. • In this study, participants completed three new scales about EPSP, along with the two existing measures of this phenomenon, several mental health measures, and demographics questions. They also rated the perceived social status and self-esteem of two target individuals in a within-person experimental design

Adolescent Depression Education in Public Middle and High Schools

Best Our Husky Compact Reflection for Think Creatively and Critically . Abstract This paper explores the reasons why American public schools should implement adolescent depression education into the curriculum of their middle and high schools. The research compiled seeks to explain the necessity for such education, benefits, and drawbacks of the curriculum implementation, as well as the problems that could arise when attempting this kind of change. Mental health issues have been present in adolescents for a long time and adults often still struggle to give these youths the proper resources and care. These findings fuel the discussion of whether or not public schools currently do enough to provide proper services to their students. The research also aids in discussing how they can continue putting the needs of students first and what that might look like in the future

Old Money, the Nouveaux Riches and Brunhilde's Marriage Strategy

A woman assessing the wealth of a potential husband may observe some, but not all, of his wealth. She may screen, leading to status consumption and wasteful gift giving. The screening activity is costly not only for the potential husband, but also for the woman, as it reduces the wealth of the man she may marry. A sound observable financial background ('old money') benefits the candidate but also the woman, and reduces wasteful status consumption spending. Also, aging and attractiveness of the woman affect the equilibrium conspicuous spending pattern

Incentives and Workers' Motivation in the Public Sector

Civil servants have a bad reputation of being lazy. However, citizens' personal experiences with civil servants appear to be significantly better. We develop a model of an economy in which workers differ in laziness and in public service motivation, and characterise optimal incentive contracts for public sector workers under different informational assumptions. When civil servants' effort is unverifiable, lazy workers find working in the public sector highly attractive and may crowd out workers with a public service motivation. When effort is verifiable, the government optimally attracts motivated workers as well as the economy's laziest workers by offering separating contracts, which are both distorted. Even though contract distortions reduce aggregate welfare, a majority of society may be better off as public goods come at a lower cost

Effects of Affirming Values on Self-Compassion and Mental Health Treatment Stigma.

Stigma surrounding mental disorders deters many people from treatment, and prior studies have shown that internalization of stigma is inversely correlated with self-compassion. We examined the effect of a values-affirmation task shown to increase state self-compassion on attitudes about mental disorders and their treatment. Participants completed measures of their mental health attitudes and experiences prior to a values-affirming writing task or control writing task, and afterward completed measures of state self-compassion, attitudes about mental disorders, and treatment. Participants in the values-affirming condition showed significantly higher state self-compassion and lower levels of desired social distance and internalized stigma toward people with mental disorders, relative to the control condition. Significant interactions also showed that affirmation of values was effective in decreasing internalized treatment stigma and increasing willingness to seek help among those high in perceived public stigma and among those with positive attitudes about treatment. These findings suggest that interventions that focus on affirming values increase self-compassion, reduce stigma surrounding mental disorders, and also reduce stigma about mental health treatment among individuals for whom perceived public stigma is a treatment barrier. Our study extends previous research showing that affirming values increase self-compassionate and pro-social responses, to show that it can help reduce stigmatizing views of mental disorders and their treatment, in both the self and others