This study was guided by the social rank theory of depression and aimed to explore the relationship between depression, anxiety, stress and self-harm with striving to avoid inferiority, feelings of shame and styles of attachment. Participants diagnosed with depression (n = 62) completed a series of questionnaires measuring striving to avoid inferiority, fears of missing out, being overlooked and active rejection, attachment, social rank and psychopathologies. Striving to avoid inferiority was significantly linked to social rank variables and anxious attachment. Mediator analyses revealed that the relationship between striving to avoid inferiority and depression was mediated by the social rank variable of external shame, and also anxious attachment. These findings suggest that elevated competitive behaviour can have a 'dark side'. When people feel insecure in their social environments, it can focus them on a hierarchical view of themselves and others, with a fear of rejection if they feel they have become too inferior or subordinate. This may increase vulnerability to depression, anxiety and stress.

Social rank theory suggests that mood variation is linked to the security a person feels in his/her social domain and the extent to which they are sensitive to involuntary subordination (e.g. feeling defeated and feeling inferior). Previous studies looking at rank-related and competitive behaviour have often focused on striving for dominance, whereas social rank theory has focused on striving to avoid inferiority. This study set out to develop a measure of 'Striving to Avoid Inferiority' (SAIS) and assess its relationship to other rank and mood-related variables. We hypothesized two factors: one we called insecure striving, relating to fear of rejection/criticism for 'not keeping up', and the second we called secure non-striving, relating to feeling socially acceptable and valued regardless of whether one succeeds or not. This scale was given to 207 undergraduates. The SAIS had good psychometric properties, with the two factors of insecure striving and secure non-striving strongly supported by exploratory factor analysis. Both factors were significantly (though contrastingly) related to various fears of rejection, need for validation, hypercompetitive attitudes, feeling inferior to others, submissive behaviour and indicators of stress, anxiety and depression. Striving to avoid inferiority was a significant predictor of psychopathologies, especially where individuals perceived themselves to have low social rank.

Paranoid beliefs are associated with negative and malevolent views of others. This study, however, explored hostile and compassionate self-to-self relating in regard to paranoid beliefs. A total of 131 students were given a series of scales measuring paranoid ideation, forms and functions of self-criticism, self-reassurance, selfcompassion and depression. Test scores were subjected to correlation and hierarchical regression analyses to explore the relative contribution of study variables to paranoid beliefs.In this population, paranoid beliefs were associated with forms and functions of self-criticism, especially self-hating and self-persecution. Paranoid beliefs were negatively correlated with self-kindness and abilities to be self-reassuring. These variables were also associated with depression (as were paranoid beliefs). A hierarchical regression found that self-hatred remained a predictor of paranoid ideation even after controlling for depression and self-reassurance. Paranoid beliefs seem to be associated with a critical and even hating experience of self. These inner experiences of self may be profitable targets for therapeutic interventions.

This paper reports interviews conducted with twenty children and young people adopted from the care system in England, exploring their experiences and views of their life storybooks and examines the role of life storybooks as a form of narrative that contributes to identity development. Despite being a widely used intervention in direct social work practice in England and enshrined as a requirement in law for all looked after children placed for adoption there is little known about how children experience their life storybooks. The data revealed three core themes related to the child's story, identity and communicative openness.These themes provide insights from the children about the levels of honesty in the narrative conveyed, concerns about gaps in their biographies, the importance of treasured material possessions alongside their book, their adoptive identity and the importance of different levels of openness in discussions about their adoptive status. There are a number of important practice implications outlined, as well as an identified need for more research on this topic.

This research, conducted jointly between the UK children's charity Coram and the University of Bristol, aimed to address the absence in the academic literature of adopters' perspectives on their children's life story books. Forty adopters from England and Wales participated in either focus group or telephone interviews. While some of the accounts were of positive experiences, there was a broad consensus that many books were of poor quality, children had been inadequately prepared to explore their histories, adoption professionals and agencies did not seem to prioritise life story books, and that adopters felt poorly prepared in how to use and update them for the benefit of their children. Clear messages for adoption agencies can be elicited regarding the preparation and use of life story books, such as improved training for professionals, monitoring of the quality of books produced and better access to support and guidance for adopters to engage in this crucial work with their children over time.