Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Shiloh, Shoshana; Ben-Sinai, Ronit; Keinan, Giora

doi: 10.1177/0146167299258001pmid: N/A

The combined contribution of personal style (monitoring) and situational factors (control and certainty) on seeking predictive genetic testing was investigated. Participants were 209 individuals who were randomly divided into four groups; each group offered one hypothetical genetic test characterized by different degrees of controllability and certainty. Participants’ monitoring information-seeking style was measured by the Miller Behavioral Styles Scale (MBSS) and the Threatening Medical Situations Inventory (TMSI), which is a measure specific for medical situations. The authors found that high monitors were generally more interested than low monitors in testing and that this general tendency was especially pronounced under conditions of high certainty/low control. Tests that provide control were generally preferred to tests that do not by high and low monitors alike, whereas tests that provide certainty were preferred to those that do not only by high monitors. These findings were interpreted as indicating similarities and differences in the needs that information about threats fulfills for high and low monitors as well as identifying conditions that limit information-seeking by high monitors.

Martin, René; Wan, Choi K.; David, James P.; Wegner, Elizabeth L.; Olson, Bradley D.; Watson, David

doi: 10.1177/0146167299258002pmid: N/A

Three studies explored the associations among style of anger expression, emotional expressivity, Big Five personality traits, somatic complaints, and self-reported health behaviors among undergraduate and community-residing participants. Unlike measures of emotional expressivity, which tend to be most strongly related to Extraversion, anger-in and anger-out primarily were associated with Neuroticism and Agreeableness, respectively. Anger-in was positively related to somatic complaints but failed to predict symptoms after controlling for Neuroticism. Anger-out was positively associated with both somatic complaints and self-reported health behaviors, even after controlling for Neuroticism and Agreeableness. Measures of emotional expressivity provided further information regarding style of anger expression. Anger-in was associated with a general tendency to be emotionally inexpressive, whereas anger-out was more specifically related to the expression of angry emotions.

Krull, Douglas S.; Loy, Michelle Hui-Min; Lin, Jennifer; Wang, Ching-Fu; Chen, Suhong; Zhao, Xudong

doi: 10.1177/0146167299258003pmid: N/A

A growing body of research suggests that cultures differ in the tendency to prefer dispositional or situational explanations for behavior. However, little work has examined whether cultural differences exist in the tendency to infer that people’s dispositions correspond to their behavior (the correspondence bias). Two experiments, one using the attitude attribution paradigm and one using the quizmaster paradigm, investigated the correspondence bias in individualist and collectivist cultures. As predicted, significant correspondence bias effects were found in both cultures. Moreover, no cultural difference emerged. Explanations and implications are discussed.

Duval, T. Shelley; Lalwani, Neal

doi: 10.1177/0146167299258004pmid: N/A

An experiment tested the hypothesis that causal attributions for self-standard discrepancies determine whether the motivation to reduce such discrepancies results in changing self toward standards or changing standards toward self. In this experiment, individuals who were either high or low in self-focus were led to direct attention either toward their performance or toward the standard for that performance immediately following a self-standard discrepancy induction. Predictions under high self-focus conditions were confirmed. High self-focus persons who focused on the standard attributed more causality for their performance to that cognitive element than to self and changed the standard toward self more than did high self-focus persons who focused on their performance and vice versa. Implications of these findings for theories involving operation of the self-to-standard type of system are discussed.

Bosson, Jennifer K.; Swann, William B.

doi: 10.1177/0146167299258005pmid: N/A

Whereas past researchers have assumed that global feelings of self-worth guide people’s feedback-seeking activities, the authors propose that people’s more specific feelings of self-liking and self-competence are crucial in this domain. The authors found that only self-liking predicted perceived accuracy of and choice of feedback designed to bear on global, low self-esteem. In contrast, self-liking and self-competence each related uniquely to perceived accuracy of and choice of feedback that was designed specifically to target these self-views. Moreover, the data suggest that the relations between self-views and feedback preferences are mediated by people’s perceptions of the accuracy of feedback. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for a growing understanding of the dual components of self-esteem and for refining the methodologies used in feedback-seeking and self-esteem research.

Cialdini, Robert B.; Wosinska, Wilhelmina; Barrett, Daniel W.; Butner, Jonathan; Gornik-Durose, Malgorzata

doi: 10.1177/0146167299258006pmid: N/A

University students in Poland and the United States, two countries that differ in individualistic-collectivistic orientation, indicated their willingness to comply with a request to participate without pay in a marketing survey. Half were asked to do so after considering information regarding their own history of compliance with such requests, whereas the other half were asked to do so after considering information regarding their peers’ history of such compliance. This was designed to assess the impact of two social influence principles (commitment/consistency and social proof, respectively) on participants’ decisions. As expected, although both principles were influential across cultures, the commitment/consistency principle had greater impact on Americans, whereas the social proof principle had greater impact on Poles. Additional analyses indicated that this effect was due principally, but not entirely, to participants’ personal individualistic-collectivistic orientations rather than to the dominant individualistic-collectivistic orientation of their cultures.

Georgesen, John C.; Harris, Monica J.; Milich, Richard; Young, Juliann

doi: 10.1177/0146167299258007pmid: N/A

This study investigated how personality affects individuals’ life narratives of teasing and their perceptions of childhood teasing events. Participants viewed videotaped interactions of a childhood teasing incident in which victim responses to teasing were varied. Personality and teasing history information was collected and life narratives of past teasing experiences were elicited from participants. Personality strongly affected participants’ reactions to the videotaped teasing incident; many of these personality effects occurred in interactions between personality and situational cues (victim responses). Personality also affected life narratives of teasing. Structural equations modeling (SEM) using a levels of analysis approach suggested that the effects of personality on life narratives were both direct and mediated by teasing history.

Salmivalli, Christina; Kaukiainen, Ari; Kaistaniemi, Leena; Lagerspetz, Kirsti M. J.

doi: 10.1177/0146167299258008pmid: N/A

Three dimensions of self-esteem (SE) (self-evaluated, peer-evaluated, defensive egotism) were related to each other and to adolescents’ social behavior. In addition to exploring links between single variables, five SE profiles were formed by means of a cluster analysis and connected to adolescents’ behavior in situations of bullying. Self-and peer-evaluated SEs were significantly correlated, whereas defensive egotism was not connected to either self-or peer-evaluated SE. Adolescents’ SE profiles were associated with their behavior in bullying situations; these connections were stronger among boys than among girls. Bullying others and assisting or reinforcing the bully were typical of adolescents with so-called defensive SE. Defending the victims of bullying was typical of adolescents with genuine high SE. Being victimized by peers was most typical of adolescents with low SE and, among girls, of those in the cluster thed authors named “humble pride.” The social behavior of so-called self-belittlers did not clearly distinguish them from the other groups.

Heuer, Larry; Blumenthal, Eva; Douglas, Amber; Weinblatt, Tara

doi: 10.1177/0146167299258009pmid: N/A

Value judgments, attributional judgments, and self-esteem are predicted to moderate the relationship between respectful treatment and procedural justice. In three studies, the moderation hypothesis is supported. In Studies 1 and 2, attributional and value judgments are shown to moderate the effect of respect so that respect is most important for those individuals who perform positively valued behaviors, particularly those who are responsible for those behaviors. Path analyses in Study 2 reveal that the respect-justice relationship is mediated by perceptions of deservingness. Study 3, a field survey, shows that respect is more important for the procedural fairness judgments of high self-esteem individuals. Several theoretical perspectives support the argument that these variables moderate the relation between respectful treatment and procedural fairness because of their impact on deservingness judgments. This deservingness effect is proposed to have implications for understanding the moderating effects of situational and personality variables for numerous fairness models.

Kmett, Carla M.; Arkes, Hal R.; Jones, Steven K.

doi: 10.1177/0146167299258010pmid: N/A

Research by Wilson suggests that examining the bases of one’s decision can lower satisfaction with the outcome of that decision. However, several investigators have found that using decision aids that cause people to consider the bases of their decisions leads to greater satisfaction with the decision. In the present study, high school students used either no decision aid, a pro/con list, or a computer program in making their actual college choice. Among students whose recall of the basis for their college choice was less accurate, the two aids resulted in significantly higher satisfaction with their decision when assessed after one college term compared to the satisfaction level of the control group. The authors suggest that use of a decision aid will heighten satisfaction with one’s choice if the aid promotes the identification of the appropriate bases on which the decision will be made.