Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Taylor, Kevin M.; Shepperd, James A.

doi: 10.1177/0146167298249001pmid: N/A

People are remarkably optimistic in their personal predictions. Hozwver, people occasionally will be pessimistic, bracing themselves for negative feedback, if they anticipate that their optimistic out-look might be challenged. The authors examined the effects of event severity, testing, and feedback timing on personal predictions. Participants believed they would or would not be tested for a medical condition with or without severe consequences. At the beginning of the experiment, participants who anticipated being tested believed they would receive their test results in 3 to 4 weeks. At the end of the experiment, these participants learned that they would receive their test results in anew moments. As predicted, participants who were tested were most pessimistic when anticipating immediate feedback for a deficiency with severe consequences. Further analyses revealed that participants' personal predictions were related to their affect.

Arriaga, Ximena B.; Rusbult, Caryl E.

doi: 10.1177/0146167298249002pmid: N/A

Four studies examined the role of partner perspective taking in shaping reactions to accommodative dilemmas-situations in which a close partner enacts a potentially destructive behavior. Participants included marital partners (Study 1) and dating partners (Studies 2, 3, and 4). Studies 1, 3, and 4 examined preexisting tendencies toward partner perspective taking, and Studies 2, 3, and 4 included experimental manipulations of perspective. In all four studies, adopting the partner's perspective (rather than one's own) during an accommodative dilemma resulted in (a) more positive emotional reactions, more relationship-enhancing attributions, and enhanced inclinations toward constructive responding and (b) less negative emotional reactions, less partner-blaming attributions, and reduced inclinations toward destructive responding. In Studies 2, 3, and 4, analyses examining the simultaneous effects of partner perspective taking, commitment level, and general perspective taking revealed that adopting the partner's perspective exerts unique, independent effects on accommodation-relevant emotions, attributions, and behavioral preferences.

Choi, Incheol; Nisbett, Richard E.

doi: 10.1177/0146167298249003pmid: N/A

Two studies examined the correspondence bias in attitude attributions of Koreans and Americans. Study I employed the classic attitude attribution paradigm of Jones and Harris and found that both Korean and American participants displayed the correspondence bias in the no-choice condition. This lack of difference might have been due to weak salience of the situational constraints. Study 2 was designed to make the situational constraints of the no-choice condition salient in two ways: (a) by asking participants to write an essay on a topic regardless of their genuine attitude toward the topic or (b) by also making it clear to participants that the essay by the target person was almost a copy of the arguments provided by the experimenter. The results showed that (a) American attributions were unaffected by the two salience manipulations, whereas Koreans' correspondence bias decreased with increasing salience of the constraints, and (b) Koreans were less susceptible to the actor observer bias.

Kirkpatrick, Lee A.

doi: 10.1177/0146167298249004pmid: N/A

In a two-wave survey study designed to extend and refine previous research on religion as an attachment process, college students completed a four-category attachment-style measure and several religiosity measures at Time 1; a subsample also completed identical religiosity measures about 4 months later (Time 2). Analysis of Time 1 data (N= 1,126) extended previous findings by demonstrating that positive mental models of both self and others were related cross-sectionally to positive images of God and perceived relationships with God. Longitudinal analyses (N = 297) revealed that positive religious change over time was predicted by negative models of self and positive models of others. Discussion focuses on the dynamics of religious belief and change as a function of psychological attachment processes.

Timmers, Monique; Fischer, Agneta H.; Manstead, Antony S. R.

doi: 10.1177/0146167298249005pmid: N/A

The present study was designed to test the assumption that gender differences in emotion expression are based on differences in the motives held by men and women in social interactions. Three hundred and fourteen students participated in this study by completing a questionnaire. Each questionnaire contained two vignettes that varied with respect to type of emotion (anger, disappointment, fear or sadness), sex of target, and object-target relationship. Dependent variables included measures of emotion expression and of motives for regulating one's emotions. The results support the general hypothesis that women are more concerned with relationships and less reluctant to express powerless emotions, whereas men are more motivated to stay in control and tend to express emotions that reflect their power.

Ohira, Hideki; Winton, Ward M.; Oyama, Makiko

doi: 10.1177/0146167298249006pmid: N/A

Japanese college students viewed a series of positive and negative stimulus words printed in katakana, a Japanese syllabary. Jacoby's process-dissociation procedure was used to assess the roles of conscious and unconscious processes in stimulus recognition. There was a stronger conscious recollective component in recognition of negative items and a higher correct rejection rate for negative stimuli, replicating American findings reported by Robinson-Riegler and Winton, and Ortony, Turner, and Antos. In addition, during the encoding phase, negative stimuli were associated with more eyeblinks and longer eyeblink latencies than positive stimuli; this pattern suggests greater cognitive activity in response to negative stimuli, consonant with Taylor's mobilization-minimization hypothesis. The eyeblink response, as measured in the present research, represents a new method for assessing the positive-negative asymmetries that are characteristic of the mobilization process.

Vanman, Eric J.; Dawson, Michael E.; Brennan, Patricia A.

doi: 10.1177/0146167298249007pmid: N/A

This experiment examined individual differences in emotional responsivity by recording the startle eyeblink reflex while 57 college students viewed affect-laden pictures and then rated their pleasantness. All participants first completed measures of affect intensity, alexithymia, and depression. Startleprobes were some-times presented at 120, 300, 800, or 4,500 ms after slide onset. By 300 ns, blinks elicited during negative slides were larger than those elicited during positive ones. Negative slides were also rated as more unpleasant. Moreover, all three personality variables moderated either the valence ratings, startle modification, or both. High-affect intensity was associated with diminished modulation of startle, but more extreme ratings. Alexithymia had no effect on the startle measure, but high-alexithymia participants did show more moderate ratings. Depressed participants exhibited accelerated (120 ms) modulation of startle. The results suggest the importance of measuring both physiological responses and subjective feelings in the study of individual differences in emotion.

Amirkhan, James H.

doi: 10.1177/0146167298249008pmid: N/A

Attempts to predict coping, distress, and stress-related pathology with person-related variables have had only limited success. With greater attention to their controllability, focus, and place in the causal sequence, it was believed that attributions might yet prove strong predictors. Two field studies, one large (N = 679) and cross-sectional, the other small (N = 60) and longitudinal, tested this premise. Confirming hypotheses, the perceived controllability of an attribution proved essential to prediction, and attributions for coping failures proved superior to attributions for stressful events as predictors. Results also revealed a causal sequence in which attributions affected distress both directly and by influencing the choice of coping strategy. Implications for future applications of attribution theory to stress research are discussed.