Showing papers in "Social Psychology Quarterly in 1979"
257Â citations
TL;DR: This paper found that the opportunity to engage in mutually pleasurable activities may be a stronger motivation in friendship choice and friendship maintenance than is the satisfaction of knowing the friend agrees with you, and that activity similarity was a better predictor of liking than was attitudinal similarity.
Abstract: Responses to attitude and activity preference surveys were compared for the degrees of real and perceived similarity within,male (n = 13) and female (n = 11) friendship pairs. Activity preference similarity was substantially greater than attitudinal similarity, in fact: friends' attitudinal similarity was no greater than strangers'; individuals were able to predict the friend's responses to the activity survey more accurately than to the attitude survey; and activity similarity was a better predictor of liking than was attitudinal similarity. The findings were the same for males and females. These results suggest that the opportunity to engage in mutually pleasurable activities may be a stronger motive in friendship choice and friendship maintenance than is the satisfaction of knowing the friend agrees with you.
156Â citations
TL;DR: This article examined trends in psychological well-being in the United States since the Second World War and found that happiness rose from the late forties to the late fifties, then fell until the early seventies, and then, possibly after some rebound, remained stable.
Abstract: This paper examines trends in psychological well-being in the United States since the Second World War. To measure these trends, a long series of surveys with questions on subjective, personal happiness are analyzed. To test the adequacy of this measure, its association with more complex measures of well-being (e.g., the Bradburn Affect Balance scale and the Andrews and Withey life-feeling scale) was examined, and its testlretest stability determined. Both indicated that happiness might serve as a suitable indicator. Variations in question wording were examined in the happiness series. Differences were found that prevented all wordings being used in a uniform, single series, but the general trends were detectable by using the two main variations as parallel series. Possible seasonal and context effects were also found that further complicated the analysis of happiness. With the effects of variant wordings, seasons, and contexts taken into consideration, it appears that happiness rose from the late forties to the late fifties, then fell until the early seventies, and then, possibly after some rebound, remained stable from the early seventies to the present.
151Â citations
TL;DR: Social psychology has been defined as the attempt to understand how society influences the cognition, motivation, development, and behavior of individuals and, in turn, is influenced by them.
Abstract: This paper presents an assessment of the current state of social psychology in the light of its historical and social context. The discipline is viewed as a social system, and an attempt is made to show how the properties of this system have influenced the research techniques, substantive content, and theories of contemporary social psychology. It is suggested that the field's basic mission should be defined as the attempt to understand how society influences the cognition, motivation, development, and behavior of individuals and, in turn, is influenced by them. It is proposed that this definition provides a basis for integrating all of social psychology, including its two main subdivisions and several areas of specialization. The entire history of social psychology as a field of empirical research extends over a period of only approximately eighty years. And since most of its growth has occurred within the past four decades, it is largely the product of scholars who are still active in the field. In this paper, I would like to draw upon my own experience as a social psychologist over the past
131Â citations
TL;DR: This paper found that when questioned about their educational plans, perhaps as many as 20% of youth supply extemporaneous responses; another 20% report goals of quite recent formulation; and the remainder report long-term commitments (at least 2-5 years).
Abstract: Employing two complementary data sets, the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 and the Study of Academic Prediction and Growth, we question the conventional interpretation of educational plans as motives, and thereby as determinants of educational attainment. We find that when questioned about their educational plans: (1) perhaps as many as 20% of youth supply extemporaneous responses; (2) another 20% report goals of quite recent formulation; and (3) the remainder report long-term commitments (at least 2-5 years). The last are so longstanding as to make suspect the causal ordering employed in most models of adolescent attainment. That is, such plans are not properly considered as the products of high school experiences. We also document that senior year measures of educational goals often are quite contaminated by prior knowledge of one's actual prospects for college. Finally, our analyses make suspect the assumptions, first, that educational plans are homogeneous in their information across students and assessments and second, that they reflect exclusively, or even primarily, underlying motivation or achievement orientation. Without these assumptions, it is difficult to sustain the customary interpretation of plans' "influences."
116Â citations
TL;DR: This article examined the socializing effects of work experience on the competence dimension of the self-concept during the early work career and found that a sense of competence prior to labor force entry has significant implications for future income attainment and work autonomy.
Abstract: This research examines the socializing effects of work experience on the competence dimension of the self-concept during the early work career. The panel consisted of 435 male 1966-67 college graduates who were studied during their undergraduate years andfollowed up, 10 years later, by a mail survey. Using the confirmatory factor analysis procedure, the findings demonstrated significant effects of work autonomy on the individual's sense of competence or personal efficacy. With work autonomy and other pertinent variables controlled, income, an indicator of extrinsic rewards and socioeconomic attainment, did not significantly enhance the self-concept over time. These findings support a generalization model of adult socialization, in which adaptations to occupational activities and demands are conceptualized as major sources of personal change. The results also showed that a sense of competence, prior to labor force entry, has significant implications for future income attainment and work autonomy.
99Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of birth order among individuals and within families on tested ability, educational attainment, occupational status, and earnings were assessed with a sample of brothers, and they found that birth order effects derive in large measure from differences in family size, and disappear to statistical and substantive insignificance when brothers are compared with one another.
Abstract: Working with a sample of brothers, we assess the effects of birth order among individuals and within families on tested ability, educational attainment, occupational status, and earnings. Apparent birth order effects derive in large measure from differences in family size, and disappear to statistical and substantive insignificance when brothers are compared with one another. On the other hand, family size effects persist, even with other measures of socioeconomic background controlled. Nor can family size effects be explained by parental ability. Questioning social psychological explanations that stress variations in parental time inputs or other finite psychological variables and that imply significant birth order effects as well, we suggest the importance of unmeasured preferences or of economic resources that vary across but not within families.
90Â citations
86Â citations
85Â citations
TL;DR: Schofield and Sagar as discussed by the authors reported on the interracial behavior of the previously studied seventh-graders as they moved through the essentially segregated eighth grade, compared to students who entered the school's eighth grade the previous year from largely segregated schools, these students interacted more across racial lines.
Abstract: Interracial interaction patterns were observed in a new school selected for study because its sixth and seventh grades came close to meeting the conditions Allport (1954) specified as conducive to improved intergroup relations. The school's eighth grade, however, did not meet these conditions since its students were divided into a predominantly white accelerated track and a predominantly black regular track. A previous study carried out during the school's first year found that, as predicted, racial clustering in the school's cafeteria decreased over the course of the year in the seventh grade, but increased in the eighth grade (Schofield and Sagar, 1977). This paper reports on the interracial behavior of the previously studied seventh-graders as they moved through the essentially segregated eighth grade. As predicted, compared to students who entered the school's eighth grade the previous year from largely segregated schools, these students interacted more across racial lines. Nevertheless, they showed decreasing interaction during their eighth-grade year, as had their counterparts the previous year.
71Â citations
TL;DR: General support was found for the earlier finding of increased spectator hostility as a result of observing aggression, and hostility was shown to increase at wrestling and hockey, but increases did not occur at the swimming competition.
Abstract: The effects on spectator hostility of viewing aggressive athletic contests were investigated using three diverse measures of hostility in a replication of the widely cited Goldstein and Arms (1971) Army-Navy football study. Male and female subjects were exposed to either stylized aggression (professional wrestling), realistic aggression (ice hockey), or a competitive but nonaggressive control event (swimming) in a before-after design. While the three measures of hostility yielded somewhat different results for the three events, general support was found for the earlier finding of increased spectator hostility as a result of observing aggression. Whereas hostility was shown to increase at wrestling and hockey, such increases did not occur at the swimming competition. Other aspects of mood change among spectators were also investigated. There was a blunting of the quality of interpersonal relations at the three events.
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of sex differences and couple commitment on volunteer-ing were explored in a two-year study of dating couples, finding that women were more likely than men to volunteer than men.
Abstract: Effects of sex differences ancd couple commitment on volunteer-ing w ere explored in a two-year study of dating couples. Women were mnore likely than men to express interest in the study, somewhat more likeIv to be successfully recruited by their partners, ancd ultimateIv more likelv to continue their participation. Both meni and women w1'ere mor-e likely to express initial interest if they w1'ere ''going with ' someone, ancd more likely at fir-st to continue their participation if the relationiship remcained intact. Results ar-e discussed in terms of sex roles ancd implications for research on mINale-femCale andlC otherinlter-per-soIIal rielationships.
TL;DR: The degree of satisfaction that dyad members expressed regarding their interacctions appeared to vary according to the degree to which the level of interactional involvement they experienced was consistent or inconsistent with their own predisposition to be expressive.
Abstract: Theorizing by Bakan (1966), Bales (1955; 1958), Block (1973), and others suggests that interactional involvement may require the application and synthesis of both traditionally "masculine " (i. e., instrumental) and traditionally "feminine " (i. e., expressive) capacities. This view is supported not only by a previous study of sex role influences in mixed-sex dyads (Ickes and Barnes, 1978) but also by the present study of sex-role influences in same-sex dyads. The degree of interactional involvement (e.g., talking, looking, gesturing) was found to be high for dyad types in which both instrumental and expressive capacities could be integratively applied, but was found to be low for dyad types in which only one set of capacities (instrumental or expressive) could be represented. The degree of satisfaction that dyad members expressed regarding their interacctions appeared to vary according to the degree to which the level of interactional involvement they experienced was consistent or inconsistent with their own predisposition to be expressive. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for current conceptualizations of sex-role identification.
TL;DR: In this paper, the universal dimensions of affective meaning (evaluation, potency, and activity) are examined as sociologically relevant features of behavioral settings and equations are developed for assessing how the affective meanings of social role identities, interpersonal behaviors, and behavior settings combine to produce impressions of a social actor's goodness, powerfulness, and liveliness after an event has been discerned.
Abstract: A large body of literature supports the general hypothesis that social definitions of environments influence where people choose to interact, the behaviors in which they are most likely to engage, and the actions considered appropriate by others. This study explores the process by which people integrate complex information about settings and social interaction. First, the universal dimensions of affective meaning (evaluation, potency, and activity) are examined as sociologically relevant features of behavioral settings. Then equations are developed for assessing how the affective meanings of social role identities, interpersonal behaviors, and behavior settings combine to produce impressions of a social actor's goodness, powerfulness, and liveliness after an event has been discerned. Actors are evaluated more highly in familiar, positively-evaluated settings. Actors who occupy fast-paced, lively settings are viewed as more active. Finally, actors are evaluated more negatively if they engage in behaviors which are not in keeping with the pace or tempo of the social environment around them.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used children's ratings obtained in a middle school setting to examine the possibility of reciprocalfeedback between perceptions of physical attractiveness and ability and found that perceptions of ability did not affect those of attractiveness but not vice versa.
Abstract: While the bulk of experimental research has supported the position that physical attractiveness is important in impression formation, recent research by Gross and Crofton (1977) supported the opposite possibility, namely, that perceptions of physical attractiveness are affected by perceptions of personality. Research reported here using children's ratings obtained in a (middle) school setting examines the possibility of reciprocalfeedback between perceptions of physical attractiveness and ability. The data strongly support the conclusion that perceptions of ability affect those of physical attractiveness but not vice versa. The role of the relative ambiguity of stimuli associated with physical attractiveness compared to ability is advanced as a possible explanation to the findings.
TL;DR: Victims' level of self-reported anger was positively related to their willingness to report the theft and it was suggested that victim reporting may be governed more by a "hot" decision process than by an "cold" process involving r ational calculation of costs and benefits.
Abstract: This study investigated the effect of victims' level of anger and type of bystander advice on theft victims' decision to call the police. Subjects were led to believe that they were victims of an $11 theft which occurred on the premises of an "industrial research organization." Two independent variables were manipulated in a 3 x 3 factorial design: (a) bystander advice (advised action, advised no action, no advice) and (b) victim anger (high anger, low anger, no anger). Since a manipulation check revealed that victim anger was not successfully manipulated, victims' level of self-reported anger was used in the analyses. Two main effects were found. In comparison with the no-advice condition, the advice to take no action decreased subjects' willingness to report the incident whereas the advice to take action did not significantly increase reporting. Victims' level of self-reported anger was positively related to their willingness to report the theft. Separate analyses by sex showed that anger affected reporting by females but not by males. It was suggested that victim reporting may be governed more by a "hot" decision process than by a "cold" process involving r ational calculation of costs and benefits.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose and test two revisions in social exchange theory: (1) Exchanges guided mainly by the norm of equality emphasize solidarity; and (2) exchange norms affect decisions about procedure, not just decisions about allocation.
Abstract: Research on how norms about equity and equality affect social exchange has stressed the importance of actors' status and focused almost exclusively on allocation decisions. This research proposes and tests two revisions in social exchange theory: (1) Exchanges guided mainly by the norm of equality emphasize solidarity; and (2) exchange norms affect decisions about procedure, not just decisions about allocation. An experiment with pairs of equity-oriented strangers and equality-oriented friends showed that strangers increased their competition in response to a perceived inequality, but friends did not. On an average over several trials, without regard to perceived inequality, all pairs tended to achieve equal allocations. The findings support the hypothesis that equity and equality operate as separate procedural norms, and have implications for further research on exchange norms as attribution rules.
TL;DR: The authors investigated causal attribution of a "real" achievement event of high importance to the actor-the decision of a refereed professional journal on a paper submitted for publication, and developed a scale of causal attribution on the dimension of general control.
Abstract: This paper investigates causal attribution of a "real" achievement event of high importance to the actor-the decision of a refereed professionaljournal on a paper submittedfor publication. We develop a scale of causal attribution on the dimension of general control, and test hypotheses concerning the effect of status and outcome on attributions. The effect of outcome is significant. As predicted, respondents accord more relative importance to controllable causes when outcomes are positive than when they are intermediate or negative. Professional status does not affect authors' causal attributions, but sex does. Females assign relatively more importance to uncontrollable causes than do males, regardless of outcome. We consider the possible implications of these findings for future achievement attempts.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a method for parameter estimation and assessment of goodness offit which is preferable to the ad hoc procedures employed by Berger et al. In their most recent theoretical statement dealing with status characteristics and expectation states, Berger and his associates propose a linear function for predicting numerical values on a measure of relative power and prestige in taskoriented groups.
Abstract: In their most recent (1977) theoretical statement dealing with status characteristics and expectation states, Berger and his associates propose a linearfunction for predicting numerical values on a measure of relative power and prestige in task-oriented groups. In this paper we briefly outline the theory and the manner in which this function is employed, and we present a methodfor parameter estimation and assessment of goodness offit which is preferable to the ad hoc procedures employed by Berger et al. Using this method to review 14 studies carried out within a standardized experimental setting, wefind that Berger et al.'s linear modelfits the data from these experiments remarkably well. We conclude that these results demonstrate the utility and apparent validity of the central concepts and assumptions of this theory of status-organizing processes.
TL;DR: This article found that participants who made a self-rewarding self-attribution for their response to an initial request volunteered more help when presented with a second request than did subjects led to make a compliance attribution for their initial helping.
Abstract: Compassion and compliance are two very different self-attributions for agreeing to help someone in need; further, they should have very different consequences for subsequent behavior. Specifically, to see oneself as a compassionate individual should be self-rewarding, leading to the likelihood of helping in response to subsequent requests. But to see oneself as a compliant individual should be self-punishing, making one more reluctant to help in the future. Results of an experiment supported these predictions. Forty female undergraduates, each paired with a confederate, agreed to help in response to a request. As predicted, subjects led to make a compassion attribution for their response to an initial request volunteered more help when presented with a second request than did subjects led to make a compliance attribution for their initial helping.
TL;DR: The hypothesis that dyads within a group will increasingly exchange similacr levels of interpersonal attraction was reported in this paper, but the hypothesis was not supported by the evidence of non-confirmation.
Abstract: The hypothesis whose nonconfirmation is here reported is that with continuing acquaintance, dyads within a group will increasingly exchange similacr levels of interpersonal attraction. The following circumstances acre considered as possible sources of the nonconfirmation: the use of rank-ordering as a measure of each person 's attraction to each of the other group members, as creating artifactual effects; the use of ranks at all levels, instead of restricting them to high levels of attraction: the fact that estimnates of others' attraction to oneself did not become more accurate over time; and the development, over time, of consensual norms about the attraction status of all group members. The last of these is shown to be the most probable single explanation. Conditions under which the hypothesis probably comm be supported atre discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors address the tension between the existence of generalized "types" of group members and specific interactions among concrete individuals in small groups, and propose a blockmodel structure defined on multiple network data yields "positions" that are coherent along two of Bales' analytical dimensions.
Abstract: This paper addresses the tension between the existence of generalized "types" of group members (Bales, 1970; Bales et al., forthcoming) and specific interactions among concrete individuals in small groups. Following a suggestion of Mills (1971), we ask how these abstracted "types" interlock in an observable group. A blockmodel structure defined on multiple network data yields "positions" that are coherent along two of Bales' analytical dimensions. The network patterns among these positions are analyzed to reveal their social roles with respect to one another, while the statistical association of positions with Bales' dimensions is employed to depict the character of "typical" members of each cluster. These two analyses mutually reinforce and extend one another, and operationalize concepts for research on the juncture of personality and social role.
TL;DR: The convergence of ratio and linear approaches to defining equity is seen as a clear advance in the formal understanding of equity, and it is recommended that this modified version of the Harris formula be adopted as a working theoretic definition of equity.
Abstract: meets these criteria when OilIi > 0. When OilTI < 0 the outcomes specified by this formula correspond to the outcomes specified by a ratio formula when corrections for scale are applied to I, in the ratio formula such that sign Ii = sign 0i. This convergence of ratio and linear approaches to defining equity is seen as a clear advance in the formal understanding of equity, and it is recommended that this modified version of the Harris formula be adopted as a working theoretic definition of equity.
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of sitting distance and orientation on small-group behavior were investigated in male and female four-person groups and the results indicated that increased pause lengths in the discussion were predictive of more negative ratings of the group interaction.
Abstract: The effects of seating distance and orientation on small-group behavior were investigated in male and female four-person groups. The nonfacing orientation (L-shape) produced more frequent self-manipulative behaviors and postural adjustments and longer pauses than the facing orientation (circle-shape). No overall effects were found for distance or sex composition of the groups on either the behaviors in the group discussion or on rated satisfaction with the group interaction. A correlational analysis of the behavioral measures and ratings indicated that increased pause lengths in the discussion were predictive of more negative ratings of the group interaction. The processes underlying the orientation effects and the potential generalizability of these effects are also discussed.