Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Whitley, Bernard E.; Gridley, Betty E.

doi: 10.1177/0146167293194001pmid: N/A

Latent variables analysis was used to investigate the relationships among sex role orientation, self-esteem, and depression. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that masculinity, self-esteem, and depression were separate, but highly correlated, constructs and that femininity was independent of the other three constructs. A hierarchical CFA indicated that masculinity, self-esteem, and depression were components of a higher-order construct, identified as Factor IV (Negative Affectivity) of the 'Big Five"personality taxonomy. The results of a covariance structure analysis were consistent with two models of the role of self-esteem in the masculinity-depression relationship: self-esteem and masculinity as correlated predictors of depression and self-esteem as a mediator of the masculinity-depression relationship. Implications of these results for theory and research are discussed.

Frable, Deborrah E. S.

doi: 10.1177/0146167293194002pmid: N/A

Master status individuals are persons whose physical appearance, behavior, or life circumstance is statistically unusual and centrally defining. In three studies, undergraduates indicated the dissimilarity among various master status groups (e.g., amputees, musical prodigies, criminals, royalty) and then rated them on semantic differential scales (e.g., good-bad, safe-dangerous, alluring-repelling). Multidimensional scaling revealed that few dimensions are needed to distinguish among these marginal individuals. The most common distinctions are evaluative connotation and visibility of the master status characteristic. It was also found that, as a group, those who are culturally stigmatized are far more differentiated than those who are culturally valued.

Branscombe, Nyla R.; Wann, Daniel L; Noel, Jeffrey G.; Coleman, Jason

doi: 10.1177/0146167293194003pmid: N/A

Some researchers have found that out-group members are responded to more extremely than in-group members; others have found the reveres. The pre authors hypothesized that when importance of group membership was low, out-group extremity would be observed. That is, when the target's actions have few or no implications for the perceive's identity, out-group extremity will occur. In-group extremity was expected when perceivers are high in identification with the in-group. The presence of a threat to one's identity was predicted to intensity the in-group extremity effect for highly identified persons only Evaluations of a loyal or disloyal in-group or out-group member were made by highly identified or weakly identified in-group participants under threatening or nonthreatening conditions. The results confirmed the predicted pattern of effects. Implications for sports spectators and other self-selected group members are discussed.

Miller, Carol T.

doi: 10.1177/0146167293194004pmid: N/A

Residents of a small rural community were surveyed to examine the relationship between the false consensus bias and recommendations for resolving conflicts about two locally relevant environmental issues concerning regulation of land use in the community. Both the level of consensus that respondents perceived for their views and the extent to which they overestimated consensus were correlated with their recommendations for resolving conflicts about the issues. Respondents who overestimated consensus and/or who perceived higher levels of consensus for their views were more likely to endorse majority rule to resolve conflicts, were less likely to endorse compromise, and were more likely to say their own views should prevail. These findings suggest that false consensus bias could affect the determination and effectiveness with which majorities and minorities press their points in public discussion of local issues.

Clark, Leslie F.; Collins, James E.

doi: 10.1177/0146167293194005pmid: N/A

The impact of remembering a past love relationship on current well-being judgments was examined. The influence of recounting details was compared with that of drawing conclusions about these past interpersonal experiences. Participants wrote about falling in (positive event) or out of (negative event) love. Why were asked either to describe how the event occurred or to explain why the event occurred. In addition, prior understanding regarding the past relationship was examined. Experiment 1 showed why-focus contrast and how-focus assimilation effects for judgments of current relationship satisfaction and general life satisfaction. The effect for general life satisfaction held only for understood relationships. In Experiment 2, participants who initially described how they fell in love later listed more related relationship events and reported more positive mood than participants who described how they fell out of love. Prerequisites for contrast and assimilation effects are discussed.

Wilson, Timothy D.; Kraft, Dolores

doi: 10.1177/0146167293194006pmid: N/A

Students involved in dating relationships attended four weekly sessions, at which they either introspected about why they felt the way they did about their relationship or introspected about an unrelated topic. As predicted, at Week I people who introspected about reasons brought to mind thoughts that were inconsistent with their initial feelings about their relationships and changed their attitudes in the direction of those reasons. This attitude change persisted throughout the study but did not increase. People in the control condition showed an increasing amount of attitude change at each session, such that by the end of the study they had changed as much as people in the reasons condition. It is suggested that either thinking about reasons or answering detailed questions about a relationship can change the way people construe that relationship, leading to attitude change.

Schopler, John; Insko, Chester A.; Graetz, Kenneth A.; Drigotas, Stephen; Smith, Valerie A.; Dahl, Kenny

doi: 10.1177/0146167293194007pmid: N/A

The authors have previously shown that intergroup interactions are dramatically more competitive than interindividual interactions and have termed this phenomenon a discontinuity effect. They believe that this effect is partly driven by group members' fear of being exploited by the out-group. Experiment 1 found that when subjects were allowed to select a single, safe alternative, a significant, albeit descriptively smaller competitive effect remained. Intergroup competiteness may also be driven by greed. Experiments 2 and 3 tested whether the group content is propitious for providing social support for totally self-interested acts. Trained role-players consistently suggested selecting either the cooperative or the competitive option in a prisoner's dilemma game; and groups received trial-by-trial feedback about the out-group's responding. The pattern of results is consistent with the assumption that, in the presence of a vulnerable opponent, group members tend to provide social support for immediate self-interest.

Kerr, Norbert L; Stanfel, Janet A.

doi: 10.1177/0146167293194008pmid: N/A

It was conjectured that occupying the minimal leader role (i.e., having the title of group leader without having any of the attendant legitimacy, power, authority, or formal responsibility) might trigger a leader role schema that prescribes greater responsibility for group performance. In an experimental study, the effects of occupying such a minimal leader role and its complementary, minimal nonleader role on three distinct group motivation losses were explored. Occupying the minimal leader role did not, as conjectured, attenuate these motivation losses. However occupying the minimal nonleader role did affect task motivation. The clearest such effect was an accentuation of the typical social loafing effect by subjects when someone else in the group had been selected as a group leader

Mayer, John D.; Rapp, Henry C.; Williams, Uzette

doi: 10.1177/0146167293194009pmid: N/A

It is proposed that memory schemata connect information about a single individual's mannerisms, traits, and other characteristics to the likelihood of that individual's acting in a particular fashion. Such schemata could account for certain categorization errors in which inappropriate generalizations are made in the course of predicting the likelihood of a person's action. The study examines learning of such personal-action schemata, and evidence supportive of such schemata are obtained. Theoretical implications for clinical transferee are considered.

Hogg, Michael A.; CooperShaw, Louise; Holzworth, David W.

doi: 10.1177/0146167293194010pmid: N/A

Two studies of mixed-sex interactive groups (N = 173) investigated the self-categorization theory hypothesis that positive attitude (liking) among group members is depersonalized in terms of the group prototype. Subjects ranked fellow members in terms of liking under conditions accentuating or diminishing group membership salience and rated the group's cohesiveness, described the group prototype, ranked fellow members and themselves on prototypically, and rated the subjective clarity of the prototype. In Study 2 they also ranked members in terms of interpersonal similarity to self. The results generally supported the hypotheses. Group liking was independent from interpersonal liking and was positively associated with perceptions of self and others that were depersonalized in terms of the group prototype and with perceptions of elevated group cohesiveness and a clear group prototype. Interpersonal attraction was unrelated or negatively related to these variables but was more strongly associate with perceptions of interpersonal similarity.