Florin Alin Sava

Short bio

Description

Dr. Florin Alin Sava is Professor of Psychology, the coordinator of the Social Cognitions and Personality Assessment Lab, and Vice-rector for Research, Development and Innovation at West University of Timisoara. He is a member in the Executive Board of the European Association on Personality Psychology (EAPP), and a member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Personality (SSCI 2018 IF = 3.32) and of the incoming journal Personality Science. He was ranked sixth in a list of highly internationally visible active Romanian psychologists based on a Web of Science scientometric appraisal. His scientific interest mainly lays at the intersection between personality psychology, implicit cognitions, and clinical psychology.

Abstract

The dynamic between self-structures and psychopathology. A cross-lagged network model

Florin Alin SAVA¹, Andreea ISBASOIU¹, Mihai Alexandru CONSTANTIN²

1 West University of Timisoara, Romania

2Tilburg University, the Netherlands

There are hundreds of studies that linked various self-structures with depression and anxiety symptoms. Whereas self-esteem is the most studied self-structure, other self-structures were also related to psychopathology (e.g., self-acceptance, self-compassion, self-efficacy, self-discrepancy, self-clarity). In a longitudinal design (N = 504), we gathered data from four monthly waves to get clues on the direction of this relationship (e.g., the self-structures are risk factors for depression rather than depression leaves scarce to specific self-structures). Data were analyzed using a cross-lagged network model, which can reveal the longitudinal processes that occur within self-structures and between self-structures and psychopathology symptoms. The results suggest a dynamic relationship that is dependent on the stressors. When stressors are present, an increase in the magnitude of pathology predicts a subsequent decrease of personal resources (e.g., lower self-esteem, less integrated self-structures). When stressors are absent, the self-structures are more integrated, and they predict the subsequent pathology level.

Keywords: self-esteem, self-compassion, psychopathology, network analysis