Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Deaux, Kay

doi: 10.1177/0146167293191001pmid: N/A

As a concept with a tradition in both social and personality psychology, identity lends itself to a variety of interpretations. In the present analysis, identity refers to social categories in which an individual claims membership as well as the personal meaning associated with those categories. Four key issues for research are discussed: (a) the structure and interrelationships among multiple identities, (b) the several functions that identities serve, (c) the importance of context to the development and enactment of identities, and (d) the need for longitudinal studies of identity change.

Reis, Theresa J.; Gerrard, Meg; Gibbons, Frederick X.

doi: 10.1177/0146167293191002pmid: N/A

It has been assumed that engaging in downward social comparison can improve subjective well-being both by ameliorating negative mood and by improving self-concept. Although a number of studies have demonstrated the effect of downward comparison on mood, there has been little empirical evidence of its effect on self-concept. The results of the current study indicate that downward comparison can increase self-esteem and does so especially for persons with relative low self-esteem. The results also suggest that upward comparison opportunities have different effects on the attitudes of high- and low-self-esteem persons.

Kehner, Dacher; Locke, Kenneth D.; Aurain, Paul C.

doi: 10.1177/0146167293191003pmid: N/A

This investigation examined the influence of emotional attributions on the relevance of current feelings to judgments of personal satisfaction. In the first three studies, subjects were led to make different attributions for their naturally occurring feelings and then asked to judge their personal satisfaction. Satisfaction was higher after situational and specific attributions than after general and self-referential attributions, but only in domains that were unrelated to the causes to which subjects attributed their feelings. Study 4 tested whether affective states such as emotions with clearly defined causes are less relevant to judgments of life satisfaction than more diffuse states such as moods. Satisfaction was elevated after a laboratory mood induction only when subjects were led to focus on their moods in ways characteristic of emotional states (by articulating specific causes and labels for their feelings). These studies illuminate the role of emotional attribution in judgments of personal satisfaction.

Hafer, Carolyn L.; Olson, James M.

doi: 10.1177/0146167293191004pmid: N/A

Seventy working women completed a questionnaire that assessed their dissatisfaction with their own job situation (personal discontent), their dissatisfaction with the job situations of women as a group (group discontent), and the strength of their beliefs in a just world (BJW). One month later, they completed a questionnaire that measured behaviors potentially related to discontent, some involving self-improvement (self-directed behaviors) and others relating to collective action (group-directed behaviors). Strong believers in a just world reported less group discontent than weak believers. BJW predicted both self-directed and group-directed behaviors; strong believers reported fewer behaviors of both kinds than weak believers. Taken together, BJW, group discontent, and personal discontent accounted for 23% of the variance in self-directed behaviors (R = .48) and 26% of the variance in group-directed behaviors (R = .50). These data constitute the first evidence linking BJW to assertive actions.

Crawford, Duane W.; Huston, Ted L.

doi: 10.1177/0146167293191005pmid: N/A

A longitudinal study examined whether the transition to parenthood affects the amount of time spouses pursue leisure activities-both together and apart-and the degree to which they pursue leisure activities they particularly enjoy. Results indicated that (a) new parents and childless couples do not differ in the amount of time they spend in leisure activities both spouses like, (b) parenthood reduces the amount of time new fathers engage in leisure activities independently, (c) parenthood increases the amount of time couples pursue activities together that are liked by the wife but not the husband, and (d) parenthood reduces the amount of time wives pursue leisure activities they dislike but their husbands like. The results show that parenthood restricts husbands' independent leisure pursuits and increases the extent to which spouses' leisure activities reflect the preferences of wives rather than husbands.

Turner, Marlene F.; Pratkanis, Anthony R.

doi: 10.1177/0146167293191006pmid: N/A

Research has documented pervasive adverse consequences of preferential selection for women's self-evaluations of ability and performance. However, virtually no research has examined the effects of selection processes on actual performance. It was theorized that the effects of preferential and meritorious selection on performance are moderated by task conceptualization. Females were told that they were assigned to a position because of either merit (they purportedly passed a qualifying test) or preference (they were female) and that task performance required either effort or inherent capability. Preferentially selected women performed better when they believed the task required capability rather than effort; meritoriously selected individuals displayed the opposite pattern. In addition, preferentially selected subjects evaluated specific components of their performance effectiveness more poorly than meritoriously selected subjects. Self-evaluations of overall performance were unaffected by the manipulations. Results are interpreted using research on self-handicapping and recipient reactions to aid.

Forgas, Joseph P.

doi: 10.1177/0146167293191007pmid: N/A

Are our judgments of unusual, atypical couples more likely to be distorted due to temporary mood? Two experiments based on a recent multiprocess theory developed by Forgas predicted and found greater mood-consistent bias in judgments of atypical rather than typical relationships. In Experiment 1, happy and sad subjects judged couples who were well-matched or ill-matched in terms of physical attractiveness. In Experiment 2, a false-feedback mood induction was used, followed by judgments of typical and atypical couples. In both studies, mood effects on judgments were consistently greater for mismatched couples. The results are interpreted as suggesting the greater use of mood-based inferences in judgments of unusual targets that require more constructive processing. The role of typicality in mediating mood effects on judgments is discussed, and the implications of the findings for everyday judgments about relationships are considered.

Spanos, Nicholas P.; Arango, Manuel; de Groot, Hans P.

doi: 10.1177/0146167293191008pmid: N/A

Subjects who had been tested in the previous 3 months for hypnotizability completed questionnaires that assessed trait indexes of absorption in imaginings, dissociation, and temporal lobe dysfunction. Half of the subjects completed the questionnaires in a context unrelated to their earlier hypnotizability testing while the remainder were explicitly informed of the experimenter's interest in the relationship between their questionnaire responses and hypnotizability. Correlations between each attribute variable and all indexes of hypnotizability were never significant in the out-of-context condition and always significant in their context condition. In addition, regression analyses indicated that context added significantly to the prediction of subjective hypnotizability scores by each of the attribute variables. Implications are discussed.

Paulus, Paul B.; Dzindolet, Mary T.; Poletes, George; Camacho, L. Mabel

doi: 10.1177/0146167293191009pmid: N/A

Research has shown that individuals produce fewer ideas in interactive brainstorminggroups than when brainstorming alone. However, group brainstorming remains a populartechnique in organizations and industry. One basis for this popularity may be theperceived productivity of group brainstorming. A survey of expected performance ingroup brainstorming revealed that most individuals believed they would generate moreideas in groups than alone. Individuals who, in a second experiment, actuallyperformed in brainstorming groups also perceived their performance more favorablythan individuals who brainstormed alone. The results of a third experiment indicatethat the illusion of group productivity may derive in part from the opportunity forsocial comparison that is available in group brainstorming. It also appears thatindividuals tend to take credit for a disproportionate amount of the brainstormingactivity in groups.

Kunda, Ziva; Sherman-Williams, Bonnie

doi: 10.1177/0146167293191010pmid: N/A

When stereotypes affect judgment about individuals in the presence of individuating information, they may do so by affecting the construal of that information. Therefore stereotypes may affect judgment even if perceivers subsequently neglect the stereotypes or base rates and base their impressions only on these stereotype-driven construals of the individuating information. Two experiments showed that stereotypes affected judgments about targets in the presence of the same ambiguous individuating information that was open to multiple construals, but not in the presence of the same specific disambiguated construals of that information. A third experiment showed that the effects of stereotypes on target ratings in the presence of ambiguous individuating information were mediated by the construals of this information. Thus all subjects relied predominantly on the individuating information, but when it was ambiguous, it was construed differently, depending on the stereotype.