Effect of expecting to be liked on choice of associates.

This study investigated one of the factors which the authors felt influenced the strong tendency of people to choose to associate with others they perceive as similar to themselves, the fear of being disliked by dissimilar strangers. As predicted, it was found that if Ss felt it was important to talk with people who would like them, they more often chose to interact with similar than dissimilar people. A 2nd group of students, assured that all members of all groups would be told they were "not likable" and thus presumably concerned about making others like them, were also more anxious than control Ss to talk with similar people. If Ss were assured that all members of all groups would be told they were "likable" Ss were much more willing to associate with dissimilar groups of people than with similar ones. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social desirability and the description of others.

Ss were asked to use Leary's Interpersonal Check List (ICL) to describe people they liked, disliked, and knew well but neither liked nor disliked. Social Desirability Scale (SD) values had been obtained on each of the 12 items of the ICL in a previous study by Edwards (see 32: 464). The present list selections were evaluated in terms of this dimension. Liked people are characterized by items high in SD; disliking people correlates less, but in the predicted direction. A positive relationship also exists between a Ss own SD score and that he attributes to others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of personality and situational cautiousness on conceptual behavior.

An assessment of the degree to which cautiousness ("the tendency to behave in a manner designed to avoid potential failure or disapproval experiences… often at the expense of other satisfactions") affected responsiveness to TAT cards and MAPS. Degree of cautiousness was assessed by performance on the Rotter Level of Aspiration Board (see 19: 2261). Ss were then administered a test of social acceptability of attitudes and were either told that they scored low (failure experience), scored high (success experience), or were given no feedback (neutral). Comparisons of cautious (C) and noncautious (NC) Ss revealed that degree of cautiousness distinguished C and NC Ss in the neutral situation only. The finding supported the assumption that cautiousness, as a personality trait, could also be used to describe conceptual behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attribution, reinforcement, and altruism: A developmental analysis.

Conducted 3 experiments with 256 7–10 yr olds in which Ss were induced to donate some of their winnings from a game to poor children. They were then praised for their behavior (reinforcement), told they must have donated because they were helpful people (attribution), or told nothing (control). Subsequent donation, and behavior on a variety of tests of generalized altruism, was assessed. The donation of all Ss was increased both by reinforcement and attributions of prosocial behavior. Neither reinforcement nor attribution affected the generalized altruism of 5-yr-olds, only attribution affected the generalized altruism of 8-yr-olds, and both reinforcement and attribution affected the generalized altruism of 10-yr-olds. Findings are discussed in terms of the effects of reinforcement and attribution on the child's developing self-concept. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Friendship choice and performance: Self-evaluation maintenance in children.

Examined the interrelations among performance in school, friendship choices in the classroom, and the importance of various school-related activities for 270 5th- and 6th graders' self-definition, using the self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) model. Ss were administered the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, and 16 teachers rated Ss' performance. Ss named as friends those classmates whose performance (both actual and distorted) was better than their own on irrelevant activities and somewhat inferior to their own on relevant activities. There was also a striking similarity effect. Friends' overall performance was highly similar to the S's own overall performance, and both the Ss and friends performed better on the S's relevant activity than on the S's irrelevant activity. The performance of a distant other, in this case a disliked other, was derogated on both relevant and irrelevant activities. Results support the use of an SEM model and suggest that although friendship choices may indeed be governed by attempts to maintain a positive self-evaluation, individuals do not achieve this goal by choosing as friends those who perform poorly on personally relevant activities. Individuals choose as friends others who are highly similar to themselves in terms of overall ability and who are interested in and perform well on those activities that are consequential to them. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Telling lies.

Men and women (20 each) were videotaped while describing someone they liked, someone they disliked, someone they were ambivalent about, someone they were indifferent about, someone they liked as though they disliked him or her, and someone they disliked as though they liked him or her. Accuracy at detecting that some deception had occurred was far greater than accuracy at detecting the true underlying affect, and Ss who were good at detecting that deception was occurring were not particularly skilled at reading the speakers' underlying affects. However, Ss whose deception attempts were more easily detected by others also had their underlying affects read more easily. Speakers whose lies were seen more readily by men also had their lies seen more readily by women, and observers better able to see the underlying affects of women were better able to see the underlying affects of men. Skill at lying successfully was unrelated to skill at catching others in their lies. A histrionic strategy (hamming) was very effective in deceiving others, and this strategy was employed more by more Machiavellian Ss, who also tended to get caught less often in their lies. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social anxiety, self-presentation, and the self-serving bias in causal attribution.

Two experiments with 160 undergraduates studied the contribution of self-presentation concerns to the self-serving bias in causal attribution (individuals' tendency to assume more personal responsibility for a success than for a failure) and its occasional, but systematic, reversal. In Exp I, high- but not low-social-anxiety Ss (selected by scores on the Social Anxiety subscale of the Self-Consciousness Scale) presented themselves in a far more modest light when a committee of high prestige others was to join the experimenter in evaluating their behavior than when the committee evaluation was canceled. In Exp II, this reversal of the self-serving bias among high-social-anxiety Ss was replicated, and it was also found that both high- and low-social-anxiety Ss portrayed the causes of their behavior in a more modest fashion when they responded via the "bogus pipeline," a measurement technique designed to reduce distortion and dissimulation in verbal responses, than when they responded in the traditional paper-and-pencil format. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive sets, attribution, and social interaction.

Examined relationships among cognitive set variables, attribution, and behavior using 135 female undergraduates. Ss were given either positive-, negative-, or no-set information about the emotional health of a stimulus person prior to observing a videotaped social encounter. After viewing the tape, Ss were administered a free-response attribution measure or a distraction task. All Ss then engaged in actual social interaction with the stimulus person. Results indicate that (a) Ss receiving positive-set information wrote more positively valenced attributions and displayed more positive behavioral responses than did Ss receiving negative- and no-set information. (b) Ss who made attributions exhibited more pronounced behavioral responses as a function of the set manipulation than did those who did not make attributions. It is argued that the latter data reveal the important role of attribution in mediating the effects of set on behavior. Overall data are discussed as reflecting a control motivation in the production of attribution and behavior. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Popularity, individual friendship selection, and specific peer interaction among children.

The social interaction of 94 4–5 yr old White preschoolers was observed and scored for the frequency of reinforcing, neutral, and punishing behavior. The peer target of that behavior was specified, and Ss were identified sociometrically as liked or disliked by peers. Consistent with past findings, an S's popularity in the peer group was associated with overall rates of receiving and dispensing reinforcing and neutral acts. The selection of a specific liked peer, however, was not related to that peer's overall social behavior but rather to the specific interaction between that peer and the S. In particular, the interaction between an S and a liked peer was characterized by high rates of reinforcing and neutral acts. Ss' interaction with disliked peers did not differ from that with peers who were neither liked nor disliked. The importance of distinguishing between general interaction patterns affecting sociometric status and specific interaction affecting friendship selection is discussed. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer interactions, sociometric status, and resistance to deviation in young children.

74 4- and 5-yr-olds, whose peer interactions (receipt of reinforcing, punishing, or neutral interactions) had been extensively recorded and whose sociometric status was known, were placed in a resistance to deviation situation in which a prohibition to play with a valued toy was purportedly endorsed by a peer or an adult. As predicted, the peer interaction variables were not related to deviation under adult endorsement. The more an S was generally punished by her or his peers or engaged in neutral interaction, the greater her or his deviation under a peer-endorsed prohibition. General levels of peer reinforcement were not related to deviation under any condition. In general, more unpopular (disliked) Ss deviated more. In contrast to the general peer interaction results, the specific interaction history between an S and the peer named as endorsing the deviation had no effect on deviation. Results are discussed in terms of the differential roles of group reference processes and specific social learning experiences that govern peer influences on self-regulation and other classes of moral behavior in young children. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions, beliefs about control, and adjustment to breast cancer.

Examined attributions for cancer and beliefs about control over cancer for their association with adjustment to breast cancer. 78 29–78 yr old females with breast cancer served as Ss. Ss were administered a battery of tests that included the Profile of Mood States, Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Although 95% of the Ss made attributions for their cancer, no particular attribution (e.g., stress, diet) was associated with better adjustment. Analyses of attributions of responsibility for the cancer to the self, environment, another person, or chance yielded only a negative relation between adjustment and blaming another person. In contrast, both the belief that one could now control one's cancer and the belief that others (e.g., the physician) could now control the cancer were significantly associated with good adjustment. Of the different types of control, cognitive control was most strongly associated with adjustment, behavior control was less strongly associated with adjustment, and information control and retrospective control were unassociated with adjustment. (56 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling, direct instruction, and attributions: Effects on altruism.

In a study with 63 male and 63 female 7–10 yr olds, Ss were induced to donate winnings from a game to charity either by having seen a model donate, by being instructed to donate, or by a combination of the 2. They were subsequently either told they had donated because they must enjoy helping others, told they had donated because they thought they were expected to, or not given any reason for their behavior. There was more donation both immediately and 2 wks later in the modeling group given a self-oriented attribution than in the modeling group given an externally oriented attribution. Attributions had no effect in the 2 influence procedures involving direct instruction. On a generalization test, Ss in the self-attribution group shared more pencils with another child than either those in the no-attribution or external-attribution group, regardless of training condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions of responsibility for group tasks: The egocentric bias and the actor–observer difference.

In each of 3 experiments it was demonstrated that under certain conditions individuals who work on a task in a dyad will tend to attribute greater responsibility for a positive outcome to their partners than to themselves. In Exp I 56 college students, who had qualifying scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, working in dyads on a crossword puzzle attributed more responsibility to their partners than to themselves for an outcome they were led to believe was quite good, thus contradicting the expected "egocentric bias" effect. This was true across depression categories. In Exp II, 100 college students working in dyads on the puzzle attributed more responsibility to their partners than to themselves for a positive outcome when asked immediately after the task to make the attribution. However, Ss attributed greater responsibility to themselves than to their partners when asked to make the attribution 3 days later, thus replicating the egocentric bias effect. Half of the 30 dyads in Exp III believed they were being videotaped while working on the puzzle, whereas the other half did not. "Videotaped" Ss attributed more responsibility for the positive outcome to themselves than to their partners, whereas the nonvideotaped Ss attributed more responsibility to their partners than to themselves when both groups were asked to give their attributions immediately after the task. The relationship between the egocentric bias effect and the actor–observer difference phenomenon is discussed. (24 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)     

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)     

Person perception and the Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern.

Investigated the influence of the Type A behavior pattern on attribution processes using 48 male undergraduates. It was predicted that Type A Ss would be more motivated to succeed in the Prisoner's Dilemma game than would Type B's. Increased motivation to succeed was predicted to lead Type A's to exaggerate the amount of dispositional information they would believe they had inferred from observing the behavior of a future opponent, since such a belief would lead to increased confidence about predicting the target's behavior and thus increase Ss' perceived control over the outcome. Results support the predictions when the hard-driving competitiveness dimension of the Type A pattern was used as the individual difference variable. Moreover, evaluations of future opponents in the Prisoner's Dilemma game also differed as a function of the hard-driving competitive dimension. Results are discussed in terms of a person by situation interactive model of motivational influences on attribution processes and in terms of potential interpersonal effects of the cognitive behavior of Type A individuals. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of fear of success on intrinsic motivation, causal attribution, and choice behavior.

Examined the extent to which fear of success (FOS) moderates effects of choice and task outcomes on intrinsic motivation, causal attribution, and subsequent choice behavior. 139 undergraduates worked either on puzzles of their choice or puzzles that were assigned to them and were then informed that they had performed either better or worse than the majority of other Ss. Measures of intrinsic motivation (task engagement during a free-choice period) and of attribution for performance were obtained. Ss then indicated how much choice they wanted to have over similar tasks that they were going to perform. Finally, Ss completed the Fear of Success Scale and a resultant achievement motivation measure. Results show that following success, low FOS Ss (in comparison to high FOS Ss) showed higher intrinsic motivation, made more internal attributions, and wanted to have more choice if initially they had been given choice and less choice if initially they had been given no choice. There were no significant differences between low and high FOS Ss following failure. Results could not be accounted for by resultant achievement motivation that was unrelated to FOS. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)