bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cue Utilization in the Self-Attribution of Emotions and Attitudes
Authors: Comer Ronald , Rhodewalt Frederick
Published: March 2007

Research indicates that style of cue utilization is an important factor in self-attribution processes. The present report examined the effects of cue utilization style upon the use of self-produced emotional cues in an induced-compliance attitude change paradigm. It was found that only individuals who utilize internal cues were influenced by the emotion manipulation and showed subsequent differences in attitude change.
Behavioral Discrimination Against Women
Authors: Sanders Glenn S. , Schmidt Thomas
Published: March 2007

Male and female college students performed a card-sorting task on which a quota had been set by a male or female engineering student. Fewer cards (p<.02) were sorted for the female than for the male quota-setter, with males evidencing somewhat more discrimination than females.
Models of Man
Authors: Rogers T. B.
Published: March 2007

The prevailing model of man as seen in the cognitive literature is examined with respect to its suitability as a formulation for social psychology. The focus of these models on cold cognitions is noted and several examples of the problems this raises are discussed. Two revisions to a cognitive model are introduced and evaluated. The possibility, of affect being a separate processing system, with different structure and dynamics from the cognitive system is discussed. The need for research and theory to address how these two systems might interact is noted.
Evaluating Reciprocal and Nonreciprocal Prosocial Behavior
Authors: Suls Jerry , Witenberg Susan , Gutkin Daniel
Published: March 2007

The present study was an investigation of grade school children and college age adults' judgments of story figures. The characters reacted positively or negatively to someone who either did or did not help them. Children made significant distinctions between the four situations and rated them in the following order (most to least favorable): positive reciprocity, altruism, negative reciprocity, ingratitude. In contrast to the children, adults valued altruism more than positive reciprocity. The results are discussed in terms of Piaget's and Kohlberg's theories of moral development and in terms of early child-rearing practices.
Testing Hypotheses about Other People
Authors: Snyder Mark , White Phyllis
Published: March 2007

Male and female participants formulated question-asking strategies to test hypotheses about the personalities of other people. For some participants, the hypothesis-testing task was defined explicitly as a falsification task (i.e., assessing the extent to which the hypothesis was not true). For other participants, the hypothesis-testing task was defined explicitly as a verification task (i.e., assessing the extent to which the hypothesis was true). Participants performed the falsification task by preferentially soliciting behavioral evidence that would disconfirm the hypothesis. Participants performed the verification task by preferentially soliciting behavioral evidence that would confirm the hypothesis. Implications for understanding hypothesis-testing processes are discussed.
Luck versus Effort Attributions
Authors: Wittig Michele Andrisin , Marks Gary , Jones Gary Alan
Published: March 2007

This study examined whether reward allocations differ as a function of an external-unstable versus an internal-unstable performance attribution. Male and female college students' attribution for success at a sex-neutral task was set at either luck or effort by individual random assignment. Subjects participated in same-sex dyads but were kept isolated from one another. All received feedback that they had contributed higher input than their partner and had been randomly chosen to apportion a group reward. The primary dependent variable was amount of reward allocated to self As predicted, a significant main effect for attribution type was found whereby subjects allocated more to themselves when they attributed their success to effort than to luck. Under these conditions, the allocation behavior of males and females was similar. The frequency with which allocators employed each of three allocation norms (equity, compromise, equality) also differed as a function of attribution type.
Influence Mode and Competence
Authors: Price Kenneth H. , Garland Howard
Published: March 2007

In laboratory groups, leader competence, group member competence, and mode of leader influence were manipulated. Compliance with a keader's task suggestions was a function of the group member's own perceived competence and mode of leader influence. When group members were of moderate competence, leader's ideas to facilitate performance presented in the form of a demand were more successful in gaining compliance than those ideas presented with no direct influence attempt.
Persistence of Impressions of Personal Persuasiveness
Authors: Jennings Dennis L. , Lepper Mark R. , Ross Lee
Published: March 2007

Subjects' initial assessments of their persuasive ability persisted after the evidential value of apparent success or failure upon which these impressions were based was fully discredited. These results replicate previous impression-perseverance findings obtained by Ross, Lepper, and Hubbard (1975)and demonstrate that such findings generalize to tasks and discrediting procedures more typical of everyday life. Contrary to prediction, explicitly explaining initial performance did not enhance postdiscrediting perseverance; this finding is discussed in terms of the conditions that prompt spontaneous social explanations.
Personal Documents as Data in Conceptualizing Adult Personality Development
Authors: Wrightsman Lawrence S.
Published: March 2007

Personal documents (i.e., diaries, collections of letters, autobiographies, memoirs) can provide the raw data that improve our knowledge base as we assess theories of personality development during adulthood. Yet, until recently, the "state of the art" regarding utilization of personal documents in psychological research had not advanced beyond that described in Gordon Allport's monograph almost 40 years ago. The present article reviews three differing conceptions of adult personality development—the lifescript approach of Eric Berne, stage theory conceptions of Erik Erikson and Daniel Levinson, and a dialectic approach-and describes the knowledge base on which each theory has been evaluated. Various applications of data from personal documents are proposed or described. These include a dialectical reanalysis of Letters from Jenny, the use of presidents' autobiographies to look at expressed values, and the use of personal documents to generate social schemes.
Causal Attribution to Salient Stimuli
Authors: McArthur Leslie Zebrowitz , Ginsberg Elise
Published: March 2007

Considerable research has revealed that perceivers of a social interaction tend to attribute causality to the stimulus person who is salient. The present research tested the hypothesis that the control which salient persons exert upon perceivers' attentional focus yields the perception that these people also exert control in the social interaction in which they are engaged. To this end, subjects' visual fixation while watching a televised interaction between two actors as well as subjects' causal attributions for the actors' behavior were recorded. The duration of visual fixation upon an actor was greater when that actor was salient by virtue of a striped shirt, a leg brace, or red hair than when the actor was not salient. While the effects of salience upon the duration of visual fixation paralleled its effects upon causal attributions, the intercorrelations between visual fixation measures and causal attributions provided no support for the hypothesis that increased duration of attention to salient stimuli mediates the tendency to perceive them as causal.
Olfaction and Human Social Behavior
Authors: Baron Robert A.
Published: March 2007

A total of 94 undergraduate males participated in an experiment designed to examine the impact of a pleasant scent (perfume) on interpersonal attraction and social perception. Subjects met and interacted briefly with one of two female confederates who either wore perfume or did not, and who were dressed either neatly (in a blouse, skirt, and hose) or informally (in jeans and a sweatshirt). Results indicated that the presence of a pleasant scent increased attraction toward the confederates and produced positive shifts in perceptions of several of their traits when they were dressed informally. When the confederates dressed in a neater manner, however, opposite effects were observed. These findings were interpreted as stemming from the fact that subjects reacted more favorably to the confederates when they appeared to be intermediate rather than high or low along a dimension of informality-formality.
Gender-Role Attitudes and Participation in Competitive Activities of Varying Stereotypic Femininity
Authors: Salisbury Jan , Passer Michael W.
Published: March 2007

The relationship between women's gender-role attitudes and their participation in feminine and unfeminine achievement activities was examined in the domain of competitive sport. The gender-role attitudes of 189 adult and 184 high school female athletes sampled from seven sports were assessed by a short version of the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (Spence & Helmreich, 1978). The perceived stereotypic femininity of each sport was determined by questionnaire ratings completed by a subsample of 126 athletes. The findings from the entire sample of adult athletes supported the prediction that women who participated in traditionally unfeminine sports would have more liberal gender-role attitudes than women who competed in feminine sports. No relationship was obtained for the high school sample. Overall the findings provide little support for the notion that women participating in traditionally unfeminine sports use general sex-role attitudes to compensate for gender-inappropriate behavior.
Attributions about Self and Others in Depression
Authors: Sweeney Paul D. , Shaeffer David , Golin Sanford
Published: March 2007

The attributional reformulation of the learned helplessness model of depression (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978) holds that depression-prone individuals are characterized by a certain attributional style. Specifically, they are seen as making internal, stable, and global attributions for negative outcomes. One implication of the attributional model tested by the present study, is that depression-prone persons should not evince this attributional style for negative outcomes that occur to others. The data presented here supported this prediction. Depressed subjects made self-attributions for negative outcomes that were significantly more internal, stable, and global than those of nondepressed subjects, while no differences were observed when both groups made attributions for the negative outcomes of a target other. The implications of these results for the attributional model of depression are discussed.
Skill versus Chance Tasks
Authors: Evans Ronald G.
Published: March 2007

The value placed on success in achievement situations by internals and congruent (CE) and defensive (DE) externals was investigated in tasks defined as either skill-or chance-determined. Internals and DEs persisted longer on the skill task than CDs, while both external groups worked longer on the chance task than internals. Across task conditions, internaLs and DEs persisted longer in the skill than chance task, while CEs did not dffer. These results support the utility of the CE-DE distinction, and suggest that DEs behave similarly to internals in skill-based achievement situations, while externality for CEs is more representative of a veridical set of external control beliefs.
Inhouse Health-Care Program Evaluators
Authors: Posavac Emil J.
Published: March 2007

A survey of 58 in house program evaluators in health-care settings revealed that evaluators are largely satisfied with their work and their roles in these facilities. This finding suggests that the faculty of graduate programs can in good faith continue to encourage students to prepare to become program evaluators since program evaluation seems to be a desirable field to enter. Survey respondents suggested that research methods courses be retainede however, the type of evaluations done by the evaluators surveyed suggests that methods of large-scale data management ought to become an important part of the evaluator's training.
Expected Effect Sizes
Authors: Cooper Harris , Findley Maureen
Published: March 2007

Estimates of the average effect size of research cited in socialpsychology textbooks were obtained. The estimates were (a) interpreted in relation to the effect sizes attributed by Cohen (1977) to the behavioral sciences and (b) extrapolated to suggest effect sizes that social psychologists might expect when they do not have more specific information about particular research areas.
Loneliness and Interpersonal Judgments
Authors: Jones Warren H. , Sansone Carol , Helm Bob
Published: March 2007

This study examines ratings of self and partners by high and low tested lonely college students following brief interactions with opposite sex strangers. Results replicate and extend previous findings, indicating more negative evaluations for high as compared to low lonely subjects in self ratings, ratings expected from partners; and for men only, ratings of partners. High lonely men were rated more negatively than low lonely men but the corresponding effect for women was not observed. The data also indicate that high lonely participants were perceived by their partners as more likely to rate themselves negatively. The findings are discussed in relation to the probable consequences of perceived social skill inadequacies for the experience of loneliness.
"You Just Can't Count on Things Anymore"
Authors: Silka Linda
Published: March 2007

The present studies investigate one possible explanation as to why things are sometimes viewed as having become more variable in the present than they were in the past. It is proposed that such perceptions arise when variable information in the present is contrasted with a heterogeneity-reducing summary for the past. In order to test this hypothesis, subjects in two studies were asked to compare a collection of individual items with either the prior average alone or with the prior range and average. It was found that when comparisons were made to the prior average alone, people were much more likely to conclude that variability had increased.
Social Loafing
Authors: Zaccaro Stephen J.
Published: March 2007

The present investigation examined the hypothesis that internal group pressures to maximize productivity would moderate social loafing (the decrease of individual effort as group size increases). Subjects, working in either two-or four-person groups, were told to construct as many folded paper products as they could in a fixed time period. Task attractiveness, a determinant of productivity, was manipulated. As predicted, social loafing occurred in the low task attractiveness conditions. In high task attractiveness conditions, a social enhancement effect occurred where four-person groups outperformed two-person groups.
Categorization of the Elderly by the Elderly
Authors: Brewer Marilynn B. , Lui Layton
Published: March 2007

Selected aspects of the Brewer, Dull, and Lui (1981) study of stereotypes of the aged were replicated with elderly individuals as subjects. In terms of degree of differentiation among category members and degree of stereotyping of representative members of specific age-related subcategories, there was some support for the hypothesis that elderly subjects have a more complex representation of the category of old people than do younger subjects. However, there is some indication that this complexity effect is limited to the subcategory of elderly persons that is perceived as most similar to the self and does not extend to the superordinate category as a whole.
Are Good Teachers Perceived as High Self-Monitors?
Authors: Larkin Judith E.
Published: March 2007

Three studies provided evidence for the relationship between self-monitoring and teaching. In Study 1, students rated either their "best "or "worst "teacher on a scale measuring self-monitoring (Lennox & Wolfe, 1984). As hypothesized, good teachers were perceived as significantly higher in self-monitoring than poor teachers. In Study 2, subjects imagined tutoring an "anxious "and an "overconfident" student. High self-monitors rated themselves significantly more able than low self-monitors to change their teaching style to fit the needs of the students described. Study 3, which replicated the first study, used Snyder's (1974) Self-Monitoring Scale, but found no significant differences in overall self-monitoring score for "best" and "worst" teachers. Analyses of the three subscales, however, revealed significant differences in opposite directions. "Best " teachers were rated significantly higher in Extraversion and lower in Other-Directedness than "worst" teachers. Results were discussed in light of the controversy over the nature of the self-monitoring construct and how best to measure it.
Perceived Control and Power in Marriage
Authors: Madden Margaret E.
Published: March 2007

This study investigated the association between marital power and satisfaction. Usually power has been defined by which spouse makes the most final decisions, but these respondents were asked about both who makes decisions and who performs tasks. Because perceived control may be a link between power and satisfaction, it was hypothesized that marital satisfaction is more highly correlated with perceived control over decisions and tasks than is frequency of decision making or task performance. In all, 37 married couples completed questionnaires regarding marital satisfaction, decision making, task performance, perceived control over decisions and tasks, and power. For both sexes, only perceived control over tasks was positively correlated with satisfaction. Women indicated a negative correlation between task performance and perceived control. Thus, perceptions of control over task distribution influenced marital satisfaction rather than perceived decision control, reported decision making, or task performance.
Unconscious Processes as Explanations of Behavior in Cognitive, Personality, and Social Psychology
Authors: Lewicki Pawel , Hill Thomas
Published: March 2007

Recent research on the acquisition of cognitive dispositions indicates that the cognitive system is capable of unconsciously processing even nonsalient and "hidden" patterns of stimuli that, due to the limited controlled processing capabilities of the cognitive system, cannot be detected on the level of conscious cognition. The information about such unconsciously processed patterns of stimuli is stored in memory and it unconsciously influences subsequent cognitive processes. It is argued that to account for observable phenomena of social behavior and to explain the development of stable (personality) dispositions, research in personality and social psychology should focus on reconstructing the process of such unconscious earning and investigate the dynamics of the development of the unconscious algorithms of encoding social stimuli. Recent cognitive research on unconscious information processing is demonstrated to provide a conceptual framework for addressing issues of particular relevance to personality and social psychology.
The Experimental Study of the Psychoanalytic Unconscious
Authors: Kline Paul
Published: March 2007

Psychoanalytic descriptions of conscious and unconscious mental processes are discussed in the light of the philosophical problems in this area. A definition of the unconscious as the unverbalizable is employed that enables it to be subjected to experimental study. Three methods of studying the unconscious are described and scrutinized: percept-genetics, the drive activation method, and the G analysis of projective tests. It is concluded that psychoanalytic notions of the unconscious are open to experimental analysis.
Self-Monitoring and Beliefs about Partner Compatibility in Romantic Relationships
Authors: Glick Peter , DeMorest Judith A. , Hotze Carla A.
Published: March 2007

Self-monitoring differences in the manner in which people assess the compatibility of couples as romantic partners were explored. On the basis of previous research, we hypothesized that high, in contrast to low, self-monitoring individuals focus relatively more on the match between the levels of physical attractiveness of a couple when assessing compatibility. Low, in contrast to high, self-monitors were expected to focus relatively more on the similarity between the personality traits and interests of a couple when assessing compatibility. High -and low-self-monitoring participants were given photographs and personality information about 5 men and 5 women. Participants indicated the five couples they felt were most compatible by using the 10 targets to create five couple pairings. As predicted, high, relative to low, self-monitors created matches in which targets were more similar in ratings of physical attractiveness while low, relative to high, self-monitors created matches in which targets were more similar in personality traits and interests. Implications of these results for previous research on self-monitoring and dating relationships are discussed.
Motivational Factors Affecting Performance
Authors: Kernis Michael H. , Zuckerman Miron , McVay Elice
Published: March 2007

The research reported here was designed to examine the impact of perceived locus of causality on subsequent performance. Two studies were conducted in which subjects were led to attribute success on a two-person maze task either to their own actions (internal-locus) or to the actions of their partner (external-locus). Subsequently, they worked either on another maze or on a completely different task. Performance on these tasks served as the primary dependent measure. Level of self-awareness was manipulated by having half of the subjects work on the test task while facing a mirror. Results revealed a significant interaction involving locus of causality and test task. Relative to external-success subjects, internal-success subjects performed better when tested on the maze task, but worse when tested on a novel task. The self-awareness manipulation did not reliably affect performance. Several findings from subjects' self-reports were also of interest. Theoretical implications regarding the role of motivational factors affecting performance are discussed.
Availability and Social Projection
Authors: Mullen Brian , Driskell James E. , Smith Colleen
Published: March 2007

Two studies are reported that examined the effects of sequence of measurement and wording of the estimation question on estimates of consensus. In both studies estimates of consensus for own choice, and hence the magnitude of false consensus effects, were larger when estimates were generated before making the choice and when individuals estimated consensus for their own choices. It is suggested that sequence of measurement and the wording of the estimation question influence the cognitive availability of the choices used in social projection research. These findings confirm at the level of primary research some subtle determinants of the magnitude of social projection effects that werefirst identified using meta-analytic techniques.
Another Indirect Tactic of (Self-) Image Management
Authors: Finch John F. , Cialdini Robert B.
Published: March 2007

Indirect tactics of image management are self-presentational techniques that manage information not about oneself but about one's associations. Prior work has documented several indirect techniques, such as "basking" in the reflected glory of another's success and "blasting" the accomplishments of one's rival. The present research found evidence for another indirect image management tactic: "boosting," wherein an individual confronted with a personal connection to another, especially a negative other, elevates aspects of the other's character. In the first study, subjects who became aware that they were born on the same day and month as a maligned historical figure (Rasputin, the "Mad Monk of Russia") significantly softened their views of his negativity. This was the case even though they thought that no one else knew of the birth date connection, suggesting that the tactic was performed for reasons of private rather than public regard. A second study replicated these findings regardless of whether subjects encountered the birth date connection before or after reading about Rasputin's negative traits. The results are interpreted in terms of the balance theory concept of unit connections.
Mood and Persuasion
Authors: Bless Herbert , Bohner Gerd , Schwarz Norbert , Strack Fritz
Published: March 2007

The impact of happy and sad moods on the processing of persuasive communications is explored. In Experiment 1, sad subjects were influenced by a counter attitudinal message only if the arguments presented were strong, not if they were weak Happy subjects, however, were equally persuaded by strong and weak arguments, unless explicitly instructed to pay attention to the content of the message. Subjects' cognitive responses revealed a parallel pattern, suggesting that the findings reflect the impact of mood on cognitive elaboration of the message. In Experiment 2, working on a distractor task during message exposure eliminated the advantage of strong over weak arguments under bad-mood conditions. Good-mood subjects were not affected by a distracting task, suggesting that they did not engage in message elaboration to begin with. It is concluded that subjects in a good mood are less likely to engage in message elaboration than subjects in a bad mood.
Social Anxiety and Social Perception: Construing Others' Reactions to the Self
Authors: Pozo Christina , Carver Charles S. , Weflens A. Rodney , Scheier Michael F.
Published: March 2007

This study investigated whether socially anxious people differ from less socially anxious people in how they interpret the facial expressions of an interaction partner. Undergraduates answered a series of questions about themselves in a structured interview, replying to what they thought was the TV image of another undergraduate but was actually a videotape. The videotaped interviewer either maintained a consistently neutral facial expression or varied in expression (positive, neutral, negative) across three blocks of questions and answers. After each block, subjects rated the interviewer's approval of and interest in them. Analysis of these ratings revealed that the two social anxiety groups were equivalently responsive to changes in facial expression. Independent of this, socially anxious subjects made ratings that were consistently less favorable than the ratings made by subjects lower in social anxiety. Additional analyses tended to support the most straightforward interpretation of this finding: that persons high in social anxiety construe others' reactions to them more negatively than persons low in social anxiety.
Effects of Group Size and Task Characteristics on Group Performance: A Test of Steiner's Model
Authors: Littlepage Glenn E.
Published: March 2007

Two studies tested predictions of task-specific relationships between group size and performance based on Steiner's model. In the first study, 324 subjects were assigned to work units of 12, 5, or 10 persons. They worked on one additive and one disjunctive task. Results supported Steiner's model for the additive task but were not fully consistent with the model for the disjunctive task. A second study using 216 subjects in 2-or 0-person groups was conducted to determine whether participation patterns in large groups mediate relationships between group size and performance. When participation was required of all members, the predictions of Steiner's model were supported for both tasks.
Do Heavy-Weight Students Have more Difficulty Paying for College?
Authors: Crandall Christian S.
Published: March 2007

Twenty-five years ago, the under representation of the obese at high-prestige colleges was demonstrated. This article looks at the problem of who pays for the higher education of heavy-weight adolescents. Three studies (total N = 833) demonstrate that heavy-weight college students rely more on jobs, savings, or financial aid than do normal-weight students, who rely primarily on family support. This effect appears in two different universities and is more reliable for women than for men. The effect remains even when parents' educational level, parents' income, race, family size, and number of children attending college are factored out. Several possible explanations for this effect, including parents' attitudes toward their children, are discussed.
The Effect of Dispositional Empathy on Romantic Relationship Behaviors: Heterosocial Anxiety as a Moderating Influence
Authors: Davis Mark H. , Oathout H. Alan
Published: March 2007

Recent research has supported a model that specifies the way dispositional empathy influences everyday social behavior, the present investigation examined one possible boundary condition of the model It was posited that high levels of heterosocial anxiety constitute a self-oriented affective reaction that interferes with the operation of an other-oriented empathic response. As a result, the usual association between dispositional empathy and social behaviors should be weakened among those high in heterosocial anxiety. Data collected from 119 college students involved in monogamous romantic relationships provided partial support for this hypothesis. Evidence for the predicted moderating effect was found for positive social behaviors but not for negative behaviors. Evidence also suggested that the moderating effect was strongest for dispositional perspective taking-the most cognitive facet of empathy-and considerably weaker for the affective constructs of empathic concern and personal distress.
Expressiveness and Expressive Control
Authors: DePaulo Bella M. , Blank Amy L. , Swaim Gregory W. , Hairfield Joan G.
Published: March 2007

Dispositionally expressive and unexpressive male subjects told truths and lies under low and high scrutiny. Subjects acted expressive, inhibited, and naturally. Judges rated subjects' performances. Subjects were able to regulate their expressiveness deliberately, but they were less successful when more highly scrutinized. Dispositionally expressive subjects appeared more expressive and attractive than unexpressive subjects. Unlike unexpressive subjects, they did not appear any less attractive when trying to act inhibited than when trying to act expressive, nor did they appear any more deceptive when lying than when telling the truth. Unexpressive people, even when trying to act expressive, did not appear as expressive as expressive people when the latter were acting naturally. Similarly, expressive people, even when trying to act inhibited, did not appear as inhibited as the unexpressive people acting naturally. Differences in expressiveness were conveyed most compellingly in channels that included nonverbal cues.
Causal Explanations of Defection: A Knowledge Structure Approach
Authors: Sedikides Constantine , Anderson Craig A.
Published: March 2007

Two experiments examined the construct of causal knowledge structure (CKS) in a social setting. The content, memorial properties, and judgmental consequences of subjects' CKSs regarding the defection of either Soviet citizens to the United States or American citizens to the Soviet Union were assessed through open-ended causal accounts (Experiment 1), intrusions in free recall, unsolicited attributions, open-ended attributions, and personality ratings (Experiment 2). Subjects tended to attribute the defection of Soviets to hardships their country imposed on them and the defection of Americans to characteristics of their personality. Memory intrusions indicated that subjects tended to falsely recall "problems" that Soviets had with their country and falsely recall personality "problem's that Americans had. An asymmetry between memorial and attributional effects was observed: Although memory intrusions occurred almost exclusively when subjects recalled the information after a week rather than immediately, the CKS-based attributional pattern for Soviet versus American defectors was apparent both immediately and after a 1-week delay.
Social Comparison and the Pill: Reactions to Upward and Downward Comparison of Contraceptive Behavior
Authors: Reis Theresa J. , Gerrard Meg , Gibbons Frederick X.
Published: March 2007

It has been assumed that engaging in downward social comparison can improve subjective well-being both by ameliorating negative mood and by improving self-concept. Although a number of studies have demonstrated the effect of downward comparison on mood, there has been little empirical evidence of its effect on self-concept. The results of the current study indicate that downward comparison can increase self-esteem and does so especially for persons with relative low self-esteem. The results also suggest that upward comparison opportunities have different effects on the attitudes of high- and low-self-esteem persons.
Openness to Dyadic Ethnic Contact and Student Outcomes
Authors: Eshel Yohanan
Published: March 2007

Relations between readiness to engage in more intimate bilateral or unilateral dyadic ethnic contact and student outcomes were investigated in 28 desegregated sixth, seventh, and eighth grades in Israel. Desired level of intimacy was determined by students' ratings of their readiness to maintain more or less intimate social contact with each of their classmates. Unilateral and bilateral openness to social interaction were defined by comparing respondents' desired intimacy with target's readiness to reciprocate these expectations. As hypothesized, academic and social outcomes of higher-status Western students as well as lower-status Middle Eastern classmates were primarily related to bilateral, reciprocated contact with members of the dominant group. These outcomes were generally unrelated to unilateral, unreciprocated contact with higher-status members or to unilateral or bilateral contact with members of the lower-status group. Results are discussed by converging reference group theory and elicited reciprocal intimacy.
Trait-Behavior Relations and Dispositional Inference
Authors: Reeder Glenn D.
Published: March 2007

Perceivers hold implicit expectations about the range of behavior implied by any given trait. This article distinguishes among four types of traits: capacities, morality traits, attitudes, and frequency based traits. Each type is described as having a unique pattern of trait-behavior relations, and several of these patterns are shown to relate to dispositional inference. The place of trait behavior relations within a general model of dispositional inference is outlined. The model describes a set of antecedents for the correction stage and divides correction into several interrelated operations: retrieval of attribution-relevant information (usually situational information), a decision-making operation in which the relevance of situational factors is considered along with trait-behavior relations, and an adjustment operation.
Group Contacts and Ethnicity in the Social Identities of Mexicanos and Chicanos
Authors: Gurin Patricia , Hurtado Aida , Peng Timothy
Published: March 2007

Factor analyses of social identity labels between two subgroups of the Mexican-descent population supported the prediction that the identities of English-dominant persons born in the United States (Chicanos) would be more differentiated than those of Spanish-dominant persons born in Mexico (Mexicanos). The content of their identities also differed. As predicted, because of differences in length of residence, language facility, geographic dispersal, and likelihood of working in ethnically diverse settings, Chicanos and Mexicanos had different patterns of intra-group and intergroup contacts. Chicanos had less contact with other persons of Mexican descent and more contact with members of other ethnic groups. Predicted relationships between group contacts and social identities were better supported for Chicanos than for Mexicanos. Overall, the study supports the general framework offered in which macrosocial conditions set up particular microsocial conditions (group contacts) that, in turn, influence the formation of social identities.
Private Reactions to Public Transgressions: Predictors of Evaluative Responses to Allegations of Political Misconduct
Authors: Gonzales Marti Hope , Kovera Margaret Bull , Sullivan John L. , Chanley Virginia
Published: March 2007

Effects of blameworthiness, account type, and politician power on respondents' evaluations of political offenders were examined. Political expertise and party affiliation served as additional categorical predictors of evaluations. Participants read two scenarios describing the misadventures of fictitious politicians and their accounts and evaluated the politicians. Results revealed that political novices were more generous than experts in their evaluations. Politicians who transgressed intentionally were evaluated more negatively than politicians who trans-gressed accidentally. Respondents who shared partisanship with the politicians evaluated them more positively than respondents who did not share partisanship. Finally, results revealed interactions among politician power, account type, party, and scenario. This study points to the utility of a sociolinguistic framework for the systematic investigation of respondents' private reactions to public political transgressions.
Conflict and Withdrawal During Marital Interaction: The Roles of Hostility and Defensiveness
Authors: Newton Tamara L. , Kiecolt-Glaser Janice K. , Glaser Ronald , Malarkey Wiriam B.
Published: March 2007

The present study examined the hypothesis that hostile and defensive personality characteristics contribute to conflict and withdrawal within an important social relationship, marriage. A total of 90 newly wed couples participated in a videotaped discussion concerning areas of disagreement in their marriage. Couples' interactions were coded using the Marital Interaction Coding System (MICS), and codes were aggregated to assess conflict engagement and withdrawal. Among husbands, the combination of high levels of hostility and low levels of defensiveness was associated with a greater percentage of conflict. Among wives, this same personality pattern was associated with a greater percentage of withdrawal Both of these findings held after controlling for marital satisfaction, highlighting the importance of personality for social interactions. Moreover, the results support the tenability of Smith's psychosocial vulnerability model of personality and health, which posits that certain personality characteristics are associated with negative interpersonal consequences that may heighten vulnerability to illness.
Variations in the Circumplex Structure of Mood
Authors: Feldman Lisa A.
Published: March 2007

Typically, researchers have emphasized the similarity of the semantic and self-report mood circumplexes. The purpose of the present study was to investigate systematic differences in these structures. The semantic circumplex is defined by two dimensions: valence and level of arousal. The present study demonstrated that when making judgments of their mood, people weigh the arousal dimension less than the valence dimension, whereas in the semantic structure the two mood dimensions are weighed equally. This reduction in the size of the arousal dimension was directly associated with increases in the correlation between self-reported anxiety and depression. The results are discussed with reference to the meaning of subjective mood ratings.
Contemporary Forms of Prejudice-Related Conflict: In Search of a Nutshell
Authors: Monteith Margo J.
Published: March 2007

Racial ambivalence theory, modern racism theory, and research on prejudice-related discrepancies all suggest that many Whites have conflicting reactions to Blacks. The present research investigated whether these forms of prejudice-related conflict are distinct by determining (a) the extent of association among measures of each form of conflict and (b) the affective reactions associated with each form of conflict. Results revealed virtually no evidence of overlap among the measures of conflict, and scores on measures of each form of conflict were associated with unique patterns of affective reactions. Racial ambivalence was uniquely associated with heightened guilt and discomfort, prejudice-related discrepancies were uniquely associated with heightened guilt and reduced positive affect, and modern racism had no unique affective consequences. Theoretical and applied implications of the existence of numerous contemporary forms of prejudice-related conflict are discussed.
The Cognitive Mediation Hypothesis Revisited: An Empirical Response to Methodological and Theoretical Criticism
Authors: Romero Anna A. , Agnew Christopher R. , Insko Chester A.
Published: March 2007

The cognitive mediation hypothesis has become a well-established assumption in persuasion theory. However, several theoretical and methodological criticisms have been raised to call this assumption into question. Three experiments that address these criticisms were conducted to provide a more direct test of the cognitive mediation hypothesis. Using the forewarning effect as a testing arena, Experiment I demonstrated that interference with either motivation or ability to counterargue reduced fore-warning-induced resistance to persuasion. Experiment 2 demonstrated that exposure to counterarguments generated by others and self-generated counterarguments were functionally equivalent and redundant. Experiment 3 used a path-analytic approach to demonstrate that the persuasion differences produced by forewarning were eliminated by covarying the effect of cognitive responses generated between forewarning and message exposure. Taken together, the three experiments provide converging support for the cognitive mediation hypothesis, reconfirming the central role of cognition in the persuasion process.
Self-Perceptions of Fairness in Individual and Group Contexts
Authors: Farwell Lisa , Weiner Bernard
Published: March 2007

Six studies explored self-enhancing beliefs about own fairness relative to others. Persons reported that it is fair to base punishment on a transgressor's responsibility for his or her actions, that they base their rewards and punishments more strongly on a target's responsibility than do others, and that others, but not the self; reward and punish in-group and out-group members differently. Collectively, these results reveal that persons define their own superior fairness in terms of judicious use of responsibility information and lack of bias. In contrast, own assistance to the terminally ill was not described as more strongly based on responsibility, suggesting that definitions of fairness shift depending on context. Finally, persons consistently described themselves as relatively benevolent. Results are discussed in relation to expressions of intergroup bias and the maintenance of fairness self perceptions.
Linguistic Bases of Social Perception
Authors: Berry Diane S. , Pennebaker James W. , Mueller Jennifer S. , Hiller Wendy S.
Published: March 2007

Target persons were videotaped while engaged in an interview. A text analysis program was used to ascertain the frequency with which they employed negative emotion words, positive emotion words, words reflecting cognitive operations, self-referents, presenttense verbs, negations, and unique words in their verbalizations. Judges viewed the videotapes and evaluated the target persons on a number of social perception dimensions. The language dimensions accounted for significant and substantial proportions of the variance in impressions of the target persons beyond that explained by traditionally studied person perception variables such as physical attractiveness, nonverbal expressiveness, and facial maturity. The results indicate the critical role that language plays in social perception and interaction.
Individual Differences in Need for Precision
Authors: Viswanatian Madhubalan
Published: March 2007

This article develops and validates a measure of the construct of need for precision (NFP), defined as a preference for engaging in a relatively fine-grained mode of processing, and studies its relationship to several constructs. NFP is argued to have a motivational influence on several facets of social cognition. The nature of the NFP construct is discussed in the theoretical context of the five-factor model from personality research. A measure of NFP was developed and modified on the basis of tests of reliability and unidimensionality across several studies. The scale was also tested for different forms of validity across several studies using self-reports and behavioral tasks. AHP was related to several constructs from past research including breadth of categorization, unit of perception, need for cognition, tolerance for ambiguity, intelligence, field dependability, and attitudes toward numerical information, statistics, and mathematics.
Perspective Taking: Imagining How Another Feels Versus Imaging How You Would Feel
Authors: Batson C. Daniel , Early Shannon , Salvarani Giovanni
Published: March 2007

Although often confused, imagining how another feels and imagining how you would feel are two distinct forms of perspective taking with different emotional consequences. The former evokes empathy; the latter, both empathy and distress. To test this claim, undergraduates listened to a (bogus) pilot radio interview with a young woman in serious need. One third were instructed to remain objective while listening; one third, to imagine how the young woman felt; and one third, to imagine how they would feel in her situation. The two imagine perspectives produced the predicted distinct pattern of emotions, suggesting different motivational consequences: Imagining how the other feels produced empathy, which has been found to evoke altruistic motivation; imagining how you would feel produced empathy, but it also produced personal distress, which has been found to evoke egoistic motivation.
Ethnic Stigma as a Contextual Experience: A Possible Selves Perspective
Authors: Brown Lisa M.
Published: March 2007

This article critiques trait views of stigma that suggest that membership in a negatively stereotyped group leads to low self-esteem and self-hatred, and it builds from Erving Goffman's theorizing to define stigma as the expectation of a stereotypical and discrediting judgment of oneself by others in a particular context. Students (40 of color and 46 European American) watched a videotape of a prospective teaching assistant (TA) in an experiment in which ethnic match with the TA and frequency of imagined evaluation by the TA were manipulated. Students of color envisioned less positive views of self in ongoing interactions with a European American TA who would evaluate them in the domain of the stigma. Implications for stigma theory and education are discussed.
The Effect of Error in Item Parameter Estimates on the Test Response Function Method of Linking
Authors: Kaskowitz Gary S. , De Ayala R. J.
Published: March 2007

The effect of item parameter estimation error was examined for computation of the linking coefficients for the test response function (TRF) linking/equating method. A simulation study modeled a horizontal internal anchor linking situation by generating item parameter estimates for initial and target metrics from known sampling distributions. Four factors—size of standard error, number of common items, item response theory (IRT) model, and relation of standard error to the item parameter estimates—were fully crossed. The improvement ratio was introduced as a method for assessing the quality of linking. Results showed that linking was more accurate when there was less error in the item parameter estimates. Fifteen or 25 common items provided better results than 5 common items under both error conditions. Error in estimation of expected number correct was relatively constant within a given IRT model and parameter set. The TRF method was relatively robust in the presence of moderate error in item parameter estimates.