Deindividuation, self-awareness, and disinhibition.

Assessed whether lack of self-awareness and conscious planning, group unity, and disinhibited behavior occurred together in deindividuating settings as predicted by E. Diener's (1979) theory of deindividuation. The characteristics and effects of group-induced deindividuation with non-socially-induced non-self-awareness was also compared. The 3 conditions were deindividuated, non-self-aware, and self-aware. After the manipulations, 126 undergraduates chose inhibited vs disinhibited tasks in a supposed "creativity" session, followed by a variety of deindividuation measures. Results reveal that the deindividuation group surpassed the other 2 on the deindividuation factor and on most of the individual measures. For some of the variables, the deindividuation and non-self-aware groups differed significantly, suggesting that deindividuation may not be identical in every respect to lack of self-awareness induced in a non-social way. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deindividuation and valence of cues: Effects on prosocial and antisocial behavior.

Manipulated deindividuation and valence of costume cues in a 2?×?2 factorial design. P. G. Zimbardo's (1970) theory of deindividuation suggests that deindividuation should disinhibit antisocial behavior independent of cue valence, and should reduce any influence due to cues. The theory of K. J. Gergen et al (1973) suggests that cues may have increasing influence, given deindividuation, and that deindividuation may increase prosocial behavior, given positive cues, and increase antisocial behavior, given negative cues. Results support Gergen's position. Given options to increase or decrease shock level received by a stranger, no main effect was found for deindividuation. There was a main effect for costume cues, and an interaction of cues with deindividuation, with deindividuation facilitating a significant increase in prosocial responses in the presence of positive cues and a nonsignificant increase in antisocial responses in the presence of negative cues. Also cues interacted with trial blocks, prosocial behavior increasing with positive cues and antisocial behavior increasing with negative cues over trial blocks. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deindividuation and antinormative behavior: A meta-analysis.

A meta-analytic integration reviews evidence for deindividuation theory as an explanation of collective and antinormative behavior. Deindividuation theories propose a subjective deindividuated state that causes transgression of general social norms. Deindividuation research classically manipulates anonymity, self-awareness, and group size. Results of 60 independent studies showed little support for (a) the occurrence of deindividuated (antinormative) behaviors or (b) the existence of a deindividuated state. Research results were explained more adequately by situation-specific than by general social norms. Analyses indicated that groups and individuals conform more to situation-specific norms when they are "deindividuated." These findings are inconsistent with deindividuation theory but support a social identity model of deindividuation effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test between deindividuation and emergent norm theories of crowd aggression.

In groups of 6–8, 89 female undergraduates who were either anonymous or identifiable to each other acted as an audience to a pair of discussants. Ss were given the opportunity to administer loud noise to the discussants. The response displayed to each group as an alleged average was manipulated so that Ss were led to believe that either an aggressive or a lenient norm had developed. As predicted by deindividuation theory, anonymous Ss administered significantly higher levels of noise than identifiable Ss. Anonymous Ss used equally loud noise regardless of group norm. Self-ratings provided evidence that the effects of anonymity were mediated by a psychological state of deindividuation, in addition to freedom from accountability for individual acts. There was no support for the crucial emergent norm theory prediction that aggression will be greatest when Ss who are identifiable to each other are exposed to an aggressive norm. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of public and private self-awareness on deindividuation and aggression.

Tested the proposition, derived from the authors' (in press) differential self-awareness theory, that only 1 type of antecedent variable traditionally associated with deindividuation (attentional cues) and a single aspect of self-awareness (private) are involved in the deindividuation process. 48 male undergraduates were assigned to groups of 4 and were exposed to factorial combinations of attentional cues (internal vs external focus of attention) and accountability cues (potential accountability to authority figures and victims) and then allowed to aggress against a victim. As predicted, attentional cues affected private but not public self-awareness, whereas accountability cues altered public but not private self-attention. External attentional cues and low accountability cues disinhibited aggression relative to internal attentional cues and high accountability cues, respectively. Exposure to external attentional cues created an internal state of deindividuation, composed of reduced private self-awareness and altered experience, that mediated aggression. Two major types of collective aggression were identified: One category resulted from group members' assessments of the possibility of an authority figure's and the victim's surveillance of their attacks; the other category resulted from the decreased cognitive mediation of behavior evoked by the deindividuation process. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deindividuation: Effects of group size, density, number of observers, and group member similarity on self-consciousness and disinhibited behavior.

Predictions about the social causes of self-consciousness in groups were derived from the theory of deindividuation and tested in 3 experiments with 618 university students and adults. In Exp I, it was found that increasing group size was related to a decrease in self-consciousness. Group density did not influence self-consciousness. In Exp II, it was found that increases in the number of observers increased self-consciousness. In Exps I and II, self-reports of self-consciousness were independent of one's group, whereas the degree of behavioral disinhibition was highly correlated within groups. In Exp III, it was found that gender similarity within a group was related to lower self-consciousness. Findings support a perceptual/attentional model of self-consciousness within groups. Contrary to deindividuation theory predictions, however, behavior intensity did not vary across conditions in Exps I and II, even though self-consciousness did differ. This finding suggests that deindividuation theory is incomplete in its present form. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deindividuation and anger-mediated interracial aggression: Unmasking regressive racism.

Investigated the effects of deindividuation, anger, and race-of-victim on aggression displayed by 96 White male undergraduates. Deindividuating situational cues produced an internal state of deindividuation that mediated aggressive behavior. Deindividuation theories are extended by the finding that the internal state of deindividuation was composed not only of the factors Self-Awareness and Altered Experience, but also Group Cohesiveness, Responsibility, and Time Distortion. As predicted, nonangered Whites were less aggressive toward Black than White victims, but angered Whites were more aggressive toward Blacks than Whites. Interracial behavior was consistent with new, egalitarian norms if anger was not aroused, but regressed to the old, historical pattern of racial discrimination if anger was aroused. This pattern of interracial behavior was interpreted in terms of a new form of racism: regressive racism. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of group diffusion of cognitive effort on attitudes: An information-processing view.

232 undergraduates participated in 2 experiments that tested whether persons process a stimulus less extensively when they are part of a group that is responsible for the task than when they are individually responsible. In addition to a group size manipulation, the quality of the stimulus to be evaluated was varied to determine the mediator of the different evaluation of stimuli provided by group (GEs) and individual evaluators (IEs). When evaluating a high quality stimulus, IEs generated more favorable thoughts and evaluated the stimulus more positively than did GEs (Exps I and II); but when evaluating a stimulus of low quality, IEs generated more unfavorable thoughts and evaluated the stimulus more negatively than did GEs (Exp II). This result favors an information-processing view over dissonance, deindividuation, and commodity theory interpretations. Together the studies indicate that Ss will diffuse the responsibility for a cognitive task. The reduction in individual processing that accompanies an increase in the number of persons responsible can thus lead to either enhanced or reduced evaluations, depending on the subjective quality of the stimulus to be evaluated. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A diagnostic-ration approach to measuring beliefs about the leadership abilities of male and female managers.

This study departed from previous research on gender stereotyping in the leadership domain by adopting a more comprehensive view of leadership and using a diagostic-ratio measurement strategy. One hundred and fifty-one managers (95 men and 56 women) judged the leadership effectiveness of male and female middle managers by providing likelihood ratings for 14 categories of leader behavior. As expected, the likelihood ratings for some leader behaviors were greater for male managers, whereas for other leader behaviors, the likelihood ratings were greater for female managers or were no different. Leadership ratings revealed some evidence of a same-gender bias. Providing explicit verification of managerial success had only a modest effect on gender stereotyping. The merits of adopting a probabilistic approach in examining the perception and treatment of stigmatized groups are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An historicodevelopmental study of the frequency with which construct poles are used.

Theorists as diverse as Piaget (1954) and G. A. Kelly (1955) believed that both historical and individual development shows an increase in the ability to think scientifically. A central aspect of scientific thought is the formulation of alternative hypotheses. A category is useful to the extent that it can be employed to contrast one set of events with another. Data are presented indicating that the frequency with which a category (e.g., warm) is used is a function of how long its opposite (e.g., cold) has been available for use, as measured by the date at which the opposite entered the English language. This means that the usefulness of a category is partially determined by the length of time it has been possible to employ the category contrastively. Frequency was also related to abstractness and valence of the word. Implications for studies using other developmental variables (e.g., age of acquisition) are discussed. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive motivation and drug use: A 9-year longitudinal study.

Investigaed the predictive precedence of expectancy constructs, operationally defined as cognitive motivations, and drug use over a 9-yr period from adolescence to adulthood. Alternative predictions from 3 different classes of theories of expectancy-behavior relations, including expectancy theory, a Skinnerian approach, and a reciprocal determinism perspective, were evaluated. The results are most consistent with the notion based in expectancy theory that cognitive motivations are nonspurious and possibly functionally autonomous influences on the use and abuse of drugs. More limited support is found for the view that drug use leads to cognitive motivations, as postulated in other theoretical perspectives. Other findings reveal the presence of expectancy generalization processes consistent with J. B. Rotter's (1954) expectancy theory, as well as the unique status of cognitive motivations for alcohol as an independent predictor of problem drug use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of deindividuating situational cues and aggressive models on subjective deindividuation and aggression.

Demonstrated that a subjective state of deindividuation mediates the effect of deindividuating situational cues on aggression displayed by small groups of coacting aggressors. 72 male university students were instructed to administer shocks to another person in what they thought were studies of biofeedback and behavior modification. The deindividuated state was composed of 2 factors, Self-Awareness and Altered Experiencing, both of which had a causal influence on aggressive behavior. These data are interpreted in terms of deindividuation theories that assume that certain input variables reduce self-awareness and concern about social evaluation and thereby weaken the restraints against expressing antisocial behavior. As predicted, compared with a no-model control condition, a high-aggressive model disinhibited overt displays of aggression, whereas a low-aggressive model inhibited aggression among both individuated and deindividuated group members. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proverbs as psychological theories… or is it the other way around?

Examines the role of proverbs as hypotheses for a number of psychological investigations that can be interpreted as empirical tests of the truth value of proverbs. In general, this research has yielded spotty empirical results, suggesting that proverbs have not proven to be a particularly fruitful source of theory. This failure may be due more to the manner in which psychology tends to view proverbs than to the content of the sayings themselves. A highly contextualized view of proverbs yields considerably more useful information, as demonstrated in an analysis of communication practices in the scientific psychological community. It is suggested that theory serves the same functions in the psychological community as proverbs do in other subcultures. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employee Commitment and Motivation: A Conceptual Analysis and Integrative Model.

Theorists and researchers interested in employee commitment and motivation have not made optimal use of each other's work. Commitment researchers seldom address the motivational processes through which commitment affects behavior, and motivation researchers have not recognized important distinctions in the forms, foci, and bases of commitment. To encourage greater cross-fertilization, the authors present an integrative framework in which commitment is presented as one of several energizing forces for motivated behavior. E. A. Locke's (1997) model of the work motivation process and J. P. Meyer and L. Herscovitch's (2001) model of workplace commitments serve as the foundation for the development of this new framework. To facilitate the merger, a new concept, goal regulation, is derived from self-determination theory (E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan, 1985) and regulatory focus theory (E. I. Higgins, 1997). By including goal regulation, it is acknowledged that motivated behavior can be accompanied by different mindsets that have particularly important implications for the explanation and prediction of discretionary work behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early-holistic processing or dimensional similarity?

Considers current evidence for the theory that multidimensional stimuli are initially processed as unanalyzed wholes. The theory appears unable to explain observers' behavior in various speeded and unspeeded tasks: (1) Perceivers can differentiate tiny changes made between confusable dimensions; (2) the fits of distance metrics to rating data appear to be largely under the control of optional processes; and (3) direct predictions from early-holistic models, as instantiated in the Euclidean hypothesis, are disconfirmed in tests using the rotation paradigm. In contrast, evidence has mounted to support the view that perception relies on a set of primary dimensions, processed within context-bound constraints. D. G. Kemler Nelson (see record 1994-08234-001) has been critical of the authors' approach; they respond to each of her objections. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of an iron oxide concentration in the induction smelting process

Induction smelting process, ISP, is a direct smelting process in which self-fluxed composite pellets (made of iron ore, brown coal and lime) are melted in a single phase induction furnace in conjunction with top blown oxygen. A mass transfer model to predict the concentration of iron oxide, has been developed for this process. Transient mass balance equation with complex boundary conditions has been worked out by adopting a relatively new approach known as the cell model approach. These equations have been solved numerically using finite difference technique to obtain the iron oxide concentration profile in the induction smelting process. Numerical and experimental results obtained for the iron oxide concentration show a reasonable agreement with each other.     

Review of Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory.

Greenberg and Mitchell's study of object relations in psychoanalytic theory is a valuable and insightful discussion and synthesis of disparate theoretical perspectives. Their work is timely in that the forefront of psychoanalytic theory and technique today is in the area of object relations; Greenberg and Mitchell's analysis of the object relations perspective is the most thorough, detailed, and complete theoretical discussions that the reviewer has read. In the reviewer's view, the book might have been strengthened if evidence other than theoretical and clinical material had been introduced in support of the authors' arguments, but their aim clearly did not involve assessing empirical support for object relations models. Thus, it is concluded that the authors' approach is valuable, but lacks breadth and denies the existence of some evidence that is potentially valuable in comparing different theoretical perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward an expanded and updated conceptualization of termination: Implications for short-term, individual psychotherapy.

Examines a loss metaphor that has been used to conceptualize clients' experience of termination for over 40 yrs. Review of contemporary theoretical and empirical research in clinical and developmental psychology implicates directions for revising, expanding, and modernizing this approach to termination for short-term psychotherapy. Specifically, the predictions that termination is inherently a crisis for clients and therapists were not confirmed in extant research. However, other aspects of the termination-as-loss model could be updated to be consistent with current theory and research. Several recommendations for a more contemporary approach to termination were made. In particular, a termination-as-transformation metaphor seems to incorporate theory and research as well as critical aspects of the traditional approach to termination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culturally diverse groups and MMPI interpretation.

In this article I suggest that culturally determined thought processes, including ethnocentrism, world view, and etic preoccupation predispose interpretation of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) to unintentional bias as a result of minimization of consistent group differences in item responding. Group personality as evidenced by group consciousness has been described by identity measures for Afro-Americans and acculturation indices for Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans. Instruments for world view measurement have been developed from several perspectives. Research on the potential cultural content of differences in MMPI item responding by Afro-Americans and other cultural groups continues to be necessary, although a more systematic approach to interpretation that includes identity and world view measures is now feasible. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)