bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Beyond Self-Presentation: Evidence for Self-Criticism among Japanese
Authors: Heine Steven J. , Takata Toshitake , Lehman Darrin R.
Published: June 2007

Although a robust finding in cross-cultural research is that Japanese exhibit less self-enhancement than North Americans, all of these studies have employed questionnaire measures susceptible to self-presentational biases. The present study assessed self-enhancement in a laboratory that covertly measured participants’ behaviors. Whereas Canadians were reluctant to conclude that they had performed worse than their average classmate, Japanese were hesitant to conclude that they had performed better. This research provides evidence that cultural differences in self-enhancement and self-criticism go beyond mere self-presentation.
When an Adversary is Caught Telling the Truth: Reciprocal Cooperation Versus Self-Interest in Distributive Bargaining
Authors: Paese Paul W. , Gilin Debra A.
Published: June 2007

In the present research, the authors examined a distributive bargaining situation in which the participant’s counterpart either did or did not make an unambiguously cooperative move at the outset of the negotiation. Participants’ bargaining roles were written such that they had a clear alternative of their own as well as accurate inside information about the other party’s no-agreement alternative. A confederate posing as a participant assumed the opposite role and followed a script. The script was varied such that the confederate either did or did not disclose his or her alternative at the outset of the negotiation. Results indicated that even though cooperation ran counter to their self-interest, participants were more cooperative in the disclosure conditions. That is, they made less demanding offers, disclosed more truthful information, and settled for less profit. Implications of these results and future research directions are discussed.
Proximal and Distal Defenses in Response to Reminders of One’s Mortality: Evidence of a Temporal Sequence
Authors: Greenberg Jeff , Arndt Jamie , Simon Linda , Pyszczynski Tom , Solomon Sheldon
Published: June 2007

The present study was designed to build on prior terror management research by testing the hypothesis that death-related thought first activates direct defenses to minimize the threat (proximal defense) and then later triggers symbolic cultural worldview defense (distal defense). After mortality salience, participants were either distracted from death-related thought or not and then completed either a measure of distal defense and then a measure of proximal defense or a proximal defense measure and then a distal defense measure. Results supported the authors’ predictions. Proximal defense in the form of vulnerability denial emerged only when participants had immediately before been thinking about death. In contrast, distal defense only emerged when participants were previously distracted from death-related thought. Discussion focuses on implications of these results for understanding the sequence of defenses initiated by mortality salience.
Detecting Deception and Judge’s Involvement: Lower Task Involvement Leads to Better Lie Detection
Authors: Forrest James A. , Feldman Robert S.
Published: June 2007

Videotaped samples of target individuals making honest or dishonest statements were shown to 66 male and female participants who judged each sample in terms of honesty. The participants were either highly involved in the judging task or relatively uninvolved. It was assumed that highly involved participants would engage in central route processing and therefore attend more to the verbal message, whereas less-involved participants would engage in peripheral route processing and therefore attend more to the nonverbal behavior of the targets. Because nonverbal cues are most indicative of deception, it was hypothesized—and found—that low-involvement participants would be more accurate at detecting deception than would high-involvement participants. Furthermore, gender differences and support for a motivational impairment effect were found, in which lies told by people who were highly motivated to lie successfully were more easily detected.
The Distinctiveness Effect in Social Interaction: Creation of a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Authors: Nelson Lori J. , Klutas Kristin
Published: June 2007

The purpose of this study was to examine the consequences of the distinctiveness effect for social interaction, using traits about which participants had no previous information. The perceived distinctiveness of novel traits was manipulated, and bogus information about an individual’s distinctive and nondistinctive characteristics provided conflicting expectations about that individual. The prediction that individuals would be judged based on the information provided about their supposed distinctive traits was supported. In addition, observations made by independent raters demonstrated that these distinctiveness-based judgments about the individual initiated a self-fulfilling prophecy process. Unexpectedly, the distinctiveness effect in this experiment was found only among female participants.
Do Messages about Health Risks Threaten the Self? Increasing the Acceptance of Threatening Health Messages Via Self-Affirmation
Authors: Sherman David A. K. , Nelson Leif D. , Steele Claude M.
Published: June 2007

Two studies demonstrate that self-image maintenance processes affect the acceptance of personally relevant health messages. Participants who completed a self-affirmation were less defensive and more accepting of health information. In Study 1, female participants (high vs. low relevance) read an article linking caffeine consumption to breast cancer. High-relevance women rejected the information more than did low-relevance women; however, affirmed high-relevance women accepted the information and intended to change their behavior accordingly. In Study 2, sexually active participants viewed an AIDS educational video; affirmed participants saw themselves at greater risk for HIV and purchased condoms more often than did nonaffirmed participants. Results suggest that health messages can threaten an individual’s self-image and that self-affirming techniques can increase the effectiveness of health information and lead to positive health behaviors.
Role Identity, Organizational Experiences, and Volunteer Performance
Authors: Grube Jean A. , Piliavin Jane Allyn
Published: June 2007

The central focus of this research is on the development and testing of a theoretical framework to understand performance and retention of volunteers. The framework is centered on identity theory and includes both general and specific role identity as well as organizational variables. Data were obtained from two samples of volunteers for the American Cancer Society (ACS). Specific role identity as an ACS volunteer is predicted from general role identity and several factors related to perceived experiences in the organization. Specific role identity explains significant amounts of variance in the number of hours worked for ACS and other organizations as well as intent to remain an ACS volunteer. Results also suggest that volunteers may experience conflicts between the demands of their general and specific role identities. Finally, the effects of ACS role identity on volunteer behavior are compared with those of organizational commitment.
When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going: Social Identification and Individual Effort in Intergroup Competition
Authors: Ouwerkerk Jaap W. , de Gilder Dick , de Vries Nanne K.
Published: June 2007

Based on social identity theory, the authors predicted that in ongoing intergroup competition, people’s strength of social identification will have a positive impact on their behavioral efforts on behalf of an ingroup when its current status is low, whereas this will not be the case when its current status is high. In a first experiment, male participants showed the expected pattern of behavior. Female participants, however, tended to display opposite reactions. As a possible explanation, it was argued that the experimental procedure may have inadvertently evoked a gender-based stereotype threat for female participants. In an attempt to obtain more consistent support for their hypothesis, the authors therefore replicated the experiment with modifications to avoid such a threat. These changes proved to be effective in the sense that this time the predicted interaction effect between ingroup identification and current group status was obtained for both male and female participants.
The Relative Efficacy of Concentration and Suppression Strategies of Mental Control
Authors: Wenzlaff Richard M. , Bates Danielle E.
Published: June 2007

Mental control research has found that attempts to suppress unwanted thoughts can backfire when cognitive demands arise or intentional control subsides. The present research examined the relative efficacy of an alternative form of mental control that involves concentrating on desirable thoughts instead of trying to suppress unwanted material. Using a novel cognitive measure that addresses some of the methodological issues associated with previous suppression research, a series of three studies indicates that a concentration strategy of mental control circumvents the problems associated with thought suppression. The findings are consistent with ironic process theory, which maintains that suppression invokes a monitoring process that is exclusively focused on goal-antithetical thoughts, whereas a concentration strategy involves a broader range of monitored thoughts that is less likely to undermine mental control.
Accountability and Close-Call Counterfactuals: The Loser Who Nearly Won and the Winner Who Nearly Lost
Authors: Markman Keith D. , Tetlock Philip E.
Published: June 2007

This article links recent work on assimilative and contrastive counterfactual thinking with research on the impact of accountability on judgment and choice. Relative to participants who felt accountable solely for bottom-line performance outcomes, participants who were accountable for their decision-making process (a) had more pronounced differential reactions to clearly winning versus (winning but) nearly losing and to clearly losing versus (losing but) nearly winning; (b) were less satisfied with the quality of their decisions when they nearly lost and more satisfied with the quality of their decisions when they nearly won; and (c) invested less money into investments that nearly failed and more money into investments that nearly succeeded. This pattern is consistent with the hypothesis that process accountability amplified assimilative counterfactual thinking, whereas outcome accountability attenuated it. The evidence underscores the power of contextual features of the decision-making environment to shape key cognitive and affective consequences of upward and downward counterfactual comparisons.
Moderation of the Expectancy-Alcohol Use Relation by Private Self-Consciousness: Data from a Longitudinal Study
Authors: Bartholow Bruce D. , Sher Kenneth J. , Strathman Alan
Published: June 2007

This study investigated whether the relation between alcohol outcome expectancies and alcohol use may be moderated by individual differences in private self-consciousness (PSC). Quantity/frequency of alcohol use, expectancies, and PSC in a sample of young adults were assessed annually over 4 years. Regression equations were used to predict alcohol use from expectancies, PSC, and their interaction while controlling for sex and family history of alcoholism. High PSC was associated with a stronger association between expectancies and alcohol use than was low PSC, although only in participants of legal drinking age. Also, PSC was negatively associated with alcohol use for underage participants when expectancies were statistically controlled, consistent with previous work linking PSC to adherence to legal proscriptions. Findings are discussed in relation to a model of expectancy accessibility.
The Context Matters
Authors: Folkman Susan , Moskowitz Judith Tedlie
Published: June 2007

Carver et al. challenge the importance assigned to personal control over desired outcomes as a determinant of distress in stressful situations. The authors contend that it is the expectancy of a positive outcome, and not control over achieving that outcome, that matters. The authors argue that both outcome and control expectancies can matter with respect to distress or psychological well-being; their relative importance is determined by dimensions of the person-environment context including the importance of the outcome, dispositional preferences regarding control, the contingency between personal control and the outcome, self-efficacy expectancies, and the consequences of exercising control for other areas of one’s life.
The Perception of Personal Control: Sufficiently Important to Warrant Careful Scrutiny
Authors: Tennen Howard , Affleck Glenn
Published: June 2007

Carver et al. propose that expecting a desired outcome is more important than the perception of personal control over that outcome in predicting distress among individuals facing threatening circumstances. They support this hypothesis through an analysis of data from two studies of women with early stage breast cancer. This article turns to the existing empirical literature, to recent theories of adjustment to serious illness, and to the methods employed in the Carver et al. studies to comment on their proposal. The authors conclude that an adequate comparison of how expectancies and control perceptions contribute to the adjustment of individuals in threatening situations will require more attention to the selection of research participants, the appropriate time frame for such studies, and measurement strategies.
Writing about the Perceived Benefits of Traumatic Events: Implications for Physical Health
Authors: King Laura A. , Miner Kathi N.
Published: June 2007

Research by Pennebaker and his colleagues supports the healing power of writing about traumatic events. This study explored the importance of writing about the perceived benefits of traumatic events as a factor in this process. The study included 118 participants who were randomly assigned to write about one of four topics in a 2 (writing about perceived benefits vs. not writing about perceived benefits)× 2 (writing about trauma vs. not writing about trauma) factorial design. Participants also completed questionnaire measures of subjective well-being and released health center information for the year. Participants who wrote only about trauma or perceived benefits showed significantly fewer health center visits for illness 3 months after writing. In addition, 5 months after writing, the trauma-only and perceived-benefits-only groups maintained a difference from the control group. These results suggest that writing about perceived benefits from traumatic events may provide a less upsetting but effective way to benefit from writing.
Dispositional Affect and Leadership Effectiveness: A Comparison of Self-Esteem, Optimism, and Efficacy
Authors: Chemers Martin M. , Watson Carl B. , May Stephen T.
Published: June 2007

A two-part study examined the effects of leadership efficacy and optimism on the evaluation and performance of military cadet leaders. Cadets at several universities responded to measures of leadership confidence and optimism. In Part 1, the cadets (n = 96) were rated for leadership potential by their military science professors. Both leadership efficacy and optimism were associated with rated leadership potential. Part 2 followed most of the same cadets (n = 64) to U.S. Army summer leadership training. Leadership efficacy, but not optimism, was strongly related to performance evaluations by objective observers in a leadership simulation and to leadership ratings by peers and superiors. A measure of general self-esteem was not an independent predictor of leadership performance ratings, and neither leadership efficacy nor optimism predicted nonleadership performance measures. These findings suggest that self-rated leadership efficacy has concurrent, predictive, and discriminant validity as a contributor to leadership evaluations.
Personality, Nonverbal Behavior, and Interaction Quality in Female Dyads
Authors: Berry Diane S. , Hansen Jane Sherman
Published: June 2007

Female dyads were videotaped while they took part in an initial social interaction. Participants subsequently evaluated their encounter along several qualitative dimensions. Independent observers also rated the interactions, and a variety of behaviors were coded from the videotapes. Dyad-level analyses revealed that agreeableness, openness, and extraversion predicted observers’ evaluations of interaction quality. Individual-level analyses further indicated that agreeableness and extraversion predicted participants’ perceptions of interaction quality. Links between personality and social behavior were revealed as well. Variations in visual attention and body position accounted for the relations found between dyads’ levels of agreeableness and independent observers’ evaluations of interaction quality. Visual attention further mediated the relation revealed between openness and observers’ ratings of quality. This work reveals that self-reports of personality can reliably predict the course of social interaction and identifies some specific behaviors though which this may occur.
Attitudinal Ambivalence and the Conflict between Group and System Justification Motives in Low Status Groups
Authors: Jost John T. , Burgess Diana
Published: June 2007

It is argued that members of low status groups are faced with a psychological conflict between group justification tendencies to evaluate members of one’s own group favorably and system justification tendencies to endorse the superiority of higher status out-groups. In Study 1, members of low status groups exhibited less ingroup favoritism and more ingroup ambivalence than did members of high status groups. Perceptions that the status differences were legitimate increased outgroup favoritism and ambivalence among low status groups, and they increased ingroup favoritism and decreased ambivalence among high status groups. In Study 2, the belief in a just world and social dominance orientation increased ambivalence on the part of women toward female victims of gender discrimination, but they decreased ambivalence on the part of men. Evidence here indicates that system-justifying variables increase ingroup ambivalence among low status group members and decrease ambivalence among high status group members.
The Relations among Causality Orientations, Academic Experience, Academic Performance, and Academic Commitment
Authors: Wong Maria Mei-Ha
Published: June 2007

The relations among causality orientations (autonomy and control), experience while studying, academic commitment, and academic performance were investigated. The role of gender in moderating such relations was examined. Participants were 161 (70 male, 91 female) talented high school students who completed the General Causality Orientations Scale (GCOS) and filled out the Experience Sampling Forms (ESF) for 1 week. Results showed that autonomy orientation was positively related to academic experience for all students. Control orientation was negatively related to academic experience among females. After controlling for aptitude, control orientation had a negative relation with academic performance and commitment.
Competence Valuation as a Strategic Intrinsic Motivation Process
Authors: Elliot Andrew J. , Faler Jennifer , McGregor Holly A. , Campbell W. Keith , Sedikides Constantine , Harackiewicz Judith M.
Published: June 2007

This research investigated the strategic use of competence valuation in achievement settings and examined the consequences of implementing this self-enhancement strategy for intrinsic motivation. In two studies, participants reported higher competence valuation following positive feedback; in turn, competence valuation was positively related to intrinsic motivation. Competence valuation mediated the direct relationship between feedback and intrinsic motivation, and this mediation was independent of perceived competence, which also served a mediational function. Study 2 identified the specific nature of the observed effects. Participants receiving positive feedback reported higher competence valuation (and perceived competence), which led to enhanced intrinsic motivation; the reciprocal processes were not operative for those receiving negative feedback.
Perceived Support, Social Undermining, and Emotion: Idiosyncratic and Shared Perspectives of Adolescents and their Families
Authors: McCaskill John W. , Lakey Brian
Published: June 2007

Self-report measures of perceived social support and social undermining consistently have been linked to mental health. Such measures of social relations reflect both shared social reality and respondents’ idiosyncratic perceptions, and each of these two components can have different relations to outcomes. This study investigated the extent to which the shared and idiosyncratic components of support and undermining were related to emotion. A clinical sample of 50 adolescents and their family members completed measures of perceived social support and undermining in the family, social desirability, and positive and negative affect. Shared social reality and idiosyncratic perception had different links to emotion depending on the social construct and the emotion. For social undermining, both shared perceptions and adolescents’ idiosyncratic perceptions independently predicted negative affect. For perceived support, only adolescents’ idiosyncratic perceptions predicted positive affect. Consistent with prior research, support was primarily associated with positive affect, whereas social undermining was primarily related to negative affect.
Two Threats to the Common Good: Self-Interested Egoism and Empathy-Induced Altruism
Authors: Batson C. Daniel , Ahmad Nadia , Yin Jodi , Bedell Steven J. , Johnson Jennifer W. , Templin Christie M.
Published: June 2007

In each of two experiments, some participants chose between allocation of resources to the group as a whole or to themselves alone (egoism condition); some chose between allocation to a group or to a group member for whom they were induced to feel empathy (altruism condition); and some chose between allocation to a group or to a member for whom empathy was not induced (baseline condition). When the decision was private, allocation to the group was significantly—and similarly—lower in the egoism and altruism conditions compared to the baseline. When the decision was public, allocation to the group was significantly lower only in the altruism condition. These results indicated, first, that both egoism and altruism can be potent threats to the common good and, second, that anticipated social evaluation is a powerful inhibitor of the egoistic but not the altruistic threat.
Free Choice and Cognitive Dissonance Revisited: Choosing “Lesser Evils” Versus “Greater Goods”
Authors: Shultz Thomas R. , Léveillé Elène , Lepper Mark R.
Published: June 2007

Traditional dissonance theory predicts a spreading apart of chosen and rejected alternatives following a decision. More recent constraint satisfaction models of this classic free-choice paradigm suggest that these effects may vary with the overall attractiveness of the choice options. This prediction was tested with 13-year-olds choosing among posters. As in prior computer simulations, a difficult choice between generally less desirable alternatives produced a large increase in participants’ evaluations of the chosen alternative, whereas a difficult choice between generally more desirable alternatives produced a large decrease in evaluations of the rejected alternative. The results were discussed in terms of the relative amounts of dissonance created in the various conditions. The utility of the consonance constraint satisfaction model that generated these novel predictions was stressed.
The Commitment Calibration Hypothesis: When Do People Devalue Attractive Alternatives?
Authors: Lydon John E. , Meana Marta , Sepinwall Deborah , Richards Nancy , Mayman Shari
Published: June 2007

The authors theorized that adversity elicits relationship maintenance responses when level of adversity is calibrated with level of commitment. To test this, the authors examined the commitment-devaluation effect: Those committed to a close relationship are thought to devalue attractive alternatives. Two levels of adversity were operationalized. Participants evaluated an attractive alternative (moderate threat), or participants evaluated the same target after learning that the target was attracted to them (high threat). Unmarried and low on a relationship commitment scale was considered low commitment; unmarried but high or married but low on the scale were considered moderately committed. Finally married and high on the scale was considered high commitment. Under moderate threat, moderately committed rated the alternative as less attractive than those low and high in commitment. Under high threat, those high in commitment rated the alternative as less attractive than those low and moderately committed. Gender differences and comparisons with single people were examined.
The Review Process at PSPB: Correlates of Interreviewer Agreement and Manuscript Acceptance
Authors: Petty Richard E. , Fleming Monique A. , Fabrigar Leandre R.
Published: June 2007

Reviewer agreement and the predictors of publication judgments were investigated for first-submission manuscripts to the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin during a 3 1/2—year period (i.e., one editor’s tenure). Among the findings were the following: Reviewers’ judgments of manuscripts were multirather than unidimensional; reviewer agreement about methodology and overall recommendation was greater among high-prestige than mixed-prestige reviewers; authors with high prestige and authors with low professional experience submitted longer manuscripts than their counterparts; author prestige and text length were positively related to publication judgments of reviewers and editors; and author gender was related to editor’s decisions with female authors receiving less favorable decisions than males. The possible mediation of these findings and their implications for understanding the peer-review process in personality and social psychology are discussed.
The Missing Link in the Paradox of the Linda Conjunction Problem: Beyond Knowing and Thinking of the Conjunction Rule, the Intrinsic Appeal of Heuristic Processing
Authors: Epstein Seymour , Donovan Sean , Denes-Raj Veronika
Published: June 2007

Participants who adopted an intuitive-experiential but not an analytical-rational mode of information processing reproduced the usual finding for the Linda conjunction problem of a preference for a heuristic, representativeness over a statistical, conjunction-rule solution. Many who knew and thought of the conjunction rule (the absence of which previously were considered the major reasons for the prevalence of representativeness solutions) preferred a representativeness solution. The widely held belief that people prefer the outcome of their rational more than their intuitive processing when both are equally accessible is of limited generality. The preference by many who know the conjunction rule for a heuristic, representativeness solution can account for both the very high rate of conjunction errors to the Linda problem and their resistance to elimination by training. A finding of a surprisingly strong priming effect suggests that once people engage in a processing mode, it tends to be self-maintaining.
Intrinsic Versus Identified Regulation in Distinct Political Campaigns: The Consequences of Following Politics for Pleasure Versus Personal Meaningfulness
Authors: Losier Gaëtan F. , Koestner Richard
Published: June 2007

Intrinsic and identified regulation were examined in the context of two Canadian political campaigns. It was anticipated that identification (but not intrinsic motivation) would lead to positive outcomes when one is involved in an activity that is not necessarily fun but self-relevant, such as following a personally valued political event. Questionnaires were completed by 216 college students 1 week before and 1 week after the 1995 New Brunswick election and Quebec referendum. As predicted, results revealed that identification (but not intrinsic motivation) was significantly positively associated with the personal relevance of the vote, pleasant emotions about the vote outcome, and reported voting. Surprisingly, in the highly emotional Quebec referendum, intrinsic motivation was significantly associated with experiencing less pleasant emotions about a favorable vote outcome. The personal relevance of the campaign also mediated the process by which identification predicted to positive outcomes.
Attributional Style, Depression, and Loneliness: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of American and Chinese Students
Authors: Anderson Craig A.
Published: June 2007

Completing measures of attributional style, depression, and loneliness were 198 college students from the East China Normal University in Shanghai, China, and 193 participants from the University of Missouri at Columbia. Students from China accepted more responsibility for interpersonal and noninterpersonal failures than did U.S. students. They also took less credit for interpersonal success than did U.S. students. These relatively maladaptive attributional styles by Chinese students accounted for much of their relatively higher scores on depression and loneliness. The sample differences in attributional style fit well with previous research showing that the United States is a relatively more independent culture and that China is a relatively more interdependent culture. Finally, the observed relations between attributional style and depression and loneliness were very similar across these two samples, perhaps reflecting cross-cultural generality of fundamental human needs for feeling efficacious. Implications for attribution theories and models of cross-cultural differences were discussed.
White Guilt: Its Antecedents and Consequences for Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action
Authors: Swim Janet K. , Miller Deborah L.
Published: June 2007

Four studies examine the strength of feelings of White guilt, the relationship between White guilt and possible antecedents to this guilt, and the consequences of White guilt for attitudes toward affirmative action. Even though mean White guilt tended to be low, with the mean being just below the midpoint of the scale, the range and variability confirms the existence of feelings of White guilt for some. White guilt was associated with more negative personal evaluations of Whites and the theoretical antecedents of stronger beliefs in the existence of White privilege, greater estimates of the prevalence of discrimination against Blacks, and low prejudice against Blacks. Finally, results indicate that White guilt mediated the relationship from White privilege and beliefs about the prevalence of discrimination to attitudes toward affirmative action, and both White guilt and prejudice independently predicted attitudes toward affirmative action.
Gaining Control through Counterfactual Thinking
Authors: Nasco Suzanne Altobello , Marsh Kerry L.
Published: June 2007

The control-gaining influence of counterfactual thought was examined in a month-long study of real-life exam performances. Participants were contacted immediately after receiving a test grade, the day before their next test, and right after receiving their second grade. Previous research has proposed that upward counterfactuals lead to improved future performance. The present study aimed to identify mediators of this process. Participants who generated more upward counterfactuals were predicted to perceive enhanced control over the environment and to engage in more action on their environment. Subsequent test performance should thus improve. Results showed that the tendency to generate upward counterfactuals was correlated with later changes in circumstances, which in turn, was associated with higher perceptions of control; control perceptions were correlated with better subsequent grades. Implications of results for social cognition, action, and control processes are discussed.
Engaging the Self in the Field: Testing the Triangle Model of Responsibility
Authors: Britt Thomas W.
Published: June 2007

This study tested the Triangle Model of Responsibility in predicting the experience and effects of self-engagement among U.S. Army soldiers. The different components of the Triangle Model independently predicted engagement in different samples. Furthermore, differences in engagement among units during a military operation were a function of the components of the model. Another study showed that soldiers’ perceptions of their leaders’ views of the components of the model predicted soldiers’ views of how much their leaders thought they were engaged in their job and that discrepancies between soldiers’ own views and their views of their leaders were related to lower trust and confidence in unit leaders. Finally, work-related experiences were more likely to be related to the psychological health of soldiers when they were engaged in their jobs than when they were disengaged. The results shed light on the role of self-engagement in the process of self-regulation.
Strategic Behaviors in Romantic Relationship Initiation
Authors: Clark Catherine L. , Shaver Phillip R. , Abrahams Matthew F.
Published: June 2007

Two studies were conducted to examine the strategies used to initiate romantic relationships. In Study 1, participants responded to questions about general romantic relationship initiation strategies derived from the literature. In Study 2, participants wrote narrative accounts of their romantic relationship initiation experiences, which were coded for relationship goals and initiation strategies. The effect of biological sex on the evaluation and use of relationship initiation strategies was assessed in both studies. Overall, the normative pattern of goals and strategies prominently included love and intimacy goals and direct and emotional-disclosure strategies. Men tended to be more active and direct in the beginning stages of relational development and to be more interested than women in the goal of sexual intimacy; women used passive and indirect strategies more often than men. Results are discussed in terms of Buss and Schmitt’s sexual strategies theory and Reis and Shaver’s model of interpersonal intimacy.
Does the Temporal Stability of Behavioral Intentions Moderate Intention-Behavior and Past Behavior-Future Behavior Relations?
Authors: Sheeran Paschal , Orbell Sheina , Trafimow David
Published: June 2007

This study tested the hypothesis that the temporal stability of behavioral intentions moderates relationships between intentions and behavior and between previous experience and subsequent performance. Respondents (N = 164) completed measures of theory of planned behavior variables, with respect to studying over the winter vacation, at two time points prior to the vacation and subsequently reported their study behavior. Intention stability was computed from within-participants correlations between Time 1 and Time 2 intention items. Intention stability moderated the intention-behavior relation such that stable intentions were more likely to be enacted than unstable intentions. The past behavior-future behavior relation was also moderated by intention stability. When intentions were stable, past behavior was not related to subsequent performance. In contrast, when intentions were unstable, past behavior was the best predictor of future behavior. Findings also revealed that theory of planned behavior variables and past behavior had different associations with stable as compared to unstable intentions.
Influence of Impression-Management Goals on the Emerging Contents of Group Stereotypes: Support for a Social-Evolutionary Process
Authors: Schaller Mark , Conway Lucian Gideon
Published: June 2007

Why do consensually shared group stereotypes have the contents that they do? A social-evolutionary perspective suggests that the emergent contents of stereotypes are influenced by the contents of interpersonal communications, which themselves may be influenced by individuals’ motives and goals. Three experiments tested hypotheses drawn from this perspective. In all experiments, participants in dyads read information describing members of groups about which they held no previous beliefs, and they communicated with each other about that information. In Experiment 1, a manipulation of the contents of interpersonal communication influenced the content of stereotypes formed. In Experiments 2 and 3, a manipulation of participants’ impression-management goals influenced the contents of communication and also influenced the eventual content of stereotypes. Additional results from Experiments 2 and 3 provided evidence specifically implicating the role of actual communication in determining stereotype content. These results have implications for the formation of group stereotypes and the origins of cultural beliefs in general.
Feeling and Speaking: Mood Effects on Verbal Communication Strategies
Authors: Forgas Joseph P.
Published: June 2007

What is the role of affect in language use, and the production of requests ini particular? Two experiments predicted and found that (a) sad moods increase and happy moods decrease request politeness, and (b) these mood effects are greater when considering more risky and unconventional requests that require more elaborate processing. In Experiment 1, sad persons preferred more polite requests, and decisions about unconventional requests were particularly sensitive to affective influences. Experiment 2 used an unobtrusive method to elicit natural requests in a conversation. Negative affect produced greater politeness and longer delays in posing requests. Recall data and mediational analyses confirmed that greater mood effects were linked to the more extensive processing recruited by unconventional requests, consistent with the Affect Infusion Model (AIM). The cognitive mechanisms that mediate mood effects on language production are discussed, and the implications of the findings for strategic communication and for theories of affect and cognition are considered.
Expectations of Others’ Social Value Orientations in Specific and General Populations
Authors: Iedema Jurjen , Poppe Matthijs
Published: June 2007

This research focuses on the relation between participants’ social orientations and their expectations of others’ orientations. Participants were 145 adolescents who were classified according to a prosocial, individualistic, or competitive orientation. Participants were asked for their expectations of the occurrence of prosocial, individualistic, and competitive people in four populations, varying from specific to general (friends, classmates, schoolmates, peers, respectively). The triangle hypothesis, the structured assumed similarity bias, and the selective exposure and availability model could only partly explain the results. The decrease in consensus expectations from specific to general populations that was displayed by prosocials and competitors, but not by individualists, was best explained by the slightly extended uniqueness bias: The tendency to underestimate the proportion of people who will perform socially desirable actions is stronger for general than for specific populations.
Effects of the Difference in the Amount of Group Preferential Information on Illusory Correlation
Authors: Chun Woo-Young , Lee Hoon-Koo
Published: June 2007

This article examined the effects of the difference between the amount of information preferential to Group A (A+ minus A-) and information preferential to Group B (B+ minus B-) on illusory correlation. In Experiment 1, participants rated Group A (majority) more positively and Group B (minority) more negatively in the condition in which the difference in the amount of preferential information between the groups was larger, even when the distinctiveness of the infrequent information of the minority group was the same. Furthermore, illusory correlation in the frequency estimation and cued-recall tasks was found to be more significant in the larger difference condition. In Experiment 2, greater cognitive load did not increase illusory correlation given that the difference in the amount of group preferential information was equal. In Experiment 3, even when the exact ratio of desirable to undesirable behaviors of both groups was completely made known through a summary table, participants made differential group evaluations based on the difference in the amount of group preferential information. Such results imply that the difference in the amount of group preferential information serves as the minimum requirement in the formation of differential impressions of groups in an illusory correlation paradigm.
Gone but not Forgotten: Loyalty and Betrayal among Ex-Members of Small Groups
Authors: Moreland Richard L. , McMinn Jamie G.
Published: June 2007

Laboratory groups were formed, given an engaging task to perform, and then dissolved into new, smaller groups. Each of those groups produced an art poster. Every poster was then evaluated, first by the group itself and then by another group whose members came from the same source group (ingroup exchange) or from a different source group (outgroup exchange). Posters were evaluated more generously when ingroup rather than outgroup exchanges were made, especially when identification with the source group was strong. Every group later received the same negative evaluation of its poster, apparently from its exchange partner. This (bogus) criticism was more upsetting when in-group rather than outgroup exchanges were made, especially when identification with the source group was strong. These findings were discussed and several ideas for future studies of loyalty and betrayal were offered.
The Role of the Big Five Personality Dimensions in the Direction and Affective Consequences of Everyday Social Comparisons
Authors: Olson Bradley D. , Evans David L.
Published: June 2007

The authors investigated the role of personality in everyday social comparisons. Participants were 133 students who completed the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised. For the following 2 weeks, they recorded their comparisons and positive and negative affect using the Rochester Social Comparison Record. Analysis using Hierarchical Linear Modeling showed that people high in Neuroticism reported a greater increase in positive affect after comparing downward than people low on the dimension. Furthermore, people high in Extraversion and low in Agreeableness compared downward more. People high in Openness compared upward more and reported less of a decrease in positive affect after making these comparisons. These findings are discussed in relation to downward comparison theory, the selective-priming model, and the attributes of the five personality dimensions.
Culture, Self-Discrepancies, and Self-Satisfaction
Authors: Heine Steven J. , Lehman Darrin R.
Published: June 2007

In contrast to the reliable effects observed with North Americans, research with Japanese has failed to detect self-enhancing biases. The authors considered the possibility that, owing to the need to adapt themselves to others’ expectations, Japanese are more critical of themselves than are North Americans. A comparison of actual-ideal self-discrepancies indeed revealed larger discrepancies for Japanese than for either European or Asian Canadians. Moreover, the magnitude of the cultural differences were larger for characteristics that participants viewed as more important, and the relation between depression scores and actual-ideal discrepancies was weaker for Japanese than for European Canadians. The data support the notions that (a) Japanese are more likely than North Americans to be dissatisfied with themselves and (b) these self-critical attitudes are less distressful for Japanese.
Subjective Uncertainty and Intergroup Discrimination in the Minimal Group Situation
Authors: Grieve Paul G. , Hogg Michael A.
Published: June 2007

Minimal group studies are sometimes interpreted as showing that social categorization per se inevitably produces discrimination. Self-categorization theory clarifies this point, suggesting that a process of self-categorization must occur to transform an external categorization into an internalized representation. Hogg and Abrams suggest that the underlying motive for self-categorization is the reduction of subjective uncertainty. Two minimal group experiments employing different manipulations of uncertainty were conducted in which categorization and subjective uncertainty were manipulated in a 2× 2 design. Across both studies, as hypothesized, intergroup discrimination only occurred when participants were categorized under conditions of subjective uncertainty. This was accompanied by enhanced group identification and elevated self-esteem. It is concluded that categorization per se is necessary but not sufficient for discrimination—people must self-categorize, and this is motivated by a need for subjective uncertainty reduction. Discrimination is not an inevitable outcome of categorization.
Style of Anger Expression: Relation to Expressivity, Personality, and Health
Authors: Martin René , Wan Choi K. , David James P. , Wegner Elizabeth L. , Olson Bradley D. , Watson David
Published: June 2007

Three studies explored the associations among style of anger expression, emotional expressivity, Big Five personality traits, somatic complaints, and self-reported health behaviors among undergraduate and community-residing participants. Unlike measures of emotional expressivity, which tend to be most strongly related to Extraversion, anger-in and anger-out primarily were associated with Neuroticism and Agreeableness, respectively. Anger-in was positively related to somatic complaints but failed to predict symptoms after controlling for Neuroticism. Anger-out was positively associated with both somatic complaints and self-reported health behaviors, even after controlling for Neuroticism and Agreeableness. Measures of emotional expressivity provided further information regarding style of anger expression. Anger-in was associated with a general tendency to be emotionally inexpressive, whereas anger-out was more specifically related to the expression of angry emotions.
Self-Liking, Self-Competence, and the Quest for Self-Verification
Authors: Bosson Jennifer K. , Swann William B.
Published: June 2007

Whereas past researchers have assumed that global feelings of self-worth guide people’s feedback-seeking activities, the authors propose that people’s more specific feelings of self-liking and self-competence are crucial in this domain. The authors found that only self-liking predicted perceived accuracy of and choice of feedback designed to bear on global, low self-esteem. In contrast, self-liking and self-competence each related uniquely to perceived accuracy of and choice of feedback that was designed specifically to target these self-views. Moreover, the data suggest that the relations between self-views and feedback preferences are mediated by people’s perceptions of the accuracy of feedback. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for a growing understanding of the dual components of self-esteem and for refining the methodologies used in feedback-seeking and self-esteem research.