Behavioral preferences in response to social injustice: The effects of group permeability and social identity salience.

Examined features of an intergroup context that can affect people's preferred responses to a situation of social injustice. 90 undergraduates were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions of group permeability (open, token, or closed) and 1 of 2 conditions of social identity salience (not salient or salient). It was predicted on the basis of social identity theory that individualistic responses would be preferred to a collective response when group boundaries were more open but not when they were closed. It was also expected that under conditions of group impermeability, collective behavior would be preferred to a greater extent by individuals for whom social identity was salient than by individuals for whom it was not salient. The results, which generally supported these hypotheses, are discussed in terms of social psychological theories of intergroup relations and also with regard to their potential practical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and interpersonal attraction: The role of perceived similarity.

We hypothesized that depressed individuals are generally viewed as dissimilar and that this perceived dissimilarity contributes to negative reactions to the depressed. In addition, we hypothesized that if perceived similarity affects liking of depressed individuals, than nondepressed subjects should prefer nondepressed targets, but depressed subjects should not share this preference. To test these hypotheses, depressed and nondepressed subjects received information about two targets, both either depressed or nondepressed, one attitudinally dissimilar and one attitudinally similar. They were then asked to fill out an attraction measure and an interest in meeting measure for each target. The results clearly supported the primary hypotheses, demonstrating that nondepressed subjects preferred nondepressed targets and perceived them as more similar than depressed targets, and that this preference for nondepressed targets is not shared by depressed subjects. Tests of supplementary hypotheses also confirmed that depressed subjects perceive their best friends as being more depressed and more dissimilar than do nondepressed subjects. The implications of these findings for the social world of the depressed were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social identification effects in group polarization.

Tested a model of group polarization derived from social identity theory, proposing that if group members conform to group norms, attitude polarization could occur only if group members perceive those norms as more extreme than they "objectively" are. In Exp I, 60 undergraduates perceived attitude-relevant information attributed to speakers who were categorized as a group as representing a more extreme position of the issue than when the same information was attributed to noncategorized individuals. Attitude polarization occurred when Ss believed the information came from their in-group. As predicted, this polarization resulted from Ss' adoption of the "extremitized" in-group norm. In Exp II, categorization was manipulated by focusing 42 Ss on their group performance or on their individual performance. When Ss were focused on their group membership, group norms were perceived as more extreme, and attitude polarization due to conformity to these extremitized norms occurred. When Ss were focused on their individual performance, no extremitization occurred, and attitudes shifted to a more neutral position on the issue. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Client anticipations and preferences for confidentiality of records.

116 new clients requesting services during one semester at a medium-sized university counseling center participated in a survey of preferences and anticipations about confidentiality of their client records. The survey asked Ss to rate the amount of information that they preferred and anticipated would be released by the psychotherapist under 13 request scenarios. Generally, Ss preferred less information to be released than they anticipated would be, but differences existed by scenario and recipient. Homogeneous clusters of Ss were identified who expressed unique anticipations and preferences about confidentiality. Some clusters of Ss preferred absolute confidentiality, but other clusters preferred broad release of their information. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Diagnosticity and pseudodiagnosticity.

Five experiments with 596 undergraduates contrasted Ss' intuitive evaluation of data for hypothesis testing with the Bayesian concept of diagnosticity. According to that normative model, the impact of a datum, D relative to a pair of hypotheses, H and H̄, is captured by its likelihood ratio, equal to P(D/H)/P(D/H̄). Results show that when Ss were asked to test the validity of H, only half expressed an interest in P(D/H). That proportion increased when they were asked to determine whether H or H̄ was true. That proportion decreased when the instructions more forcefully encouraged Ss to solicit only pertinent information. Thus Ss generally had a strong interest only in the conditional probability that mentioned the hypothesis (or hypotheses) that they were explicitly asked to test. When, however, they were presented with both components of the likelihood ratio, most Ss revealed a qualitative understanding of their meaning vis-à-vis hypothesis testing. Results are discussed in terms of the kinds of understanding that people might have for statistical principles. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distortion in person perception as a consequence of the need for effective control.

Conducted 2 experiments to assess the impact of the need for effective control on attributions made in a conflict situation. In the 1st experiment with 32 undergraduates, it was hypothesized that the prospect of future interaction with a target person would lead observers to exaggerate the degree of dispositional information they believed could be inferred from the target person's behavior. Results confirm the hypothesis. In the 2nd experiment with 90 undergraduates, it was hypothesized that Ss scoring high on Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale would draw more dispositional inferences from a target person's behavior than would Ss scoring low on this scale. This prediction was also supported. The overall pattern of results is construed as supporting the position that the attributional differences found between the various types of observers were due, at least in part, to motivational as opposed to information-processing factors. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some hedonic consequences of the confirmation and disconfirmation of expectances.

In a test of the hypothesis that events which disconfirm expectancies will be perceived as unpleasant, Ss tasted a random sequence of sweet and bitter solutions. On the basis of certain signals given by the E, they developed expectancies or hypotheses about whether the next solution would be bitter or sweet. On trials when the Ss' expectancies were disconfirmed due to incorrect signals, the solutions were judged to taste more unpleasant. Thus, a bitter solution was rated more bitter; a sweet solution was rated less sweet. The results were interpreted in terms of Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivated skepticism: Use of differential decision criteria for preferred and nonpreferred conclusions.

Three experiments show that information consistent with a preferred conclusion is examined less critically than information inconsistent with a preferred conclusion, and consequently, less information is required to reach the former than the latter. In Study 1, Ss judged which of 2 students was most intelligent, believing they would work closely with the one they chose. Ss required less information to decide that a dislikable student was less intelligent than that he was more intelligent. In Studies 2 and 3, Ss given an unfavorable medical test result took longer to decide their test result was complete, were more likely to retest the validity of their result, cited more life irregularities that might have affected test accuracy, and rated test accuracy as lower than did Ss receiving more favorable diagnoses. Results suggest that a core component of self-serving bias is the differential quantity of cognitive processing given to preference-consistent and preference-inconsistent information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organization of information used for performance appraisals: Role of diary-keeping.

We designed a laboratory study (N?=?63) to test a series of hypotheses concerning diary-keeping derived from a social-cognitive view of the performance appraisal process. Raters who were given unorganized performance information were expected to store it in memory in patterns consistent with those used to organize diaries. Results supported this hypothesis. Moreover, raters preferred to organize diaries according to ratees, and diaries organized in this way resulted in more accurate recall and performance ratings. This effect held even though raters consulted diaries when making ratings. These results provide support for a cognitive role for diaries, such that they allow raters to impose organization on unorganized information. We discuss implications for research and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postperformance attributions and task persistence among Type A and B individuals: A clarification.

Tested the hypothesis that Type A (coronary-prone) Ss would be more self-serving than Type B (noncoronary-prone) Ss in their attributions for success and failure. It was also hypothesized that task persistence would differ among Type A's and B's and would be dependent on task difficulty and perceived task diagnosticity. 78 undergraduates classified on the basis of scores on the Jenkins Activity Survey as Type A's and B's attempted multiple sets of anagrams that were either easy or difficult. Persistence was measured by the number of anagram sets attempted, and, after task performance, attributions for success and failure were assessed. Results support both hypotheses. Type A's took more credit for success than for failure, whereas Type B's did not provide reliably different attributions for success and failure. Furthermore, Type A's persisted longer at the task when it was difficult and when it was viewed as relatively low in information value. Type B's persisted longer at the task when it was difficult but viewed as relatively high in information value. Results are discussed in the context of current debates regarding the responses of Type A's and B's to performance settings. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The norm of self-interest and its effects on social action.

Four studies investigated whether people feel inhibited from engaging in social action incongruent with their apparent self-interest. Participants in Study 1 predicted that they would be evaluated negatively were they to take action on behalf of a cause in which they had no stake or in which they had a stake but held stake-incongruent attitudes. Participants in Study 2 reported both surprise and anger when a target person took action on behalf of a cause in which he or she had no stake or in which he or she held stake-incongruent attitudes. In Study 3, individuals felt more comfortable engaging in social action and expected others to respond more favorably toward their actions if the issue was described as more relevant to their own sex than to the opposite sex. In Study 4, the authors found that providing nonvested individuals with psychological standing rendered them as likely as vested individuals to undertake social action. The authors discuss the implications of these results for the relationship between vested interest, social action, and attitude–behavior consistency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The bias phenomenon in attitude attribution: Actor and observer perspectives.

Research has shown that observers infer correspondent attitudes from behavior that is externally constrained. The present study, with 366 undergraduates, examined (a) the degree to which actors anticipated observers' (Os') manifestation of this bias, (b) the effect of presenting constraint information directly from the actor as compared to the experimenter's instructions, and (c) the relationship between constraint experienced by the actor and the persuasiveness of essays produced under different constraint levels. Essay writers clearly predicted that Os would infer correspondent attitudes even when the position had been randomly assigned to the writer. This was true, to a diminished extent, when the writer was under genuinely high constraint. When actors expected Os to have precise information regarding their actual constraint, they anticipated that Os would recognize the attributional implications of such information. Data from Os corroborated the actors' predictions. When Os were not given this information, their attributions were based solely on essay content and indicated no recognition of the different freedom levels experienced by the essay writers. Essays written under different constraint levels were judged by Os to be generally of similar and fairly respectable persuasiveness. It is suggested that the bias phenomenon may be a consequence of presenting Os with essays more persuasive than they expect from a writer who in fact disagrees with the assignment. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Complexity-simplicity and reaction to threatening information.

Based on research in personality and creativity, it was predicted that Ss who preferred simpler polygons would react differently to a threatening statement than would Ss who preferred more complex shapes. This expectation was supported in an experiment with 62 undergraduates in that (1) verbalizations and (2) pre-post change in ratings were significant in the predicted direction: Ss who preferred simpler shapes reacted more negatively to the threatening information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accountability and the discussion of unshared, critical information in decision-making groups.

Previous research has demonstrated that groups are more likely to discuss information shared by all group members than unshared information (G. M. Wittenbaum & G. Stasser, 1996). In the present study, it was hypothesized that groups may be less likely to overlook unshared information when they are held accountable to an audience outside the group for their decisions. University students read a murder mystery and then met in 3-person groups to select who they thought was most likely to have committed the crime. Contrary to hypotheses, the results showed that accountable groups were less likely to focus on unshared information than groups who were not held accountable because of an increased focus on irrelevant details by accountable groups. Implications for future research are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of advance information about target location and visual feedback on movement planning and execution.

This study was designed to determine if movement planning strategies incorporating the use of visual feedback during manual aiming are specific to individual movements. Advance information about target location and visual context was manipulated using precues. Participants exhibited a shorter reaction time and a longer movement time when they were certain of the target location and that vision would be available. The longer movement time was associated with greater time after peak velocity. Under conditions of uncertainty, participants prepared for the worst-case scenario. That is, they spent more time organizing their movements and produced trajectories that would be expected from greater open-loop control. Our results are consistent with hierarchical movement planning in which knowledge of the movement goal is an essential ingredient of visual feedback utilization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Eggs of a female Japanese quail are more likely to be fertilized by a male that she prefers.

Male Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) that conspecific females preferred in a 10-min, forced-choice test of affiliative preference were more likely than were males not preferred in such a test to fertilize females' eggs when subsequently mated with them, although preferred and nonpreferred males mated equally often with females. Further, the probability that a nonpreferred male would fertilize a female's eggs was significantly increased if she watched while he courted and mated with another female. The results indicate that in Japanese quail (a) affiliative preference reliably predicts females' choices of fathers for their offspring and (b) females may have some degree of control over whether the males with whom they mate actually fertilize their eggs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Undergraduate training for psychologists.

"The chairmen of the psychology departments of the 167 institutions listed in the December 1956 issue of the American Psychologist as offering graduate work in psychology were surveyed as to their opinions regarding an ideal undergraduate curriculum for prospective graduate students. One hundred and forty-nine (89%) of the questionnaires were returned… . A large majority of the chairmen (85%) agreed that the best undergraduate major would be psychology." Biological science and mathematics were listed most frequently as the best minor. Tables are presented of the preferred undergraduate nonpsychology courses for graduate training applicants and preferred undergraduate psychology courses for graduate training applicants. The preferred nonpsychology courses listed by at least 70% of all the chairmen were algebra, anthropology, physics, physiology, and sociology. Preferred psychology courses were beginning statistics and experimental psychology (indicated by 96% and 95% of the chairmen, respectively). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When motives clash: Issue involvement and response involvement as determinants of persuasion.

College students heard a strong or weak message after learning whether the message issue would have relevance to their personal lives outside the laboratory (high or low issue involvement) and whether they would later discuss the message issue (high or low response involvement). Judging from subjects' recall of message information, either high issue involvement or high response involvement was sufficient to instigate high levels of attention to the message. Issue-involved-only subjects, however, were most strongly influenced by message quality. They agreed more with and had more favorable thoughts about strong relative to weak messages, and they were most likely to engage in attitude-consistent behavior. Response-involved-only subjects were not affected by message quality, either on public attitude and thought measures or on a private behavioral measure. Response-and-issue-involved subjects were in between these extremes. Message quality had modest effects on their thoughts and attitudes, but not on their behavior. These results suggest that issue involvement encourages systematic processing that is sensitive to how well message arguments concur with personal standards. In contrast, response involvement encourages expression of attitudes that satisfy self-presentational needs. This expression may be mediated by message processing that is either biased toward moderation or nonintegrative, or by outward impression management, or both. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)