Showing papers in "Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin in 2002"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors relate Big Five personality traits to basic values in a sample of 246 students and find that agreeableness correlates most positively with benevolence and tradition values, openness with self-direction and universalism values, extroversion with achievement and stimulation values, and conscientiousness with achievement, and conformity values.
Abstract: The authors relate Big Five personality traits to basic values in a sample of 246 students. As hypothesized, Agreeableness correlates most positively with benevolence and tradition values, Openness with self-direction and universalism values, Extroversion with achievement and stimulation values, and Conscientiousness with achievement and conformity values. Correlations of values with facets of the five factors reveal nuances of the facets and clarify ambiguities in the meanings of the factors. Values and personality traits exhibit different patterns of correlation with religiosity and positive affect. Findings support the idea that the influence of values on behavior depends more on cognitive control than does the influence of traits.
1,141 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that individuals see the existence and operation of cognitive and motivational biases much more in others than in themselves, and that people rate themselves as less subject to various biases than the "average American", classmates in a seminar, and fellow airport travelers.
Abstract: Three studies suggest that individuals see the existence and operation of cognitive and motivational biases much more in others than in themselves. Study 1 provides evidence from three surveys that people rate themselves as less subject to various biases than the “average American,” classmates in a seminar, and fellow airport travelers. Data from the third survey further suggest that such claims arise from the interplay among availability biases and self-enhancement motives. Participants in one follow-up study who showed the better-than-average bias insisted that their self-assessments were accurate and objective even after reading a description of how they could have been affected by the relevant bias. Participants in a final study reported their peer’s self-serving attributions regarding test performance to be biased but their own similarly self-serving attributions to be free of bias. The relevance of these phenomena to naive realism and to conflict, misunderstanding, and dispute resolution is discussed.
879 citations
TL;DR: An examination of the use of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis by researchers publishing in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin over the previous 5 years is presented, along with a review of recommended methods based on the recent statistical literature as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: An examination of the use of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis by researchers publishing in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin over the previous 5 years is presented, along with a review of recommended methods based on the recent statistical literature. In the case of exploratory factor analysis, an examination and recommendations concerning factor extraction procedures, sample size, number of measured variables, determining the number of factors to extract, factor rotation, and the creation of factor scores are presented. These issues are illustrated via an exploratory factor analysis of data from the University of California, Los Angeles, Loneliness Scale. In the case of confirmatory factor analysis, an examination and recommendations concerning model estimation, evaluating model fit, sample size, the effects of non-normality of the data, and missing data are presented. These issues are illustrated via a confirmatory factor analysis of data from the Revised Causal Dimension Scale.
866 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that narcissism and high self-esteem are associated with positive self-views but each is associated with positivity in different domains of the self, and that narcissists perceive themselves as better than average on traits reflecting an agentic orientation but not on those reflecting a communal orientation (e.g., agreeableness, morality).
Abstract: The authors hypothesized that both narcissism and high self-esteem are associated with positive self-views but each is associated with positivity in different domains of the self. Narcissists perceive themselves as better than average on traits reflecting an agentic orientation (e.g., intellectual skills, extraversion) but not on those reflecting a communal orientation (e.g., agreeableness, morality).In contrast, high-self-esteem individuals perceive themselves as better than average both on agentic and communal traits. Three studies confirmed the hypothesis.
In Study 1, narcissists rated themselves as extraverted and open to experience but not as more agreeable or emotionally stable. High-self-esteem individuals rated themselves highly on all of these traits except openness.
In Study 2, narcissists (but not high-self-esteem individuals) rated themselves as better than their romantic partners.
In Study 3, narcissists rated themselves as more intelligent, but not more moral, than the average person. In contrast, high-self-esteem individuals viewed themselves as more moral and more intelligent.
720 citations
TL;DR: In this article, angry participants hit a punching bag and thought about the person who had angered them (rumination group) or thought about becoming physically fit (distraction group). After hitting the punching bag, they reported how angry they felt.
Abstract: Does distraction or rumination work better to diffuse anger? Catharsis theory predicts that rumination works best, but empirical evidence is lacking. In this study, angered participants hit a punching bag and thought about the person who had angered them (rumination group) or thought about becoming physically fit (distraction group). After hitting the punching bag, they reported how angry they felt. Next, they were given the chance to administer loud blasts of noise to the person who had angered them. There also was a no punching bag control group. People in the rumination group felt angrier than did people in the distraction or control groups. People in the rumination group were also most aggressive, followed respectively by people in the distraction and control groups. Rumination increased rather than decreased anger and aggression. Doing nothing at all was more effective than venting anger. These results directly contradict catharsis theory.
671 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that inducing empathy for a member of a stigmatized group can improve attitudes toward the group as a whole, but do these more positive attitudes translate into action on behalf of the group?
Abstract: Research reveals that inducing empathy for a member of a stigmatized group can improve attitudes toward the group as a whole. But do these more positive attitudes translate into action on behalf of the group? Results of an experiment suggested an affirmative answer to this question. Undergraduates first listened to an interview with a convicted heroin addict and dealer; they were then given a chance to recommend allocation of Student Senate funds to an agency to help drug addicts. (The agency would not help the addict whose interview they heard.) Participants induced to feel empathy for the addict allocated more funds to the agency. Replicating past results, these participants also reported more positive attitudes toward people addicted to hard drugs. In addition, an experimental condition in which participants were induced to feel empathy for a fictional addict marginally increased action on behalf of, and more positive attitudes toward, drug addicts.
656 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that women who viewed the stereotypic commercials indicated less interest in educational/vocational options in which they were susceptible to stereotype threat (i.e., quantitative domains) and more interest in fields in which women were immune to stereotype threats (e.g., verbal domains), and women taking an aptitude test in Study 2 to avoid math items in favor of verbal items.
Abstract: Women in quantitative fields risk being personally reduced to negative stereotypes that allege a sex-based math inability. This situational predicament, termed stereotype threat, can undermine women’s performance and aspirations in all quantitative domains. Gender-stereotypic television commercials were employed in three studies to elicit the female stereotype among both men and women. Study 1 revealed that only women for whom the activated stereotype was self-relevant underperformed on a subsequent math test. Exposure to the stereotypic commercials led women taking an aptitude test in Study 2 to avoid math items in favor of verbal items. In Study 3, women who viewed the stereotypic commercials indicated less interest in educational/vocational options in which they were susceptible to stereotype threat (i.e., quantitative domains) and more interest in fields in which they were immune to stereotype threat (i.e., verbal domains).
623 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that female role models can buffer women's math test performance from the debilitating effects of these situational factors, and that learning about a competent female experimenter buffered women's self-appraised math ability, which led to successful performance on a challenging math test.
Abstract: Recent theory and research suggest that certain situational factors can harm women’s math test performance. The three studies presented here indicate that female role models can buffer women’s math test performance from the debilitating effects of these situational factors. In Study 1, women’s math test performance was protected when a competent female experimenter (i.e., a female role model) administered the test. Study 2 showed that it was the perception of the female experimenter’s math competence, not her physical presence, that safeguarded the math test performance of women. Study 3 revealed that learning about a competent female experimenter buffered women’s self-appraised math ability, which in turn led to successful performance on a challenging math test.
578 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that people who played a violent video game described the main character as behaving more aggressively, thinking more aggressive thoughts, and feeling more angry than did people playing a non-violent video game.
Abstract: Research conducted over several decades has shown that violent media increase aggression. It is now time to move beyond the question of whether violent media increase aggression to answering the question why violent media increase aggression. The present research tested whether violent video games produce a hostile expectation bias—the tendency to expect others to react to potential conflicts with aggression. Participants (N = 224) played either a violent or nonviolent video game. Next, they read ambiguous story stems about potential interpersonal conflicts. They were asked what the main character will do, say, think, and feel as the story continues. People who played a violent video game described the main character as behaving more aggressively, thinking more aggressive thoughts, and feeling more angry than did people who played a nonviolent video game. These results are consistent with the General Aggression Model.
555 citations
TL;DR: This article employed the integrated threat theory of intergroup attitudes to examine the attitudes of Black and White students toward the other racial group and found that realistic threats, symbolic threats, and intergroup anxiety predicted attitudes towards the other group.
Abstract: This study employed the integrated threat theory of intergroup attitudes to examine the attitudes of Black and White students toward the other racial group. This theory synthesizes previous research on the relationships of threats to intergroup attitudes. Structural equation modeling revealed that for both racial groups, realistic threats, symbolic threats, and intergroup anxiety predicted attitudes toward the other group. To varying degrees, the effects of negative contact, strength of ingroup identity, perceptions of intergroup conflict, perceived status inequality, and negative stereotyping on negative racial attitudes were mediated by the three threat variables. The model accounted for more variance in the negative attitudes of Whites toward Blacks than in the negative attitudes of Blacks toward Whites. The implications of these findings are discussed.
524 citations
TL;DR: This article investigated the interactive influences of diagnosticity instructions, gender, and ethnicity as they related to task performance and found that the gender effect was qualified by ethnicity, whereas the ethnicity effect was not qualified by gender.
Abstract: This study investigated the interactive influences of diagnosticity instructions, gender, and ethnicity as they related to task performance. In a laboratory experiment of 120 male and female, Latino and White college students, both a gender-based and an ethnicity-based stereotype-threat effect were found to influence performance on a test of mathematical and spatial ability. Closer inspection revealed that the gender effect was qualified by ethnicity, whereas the ethnicity effect was not qualified by gender. This suggests that the ethnicity of Latino women sensitized them to negative stereotypes about their gender, leading to a performance decrement in a context in which stereotype threat was activated. In contrast, it appeared that the gender of Latino women did not sensitize them to negative stereotypes about their ethnicity, because both male and female Latinos evidenced ethnicity-based stereotype threat. These findings have implications for the interplay between multiple group identities as they relat...
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of perceived discrimination against one's gender on psychological well-being in women and men were investigated using structural equation modeling. And they found no support for the hypothesis that perceptions of discrimination have self-protective properties among the disadvantaged.
Abstract: Using structural equation modeling, the authors tested theoretical predictions concerning the effects of perceived discrimination against one’s gender on psychological well-being in women and men. Results were highly supportive of the Rejection-Identification Model, with perceptions of discrimination harming psychological well-being among women but not among men. The results also support the Rejection-Identification Model’s prediction that women partially cope with the negative well-being consequences of perceived discrimination by increasing identification with women as a group. In contrast, perceived discrimination was unrelated to group identification among men. The authors found no support for the hypothesis that perceptions of discrimination have self-protective properties among the disadvantaged. Results are consistent with the contention that the differential effects of perceived discrimination among women and men are due to differences in the groups’ relative positions within the social structure.
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of death-related thoughts on a series of ingroup measures was assessed in an experiment in which participants in the mortality salience condition displayed stronger ingroup identification, perceived greater ingroup entitativily, and scored higher on ingroup bias measures.
Abstract: Merging insights from the intergroup relations literature and terror management theory, the authors conducted an experiment in which they assessed the impact of death-related thoughts on a series of ingroup measures. Participants in the mortality salience condition displayed stronger ingroup identification, perceived greater ingroup entitativily, and scored higher on ingroup bias measures. Also, perceived ingroup entitativily as well as ingroup identification mediated the effect of the mortality salience manipulation on ingroup bias. The findings are discussed in relation to theories of intergroup relations and terror management theory. A new perspective on the function of group belonging also is presented.
TL;DR: This article studied discrimination from the perspective of people in stigmatized roles in actual employment settings and found that confederates portrayed as homosexual were not discriminated against in formal ways relative to confederate applicants not presented as gay, they were responded to significantly more negatively in interpersonal ways.
Abstract: The current research studies discrimination from the perspective of people in stigmatized roles in actual employment settings. Confederates, who were portrayed as being homosexual or not, applied for jobs at local stores. Measures of formal bias (e.g., job offers), interpersonal behavior (e.g., length of interactions), and perceptions of bias (e.g., anticipated job offers by applicants) were assessed. Although confederates portrayed as homosexual were not discriminated against in formal ways relative to confederate applicants not presented as gay, they were responded to significantly more negatively in interpersonal ways. Moreover, there was a stronger relationship between interpersonal treatment and anticipated employment actions for confederates than there was between interpersonal responses and actual job offers by employers. These findings reveal the dynamics of the development of different impressions and expectations by stigmatizers and targets. Theoretical and practical implications are considered.
TL;DR: The authors found that skin tone is an important factor in both Blacks' and Whites' representations of Blacks, and showed that variation in skin tone can influence the organization of social information and differentiation in stereotypes of Blacks based on skin tone.
Abstract: Although evidence from a variety of disciplines suggests that skin tone is a basis of discrimination among Blacks, research in social psychology has virtually ignored this topic. Two experiments examined the causal role of skin tone in the perception and representations of Blacks. Paralleling the effect of race and other social category dimensions, Study 1 showed that variation in skin tone can influence the organization of social information. Study 2 demonstrated differentiation in stereotypes of Blacks based on skin tone. Results from both investigations suggest that skin tone is an important factor in both Blacks’ and Whites’ representations of Blacks.
TL;DR: This paper found that Americans and Japanese develop distinct psychological characteristics, which are attuned to social practices that emphasize influence (in the United States) and adjustment (in Japan), and that American participants could remember more, and more recent, situations that involve influence, while Japanese respondents could recall more, more recent and more frequent, situations involving adjustment.
Abstract: People have the capacity both to influence their environment and to adjust to it, but the United States and Japan are said to emphasize these processes differently. The authors suggest that Americans and Japanese develop distinct psychological characteristics, which are attuned to social practices that emphasize influence (in the United States) and adjustment (in Japan). American participants could remember more, and more recent, situations that involve influence, and Japanese respondents could remember more, and more recent, situations that involve adjustment. Second, American-made influence situations evoked stronger feelings of efficacy, whereas Japanese-made adjustment situations evoked stronger feelings of relatedness. Third, Americans reported more efficacy than Japanese, especially when responding to influence situations. Japanese felt more interpersonally close than Americans, especially when responding to adjustment situations. Surprisingly, U.S. influence situations also made people feel close t...
TL;DR: The authors found that following mortality saliency, people gave more money to a charity supporting an American cause than people who had been exposed to an aversive control topic, however, mortality salience had no effect on the amount of money given to a foreign cause.
Abstract: From the perspective of terror management theory, reminders of mortality should intensify the desire to express culturally prescribed prosocial attitudes and engage in culturally prescribed prosocial behaviors. Two studies supported these hypotheses. In Study 1, people were interviewed in close proximity to a funeral home or several blocks away and were asked to indicate their attitudes toward two charities they deemed important. Those who were interviewed in front of the funeral home reported more favorability toward these charities than those who were interviewed several blocks away. In Study 2, the authors found that following mortality salience, people gave more money to a charity supporting an American cause than people who had been exposed to an aversive control topic. However, mortality salience had no effect on the amount of money given to a foreign cause. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined narcissism and commitment in ongoing romantic relationships and found that narcissists reported less commitment to their ongoing romantic relationship, mediated by both perception of alternatives and attention to alternative dating partners.
Abstract: Two studies examined narcissism and commitment in ongoing romantic relationships. In Study 1, narcissism was found to be negatively related to commitment. Mediational analyses further revealed that this was primarily a result of narcissists’ perception of alternatives to their current relationship. Study 2 replicated these findings with an additional measure of alternatives. Again, narcissists reported less commitment to their ongoing romantic relationship. This link was mediated by both perception of alternatives and attention to alternative dating partners. The utility of an interdependence approach to understanding the role of personality in romantic relationships is discussed.
TL;DR: The authors used generalizability analysis to evaluate the contribution of individual differences to people's transgression-related interpersonal motivations (TRIMs) and found that individual differences accounted for 22% to 44% of the variance in participants' TRIMs (i.e., avoidance, benevolence, and revenge).
Abstract: Generalizability analyses were used to evaluate the contribution of individual differences to people’s transgression-related interpersonal motivations (TRIMs). Individual differences accounted for 22% to 44% of the variance in participants’ TRIMs (i.e., avoidance, benevolence, and revenge). Although revenge motivation is apparently more cross-situationally consistent than either avoidance or benevolence, estimating people’s dispositions on the basis of their responses to single transgressions will lead to perilously undependable estimates for all three TRIMs. Agreeableness consistently predicted revenge, whereas both Neuroticism and Agreeableness predicted avoidance and benevolence. The association of Neuroticism, but not Agreeableness, with people’s TRIMs appeared to be mediated by appraisals of transgression severity. Differences in people’s responses to historical versus fictional transgressions suggest that transgression-related motivational dispositions should probably be estimated with responses to ...
TL;DR: In this article, the Big 5 traits of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were compared in terms of their relative assessment of behavioral, cognitive, or affective components.
Abstract: What are personality traits? Are all “broad” traits equally broad in the constructs they encompass and in the pervasiveness of their effects? Or are some traits more or less affective, behavioral, or cognitive in nature? The present study examined these issues as they applied to the Big 5 traits of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Expert and novice raters judged the extent to which items from four popular Big 5 inventories contain behavioral, cognitive, or affective components. Traits and inventories were then compared in terms of their relative assessment of these components. Results indicate convergence among inventories but remarkable differences between traits. These findings have implications for the conceptualization and assessment of traits and suggest directions for future research.
TL;DR: This paper tested the hypothesis that schadenfreude would be more closely related to resentment and a wish to correct a perceived injustice than to envy, and that sympathy would involve different processes.
Abstract: This study tested the hypothesis that schadenfreude (or pleasure in another's misfortune) would be more closely related to resentment and a wish to correct a perceived injustice than to envy, and that sympathy would involve different processes. Participants were 184 undergraduates who responded to scenarios in which a student with a record of either high or average achievement that followed high or low effort subsequently suffered failure under conditions where there was either high or low personal control. Results showed that resentment about the student's prior achievement could be distinguished from envy. Schadenfreude about the student's subsequent failure was predicted by resentment and not by envy. Sympathy was not predicted by either resentment or envy. Deservingness was a key variable in the models that were tested.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assessed the link between empathic concern and helping by employing an experimental perspective-taking paradigm used previously to demonstrate empathy-associated helping and assessing the empathy-helping relationship while controlling for a range of relevant, well-measured non-altruistic motivations.
Abstract: To investigate the existence of true altruism, the authors assessed the link between empathic concern and helping by (a) employing an experimental perspective-taking paradigm used previously to demonstrate empathy-associated helping and (b) assessing the empathy-helping relationship while controlling for a range of relevant, well-measured nonaltruistic motivations. Consistent with previous research, the authors found a significant zero-order relationship between helping and empathic concern, the purported motivator of true altruism. This empathy-helping relationship disappeared, however, when nonaltruistic motivators (oneness and negative affect) were taken into account: Only the nonaltruistic factors of oneness (merged identity with the victim) and negative affect mediated helping, whereas empathic concern did not. Evidence for true altruism remains elusive.
TL;DR: This article found that participants writing in Chinese provided similar numbers of favorable and unfavorable self-statements, while participants reporting in English indicated similar levels of positive and negative mood, and the remaining groups reported more positive mood.
Abstract: In a study of bicultural individuals’ self-perceptions, Chinese-born students were randomly assigned to participate in either Chinese or English. Serving as controls, Canadian-born participants of either European or Chinese descent participated in English. The effects of the language manipulation paralleled findings in previous studies comparing East Asians to North Americans. Participants responding in Chinese reported more collective self-statements in open-ended self-descriptions, lower self-esteem on the Rosenberg scale, and more agreement with Chinese cultural views than did the remaining groups. In their self-descriptions, participants writing in Chinese provided similar numbers of favorable and unfavorable self-statements. The other groups reported more favorable self-statements. Participants reporting in Chinese indicated similar levels of positive and negative mood. The remaining groups reported more positive mood. The results suggest that East-Asian and Western identities may be stored in separa...
TL;DR: This paper examined the relationship of dispositional, unrealistic, and comparative optimism to each other and to personal risk beliefs, actual risk, and the knowledge and processing of risk information and found that individuals high in dispositional optimism and optimistic individuals possessed an adaptive risk and belief profile and knew more about heart attacks, whereas unrealistically optimistic individuals exhibited the opposite pattern and also learned relatively less.
Abstract: This study examined the relationship of dispositional, unrealistic, and comparative optimism to each other and to personal risk beliefs, actual risk, and the knowledge and processing of risk information. The study included 146 middle-age adults who reported heart attack-related knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors and read an essay about heart attack risk factors. Dispositional optimism was correlated with comparative optimism (perception of low risk relative to peers) but not with a variable assessing accuracy of participants’ comparative risk estimates (unrealistic optimism). Individuals high in dispositional optimism and comparative optimism possessed an adaptive risk and belief profile and knew more about heart attacks, whereas unrealistically optimistic individuals exhibited the opposite pattern and also learned relatively less of the essay material. Evidently, perceptions of low comparative risk are relatively accurate, dispositional optimism is associated in an adaptive way with information processing...
TL;DR: The effects of viewing media-portrayed idealized body images on eating, self-esteem, body image, and mood among restrained and unrestrained eaters were examined in this paper.
Abstract: The effects of viewing media-portrayed idealized body images on eating, self-esteem, body image, and mood among restrained and unrestrained eaters were examined. Study 1 found that restrained eaters (i.e., dieters), but not unrestrained eaters, rated both their ideal and current body sizes as smaller and disinhibited their food intake following exposure to idealized body images. These results suggest that restrained eaters are susceptible to a “thin fantasy” brought about by viewing ideal body images. Study 2 found that strengthening thinness attainability beliefs can further enhance the thin fantasy demonstrated by restrained eaters following exposure to idealized body images. Study 3 examined whether demand characteristics moderate these effects of media-portrayed idealized body images. As predicted, when explicit demand characteristics were present, participants reported feeling worse following exposure to thin models. The complexities of the media’s role in the development and maintenance of body diss...
TL;DR: The authors explored how white college students may exhibit response patterns associated with a subtle and rationalizable contemporary bias, aversive racism, and found that relatively high prejudice-scoring participants weighed the different, conflicting criteria in ways that could justify or rationalize discrimination against Black applicants.
Abstract: The present research explored how White college students may exhibit response patterns associated with a subtle and rationalizable contemporary bias, aversive racism. In the study, higher and lower prejudice-scoring participants evaluated applicants for admission to their university, for whom information about high school achievement and college board scores (aptitude and achievement test scores) was independently varied as strong or weak. As predicted, discrimination against Black applicants relative to White applicants did not occur when the credentials were consistently strong or weak; however, discrimination by relatively high prejudice-scoring participants did emerge when the credentials were mixed and hence ambiguous. Moreover, relatively high prejudice-scoring participants weighed the different, conflicting criteria in ways that could justify or rationalize discrimination against Black applicants. The implications of these data for understanding contemporary racism and their relation to the shiftin...
TL;DR: The authors examined the extent to which minority or devalued group members engendered threat reactions from interaction partners and found that participants' cardiovascular responses marking challenge and threat were obtained during social interactions with white or black confederates who described their background as either socioeconomically advantaged or disadvantaged.
Abstract: This research examined the extent to which minority or “devalued” group members engendered threat reactions from interaction partners. Participants' cardiovascular responses marking challenge and threat were obtained during social interactions with White or Black confederates who described their background as either socioeconomically advantaged or disadvantaged. Main effects for race and status were found. When interacting with Black or disadvantaged confederates, participants exhibited cardiovascular threat responses, whereas participants interacting with White or advantaged confederates primarily exhibited cardiovascular challenge responses. Consistent with cardiovascular responses, participants paired with White partners performed better during a cooperative task than participants paired with Black partners. In contrast to the physiological and behavioral indicators, self-reports indicated greater liking and more agreement with positive statements for Black partners than White partners. These findings ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the use of behavioral self-handicapping as a strategy for coping with stereotype threat was examined and it was found that participants feel threatened about confirming the negative stereotype about poor White athleticism and would practice less before the test as compared to control groups.
Abstract: Two experiments examined the use of behavioral self-handicapping as a strategy for coping with stereotype threat. Using sports as the performance context, it was predicted that if a sports test was framed as a measure of “natural athletic ability,” White participants would feel threatened about confirming the negative stereotype about poor White athleticism and would practice less before the test as compared to control groups. The data from Experiment 1 supported the prediction and showed that the effect of stereotype threat on self-handicapping was moderated by participants’ level of psychological engagement in sports. Experiment 2 showed that engaged White participants practiced less than engaged Hispanic participants when their performance was linked to natural athletic ability. The discussion focuses on the processes by which the salience of a negative stereotype in a performance context induces proactive strategies for coping with the implications of a poor performance.
TL;DR: The authors examined how working models of attachment to parents and romantic partners predicted spontaneous caregiving and care seeking in a stressful situation and found that women who reported being more avoidantly attached to romantic partners provided less support than did less avoidant women, regardless of how much support their partners sought.
Abstract: This study examined how working models of attachment to parents (assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview—AAI) and romantic partners (assessed by the Adult Attachment Questionnaire—AAQ) predicted spontaneous caregiving and care seeking in a stressful situation. Dating couples were videotaped while one partner (the man) waited to do a stressful task. Observers then rated each woman’s support giving and each man’s support seeking. The AAI and the AAQ independently predicted behavioral outcomes. Women with more secure representations of their parents and whose dating partners sought more support provided more support, whereas women with more secure representations of their parents whose partners sought less support provided less. Women who reported being more avoidantly attached to romantic partners provided less support than did less avoidant women, regardless of how much support their partners sought. Attachment orientations did not predict men’s support seeking.
TL;DR: This paper investigated social inference practices of Koreans and Americans in two novel domains: behavioral predictions and folk theories of behavior, and found that when dispositional and situational inferences were disentangled, Koreans showed dispositional thinking to the same extent as Americans.
Abstract: The authors investigated social inference practices of Koreans and Americans in two novel domains: behavioral predictions and folk theories of behavior. When dispositional and situational inferences were disentangled, Koreans showed dispositional thinking to the same extent as Americans. This was the case for behavioral predictions based on individual difference information (Study 1) and for endorsements of a dispositionist theory of behavior (Studies 1 and 3). Consistent with previous research in the causal attribution and attitude attribution paradigms, Koreans made greater situational inferences in behavioral prediction as long as situational information was salient (Study 2) and endorsed a situationist theory of behavior more (Studies 1 and 3). Koreans also differed from Americans in believing personality to be more malleable (Study 3).