Social reference points.

Conducted 2 experiments in which a total of 324 undergraduates were asked to make similarity judgments about social concepts, varying the direction of the comparison specified by the question. Asymmetries in rated similarity were used to diagnose concepts that function as habitual reference points. In Exp I, after completing the Self-Monitoring Scale, Ss were asked to make directional judgments about themselves vs a friend along various dimensions (social and physical). Ss were found to rate a friend as more similar to themselves than vice versa along both social and physical dimensions, suggesting that the self served as a reference point. In Exp II Ss made global similarity comparisons between themselves and typical examples of various social stereotypes. Directional asymmetries were inversely related to the extent of Ss' knowledge about the stereotypes: The self acted as a reference point with respect to stereotypes with few known attributes but not with respect to those with many attributes. The relation between level of self-monitoring and asymmetry effects was weak and inconsistent in both experiments. Results suggest that concepts serving as social reference points vary across judgment contexts in accord with general cognitive models of similarity comparisons. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deviance and the control of one's fate.

Conducted 2 experiments in which 42 and 33 undergraduates in 5-person groups were assigned at random to 1 of 3 experimental conditions: (a) 1/3 of the Ss were made to feel deviant from most other people and were led to believe that the rest of the group consisted of 3 nondeviants and another deviant very like themselves (similar deviant condition); (b) 1/3 of the Ss were made to feel deviant and led to believe that the rest of the group consisted of 3 nondeviants and a deviant who was very different from themselves (different deviants); and (c) 1/3 of the Ss were made to feel nondeviant and were led to believe that the rest of the group consisted of 3 other nondeviants and 1 deviant (nondeviant condition). All Ss were then asked to indicate their choice of person to control the amount of shock and reward they would be getting. In both experiments, similar deviants tended to choose deviants more than did Ss in either of the other 2 groups. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learned helplessness through modeling: The role of perceived similarity in competence.

Tested the hypothesis that learned helplessness can be induced through modeling and that the effects are mediated by perceived similarity in competence. 40 male college students observed a model fail at anagram tasks under variations in perceived similarity. Ss who perceived the unsuccessful model to be of comparable ability and those given no competence feedback persisted less throughout the tasks than Ss who perceived the model as less competent than themselves and control Ss who did not observe a model. The latter 2 groups did not differ in their initial level of persistence, but their performances diverged on succeeding trials, with Ss who perceived themselves as more competent than the model showing higher persistence. A similar pattern of results was obtained for the effects of perceived similarity on Ss' expectations of self-efficacy. A microanalysis revealed that regardless of treatment condition, the higher the Ss' expected efficacy, the longer they persisted. The strength of this relationship increased over trials, suggesting that Ss came to rely more heavily on their judgments of self-efficacy in regulating their expenditure of effort as the experiment progressed. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of reward upon the social perception and motivation of psychiatric patients varying in depression.

This study is concerned with the effects of task performance upon the affective state and social judgments of depressed individuals. Nondepressed and depressed male psychiatric patients were randomly assigned to an experimentally-induced superior- and inferior-performance condition. Prior to and immediately following the experimental task, Ss rated their own mood and judged photographs of male and female adults on a happiness-sadness continuum. Indices of self-confidence were also obtained. Ss in the superior-performance group in comparison to inferior-performance Ss were more self-confident, rated themselves as happier, and perceived others as happier. Depressive Ss tended to be more affected than nondepressed Ss by task performance when estimating how they would do in a future task; the groups did not differ, however, in performance effects on self-ratings or on judgments of photographs. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. High: Multidimensional scaling of alcoholics' self-evaluations.

Developed a social cognition paradigm to study 40 male alcoholics' self-evaluations. Ss made judgments of similarity among all possible pairs of a set of 15 stimulus people. The "target" stimuli in this set were sober self and high self. The "marker" stimuli included a broad array of hypothetical people representing various personality types. Data were scaled according to multidimensional successive intervals. Results suggest that alcoholics consider themselves to be entirely different people when sober than when high. The stability and meaningfulness of these findings support the continued development of this assessment procedure for further investigation in the alcoholism area and also for general personality research. (35 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self–other judgments and perceived vulnerability to victimization.

Previous studies have shown that people who have not been victimized by negative life events tend to perceive themselves as less vulnerable than others to victimization. The present 2 studies examined the conditions under which Ss' judgments of others' vulnerability would differ from judgments of their own vulnerability. In Study 1, 101 undergraduates saw vague comparison targets (either the average person or the average college student) as more vulnerable than themselves to 10 negative events. In contrast, Ss perceived a specific target (their closest friend, sibling, or same-sex parent) as equally invulnerable as themselves. In Study 2, 190 Ss who were instructed to consider a vague, abstract target (either the average college student or one of their friends) made downward comparisons, choosing a real or hypothetical other who was especially vulnerable to a particular event. Ss who were instructed to consider a specific, concrete target (their closest friend) perceived no self–other differences in risk status. It is concluded that when given the opportunity, Ss actively engage in downward comparisons, thereby seeing themselves as relatively invulnerable. Whereas vague targets facilitate downward comparisons, specific targets make such comparisons more difficult. Both cognitive and motivational mechanisms underlying such downward comparisons are discussed. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social comparison in adjustment to breast cancer.

Investigated 4 theoretical perspectives concerning the role of social comparison in coping with a threatening event, using 78 29–78 yr old females with breast cancer as Ss. It is noted that, according to the supercoper perspective, personal contact with comparison others is often unavailable to patients; in addition, contact with media supercopers (fellow victims presented as adjusting smoothly) may make patients feel inadequate by comparison. According to the similarity perspective, patients select comparison targets who are similar to themselves because those comparisons should be the most informative. The upward comparison perspective is predictive of comparisons to relatively advantaged or superior individuals. The downward comparison perspective leads to the prediction that, under conditions of threat, individuals make comparisons to people who are inferior or less fortunate in order to enhance their self-esteem. Ss were interviewed to determine which perspective had the most validity in terms of their experience with closed-ended questions. Ss offered spontaneous comparisons throughout the interview. Both closed-ended questions and spontaneously offered comparisons yielded a preponderance of downward comparisons. Findings support the value of using naturalistic methods for studying comparisons and suggest a more active and cognitive role for social comparison than is usually portrayed. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social judgeability: The impact of meta-informational cues on the use of stereotypes.

According to a social judgeability analysis, a crucial determinant of impression formation is the extent to which people feel entitled to judge a target person. Two experiments, with a total of 113 undergraduates, tested the impact of the subjective availability of individuating information on a social judgment independent of its actual presence. In Exp 1, Ss made a stereotypical judgment when they believed individuating information was present even if no information was in fact given. In Exp 2, Ss who thought they received individuating information made more extreme and confident judgments than Ss who thought they received category information. This indicates that Ss' judgments were not simply a function of implicit demand: The illusion of receiving individuating information led Ss to believe they possessed the necessary evidence for legitimate decision making. This result supports the existence of rules in the social inference process. (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)     

A direct test of and an alternative explanation for judgments of attractiveness of supporters of the women's movement.

Previous studies investigated the possible bias against women who support the women's movement, using a paradigm requiring Ss to sort photographs into 2 categories. Based on these sortings, differential judgments of physical attractiveness were inferred without having the Ss who performed the sorting actually rate the photos. To provide increased confidence in the previous findings, the present authors asked 91 female and 69 male undergraduates to rate photos thought to depict persons with varying positions toward the movement. Additionally, correlational data were gathered to test the explanation of an attitude similarity mediated error that can subsume the previous mixed findings. The results replicated the earlier findings, indicating no general bias against supporters. There were no differences between male and female Ss on their mean ratings of either male or female photographs and no attribution of profeminist attitudes to lower attractiveness ratings for either male or female Ss. However, attractiveness ratings were related to Ss' attitudes. It is concluded that persons erroneously perceive similar others to be more attractive than dissimilar others, rather than perceiving supporters in general to be less attractive. (French abstract) (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality effects on children's speech in everyday life: Sociability-mediated exposure and shyness-mediated reactivity to social situations.

Speech and heart rate were continuously monitored during 7 days from morning to evening in 41 Grade 2 children selected for high or low parental judgments of sociability and shyness. Ss attended school in the mornings and were free in the afternoons; the child's social situations in the afternoon were reconstructed with the child and a caretaker. During the afternoons sociable Ss spent more time in conversations than unsociable Ss, but the groups did not differ in their verbal participation within conversations. Shy Ss spent as much time in conversations and spoke as much in familiar situations as nonshy children but spoke less in moderately unfamiliar situations. Neither sociability nor shyness had an effect on heart rate reactivity. The results show that sociability affects the exposure, and shyness the reactivity, to situations and that these traits are clearly distinct despite some similarity in lay judgments of personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reducing unrealistic optimism about illness susceptibility.

Examined an intervention designed to eliminate unrealistic optimism (i.e., tendency to claim lower vulnerability to health and safety risks than others) among 88 undergraduates. Ss rated themselves on risk factors for 11 health and safety threats and received information about the standing of a typical student on these risk factors; they then made comparative risk judgments for each problem. Results indicate that providing information about peers' actual risks eliminated optimistic biases for problems that normally evoke biased judgments (e.g., diabetes, heart attack). Ss who rated themselves on risk factors but did not receive information about peers became substantially more unrealistic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's judgments of their own and their peers' academic competence.

A standardized open-ended interview was used to study how 96 4–8 yr old children judged their own and their classmates' abilities. Ss were asked to explain how they knew who in their class was best and who was worst at various tasks and who was the best and who was the worst thinker. Ss also rated themselves and their classmates on how smart each was and explained their ratings. Content analyses of responses revealed that younger Ss, particularly males, were more likely than older Ss to refer to sociability in their ability judgments; they were less likely to base their judgments on social comparisons or on the difficulty level of the task. Ss at all age levels frequently explained ability judgments in terms of effort or work habits, although work habits tended to be referred to less by preschool-age Ss than by older Ss. Ss' ratings of their own ability declined with grade; ratings for peers were lower than self-ratings and did not change as a function of grade level. Self-ability ratings of Ss in kindergarten through the 3rd grade and their ratings of classmates were significantly correlated to teacher ratings of relative academic standing. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School self-acceptance among Canadian Indian, White, and Metis children.

Compared 334 Indian, 197 non-Indian, and 92 Metis students (aged 10–19 yrs) on an aspect of self-concept, school self-acceptance. A follow-up study was conducted several months later with 40 Ss. Attempts were made to overcome weaknesses in prior research by gathering validity data on the self-concept measure and controlling for extraneous factors such as social assets that could account for Indian/non-Indian differences. Support was found for the prediction that Indian Ss would have lower school self-acceptance scores than White Ss. Metis Ss resembled Indians in their school self-acceptance scores, acculturation level, and social assets, but scored closer to Whites in their childrearing scale scores. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the social assets variable was the most important predictor of school self-acceptance, although the ethnicity factor remained a significant predictor. (French abstract) (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social comparison and depression: Company's effect on misery.

Two studies examined the social comparison processes of 50 depressed and 48 nondepressed college students selected on the basis of their scores on the Beck Depression Inventory. In the 1st study, Ss' preferences for information from others were assessed after they had received a manipulation intended to improve or worsen their mood states. The responses of the depressed Ss provide evidence of downward comparison: They indicate a preference for information from people who were experiencing negative affect, but only when they themselves were also experiencing relatively negative affect, not when their moods had been temporarily improved. In the 2nd study, Ss' moods were assessed before and after they had received information indicating another person was currently experiencing highly negative affect. This information had little effect on the nondepressed Ss; however, the mood states of the depressed Ss improved after they read the information. Results suggest that realizing that others are doing worse may help depressed persons to feel somewhat better. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of social power on aspiration setting and striving.

"Individual Ss were observed in a situation similar to the one used by Rotter (1942) for studying the level of aspiration, while they were to perceive themselves as members of a team which was not physically present. In two experimental conditions… the Ss were provided standards of individual performance, for a series of trials, said to originate in others members of their team. Events were so arranged that Ss… did not attain the performance levels put before them by the others… . Assumptions were made that: (a) scores are evaluated in terms of internal levels of aspiration; (b) referent social pressures more strongly influence… internal levels of aspiration than do coercive… and (c) a discrepancy between an internal level of aspiration and an obtained score generates forces to reduce this discrepancy." Results confirmed the hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vocational self-concept crystallization and vocational indecision.

A. Korman (1966, 1967, 1970) and D. E. Super (1963) have developed theoretical models to explain the processes underlying the relationship between self-esteem and vocational decisional status. These models differ in their predictions regarding the vocational self-concept crystallization of high and low self-esteem persons. The relationship between vocational self-concept crystallization and global self-esteem (as measured by the Total Positive Scale of the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale) was investigated using 102 undergraduates as Ss. A significant difference was found for both sexes in the degree of crystallization across self-esteem levels, thereby supporting Super's model over Korman's. Support was found, however, for the basic assumption of Korman's model that high self-esteem individuals perceive themselves as competent, need-satisfying decision makers to a greater degree than low self-esteem individuals. The absence of any sex effects is discussed in relation to career development theories in general. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The information acquired during artificial grammar learning.

In an artificial grammar learning task, amnesic patients classified test items as well as normal Ss did. Item similarity did not affect grammaticality judgments when similar and nonsimilar test items were balanced for the frequency with which bigrams and trigrams (chunks) that appeared in the training set also appeared in the test items. Amnesic Ss performed like normal Ss. Results suggest that concrete information about letter chunks can influence grammaticality judgments and that this information is acquired implicitly. The similarity of whole test items to training items does not appear to affect grammaticality judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)