Attraction personnelle et attraction sociale : Lorsque la saillance catégorielle annule la relation similitude-attraction.

Research on interpersonal attraction has repeatedly demonstrated that people are more attracted to similar others. In the present article, our goal is to show that this similar-attraction relationship is moderated by people's current level of self-categorization. Students were required to constitute work groups by selecting five classmates who shared to varying degrees similar attitudes. Under standard conditions (no group salience) participants' choice supported the similar-attraction relationship. However, when implicitly reminded of their gender identity, participants did not show anymore attraction to others who shared more similar attitudes. The results are discussed in terms of the self-categorization theory and suggestions are made to distinguish between two forms of attraction: interpersonal attraction and social attraction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Excessive reassurance seeking, depression, and interpersonal rejection: A meta-analytic review.

Coyne's (1976a, 1976b) interactional theory of depression predicts positive associations between excessive reassurance seeking (ERS) and both depression and interpersonal rejection. A growing body of research has supported the ERS model, but this work has yet to be systematically reviewed. A meta-analysis of 38 studies (N = 6,973) revealed an aggregate effect size (r) of .32 between ERS and concurrent depression. Moderator analyses showed effect sizes were significantly stronger for studies with self-report measures, compared with interviews, and for samples with higher percentages of women and were marginally stronger for studies with community samples, compared with clinical samples. A second meta-analysis of 16 studies yielded a weighted mean effect size of .14 between ERS and concurrent rejection, with studies assessing target-reported rejection showing stronger effect sizes than studies assessing informant-reported rejection and studies examining romantic relationships yielding marginally stronger effect sizes than studies examining nonromantic relationships. Prospective studies are qualitatively reviewed. Results support the ERS model (with several important caveats) but underscore the need for methodological diversity in future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acute effects of intranasal oxytocin on subjective and behavioral responses to social rejection.

The hormone and neuropeptide oxytocin is believed to buffer against social stress and reduce social-threat perception. We employed a widely used ostracism paradigm, Cyberball, to investigate whether oxytocin ameliorated the acute behavioral and affective consequences of social rejection. In a double-blind, randomized, between-subjects design, 74 healthy male and female participants were administered intranasal oxytocin or placebo and subsequently ostracized or included during this virtual ball-tossing game. Ostracized participants reported negative affective and attachment-related reactions, as well as a significant motivational change in increased desire to be involved in the game; these effects were not influenced by oxytocin. Intranasal oxytocin did, however, increase included participants' desire to play again with the same participants, suggesting oxytocin enhanced desire for future social engagement following inclusion. These findings are argued to provide evidence that the effects of oxytocin in promoting social approach behavior may be context specific and sensitive to positive social cues. The results suggest that in an explicitly aversive context, oxytocin does not buffer against the immediate impact of blunt social rejection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

My head says yes but my heart says no: Cognitive and affective attraction as a function of similarity to the ideal self.

The authors hypothesized that similarity to the ideal self (IS) simultaneously generates attraction and repulsion. Attraction research has suggested that a person likes individuals who are similar to his or her IS. Social comparison research has suggested that upward social comparison threatens self-evaluation. In Experiment 1, attraction to a partner increased and then decreased as the partner became more similar to and then surpassed the participant's IS. In Experiment 2, the cognitive and affective components of attraction increased and decreased, respectively, as the partner approached and surpassed the participant's IS to the extent that the dimension of comparison was meaningful and participants anticipated meeting their partner. Similarity to the IS generates opposing cognitive and affective reactions when the self-evaluative threat of upward comparison intensifies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of changes in self-esteem upon impulsiveness and deliberation in making judgments.

The need for closure, i.e., the effort to impart meaning to situations, is assumed to be related to the personality variable of self-esteem. Self-esteem was manipulated experimentally and hypotheses tested as to the effect of increased or decreased self-esteem on the need for closure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some consequences of experimental rejection.

"The experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that irreversible rejection gives rise to attributions of responsibility for that rejection, toward the self (self-depreciation) and toward the rejectors (hostility). The theoretical basis for the hypothesis was that personal devaluation anxiety engendered by the rejection can be made less unacceptable to the self through a causal analysis of it. The data were consistent with the hypothesis." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential effects of ego threat upon persuasibility for high and low self-esteem subjects.

A conceptual model of persuasibility is presented, based upon its relationship to self-esteem and defense mechanism preference. An experiment designed to test some deductions from the model is reported, in which it is hypothesized that an experience of failure in the performance of a need-related behavior will decrease persuasibility for high self-esteem Ss and increase persuasibility for lows. Male VA domiciliary residents were divided into 4 groups, consisting of high or low self-esteem persons receiving failure treatment or no treatment immediately prior to a test of persuasibility. The predicted interaction effect between levels of self-esteem and experimental conditions upon persuasibility scores was considered supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immediate effects of group therapy upon response to social reinforcement among juvenile delinquents.

Using a paper-and-pencil measure of the degree of effective assimilation or recognition of interpersonal approval and disapproval statements as reward and punishment events, a group of 89 institutionalized delinquent male adolescents tested immediately following a 1-hour group-therapy session were compared with an identical group tested immediately prior to their weekly group-therapy session. Analysis of variance and Cochran-Cox tests revealed that the posttherapy group scored significantly (p     

Conformity, veridicality, and self-esteem.

Prior to the application of group pressure to conform to an erroneous consensus in the Blake-Brehm procedure of counting auditory clicks, a control series was administered in the absence of social pressure to ascertain sheer counting accuracy in 2 groups of experimental Ss selected to differ in the degree of their measured self-esteem. Low self-esteem Ss were found to be significantly less accurate than high self-esteem Ss in counting accuracy under the nonsocial conditions. The results highlight the importance of controlling for competency in conformity research, particularly in studies utilizing such personality variables as self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contingencies of self-worth.

Research on self-esteem has focused almost exclusively on level of trait self-esteem to the neglect of other potentially more important aspects such as the contingencies on which self-esteem is based. Over a century ago, W. James (1890) argued that self-esteem rises and falls around its typical level in response to successes and failures in domains on which one has staked self-worth. We present a model of global self-esteem that builds on James' insights and emphasizes contingencies of self-worth. This model can help to (a) point the way to understanding how self-esteem is implicated in affect, cognition, and self-regulation of behavior, (b) suggest how and when self-esteem is implicated in social problems; (c) resolve debates about the nature and functioning of self-esteem; (d) resolve paradoxes in related literatures, such as why people who are stigmatized do not necessarily have low self-esteem and why self-esteem does not decline with age; and (e) suggest how self-esteem is causally related to depression. In addition, this perspective raises questions about how contingencies of self-worth are acquired and how they change, whether they are primarily a resource or a vulnerability, and whether some people have noncontingent self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The interpersonal consequences of inflated self-esteem in an inpatient psychiatric youth sample.

This study tested R. F. Baumeister, L. Smart, and J. M. Boden's (1996) theory of inflated self-esteem with an inpatient psychiatric youth sample. Participants were assessed on their self-reported self-esteem, self-reported interpersonal problems, and peer rejection (measured by evaluations from 3 or 4 peers). Consistent with the hypotheses, those with low self-esteem reported the most interpersonal problems, followed consecutively by the moderate self-esteem group and then the high self-esteem group, who reported the fewest interpersonal problems. Also in line with the hypotheses, those with low and high self-esteem were rejected by their peers when compared with the moderate self-esteem group. Thus, the high self-esteem group was rejected by their peers but did not themselves report interpersonal problems. These findings provide further support for Baumeister et al.'s theory and generalize the theory to a clinical setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of cooperation and competition upon small group behavior.

"From previous research on cooperation, competition, and studies of small groups, an attempt was made to formulate hypotheses that would integrate theoretical approaches to both areas of investigation… . The results of the experiment [presented] permit the following conclusions: 1. Cooperation may be considered a determinant of group cohesiveness… . 2. Cooperation may be considered a determinant of instrumental communications." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of light upon the behavior of rodents.

Topics discussed are light aversion, light reinforcement, self-regulated exposure to light, activity and activity rhythms affected by light, and physiological changes dependent upon light. It is argued that the effects of light are manifold and persistent, and thus cut across usual research categories; that different experimental procedures may not measure entirely separate light-controlled phenomena; and that theories of light-controlled behavior might profit from considering a wider scope of data whose common denominator is light. (98 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When you and I are "we," you are not threatening: The role of self-expansion in social comparison.

Many theories of self-evaluation emphasize the power of social comparison. Simply put, an individual is thought to gain esteem whenever she or he outperforms others and to lose esteem when he or she is outperformed. The current research explored interdependent self-construal as a moderator of these effects. Two studies used a priming task to manipulate the level of self-construal and investigate effects of social comparison in dyadic (Study 1) and group situations (Study 2). Both studies demonstrated that when the target for comparison is construed as part of the self, his or her successes become cause for celebration rather than costs to esteem. Additionally, gender differences in chronic relational and collective self-construals moderated the patterns of social comparison in a form similar to that of priming relational and collective self-construals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of the proposition: We want to be esteemed most by those we esteem most highly.

To test the proposition, college Ss were first asked to list the names of 15 campus friends. Then S was requested to rank them, according to preference as a study partner ("scholastic esteem"), desire to have them join a club of S's ("social esteem"), and desire to give them esteemable social or scholastic information about self. The results indicated a significant correlation between social esteem and the desire for the esteemed to have esteemable social and scholastic information. The scholastically esteemed were more a target for scholastic than social data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal attraction and personality: What is attractive--self similarity, ideal similarity, complementarity or attachment security?

Little is known about whether personality characteristics influence initial attraction. Because adult attachment differences influence a broad range of relationship processes, the authors examined their role in 3 experimental attraction studies. The authors tested four major attraction hypotheses--self similarity, ideal-self similarity, complementarity, and attachment security--and examined both actual and perceptual factors. Replicated analyses across samples, designs, and manipulations showed that actual security and self similarity predicted attraction. With regard to perceptual factors, ideal similarity, self similarity, and security all were significant predictors. Whereas perceptual ideal and self similarity had incremental predictive power, perceptual security's effects were subsumed by perceptual ideal similarity. Perceptual self similarity fully mediated actual attachment similarity effects, whereas ideal similarity was only a partial mediator. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attempts to lead, group productivity, and morale under conditions of acceptance and rejection.

The hypothesis being tested by this experiment was that under conditions such that to attempt to lead is to invite rejection, group members with a relatively high need achievement and a relatively low need affiliation would make more frequent attempts to lead than would other members having relatively high affiliation and low achievement needs. 24 four-man groups were set up under controlled laboratory conditions. Although the major hypothesis was not confirmed, it was shown that differences in attempts to lead may be attributed to differences in the experimental conditions to which the groups were subjected, rather than to the major needs specified. 20 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social acceptance and rejection of preschool children with disabilities: A mixed-method analysis.

Eighty children with disabilities enrolled in a nationally distributed set of inclusive preschool programs participated in this study. The average age of the participants was 3.9 years, and 60% were male. The children exhibited a range of disabilities and developmental levels. Using a mixed-method approach, the authors established quantitative criteria for identifying children with disabilities who were socially accepted and socially rejected by their peer group, and qualitative methods revealed themes associated with social participation of each group. Cluster analyses of themes identified 3 clusters associated with social acceptance (e.g., awareness-interest, communication-play, friendship-social skills) and 2 clusters associated with social rejection (e.g., social withdrawal, conflict-aggression). Subsequent cluster analyses of children and matrix analyses illustrated how child social participation was related to superordinate theme clusters and constructs of acceptance and rejection. Socially accepted children tended to have disabilities that were less likely to affect social problem solving and emotional regulation, whereas children who were socially rejected had disabilities that were more likely to affect such skills and developmental capacities. Implications of this research for theory and practice are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Getting by with a little help from self and others: Self-esteem and social support as resources during early adolescence.

Influences of social support and self-esteem on adjustment in early adolescence were investigated in a 2-year longitudinal study (N=350). Multi-informant data (youth and parent) were used to assess both overall levels and balance in peer- versus adult-oriented sources for social support and self-esteem. Findings obtained using latent growth-curve modeling were consistent with self-esteem mediating effects of social support on both emotional and behavioral adjustment. Lack of balance in social support and self-esteem in the direction of stronger support and esteem from peer-oriented sources predicted greater levels and rates of growth in behavioral problems. Results indicate a need for process-oriented models of social support and self-esteem and sensitivity to patterning of sources for each resource relative to adaptive demands of early adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of individually prominent behavior upon group effectiveness and member satisfaction.

"An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that in unstructured situations, behavior oriented toward individual prominence in the group is negatively correlated with group performance and positively correlated with member satisfaction… . Twenty-two four-person groups were observed… . Groups were required to solve five problems… . After completion of the problem, Ss rated their satisfaction with the group, the degree to which group members cooperated, and group performance… . It was concluded that in the undifferentiated situation behavior oriented toward individual prominence interferences with effective group action." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)