Role of out-group cues in determining social identity.

Examined the role of out-group cues in determining social identity and guiding behavior in 2 experiments with 131 undergraduates. In Exp I, Ss were exposed to a cue either of an in-group (Ss' college), a relevant out-group (a rival college), or an irrelevant out-group (a baseball team). Ss examined a list of words and were later asked to recognize those they had seen from a larger list in which words related to the 3 groups were embedded. Results indicate that Ss made more false recognitions of in-group related words when a relevant out-group was salient than when an irrelevant out-group was salient. Exp II tested a behavioral implication of Exp I: Out-group salience increases adherence to an in-group norm. In the 1st phase of Exp II, Ss were divided into 2 groups and deliberated 2 civil suits. Ss' in-group favored the plaintiffs for both cases. Ss were divided into new groups for the 2nd phase, and the same procedure was followed. This time, however, the in-group favored the defendants. In the 3rd phase, Ss were exposed to a cue either of the out-group in Phase 1 or Phase 2. Ss' judgments for 2 new cases were biased in the direction of the norm of the in-group that was associated with the salient out-group. Ss favored the plaintiff (or defendant) when the 1st (or 2nd) out-group was salient. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathic mediation of helping: A two-stage model.

Proposes a 2-stage model of empathic mediation of helping behavior, which holds that taking the perspective of a person in need increases empathic emotion; this in turn increases helping. Ss in 2 experiments learned of another person's need from taped radio broadcasts and were subsequently given an opportunity to offer help to that person. The experiments used different strategies for manipulating empathic emotional response to the other's plight. In Exp I, using 44 male and female undergraduates, the empathic emotion of some Ss was experimentally reduced by a misattribution of arousal technique; in Exp II, using 33 female undergraduates, the empathic emotion of some Ss was experimentally increased by a false feedback of arousal technique. Results of each experiment support the proposed model. Ss who experienced the most empathic emotion also offered the most help. Results of Exp I indicate that perspective taking did not directly affect helping; it affected helping only through its effect on empathic emotion. Motivational implications are discussed. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ideal traits and terms of address for male and female college professors.

Examined students' perceptions of college professors' ideal traits to ascertain possible influences of sex-role stereotyping (Exp I) and the terms of address students use with their professors in public and private contexts (Exp II). In Exp I, 20 undergraduates compiled a list of 34 ideal traits of professors divided among 5 categories: intellect, professionalism, communication ability, openness, and nurturing. Another 127 Ss were divided into 3 groups, each of which assigned the ideal traits to a male, female, or unspecified-sex professor. Only slight differences in the assignment of openness and nurturing traits to male and female professors were found, and there was no significant difference between male and female Ss who assigned the traits. In Exp II, 72 Ss were asked how they would address each of their professors in private and in public. Few contextual differences were found; however, female professors, especially those in the 26–33 age group, were addressed by first names more often than their male colleagues. Also, female Ss used the familiar terms more often than male Ss. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectations for success on effort-determined tasks as a function of incentive and performance feedback.

Conducted 2 experiments to investigate an attributional analysis of the consequences of perceiving one's effort as stable, as opposed to unstable, on future performance expectancies. In Exp I, 32 male undergraduates were told that performance on the experimental tasks was purely effort determined; they expected a monetary incentive for good performance on half the tasks and received preprogrammed feedback that their performance was either variable or consistent. In Exp II, both 45 male and 51 female Ss believed the tasks were either effort or ability determined and received variable or consistent feedback; incentive was operationalized as the level of task interestingness. As predicted, Ss who believed performance was effort determined and received variable feedback had higher expectations for performance on a later task when its incentive value was high than when it was low. Ss receiving consistent feedback did not differ in their expectations, regardless of the incentive value of the task. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overworked and underpaid: On the nature of gender differences in personal entitlement.

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that women's internal standards of fair pay for their work are lower than men's and examined possible causes of this difference. In Exp I, 36 male and 40 female undergraduates were asked to pay themselves in a private situation what they thought was fair pay for a fixed amount of work. Social comparison information was varied. As predicted, females paid themselves less money than males in the absence, but not the presence, of social comparison information. In Exp II, 40 males and 40 females were asked to do as much work as they thought was fair for a fixed, prepaid amount of money. Ss believed that their work was either monitored or unmonitored. Females worked significantly longer, did more work, and did more correct work than males in both public and private work settings. Females, but not males, worked longer when they believed their work was monitored than when they believed it was unmonitored. It is suggested that individuals tend to base their behavior on comparisons with same-sex reference groups in the absence of salient comparison others. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paired-associate learning and priming effects in amnesia: A neuropsychological study.

Conducted 4 experiments investigating the role of priming effects in paired-associate learning. Ss for all 4 experiments were 5 male and 3 female alcoholics (mean age 53.8 yrs; WAIS—R IQs 85–203) with Korsakoff syndrome. Control Ss were 26 male alcoholics (mean age 47.6 yrs). Exp I illustrated the distinction between the memory impairment of amnesic (Korsakoff) Ss and their intact priming ability. In Exp II, amnesic Ss showed good paired-associate learning for related word pairs but controls performed significantly better. Exp II also showed that the forgetting of related word pairs by amnesic Ss followed the same time course as the decay of word priming. Exp III showed that amnesic Ss were as good as controls at learning related word pairs when word-association tests were used. Exp IV showed that amnesic Ss exhibited normal priming when they were asked to free associate to words that were semantically related to previously presented words. Results indicate that both priming effects and paired-associate learning of related words depended on activation, a process that is preserved in amnesia. Activation is a transient phenomenon presumed to operate on and facilitate access to preexisting representations. (67 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of upright posture on shock-elicited aggression in rats.

Conducted 2 experiments with a total of 140 male and 140 female hooded rats. In Exp. I, frequencies of upright postural responses displayed by Ss when shocked alone were predictive of upright postural response frequencies during shock-elicited aggression. These differences in upright postural frequencies were associated with differences in frequencies of aggression in male Ss only. Exp. II manipulated upright postural responses. Results suggest that the upright behavior of Ss could be controlled in the shock-elicited-aggression paradigm. Only a slight influence on the aggression of female Ss was obtained. Experimental findings suggest that the upright postural behavior is not a major variable in the provocation to attack in the shock-elicited paradigm. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sequential attributional feedback and children's achievement behaviors.

Determined how the sequence of ability and effort attributional feedback influenced task motivation, attributions for success, self-efficacy, and skillful performance in 80 elementary school Ss (aged 8 yrs 2 mo to 10 yrs 5 mo) in 2 experiments. In Exp I, 40 Ss lacking subtraction skills received training and problem-solved over 4 sessions. During the problem solving, Group 1 (ability-ability) periodically received ability feedback; Group 2 (effort-effort) received little effort feedback; Group 3 (ability-effort) was given ability feedback during the 1st 2 sessions and effort feedback during the last 2; Group 4 (effort-ability) had this sequence reversed. In Exp II, 40 Ss (chosen with the same criteria as in Exp I) followed the same procedures except they were asked about their perceptions of success or failure following training. Results for both experiments show that Ss in Groups 1 and 3 developed higher ability attributions, self-efficacy, and subtraction skills compared with Ss in Groups 2 and 4. The sequence of attributional feedback did not differentially affect motivation, effort attributions, or perceptions of training successes. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does insecurity breed acceptance? Effects of trait and situational insecurity on acceptance of positive and negative diagnostic feedback.

Two experiments tested whether high as compared to low insecurity leads to greater acceptance of diagnostic feedback. Exp I demonstrated that 120 female undergraduates who were high as compared to low on the trait of insecurity (determined by the Security-Insecurity Inventory) were more acceptant of feedback. Exp II performed a situational manipulation that was designed to produce a high or low state level of insecurity in 56 male and female undergraduates. The situational insecurity variable was manipulated effectively, and the situationally high as compared to situationally low insecure Ss were more acceptant of feedback. In both experiments, the positively worded interpretation was more accepted than the negatively worded interpretation. Possible explanations for the insecurity results are discussed, and implications are drawn for the clinical setting. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational biases in causal attributions of arousal.

Two studies hypothesized that the desire to seek ambiguity as to the cause of a particular state of arousal will increase if either that arousal state or its source is potentially threatening to self-esteem. In Exp I, 22 high- and 21 low-sex-guilt male undergraduates (as determined by the Mosher Forced Choice Sex Guilt Inventory) were shown either an arousing erotic movie or a nonarousing movie; in Exp II, 28 high- and 28 low-guilt females were led to believe that they were very aroused by pictures of nude men. Ambiguity was introduced into both situations by means of a bogus, nonthreatening, alternative arousal source (a placebo). Results indicate that high-guilt Ss were actively involved in the process of determining which source was arousing them. More importantly, this involvement appeared to be motivated by ego-defensiveness. In both experiments, when high-guilt Ss were confronted by an erotic stimulus, they chose to attribute arousal to the bogus source—and thus create ambiguity as to the actual cause and nature of their arousal—more than did low-guilt Ss. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal responsibility and salience of the request for help: Determinants of the relation between negative affect and helping behavior.

148 female undergraduates participated in 3 experiments. The hypothesis that attribution of responsibility to self for one's experimentally induced depressed mood would induce greater inclination to offer help when subsequently asked was tested in Exp I through a design that manipulated mood (negative vs neutral) and attribution of responsibility for it (internal vs external). The obtained opposite result seemed attributable to the low salience of the request for help. Exp II replicated Exp I using a highly salient request for help and confirmed the initial hypothesis. In Exp III, a negative mood was induced in all Ss, and attribution of responsibility (internal vs external) was crossed with salience of the helping request in a 2 by 2 factorial design. The obtained interaction confirmed the prediction that internal attribution of responsibility increases willingness to help (as measured either behaviorally or attitudinally) when the request is salient, but inhibits it when the request lacks salience. Self-focus, as measured by the Stroop Color-Word Test, was shown to mediate these effects. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The bogus pipeline as lie detector: Two validity studies.

Two studies, using a total of 109 undergraduates as Ss, tested the validity of the bogus pipeline procedure for eliciting truthful responses from Ss in social psychological experiments. Ss were illegitimately informed about how to perform well on an experimental test, were tested, and then were asked whether they had possessed this prior information. As compared to Ss responding to pencil-and-paper questions for face-to-face questioning by the experimenter, those in a bogus pipeline condition confessed more often. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol consumption as a self-handicapping strategy.

Two experiments with 128 male undergraduates evaluated the self-handicapping hypothesis that alcohol consumption varies directly with individuals' uncertainty of their ability to perform successfully. In a 2–3 factorial design, Exp I manipulated difficulty of an initial intellectual test (insolvable or solvable), feedback regarding test performance (success or none), and instructions regarding the difficulty of a retest (identical to or harder than the initial test). Ss then received access to an alcoholic beverage (self-handicapping option) and to study materials (performance-enhancing option). The experiment terminated before the retest. Results indicate that when a performance-enhancing option is available, Ss generally do not use alcohol to self-handicap. Exp II omitted the study option and manipulated the test difficulty and retest instruction variables. All Ss received success feedback. Results show that Ss use alcohol to self-handicap when denied access to a performance-enhancing option. With important qualifications, these data support the self-handicapping hypothesis of human drinking behavior. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Havana daydreaming: A study of self-consciousness and the negative reference group among Cuban Americans.

Reasoned that the Castro government in Cuba represents an important negative reference group for Cuban Americans in the US. Exp I asked 43 Cuban-American undergraduates to give their opinions on issues surrounding the liberalization of relations between Cuba and the US. As expected, opinions were more opposed to such liberalization when an ostensible representative of the Castro government was quoted as favoring it than when no mention was made of the Castro government. Exps II and III (137 Ss) tested the prediction that utilization of negative reference groups would be mediated by dispositional self-consciousness. In Exp II, Ss gave their opinions after favorable opinions had been attributed to officials of the Castro government. Opposition among these Ss was positively correlated with their public self-consciousness but was unrelated to private self-consciousness. Exp III replicated the effect of public self-consciousness when the reference group was salient but yielded an ambiguous effect for an experimental manipulation of self-focus. Findings appear to confirm the role of dispositional self-consciousness in reference-group behavior. Moreover, they appear to suggest that Ss used their opposition to the negative reference group for self-presentational purposes rather than for self-definitional purposes. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pacing of copulatory behavior in the male rat: Effects of receptive females and intermittent shocks.

Describes 2 experiments with 7 male hooded Long-Evans rats. In Exp I, Ss were tested with females continuously present and with the presence of the female after each sex act contingent upon a barpress. The sole effect of the barpress requirement was to increase the intervals between copulations before ejaculation. In Exp II, intermittent shocks were superimposed upon the conditions of Exp I. Shocks were followed with short latency by mounts in the ad-lib condition and by barpress and mounts in the operant condition. The pacing of copulatory acts before ejaculation is inferred to result from an interaction of stimuli from the female and feedback from the copulatory acts; after ejaculation, factors primarily endogenous to the male govern the timing of resumption of copulation. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of repeated testing on sexual behavior of the female rat.

Investigated effects of stimulation during repeated testing, using 24 female Sprague-Dawley rats in which intromission was prevented by a vaginal mask. Ss were ovariectomized and administered 1 mg of estradiol benzoate (EB) daily for 10 days (Exp I) or 5 mg of EB for 2 days (Exp II). Behavioral indices included lordosis quotient (a measure of sexual receptivity) and rejection quotient (a measure of social rejection of the male). Intensity and duration of lordosis gave additional measures. In Exp I hourly testing increased lordosis quotient and duration, especially in Ss receiving EB for 5 days; no effects of daily testing were shown. Exp II compared the behavior of Ss that were either handled hourly and tested hourly with the male rat or only handled hourly to the behavior of Ss that were tested and handled only once. Repeated testing and/or handling facilitated sexual responsiveness, while Ss that received neither treatment were sluggish in their social response to the male rat when they were tested, and were not sexually receptive. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self–nonself-segregation and reality monitoring.

Three experiments with 144 female undergraduates tested the hypothesis that field-independent (FI) Ss would be better reality monitors and would be better able to separate the self from the nonself than field-dependent (FD) Ss. It is noted that, according to M. K. Johnson and C. L. Raye (see record 1981-06694-001), reality monitoring is the process of determining whether a memory originated in thought processes (internal) or in perception (external). Ss' field dependence–independence was determined with the Group Embedded Figures Test. In Exp I, FD and FI Ss were asked to discriminate between internal and external sources of memories. FI Ss were more accurate at identifying the origin of their memories and made fewer reality monitoring confusions than FD Ss. When Ss were asked to discriminate between 2 external sources of memories in Exp II or between 2 internal sources of memories in Exp III, FI Ss did not show the source discrimination advantage. Recognition memory also varied across experiments, with FI Ss showing an advantage in some (Exps I and II) but not all (Exp III) cases. Findings are discussed in terms of an overreliance by FD Ss on the sensory, semantic, and contextual detail characteristic of externally derived memories and little awareness by these Ss of their own cognitive operations. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)