Showing papers in "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1983"

Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach.

Abstract: To facilitate a multidimensional approach to empathy the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) includes 4 subscales: Perspective-Taking (PT) Fantasy (FS) Empathic Concern (EC) and Personal Distress (PD). The aim of the present study was to establish the convergent and discriminant validity of these 4 subscales. Hypothesized relationships among the IRI subscales between the subscales and measures of other psychological constructs (social functioning self-esteem emotionality and sensitivity to others) and between the subscales and extant empathy measures were examined. Study subjects included 677 male and 667 female students enrolled in undergraduate psychology classes at the University of Texas. The IRI scales not only exhibited the predicted relationships among themselves but also were related in the expected manner to other measures. Higher PT scores were consistently associated with better social functioning and higher self-esteem; in contrast Fantasy scores were unrelated to these 2 characteristics. High EC scores were positively associated with shyness and anxiety but negatively linked to egotism. The most substantial relationships in the study involved the PD scale. PD scores were strongly linked with low self-esteem and poor interpersonal functioning as well as a constellation of vulnerability uncertainty and fearfulness. These findings support a multidimensional approach to empathy by providing evidence that the 4 qualities tapped by the IRI are indeed separate constructs each related in specific ways to other psychological measures.

Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being: Informative and directive functions of affective states.

Abstract: Les auteurs cherchent a savoir si l'humeur dans lequel le sujet se trouve au moment ou on lui demande d'evaluer sa satisfaction existentielle, influence precisement ces evaluations

The social psychology of creativity: A componential conceptualization.

Abstract: Despite the clear importance of social and environmental' influences on creative performance, a social psychology of creativity is yet to be developed. Theory and research have focused almost exclusively on a personality approach to creativity and, to a lesser extent, a cognitive-abilities approach. Following a consideration of the definition and assessment of creativity, a componential framework for conceptualizing creativity is presented here. Including domain-relevant skills, creativity-relevant skills, and task motivation as a set of necessary and sufficient components of creativity, the framework describes the way in which cognitive abilities, personality characteristics, and social factors might contribute to different stages of the creative process. The discussion emphasizes the previously neglected social factors and highlights the contributions that a social psychology of creativity can make to a comprehensive view of creative performance. A striking feature of many phenomenological accounts of creativity is the degree to which outstandingly creative individuals feel influenced by social and environmental factors. In many cases, these factors are quite ordinary, mundane events; it appears that even seemingly insignificant features of the environment can be detrimental or conducive to creativity in some individuals. For example, in a letter to a friend, Tchaikovsky (1906) described the devastating effect that

Assessing Social Support: The Social Support Questionnaire.

Abstract: : A measure of social support, the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ), is described and four empirical studies employing it are described. The SSQ yields scores for (a) number of social supports, and (b) satisfaction with social support that is available. Three of the studies deal with the SSQ's psychometric properties, its correations with measures of personality and adjustment, and the relationship of the SSQ to positive and negative life changes. The fourth study was an experimental investigation of the relationship between social support and persistence in working on a complex, frustrating task. The research reported suggests that the SSQ is a reliable instrument, and that social support is (1) more strongly related to positive than negative life changes, (2) more related in a negative direction to psychological discomfort among women than men, and (3) an asset in enabling a person to persist at a task under frustrating conditions. Research and clinical implications are discussed. (Author)

Affect, Generalization, and the Perception of Risk.

Abstract: Experimental manipulations of affect induced by a brief newspaper report of a tragic event produced a pervasive increase in subjects' estimates of the frequency of many risks and other undesirable events. Contrary to expectation, the effect was independent of the similarity between the report arid the estimated risk. An account of a fatal stabbing did not increase the frequency estimate of a closely related risk, homicide, more than the estimates of unrelated risks such as natural hazards. An account of a happy event that created positive affect produced a comparable global decrease in judged frequency of risks. As a society, we have never been more concerned with the assessment, the management, and the regulation of risk. Because public reaction to hazards from pesticides, nuclear power, or food additives appears to influence the regulation and management of these technologies, it is important to understand how the lay person perceives and evaluates risks. This is particularly true for hazards such as terrorism, nuclear power, or genetic engineering for which the available statistical data are very limited and where the assessments of the risks are based on subjective and intuitive judgments. Indeed, psychologists and other researchers have shown increasing interest in the manner in which people perceive and estimate the severity of various risks. Lichtenstein, Slovic, Fischhoff, Layman, and Combs (1978) asked lay people to estimate the number of deaths per year that are due to various hazards. These investigators found that the subjective estimates were consistent across several methods of elicitation and correlated reasonably well (median r = .7) with actuarial estimates of frequency. A comparison of objective and subjective estimates revealed two

A Longitudinal Test of the Investment Model: The Development (and Deterioration) of Satisfaction and Commitment in Heterosexual Involvements

Abstract: A longitudinal study of heterosexual dating relationships tested investment model predictions regarding the process by which satisfaction and commitment develop (or deteriorate) over time. Increases over time in rewards led to corresponding increases in satisfaction, whereas variations in costs did not significantly affect satisfaction. Commitment increased because of increases in satisfaction, declines in the quality of available alternatives, and increases in investment size. Greater rewards also promoted increases in commitment to maintain relationships, whereas changes in costs generally had no impact on commitment. For stayers, rewards increased, costs rose slightly, satisfaction grew, alternative quality declined, investment size increased, and commitment grew, whereas for leavers the reverse occurred. Individuals whose partners ended their relationships evidenced entrapment: They showed relatively low increases in satisfaction, but their alternatives declined in quality and they continued to invest heavily in their relationships. Suggestive evidence points to the importance of changes over time in commitment in mediating stay/leave behaviors. The generalizability of these results for men and women and stayers and leavers at all stages of involvement is discussed.

A hypothesis-confirming bias in labeling effects.

Abstract: The present study examines the process leading to the confirmation of a perceiver's expectancies about another when the social label that created the expectancy provides poor or tentative evidence about another's true dispositions or capabilities. One group of subjects was led to believe that a child came from a high socioeconomic background; the other group, that the child came from a low socioeconomic background. Nothing in the socioeconomic data conveyed information directly relevant to the child's ability level, and when asked, both groups of subjects reluctantly rated the child's ability level to be approximately at her grade level. Two other groups received the social-class information and then witnessed a videotape of the child taking an academic test. Although the videotaped performance series was identical for all subjects, those who had information that the child came from a high socioeconomic background rated her abilities well above grade level, whereas those for whom the child was identified as coming from a lower class background rated her abilites as below grade level. Both groups cited evidence from the ability test to support their conflicting conclusions. We interpret these findings as suggesting that some \"stereotype\" information (e.g., socioeconomic class information) creates not certainties but hypotheses about the stereotyped individual. However, these hypotheses are often tested in a biased fashion that leads to their false confirmation.

Whites' opposition to busing: Symbolic racism or realistic group conflict?

Abstract: The theory of symbolic racism contends that whites' opposition to busing springs from a basic underlying prejudiced or intolerant attitudinal predisposition toward blacks, not self-interest or realistic-gro up conflict motives. The present research argues that realistic group conflict motives do help explain whites' opposition to busing. Two major criticisms of the symbolic racism approach are made: (a) that the tests of symbolic racism versus group conflict explanations of opposition to busing have not been fair because of a narrow definition of group interests that ignores the role of subjectively appreciated threat and challenges to group status; and (b) that by forcing racial attitudes onto a single continuum running from prejudice to tolerance, the symbolic racism researchers overlook the importance of the perception that the civil rights movement is a threatening force. By reanalyzing the Michigan National Election Study data used by Sears, Hensler, and Speer (1979) and Sears, Lau, Tyler, and Allen (1980), the present research broadens the notion of self-interest and operates with a multidimensional conceptualization of racial attitudes and in so doing demonstrates that whites' opposition to busing reflects group conflict motives, not simply a new manifestation of prejudice.

Marital interaction: physiological linkage and affective exchange.

Abstract: Thirty married couples were studied during naturalistic interactions to determine the extent to which variation in marital satisfaction could be accounted for by physiological and affective patterns between and within spouses. The authors hypothesized that (a) compared to nondistressed couples' interactions, distressed couples' interactions would show greater physiological interrelatedness or "linkage," more negative affect, and more reciprocity of negative affect and (b) these differences would be more pronounced when the interaction was high in conflict (discussing a marital problem) as opposed to low in conflict (discussing the events of the day). Heart rate, skin conductance, pulse transmission time, and somatic activity from both spouses were analyzed using bivariate time-series techniques to derive a measure of physiological linkage. Self-report affective data (obtained using a video-recall procedure) were analyzed using sequential analyses to derive a measure of affect reciprocity. The hypotheses were strongly supported; 60% of the variance in marital satisfaction was accounted for using measures of physiological linkage alone. Additional nonredundant variance was accounted for by the other physiological and affective measures. Social interaction provides a rich, naturalistic, and theoretically advantageous context for studying the relations among physiological, affective, and behavioral phenomena. Unfortunately, the demands associated with laboratory experimentation extract significant compromises that may escalate until the experimental context bears little relation to natural dyadic interaction. For example, interaction between two strangers may be substituted for interaction between intimates; a carefully "programmed" confederate may replace the second person; and finally, the confederate may be replaced by a film, a photograph, an audio recording, or a situation created in the subject's own imagery. In this experiment, naturalistic interaction within a husband-wife dyad was used as the context

Effects of need for cognition on message evaluation, recall, and persuasion.

Abstract: This research concerns the relation among need for cognition, message processing, and persuasion. Pairs of subjects holding approximately the same attitude toward instituting senior comprehensive exams and differing widely in their scores on the need for cognition scale were recruited to participate in the first study. In Experiment 1, subjects read a set of either strong or weak arguments supporting the recommendation that senior comprehensive exams be instituted. Results revealed that argument quality had a greater impact on the message evaluations and source impressions provided by individuals high than by those low in need for cognition and that subjects high in need for cognition reported expending more cognitive effort and recalled more message arguments regardless of argument quality. The major findings in Experiment 1 were replicated in Experiment 2 with a different topic (i.e., raising student tuition) and cover story. In addition, the inclusion of a postcommunication attitude measure revealed that the attitudes of individuals high in need for cognition were more affected by argument quality than those of subjects low in need for cognition. Together, these studies document a reliable difference among individuals in their tendency to derive information from and elaborate on externally provided message arguments.

Dissonance processes as self-affirmation

Abstract: Can an experience that simply affirms a valued aspect of the self eliminate dissonance and its accompanying cognitive changes? Three experiments used the conventional forced-compliance procedure to test this question. In the first experiment, some subjects were allowed to affirm an important, self-relevant value (by completing a self-relevant value scale) immediately after having written unrelated dissonant essays and prior to recording their attitudes on the postmeasure. Other subjects underwent an identical procedure but were selected so that the value affirmed by the scale was not part of their self-concept. The value scale eliminated dissonance-reducing attitude change among subjects for whom it was self-relevant but not among subjects for whom it was not self-relevant. This occurred even though the value scale could not resolve or reduce the objective importance of the dissonance-provoking inconsistency. Study 2 showed that the self-affirmation effect was strong enough to prevent the reinstatement of dissonance. Study 3, testing generalizability, replicated the effect by using a different attitude issue, a different value for affirmation, and a different measure of dissonance reduction. These results imply that a need for psychological consistency is not a part of dissonance motivation and that salient, self-affirming cognitions may help objectify our reactions to self-threatening information.

Cognitive Processes in the Revision of Stereotypic Beliefs

Abstract: Northwestern University Stereotypes have often been assumed to be resistant to change, although some evidence indicates that they are responsive to new information. The present studies examine stereotype change using three models: the bookkeeping model, in which each instance of stereotype-relevant information is used to modify the stereotype gradually; the conversion model, in which stereotypes change radically in response to dramatic or salient instances; and the subtyping model, in which new Stereotypic structures are developed to accommodate instances not easily assimilated by existing stereotypes. The models predict different response patterns as a function of variations in the pattern of stereotype-in consistent evidence and the number of instances encountered. In Experiment 1, subjects were given information about either a small or a large sample of group members in which stereotype-inconsistent evidence was dispersed across many members or concentrated within a few members. Results generally supported the subtyping model when evidence was concentrated and the bookkeeping model when evidence was dispersed. Experiment 3 suggested that the development of subtypes occurs because dramatically inconsistent individuals are seen as unrepresentat ive of the group as a whole. Although the present studies generally favored the subtyping and bookkeeping models, conditions under which the conversion model may operate are considered.

Dispensability of member effort and group motivation losses: Free-rider effects

Abstract: Three experiments tested the hypothesis that group members exert less effort as the perceived dispensability of their efforts for group success increases. The resultant motivation losses were termed "free-rider effects." In Exp I, 189 undergraduates of high or low ability performed in 2-, 4-, or 8-person groups at tasks with additive, conjunctive, or disjunctive demands. As predicted, member ability had opposite effects on effort under disjunctive and conjunctive task demands. The failure to obtain a relationship between group size and member effort in Exp I was attributed to a procedural artifact eliminated in Exp II (73 Ss). As predicted, as groups performing conjunctive and disjunctive tasks increased in size, member motivation declined. This was not a social loafing effect; group members were fully identifiable at every group size. Exp III (108 Ss) explored the role that performance feedback plays in informing group members of the dispensability of their efforts and encouraging free riding. Results are generally consistent with those of Exps I and II.

Motivation losses in small groups: a social dilemma analysis

Abstract: Theory developed to account for behavior in social dilemmas—situations in which - the rational pursuit of self-interest can lead to collective disaster—was applied to the analysis of group motivation losses. Two group motivation loss effects demonstrated in previous research, the social-loafing effect and the free-rider effect, were shown to follow from social dilemma theories. An experiment was performed to empirically demonstrate a third motivation loss effect, termed the sucker effect. It was hypothesized that group members would reduce their efforts if they had a capable partner.who free rode on their efforts, that is, who was capable of contributing to the group but would not. This prediction was confirmed. The effect was particularly strong in males. Potential remedies for such motivation losses were discussed.

Sense of humor as a moderator of the relation between stressors and moods.

Abstract: Three studies are reported that investigated the hypothesis, long held by theorists, therapists, and laypersons alike, that a sense of humor reduces the deleterious impact of stressful experiences. In each study a negative-life-events checklist was used to predict stress scores on a measure of mood disturbance. These studies made use of different measures of subjects' sense of humor, including four selfreport scales and two behavioral assessments of subjects' ability to produce humor under nonstressful and mildly stressful conditions. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that five of the six humor measures produced a significant moderating effect on the relation between negative life events and mood disturbance. Subjects with low humor scores obtained higher correlations between these two variables than did those with high humor scores. These results provide initial evidence for the stress-buffering role of humor. The notion that humor possesses therapeutic properties has long enjoyed popular support. This idea can be traced at least as far back as the ancient biblical maxim that "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine" (Proverbs 17:22), and it has gained recent support from the account of Norman Cousins's (1979) recovery from a serious collagen disea.se through massive doses of laughter and vitamin C. Recently, Dixon (1980) cogently argued that humor may have evolved as a uniquely human strategy for coping with stress.

Interacting effects of information and coping style in adapting to gynecologic stress: should the doctor tell all?

Abstract: This study explored the interacting effects of personal dispositions and situational conditions on the stress response. Forty gynecologic patients about to undergo a diagnostic procedure (colposcopy) were divided into information seekers (monitors) and information avoiders (blunters). Half in each group were exposed to voluminous preparatory information, and half to the usual low level of information. Subjective, physiological, and behavioral measures of arousal and discomfort were obtained before, during, and after the procedure. Overall, low-information patients expressed less subjective arousal than high-information patients, and blunters showed less subjective and behavioral arousal than monitors. In addition, patients' level of psychophysiological arousal was lower when the level of preparatory information was consistent with their coping style; that is, blunters were less aroused with low information and monitors were less aroused with high information. Further evidence was gained for the utility and validity of a new scale for identifying monitors and blunters.

Locus of control and academic achievement: A literature review.

Abstract: A quantitative review of research investigating the relationship between locus of control and academic achievement was conducted. Two basic conclusions resulted: (a) More internal beliefs are associated with greater academic achievement, and (b) the magnitude of this relation is small to medium. Characteristics of the participants in the reviewed studies (i.e., gender, age, race, and socioeconomic level) and the nature of the locus of control and academic achievement measures were investigated as mediators of the relation. The relation tended to be stronger for adolescents than for adults or children. Also, the relation was more substantial among males than among females. Finally, stronger effects were associated with specific locus of control measures and with standardized achievement or intelligence tests (as opposed to teacher grades). The concept of locus of control, although relatively new (Rotter, 1954), has received considerable attention in the study of individual psychological differences (Lefcourt, 1976; Phares, 1976). Locus of control refers to a person's beliefs about control over life events. Some people feel personally responsible for the things that happen to them. These people are labeled internals. Others feel that their outcomes in life are determined by forces beyond their control (e.g., fate, luck, and other people). These people are labeled externals. Obviously, most people fall between the two extremes, forming a continuous distribution of locus of control beliefs. Locus of control is thought to be a relatively enduring dispositional characteristic, although certainly modifiable through experience.

Sphere-Specific Measures of Perceived Control

Abstract: Evidence for the multidimensionality of perceived control is briefly reviewed. It is proposed that individual differences in perceived control be partitioned into components associated with three primary spheres of behavior: (a) personal efficacy—control over the nonsocial environment as in personal achievement, (b) interpersonal control—control over other people in dyads and groups, and (c) sociopolitical control—control over social and political events and institutions. Assessment instruments are presented for measuring perceived control in each of these three spheres.* A three-factor structural model is tested using confirmatory factor analysis, and the results are strongly supportive. The scales are shown to have impressive convergent and discriminant validity in relation to other individual difference measures. Evidence from several laboratory and field studies is reviewed to support the predictive validity of the three scales. Over the last 10 years, it has become generally accepted that the construct of locus of control is multidimensio nal (for recent reviews, see Phares, 1978; Strickland, 1977). Models of the factor structure, however, have come in several varieties. Many researchers

Personality and social resources in stress resistance.

Abstract: This study examined personality, social assets, and perceived social support as moderators of the effects of stressful life events on illness onset. In a group of 170 middle and upper level executives, personality hardiness and stressful life events consistently influenced illness scores, the former serving to lower symptomatology, the latter to increase it. Perceived boss support had its predicted positive effect. Executives under high stress who perceived support from their supervisors had lower illness scores than those without support. Perceived family support, on the other hand, showed a negative effect on health when reported by those low in hardiness. Finally, social assets made no significant impact on health status. These results underscore the value of differentiating between kinds of social resources, and of monitoring the effects of two or more stress-resistance resources in a single study.

Belief in Paranormal Phenomena: Assessment Instrument Development and Implications for Personality Functioning

Abstract: A 25-item self-report questionnaire designed to assess belief in the paranormal was constructed based on the results from factor analysis of a 61-item pool administered to 391 college students. Factor analysis revealed seven independent dimensions comprising belief in the paranormal. These factors were Traditional Religious Belief, Psi Belief, Witchcraft, Superstition, Spiritualism, Extraordinary Life Forms, and Precognition. The Paranormal Scale was constructed by selecting either three or four marker items to represent each of the seven dimensions as paranormal subscales. Descriptive statistics for this Paranormal Scale and the seven subscales are presented, as well as reliability statistics. Studies were presented that support the validity of this Paranormal Scale and subscales with such personality/adjustment constructs as internal-external locus of control, sensation seeking, death threat, actual self-ideal self-concept, uncritical inferences, dogmatism, and irrational beliefs. It was concluded that this scale offers promise as an assessment instrument for paranormal belief.