Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Epstein, Seymour; Denes-Raj, Veronika; Pacini, Rosemary

1995 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

doi: 10.1177/01461672952111001

Results from four experiments (N = 548) support the hypothesis from cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST) that the resistance of the notorious Linda conjunction problem to solution can be attributed primarily to its simultaneously concrete and unnatural context. The experiments demonstrated that the influence of other variables, such as problem order, event likelihood, within-versus between-protagonist context, and statistical sophistication, although important, cannot account for the robust influence of the combination of the concrete-abstract and natural-unnatural dimensions. The implications of the demonstration that virtually everyone has intuitive knowledge of the conjunction rule are discussed, in addition to cuing effects, narrative processing, and methodological issues that have produced serious distortions in the interpretation of previous research.

Devine, Patricia G.; Elliot, Andrew J.

1995 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

doi: 10.1177/01461672952111002

In this article, the authors identify three methodological short-comings of the classic Princeton trilogy studies: (a) ambiguity of the instructions given to respondents, (b) no assessment of respondents' level of prejudice, and (c) use of an outdated list of adjectives. These shortcomings are addressed in the authors' assessment of the stereotype and personal beliefs of a sample of University of Wisconsin students. In contrast to the commonly espoused fading stereotype proposition, data suggest that there exists a consistent and negative contemporary stereotype of Blacks. Comparing the data from the Princeton trilogy studies with those of the present study, the authors conclude that the Princeton trilogy studies actually measured respondents' personal beliefs, not (as typically assumed) their knowledge of the Black stereotype. Consistent with Devine's model, high- and low-prejudiced individuals did not differ in their knowledge of the stereotype of Blacks but diverged sharply in their endorsement of the stereotype.

Roney, Christopher J. R.; Higgins, E. Tory; Shah, James

1995 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

doi: 10.1177/01461672952111003

Two studies examined the impact on emotion and motivation of framing the same goal in terms of either a positive outcome focus or a negative outcome focus. In Study 1, contingencies associated with either reaching the goal (positive outcome focus) or failing to reach the goal (negative outcome focus) were emphasized. In Study 2, performance feedback was given as subjects worked on a task such that the goal was framed in terms of either a positive or a negative outcome focus. Framing with a positive outcome focus changed dejection-related emotions (e.g., dissatisfaction) more than agitation-related emotions (e.g., nervousness), whereas the reverse was true for framing with a negative outcome focus. In addition, persistence was greater in the positive-outcome-focus condition (both studies), as was performance (Study 2). Implications for self-discrepancy theory and for goal theories of motivation are discussed.

Jacowitz, Karen E.; Kahneman, Daniel

1995 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

doi: 10.1177/01461672952111004

The authors describe a method for the quantitative study of anchoring effects in estimation tasks. A calibration group provides estimates of a set of uncertain quantities. Subjects in the anchored condition first judge whether a specified number (the anchor) is higher or lower than the true value before estimating each quantity. The anchors are set at predetermined percentiles of the distribution of estimates in the calibration group (15th and 85th percentiles in this study). This procedure permits the transformation of anchored estimates into percentiles in the calibration group, allows pooling of results across problems, and provides a natural measure of the size of the effect. The authors illustrate the method by a demonstration that the initial judgment of the anchor is susceptible to an anchoring-like bias and by an analysis of the relation between anchoring and subjective confidence.

Foster, Mndi D.; Matheson, Kimberly

1995 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

doi: 10.1177/01461672952111005

Double relative deprivation, which has been virtually ignored in research on relative deprivation, was expected to predict women s collective action over and above egoistic and collective deprivation. The role of sociopolitical resources in perceiving deprivation and participation in action was also investigated. Female students (N = 164) completed a questionnaire designed to assess their perceptions of egoistic, collective, and double relative deprivation (defined as the interaction between egoistic and collective deprivation), and resource availability and participation in collective action. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that double relative deprivation predicted collective action over and above egoistic and collective relative deprivation, and that resource availability also uniquely predicted action. Implications for expanding conceptual and operational definitions of these constructs are discussed.

de Dreu, Carsten K. W.; van Lange, Paul A. M.

1995 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

doi: 10.1177/01461672952111006

Prior research using experimental games has demonstrated that social value orientations affect the ways in which individuals approach and react to interdependent others; prosocials exhibit greater cooperation than individualists and competitors. This article extends these lines of research by examining the influence of social value orientations on negotiation cognition and behavior. Consistent with predictions, prosocials, relative to individualists and competitors, exhibited lower levels of demand, exhibited greater levels of concessions, and ascribed greater levels of fairness and considerateness to the other person. Moreover, prosocials as well as individualists and competitors exhibited tendencies toward logrolling, making greater concessions on low-priority rather than high-priority issues. The discussion describes several theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Wayment, Heidi A.; Peplau, Letitia Anne

1995 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

doi: 10.1177/01461672952111007

The authors examined the types of social support that lesbian and heterosexual women receive from their social networks and the link between support and psychological well-being. Participants were White, middle-class, single and coupled women. Using Robert Weiss's typology of social provisions, the authors found that lesbian and heterosexual women reported receiving equivalent overall amounts of support from their social networks. Relationship status was related to well-being; coupled women reported greater well-being than did single women. Using structural equation modeling, the authors found a strong association between social support and psychological well-being for all women. Beyond this general association, lesbian women's well-being was also associated with reassurance-of-worth support, whereas heterosexual women's well-being was linked with guidance support. These results support the usefulness of latent variable models for examining social support and demonstrate that lesbians, like their heterosexual counterparts, benefit from supportive networks.

Helgeson, Vicki S.; Mickelson, Kristin D.

1995 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

doi: 10.1177/01461672952111008

The purpose of this research was to investigate the motives for social comparison. A set of motive statements was elicited from one group of subjects and then rated in terms of usefulness by a second group of subjects who were asked to imagine two hypothetical threats: being diagnosed with cancer and failing an exam. A factor analysis of these statements revealed six motives for social comparison: self-evaluation, common bond, self-improvement, self-enhancement, altruism, and self-destruction. A second study, conducted with subjects actually exposed to threat (i.e., receiving a below average score on relationship aptitude), confirmed the existence of these motives for social comparison. The effects of variables thought to influence the comparison process, such as self-esteem, comparison target, and comparison operationalization, were also examined in relation to comparison motives.

Copeland, John; Snyder, Mark

1995 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

doi: 10.1177/01461672952111009

To investigate the motivational moderators of behavioral confirmation in a psychotherapeutic environment, the authors performed a functional analysis on counselors' behavior. Counselors' concerns with diagnosis and rapport-building were identified as possible functions that might lead to expectation-confirming client behavior. Students randomly assigned to the role of either counselor or client engaged in a face-to-face, videotaped discussion. Prior to the discussion, counselors received an expectation suggesting that the client was either characteristically extroverted or introverted. Orthogonal to the expectation, counselors received either no specific discussion instructions, instructions to form a diagnosis, or instructions to establish rapport. Results indicated that only counselors motivated by diagnostic concerns elicited behavioral confirmation. Implications of therapeutic motivations are discussed, as is the usefulness of a functional approach to social psychological phenomena.

Greenberg, Jeff; Porteus, Jonathan; Simon, Linda; Pyszczynski, Tom; Solomon, Sheldon

1995 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

doi: 10.1177/01461672952111010

Based on the terror management notion that cultural icons are part of a system that provides protection from fears about one's mortality, it was hypothesized that reminding subjects of their mortality would make it more difficult for them to use cultural icons in an inappropriate way. Subjects responded to questions about either their own mortality or television, and then participated in two problem-solving tasks involving the culturally inappropriate use of cultural icons (a flag and crucifix) or the use of neutral objects. Although mortality salience did not affect actual use of the objects, it did increase the amount of time required to solve the problems, the number of alternative solutions generated, and the extent to which subjects expressed reluctance to use the icons. Mortality salience also increased subjects' reports of task difficulty and tension when the optimal solutions of the problems required inappropriate use of the cultural icons.

Dardenne, Benoit; Leyens, Jacques-Philippe

1995 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

doi: 10.1177/01461672952111011

The authors propose that when testing a hypothesis about a personality trait of another person, a preference for questions that match the hypothesis is a manifestation of a social skill. If so, socially skilled people should request matching questions when the context stresses their relevance. On the contrary, less skilled people should be relatively insensitive to this environmental cue. To test this pragmatic stance, participants varying in self-monitoring sought information to validate an introvert or an extrovert hypothesis concerning a high-or equal-status interviewee. As predicted, only high self-monitors in the high-status-interviewee context showed a preference for matching questions. Moreover, the preference was stronger for not rejecting than for accepting these matching questions. Results are discussed in light of a pragmatic perspective that points out the adaptive and socially useful value of what look like errors and biases from a strictly rationalist perspective.