Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Diekman, Amanda B.; Eagly, Alice H.

doi: 10.1177/0146167200262001pmid: N/A

Dynamic stereotypes characterize social groups that are thought to have changed from the attributes they manifested in the past and even to continue to change in the future. According to social role theory’s assumption that the role behavior of group members shapes their stereotype, groups should have dynamic stereotypes to the extent that their typical social roles are perceived to change over time. Applied to men and women, this theory makes two predictions about perceived change: (a) perceivers should think that sex differences are eroding because of increasing similarity of the roles of men and women and (b) the female stereotype should be particularly dynamic because of greater change in the roles of women than of men. This theory was tested and confirmed in five experiments that examined perceptions of the roles and the personality, cognitive, and physical attributes of men and women of the past, present, and future.

Leyens, Jacques-Philippe; Désert, Michel; Croizet, Jean-Claude; Darcis, Catherine

doi: 10.1177/0146167200262002pmid: N/A

This research extended stereotype-threat effects outside of the academic domain and to a nonstigmatized group. Female and male students performed three decision tasks: lexical, valence, and affective processing. Half of the participants were told that, in general, men are poorer performers than are women in affective processing tasks. No differences between conditions were observed for the lexical and valence tasks. By contrast, for the affective task, threatened men made significantly more errors than did participants in the other three conditions. More precisely, threatened men tended to accept as affective words that were not affective. This latter result suggests that threatened men decreased their threshold for affectivity “to prove” the inapplicability of the stereotype to themselves. Moreover, stereotype endorsement did not mediate the results. Identification with the affective domain, on the other hand, moderated the effect of stereotype threat. Discussion considers the consequences of these findings for everyday interactions.

Wenzlaff, Richard M.; Bates, Danielle E.

doi: 10.1177/0146167200262003pmid: N/A

Mental control research has found that attempts to suppress unwanted thoughts can backfire when cognitive demands arise or intentional control subsides. The present research examined the relative efficacy of an alternative form of mental control that involves concentrating on desirable thoughts instead of trying to suppress unwanted material. Using a novel cognitive measure that addresses some of the methodological issues associated with previous suppression research, a series of three studies indicates that a concentration strategy of mental control circumvents the problems associated with thought suppression. The findings are consistent with ironic process theory, which maintains that suppression invokes a monitoring process that is exclusively focused on goal-antithetical thoughts, whereas a concentration strategy involves a broader range of monitored thoughts that is less likely to undermine mental control.

Markman, Keith D.; Tetlock, Philip E.

doi: 10.1177/0146167200262004pmid: N/A

This article links recent work on assimilative and contrastive counterfactual thinking with research on the impact of accountability on judgment and choice. Relative to participants who felt accountable solely for bottom-line performance outcomes, participants who were accountable for their decision-making process (a) had more pronounced differential reactions to clearly winning versus (winning but) nearly losing and to clearly losing versus (losing but) nearly winning; (b) were less satisfied with the quality of their decisions when they nearly lost and more satisfied with the quality of their decisions when they nearly won; and (c) invested less money into investments that nearly failed and more money into investments that nearly succeeded. This pattern is consistent with the hypothesis that process accountability amplified assimilative counterfactual thinking, whereas outcome accountability attenuated it. The evidence underscores the power of contextual features of the decision-making environment to shape key cognitive and affective consequences of upward and downward counterfactual comparisons.

Beal, Daniel J.; O’Neal, Edgar C.; Ong, Jason; Ruscher, Janet B.

doi: 10.1177/0146167200262005pmid: N/A

Modern racists are theorized to have negative affect and attitudes toward African Americans yet be motivated to avoid appearing prejudiced. Thus, they may behave toward African Americans in covert ways. This hypothesis was tested using both an overt and covert measure of aggression in a competitive reaction-time task. Experiment 1 found that high modern racists were more overtly and covertly aggressive than were low modern racists, regardless of competitor race. In addition, high modern racists displayed a pattern of increasing covert aggression toward African Americans, whereas low modern racists inhibited retaliation even under high levels of provocation. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 and provided evidence suggesting that covert aggression is a strategic process that cannot be employed under conditions of reduced cognitive capacity. Covert aggression, along with other covert behaviors, is seen as highlighting differences between high and low modern racists.

Georgesen, John C.; Harris, Monica J.

doi: 10.1177/0146167200262006pmid: N/A

The cognitive and behavioral effects of perceived power and expected partner competence were examined in a task-oriented dyadic interaction. Specifically, the authors manipulated the effects of power and expectancy on social information processing during and subsequent to a dyadic problem-solving interaction. In addition, dispositional power orientation was measured. Results indicated that perceiver power led to self-enhancement and derogation of the target and both perceiver and target awareness of perceiver power moderated the effects of interpersonal expectancies. Furthermore, there are important differences between situational power and dispositional dominance orientation. These results advance current models of power and suggest the pervasiveness of power effects in our interactions with others.

Mummendey, Amélie; Otten, Sabine; Berger, Uwe; Kessler, Thomas

doi: 10.1177/0146167200262007pmid: N/A

Several studies have consistently demonstrated a positive-negative asymmetry in intergroup discrimination. As a possible explanation for this effect, the authors investigated whether stimulus valence has an impact on the salience of social categorization, which, in turn, is assumed to determine the degree of intergroup differentiation. It was hypothesized that the confrontation with negative stimuli instigates a change in the level of inclusiveness of self-categorization, inhibiting the differentiation based on the initial social categorization. Two studies with factors valence (positive, negative) and salience (low, high) were conducted to test these assumptions. Results were encouraging with respect to a category-based explanation of the valence effects on social discrimination. Implications of these findings for classical theories on behavior in minimal intergroup situations are discussed.

Ruggiero, Karen M.; Steele, Jennifer; Hwang, Anne; Marx, David M.

doi: 10.1177/0146167200262008pmid: N/A

When do women blame their failure on discrimination? This question was addressed in two experiments by examining the effects of social comparisons on women’s attributions for a failing test grade. The results suggest that women are most likely to make an attribution to discrimination when they compare themselves to another woman who received a failing grade and a man who received a better grade from the same male judge. However, these effects only emerge when women are made aware of the possibility that the male judge might be biased against them. The implications of these findings are discussed and future research directions are considered.

Roberts, Brent W.; Robins, Richard W.

doi: 10.1177/0146167200262009pmid: N/A

Do personality traits predict the goals a person chooses to pursue in life? The present study examined the relation between personality traits and major life goals, which are broad, far-reaching agendas for important life domains (N = 672). The authors used both theoretical and empirical procedures to organize a set of life goals into thematic content clusters (economic, aesthetic, social, relationship, political, hedonistic, religious); the resulting goal clusters constitute a preliminary taxonomy of motive units based on the fundamental value domains identified in the literature. The authors examined gender differences on each goal cluster and related the goal clusters to individual differences in the Big Five and narcissism. High extraversion and low agreeableness (e.g., narcissism) was the most common profile associated with major life goals, and neuroticism was essentially unrelated to the importance of major life goals. Findings confirmed expectations derived from previous research and from Socioanalytic and narcissism theories.

Kernis, Michael H.; Paradise, Andrew W.; Whitaker, Daniel J.; Wheatman, Shannon R.; Goldman, Brian N.

doi: 10.1177/0146167200262010pmid: N/A

The authors examined the extent to which self-esteem (SE) stability relates to self-regulatory styles, self-concept clarity (SCC), and goal-related affect. The results supported the notion that individuals with unstable SE are not likely to possess a strong sense of self. Specifically, unstable as compared to stable SE was associated with (a) self-regulatory styles reflecting lower levels of self-determination, (b) lower SCC, and (c) goal-related affect characterized by greater tenseness and less interest. Theoretical implications are discussed.