British Journal of Social Psychology

Antaki, Charles; Finlay, W. M. L.; Walton, Chris

doi: 10.1348/014466606X94437pmid: 17355716

Talk between care staff and people with learning disabilities may reveal a conflict between official policy and actual social practice. We explore a case in which care staff are in the process of soliciting residents' views on ‘relationships’. Ostensibly, this is an empowering part of a group meeting, meant to help the residents understand their relationships with the people around them, and to value those which are positive. However, the talk mutates from solicitation to instruction and, in doing so, provides a vivid case of people with learning disabilities being attributed social rights more limited than is consistent with institutional service policy. We unpack the play of category membership in this episode to illustrate how conflicting agendas can lead to the construction, even in ostensibly empowering encounters, of identities actively disavowed at the level of official discourse.

Singh, Ramadhar; Ho, Li; Tan, Hui Lynn; Bell, Paul A.

doi: 10.1348/014466606X104417pmid: 17355717

The authors hypothesized that (1) attraction toward a stranger based on attitudinal similarity is automatic, but cognitive evaluation of the stranger's quality before the measurement of attraction can make attraction nonautomatic or controlled; (2) personal evaluations from the stranger activate automatic attraction and cognitive evaluation; (3) controlled attraction from attitudes and automatic attraction and cognitive evaluation from personal evaluations engender reverse‐causal effects (i.e. they mediate each other); and (4) attraction and cognitive evaluation are distinct constructs. Attitudinal similarity between the participant and the stranger or personal evaluations of the former by the latter were varied in Experiment 1 (N=96), and were crossed with each other in Experiment 2 (N=240). Orders of response measurement were either cognitive evaluation followed by attraction or attraction followed by cognitive evaluation. Results confirmed the hypotheses. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Fife‐Schaw, Chris; Sheeran, Paschal; Norman, Paul

doi: 10.1348/014466605X85906pmid: 17355718

The theory of planned behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) has been used extensively to predict social and health behaviours. However, a critical test of the TPB is whether interventions that increased scores on the theory's predictors would engender behaviour change. The present research deployed a novel technique in order to provide this test. Statistical simulations were conducted on data for 30 behaviours (N=211) that estimated the impact of interventions that generated maximum positive changes in attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC) on subsequent intentions and behaviour. Findings indicated that interventions that maximized TPB variables had a substantial impact on behavioural intentions. Although TPB maximization increased the proportion of the sample that performed respective behaviours by 28% compared with baseline, the behaviour of a substantial minority of the sample (26%) did not change. The research also identified several interactions among TPB variables in predicting simulated intention and behaviour scores and investigated the mediating role of intentions in predicting behaviour.

Elliott, Mark A.; Armitage, Christopher J.; Baughan, Christopher J.

doi: 10.1348/014466605X90801pmid: 17355719

The ability of psychosocial variables to predict driver behaviour was tested using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB; I. Ajzen, 1985) as a theoretical framework. At Time 1, participants (N=150) completed questionnaire measures of TPB variables. 1 week later, participants' behaviour was assessed using both self‐reports and observations of driving speed derived from a high‐fidelity driving simulator. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that: (a) the TPB was a strong predictor of drivers' intentions and self‐reported speeding behaviour, and (b) intention was the sole predictor of observed speeding behaviour. Standard and repeated events survival analyses showed that intention also predicted the maintenance of drivers' compliance with speed limits. The discussion focuses on the TPB's relationships with observed and self‐reported behaviour, and the implications for designing interventions.

Vignoles, Vivian L.; Moncaster, Natalie J.

doi: 10.1348/014466605X85951pmid: 17355720

Theories suggest that identity motives for self‐esteem, meaning, distinctiveness and belonging are implicated in intergroup discrimination. Experimental studies have supported predictions, but correlational tests have been hindered by methodological problems. Using a new approach to measuring identity motives, we compared predictions of individual differences in in‐group favouritism. Seventy British adults completed measures of identity motives, British identification and positive and negative trait typicality ratings of British and German nationalities. With greater identification, the strength of motives for distinctiveness and belonging increasingly predicted in‐group favouritism: consistent with optimal distinctiveness theory, the belonging motive predicted positive ratings of the national in‐group, whereas the distinctiveness motive predicted negative ratings of the national out‐group. Results show the value of disentangling measures of motive strength from measures of motive satisfaction.

Doosje, Bertjan; Spears, Russell; Redelijkheid, Hans; Onna, Joost

doi: 10.1348/014466606X103517pmid: 17355721

Effects of identification with one's group on memory of stereotype consistent and inconsistent information about one's group were examined in two studies. In the first study, we focused on supporters of a low status soccer team, and observed that die‐hard fans were more likely to remember stereotype‐inconsistent results of their team than fair‐weather fans. This pattern was replicated in a second study, which was executed among supporters of a high status soccer team. We discuss the implications of these results for the role of motivational factors such as in‐group identification in cognitive social psychology.

Kleef, Gerben A.; Steinel, Wolfgang; Knippenberg, Daan; Hogg, Michael A.; Svensson, Alicia

doi: 10.1348/014466605X89353pmid: 17355722

How does a representative's position in the group influence behaviour in intergroup negotiation? Applying insights from the social identity approach (specifically self‐categorization theory), the effects of group member prototypicality, accountability and group attractiveness on competitiveness in intergroup bargaining were examined. As representatives of their group, participants engaged in a computer‐mediated negotiation with a simulated out‐group opponent. In Experiment 1 (N=114), representatives with a peripheral status in the group sent more competitive and fewer cooperative messages to the opponent than did prototypical representatives, but only under accountability. Experiment 2 (N=110) replicated this finding, and showed that, under accountability, peripherals also made higher demands than did prototypicals, but only when group membership was perceived as attractive. Results are discussed in relation to impression management and strategic behaviour.

Zagefka, Hanna; Brown, Rupert; Broquard, Murielle; Martin, Sibel Leventoglu

doi: 10.1348/014466606X111185pmid: 17355723

This research tested predictors and consequences of majority members' negative attitudes towards immigrants in Belgium and Turkey. It tested a mediation model in which economic competition and a perceived preference of the immigrants for culture maintenance have negative effects on majority members' own acculturation preference for integration, and where a perceived preference of the immigrants for contact has a positive effect. The effects of all three predictors were hypothesized to be mediated by negative attitudes toward immigrants. Two survey studies were conducted, one in Belgium (N=106) and one in Turkey (N=93). Results showed that, as hypothesized, ‘economic competition’ and a ‘perceived preference for contact’ had indirect effects on ‘own acculturation preference’ for integration, and ‘negative attitude’ was the mediator. ‘Perceived preference for cultural maintenance’ had a direct effect on ‘own acculturation preference’.

McKinlay, Andy; McVittie, Chris

doi: 10.1348/014466606X96958pmid: 17355724

In a trans‐national context, immigrants are often described as essentially different from existing residents. However these descriptions of group differences are occasioned constructions of immigrants, and talk about nations provides frameworks of history and space within which immigration is understood. Claimed group differences and the proposed commonality of nation together present a challenging context for immigrants to negotiate identities and to gain acceptance. Drawing on the concept of place‐identity, we examined here whether similar issues arise in intra‐national migration to a remote Scottish island. We conducted semi‐structured interviews with individuals who had lived on the island for periods ranging from 14 months to 20 years. The interviewees described island residents as comprising different groups, in terms such as residence, motivation, place of birth, and connections to other locations. The interviewees negotiated place‐identities that compared favourably with others with more transitory connections but unfavourably with residents of longer‐standing. Findings show that spatial connections can be used to account for varying degrees of social status in such locations. But some issues relevant to trans‐national immigration still arise in intra‐national migration, even in the absence of racial, ethnic, religious, or language differences. In short, ‘incomers’ cannot readily do ‘being local’.

Leach, Colin Wayne; Iyer, Aarti; Pedersen, Anne

doi: 10.1348/014466606X99360pmid: 17355725

We examined (structurally advantaged) non‐Aborigines' willingness for political action against government redress to (structurally disadvantaged) Aborigines in Australia. We found non‐Aborigines opposed to government redress to be high in symbolic racism and to perceive their ingroup as deprived relative to Aborigines. However, only perceived relative deprivation was associated with feelings of group‐based anger. In addition, consistent with relative deprivation and emotion theory, it was group‐based anger that fully mediated a willingness for political action against government redress. Thus, the specific group‐based emotion of anger explained why symbolic racism and relative deprivation promoted a willingness for political action against government redress to a structurally disadvantaged out‐group. Theoretical and political implications are discussed.