Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

White, Peter

doi: 10.1177/0146167284103001pmid: N/A

A model of human beings aspragmatists is outlined. It is proposed that the primary orientation of laypeople is toward the various practical concerns of everyday life; and therefore to concrete, particular, and everyday information, and toward specific rather than general beliefs and heuristics. Evidence for the model is reviewed. The model is then applied to human inference and attribution research. It is argued that studies of human inference err by adopting statistical, logical, and scientific criteria as optimal for the evaluation of lay inference, when lay inferences are, infact, intended to meet practical criteria. Those studies also make insufficient allowance for the fact than lay inference is adapted to the circumstances, problems and informational availability of everyday life. It is also argued that causal attributions are made not by means of theory-neutral assessment of covariation or abstract, general concepts of causation, but by the application of specific, relatively concrete preexisting beliefs, and that attributions are made in a context of and contribute to practical concerns.

Lynn, Michael; Shurgot, Barbara A.

doi: 10.1177/0146167284103002pmid: N/A

This study employed lonely hearts advertisements to investigate the effects of reported physical appearance on interpersonal attraction. The personal advertisements in a local Columbus magazine were coded in terms of the individuals gender, height, weight, hair color, eye color, and evaluative self-description of his or her own appearance. The magazine recorded the number of responses each ad received, and this constituted the dependent measure. Multiple linear regression analyses indicated that more responses were received by women and by individuals providing nonnegative, evaluative self-descriptions than by their counterparts. Also, tall male advertisers and light female advertisers received more responses than their shorter and heavier counterparts. Finally, advertisers with red or salt and pepper hair received more responses than blonde and brunette advertisers. Discussion focused on the relations between these findings and those of past research and on the utility of lonely hearts advertisements in psychological research.

Gold, Joel A.; Ryckman, Richard M.; Mosley, Norman R.

doi: 10.1177/0146167284103003pmid: N/A

The present experiments examined the effects of a romantic mood induction on male subjects' attraction to an attitudinally dissimilar female. It was hypothesized and found that male subjects exposed to a romantic mood induction with such a female showed greater attraction to her on measures of liking, love, and limerence than control subjects who were not exposed to the romantic mood manipulation. Romantic mood induction subjects also perceived the dissimilar female as more similar to themselves than did control subjects.

DelRosario, Marlene W.; Brines, Joey L.; Coleman, Warren R.

doi: 10.1177/0146167284103004pmid: N/A

75 female University students were given either a body weight related questionnaire (QJ) or a control questionnaire (Q2) prior to taking the California Test of Personality (CTP), a measure of emotional adjustment. Overweight body image women given QJ had significantly lower emotional adjustment scores p < .01) regardless of actual body weight than all others. Women with normal images had higher CTP scores (p < .01). Women given Q2 had equivalent scores regardless of body weight or image. The study experimentally demonstrated that females emotionally respond to stimuli that focus attention on body weight, and the direction of their responses depends on body weight image.

Hecht, Michael; Sereno, Kenneth; Spitzberg, Brian

doi: 10.1177/0146167284103005pmid: N/A

This study examined the influence of topic level and relationship level on self and other as loci of emotional reactions to interactions. Findings indicate that self satisfaction was more strongly related to communication satisfaction for low topic intimacy and importance, and for the lowest level of relationship intimacy (acquaintances). On the other hand, satisfaction with other was more strongly related to communication satisfaction for high topic intimacy and importance, and higher levels of relationship intimacy (friends). Lovers and spouses, however, did not conform to this pattern. The findings, which were derived from a community sample, were compared to those of a previous study which had sampled college students.

Levine, John M.; Green, Stephanie M.

doi: 10.1177/0146167284103006pmid: N/A

This study investigated the joint impact of intrapersonal and interpersonal performance information on comparison bahavior. Subjects (elementary-school children) worked on a perceptual task and had the opportunity to look at their own and others' performance after each trial A 2 X 2 design was used in which (1) subjects' performance increased or decreased over trials, and (2) others' performance changed in the same direction but at a faster or slower rate. It was predicted and found that subjects whose performance increased looked equally often at superior and inferior others, whereas subjects whose performance decreased looked more often at inferior others. Also as expected, when subjects' performance decreased, their preference for inferior others was affected by the absolute difference between their own and others' scores. Implications of these findings for a related-attributes analysis of social comparison were discussed.

Rosenfeld, Paul; Giacalone, Robert A.; Tedeschi, James T.

doi: 10.1177/0146167284103007pmid: N/A

When individuals expend effort for a task that turns out to be boring or trivial they often justify their effort by enhancing the ratings of the task. The present experiment attempted to differentiate between two explanations for this process of effort justification: dissonance and impression management. Subjects completed either a simple (low effort) or difficult (high effort) number-circling task for an experimenter who was either friendly and pleasant (high attractiveness) or rude and unpleasant (low attractiveness). Contrary to impression management theory, and as predicted by cognitive dissonance theory, effort justification occurred only in the presence of the unattractive experimenter.

McGillicuddy, Neil B.; Pruitt, Dean G.; Syna, Helena

doi: 10.1177/0146167284103008pmid: N/A

Subjects first observed a pair of negotiations between two confederates of the same sex, and then negotiated with one of these confederates. Those who had observed their opponent follow a matching strategy conceded more than those who had observed their opponent follow either a tough or soft strategy. Confederates using a matching strategy were rated as stronger than those using a soft strategy and fairer than those using a tough strategy. These results support an attributional explanation for a previous finding that use of a matching strategy tends to encourage concessions from an adversary. Other results suggest that observers of negotiation view the parties they are observing as contrasting in strength and fairness.

McCallum, Debra Moehle; Schopler, John

doi: 10.1177/0146167284103009pmid: N/A

The Schopler and Layton (1972b) framework for influence attributions was employed to investigate the effects of two factors on attributions of influence. Participants were either agents or observers of an influence attempt, which was followed by a target's compliance, noncompliance or countercompliance. The results supported predictions that influence attributed to the agent (by both agent and observer) would be highest following compliance, moderate following countercompliance, and lowest following noncompliance. Agent-observer differences in attributions occurred only in conditions of target compliance, in which agents attributed more influence to themselves than did the observers, as predicted. The results suggest the need to include undesired changes in a target as an aspect of interpersonal influence processes.

Newman, Joan; Layton, Bruce D.

doi: 10.1177/0146167284103010pmid: N/A

Self-perception theory predicts a decrease in preference for a rewarded activity (the "over justification effect') only when two conditions are met: Internal interest in the activity is high and the reward is perceived as more than adequate justification for performance. In order to test this prediction, it is necessary to have a baseline of internal interest that is uncontaminated by external factors. In a 2 X 3 factorial design, 60 elementary school children played with an interesting or uninteresting toy, and were given one of three levels of reward for their play. An additional 22 children provided a baseline measure of internal interest in the toys by playing with them alone and unrewarded. The predicted interaction of internal interest and reward size was found on behavioral indices of play following the reward period. Compared to the baseline, increasing reward size was associated with a decrease in preference for the interesting toy but not for the uninteresting toy.