bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A qualitative investigation of the organization of traumatic memories
Authors: Harvey Allison G. , Bryant Richard A.
Published: February 2003

Objective. Previous research has indicated that cohesive organization of traumatic memories may be necessary for the processing and resolution of post‐trauma symptoms. The present study aimed to evaluate the qualitative features of memory organization, dissociation and perception of threat in traumatic memories recalled by individuals with and without acute stress disorder (ASD).

Design. Survivors of motor vehicle accidents (MVA) with either ASD or no ASD participated in a study on traumatic memories within 12 twelve days of the MVA.

Method. Participants audiotaped recollections of their memories of the MVA were coded in terms of disorganized structure, dissociative content and perception of threat. Result. The recollections of ASD participants were characterized by disorganization and dissociation more than those of non‐ASD participants.

Conclusion. The current findings suggest that disorganized memory structure may be one process that impedes access to, and modification of, trauma‐related cognitive schema.
Dot probe performance in two specific phobias
Authors: Wenzel Amy , Holt Craig S.
Published: February 2003

Objectives. The present study applied MacLeod, Mathews & Tata's (1986) dot probe attentional deployment methodology to individuals with specific phobias.

Design. Attentional deployment towards spider‐related, blood‐related, positive, negative, and neutral words was examined.

Method. Individuals with either spider phobia (N = 13) or blood/injury phobia (N = 14) and non‐anxious controls (N = 14) completed the dot probe attentional deployment task.

Results. Individuals with specific phobias did not demonstrate an attentional bias towards phobia‐related stimuli relevant to their particular fears.

Conclusion. Semantic‐based information processing paradigms may not be sufficiently potent to demonstrate biased performance towards threatening stimuli in individuals with mild specific phobias who are otherwise healthy.
Intrusive memories, post‐traumatic stress disorder and myocardial infarction
Authors: Bennett Paul , Brooke Stuart
Published: February 2003

Objectives. To identify the associations between two personality variables (alexithymia, negative affect), social support, awareness of myocardial infarction, and the severity of post‐traumatic stress symptoms.

Design. A cross sectional design was adopted with simultaneous measures of both dependent and independent variables.

Method. A random sample of 69 patients who had an MI between 6 and 12 months previously were sent postal questionnaires measuring alexithymia, negative affect, social support, awareness of myocardial infarction, the severity of post‐traumatic stress symptoms and a number of demographic details.

Results. Forty‐four individuals completed and returned all the questionnaires. A 10 prevalence of post‐traumatic stress symptoms was found. Regression analyses were conducted to identify independent associates of the dependent variables with and without the inclusion of the measure of negative affect. Alexithymia, age, social support and awareness at the time of having a myocardial infarction, were each strongly predictive of one or all measures of symptoms.

Conclusions. Evidence supporting the impact of each of the variables on the course of post‐traumatic stress disorder was supported in a population of myocardial infarction patients. If these variables were found predictive in a longitudinal study, they would indicate possible risk factors for post‐traumatic stress disorder in this population.
Normative data for the Novaco Anger Scale from a non‐clinical sample and implications for clinical use
Authors: Jones J. P. , Thomas‐Peter B. A. , Trout A.
Published: February 2003

Objectives. To provide non‐clinical normative data for the Novaco Anger Scale. To identify the ability of the scale to discriminate between clinical and non‐clinical populations.

Design. Postal survey of individuals from a non‐clinical sample.

Method. A non‐clinical sample of 212 NHS employees was sent a questionnaire pack, including the Novaco Anger Scale. A clinical sample of 58 outpatient angermanagement referrals was identified from a retrospective case‐note analysis.

Results. Descriptive data are presented for both samples. t‐score conversions are provided, based on the non‐clinical data. Results from a discriminant function analysis demonstrated that the Novaco Anger Scale classified participants as clinical or non‐clinical with 94 accuracy.

Conclusion. From this study it appears that the Novaco Anger Scale is able to discriminate between clinical and non‐clinical populations. These data offer further support to the validity of the Novaco Anger Scale and its use in clinical assessment.
Social categorization and stereotyping: ‘You mean I'm one of “them”?’
Authors: Johnson Craig , Schaller Mark , Mullen Brian
Published: February 2003

What happens when people discover that they are members of a group about which they have previously formed some stereotype? To address this question, procedures previously shown to induce negative stereotypes of minority groups were combined with a social categorization manipulation. Participants in a distinctiveness‐based illusory correlation paradigm (Hamilton & Gifford, 1976) either knew nothing about their group membership, or learned that they were a member of the minority group or the majority group either before or after being presented the stereotype engendering stimulus materials. Results revealed that social categorization into the minority group before stimulus presentation eliminated the perceived stereotype and reversed the evaluative bias, whereas social categorization into the minority group after stimulus presentation had no effect on the perceived stereotype and only a weak effect in reducing the evaluative bias. Social categorization into the majority group either before or after stimulus presentation had little effect on the perceived stereotype and evaluative bias. These results clarify the process underlying the influence of social categorization on stereotype formation, underscore the distinction between affective and cognitive influences on stereotype formation and stereotype change, and offer insights into ‘autostereotyping’ among members of minority groups.
Displacing place‐identity: A discursive approach to locating self and other
Authors: Dixon John , Durrheim Kevin
Published: February 2003

Questions of ‘who we are’ are often intimately related to questions of ‘where we are’, an idea captured in the environmental psychological concept of place‐identity. The value of this concept is that it attends to the located nature of subjectivity, challenging the disembodied notions of identity preferred by social psychologists. The topic of place‐identity would thus seem to be a productive point around which the sub‐disciplines of social and environmental psychology might meet, answering calls for greater disciplinary cross‐fertilization. This study contributes to this project by presenting a sympathetic but critical evaluation of research on place‐identity. It argues that such research is valuable in that it has established the importance of place for creating and sustaining a sense of self. However, drawing on recent developments in discursive approaches to social psychology, the authors identify several limitations with existing work on place‐identity. This critique is then developed through analysis of an ongoing research programme located in the changing landscapes of the new South Africa.
In what sense are prejudicial beliefs personal? The importance of an in‐group's shared stereotypes
Authors: Haslam S. Alexander , Wilson Angeline
Published: February 2003

This experiment investigated the role that group membership and shared stereotypes play in the expression of intergroup prejudice. In three independent conditions schoolchildren (N=96) used a checklist to describe Australian Aborigines with reference to the cultural stereotype and their personal beliefs. In two conditions Aborigines were also described with reference to the beliefs of a relevant in‐group (with or without group interaction). In all conditions an independent prejudice measure was also completed. Following Devine and Elliot (1995), personal beliefs were always better predictors of prejudice than the cultural stereotype. However, shared group beliefs were better predictors of prejudice than personal beliefs elicited in the abstract, and personal beliefs were more predictive of prejudice in conditions where they were informed by a salient group membership. These patterns suggest that personal beliefs are more predictive of prejudice when they reflect stereotypic beliefs shared within an in‐group rather than individuals idiosyncratic views.
The effects of cognitive load on strategic self‐handicapping
Authors: Silvera David H.
Published: February 2003

Past research has demonstrated that observers tend to underestimate the importance of situational determinants (e.g. task difficulty) of the performances of others. This tendency is particularly pronounced when observers are unmotivated, distracted or otherwise ‘cognitively busy’ while making attributional judgments. The objective of the present research was to determine whether a similar tendency exists when actors are given the opportunity to choose the tasks they will undertake in a self‐presentational situation. Sixty‐one participants were given a choice between a difficult and a simple task, with cognitive busyness being manipulated while this choice was being made. Cognitively busy participants were significantly more likely to choose the simple task than their non‐busy counterparts.
The double negative effect: The (almost) paradoxical role of the individual self in minority and majority members' information processing
Authors: Simon Bernd , Aufderheide Birgit , Hastedt Claudia
Published: February 2003

The authors examined the interactive influence of accessibility of the individual self and relative in‐group size on group‐level as opposed to individual‐level information processing. In Expt 1, the authors predicted and found that, when accessibility of the individual self was low, minority members tended more towards group‐level information processing than did majority members. This was not true when accessibility of the individual self was high. Contrary to the authors hypothesis, however, the disappearance of the minority‐majority effect in the high‐accessibility condition did not result from a decrease in group‐level information processing among minority members, but from an increase among majority members. Experiment 2 replicated this unexpected effect using two different measures of group‐level information processing. It also provided additional data on the dynamic interplay of the individual self and the collective self which seems to be responsible for the observed effects.
Contested identities and schisms in groups: Opposing the ordination of women as priests in the Church of England
Authors: Sani Fabio , Reicher Steve
Published: February 2003

Schisms constitute a common characteristic of human groups. Nevertheless, they have been neglected by social psychology, mainly because social psychological theories either dismiss group consensus or else depict groups as monolithic. This study proposes a social psychological approach to schism which integrates recent developments of self‐categorization theory (SCT) with work on category argumentation. According to SCT, shared group identification leads to a process by which members should reach agreement. However, it is suggested that where members construe the positions of others as fundamentally altering group identity, then consensus is impossible. The corollary of assuming that groups will be consensual is that lack of consensus indicates the existence of different groups. This idea is examined through an analysis of a video and booklet produced for a rally organized by Forward in Faith, an organization opposed to the ordination of women as priests within the Church of England. It is shown that the existence of women priests is construed as changing the essence of the Church both on a structural level (by dividing it from the rest of the Christian community and turning it into a sect) and doctrinally. Such changes are seen as threatening the very existence of the Church of England and therefore demanding all out opposition. However, it is also shown that the decision of whether opponents fight the changes from inside the Church or by splitting from it depends upon the perception of whether they will be accorded the opportunity to advance their position from within. Thus schism is associated with both a perceived ‘change of essence’ and also with ‘lack of voice’.
Essentialist beliefs about social categories
Authors: Haslam Nick , Rothschild Louis , Ernst Donald
Published: February 2003

This study examines beliefs about the ontological status of social categories, asking whether their members are understood to share fixed, inhering essences or natures. Forty social categories were rated on nine elements of essentialism. These elements formed two independent dimensions, representing the degrees to which categories are understood as natural kinds and as coherent entities with inhering cores (‘entitativity’ or reification), respectively. Reification was negatively associated with categories evaluative status, especially among those categories understood to be natural kinds. Essentialism is not a unitary syndrome of social beliefs, and is not monolithically associated with devaluation and prejudice, but it illuminates several aspects of social categorization.
Social categorizations, social comparisons and stigma: Presentations of self in people with learning difficulties
Authors: Finlay W. M. L. , Lyons E.
Published: February 2003

Self‐categorization theory stresses the importance of the context in which the meta‐contrast principle is proposed to operate. This study is concerned with how ‘the pool of psychologically relevant stimuli’ (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher & Wetherell, 1987, p. 47) comprising the context is determined. Data from interviews with 33 people with learning difficulties were used to show how a positive sense of self might be constructed by members of a stigmatized social category through the social worlds that they describe, and therefore the social comparisons and categorizations that are made possible. Participants made downward comparisons which focused on people with learning difficulties who were less able or who displayed challenging behaviour, and with people who did not have learning difficulties but who, according to the participants, behaved badly, such as beggars, drunks and thieves. By selection of dimensions and comparison others, a positive sense of self and a particular set of social categorizations were presented. It is suggested that when using self‐categorization theory to study real‐world social categories, more attention needs to be paid to the involvement of the perceiver in determining which stimuli are psychologically relevant since this is a crucial determinant of category salience.
Willingness to participate in industrial protest: Exploring social identification in context
Authors: Veenstra Kristine , Haslam S. Alexander
Published: February 2003

This study examines the impact of group identification and social context on willingness to participate in industrial protest. Trade union members (N = 313) completed a survey indicating their willingness to participate in union activities, their perceptions of the union and its role, and their attitudes toward present and former governments. Three independent conditions defined the union and its activities in different ways: either (a) referring to conflict with the present government, (b) referring to this conflict together with the government's threat to the union, or (c) presenting no additional information (a control condition). Results indicated that participants who identified highly with the union were more willing to participate in collective action to the extent that issues were defined in conflictual terms. Low identifiers resiled from participation in union activities when reference was made to conflict alone, but this effect was attenuated when reference was also made to threat. Results suggest that collective action is not simply a product of identification, but is also shaped by the distinct meaning which such action assumes for high and low identifiers within a given context.
Thinking about Russia: Plausible pasts and probable futures
Authors: Tetlock Philip E. , Visser Penny S.
Published: February 2003

This paper uses both correlational and experimental methods to explore the power of counterfactual cognitions about the past to constrain judgments about the future as well as policy preferences. Study 1 asked 47 specialists on the Soviet Union to assess both the plausibility of controversial counterfactuals and the probability of controversial conditional forecasts. The results reveal deep ideological schisms, with liberals much more likely than conservatives to believe that Stalinism was not inevitable, that the Cold War could have ended earlier, and that Gorbachev might have succeeded in democratizing the Soviet Union if he had been a better tactician, among others. Reactions to these counterfactuals proved to be highly predictive of positions that experts in early 1992 endorsed concerning the advisability of ‘shock therapy’, expanding NATO eastward, and economic aid to Russia. Study 2 manipulated the salience and plausibility of counterfactual scenarios concerning (a) why th Cold War ended as t did, and (b) how close the US and USSR came to nuclear war. Changes in the counterfactual scenarios that non‐experts endorsed produced significant changes in their policy preferences in the direction suggested by the salient counterfactual. Experts, however, were unswayed, often generating counter‐arguments against dissonant counterfactuals. Taken together, the studies show that assumptions about what happened in the missing control conditions of history are highly subjective, largely theory‐driven and profoundly consequential.
Attitudes and attraction: A new test of the attraction, repulsion and similarity‐dissimilarity asymmetry hypotheses
Authors: Singh Ramadhar , Ho Soo Yan
Published: February 2003

Dissimilarity and similarity between attitudes of the participants and a stranger were manipulated across two sets of issues to test the attraction, repulsion and similarity‐dissimilarity asymmetry hypotheses. Participants (N = 192) judged social (liking, enjoyment of company) and intellectual (intelligence, general knowledge) attractiveness of the stranger. The similarity in the first set of attitudes X similarity in the second set of attitudes effect emerged in social attraction, but not in intellectual attraction. Stated simply, dissimilarity had a greater weight than similarity in social attraction, but equal weight in intellectual attraction. These results support the similarity‐dissimilarity asymmetry hypothesis that predicts dissimilarity‐repulsion to be stronger than similarity‐attraction. However, they reject (1) the attraction hypothesis that dissimilarity and similarity produce equal and opposite effects on social attraction; and (2) the repulsion hypothesis that only dissimilar attitudes affect social attraction by leading to repulsion. An equal weighting of dissimilarity and similarity in intellectual attraction further suggested that the similarity‐dissimilarity asymmetry on social attraction is reflective of a stronger avoidance response in the Darwinian sense.
Self‐evaluation maintenance in a larger social context
Authors: Pilkington Constance J. , Smith Karen A.
Published: February 2003

Two studies extended Tesser s (1988) Self‐evaluation Maintenance (SEM) model to include two close others and to examine the implications of intermediate performances on self‐definition. Both demonstrated that when outperformed by both close others, participants rated activities low in self‐relevance. When participants outperformed both close others, relevance was moderate or high. When participants were superior to one close other, but inferior to the other, relevance was low or moderate. When participants were uncertain about relative performances, and when there was disagreement over relative performances among the two close others and participants, ratings of relevance were attenuated as a means of protecting participants self‐evaluations. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of extending the SEM model to the larger social network.
Among friends? An examination of friendship and the self‐serving bias
Authors: Campbell W. Keith , Sedikides Constantine , Reeder Glenn D. , Elliot Andrew J.
Published: February 2003

Do friends bound each other's self‐enhancement tendencies? Do friends display the self‐serving bias (SSB; i.e. taking individual credit for success but blaming a partner for failure)? Dyads consisting of either friends or strangers engaged in an interdependent‐outcomes creativity test, received bogus success or failure feedback at the dyadic level, and made responsibility attributions for the joint test performance. Strangers displayed the SSB. Friends, in contrast, refrained from the SSB: they shared responsibility for both successful and unsuccessful test outcomes. Friendship does place boundaries on self‐enhancement.
The motivated tactician's juggling act: Compatible vs. incompatible impression goals
Authors: Ruscher Janet B. , Fiske Susan T. , Schnake Sherry B.
Published: February 2003

This study examines how perceivers negotiate multiple, and sometimes incompatible, impression formation goals. Previous research typically presents perceivers with a single impression goal (e.g. accuracy, supporting preferred beliefs), and does not consider how perceivers juggle multiple goals. The processes of perceivers with multiple compatible goals should show uncomplicated impression formation processes, that is, strategic use of particular target attributes (e.g. negative) that suit their purposes. Perceivers with incompatible goals, in contrast, should be less selective, and form more complex impressions that reflect all types of attributes. In this experiment, perceivers with compatible goals paid less attention to target attributes, systematically biased their interpretation of those attributes, and ultimately formed less complex impressions than individuals with incompatible goals. How multiple impression goals are prioritized is discussed.
Social identity and the true believer: Responses to threatened self‐stereotypes among the intrinsically religious
Authors: Burris Christopher T. , Jackson Lynne M.
Published: February 2003

That religion is an impactful social category has often been assumed but seldom tested. Based on social identity and self‐categorization theories, it is argued that devout religious commitment reflects, at least in part, an individual s motivation to engage in religious self‐stereotyping (i.e. to perceive oneself as an exemplary religious group member). In order to test this analysis, individuals scoring high or low on a measure of intrinsic religious orientation received false feedback that either threatened or bolstered their self‐perceptions on a dimension of behaviour that was either important or not important to religious group membership. As expected, intrinsic orientation predicted increased religious self‐stereotyping only when feedback was threatening and important to religious group membership; affective and behavioural indices revealed a similar pattern. Implications for the social identity self‐categorization literature, and for theory development in the psychology of religion, are subsequently discussed.
The primacy of self‐referent information in perceptions of social consensus
Authors: Clement Russell W. , Krueger Joachim
Published: February 2003

People's own responses to a social stimulus (i.e. whether they endorse it or reject it) predict how they expect other people to respond (consensus estimates). This correlation has long been accepted as evidence for social projection. There has been little direct evidence, however, for the assumption that self‐referent judgments shape judgments about others. Supporting the projection model, Expt 1 shows that self‐referent information is more accessible than consensus estimates. Once they have been made, people s own endorsements and rejections of a stimulus facilitate consensus estimates. In turn, consensus estimates facilitate endorsements (but less so). Judgments about the physical properties of the stimulus facilitate neither type of social judgment. Supporting the view that projection is egocentric, Expt 2 shows that, when making consensus estimates, people rely more on their own endorsements than on the endorsements made by another individual. This self‐other difference does not depend on whose endorsements are revealed first or on whether the other person is anonymous or individuated.
Leadership behaviour similarity as a basis of selection into a management team
Authors: Eagleson Geoff , Waldersee Robert , Simmons Ro
Published: February 2003

There are contexts where, in order to be effective, a management team needs to display different leadership behaviours as well as possessing a wide range of experiences and skills. But achieving heterogeneity of behaviours is difficult if there are behavioural‐similarity biases affecting a selection process. A sample of 126 participants completed a simulation of a selection process for a management team. They compared selection criteria and chose either a task or relations‐oriented applicant for an advertised position as well as reporting their perception of their own preferred leadership style. The results of the simulation indicate that leadership behaviour can be a basis for similarity‐attraction in the selection of a management team.
‘I couldn't have known’: Accountability, foreseeability and counterfactual denials of responsibility
Authors: Markman Keith D. , Tetlock Philip E.
Published: February 2003

This article explores situational determinants and psychological consequences of‘counterfactual excuse‐making’ — denying responsibility by declaring‘I couldn't have known…’. Participants who were made accountable for a stock investment decision that resulted in an outcome caused by unforeseeable circumstances were particularly likely to generate counterfactual excuses and, as a result, to deny responsibility for the outcome of their choices and minimize their perceptions of control over the decision process. The article discusses the implications of these findings for structuring accountability reporting relationships in business and, more generally, stresses the benefits of counterfactual denials of responsibility for maintaining self‐esteem and a desired self‐identity.
Is racism dead? Comparing (expressive) means and (structural equation) models
Authors: Leach Colin Wayne , Peng Timothy R. , Volckens Julie
Published: February 2003

Much scholarship suggests that racism ‐ belief in out‐group inferiority ‐ is unrelated to contemporary attitudes. Purportedly, a new form of racism, one which relies upon a belief in cultural difference, has become a more acceptable basis for such attitudes. The authors argue that an appropriate empirical assessment of racism (both ‘old’ and ‘new’) depends upon (1) clear conceptualization and operationalization, and (2) attention to both mean‐level expression and explanatory value in structural equation models. This study assessed the endorsement of racism and belief in cultural difference as well as their association with a measure of general attitude in a secondary analysis of parallel representative surveys of attitudes toward different ethnic out‐groups in France, the Netherlands, Western Germany and Britain (N = 3242; see Reif & Melich, 1991). For six of the seven out‐group targets, racism was strongly related to ethnic majority attitudes, despite low meanlevel endorsement. In a pattern consistent with a ‘new’, indirect racism, the relationship between British racism and attitudes toward Afro‐Caribbeans was mediated by belief in cultural difference.
Simulation versus the thing itself: Commentary on Markman and Tetlock
Authors: Antaki Charles
Published: February 2003

My comments take for granted the integrity and seriousness of the authors whose work is being reviewed, and nothing in the critical tone of my remarks has anything to do with their professionalism or good faith. Far from it; no reader can mistake the painstaking effort of Markman and Tetlock's (2000) work, and it is a four‐square example of the social psychological laboratory research tradition that stretches back at least to the 1960s and E. E. Jones and Gerard's influential, experiment‐endorsing Foundations of social psychology (1967). I say that because, inevitably, a commentary such as this one will contain disagreements with what was done. But among ourselves, in the collegial pages of the BJSP such complaints are meant with respect. Two sorts of comments are in order. One is to remind us all of the conflicts of the 1970s — the ‘crisis in social psychology’ — and the many arguments it generated about doing any social psychological research. That is a story well‐known to most readers of the journal, and so needs only a light dustingdown. More interesting, I think, will be to swoop down from the general to the particular, and ask ourselves how one could do this sort of this research ‐ research into people's use of counterfactual explanations ‐ in a way that uses the debates of the 1970s to move away from the laboratory and its model of causes and effects.
‘Going to where the action is’ versus ‘creating the action’: A reply to Antaki
Authors: Markman Keith D.
Published: February 2003

My first reaction to Charles Antaki's commentary on Markman and Tetlock (2000) was one of surprise ‐ surprise that our admittedly modest and rather circumscribed paper on the psychological links between accountability, forseeability, and counterfactual denials of responsibility could generate such criticism. Upon reflection, however, it appears that Antaki is only superficially concerned with the specifics of our experiment per se and, rather, is seeking to use the Markman and Tetlock piece as a springboard for advancing some more general notions about the value of a laboratory‐based, experimental approach to social psychology. I believe that this is a useful and worthwhile debate, and I am pleased to participate in it. In his commentary, Antaki brings up two old arguments ‐ (i) the generalizability question; and (ii) the value of experimentally testing hypotheses that, a priori, appear to be derivable on purely logical grounds — as well as one new argument ‐ that one is on safer conceptual ground describing ‘real‐world’ social discourse (i.e., where the ‘action’ is) than using results derived from artificial and contrived laboratory experiments to develop causal explanations for such real‐world events. I will attempt to address each of these arguments in turn.
Attitude‐behaviour relations: The role of in‐group norms and mode of behavioural decision‐making
Authors: Terry Deborah J. , Hogg Michael A. , McKimmie Blake M.
Published: February 2003

Two experiments provided support for the central hypothesis ‐ derived from social identity self‐categorization theories ‐ that attitudes would be most likely to predict behaviour when they were supported by a congruent in‐group norm. In the first experiment, norm congruency and mode of behavioural decision‐making (spontaneous or deliberative) were orthogonally manipulated in a between‐subjects study of career choice in psychology. Participants exposed to an attitudinally congruent in‐group norm towards their preferred career choice were more likely to display attitude‐behaviour consistency than those exposed to an attitudinally inconsistent group norm, an effect that was evident under both spontaneous and deliberative decision‐making conditions. Using a mockjury paradigm, Expt 2 replicated and extended the first experiment by including a manipulation of in‐group salience. As predicted, participants exposed to an incongruent norm displayed greater attitude‐behaviour inconsistency than those exposed to a congruent norm. Contrary to predictions, this effect did not vary as a function of group salience, nor did the effects of group norms for high and low salience participants vary as a function of mode of behavioural decision‐making. However, there was evidence that perceived identification with the group moderated the influence of norms on attitude‐behaviour consistency.
The structure of attitudes: Attribute importance, accessibility and judgment
Authors: Van Harreveld Frenk , Van der Pligt Joop , de Vries Nanne K. , Andreas Silke
Published: February 2003

Two studies related attribute importance to accessibility and speed of judgment. Attitudes were assessed by a direct attitude measure and a modal set of 15 attributes. Attributes were rated in terms of their probability and desirability. Subsequently, participants were required to select the five attributes they considered to be most important. Results of Study 1 (dealing with attitudes towards condom use) show that individually selected, important attributes are more easily retrieved and judged faster than non‐selected, less important attributes. Judging attributes took less time than evaluating one's overall attitude, suggesting a bottom‐up process in which the various attributes are combined to form an overall attitude. Study 2 (dealing with attitudes towards smoking) extends these findings and also addresses the stability of attitude structure. Important attributes were again associated with reduced response times, and attribute‐related judgments took less time than judging one's overall attitude. Accessibility of important attributes remained stable over time as indicated by the results of a lexical decision task one week later. Finally, important attributes were also recalled better than less important attributes. Implications for research on attitude structure are discussed.
‘But I'm different to them’: Constructing contrasts between self and others in talk‐in‐interaction
Authors: Dickerson Paul
Published: February 2003

Contrast occurs as an important theme across a range of post‐structural, conversation and discourse analytic and ‘traditional’ social psychological work. Some approaches link contrasts to identity issues ‐ thus self‐categorization theory argues that identity arises in part through self assignment to particular categories ‐ which is done on the basis of one's perception of similarities and differences with others. This paper explores contrast in identity talk from a different vantage point: one which has the strengths and shortcomings of an emphasis upon talk in interaction rather than on cognition in isolation. In so doing it draws upon a corpus of extracts largely derived from unstructured interviews with television news audiences but supplemented with some published data of relevance to the deployment of contrast with others. The paper illustrates some of the different ways in which contrasts with others can be constructed and deployed, which may challenge a category assignment, construct a generic category of others against whom self is favourably positioned, or act as an interactionally astute self‐deprecation. In each case the contrast is understood as tuned in to the interactional issues at hand. In this way contrast is conceptualized as a live talk‐in‐interaction activity which can be fruitfully explored from the perspective of the participants themselves.
Pattern of disconfirming information and processing instructions as determinants of stereotype change
Authors: Hewstone Miles , Hassebrauck Manfred , Wirth Andrea , Waenke Michaela
Published: February 2003

This experiment examined the effects of pattern of disconfirming information (concentrated vs. dispersed) and processing instructions (focus on similarities vs. differences vs. control) on stereotype change. If subtyping and perceived typicality are central to the stereotype change process, then processing instructions designed to affect these processes should affect stereotyping. There was lower stereotyping when perceivers focused on similarities between group members, and after exposure to a dispersed pattern of disconfirming information. Only the main effect of pattern was mediated by the perceived typicality of disconfirmers, but not by an index of subtyping based on clustering of information from disconfirmers in recall. Results support a model of stereotype change in terms of the impact of disconfirming group members who are also seen as typical of the group; subtyping of extreme disconfirmers may work in parallel, or later, and contribute to the longterm maintenance of a stereotype.
Context effects of facial appearance on attitudes toward mentally handicapped persons
Authors: Dijker Anton J. , Tacken Margot A. , van den Borne Bart
Published: February 2003

The influence of facial appearance on social attitudes was examined by exposing participants to the faces of three target persons with or without deviant facial features, posing happy, angry or sad facial expressions, or a mixture of these expressions. When they displayed negative emotional expressions, facially deviant targets were judged more negatively than non‐deviant targets. Irrespective of emotional expression and level of personal experience, participants expressed more negative attitudes toward mentally handicapped persons in general after exposure to deviant faces than after exposure to non‐deviant faces, or in the absence of exposure. However, correlational analyses suggested that only at low levels of personal experience were attitudes influenced by previously formed impressions of deviant exemplars. Results are discussed in terms of the motivational relevance of physical features in stigmatization, and context and exemplar effects in stereotyping and attitude measurement. Practical implications are also discussed.
Causal attribution and Mill's Methods of Experimental Inquiry: Past, present and prospect
Authors: White Peter A.
Published: February 2003

J. S. Mill proposed a set of Methods of Experimental Inquiry that were intended to guide causal inference under every conceivable set of circumstances in which experiments or observations could be carried out. The conceptual and historical relationship between these Methods and modern models of causal attribution is investigated. Mill's work retains contemporary relevance because his insights show how research can progress into presently uncharted waters. Following Mill, it is proposed that people use many different methods of causal attribution, the nature of which remains to be ascertained, and that the conditions that affect choice of method include the need to eliminate alternative causal candidates, whether single or multiple events are to be explained, the use of intervention or experiment as opposed to mere observation, and practical concerns.
Temporal stability as a moderator of relationships in the Theory of Planned Behaviour
Authors: Conner Mark , Sheeran Paschal , Norman Paul , Armitage Christopher J.
Published: February 2003

Temporal stability of behavioural intentions and perceived behavioural control (PBC) within the Theory of Planned Behaviour were examined as moderators of the cognition‐behaviour relationships in two studies. Study 1 (N=201) examined attendance at health screening appointment (infrequently performed behaviour) using an objective measure of attendance. The impact of intentions and past behaviour on behaviour was moderated by intention stability. In addition, stable intentions were more strongly related to attitudes and past behaviour. Study 2 (N=407) examined eating a low‐fat diet (frequently performed behaviour) using a self‐report measure of behaviour. The impact of intentions on behaviour was moderated by intention stability, while the impact of PBC and past behaviour on behaviour was moderated by PBC stability. Stable intentions were more strongly related to attitudes, subjective norms and PBC. Stable PBC was more strongly related to attitudes and past behaviour. The discussion considers the implications of the findings for furthering the understanding of the proximal determinants of behaviour and emphasizes the importance of temporal stability as a key measure of the strength of intentions and PBC.
Context effects on Scottish national and European self‐categorization: The importance of category accessibility, fragility and relations
Authors: Rutland Adam , Cinnirella Marco
Published: February 2003

Self‐categorization theory (SCT) argues that self‐categorization is inherently variable and tied to changes in the intergroup context (Oakes, Haslam, & Turner, 1994; Turner, Oakes, Haslam, & McGarty, 1994). Two studies were conducted to investigate SCT's claim that self‐categorization is context dependent (Study 1) and to identify factors that may affect the likelihood of context effects on self‐categorization (Study 2). In the first study, Scottish students self‐categorized themselves at the national and European levels of abstraction in four between participant conditions: after stereotyping the English, after stereotyping the Germans, after stereotyping the Australians and in isolation. Context effects on self‐categorization were found but only at the European level of abstraction. European identity decreased significantly with the inclusion of the English and Germans in the frame of reference, but remained stable with the Australians in the comparative context. These results suggest context effects on self‐categorization are not necessarily straightforward and may depend upon important factors like category accessibility, category fragility and the perceived psychological relations between categories. A questionnaire was distributed to a matched sample of Scottish students (Study 2) to investigate the importance of these factors. The findings provided empirical weight to our contention that category accessibility, category fragility and perceived psychological category relations are important to the self‐categorization process.
Transformation between scientific and social representations of conception: The method of serial reproduction
Authors: Bangerter Adrian
Published: February 2003

The social representation (SR) of conception was investigated using an adapted version of Bartlett's (1932) method of serial reproduction. A sample of 75 participants reproduced a text describing the conception process in 20 segregated chains of four reproductive generations. Changes in sentence structure and content were analysed. Results indicated that when the scientific representation of conception is apprehended by laypersons, two different processes take place. First, the abstract biological description of the process is progressively transformed into an anthropomorphic description centred on the sperm and ovum (personification). Second, stereotypical sex‐role attributes are projected onto the sperm and ovum. Limitations of the method of serial reproduction are discussed, as well as its potential for modelling processes of cultural diffusion of knowledge.
Impression formation from intellectual and social traits: Evidence for behavioural adaptation and cognitive processing
Authors: Singh Ramadhar , Teoh Jennifer Boon Pei
Published: February 2003

Judgments of intellectual and social attractiveness of a target were taken from a pair of moderate and extreme intellectual or social traits. Weights of the traits given were identified from the pattern in their two‐way interaction effect. Responses to a control condition of no‐trait information provided the estimates of the person positivity bias in the participants, and the relative effects of the negative and positive traits were determined relative to such bias values. Consistent with the cognitive hypothesis, positive intellectual and negative social traits received more weight in the intellectual and social attraction responses, respectively. However, negative and moderate traits carried more weight in social attraction as predicted by the hypothesis of behavioural adaptation. Despite the asymmetric weighting of intellectual traits in intellectual attraction and of social traits in social attraction, the negativity effect was stronger than the positivity effect. Evidently, mechanisms postulated by both the hypotheses co‐exist but they are detectable by only the operationalization employed in the two research paradigms.
Self‐categorization, affective commitment and group self‐esteem as distinct aspects of social identity in the organization
Authors: Bergami Massimo , Bagozzi Richard P.
Published: February 2003

The purpose of this study is to distinguish between cognitive, affective and evaluative components of social identity in the organization and to show how the components instigate behaviours that benefit in‐group members. A new scale for measuring cognitive organizational identification (i.e. self‐categorization) is developed and compared to a leading scale. Internal consistency, convergent validity, predictive validity and generalizability of the two scales are established on a sample of Italian (N=409) and Korean (N=283) workers. Next, convergent and discriminant validity for measures of organizational identification, affective commitment and group self‐esteem are demonstrated. Then, two antecedents of these components of social identity are examined: organization prestige and organization stereotypes. Finally, the mediating role of the components of social identity are investigated between the antecedents and five forms of citizenship behaviours. The last three analyses are performed on the Italian (N=409) workers. Among other findings, the results show that affective commitment and self‐esteem are the primary motivators of citizenship behaviours. Moreover, cognitive identification performs as a central mediator between prestige and stereotypes on the one hand, and affective commitment and self‐esteem on the other. Identification is thus an indirect determinant of citizenship behaviours.
Collective action and psychological change: The emergence of new social identities
Authors: Drury John , Reicher Steve
Published: February 2003

The study comprises an analysis of processes of psychological change among participants at an environmental protest. A participant observation study found evidence of a radicalized self concept among a number of crowd members, and indicates a link between radicalization, an asymmetry of categorical representations between protesters and the police, and the subsequent interaction premised on these divergent representations. The analysis supports an elaborated social identity model of crowd behaviour (Reicher, 1996, 1997a, 1997b; Stott & Reicher, 1998). It is argued that, in order to account for both social determination and social change in collective behaviour, it is necessary to analyse crowd events as developing interactions between groups. Where crowd members hold a different understanding of their social position to that held by an out‐group (e.g. the police) and where the out‐group has the power to treat crowd members in terms of its understandings, then those members who act on the basis of one understanding of their social relations find themselves in an unexpected and novel set of social relations. This then provides the basis for a series of changes, including the self‐understanding of crowd members.