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The question of the benefits of self-consciousness in terms of psychological health and well-being is still open for discussion. Older studies uncovered positive as well as negative correlates of self-consciousness that gave rise to the "self-absorption paradox". Newer concepts of rumination and reflection based on the motives for self-consciousness offer new ways of solving this paradox. The study explored the relationship of reflection and rumination with emotional intelligence and self-esteem. High-school students (N = 165, i.e. 65 men and 100 women) took part in the study. The average age of the participants was 17.5 years. The results show significant positive correlations between self-esteem, emotional intelligence, and reflection. The correlations between rumination, self-esteem, and emotional intelligence are significant and negative. The research thus showed that the way of thinking about oneself and the motives behind self-consciousness are important for self-esteem and emotional intelligence. Merely thinking about oneself is therefore not necessarily emotionally intelligent. In future research, however, it would probably be better to use tests instead of self-descriptive questionnaires of emotional intelligence.

Osmotic coefficients, , and apparent molar volumes, V, of aqueous solutions of isotactic, syndiotactic, and atactic poly(methacrylic acid), i-PMA, s-PMA, and a-PMA, respectively, were measured at 298 K in dependence on polymer concentration and on degree of neutralization, N, of carboxyl groups. The solutions of i-PMA have lower values than those of a-PMA and s-PMA in the whole region of N. Molecular dynamics simulation studies of the isotactic and the syndiotactic PMA 101-mer have shown that lower is a consequence of a shorter distance between charges, which leads to a greater charge density of the isotactic polymer and thus to stronger binding of counterions. The experimental data were analyzed using a cylindrical cell model. Good agreement between theory and experiment was achieved when charges on the polyion were distributed periodically along the z-axis of the polyion in accordance with the simulation results. The Ndependence of the Vdata pointed out that all PMA isomers bind an appreciable amount of water in the elementary dissociation process (electrostriction). For a- and s-PMA, the Vvalues decrease linearly with increasing N, whereas they show a marked nonlinear dependence in the case of i-PMA for N< 0.6. The latter finding was ascribed to a very high intermolecular association tendency of the isotactic polymer. This association tendency of PMA chains was confirmed by light scattering measurements. It is present in both i- and a-PMA solutions but is much more pronounced in the i-PMA case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]