Showing papers in "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1993"

Two conceptions of happiness: Contrasts of personal expressiveness (eudaimonia) and hedonic enjoyment.

Abstract: Aristotle's concept of eudaimonia and hedonic enjoyment constitute 2 philosophical conceptions of happiness. Two studies involving combined samples of undergraduate and graduate students (Study 1, N = 209; Study 2, N = 249) were undertaken to identify the convergent and divergent aspects of these constructs. As expected, there was a strong positive correlation between personal expressiveness (eudaimonia) and hedonic enjoyment. Analyses revealed significant differences between the 2 conceptions of happiness experienced in conjunction with activities for the variables of (a) opportunities for satisfaction, (b) strength of cognitive-affective components, (c) level of challenges, (d) level of skills, and (e) importance. It thus appears that the 2 conceptions of happiness are related but distinguishable and that personal expressiveness, but not hedonic enjoyment, is a signifier of success in the process of self-realization. The qualities deemed to represent optimal, healthy, or effective psychological functioning have been a perennial concern within personality psychology. However, work on optimal functioning has generally been carried out within diverse theoretical systems with few efforts made to interrelate or integrate concepts proposed as optimal within the different theories. Four such constructs are (a) a sense of personal identity (Erikson, 1963, 1968—ego analytic theory), (b) self-actualization (Maslow, 1968,1970—humanistic theory), (c) an internal locus of control (Rotter, 1966—social learning theory), and (d) principled moral reasoning (Gilligan, 1982, Kohlberg, 1969—cognitive developmental theory). In an analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of these constructs, I (Waterman, 1981, 1984) have demonstrated that they share individualistic philosophical assumptions regarding the role of self-realization as a component of optimal psychological functioning. The philosophical theory that corresponds to the perspectives advanced with regard to each of the four constructs, and that is foundational to claims made for each, is eudaimonism.

Social loafing: A meta-analytic review and theoretical integration.

Abstract: Social loafing is the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually. A meta-analysis of 78 studies demonstrates that social loafing is robust and generalizes across tasks and S populations. A large number of variables were found to moderate social loafing. Evaluation potential, expectations of co-worker performance, task meaningfulness, and culture had especially strong influence. These findings are interpreted in the light of a Collective Effort Model that integrates elements of expectancy-value, social identity, and self-validation theories. Many of life's most important tasks can only be accomplished in groups, and many group tasks are collective tasks that require the pooling of individual members' inputs. Government task forces, sports teams, organizational committees, symphony orchestras, juries, and quality control teams provide but a few examples of groups that combine individual efforts to form a single product. Because collective work settings are so pervasive and indispensable, it is important to determine which factors motivate and demotivate individuals within these collective contexts. Intuition might lead to the conclusion that working with others should inspire individuals to maximize their potential and work especially hard. Research on social loafing, however, has revealed that individuals frequently exert less effort on collective tasks than on individual tasks. Formally, social loafing is the reduction in motivation and effort when individuals work collectively compared with when they work individually or coactively. When working collectively, individuals work in the real or imagined presence of others with whom they combine their inputs to form a single group product. When working coactively, individuals work in the real or imagined presence of others, but their inputs are not combined with the inputs of others. Determining the conditions under which individuals do or do not engage in social loafing is a problem of both theoretical and practical importance. At a practical level, the identification of moderating variables may

A Dark Side of the American Dream: Correlates of Financial Success as a Central Life Aspiration

Abstract: Aspiring for financial success is an important aspect of capitalist cultures. Three studies examine the hypothesis that values and expectancies for wealth and money are negatively associated with adjustment and well-being when they are more central to an individual than other self-relevant values and expectancies. Studies 1 and 2 use 2 methods to show that the relative centrality of money-related values and expectancies is negatively related to college students' well-being and mental health. Study 3, using a heterogeneous noncollege sample, extends these findings by showing that a high centrality of aspirations for financial success is associated with interview ratings of lower global adjustment and social productivity and more behavioral disorders. Discussion is focused on the deleterious consequences of materialistic world views and the need to examine differential effects of content regarding goals and values. Financial success has long been a core component of the American dream, and many of the values modeled and encouraged by modern society suggest that success and happiness depend on procuring monetary wealth (Derber, 1979). Yet folklore and table side discussion often suggest that a darker side lurks behind the American dream. Pursuing material wealth is sometimes viewed as empty or shallow and as precluding investment in one's family and friends, self-actualization, and contributions to the community. Suspicion about the worth of material pursuits is echoed in some humanistic theories. Both Rogers (1963) and Maslow (1954), for instance, consider humans to be energized by an actualizing tendency and believe that well-being occurs to the extent people can freely express their inherent potentials. In situations of conditional positive regard (Rogers, 1963) or forceful external demands (Maslow, 1956), however, individuals often forego their own actualization to attain regard or outcomes from others. Similarly, Fromm (1976) distinguished between a "having" or consummatory orientation and a "being" or experiential orientation to life. He considered the former as reflecting alienation from the actualizing tendencies of the self. Inasmuch as money represents an external incentive for behavior that is contingently given, these theories suggest the pursuit of

How coping mediates the effect of optimism on distress : a study of women with early stage breast cancer

Abstract: At diagnosis, 59 breast cancer patients reported on their overall optimism about life; 1 day presurgery, 10 days postsurgery, and at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups, they reported their recent coping responses and distress levels. Optimism related inversely to distress at each point, even controlling for prior distress. Acceptance, positive reframing, and use of religion were the most common coping reactions; denial and behavioral disengagement were the least common reactions. Acceptance and the use of humor prospectively predicted lower distress; denial and disengagement predicted more distress. Path analyses suggested that several coping reactions played mediating roles in the effect of optimism on distress. Discussion centers on the role of various coping reactions in the process of adjustment, the mechanisms by which dispositional optimism versus pessimism appears to operate, third variable issues, and applied implications.

Affect, cognition, and awareness: affective priming with optimal and suboptimal stimulus exposures.

Abstract: The affective primacy hypothesis (R. B. Zajonc, 1980) asserts that positive and negative affective reactions can be evoked with minimal stimulus input and virtually no cognitive processing. The present work tested this hypothesis by comparing the effects of affective and cognitive priming under extremely brief (suboptimal) and longer (optimal) exposure durations. At suboptimal exposures only affective primes produced significant shifts in Ss' judgments of novel stimuli. These results suggest that when affect is elicited outside of conscious awareness, it is diffuse and nonspecific, and its origin and address are not accessible. Having minimal cognitive participation, such gross and nonspecific affective reactions can therefore be diffused or displaced onto unrelated stimuli. At optimal exposures this pattern of results was reversed such that only cognitive primes produced significant shifts in judgments. Together, these results support the affective primacy hypothesis. The affective primacy hypothesis (Zajonc, 1980) holds that affective reactions can be elicited with minimal stimulus input. This hypothesis challenges the cognitive appraisal viewpoint (Lazarus, 1982), which maintains that affect cannot emerge without prior cognitive mediation. In this article, we provide evidence relevant to this debate and propose a theoretical model that describes how various stimuli can elicit an early affective reaction that may be sustained or diluted by subsequent cognitive operations. Affective primacy was first suggested by a mere exposure experiment (Kunst-Wilson & Zajonc, 1980) in which subjects, by virtue of repeated exposures, developed affective preferences for previously novel Chinese ideographs. In that experiment the ideographs were first presented under degraded viewing conditions. Later, when given direct recognition memory tests, subjects could not distinguish these old stimuli from new stimuli they had never seen. Yet, despite this lack of overt recognition, when asked which of two ideographs, old or new, they liked better, subjects consistently preferred the previously presented stimulus. Moreover, response time for the liking judgment was found to be significantly less than that for the direct recognition judgment (see Seamon, Brody, & Kauff, 1983, for an extension of these data).

Emotional suppression: Physiology, self-report, and expressive behavior.

Abstract: This study examined the effects of emotional suppression, a form of emotion regulation defined as the conscious inhibition of emotional expressive behavior while emotionally aroused. Ss (43 men and 42 women) watched a short disgust-eliciting film while their behavioral, physiological, and subjective responses were recorded. Ss were told to watch the film (no suppression condition) or to watch the film while behaving "in such a way that a person watching you would not know you were feeling anything" (suppression condition). Suppression reduced expressive behavior and produced a mixed physiological state characterized by decreased somatic activity and decreased heart rate, along with increased blinking and indications of increased sympathetic nervous system activity (in other cardiovascular measures and in electrodermal responding). Suppression had no impact on the subjective experience of emotion. There were no sex differences in the effects of suppression.

A comparison of three structural models for personality : the Big Three, the Big Five, and the Alternative Five

Abstract: The major factors from 3 models of personality are compared: Eysenck's Three Factor model, Costa and McCrae's version of the Big Five, and Zuckerman and Kuhlman's Alternative Five. The 1st study describes the development of a questionnaire measure for the Alternative Five and the reliability assessments of the scales. The 2nd study used factor analysis to compare the factors among the scales from the 3 models. Extraversion and Neuroticism were quite similar across all 3 models. Eysenck's Psychoticism scale marked a factor that included Conscientiousness and Impulsive Sensation Seeking factors from the other 2 models. Agreeableness and Aggression-Hostility formed a 4th factor. Openness could be identified as a factor using facet scales, but it showed no convergence with other factors. Four of the five factors showed convergence across at least 2 of the models.

Affect, culture, and morality, or is it wrong to eat your dog?

Abstract: Are disgusting or disrespectful actions judged to be moral violations, even when they are harmless? Stories about victimless yet offensive actions (such as cleaning one's toilet with a flag) were presented to Brazilian and U.S. adults and children of high and low socioeconomic status (N = 360). Results show that college students at elite universities judged these stories to be matters of social convention or of personal preference. Most other Ss, especially in Brazil, took a moralizing stance toward these actions. For these latter Ss, moral judgments were better predicted by affective reactions than by appraisals of harmfulness. Results support the claims of cultural psychology (R.A. Shweder, 1991a) and suggest that cultural norms and culturally shaped emotions have a substantial impact on the domain of morality and the process of moral judgment. Suggestions are made for building cross-culturally valid models of moral judgment.

Adaptive significance of female physical attractiveness: Role of waist-to-hip ratio.

Abstract: Evidence is presented showing that body fat distribution as measured by waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is correlated with youthfulness, reproductive endocrinologic status, and long-term health risk in women. Three studies show that men judge women with low WHR as attractive. Study 1 documents that minor changes in WHRs of Miss America winners and Playboy playmates have occurred over the past 30-60 years. Study 2 shows that college-age men find female figures with low WHR more attractive, healthier, and of greater reproductive value than figures with a higher WHR. In Study 3, 25- to 85-year-old men were found to prefer female figures with lower WHR and assign them higher ratings of attractiveness and reproductive potential. It is suggested that WHR represents an important bodily feature associated with physical attractiveness as well as with health and reproductive potential. A hypothesis is proposed to explain how WHR influences female attractiveness and its role in mate selection. Evolutionary theories of human mate selection contend that both men and women select mating partners who enable them to enhance reproductive success. Differential reproductive conditions and physiological constraints in men and women, however, induce different gender-specific sexual and reproductive strategies. In general, a woman can increase her reproductive success by choosing a high-status man who controls resources and, hence, can provide material security to successfully raise

Duration Neglect in Retrospective Evaluations of Affective Episodes

Abstract: Two experiments documented a phenomenon of duration neglect in people's global evaluations of past affective experiences. In Study 1, 32 Ss viewed aversive film clips and pleasant film clips that varied in duration and intensity. Ss provided real-time ratings of affect during each clip and global evaluations of each clip when it was over. In Study 2, 96 Ss viewed these same clips and later ranked them by their contribution to an overall experience of pleasantness (or unpleasantness). Experimental Ss ranked the films from memory; control Ss were informed of the ranking task in advance and encouraged to make evaluations on-line. Effects of film duration on retrospective evaluations were small, entirely explained by changes in real-time affect and further reduced when made from memory. Retrospective evaluations appear to be determined by a weighted average of "snapshots" of the actual affective experience, as if duration did not matter.

Pluralistic ignorance and alcohol use on campus: Some consequences of misperceiving the social norm.

Abstract: Four studies examined the relation between college students' own attitudes toward alcohol use and their estimates of the attitudes of their peers. All studies found widespread evidence of pluralistic ignorance: Students believed that they were more uncomfortable with campus alcohol practices than was the average student. Study 2 demonstrated this perceived self-other difference also with respect to one's friends. Study 3 traced attitudes toward drinking over the course of a semester and found gender differences in response to perceived deviance: Male students shifted their attitudes over time in the direction of what they mistakenly believed to be the norm, whereas female students showed no such attitude change. Study 4 found that students' perceived deviance correlated with various measures of campus alienation, even though that deviance was illusory. The implications of these results for general issues of norm estimation and responses to perceived deviance are discussed.

Personal Need for Structure: Individual Differences in the Desire for Simple Structure

Abstract: Individual differences in the desire for simple structure may influence how people understand, experience, and interact with their worlds. Studies 1 and 2 revealed that the Personal Need for Structure (PNS) scale (M. Thompson, M. Naccarato, & K. Parker, 1989,1992) possesses sufficient reliability and convergent and discriminant validity. In Studies 3-5, Ss high in PNS were especially likely to organize social and nonsocial information in less complex ways, stereotype others, and complete their research requirements on time. These data suggest that people differ i n their chronic desire for simple structure and that this difference can have important social-cognitive and behavioral implications. A consideration of chronic information-processing motives may facilitate the theoretical integration of social cognition, affect, motivation, and personality. It is nearly trite to make the point that, as social beings, people live in an unimaginably complex, information-rich world. Given the vast amount of information impinging on the senses and the well-documented limits in attentional capacity (e.g., Kahneman, 1973; Norman & Bobrow, 1975; Pashler, 1992), the information-processing task i s quite formidable. Thus, people look for ways to reduce the information load. People lessen their cognitive load in two fundamental ways. First, through avoidance strategies, they limit the amount of information t o which they are exposed. People may create barriers that restrict the likelihood that social and environmental information will intrude unexpectedly on their lives (e.g., by placing walls around their yards, closing the doors of their offices, wearing headphones in the streets). People may choose not to venture beyond their homes and workplaces, thus reducing exposure to unwanted information. Also, when compelled to confront and interact with others, people may actively ignore

Half a minute: Predicting teacher evaluations from thin slices of nonverbal behavior and physical attractiveness.

Abstract: The accuracy of strangers' consensual judgments of personality based on "thin slices" of targets' nonverbal behavior were examined in relation to an ecologically valid criterion variable. In the 1st study, consensual judgments of college teachers' molar nonverbal behavior based on very brief (under 30 s) silent video clips significantly predicted global end-of-semester student evaluations of teachers. In the 2nd study, similar judgments predicted a principal's ratings of high school teachers. In the 3rd study, ratings of even thinner slices (6-s and 15-s clips) were strongly related to the criterion variables. Ratings of specific micrononverbal behaviors and ratings of teachers' physical attractiveness were not as strongly related to the criterion variable. These findings have important implications for the areas of personality judgment, impression formation, and nonverbal behavior. The ability to form impressions of others is a critical human skill. "This remarkable capacity we possess to understand something of the character of another person, to form a conception of him as a human being. . . with particular characteristics forming a distinct individuality is a precondition of social life" (Asch, 1946, p. 258). In the present article, we show that this capacity is even more remarkable than Asch suggested: Our consensual impressions of others, even when based on very brief observations of nonverbal behavior, can sometimes be unexpectedly accurate. Kruglanski (1989) outlined the following definitions of the construct of accuracy in personality and social psychological research: (a) the degree of correspondence between a judgment and a criterion (the most popular definition in psychological research), (b) interpersonal consensus, and (c) a construct possessing pragmatic utility. Much of the recent research on impression formation and personality judgment has been focused on the second definition regarding interpersonal consensus among individuals in their judgments regarding the personality traits of others. This research has revealed three quite surprising findings regarding strangers' judgments of others. First, people can concur remarkably in some of their judgments of complete strangers, thus exhibiting high consensual accuracy (Albright, Kenny, & Malloy, 1988; Kenny, Homer, Kashy, & Chu, 1992; Paunonen, 1991). Second, these judgments can be

Rudimentary Determinants of Attitudes. II: Arm Flexion and Extension Have Differential Effects on Attitudes

Abstract: In the pain-flexor reflex, arm extension is temporally coupled with the onset of the unconditioned aversive stimulus, whereas flexion is associated with its offset; when retrieving desirable stimuli, arm flexion is more closely coupled temporally to the acquisition or consumption of the desired stimuli than arm extension. It was posited that these contingencies foster an association between arm flexion, in contrast to extension, and approach motivational orientations. Six experiments were conducted to examine this hypothesis. Ideographs presented during arm flexion were subsequently ranked more positively than ideographs presented during arm extension, but only when the Ss' task was to evaluate the ideographs when they were presented initially. Arm flexion and extension were also each found to have discernible attitudinal effects. These results suggest a possible role for nondeclarative memory in attitude formation. In general, we should not be terribly surprised that it is so difficult to change attitudes and preferences by cognitive methods. These methods do not reach the motor system and other somatic representational systems of the organism. They only deal with one representational system—the one that exists in the form of associative structures, images, and other subjective states. Since attitudes contain such a substantial affective component, they are likely to have multiple representations—and somatic representations are probably among the more significant ones. (Zajonc & Markus, 1982, p. 130) The term attitude comes from the Latin words apto (aptitude or fitness) and acto (postures of the body), both of which have their origin in the Sanskrit root ag, meaning to do or to act (Bull, 1951). The connection between attitude and action carried into the 18th century, when attitude referred to a physi

Personal goals and subjective well-being: A longitudinal study.

Abstract: This study examined the extent to which 3 dimensions of personal goals - commitment, attainability, and progress - were predictive of students' subjective well-being over 1 semester. At the beginning of a new term, 88 Ss provided a list of their personal goals. Goal attributes and subjective well-being were measured at 4 testing periods. Goal commitment was found to moderate the extent to which differences in goal attainability accounted for changes in subjective well-being. Progress in goal achievement mediated the erect of the Goal Commitment × Goal Attainability on Subjective Well-Being interaction. Results are discussed in terms of a need for addition and refinement of assumptions linking personal goals to subjective well-being

The transsituational influence of social norms.

Abstract: Three studies examined the behavioral implications of a conceptual distinction between 2 types of social norms: descriptive norms, which specify what is typically done in a given setting, and injunctive norms, which specify what is typically approved in society. Using the social norm against littering, injunctive norm salience procedures were more robust in their behavioral impact across situations than were descriptive norm salience procedures. Focusing Ss on the injunctive norm suppressed littering regardless of whether the environment was clean or littered (Study 1) and regardless of whether the environment in which Ss could litter was the same as or different from that in which the norm was evoked (Studied 2 and 3)

Subjective, physiological, and behavioral effects of threat and challenge appraisal.

Abstract: The applicability of R. S. Lazarus and S. Folkman's (1984) cognitive appraisal model of stress was examined in 3 laboratory experiments involving the repeated performance of active (Studies 1, 2, and J) and passive (Study J) coping stress tasks (P. A. Obrist, 1981). Threat appraisals of upcoming coping tasks were positively related to Ss' self-reported task stress. Cardiac reactivity during active coping stressors was related positively to challenge appraisals and negatively to threat appraisals. Vascular reactivity, however, was related positively to threat appraisals and negatively to challenge appraisals

Beyond simple pessimism: effects of sadness and anger on social perception.

Abstract: In keeping with cognitive appraisal models of emotion, it was hypothesized that sadness and anger would exert different influences on causal judgments. Two experiments provided initial support for this hypothesis. Sad Ss perceived situationally caused events as more likely (Experiment 1) and situational forces more responsible for an ambiguous event (Experiment 2) than angry Ss, who, in contrast, perceived events caused by humans as more likely and other people as more responsible. Experiments 3, 4, and 5 showed that the experience of these emotions, rather than their cognitive constituents, mediates these effects. The nonemotional exposure to situational or human agency information did not influence causal judgments (Experiment 3), whereas the induction of sadness and anger without explicit agency information did (Experiments 4 and 5). Discussion is focused on the influence of emotion on social judgment. The idea that emotions influence human thoughts, judgments, and decisions is as old as literature, and probably older. Most obviously, one's thoughts about the person or event that caused the emotion are affected; when someone has angered us, our judgment of that person's character is likely to emphasize vices and faults. Somewhat less obviously, while the emotion lasts, our interpretation of new events—even those unrelated to the source of the emotion—may be altered. For example, a person angered in the morning by a quarrel at home may find subsequent experiences to be more irritating: The bank teller or grocer seems a little more sluggish than usual, the boss more finicky, and the other drivers on the highway more thickheaded. Some residue of the prior emotion influences the person's perception of the events that follow. There is considerable evidence that global positive and negative moods have residual effects on cognition. In fact, positive and negative moods have been shown to influence a wide range of judgments, including evaluations of personal efficacy, Thematic Apperception Test scenes, and social performance (see Forgas & Bower, 1987, for a review), as well as judgments of satisfaction with consumer items (Isen, Shalker, Clark, & Karp, 1978), political figures, and general life circumstances (Forgas & Moylan, 1987; Keltner, Locke, & Audrain, 1993; Schwarz & Clore, 1983). Positive moods result in a more optimistic, positive outlook and negative moods a more pessimistic, negative one.

Mood as Input: People Have to Interpret the Motivational Implications of Their Moods

Abstract: It was hypothesized that moods have few, if any, motivational or processing implications, but are input to other processes that determine their motivational implications. In Experiment 1, Ss read a series of behaviors in forming an impression. When told to read the behaviors until they felt they had enough information, those in positive moods (PMs) stopped sooner than did those in negative moods (NMs). When told to stop when they no longer enjoyed reading the behaviors, NMs stopped sooner than PMs

Extraversion and neuroticism as predictors of objective life events: a longitudinal analysis.

Abstract: Data from a 4-year longitudinal study of young adults were used to examine the causal pathways between personality and life events. To reduce measurement artifacts, analyses were conducted using reports of more objective life events. It was found that extraversion predisposed participants to experience more positive objective life events, whereas neuroticism predisposed people to experience more negative objective events. In contrast, personality was somewhat stable. and life events were found not to have a prospective influence on it. Objective positive and negative life events covaried, suggesting that people who experience more of 1 type of event are also likely to experience more events of the opposite valence as well

Attitude strength: One construct or many related constructs?

Abstract: A variety of attributes differentiate attitudes that are stable and conseguential from those that are not, including extremity, certainty, importance, knowledge, intensity, interest, direct experience, accessibility, latitudes of rejection and noncommitment, and affective-cognitive consistency. Although these dimensions are clearly conceptually and operationally distinct from one another, researchers have often assumed that some are interchangeable, or that two or more reflect common higher-order constructs. Three studies using multitrait-multimethod confirmatory factor analysis assessed the relations among these dimensions. Although some of these dimensions are strongly related, most are not, and a multifactor model seems necessary to account for their intercorrelations

Assessment, enhancement, and verification determinants of the self-evaluation process.

Abstract: The 3 major self-evaluation motives were compared: self-assessment (people pursue accurate self-knowledge), self-enhancement (people pursue favorable self-knowledge), and self-verification (people pursue highly certain self-knowledge). Ss considered the possession of personality traits that were either positive or negative and either central or peripheral by asking themselves questions that varied in diagnosticity (the extent to which the questions could discriminate between a trait and its alternative) and in confirmation value (the extent to which the questions confirmed possession of a trait)

Social Support in Pregnancy: Psychosocial Correlates of Birth Outcomes and Postpartum Depression

Abstract: This prospective study examined the effects of prenatal social support on maternal and infant health and well-being in a sample of low-income pregnant women (N = 129). Three aspects of support (amount received, quality of support received, and network resources) and four outcomes (birth weight, Apgar scores, labor progress, and postpartum depression) were studied. Results indicated that women who received more support had better labor progress and babies with higher Apgar scores. Women with higher quality support had babies with higher Apgar scores and experienced less postpartum depression. Also, women with larger networks had babies of higher birth weight. Further analyses indicated that the outcomes as a whole were more consistently predicted by instrumental rather than emotional forms of support. Finally, although there was some evidence for stress-buffering effects of support, the overall findings were more consistent with a main effect model.

Assessing the structure of prejudicial attitudes: the case of attitudes towards homosexuals

Abstract: Two studies assessed the structure of attitudes toward homosexuals. In Study 1, Ss completed measures of stereotypes, symbolic beliefs, and affective associates as well as attitudes toward homosexuals. They also completed the right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) scale. The results revealed that (a) stereotypes did not provide a complete representation of attitudes, (b) RWA was negatively correlated with attitudes toward homosexuals, (c) the relative importance of the predictor variables differed for high and low RWAs, and (d) the three predictors accounted for more variance in the attitudes of low RWAs than of high RWAs. Study 2 also included measures of past experiences and perceived value dissimilarity. Results revealed that past experiences significantly added to the prediction of attitudes only for high RWAs and that much of the RWA–attitude relation was accounted for by the consideration of symbolic beliefs and perceived value dissimilarity.

Religion's role in adjustment to a negative life event: coping with the loss of a child.

Abstract: Parents (N = 124) who had lost an infant to sudden infant death syndrome were interviewed 3 weeks and 18 months postloss. Two components of religion (religious participation and religious importance) were assessed, and their relations with 3 coping-process variables (perceived social support, cognitive processing of the loss, and finding meaning in the death) were examined. Greater religious participation was related to increased perception of social support and greater meaning found in the loss. Importance of religion was positively related to cognitive processing and finding meaning in the death. Furthermore, through these coping-process variables, religious participation and importance were indirectly related to greater well-being and less distress among parents 18 months after their infants' deaths. Results suggest that further study of the social and cognitive aspects of religion would be profitable.

Proprioceptive Determinants of Emotional and Nonemotional Feelings

Abstract: This article reports 2 experiments that test whether both emotional and nonemotional feelings may be influenced by uninterpreted proprioceptive input. The logic of the procedure was adopted from studies by F. Strack, L. Martin, and S. Stepper (1988), who unobtrusively manipulated people's facial expressions. In the 1st experiment, a functionally equivalent technique was used to vary the posture of the body. Study 1 results revealed that success at an achievement task led to greater feelings of pride if the outcome was received in an upright position rather than in a slumped posture. Study 2 results revealed that nonemotional feelings of effort were influenced by contraction of the forehead muscle (corrugator), and Ss' self-ratings on a trait dimension reflected this experience when the facial contraction was maintained during the recall of behavioral episodes exemplifying this trait. To account for these results, a framework is proposed that draws on a distinction between noetic and experiential representations.

Self-image Resilience and Dissonance: The Role of Affirmational Resources

Abstract: It was predicted that high self-esteem Ss (HSEs) would rationalize an esteem-threatening decision less than low self-esteem Ss (LSEs), because HSEs presumably had more favorable self-concepts with which to affirm, and thus repair, their overall sense of self-integrity. This prediction was supported in 2 experiments within the "free-choice" dissonance paradigm--one that manipulated self-esteem through personality feedback and the other that varied it through selection of HSEs and LSEs, but only when Ss were made to focus on their self-concepts. A 3rd experiment countered an alternative explanation of the results in terms of mood effects that may have accompanied the experimental manipulations. The results were discussed in terms of the following: (a) their support for a resources theory of individual differences in resilience to self-image threats--an extension of self-affirmation theory, (b) their implications for self-esteem functioning, and (c) their implications for the continuing debate over self-enhancement versus self-consistency motivation.

Stability of emotion experiences and their relations to traits of personality.

Abstract: The article presents a theoretical framework for studying emotion-personality relations and an empirical study of the stability of 88 normal middle-class mothers' emotion experiences and their relations to personality during the 3 years after childbirth. Ss completed the Differential Emotions Scale (DES), Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire, Jackson's Personality Research Form, and Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale. The DES demonstrated stability over 3 years. There was individual stability despite changes in group means during the postpartum period. Positive emotionality, as well as the discrete emotions of interest, enjoyment, and shyness, predicted Extraversion. Negative emotionality and the discrete negative emotions were significant predictors of Neuroticism. Positive emotionality was inversely related to Neuroticism. There were expectable correlations among specific emotions and primary traits of personality.

When ego threats lead to self-regulation failure: negative consequences of high self-esteem.

Abstract: The tendency for people with high self-esteem to make inflated assessments and predictions about themselves carries the risk of making commitments that exceed capabilities, thus leading to failure. Ss chose their performance contingencies in a framework where larger rewards were linked to a greater risk of failure. In the absence of ego threat, Ss with high self-esteem showed superior self-regulation: They set appropriate goals and performed effectively. Ego threat, however, caused Ss with high self-esteem to set inappropriate, risky goals that were beyond their performance capabilities so they ended up with smaller rewards than Ss with low self-esteem. The results indicate the danger of letting egotistical illusions interfere with self-regulation processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved) KW: partner violence

Motivated resistance and openness to persuasion in the presence or absence of prior information.

Abstract: Three experiments investigated the relation between need for cognitive closure and persuasion. In the 1st study, Ss high on an individual-differences measure of need for closure were more resistant to persuasion by their low need-for-closure counterparts than vice versa. In the 2nd study, Ss in a noisy environment, assumed to instill a relatively high need for closure, were more resistant to persuasion than Ss in a quiet environment, but only in presence of an initial informational base for an opinion. In its absence, Ss in the noisy (vs. quiet) environment were less resistant to persuasion. The interaction between need for closure and informational base was replicated in the 3rd experiment reverting to the individual-differences measure of need for closure. The discussion considered implications of these findings for further persuasion phenomena.