Consensus in work role requirements: The influence of discrete occupational context on role expectations.

Although role theory has long described how expectations shape role behavior, little empirical research has examined differences among work role requirements and how features of the discrete occupational context may influence the extent to which role expectations are shared among role holders. The authors examined consensus in work role requirements from a sample of over 20,000 incumbents across 98 occupations. They found that consensus systematically decreased as work role requirements ranged from molecular tasks to responsibilities to molar traits. In addition, they found that consensus in these work role requirements was significantly influenced by the amount of interdependence, autonomy, and routinization present in the surrounding task and social contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Strategies for revising judgment: How (and how well) people use others’ opinions.

A basic issue in social influence is how best to change one’s judgment in response to learning the opinions of others. This article examines the strategies that people use to revise their quantitative estimates on the basis of the estimates of another person. The authors note that people tend to use 2 basic strategies when revising estimates: choosing between the 2 estimates and averaging them. The authors developed the probability, accuracy, redundancy (PAR) model to examine the relative effectiveness of these two strategies across judgment environments. A surprising result was that averaging was the more effective strategy across a wide range of commonly encountered environments. The authors observed that despite this finding, people tend to favor the choosing strategy. Most participants in these studies would have achieved greater accuracy had they always averaged. The identification of intuitive strategies, along with a formal analysis of when they are accurate, provides a basis for examining how effectively people use the judgments of others. Although a portfolio of strategies that includes averaging and choosing can be highly effective, the authors argue that people are not generally well adapted to the environment in terms of strategy selection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

I know what you did: The effects of interpersonal deviance on bystanders.

Using social information processing theory, we explore how interpersonally directed deviance affects work group members who observe or are aware of these insidious behaviors. In a field study, we find that indirect knowledge of work group member interpersonal deviance leads to subsequent interpersonal deviance of a focal individual. We also find that when work group cohesion is high, direct observation of deviance is more likely to result in subsequent bystander deviance. These findings add concretely to theory and research on the bystander effects of workplace deviance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivated self-stereotyping: Heightened assimilation and differentiation needs result in increased levels of positive and negative self-stereotyping.

This research was conducted to explore the impact of assimilation and differentiation needs on content-specific self-stereotyping. According to optimal distinctiveness theory (M. B. Brewer, 1991), social identities serve the function of satisfying individuals' need for assimilation (in-group inclusion) and their need for differentiation (distinctiveness from others). It was proposed that one of the ways optimal social identities are maintained is through self-stereotyping. In 3 studies, the needs for assimilation and differentiation were experimentally manipulated, and support was found for increased self-stereotyping in response to heightened need arousal across both self-report and behavioral measures and across different social groups. Results also demonstrated that only those participants who were highly identified with their in-group were willing to engage in negative self-stereotyping. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social norms and the expression and suppression of prejudice: The struggle for internalization.

The authors studied social norms and prejudice using M. Sherif and C. W. Sherif's (1953) group norm theory of attitudes. In 7 studies (N=1, 504), social norms were measured and manipulated to examine their effects on prejudice; both normatively proscribed and normatively prescribed forms of prejudice were included. The public expression of prejudice toward 105 social groups was very highly correlated with social approval of that expression. Participants closely adhere to social norms when expressing prejudice, evaluating scenarios of discrimination, and reacting to hostile jokes. The authors reconceptualized the source of motivation to suppress prejudice in terms of identifying with new reference groups and adapting oneself to fit new norms. Suppression scales seem to measure patterns of concern about group norms rather than personal commitments to reducing prejudice; high suppressors are strong norm followers. Compared with low suppressors, high suppressors follow normative rules more closely and are more strongly influenced by shifts in local social norms. There is much value in continuing the study of normative influence and self-adaptation to social norms, particularly in terms of the group norm theory of attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identity fusion: The interplay of personal and social identities in extreme group behavior.

The authors propose that when people become fused with a group, their personal and social identities become functionally equivalent. Two hypotheses follow from this proposition. First, activating either personal or social identities of fused persons should increase their willingness to endorse extreme behaviors on behalf of the group. Second, because personal as well as social identities support group-related behaviors of fused persons, the 2 forms of identity may combine synergistically, fostering exceptionally high levels of extreme behavior. Support for these hypotheses came from 5 preliminary studies and 3 experiments. In particular, fused persons were more willing to fight or die for the group than nonfused persons, especially when their personal or social identities had been activated. The authors conclude that among fused persons, both the personal and social self may energize and direct group-related behavior. Implications for related theoretical approaches and for conceptualizing the relationship between personal identities, social identities, and group processes are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Focus theory of normative conduct and terror-management theory: The interactive impact of mortality salience and norm salience on social judgment.

Research on terror-management theory has shown that after mortality salience (MS) people attempt to live up to cultural values. But cultures often value very different and sometimes even contradictory standards, leading to difficulties in predicting behavior as a consequence of terror-management needs. The authors report 4 studies to demonstrate that the effect of MS on people's social judgments depends on the salience of norms. In Study 1, making salient opposite norms (prosocial vs. proself) led to reactions consistent with the activated norms following MS compared with the control condition. Study 2 showed that, in combination with a pacifism prime, MS increased pacifistic attitudes. In Study 3, making salient a conservatism/security prime led people to recommend harsher bonds for an illegal prostitute when they were reminded of death, whereas a benevolence prime counteracted this effect. In Study 4 a help prime, combined with MS, increased people's helpfulness. Discussion focuses briefly on how these findings inform both terror-management theory and the focus theory of normative conduct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations between neighborhood factors, parenting behaviors, peer deviance, and delinquency among serious juvenile offenders.

The present study examined relations among neighborhood structural and social characteristics, parenting practices, peer group affiliations, and delinquency among a group of serious adolescent offenders. The sample of 14-18-year-old boys (N = 488) was composed primarily of economically disadvantaged, ethnic-minority youth living in urban communities. The results indicate that weak neighborhood social organization is indirectly related to delinquency through its associations with parenting behavior and peer deviance and that a focus on just 1 of these microsystems can lead to oversimplified models of risk for juvenile offending. The authors also find that community social ties may confer both pro- and antisocial influences to youth, and they advocate for a broad conceptualization of neighborhood social processes as these relate to developmental risk for youth living in disadvantaged communities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development and validation of the Workplace Ostracism Scale.

This article outlines the development of a 10-item measure of workplace ostracism. Using 6 samples (including multisource and multiwave data), the authors developed a reliable scale with a unidimensional factor structure that replicated across 4 separate samples. The scale possessed both convergent and discriminant validity, and criterion-related validity was demonstrated through the scale's relation with basic needs, well-being, job attitudes, job performance, and withdrawal. Overall, the present study suggests that the Workplace Ostracism Scale is a reliable and valid measure and that the workplace ostracism construct has important implications for both individuals and organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of adult attachment styles in psychopathology and psychotherapy outcomes.

Attachment theory provides a model for understanding how the attachment styles formed in infancy systematically affect subsequent psychological functioning across the life span. Attachment styles provide the cognitive schemas, or working models, through which individuals perceive and relate to their worlds. In turn, these schemas predispose the development of psychopathologies and influence outcomes when people undergo psychotherapy. After reviewing recent empirical findings, the authors conclude that an understanding of attachment theory facilitates the conceptualization of clients' problems and the selection of appropriate interventions. Accordingly, attachment styles should be assessed as a standard part of treatment planning. Furthermore, the authors propose that attachment styles should be assessed as individual difference variables in psychotherapy outcome research because adult attachment styles dictate how people perceive and respond to their environments and, therefore, how clients respond differentially to various treatments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The body and psychology.

Reviews the book, The body and psychology by Henderikus J. Stam (see record 1998-06784-000). Considering this collection as a whole, it is striking how many of the authors, some of whom have been proponents of social constructionist thinking, feel social constructionism is unable to articulate an adequate theory of the psychological body. This refreshingly critical edge will no doubt lead to more sophisticated debates on the psychological body. Overall, this book is probably best read by graduate students and scholars who have some familiarity with social constructionist theory (e.g., Harré), as well as poststructuralism (e.g., Derrida, Lacan) and social theory (e.g., Bourdieu). Moreover, since the authors rely on other disciplinary discourses, this will be an excellent text for graduate courses on the body in cultural studies and sociology. Teaching this book would be interesting as it contains some analytical contrasts; for example, one could turn Malone and Bayer on Baerveldt and Voestermans, Parlee on Kempen, or the thematic analysis of Frank on the book itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Emergence of Autobiographical Memory: A Social Cultural Developmental Theory.

The authors present a multicomponent dynamic developmental theory of human autobiographical memory that emerges gradually across the preschool years. The components that contribute to the process of emergence include basic memory abilities, language and narrative, adult memory talk, temporal understanding, and understanding of self and others. The authors review the empirical developmental evidence within each of these components to show how each contributes to the timing, quantity, and quality of personal memories from the early years of life. The authors then consider the relevance of the theory to explanations of childhood amnesia and how the theory accounts for and predicts the complex findings on adults' earliest memories, including individual, gender, and cultural differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

How Are Social Identities Linked to Self-Conception and Intergroup Orientation? The Moderating Effect of Implicit Theories.

Social identity approaches assume that social identification affects both self-conception and intergroup orientation. The authors contend that such social identification effects are accentuated when people hold a fixed view of human character and attribute immutable dispositions to social groups. To these individuals, social identities are immutable, concrete entities capable of guiding self-conception and intergroup orientation. Social identification effects are attenuated when people hold a malleable view of human character and thus do not view social identities as fixed, concrete entities. The authors tested and found support for this contention in three studies that were conducted in the context of the Hong Kong 1997 political transition, and discussed the findings in terms of their implications for self-conceptions and the meaning of social identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Locational feminisms and feminist social identity analysis.

Locational feminisms encompass the many manifestations that feminisms assume as they emerge, travel, and are transplanted in a wide range of temporal, spatial, and cultural settings. Locational feminisms explore the interlocking oppressions and privileges associated with multidimensional and complex social identities associated with race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, culture, disability, and other social statuses. They also critique feminisms based on generalizations about middle class women's lives, and move the experiences and perspectives of diverse groups of individuals from the margin to the center of exploration. The locational feminisms addressed in this article include postmodern feminism, women of color feminisms, lesbian feminisms and queer theory, transnational and postcolonial feminisms, and third wave feminisms. Social identity analysis refers to the assessment of the social categories a person occupies and how these memberships are relevant to personal identity; perceived sources of strength and challenge; and experiences of empowerment, privilege, and discrimination. The locational feminisms hold substantial potential for informing social identity analysis, which supports comprehensive assessment relevant to social justice approaches. The article begins with a summary of the theoretical literature that informs locational feminisms, and is followed by a discussion of implications and applications relevant to feminist and other social justice practices in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theory development should begin (but not end) with good empirical fits: A comment on Roberts and Pashler (2000).

S. Roberts and H. Pashler (2000) argued against using goodness of fit as evidence to support theories. The authors agree with their suggestions for how to go beyond good fits but disagree with their starting point. In this comment, the authors argue that good fits are part and parcel of theory development, that they are part and parcel of the processes suggested by S. Roberts and H. Pashler, and that they must be the starting point (though far from the ending point) in theoretical development. The authors discuss historical examples of scientific theory development, recent examples of psychological theory development, and development of a particular theory (social contagion theory; J. L. Rodgers & D. C. Rowe, 1993) that S. Roberts and H. Pashler criticized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When does self-esteem relate to deviant behavior? The role of contingencies of self-worth.

Researchers have assumed that low self-esteem predicts deviance, but empirical results have been mixed. This article draws upon recent theoretical developments regarding contingencies of self-worth to clarify the self-esteem/deviance relation. It was predicted that self-esteem level would relate to deviance only when self-esteem was not contingent on workplace performance. In this manner, contingent self-esteem is a boundary condition for self-consistency/behavioral plasticity theory predictions. Using multisource data collected from 123 employees over 6 months, the authors examined the interaction between level (high/low) and type (contingent/noncontingent) of self-esteem in predicting workplace deviance. Results support the hypothesized moderating effects of contingent self-esteem; implications for self-esteem theories are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathy gaps for social pain: Why people underestimate the pain of social suffering.

In 5 studies, the authors examined the hypothesis that people have systematically distorted beliefs about the pain of social suffering. By integrating research on empathy gaps for physical pain (Loewenstein, 1996) with social pain theory (MacDonald & Leary, 2005), the authors generated the hypothesis that people generally underestimate the severity of social pain (ostracism, shame, etc.)—a biased judgment that is only corrected when people actively experience social pain for themselves. Using a social exclusion manipulation, Studies 1–4 found that nonexcluded participants consistently underestimated the severity of social pain compared with excluded participants, who had a heightened appreciation for social pain. This empathy gap for social pain occurred when participants evaluated both the pain of others (interpersonal empathy gap) as well as the pain participants themselves experienced in the past (intrapersonal empathy gap). The authors argue that beliefs about social pain are important because they govern how people react to socially distressing events. In Study 5, middle school teachers were asked to evaluate policies regarding emotional bullying at school. This revealed that actively experiencing social pain heightened the estimated pain of emotional bullying, which in turn led teachers to recommend both more comprehensive treatment for bullied students and greater punishment for students who bully. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identity salience and the influence of differential activation of the social self-schema on advertising response.

The authors examined how identity primes and social distinctiveness influence identity salience (i.e., the activation of a social identity within an individual's social self-schema) and subsequent responses to targeted advertising. Across 2 studies, individuals who were exposed to an identity prime (an ad element that directs attention to the individual's social identity) and who were socially distinctive (minorities in the immediate social context) expressed systematically different evaluations of spokespersons and the advertisements that featured them. Specifically, Asian (Caucasian) participants responded most positively (negatively) to Asian spokespeople and Asian-targeted advertising when the participants were both primed and socially distinctive. No main effects of identity primes or social distinctiveness were found. The implications of these findings for identity theory, advertising practice, and intervention communications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A qualitative study of six medical students in a problem-based curriculum: Toward a situated model of self-regulation.

The authors followed 6 first-year medical students through their first semester in a problem-based learning curriculum to understand how they self-regulated their learning. The study, using a situated research strategy, resulted in a grounded theory built around the central phenomenon of stance. In short, learners illustrated different types of stances-proactive, reactive, retroactive, interactive, and transactive-that served to govern their perceptions of themselves and the environment, their selection of goals, and their adoption of learning strategies. Furthermore, recursive patterns of stances were longitudinally described as either evolving or shifting. Findings indicated that more successful students demonstrate an evolving, interactive-transactive stance that affected the ways they participated in the learning environment and the professional identities they were beginning to develop. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employee resistance to organizational change: Managerial influence tactics and leader-member exchange.

The authors explored the relationship between managerial influence tactics and employee resistance to organizational change. Using attribution theory, the authors developed a series of hypotheses concerning the effects of influence tactics on employee resistance to change and the ways in which these relationships are moderated by leader-member exchange. Results, which are based on multisource data, suggest that employee resistance reflects both the type of influence a manager uses and the strength of leader-member exchange. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)