bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Group-Based Emotional Distress: An Extension of Self-Discrepancy Theory
Authors: Bizman Aharon , Yinon Yoel , Krotman Sharon
Published: March 2007

The authors examined whether discrepancies related to the group-based aspects of the self are differentially associated with distinct group-based emotional distress. Perceived actual, ideal, and ought attributes; group-based dejection and agitation-related emotions; and collective self-esteem and fear of negative evaluation of Israelis were assessed among 118 native Israelis. The actual-ideal group discrepancy was uniquely related to dejection-related emotions and to private collective self-esteem (CSE). In contrast, the actual-ought group discrepancy was uniquely linked to agitation-related emotions and to fear of negative Israeli evaluation. Furthermore, the actual-ought discrepancy association with fear of negative group evaluation was present only among low identifiers. Overall, the findings suggest the applicability of self-discrepancy theory in explaining emotional distress resulting from group membership.
Does Multiple Categorization Reduce Intergroup Bias?
Authors: Crisp Richard J. , Hewstone Miles , Rubin Mark
Published: March 2007

Two experiments explored whether crossing social category memberships can reduce intergroup bias. Experiment 1 provided a precise comparison between discrimination against single outgroups, partial outgroups, and double outgroups. Intergroup bias and perceived intergroup similarity followed an additive pattern such that partial outgroups were discriminated against as much as single outgroups, whereas both were discriminated against to a lesser extent than double outgroups. In Experiment 2, a more realistic form of crossing was employed whereby five additional dimensions of categorization were considered by participants instead of the traditional two. In line with a decategorization perspective, intergroup bias was reduced in both multiple group conditions relative to the single categorization (baseline) condition. Participants perceived a weakened intergroup structure and displayed a greater tendency to see outgroup members as individuals in multiple group conditions; however, only perceived intergroup structure mediated the pattern of intergroup bias. The implications of these findings for conceptualizations of crossed categorization are discussed.
Multilevel Random Coefficient Analyses of Event- and Interval-Contingent Data in Social and Personality Psychology Research
Authors: Nezlek John B.
Published: March 2007

Increasingly, social and personality psychologists are conducting studies in which data are collected simultaneously at multiple levels, with hypotheses concerning effects that involve multiple levels of analysis. In studies of naturally occurring social interaction, data describing people and their social interactions are collected simultaneously. This article discuses how to analyze such data using random coefficient modeling. Analyzing data describing day-to-day social interaction is used to illustrate the analysis of event-contingent data (when specific events trigger or organize data collection), and analyzing data describing reactions to daily events is used to illustrate the analysis of interval-contingent data (when data are collected at intervals). Different analytic strategies are presented, the shortcomings of ordinary least squares analyses are described, and the use of multilevel random coefficient modeling is discussed in detail. Different modeling techniques, the specifics of formulating and testing hypotheses, and the differences between fixed and random effects are also considered.
Changes in Impression Complexity Over Time and Across Situations
Authors: Welbourne Jennifer L.
Published: March 2007

This set of studies tested the idea that higher levels of acquaintance with an individual would be associated with greater impression complexity. Two aspects of acquaintance were examined: length of relationship and contextual diversity of interactions. In Study 1, participants provided written descriptions of acquaintances known for different lengths of time and at different levels of contextual diversity. Contextual diversity in interactions with an acquaintance was associated with (a) less evaluative and descriptive consistency in impressions, (b) greater contextual differentiation in impressions, and (c) the development of causal theories to explain the acquaintance’s behaviors. In Study 2, impression complexity was assessed using a trait-sort task. Contextual diversity, but not length of relationship, was associated with higher complexity scores.
Romanian Authoritarianism 10 Years after Communism
Authors: Krauss Stephen W.
Published: March 2007

Four studies were conducted examining authoritarianism in Romania. It was found that authoritarianism could be measured reliably and was consistently related to political attitudes, political support, and prejudice. More specifically, authoritarianism was positively related to support for communist principles of distributive justice and a communist economy. However, authoritarianism was unrelated to actual support for the socialist left, positively related to support for the noncommunist, fascist right, and negatively related to support for the pro-Western centrist parties. The strength and consistency of the findings more than 10 years after the fall of communism suggest that authoritarianism’s relationship with communism in Eastern Europe might be more resistant to change than originally thought and may extend on to future generations. Implications for current authoritarianism theory are discussed.
Happy Accidents: Defensive Attribution or Rational Calculus?
Authors: Younger Jonathan C. , Earn Brian M. , Arrowood A. John
Published: March 2007

In a recent study by Shaw and Skolnick (1971), subjects rated a target person as less responsible for accidents having a desirable outcome than for those whose outcomes were more unpleasant. They propose that such findings reflect defensive attribution. The present study questions the empirical basis for their argument. Specifically, it is suggested that differences in perceived responsibility may better reflect differences in the subjective probabilities assigned their accident scenarios than differential ego-defensiveness. The results lend strong support to a reinterpretation of Shaw and Skolnick's findings in nonmotivational terms. The relevance of these effects to the defensive attribution hypothesis is discussed.
Helping as a Function of Number of Bystanders and Ambiguity of Emergency
Authors: Solomon Linda Zener , Solomon Henry , Stone Ronald
Published: March 2007

Previous research has shown that bystanders in groups are less likely to intervene in emergencies than bystanders who are alone (a "numbers effect"). In the present research, in one field and three lab studies, this numbers effect was stronger and there was less help when an emergency could be heard only rather than both seen and heard.
Is Social Psychology Interdisciplinary?
Authors: Wilson David W. , Schafer Robert B.
Published: March 2007

This study assessed to what extent social psychology is truly an interdisciplinary cross of psychology and sociology. A selected sample of social psychologists provided information as to topics researched, methods used, textbooks used, journals read and published in, social psychologists having made the greatest contri- butions and training. Little overlap existed with regard to such data between the groups of sociological and psychological social psychologists. Those who called themseves both psychological and sociological social psychologists proved to be more interdiscipli- nary. Some implications of these findings were discussed.
Evidence for the Self as a Cognitive Prototype: The "False Alarms Effect"
Authors: Rogers T. B. , Rogers P. J. , Kuiper N. A.
Published: March 2007

In a recognition memory study involving personal adjectives, the number of false alarms was found to increase with degree of self-reference of the adjectives. This was interpreted as: (1) evidence that the self is an important aspect of processing personal information, and (2) that the self functions as a cognitive prototype. The self can be seen to be a large and complex prototype that imparts a bias in processing personal information. This bias to perceive new, self-descriptive adjectives as being previously seen, has import for a theory of self and other-referent information processing.
Person-Situation Interaction Models
Authors: Howard Judith A.
Published: March 2007

In a review of recent articles on person-situation interactionism, A.R. Buss argues that the authors confuse two distinct interaction models representing incompatible metaphysical systems. The two models specified are shown to be overlapping components of one more general model. Moreover, the incompatibility of metaphysical systems is questioned. Relevant methodological approaches are also considered.
The Integration of Social and Clinical Psychology Training Programs
Authors: Harvey John H. , Weary Gifford
Published: March 2007

We propose that the development of an integrated approach to clinical social psychology might be a fruitful direction for graduate training programs. We argue that conceptually such an approach would foster better understanding by clinical students of the varied social psychological processes involved in psychopathology and treatment, and that it would enhance social students' understanding of the therapeutic processes and the observational skills integral to clinical practice. Finally, some potential benefits of and reasons for making explicit the conceptual and programmatic links between clinical and social training programs are presented.
Nonverbal Intimacy in Airport Arrival and Departure
Authors: Heslin Richard , Boss Diane
Published: March 2007

Observers at an airport coded the nonverbal behavior of 103 pairs composed of a traveler and someone who was greeting or saying goodbye to him or her. It was found: (1) The intimacy of the relationship between two people relates positively to both the likelihood they will be at the airport together (Rho = .74) and the non-verbal intimacy of their encounter (Rho = .54); (2) men tended to initiate touch with women more than vice versa; and (3) the general trend was for more intimate touching to be less frequent (Rho = -.42).
Physical Attractiveness, Race, and Essay Evaluation
Authors: Maruyama Geoffrey , Miller Norman
Published: March 2007

Three experiments examined the impact of race and facial attractiveness upon evaluations received by essay writers. From one perspective, distinct stereotypes for race and attractiveness each should be reflected in any evaluations. From a second perspective, when outgroup members possess a favorable attribute, such as attractiveness, ingroup members may (a) misperceive and alter its meaning or (b) alter their perception of other traits possessed by those outgroup members, and consequently rate those outgroup members less favorably than other outgroup members. Although data from a prior naturalistic study suggested that this latter perspective would be supported, it was not.
Cognitive "Priming" of Principled Moral Thought
Authors: La Rue Asenath , Olejnik Anthony B.
Published: March 2007

Principled moral reasoning was studied in relation to procedures designed to elicit either formal operational or concrete operational cognitive sets. College students were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions (formal operational priming, concrete operational priming, or control) prior to completing Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT). Mean P-scores on the DIT were significantly higher in the formal operational priming condition than in either of the other conditions. Cognitive and motivational interpretations of the findings are presented.
Voting for Unknown Candidates
Authors: Babad Elisha Y.
Published: March 2007

In the primary elections in Israel's Democratic Movement for Change, voters ranked up to 30 candidates out of a list of 151. In this study voters were asked to explain their reasons for selecting candidates who were totally unknown to them except for a 100-word presentation in a candidates booklet. Spontaneous, open-ended responses stressed candidates' demographic and record data more strongly than personality attributes and platform, while the reverse was true for closed-ended ratings of 18 categories explaining the selection of the same unknown candidates. The pattern of the closed-ended ratings was similar to the patterns of dimensions considered important in selection of candidates in general. These results are discussed in terms of Nisbett and Wilson's ideas concerning cognitive distortions in verbal explanations of behavior, raising the issue of experimental versus ecological validity.
Physical Attractiveness and Expectations of Success
Authors: Abbott Aaron R. , Sebastian Richard J.
Published: March 2007

To examine the relationship between physical attractiveness and expectations of success, 60 women rated their expected success at social and nonsocial tasks and their physical attractiveness. Observers also judged the women's overall and facial physical attractiveness. Self and observers' overall ratings of physical attractiveness correlated positively with success expectations in social situations. These ratings of physical attractiveness were particularly predictive of success expectations for affective relationships, but less predictive of success expectations for tasks requiring manipulative, skilled, or intellectual abilities. A lifespan developmental explanation of the forces of reciprocal determinism was offered as an interpretation of these results.
Manipulating Salience
Authors: Schwarz Norbert , Strack Fritz
Published: March 2007

A procedure is suggested for identifying causal effects when it is impossible to manipulate the independent variable of interest or to control confounded variables statistically. If a variable has a causal influence, this influence should be more pronounced when the variable is salient than when it is not. The applicability of this salience approach is illustrated in a study on the effects of the German job-ban policy on the politic al behaviors of individuals. Applications and limitations of the approach are discussed.
The Influence of Shyness on Loneliness in a New Situation
Authors: Cheek Jonathan M. , Busch Catherine M.
Published: March 2007

Subjects completed a trait-measure of shyness and a state-measure of loneliness at the start of a new semester (Time 1), and repeated the loneliness measure at the end of the semester (Time 2). Shy students had significantly higher loneliness scores than unshy students at Time 1. Both groups showed a decline in loneliness over the length of the semester, presumably due to habituation, but the shy students were still significantly lonelier than the unshy students at the end of the semester. These findings indicate that both social situations (such as the novel circumstances of a new semester) and personality dispositions (such as shyness) contribute to the amount of loneliness that an individual may experience.
Pattern of Performance and Attributions of Ability and Gender
Authors: McAndrew Francis T.
Published: March 2007

In a single experiment, 92 subjects corrected a multiple choice test in which a phantom stimulus person (SP) correctly answered 15 out of3O questions in either a descending or ascending pattern of success. Subjects were then asked to make judgments concerning the person's performance, intelligence, and gender. Contrary to expectations, the lack of cues about the person and nature of the test problems enhanced rather than diminished the primacy effect for ability attribution found by earlier investigators. The performer with the descending success rate was perceived as having correctly solved more problems, as being more intelligent, and was expected to perform better on future problems. Subjects exposed to the descending pattern of success were also significantly more willing to attribute a particular sex to the stimulus person. The discussion of the results centered around the relative importance of person cues for confidence in making ability attributions, as well as possible differences in the subjective importance of the information conveyed by ascending and descending patterns of success.
Reversible and Irreversible Decisions
Authors: Frey Dieter
Published: March 2007

The present experiment determined whether preference for consonant or dissonant information differs when (a) decisions are reversible instead of irreversible, and (b) when different amounts of dissonance are induced. Dissonance was manipulated by having subjects make decisions between alternatives with varying degrees of similarity in attractiveness. Subjects' preference for consonant information was generally stronger after making irreversible decisions than after making reversible ones. When decisions were irreversible, the relative preference for consonant over dissonant information increased with the similarity in attractiveness of the decision alternatives. When decisions were reversible, the relative preference for consonant information decreased with the similarity in attractiveness of the alternatives. In accordance to earlier investigations on selective exposure, experimental manipulation did not affect the avoidance of dissonance information. The results are interpreted in terms of both dissonance theory and choice certainty theory.
Attentional Determinants of Success at Detecting Deception and Truth
Authors: DePaulo Bella M. , Lassiter G. Daniel , Stone Julie L.
Published: March 2007

Subjects, 22 males and 22 females, observed a videotape of 6 males and 6females who were sometimes lying and sometimes telling the truth. Subjects were instructed to pay special attention to the tone of voice, the words, or the visual cues of the senders, or were given no special attentional instructions (control condition). Subjects told to pay particular attention to the tone of voice were significantly more successful at distinguishing truth from deception than subjects in the control condition. Further analyses showed that the instructions to subjects to attend to tone significantly increased the degree to which they rated the truthful messages as truthful, but it did not increase the degree to which the;' rated the deceptive messages as deceptive. It was suggested that tone of voice cues may be particularly informative to perceivers making judgments of truthfulness, and that perceivers do not always take full advantage of the cues that are available to them.
Finding Fault Versus Attributing Responsibility
Authors: Pallak Suzanne R. , Davies Jacqueline M.
Published: March 2007

To clarify the processes underlying attribution of responsibility and assignment of fault to a victim, female undergraduates read one of four descriptions of a rape perpetrated b, an assailant who had followed the victim home on previous occasions (assault premeditated) or had not (assault not premeditated), against a victim who attempted to take precautions (precautions attempted) or failed to do so (precautions not attempted). More fault was assigned to the victim who failed to take precautions than to the victim who attempted to take precautions. In addition, an interaction was obtained on the responsibility measure such that the maximum responsibility was attributed to the victim who failed to take precautions when the assailant's behavior suggested that his assault was not premeditated. Thus, in judging a rape victim women use information about the victim to assign fault, but they use information about actions of both victim and assailant to attribute responsibility.
Alcohol and Rape
Authors: Richardson Deborah , Campbell Jennifer L.
Published: March 2007

This study examined the effects of victim and offender intoxication on attributions of blame in a rape incident. Participants read scenarios of a rape incident in which victim, offender, both, or neither were intoxicated. The male offender was attributed less and the situation was attributed more responsibility when the offender was drunk than when he was sober. In addition, participants derogated the female victim's character and assigned her greater responsibility when she was drunk than when she was sober.
Blacks and Women Must Try Harder
Authors: Yarkin Kerry L. , Town Jerri P. , Wallston Barbara Strudler
Published: March 2007

Previous research has shown that differential causal attributions are made for identical successful performance of male or female stimulus persons. It has been suggested (Deaux, 1976) that expectations derived from stereotypical assumptions about men and women might also hold for other stereotyped groups. A study was conducted to test this assumption by examining causal attributions for a successful banking career based on both the sex and race (black or white) of the target persom It was found that both male and female subjects attributed significantly greater ability, less effort, and less luck to the white male than to the other three groups (white female, black male, or black female)for whom attributions did not differ. Thus, race and sex act similarly as stimulus variables for attribution.
Attitude Change
Authors: Biggers Thompson , Pryor Bert
Published: March 2007

The relationship between the feelings of pleasure and arousal elicited by an environment and ratings of source credibility and attitude change was explored in a three by two design. Three levels of pleasure and two levels of arousal were combined factorially. 7he results suggest that the emotion-eliciting qualities of the environment can be used to predict both source credibility and attitude change. The results are discussed in relation to other findings in attitude research.
The Shaping of American Social Psychology
Authors: Smith M. Brewster
Published: March 2007

This article examines the sources of American social psychology in terms of the author's induction to the field just before World War II at Reed, Stanford, and Harvard; war experience with Hovland, Stouffer, and Rose; and postwar developments. The author advocates a historically and socially contextualized social psychology.
J. F. Brown's Social Psychology of the 1930s
Authors: Minton Henry L.
Published: March 2007

It is argued that the crisis in social psychology over the past decade has historical roots in J. F. Brown's social psychology of the 1930s. Brown's approach was based on an integration of Lewin, Marx, and Freud, and is seen as especially relevant to current suggestions to reconstruct the discipline in terms of understanding social behavior in its political, ideological, and historical context. An evaluation of Brown's contribution is considered within the context of the 1930s and within the contemporary context.
Postural Mirroring and Intergroup Relations
Authors: LaFrance Marianne
Published: March 2007

The present study examined the effects of four types of intergroup orientation on interpersonal postural mirroring both within and between groups. One hundred and four female subjects were assigned to quartets, each made up of two dyads in one of four conditions: (1) Control; (2) coacting; (3) cooperating; and (4) competing. As predicted, results showed greater intergroup relative to intragroup mirroring for cooperating dyads than for competing dyads. Unexpectedly, subjects in the coacting condition showed a significantly higher level of intergroup mirroring than any other condition. Both results are interpreted as evidence that postural mirroring is an obvious yet unobtrusive indicator of openness to interpersonal involvement.
Ethical Ideologies of the Machiavellian
Authors: Leary Mark R. , Knight Paul D. , Barnes Byron D.
Published: March 2007

Although Machiavellian individuals (Machs) have been characterized as lacking a concern for conventional standards of morality, it is clear from previous research that high Machs are not consistently more amoral or immoral than low Machs. A study was conducted to explore the ethical orientations of persons who score low versus high in Machiavellianism. The Mach V Scale and the Ethics Position Questionnaire were completed by 119 subjects. Results showed that Machiavellian subjects endorsed ethical positions that were more relativistic and less idealistic than subjects who scored low in Machiavellianism.
Dysphoric College Students and Roommates
Authors: Hokanson Jack E. , Loewenstein David A. , Hedeen Carla , Howes Mary J.
Published: March 2007

Subjects in this study were 22 dysphoric individuals who initially scored in the mild to moderate range of the Beck Depression Inventory and their nondysphoric college roommates. Twenty-two additional roommate pairs who were nondysphoric served as controls. On a post hoc basis the initially dysphoric subjects were divided into those who remained dysphoric for the duration of the 3-month study (unremitted) and those who had remitted. Roommates' interpersonal behaviors toward one another were assessed by the Interpersonal Checklist, on which they reported their own behaviors and their perceptions of roommate behaviors after they had been living together for 1, 5, and 1I weeks. The results indicated that unremitted subjects initiated the roommate relationship with relatively dependent, distrustful, and self-devaluating behaviors; and, further, that their dependent behaviors increased over time. The roommates of unremitted subjects showed some evidence of progressive increases in caretaking behaviors over the measurement periods. There was also suggestive evidence that unremitted subjects perceived their roommates as being relatively distrustful and competitive after 3 months of living together.
Consumer-Product and Sociopolitical Messages for Use in Studies of Persuasion
Authors: Pratkanis Anthony R. , Greenwald Anthony G. , Ronis David L. , Leippe Michael R. , Baumgardner Michael H.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this report is to make available two sets of persuasive messages one for fictitious brands of 12 types of consumer products and the other for 20 sociopolitical issues. These communications were developed as part of a research program directed at obtaining reliable persuasion effects.
Consciousness and Control
Authors: Uleman James S.
Published: March 2007

As research on unconscious processes in personality and social psychology increases, there is a danger that disparate phenomena will be confused with each other, and that characteristics of particular unconscious processes will be over generalized. In order to reduce this danger, a simple framework for describing unconscious phenomena is presented. It focuses on the related issues of consciousness and control. The framework was developed to clarify the theoretical status of spontaneous trait inferences, so that research is reviewed first. Then the framework is described, applied to spontaneous trait inferences, and further illustrated by using it to characterize automatic construct activation and mindlessness.
The Roles of Self-Esteem and Social Interaction in Embarrassment
Authors: Parrott W. Gerrod , Sabini John , Silver Maury
Published: March 2007

This experiment investigated the circumstances that lead to embarrassment. Two theories of embarrassment were tested, one based on social interaction, the other based on self-esteem. The predictions of these two theories were compared in a situation in which the theories make contrasting predictions, namely, one in which esteem-threatening feedback is delivered to a person under the guise of a pleasant but transparent pretext. Subjects (N= 90) reported feelings of embarrassment and of self-esteem that were most consistent with the interaction theory. The implications of these findings for other theories of social anxiety are discussed.
Group Consensus, Action Immediacy, and Opinion Confidence
Authors: Orive Ruben
Published: March 2007

This study examined the hypothesis derived from the theory of opinion dynamics (Gerard & Orive, 1987), which predicts that group-consensus information will bolster confidence in one's opinion only when there are high situational pressures to act on that opinion. A 2 X 2 design that cross-cut two levels of action immediacy (high vs. low) and two levels of group agreement (consensus vs. no consensus) was used. Subjects were led to believe they would have to write an essay supporting their opinion on a legal case either relatively soon (high immediacy) or much later (low immediacy). Additionally, hay of the subjects were told there was group agreement for their opinion and half were told there was not. As predicted, results show that opinion confidence was highest when subjects believed there was consensus for their opinion and they had to act relatively soon.
Relation between Sex-Role Orientation and Marital Satisfaction
Authors: Zammichieli Maria E. , Gilroy Faith D. , Sherman Martin F.
Published: March 2007

This study investigated the reported marital satisfaction of couples as it related to their sex-role orientations. One hundred eighty-five couples living in Columbia, MD, completed Rem Sex-Role Inventories and Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Tests. The results suggest that couples in which both partners are androgynous report higher marital satisfaction than both sex-typed (traditional role) couples and incongruent (sex-typed spouse with non-sex-typed spouse) couples. These results were discussed in a framework of cognitive balance.
When I Die...
Authors: Schoenrade Patricia A.
Published: March 2007

Religion and, more specifically, belief in afterlife have often been proposed as means of dealing with individual mortality. Somewhat surprisingly, research to date has not clearly identified a relationship between death concern and either religion or belief in afterlife; however, evidence has suggested that belief does play an active role when an individual confronts death. The present study sought to test the proposition that belief in afterlife would function to enhance positive perspective on death for individuals who (a) were initially strong in belief in afterlife and (b) were confronted with the prospect of their own death. Belief in afterlife was indeed associated with increased positive death perspective under these conditions, but, unexpectedly, was also associated with increased negative death perspective. It is proposed that belief in afterlife permits an individual to reconcile the positive and negative aspects of death. While enhancing positive death perspective, such belief also allows the individual to accept the negative aspects of death.
Willingness to Self-Disclose to Female and Male Friends as a Function of Social Anxiety and Gender
Authors: Snell William E.
Published: March 2007

Research indicates that women's and men's willingness to self-disclose to others about themselves varies as a function of the characteristics of the disclosure recipient and the disclosure topic. The present investigation was conducted to examine the self-presentational impact of social anxiety on women's and men's willingness to discuss the instrumental-masculine and expressive-feminine aspects of themselves with their male and female friends. Multivariate results demonstrated that high-social-anxiety women were more willing to discuss expressive-feminine behavioral information with their female friends and less willing to discuss instrumental-masculine behavioral information with their male friends, whereas high-social-anxiety men were more willing to self-disclose about their instrumental-masculine behaviors with their male friends and less willing to self-disclose about their expressive-feminine behaviors with their female friends. These findings suggest that high-social-anxiety males and females may be socialized to view the potential social rewards and costs of self-disclosure differently, thereby affecting their willingness to discuss the instrumental and expressive aspects of themselves with others.
Stress and Affiliation in a Hospital Setting
Authors: Kulik James A. , Mahler Heike I. M.
Published: March 2007

This study examined stress and affiliation relationships in a natural setting by assessing the preoperative roommate preferences of 70 patients facing major (coronary bypass) surgery. No support was found for the notion, derived from social comparison theory, that novel, fear-inducing situations produce selective preferences for affiliation with others who are of similar emotional status (i.e., likewise facing threat). On the contrary, patients demonstrated a strong overall preference before surgery for a roommate who was postoperative (dissimilar emotional status) rather than preoperative (similar emotional status). The preference for a postoperative roommate held regardless of patient fear level and, with slight qualification, regardless of actual roommate assignment. Theoretical implications for social comparison formulations that have been applied to stress and affiliation research are discussed.
The Fault is not in the Stars
Authors: Glick Peter , Gottesman Deborah , Jolton Jeffrey
Published: March 2007

Skeptics' and astrology believers acceptance of generalized personality descriptions of the self was explored. Descriptions were varied in two ways: (a) They were attributed to astrology or were said to be a set of statements that might or might not be self-descriptive, and (b) they were socially desirable or undesirable. Overall, believers were more likely than skeptics to accept descriptions as accurate. Favorable descriptions were generally seen as more accurate than unfavorable descriptions, with one exception -believers accepted a negative astrological description as much as a positive one. Skeptics as well as believers rated astrological descriptions as more accurate than identical non-astrological descriptions. Finally, skeptics who received favorable horoscopes, in contrast to all other groups, became significantly more positive in their opinions toward astrology. Implications for the popularity of belief in astrology are discussed.
Basic Research in Action
Authors: Omoto Allen M. , Snyder Mark
Published: March 2007

An increasingly important component of society's response to the AIDS epidemic is the involvement of volunteers in caring for persons with AIDS. To understand this social phenomenon, we employed basic psychological theories in coordinated longitudinal and cross-sectional research on three stages of the volunteer process: antecedents of the decision to be a volunteer, experiences of volunteers and those with whom they work, and consequences for volunteers and for society. In this article, we draw upon portions of data collected from currently active AIDS volunteers to illustrate the linkages between basic research and practical problems. We discuss the ways that basic theory can both guide research on societally important issues and be informed by such research conducted in applied contexts. Finally, we relate our approach to the Lewinian tradition of action research.
The Role of Consistency in the Judgment of Stereotype-Relevant Behaviors
Authors: Hilton James L. , von Hippel William
Published: March 2007

Two experiments examined the role that the consistency between a perceiver's stereotype and a target's behavior plays in the judgment of stereotype-relevant behaviors. In Experiment 1, consistency was varied through a manipulation of the objective properties of the behavior and its referent distribution. Ambiguous behaviors were assimilated to the stereotype when they were objectively consistent with the stereotype and were contrasted away from the stereotype when they were objectively inconsistent with the stereotype. In Experiment 2, perceived consistency was manipulated directly while objective consistency was held constant. Behaviors were identified either with members of random groups, with members of extended families, or with single individuals. Consistent with predictions, the tendency to assimilate ambiguous behaviors increased as expected consistency increased. These findings are discussed in light of recent work on contrast and assimilation and stereotyping.
The Willful Self
Authors: Cross Susan E. , Markus Hazel Rose
Published: March 2007

William James devoted a chapter of his Principles of Psychology to the nature and function of the will, elaborating several specific means by which individuals engage in willful behavior For James, the self was centrally involved in the will, and "willing" often involved perceiving the end state, or goal, in terms of the self Until quite recently most approaches to the will, intention, and motivation since James have minimized the role of the self This article describes recent conceptions of the self and discusses how these may allow us to refine and extend some of James's notions about the operation of the will. It focuses specifically on the importance of making an intention self-relevant, the ways that the self may allow the person to maintain attention on an intended act, and the process by which the self may control willful behavior. It is argued that further developments in understanding willfulness require thorough analysis of the interdependence between the structure and functioning of the self system and volitional behavior.
Prototype Distancing: A Strategy for Choosing among Threatening Situations
Authors: Niedenthal Paula M. , Mordkoff J. Toby
Published: March 2007

Previous analyses have provided consistent evidence that people prefer to enter social situations associated with person-in-situation prototypes that are most similar to their self-concepts (a process called prototype matching). The present work extends this analysis by considering a strategy for choosing among situations that pose a threat to positive self-evaluation. Indivi-duals' preferences for different types of psychotherapists were examined. Results suggest that subjects used a prototype-distancing strategy that involved maximizing dissimilarity between self-concept and patient prototypes when similarity was defined in terms of typical emotional experiences (but not when similarity was defined in terms of characteristic personality traits). In addition, consistent with the notion that threats to self-evaluation arouse self-enhancement motives, results also indicate a greater role of the ideal self than the actual self in the choice strategy.
Effects of Attribute Salience on the Consistency between Attitudes and Behavior Predictions
Authors: Shavitt Sharon , Fazio Russell H.
Published: March 2007

This research addresses the possibility that attitude expressions can be unduly influenced by attributes of the attitude object that are momentarily salient, affecting the consistency between attitudinal and/or behavioral expressions regarding the object that are reported in different contexts. Two studies examined the consistency between subjects' attitude expressions made in a specific context and their subsequent predictions of their purchase behaviors toward a product. When the attributes that were salient at attitude expression and at purchase prediction corresponded, the consistency between those judgments was much greater than when the salient attributes did not match. The studies also identified contextual factors and product characterstics that heightened the salience of certain attributes when subjects were making evaluative judgments. Furthermore, the second study demonstrated that the effect of context on attribute salience was moderated by individuals' predispositions to be influenced by situational factors (i.e., their self-monitoring level). Implications for the nature of attitudes are discussed.
Linking Pregnancy Concerns to Pregnancy Risk Avoidant Action: The Role of Construct Accessibility
Authors: Norris Anne E. , Devine Patricia G.
Published: March 2007

The construct accessibility perspective suggests that individuals are less likely to risk pregnancy when pregnancy concerns are highly accessible. Two studies were designed to assess the role of accessibility in pregnancy risk taking. Study 1 determined that subjects identified as likely (chronics) and unlikely (nonchronics) to have pregnancy concerns chronically accessible did not hold different beliefs about unplanned pregnancy. Study 2 examined (a) the joint effect of chronically and temporarily accessible pregnancy concerns on responses to a hypothetical intimate situation embedded in a story completion task and (b) the relation between chronically accessible pregnancy concerns and self-reported pregnancy risk taking. As predicted, chronics made fewer risk-taking responses in the story completion task and reported less risk taking than nonchronics. Temporarily accessible pregnancy concerns decreased risk-taking responses among chronics but had no effect on nonchronics. Gender differences did not qualify effects for chronic accessibility. Taken together these studies suggest that although chronics and nonchronics may hold similar beliefs about unplanned pregnancy, their behavior may vary in association with the accessibility of those beliefs. These findings support using the construct accessibility perspective to understand the link between cognition and action.
Attentional Effects on Mood are Moderated by Chronic Self-Conception Valence
Authors: Sedikides Constantine
Published: March 2007

Positive and negative self-conception subjects rated their mood under either self-focused attention or other-focused attention conditions. Self-focused attention was partially induced by instructing subjects to write a story about themselves, whereas other-focused attention was partially elicited by instructing subjects to write a story about an acquaintance. Attentional effects on mood were moderated by the valence of subjects' chronic self-conceptions. Under self-focused attention conditions, positive self-conception subjects reported feeling happier than negative self-conception subjects. However, under other-focused attention conditions, positive and negative self-conception subjects did not differ in their reported mood. Supplementary analyses ruled out the possibility that the relation obtained between self-conception valence and mood was mediated by the valence of the stories that subjects wrote.
The Self-Consciousness Scale: On the Stability of the Three-Factor Structure
Authors: Britt Thomas W.
Published: March 2007

Some researchers have recently argued that a four-factor structure best represents the Self-Consciousness Scale. The present study provides evidence that a three-factor structure is superior to a four-factor structure in accounting for the variability among items. The three-factor version of the scale is shown to provide a closer approximation to simple structure than the four-factor model. The three-factor solution is also relatively invariant across communality estimates and rotations, whereas the composition of the four-factor solution is more affected by these factor parameters. Finally, confirmatory factor analysis shows that the four-factor solution does not provide a closer fit to the data than the three-factor solution. General issues regarding the role of factor analysis in theory development are addressed.
Sequential Correspondence Biases and Perceptions of Change: The Castro Studies Revisited
Authors: Allison Scott T. , MacKie Diane M. , Muller Michelle M. , Worth Leila T.
Published: March 2007

In previous studies, Jones and Harris found that persons who wrote a favorable or unfavorable essay about Fidel Castro were judged as holding attitudes that corresponded to the essay's position, even when they had been compelled to endorse the position. The present research tested the robustness of this correspondence bias. In Study 1, subjects read two essays about Castro that they believed were written 9 months apart by the same author under forced-choice conditions. The correspondence bias emerged in subjects' judgments of the author's attitudes toward Castro at the time each essay was composed. Essay writers who endorsed two opposite positions were judged to have undergone greater attitude change than writers who twice endorsed the same position. Study 2 demonstrated the effect with an interval as brief as 1 week between constrained behaviors. These data underscore the robustness of the correspondence bias.
Source Expertise and Persuasion: The Moderating Role of Recipient Dogmatism
Authors: DeBono Kenneth G. , Klein Claudine
Published: March 2007

Individuals high and low in dogmatism read a counter attitudinal message from either an expert or a nonexpert source who supported his position with either strong or weak arguments. Low-dogmatic individuals tended to be persuaded by the strength of the arguments regardless of the source. High-dogmatic individuals were persuaded by the strength of the arguments when the source was nonexpert but were equally persuaded by strong and weak arguments when the source was expert. Cognitive response data suggested that low-dogmatic individuals may have been systematically processing the message in both source conditions but high-dogmatic individuals may have been doing so only in the nonexpert condition. Results are discussed in terms of the psychological needs that source factors can fulfill for message recipients.
Procedural Efficiency and the Spontaneity of Trait Inference
Authors: Bassili John N.
Published: March 2007

This experiment examined the effect of practice with behavior-to-trait judgments on spontaneous trait inference. Subjects engaged in two tasks that were presented to them as separate experiments. The first task required subjects to make 200 yes/no judgments involving either behavior-trait inferences or behavior-object inferences. In the second task, subjects were asked to memorize 18 sentences that implied traits. The recall of half the sentences was then cued by the implied traits to assess whether the traits had been inferred spontaneously at encoding. Subjects who had practiced behavior-trait inferences were more likely to make spontaneous trait inferences than subjects who had practiced behavior-object inferences. Spontaneous trait inference was particularly likely following practice with different behaviors and the same trait. These results show that practice with trait inferences contributes to the spontaneity of these inferences.
The Role of Self-Blame in Children's Adjustment to Parental Separation
Authors: Healy, Joseph M. , Stewart Abigail J. , Copeland Anne P.
Published: March 2007

A longitudinal study of a nonclinical sample of 6- to 12-year-old children of divorcing parents examined the incidence, antecedents, and correlates of feelings of self-blame about parental separation during the first 18 months after the breakup. About one third of the children reported some feelings of self-blame at 6 months after the separation; I year later this figure had dropped to 20%. Being caught in triadic relations with the two parents was associated with self-blame, but parental disagreement over child rearing and a history of physical, mental, or school problems were not. The consequences of self-blame for children's adjustment to the separation were primarily negative, according to self-, mother, and teacher ratings. Children who reported feelings of self-blame had lower perceived competence, more psychological symptoms, and more behavior problems.
Independence Revisited: The Relation between Positive and Negative Affect in a Naturalistic Setting
Authors: Goldstein Miriam D. , Strube Michael J
Published: March 2007

Although most research supports Bradburn's 1969 finding that positive and negative affect are independent between situations, affect independence within a given situation has not been demonstrated convincingly. The relation between the two types of affect, within and between situations, was examined in a naturalistic setting. Subjects were students who participated in a longitudinal study of emotion. Separate measures of positive and negative affect were obtained at the beginning and end of three successive class sessions. A natural mood induction of test performance feedback separated the two measurements on the second day of the study. Results support the independence of positive and negative affect within and between situations: Success feedback increased positive affect but did not influence negative affect; failure feedback increased negative affect but did not influence positive affect. Within each measurement period, correlations between positive and negative affect were nonsignificant. Results offer support for a two-dimensional structure of affect.