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)     

Structure of gender stereotypes: Interrelationships among components and gender label.

Assessed the extent to which gender label and various types of component information influenced the judgments made by 458 undergraduates in 3 experiments regarding the existence of other gender-related characteristics not specifically implied by the provided information. In Exp I, 42 male and 65 female undergraduates were given gender and role information about a person and asked to estimate the probability that the person had a number of other characteristics or engaged in a number of other behaviors. In Exp II, 84 male and 92 female Ss followed the previous procedure but were given traits rather than roles of the person. Results show that gender stereotypes consisted of a number of separate components. In Exp III, each of 4 gender stereotype components was presented in a within-Ss design, and 83 male and 88 female Ss made judgments about each component. Results show that information about one stereotype component can implicate other components; specific component information may outweigh gender identification; and components differ in their ability to implicate other components of gender stereotypes, with physical appearance playing a dominant role. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Speeded tests of implicit knowledge.

Three experiments tested the hypothesis that implicit and explicit tasks involve distinct modes of processing. Ss observed rule-ordered letter strings and were asked either to memorize the strings or to try to discover the underlying rules. In Exp 1, they then made well-formedness judgments of novel strings under long-deadline and short-deadline conditions. Rule-discovery Ss, but not memory Ss, were impaired by the short deadline. In Exp 2, all Ss made "similarity" judgments of the novel strings instead of the traditional "rule-based" judgments; there were now no differences between the rule-discovery and memory groups. In Exp 3, Ss explicitly instructed in the rules were significantly more impaired under short deadlines than were memory Ss. An analysis of decision times to individual strings for the rule-trained vs memory groups also showed qualitative differences consistent with the implicit–explicit distinction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Happiness and reminiscing: The role of time perspective, affect, and mode of thinking.

Conducted 3 experiments to determine the affect of reminiscing on reported well-being. 51 students at a professional school for translators and interpreters in Exp I and 36 undergraduates in Exp II recounted events that they had experienced as positive and pleasant or as negative and unpleasant. In Exp III, 64 undergraduates wrote down a particularly positive or negative event and then asked to explain either why or how this event occurred. Ss in all 3 experiments were then asked to rate their happiness and life satisfaction. Overall results indicate that Ss' ratings of general life satisfaction depended not only on the hedonic quality of the life experiences they happened to recall but also on the way in which they thought about them. Specifically, the hedonic quality of present life events influenced Ss' judgments of well-being in the same direction. The hedonic quality of past events, however, had a congruent impact on well-being judgments only when thinking about them elicited affect in the present but otherwise had a contrast effect on these judgments. Two factors were found to determine if thinking about the past elicits affect: whether Ss describe the events vividly and in detail or only mention them briefly, and whether Ss describe how the events occurred rather than why they occurred. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of diagnosticity in stereotype formation: Perceiving group means and variances.

Three experiments tested the hypotheses that while forming stereotypes of social groups, people abstract the central tendency and variability of different attribute dimensions to determine which ones best differentiate the groups and that more differentiating dimensions are more likely to become stereotypical in the sense of becoming strongly associated with the groups in memory. Supporting these hypotheses, Exp 1 found that, after viewing behaviors performed by members of 2 groups, Ss characterized the groups more in terms of attribute dimensions indicating larger differences between the central tendencies of the groups, and Exp 2 showed that this effect did not occur when Ss formed impressions of only 1 group. Exp 3 found that Ss also characterized groups more in terms of attribute dimensions indicating lower within-group variability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sampling of similar and dissimilar comparison persons and objects as a function of the generality of attribution goal.

Conducted an information-search procedure in which Ss were asked to seek information regarding persons and objects in order to validate a given person or object cause. Four hypotheses were tested: When asked to validate a person cause, Ss are more likely to select distinctiveness information than target-object consensus information. When asked to validate an object cause, Ss are more likely to select target-object consensus information than distinctiveness information. As the generality of person inference increases, progressively dissimilar object comparisons are sought. As the generality of object inference increases, progressively dissimilar person comparisons are sought. In Exp I, 26 undergraduates read attitude statements and answered judgment goals or questions about the statement's generality or object inference. 52 undergraduates in Exp II completed a similar task. The first 3 hypotheses were supported in both Exp I and Exp II, whereas the 4th hypothesis received only mixed support in Exp I and was not supported in Exp II. Unlike Exp I, Exp II did not include cues suggesting the relevant type of information to be sought. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

To know oneself is to like oneself: Self-certainty and self-affect.

Four experiments demonstrated that certainty about self-attributes is associated with positive affect about the self. In Experiments (Exps.) 1–3, low esteem was associated with less certainty about possessing several trait attributes, as measured by confidence intervals (Exps. 1–2) and reaction time (Exp. 3). The finding that low-esteem Ss were less certain was reversed when Ss rated the traits in public (Exp. 2a), suggesting that low-esteem Ss do not simply respond to impression management cues, and was attenuated when Ss estimated the traits of friends (Exps. 2b and 3), suggesting that lack of certainty of low-esteem people is specific to self-judgments. In Exp. 4, Ss exposed to certain diagnoses of their self-perceived traits showed an improvement in self-affect and egotism. Links between prediction and control, and subsequent affect about the self are discussed. (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)     

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)     

Face recall: An examination of some factors limiting composite production accuracy.

Contemporary face composite systems require scrutiny of many alternative features during the construction phase and judgments of similarity based on viewing features divorced from a facial context. The present study assessed the role of these factors in limiting composite production accuracy. In Exp I, 60 students observed a target face and made similarity judgments on sample eyes or mouths drawn from a Photo-fit Kit before attempting to identify the same features of the target. Exp II with 60 Ss was a replication, except that the interpolated judgments were made on the features in the context of a complete Photo-fit face resembling the target. In neither experiment did the Photo-fit components significantly interfere with recognition of the corresponding features of the target. In Exp III, the similarity ratings from memory provided by Ss in the previous experiments were compared with parallel sets of ratings furnished by 30 Ss in the presence of the target. Mean judgments of similarity made from memory on isolated features were discrepant from all other ratings. Results are interpreted as suggesting that whereas interference is not a major problem, judging resemblance from features seen in isolation may be a serious source of distortion in composite production. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression, social comparison, and the false-consensus effect.

Refers to the fact that in general, people perceive high consensus for their own attributes—the "false-consensus effect." 20 depressed and 20 nondepressed undergraduates (10 men and 10 women in each group) were asked about the extent to which depression-relevant and depression-irrelevant attributes were true of themselves and true of the "average college student." Ss were also asked questions assessing the accuracy of their perceptions of others. Depressed Ss showed less false consensus than nondepressed Ss. Although depressives characterized themselves as dissimilar to others, they showed no consistent bias to deprecate themselves relative to others. Nondepressives consistently enhanced themselves relative to others, although the magnitude of their self–other differences was smaller than that of depressives. The tendency to deprecate oneself relative to others on negative depression-relevant items was a better predictor of severity of depression than self-perceptions or other perceptions alone. Findings regarding the accuracy of perceptions of others were mixed. The discussion includes implications for the false-consensus effect, depressive attributional style, nondepressive self-serving biases, and therapy for depression. (1? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intuitive physics in action and judgment: The development of knowledge about projectile motion.

Contrasts intuitive knowledge about projectile motion expressed in action with knowledge expressed in explicit judgments. In the action condition of Exp 1, children and adults threw a ball horizontally from different heights to hit targets on the floor; in the judgment condition the same Ss rated the respective launch speeds required. All age groups appropriately varied the launch speed with respect to both height of release and target distance in the action condition. In the judgment condition, however, kindergartners failed to integrate the relevant dimensions and even 4th graders and adults showed misconceptions of the speed–height relation. Exp 2 established that the speed gradations in the action condition did not critically depend on visual flight feedback or the availability of outcome information. It is concluded that perceptual-motor knowledge about projectile motion is distinct from naive, verbal-cognitive concepts of projectile motion and follows different developmental courses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schemas and images as memory aids: Two modes of processing social information.

Proposes that schemas, informational structures characterized as verbal or propositional, are more effective as memory aids for information about the self than for information about other people. It is also proposed that images, informational structures characterized as visual or imaginal, are more effective as memory aids for information about other people than for information about the self. Two parallel experiments were performed. In Exp I, 24 undergraduates who were asked to decide whether various trait adjectives described either themselves or other people showed superior subsequent recall for the self-referent words. In Exp II, 24 undergraduates asked to form mental images of either themselves or other people interacting with various concrete objects showed inferior subsequent recall for the self-referent words. These divergent results and several current findings suggest that schemas and images may involve different cognitive principles and constitute 2 modes of processing social information. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-schemas and gender.

Examined the information processing consequences of self-schemas about gender in 2 studies (467 undergraduates). Systematic differences in cognitive performance were observed among Ss identified as masculine schematics, feminine schematics, low androgynous, and high androgynous (Bem Sex-Role Inventory). Feminine schematics remembered more feminine than masculine attributes, endorsed more feminine qualities, required shorter processing times for "me" judgments to these attributes, were more confident of their judgments, and were able to supply relatively more examples of past feminine than masculine behavior. A parallel pattern of results was found for masculine stimuli in masculine schematics. Androgynous Ss recalled as many masculine as feminine attributes and did not differentiate between masculine and feminine attributes with respect to latency or confidence. Comparison of the 2 groups of androgynous Ss shows that only low androgynous Ss should be considered aschematic with respect to gender. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social comparison, multiple reference groups, and the self-concepts of academically handicapped children before and after mainstreaming.

Predictions adduced from social comparison theory and group reference theory were tested in 2 experiments that assessed the impact of half-day integration into the educational mainstream on the self-concepts of academically handicapped children. In Exp I (50 Ss, 6 yrs 2 mo to 10 yrs 10 mo old), mainstreamed Ss exhibited significantly augmented self-concepts, a result attributed to the availability of multiple comparative reference groups. In Exp II (20 Ss, 8 yrs 3 mo to 11 yrs), a manipulation designed to restrict self-concept-relevant social comparisons to Ss in the academic mainstream produced decreased self-regard, while unrestricted utilization of multiple comparative reference groups produced increased self-regard. Results are interpreted as supportive of the theoretical viability of social comparison theory and group reference theory in educational settings. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's perceptions of friendships as supportive relationships.

Assessed 122 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th graders' perceptions of the social support provided by friends. During individual interviews, Ss were asked about the frequency of emotional support or intimate self-disclosure, tangible support or prosocial behavior, and other types of support provided by a particular friend. Ss were also asked about the frequency of conflicts with the friend and the frequency of supportive interactions and conflicts with a classmate who was only an acquaintance. Factor analyses revealed an increase with grade in the differentiation between the support and conflict dimensions of friendship and acquaintanceship. At all grades, Ss perceived friends as more supportive than acquaintances, but explanations for the lack of support from acquaintances changed with grade. Sixth graders often gave personal attributions (e.g., saying that the acquaintances were selfish or hostile). Eighth graders favored more situational attributions (e.g., saying that they had few supportive interactions with acquaintances because they rarely came in contact with them). The potential value of perceived-support measures in research on the consequences of friendship is discussed. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Referencing and bias in social interaction.

Examined the consequences of schematic referencing for social behavior. In Exp I, 23 female and 21 male undergraduates worked in pairs on a word association task. In the self-referencing condition, Ss were told that their partner would judge their personality; in the other-referencing condition, Ss were asked to judge their partner's personality. Results show biased recall of Ss' own behavior over another person's behavior in a dyadic interaction. Exp II employed an alternative, more realistic manipulation of self-referencing using situational cues. 16 pairs of undergraduate Ss performed the same word association task either in front of judges or by themselves. The biased recall effect was replicated. Moreover, corresponding biases in Ss' attributions about the quality of their performance were found. Results confirm that self-referencing cues can cause the sort of egocentric reactions that have been observed in previous studies in which members of an interaction remember more of their own contributions and attribute more responsibility for joint tasks to themselves. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)