Individual differences in social categorization: The influence of personal need for structure on spontaneous trait inferences.

Because 1 function of categorization is to provide structure and control to social interactions and because individuals differ in the extent to which they desire control and structure, individual differences in personal need for structure (PNS) should moderate the extent to which people categorize. Spontaneous trait inferences (STIs) were used to assess the use of traits in categorization. High-PNS Ss were more likely to form STIs and more likely to recall names of target actors in the stimulus sentences. This research provides evidence for the organization of behavioral information in person nodes in circumstances where possessing goals did not explicitly request such organization. It also provides a link between the examination of chronic sources of motivation and social categorization, perhaps the most fundamental social–cognitive variable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the Categorization of Admired and Disliked Exemplars of Admired and Disliked Racial Groups.

The present work examined the influence of affective fit in the racial categorization process. Study 1 tested whether famous exemplars of stigmatized and nonstigmatized racial groups are categorized by race at differential rates, depending on whether they are admired or disliked. Using an inverted-face paradigm, Study 2 examined whether racial categorization accuracy differs for admired and disliked exemplars of these groups. Study 3 examined the influence of collective self-esteem on Whites' tendency to differentially categorize admired and disliked Black and White exemplars. Last, Study 4 replicated the pattern of results found in the previous studies for White participants, making use of unknown exemplars about whom participants learned either positive or negative information prior to categorizing them. Taken together, the results suggested that phenotypically irrelevant affective information regarding exemplars and their social group memberships influences the racial categorization process. Implications for prejudice and stereotyping are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer acceptance and school-related variables in an integrated junior high school.

Interracial peer acceptance at the junior high school level was related to 9 predictor variables: grade point average (GPA), IQ, attendance, self-concept of academic ability, sex, race, age, years in the school, and classroom racial composition. 322 7th- and 8th-grade students from predominantly lower-middle-class backgrounds were administered modified Syracuse Scales of Human Relations, measuring academic and social acceptance. Analysis of variance results show that White Ss slightly preferred Whites for the satisfaction of their academic and social needs. However, with stepwise multiple regression analysis, race was not a significant predictor variable for academic or social acceptance by White Ss. GPA and sex were the most prominent predictors of acceptance. Black Ss accepted both Black peers and White peers equally for academic interaction but preferred Blacks for social interaction. Race was a significant predictor variable for academic and social acceptance by Black Ss. However, race was secondary to GPA and/or sex for academic acceptance by Black females and Black males. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of ability, assigned goals, and normative information on personal goals and performance: A challenge to the goal attainability assumption.

58 undergraduates were assigned randomly to 1 of 6 experimental conditions representing 2 levels of goal difficulty (easy vs very hard) and 3 levels of normative information, indicating that the goal had been achieved by 95, 50, or 5% of students previously tested. Ss then set their own performance goals for a creativity task, which they performed over 10 repeated trials. Following Trial 10, Ss were allowed to choose to continue working on from 0 to 5 more trials. As hypothesized, personal performance goals were strongly influenced by assigned goals, but ability, as measured by pretest performance, had no relation to personal goals. Normative information did not influence personal goals directly but did, unexpectedly, interact with assigned goals. Both assigned goals and ability had significant and independent effects on performance, as hypothesized. The results of a path analysis revealed that assigned goals influenced performance both indirectly, through their influence on personal goals, and directly, due to the fact that most Ss assigned very difficult goals set personal performance goals at or above their ability ceiling. Ss assigned goals beyond their immediate reach did not evidence any decrement in intrinsic motivation when compared with those assigned easier goals. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Native American college students' preference for counselor race and sex and the likelihood of their use of a counseling center.

39 female and 23 male Native American college students completed questionnaires assessing their preference for counselor race and sex and the likelihood of their using a counseling center. Both females and males demonstrated a strong preference for Native American counselors, regardless of problem situation. Males preferred male counselors, but females expressed a preference for female counselors only if they had a personal problem. Likelihood of using the counseling center increased as counselor preference increased. Likelihood of using the counseling center increased if Ss could be seen by a counselor of the same race regardless of problem situation. Only in the personal-problem situation did likelihood ratings increase if Ss could be seen by a counselor of the preferred sex. Ss were less likely to indicate they would go to the counseling center with a personal problem if they would be seen by either their 3rd- or 4th-choice counselors. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in the influence of assigned goals on cooperation and competition.

We examined developmental changes in the influence of social goals on cooperative and competitive behavior in children between the ages of 6 and 13. Children played a game with a neutrally instructed peer under cooperative and individualistic instructions. The tendency to engage in cooperative and combative moves and to use attentional words varied interactively with age, sex, order of instructions, instructions, and trials. Older children adapted their cooperative behavior to fit assigned goals when individualistic trials preceded cooperation trials, but younger children did not. Older children adapted their competitive behavior on two of five game trials, but younger children did not adapt their competitive behavior on any trials. We observed no developmental differences in the overall levels of cooperation and competition. However, younger children were more likely to use attentional words than older children, and both age groups used more attentional words under individualistic instructions than under cooperative instructions. The results suggest that older children were more flexible in adapting their social strategies to assigned goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An observational study of peer interaction in racially mixed "accelerated" classrooms.

Observed the peer interactions of 69 White and 32 Black 8th graders each week of a semester. The race and sex of the person with whom S was interacting were coded, as were the behavior's mutuality (one-sided, mutual), affective tone (positive, neutral, negative), and orientation (task oriented, ambiguous, social). Considerably more cross-race interaction was noted than found in previous studies conducted in nonacademic settings in interracial schools. Ss interacted significantly more with peers of their own race than with peers of the other race. This was due to the females' strong own-race preference. Males interacted cross-racially at approximately the rate that would be expected if race were not a factor in interactant choice. Male interactions were predominantly mutual in nature, whereas those of females were predominantly one-sided. There were no major differences in the tone of the inter- or intraracial interactions of Ss in the 4 sex–race subgroups. Negative behaviors constituted less than 1% of all interactions. Cross-race interactions of all groups were more task related than within-race interactions, within-race interactions were more social than cross-race interactions. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Categorizing Others: The Dynamics of Person Construal.

A fundamental question in social cognition is whether people categorize others on the basis of the social groups to which they belong. Integrating ideas from related work on face processing, the current research explored the emergence and boundary conditions of person categorization. Using speeded responses to facial stimuli as a marker of category activation, the authors showed in 3 experiments that person categorization: (a) occurs only under active-encoding conditions and (b) does not extend to applicable but task-irrelevant categorical dimensions, but (c) is sensitive to overlap in the perceptual features that support multiple categorical construals. The authors consider the implications of these findings for models of social-cognitive functioning and the component processes that support person perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluative race–class stereotypes by race and perceived class of subjects.

80 Black and 74 White college students assigned traits, from a list of 80, to the Black lower class, Black middle class, White lower class, and White middle class. Each S rated the 5 or fewer traits that he or she had chosen as being most typical of the respective race–class groups from –5 (unfavorable) to +5 (favorable) for the given groups. Ss also assigned themselves to 1 of 4 classes: lower class, working class, middle class, or upper class. On the basis of these judgments, the Ss within each racial group were classified as perceiving themselves to be above or below the median of their own race's distribution. White Ss assigned more favorable characteristics to the middle than to the lower class and did not rate Blacks lower than Whites. Black Ss made a similar, but smaller, social class distinction and, in addition, generally perceived Blacks more favorably than Whites. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unintended effects of goals on unintended inferences.

Three studies, with a total of 290 undergraduates, investigated unintended effects of goals on spontaneous trait inferences (STIs). Ss read trait-implying sentences to memorize them, to analyze sentence features, or to make social judgments. Cued recall revealed unintended (spontaneous) trait and behavioral-gist inferences. They were equally frequent with all the social judgment goals and absent or infrequent with feature analysis goals. Memorizing the sentences while ignoring their meaning reduced, but did not eliminate, STIs. Goals also affected whether traits were linked directly to actors in explicit memory. Social inferences can occur without intentions or awareness, even when meanings are intentionally ignored, as incidental results of analyzing stimulus details, and as intermediate but unnoticed results of other social judgments. Goals affect these inference likelihoods. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

If you are gender schematic, all members of the opposite sex look alike.

96 male and 96 female undergraduates classified on the basis of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory were asked to recall "who said what" after listening to a taped conversation either among 3 men and 3 women (the gender study) or among 3 Blacks and 3 Whites (the race study). Analysis of Ss' errors revealed that both sex-typed and cross-sex-typed Ss confused the members of the opposite sex with one another significantly more than androgynous or undifferentiated Ss did. In contrast, no individual differences related to sex typing emerged in the race study, which suggests that the greater gender schematicity of sex-typed individuals is specific to gender, as S. L. Bem's (see record 1981-25685-001) gender schema theory implies. The finding that cross-sex-typed Ss were significantly more gender schematic than anyone else and the apparent inconsistency of the data with the self-schema theory of H. Markus et al (see record 1982-23588-001) are discussed. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology of drivers in traffic accidents.

50 automobile drivers whose driving involved them in accidents serious enough to require hospitalization were paired with 50 drivers without accident histories but matched according to sex, approximate age, race, and educational level. The Ss were compared on the basis of their driving experiences and performance on written tests. The accident victims differed from the comparison Ss in a higher incidence of previous traffic violations but were not distinguishable from the comparison Ss on any written tests. The accident Ss were similar to the "safe" drivers in describing themselves as much closer to "expert" than "very poor" on a driving performance continuum. In fixing the responsibility for the accidents and in estimating their driving competence at the time of the accidents, the accident Ss' reports are at considerable variance with police reports. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social anxiety, sexual behavior, and contraceptive use.

170 female and 90 male college students completed a questionnaire that provided information regarding their sexual experience, knowledge, and attitudes; their self-evaluations on dimensions related to sexuality; and their level of heterosocial anxiety (anxiety experienced in social interactions with members of the other sex). Compared with Ss low in heterosocial anxiety, highly anxious Ss were less sexually experienced, engaged in sexual activity less frequently, had fewer sexual partners, were less likely to have engaged in oral sex, expressed a higher degree of apprehension about sex, and had a somewhat higher incidence of sexual dysfunctions. In addition, low socially anxious women tended to use the pill, whereas highly anxious women preferred the condom. High and low heterosocially anxious Ss also differed on self-ratings related to their sexuality but did not differ in their attitudes or knowledge regarding sex. Results are discussed in terms of the cognitive, behavioral, and affective concomitants of social anxiety. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of MMPI scores of White and Japanese-American medical patients.

Compared the MMPI scores of 164 patients (mean age 40.3 yrs) classified by sex, diagnostic group (somatization disorder or organic brain syndrome), and race (White or Japanese-American). MANOVA revealed effects for sex and diagnostic group, as well as a sex by race interaction. Male Ss scored significantly higher than females on 9 clinical scales; thus, factors other than race (e.g., sex) appear to be critical in the interpretation of MMPI scores. Implications for the use of the MMPI with non-White patients are discussed. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the self-serving function of social anxiety: Shyness as a self-handicapping strategy.

Tested the hypothesis that socially anxious or shy individuals use their anxiety symptoms as a strategy to control attributions made about their performances in social-evaluative settings (i.e., self-handicapping strategies). 70 female and 72 male undergraduates, classified as low and high socially anxious on the basis of the Social Anxiety and Distress Scale, were given role-play tasks in a 3?×?2?×?2 design. It was predicted that trait-socially anxious or shy Ss would report more symptoms of social anxiety in an evaluative setting in which anxiety or shyness could serve as an excuse for poor performance than would Ss in (a) an evaluative setting in which shyness was precluded as an excuse or (b) a nonevaluative setting. It was also predicted that this self-protective pattern of symptom reporting would not occur for Ss who were not trait-socially anxious because these Ss would not commonly use such symptoms as a self-handicapping strategy. Results support these predictions for males but not for females. Sex differences in the strategic use of shyness are discussed in relation to other research on sex differences in the etiology and correlates of social anxiety. (56 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ego-identity status, personality, and social-influence style.

80 female undergraduates were identified as having diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, of identity achievement statuses on the Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status. Ss then completed the Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style and engaged in a social influence experiment with a same- or opposite-sex peer confederate. Results show that foreclosure Ss were least able to integrate ideas and to think analytically, whereas moratorium and achievement Ss were better able to process large amounts of information and to be alone with their thoughts and feelings. Diffusion and foreclosure Ss were also more likely than moratorium and achievement Ss to make errors in judgment due to reduced attentional focus. In the social influence task, identity-achievement Ss were more likely to use verbally aggressive behavior, whereas foreclosure Ss manifested a greater degree of image-control behavior. Lower ego-identity statuses were associated with more frequent use of resources and deception. The sex of the confederate also differentially affected the behaviors of Ss with different ego-identity statuses. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intergroup discrimination and self-esteem in the minimal group paradigm.

Tested the hypothesis that intergroup discrimination (IGD) in the minimal group paradigm is related to self-esteem. According to social identity theory, IGD is a strategy for achieving self-esteem via social competition aimed at increasing the positive distinctiveness of one's own group. However, other elements of the procedure, such as categorization into groups or the opportunity to engage in a meaningful experimental task irrespective of its value for social competition, might also affect self-esteem. 135 undergraduates were randomly assigned to 8 concurrent experimental conditions. A 2-way MANOVA on the core design produced a significant interaction effect, whereby categorized Ss who had the opportunity to discriminate between groups and noncategorized Ss who did not discriminate showed higher self-esteem than did both categorized Ss who could not engage in discrimination and noncategorized Ss who could discriminate. Results support social identity theory and suggest that social categorization by itself may constitute a threat to self-esteem that can be resolved via social competition. Results from the supplementary conditions support the conclusion that it is IGD, and not merely the completion of an experimental task, that redeems self-esteem. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of social behavior on interracial acceptance.

To test children's use of race and social behavior as cues in social acceptance, 128 Black and White male kindergartners and 1st graders rated 6 unknown videotaped target children for likability. Targets varied factorially on race (Black or White) and exhibited either positive, negative, or neutral classroom social behavior. Across age, socioeconomic status, and race, Ss used behavior as a cue, accounting for 50% of likability variance. Positive targets were liked equivalently, but Black neutral and negative targets were liked less than White counterparts. Racial but not socioeconomic status differences in the use of behaviors as social cues were found. Negative targets were liked more by Blacks than Whites and neutral targets were liked more by Whites than Blacks. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)