Showing papers in "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1985"

If it changes it must be a process: Study of emotion and coping during three stages of a college examination.

Abstract: This natural experiment provides substantial evidence for the following major themes, which are based on a cognitively oriented, process-centered theory of stress and coping: First, a stressful encounter should be viewed as a dynamic, unfolding process, not as a static, unitary event. Emotion and coping (including the use of social support) were assessed at three stages of a midterm examination: the anticipation stage before the exam, the waiting stage after the exam and before grades were announced, and after grades were posted. For the group as a whole there were significant changes in emotions and coping (including the use of social support) across the three stages. Second, people experience seemingly contradictory emotions and states of mind during every stage of an encounter. In this study, for example, subjects experienced both threat emotions and challenge emotions. The complexity of emotions and their cognitive appraisals reflects ambiguity regarding the multifaceted nature of the exam and its meanings, especially during the anticipation stage. Third, coping is a complex process. On the average, subjects used combinations of most of the available forms of problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping at every stage of the exam. Different forms of coping were salient during the anticipation and waiting stages. Problem-focused coping and emphasizing the positive were more prominent during the former, and distancing more prominent during the latter. Finally, despite normatively shared emotional reactions at each stage, substantial individual differences remained. Using selected appraisal and coping variables, and taking grade point averages (GPA) into account, approximately 48% of the variances in threat and challenge emotions at the anticipation stage was explained. Controlling for variance due to the grade received, appraisal, and coping variables accounted for 28% of the variance in positive and negative emotions at the outcome stage. Including grade, 57% of the variance in positive emotions at outcome and 61% of the negative emotions at outcome were explained. The essence of stress, coping, and adapta- changing meaning or significance of what is tion is change. The emotions one experiences happening as the encounter unfolds. Coping, in a stressful encounter, for example, are too, is characterized by change. One might characterized by flux. At first one may feel at first engage in avoidant or denial-like strat

Patterns of cognitive appraisal in emotion

Abstract: There has long been interest in describing emotional experience in terms of underlying dimensions, but traditionally only two dimensions, pleasantness and arousal, have been reliably found. The reasons for these findings are reviewed, and integrating this review with two recent theories of emotions (Roseman, 1984; Scherer, 1982), we propose eight cognitive appraisal dimensions to differentiate emotional experience. In an investigation of this model, subjects recalled past experiences associated with each of 15 emotions, and rated them along the proposed dimensions. Six orthogonal dimensions, pleasantness, anticipated effort, certainty, attentional activity, self-other responsibility/control, and situational control, were recovered, and the emotions varied systematically along each of these dimensions, indicating a strong relation between the appraisal of one's circumstances and one's emotional state. The patterns of appraisal for the different emotions, and the role of each of the dimensions in differentiati ng emotional experience are discussed. Most people think of emotions in categorical terms: "I was scared," or "I was sad," or "I was frustrated." In complicated situations they may say, "I felt sad and frustrated." The idea that there is a small set of fundamentally different emotions, has a long and illustrious history in science as well, dating back at least to Aristotle and reemerging in the theory of the four humors, in the works of eighteenthcentury philosophers, and in Darwin (1872/ 1965). In recent years the categorical approach to the study of emotions has become prominent in psychology, stimulated by the monumental work of Sylvan Tomkins (1962, 1963, 1982; Ekman & Friesen, 1971; hard, 1971, 1972, 1977; Izard & Buechler, 1980). This view of emotional experience admirably captures our intuition that happiness, anger, and fear are basic feeling-states, easily recognizable, and fundamentally different from each other.

Trust in close relationships.

Abstract: A theoretical model describing interpersonal trust in close relationships is presented. Three dimensions of trust are identified, based on the type of attributions drawn about a partner's motives. These dimensions are also characterized by a developmental progression in the relationship. The validity of this theoretical perspective was examined through evidence obtained from a survey of a heterogeneous sample of established couples. An analysis of the Trust Scale in this sample was consistent with the notion that the predictability, dependability, and faith components represent distinct and coherent dimensions. A scale to measure interpersonal motives was also developed. The perception of intrinsic motives in a partner emerged as a dimension, as did instrumental and extrinsic motives. As expected, love and happiness were closely tied to feelings of faith and the attribution of intrinsic motivation to both self and partner. Women appeared to have more integrated, complex views of their relationships than men: All three forms of trust were strongly related and attributions of instrumental motives in their partners seemed to be self-affirming. Finally, there was a tendency for people to view their own motives as less self-centered and more exclusively intrinsic in flavor than their partner's motives.

Pooling of Unshared Information in Group Decision Making: Biased Information Sampling During Discussion

Abstract: Decision-making groups can potentially benefit from pooling members' information, particularly when members individually have partial and biased information but collectively can compose an unbiased characterization of the decision alternatives. The proposed biased sampling model of group discussion, however, suggests that group members often fail to effectively pool their information because discussion tends to be dominated by (a) information that members hold in common before discussion and (b) information that supports members' existent preferences. In a political caucus simulation, group members individually read candidate descriptions that contained partial information biased against the most favorable candidate and then discussed the candidates as a group. Even though groups could have produced unbiased composites of the candidates through discussion, they decided in favor of the candidate initially preferred by a plurality rather than the most favorable candidate. Group members' pre- and postdiscussion recall of candidate attributes indicated that discussion tended to perpetuate, not to correct, members' distorted pictures of the candidates.

Implicit theories of intelligence. creativity, and wisdom

Abstract: A prestudy and four experiments were conducted in order to understand the nature and use of people's implicit theories of intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. In the prestudy, a brief questionnaire was sent out to professors in each of the fields of art, business, philosophy, and physics, and was a

Intention, perceived control, and weight loss: An application of the theory of planned behavior.

Abstract: Success at attempted weight reduction among college women was predicted on the basis of a theory of planned behavior. At the beginning of a 6-week period, participants expressed their attitudes, subjective norms, perceived control, and intentions with respect to losing weight. In addition, the extent to which they had made detailed weight reduction plans was assessed, as were a number of general attitudes and personality factors. In support of the theory, intentions to lose weight were accurately predicted on the basis of attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control; perceived control and intentions were together moderately successful in predicting the amount of weight that participants actually lost over the 6-week period. Actual weight loss was also found to increase with development of a plan and with ego strength, factors that were assumed to increase control over goal attainment. Other factors, such as health locus of control, perceived competence, and action control, were found to be unrelated to weight reduction.

Decisional balance measure for assessing and predicting smoking status.

Abstract: The Decisional Balance Sheet of Incentives has been proposed by Janis and Mann (1977) as a general schema for representing both the cognitive and motivational aspects of human decision making. In this study, a brief 24-item paper and pencil measure was constructed to study the decision-making process in smoking cessation. Two scales were identified and labeled the Pros of Smoking and the Cons of Smoking. These scales were successful in differentiating between five groups representing stages of change in the quitting process. The two scales were also successful when employed as predictors of smoking status at a 6-month follow-up. The Decisional Balance Scale appears to be a powerful construct of potentially wide application in behavior change.

Intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness: Review and meta-analysis.

Abstract: Michael J. DonahueBrigham Young UniversityThe major findings of this meta-analytic review concerning intrinsic and extrinsicreligiousness are these: (a) Samples consisting of respondents with conservativetheological orientations seem more likely to display a negative correlation betweenintrinsic and extrinsic religiousness than do others, (b) Extrinsic religiousnesstends to be positively correlated with negatively evaluated characteristics, anduncorrelated with measures of religious belief and commitment, (c) Intrinsicreligiousness tends to be uncorrelated with negatively evaluated characteristics,and positively correlated with measures of religiousness, (d) A fourfold typologybased on median splits of the two scales is of little use when the dependentvariable is religious in nature, but with various nonreligious variables producesresults that may correspond to findings of curvilinearity observed with othermeasures of religiousness. Recommendations concerning the use of the intrinsicand extrinsic scales in future research are made. The article concludes with areview of recent conceptual developments by Batson (1976) and Hood (1978).No approach to religiousness has hadgreater impact on the empirical psychologyof religion than Gordon W. Allport's conceptsof intrinsic (7) and extrinsic (E) religiousness(Meadow & Kahoe, 1984).' Nearly 70 pub-lished studies have used Allport's ReligiousOrientation Scale (ROS), making it one ofthe most frequently used measures of reli-giousness.Research concerning / and E has beenreviewed in three current psychology-of-reli-gion textbooks (Batson & Ventis, 1982;Meadow & Kahoe, 1984; Paloutzian, 1983).Although these reviews are useful, they havenot closely examined a number of relevantissues, such as the I-E correlation and theI-E interaction. In addition to addressingthese issues, in the present review I seek toapply the techniques of meta-analysis (Glass,

Updating Norman's "Adequate Taxonomy". Intelligence and Personality Dimensions in Natural Language and in Questionnaires

Abstract: Research on the dimensions of personality represented in the English language has repeatedly led to the identification of five factors (Norman, 1963). An alternative classification of personality traits, based on analyses of standardized questionnaires, is provided by the NEO (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness) model (Costa & McCrae, 1980b). In this study we examined the correspondence between these two systems in order to evaluate their comprehensiveness as models of personality. A sample of 498 men and women, participants in a longitudinal study of aging, completed an instrument containing 80 adjective pairs, which included 40 pairs proposed by Goldberg to measure the five dimensions. Neuroticism and extraversion factors from these items showed substantial correlations with corresponding NEO Inventory scales; however, analyses that included psychometric measures of intelligence suggested that the fifth factor in the Norman structure should be reconceptualized as openness to experience. Convergent correlations above .50 with spouse ratings on the NEO Inventory that were made three years earlier confirmed these relations across time, instrument, and source of data. We discuss the relations among culture, conscientiousness, openness, and intelligence, and we conclude that mental ability is a separate factor, though related to openness to experience.

The hostile media phenomenon: biased perception and perceptions of media bias in coverage of the Beirut massacre.

Abstract: After viewing identical samples of major network television coverage of the Beirut massacre, both pro-Israeli and pro-Arab partisans rated these programs, and those responsible for them, as being biased against their side. This hostile media phenomenon appears to involve the operation of two separate mechanisms. First, partisans evaluated the fairness of the media's sample of facts and arguments differently: in light of their own divergent views about the objective merits of each side's case and their corresponding views about the nature of unbiased coverage. Second, partisans reported different perceptions and recollections about the program content itself; that is, each group reported more negative references to their side than positive ones, and each predicted that the coverage would sway nonpartisans in a hostile direction. Within both partisan groups, furthermore, greater knowledge of the crisis was associated with stronger perceptions of media bias. Charges of media bias, we concluded, may reflect more than self-serving attempts to secure preferential treatment. They may result from the operation of basic cognitive and perceptual mechanisms, mechanisms that should prove relevant to perceptions of fairness or objectivity in a wide range of mediation and negotiation contexts.

Practical intelligence in real-world pursuits: The role of tacit knowledge.

Abstract: We carried out three experiments to examine the role of tacit knowledge (knowledge that usually is not openly expressed or taught) in intellectual competence in real-world pursuits. In Experiment 1, subjects were divided into three groups, whose 187 members differed in amounts of experience and formal training in academic psychology. Differences in tacit knowledge useful for managing oneself, others, and one's career were related to criterion measures of performance for both academic psychologists and psychology graduate students. In Experiment 2, the subjects were 127 individuals differing in amounts of experience and formal training in business management. Differences in tacit knowledge were related to criterion measures of performance for business managers. In Experiment 3, the results of the second experiment were cross-validated on a group of 29 bank managers for whom detailed performance evaluation information was available. Again, tacit knowledge differences were related to criterion measures of job performance. Tacit knowledge was not related to verbal intelligence as measured by a standard verbal reasoning test. We conclude that a comprehensive theory of practical intelligence in real-world pursuits will encompass general aptitudes, formal knowledge, and tacit knowledge that is used in managing oneself, others, and one's career. Consider two observations. First, with surprising frequency, individuals with histories of distinguished performance in formal schooling are only moderately successful in their occupations, and conversely, individuals who are highly successful in their occupations have unremarkable academic records. Second, many professionals report that much, if not most, of the learning that matters to their careers took place after completion of their formal training. Comparing the relations between performance on IQ tests, on the one hand, and performance in schooling and in real-world pursuits, on the other, suggests there may be more than a hint of truth in these observations. Whereas IQ test scores are moderately correlated (.4-.7) with various measures of

Intensity and Frequency: Dimensions Underlying Positive and Negative Affect

Abstract: Research on emotions and several happiness scales suggest that positive and negative affect are strongly inversely correlated. However, work on subjective well-being indicates that over time, positive and negative affect are independent across persons. In order to reconcile this inconsistency, two dimensions are proposed for personal affective structure: the frequency of positive versus negative affect and the intensity of affect. Subjects in three studies completed daily and momentary reports on their moods. In support of the intensity dimension, the correlations between positive and negative intensity were strong and positive in all three studies. The intensities of specific emotions across persons were also highly correlated. Across the three studies the frequency and intensity of affect varied independently. Although average levels of positive and negative affect showed low correlations, this relation became strongly inverse when intensity was partialed out. Thus the intensity dimension helps explain the relative independence of positive and negative affect. In addition, emotional intensity is offered as a new personality dimension that manifests interesting characteristics.

Motivation and Creativity: Effects of Motivational Orientation on Creative Writers

Abstract: This study directly tested the hypothesis that intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity and extrinsic motivation is detrimental. Chosen because they identified themselves as actively involved in creative writing, 72 young adults participated in individual laboratory sessions where they were asked to write 2 brief poems. Before writing the second poem, subjects in an intrinsic orientation condition completed a questionnaire that focused on intrinsic reasons for being involved in writing. Subjects in an extrinsic orientation condition completed a questionnaire that focused on extrinsic reasons. Those in a control condition were not given a questionnaire on reasons for writing. Although there were no initial differences between conditions on prior involvement in writing or on creativity of the first poems written, there were significant differences in the creativity of the poems written after the experimental manipulations. Poems written under an extrinsic orientation were significantly less creative than those written in the other two conditions. Implications for social-psychological and individual-difference conceptions of creativity are discussed.

The influence of positive affect on the unusualness of word associations.

Abstract: A pilot study and two experiments investigated the influence of positive affect, induced in three differing ways, on the uniqueness of word associations. Persons in the positive-affect conditions gave more unusual first-associates to neutral words, according to the Palermo & Jenkins (1964) norms, than did subjects in the control conditions. In Study 3, where word type (positive, neutral, negative) was a second factor along with affect, in a between-subjects design, associates to positive words were also more unusual and diverse than were those to other words. These results were related to those of studies suggesting that positive affect may facilitate creative problem solving and to other work suggesting an impact of positive feelings on cognitive organization.

Social comparison in adjustment to breast cancer.

Abstract: We investigated four theoretical perspectives concerning the role of social comparison (Festinger, 1954) in coping with a threatening event in a sample of breast cancer patients. According to the supercoper perspective, personal contact with comparison others is often unavailable to patients, and contact with media "supercopers"--fellow victims presented as adjusting very 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. We interviewed 78 breast cancer patients, and results of both closed-ended questions and spontaneously offered comparisons yielded a preponderance of downward comparisons. The results point to the value of using naturalistic methods for studying comparisons, and suggest a more active and cognitive role for social comparison than is usually portrayed.

Women's involvement in multiple roles and psychological distress.

Abstract: Women's involvement in multiple roles was examined in relation to three stress indices: role overload, role conflict, and anxiety. Using hierarchical multiple regression analyses, effects of number of roles occupied; occupancy of the particular roles of paid worker, wife, and mother; and the quality of a woman's experience in her roles were analyzed. Data were from a disproportionate stratified random sample (N = 238) of Caucasian women between 35 and 55 years of age. For the total sample and for employed women, occupancy of the role of mother was related to two stress indices; occupancy of the role of paid worker was related to none. The quality of experience in the work and parental roles was a significant predictor of role overload; quality of parental role experience was a significant predictor of role conflict and of anxiety.

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

Abstract: Three experiments showed that subjects' 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 subjects' 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 subjects describe the events vividly and in detail or only mention them briefly, and whether subjects describe how the events occurred rather than why they occurred. Possible mediating mechanisms and implications of these results are discussed. People's feelings of happiness and satisfaction are no doubt a function of the affective quality of their everyday experiences. The nature of this relation, however, is not as straightforward as one might expect. For example, whereas negative experiences do frequently decrease individuals' perceptions of their quality of life (e.g., Zautra & Reich, 1983), some findings indicate that negative events may also increase subjective well-being (Elder, 1974). In fact, even events of extreme hedonic value seem to be poor predictors of individuals' wellbeing. For example, Brickman, Coates, and Janoff-Bulman (1978) found in their study that people who won a million dollars in a lottery

Separating individual and group effects

Abstract: L'article presente une nouvelle strategie statistique pour l'etude des procedes de groupe et des procedes individuels

Appeals to image and claims about quality: Understanding the psychology of advertising.

Abstract: Les auteurs ont etudie, en trois experiences effectuees aupres de 130 etudiants, les reactions evaluatives et comportementales d'individus fortement ou faiblement autoguides a deux strategies publicitaires: recours a l'image d'un produit et demandes a propos de la qualite d'un produit

Long-term adjustment to physical disability: The role of social support, perceived control, and self-blame.

Abstract: One hundred middle-aged and elderly spinal-cord-injured persons were interviewed an average of 20 years after the disability occurred. Respondents answered questions concerning perceived control, attributions of blame, and the nature of the social comparisons they made. Three existing standardized instruments were used to measure adjustment: Index of Psychological Well-Being, Life Satisfaction Index, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. For all three outcome measures, respondents reported levels of well-being only slightly lower than population means of nondisabled persons of similar age. Controlling for health status and current income, we found that persons who have high levels of social support, who are satisfied with their social contacts, and who feel they have high levels of perceived control report high levels of well-being. Self-blame and the perceived avoidability of the cause of the disability correlated only moderately with the three measures of adjustment, suggesting that there are important differences between coping successfully immediately after a traumatic event has occurred and coping successfully many years later.

Physiological and affective predictors of change in relationship satisfaction.

Abstract: In 1980, 30 married couples had engaged in a low-conflict and a high-conflict conversational interaction while continuous physiological data were obtained. In a separate session each spouse had provided a continuous self-report of affect while viewing the videotape of the interaction. In 1983, 19 of these couples were re-located to determine the change in relationship satisfaction that had occurred over the preceding 3 years. A broadly based pattern of physiological arousal (across spouses, interaction segments, and physiological measures) in 1980 was found to predict decline in marital satisfaction; the more aroused the couple was during the 1980 interactions, the more their marital satisfaction declined over the ensuing 3 years. Several affective variables also predicted decline in marital satisfaction, including a pronounced sex difference in negative affect reciprocity: Marital satisfaction declined most when husbands did not reciprocate their wives' negative affect, and when wives did reciprocate their husbands' negative affect.

Effects of Stereotypes on Decision Making and Information-Processing Strategies

Abstract: In two experiments we investigated the effects of stereotyping on (a) reactions to a behavioral transgression and (b) the recall of information bearing on it. Subjects read a case file describing a transgression committed by a target (in Experiment 1, a job-related infraction; in Experiment 2, a criminal act). In some cases, the target's transgression was stereotypic of the target's ethnic group (conveyed through his name), and in other cases it was not. After reading the case file, subjects judged the likelihood that the transgression would recur and recommended punishment for the offense. These judgment data supported the hypothesis that stereotypes function as judgmental heuristics. Specifically, subjects used a stereotype of the target to infer the reasons for his transgression, and then based their punishment decisions on the implications of these inferences, considering other relevant information only when a stereotype-based explanation of the behavior was not available. However, recall data suggested that once a stereotype-based impression of the crime and its determinants was formed, subjects reviewed other available information in an attempt to confirm the implications of this impression. This led to differential recall of presented information, depending on whether its implications were consistent with, inconsistent with, or irrelevant to those of the stereotype.

Structure of human values: testing the adequacy of the Rokeach value survey

Abstract: Rokeach's (1973)Value Survey has received widespread use in the past decade, but little attempt has been made to examine the extent to which the 36 items provide comprehensive and representative coverage of the value domain. Our data provide qualified support for the comprehensiveness of the instrument. The major weaknesses in sampling involve the facets of physical well-being and individual rights. Other areas not represented are thriftiness and carefreeness. The need for multi-item indexes for value constructs are discussed, as are the advantages of a rating procedure over a ranking procedure from both psychometric and empirically valid perspectives. An alternative instrument based on the work of Rokeach is proposed.

Passive avoidance in syndromes of disinhibition: psychopathy and extraversion

Abstract: According to the physiological animal model proposed by Gorenstein and Newman (1980; see also Newman, Gorenstein, & Kelsey, 1983), psychopaths and extraverts may be characterized by a common psychological diathesis related to behavioral inhibition (see also Fowles, 1980; Gray, 1982). One aspect of this diathesis involves deficient passive avoidance learning, which has been central to explanations of "unsocialized" (e.g., Trasler, 1978) and antisocial behavior (e.g., Hare, 1970). Results from three experiments supported our prediction that psychopaths and extraverts would exhibit deficient passive avoidance relative to nonpsychopaths and introverts, respectively. In addition, the passive avoidance deficit was particularly evident in tasks that required subjects to inhibit a rewarded response in order to avoid punishment. The latter finding may be important for explaining the inconsistent results regarding passive avoidance learning in psychopaths (e.g., Chesno & Kilmann, 1975; Schmauk, 1970). Discussion of the results focuses on the importance of reward in mediating the passive avoidance deficit of "disinhibited" individuals and on the existence of an indirect relationship between psychopathy and extraversion: one that is consistent with the observed experimental parallels as well as with the more ambiguous evidence regarding a direct correlation between measures of the two syndromes.

The Measurement of Self-Esteem: Refining Our Methods

Abstract: A review of the literature indicates that (a) very little attention has been devoted to measurement problems plaguing the study of self-esteem and (b) few studies employ more than one type of self-esteem instrument. This study addresses these issues by using eight measures of self-esteem involving self-reports, ratings by others, and a projective instrument. Their intercorrelations are examined to provide preliminary validational evidence; then, confirmatory factor analysis is used to construct measurement models and further assess the validity of the measures. The results suggest that two traditional questionnaires and a personal interview are valid in measuring experienced self-esteem, and three measures involving ratings by others are valid in measuring presented self-esteem These findings are consistent with previous multidimensional conceptualizations of self-esteem, indicating that a variety of methods is necessary to adequately measure self-concept.