Coordination success and interpersonal perceptions: matching versus mismatching

Coordination is an essential part of social functioning. The authors distinguish 2 types of coordination: matching and mismatching. In matching, coordination is successful if parties choose the same action. In mismatching, coordination is successful if people choose different actions. In 3 studies, the authors investigated the downstream social consequences of tacit coordination for interpersonal perceptions. In all studies, participants repeatedly choose between 2 bets with equivalent expected values, and payoffs increased either when they choose the same bet or when they choose different bets. In the 1st 2 studies, coordination success increased the perceptions of interpersonal similarity and liking when matching was required but not when mismatching was required. The authors' interpretation is that matching responses and coordination success had countervailing effects in the mismatching task. Also, percentage of matched responses did not affect perceptions when coordination was not required (Experiment 2). In 4 person teams, a frequently matching partner was viewed more favorably (smarter, more similar to self, and more liked) than were other teammates, even when mismatching increased payoffs (Experiment 3).     

Mood-congruent perceptions of success depend on self-other framing

Research on self-other framing suggests that self-judgements typically neglect information about others and instead use an ambiguous intrapersonal standard, making these judgements susceptible to the influence of mood as predicted by the affect infusion model (Forgas, 1995). Two experiments tested the hypothesis that mood-congruent judgements of personal success occur when these judgements are framed to maintain self-focus but are eliminated when participants first focus on other individuals. In Experiment 1, self-other framing moderated the influence of mood on perceived success for an ambiguous object identification task. Happy participants reported greater perceived success, compared to sad participants, after judging their own success relative to others (self-focused frame) but not after directly judging the success of others (other-focused frame). Experiment 2 replicated these results with students' perceptions of their academic success. These findings suggest that the open, constructive processing accompanying most self-judgements is critical in producing mood-congruent perceptions of personal success.     

Perceptions of comparative optimism and perceptions of career success: Experimental evidence for a bidirectional effect

ABSTRACT

Audiences generally view people who display more (versus less) comparative optimism more favorably. We explored whether audiences view a target who displays comparative optimism as more professionally successful, and conversely, whether they view a target who is more professionally successful as more comparatively optimistic. In Study 1, participants estimated the career success of a target that varied in level of comparative optimism. In Study 2, participants estimated the level of comparative optimism of a target that varied in career success. The results revealed that observers rated comparative optimists as likely to have successful careers, and rated people with successful careers as likely to display comparative optimism. Inferences about personal agency account for the bidirectional relationship.     

Adolescents' perceptions of the causes and consequences of success in sex-linked occupations

Junior and senior high school students rated the extent to which occupational success is attributable to internal versus external factors and the extent to which it results in negative versus positive outcomes; 144 seventh through twelfth graders responded to one of six success cues in which either a male or female character was depicted achieving success as a doctor, nurse, or department head. Junior high girls assigned a more positive valence to success than junior high boys (p<.001), with no sex differences among the senior high subjects. Girls of both age groups were more likely to rate success as difficult to achieve (p<.01) and requiring more effort (p<.05), while boys were more likely to indicate that success was a function of luck (p<.01). Socialization influences which may have mediated the age and sex differences are discussed.     

Disordered eating in women of color

It has been assumed that the occurrence of eating disorders in American racial minority groups are rare. Indeed, whereas the cultural context may afford “protection” to the group, it does not necessarily protect specific individuals. Individuals within each racial/ethnic group are subject to the standards of the dominant culture, particularly when the culture-of-origin is devalued by the dominant culture. Social, familial, and individual factors which contribute to disorders eating symptomatology are discussed. Discussions of obstacles to detecting eating disorders and guidelines for developing more inclusive theory of and treatment of persons with eating disorders is included.     

Effects of induced success/failure and attributions on the problem-solving behavior of psychologically androgynous and feminine women

The aim of the present study was to examine the relation between masculinity and femininity in women and their responses to induced success or failure. Also experimentally manipulated were the subjects' performance attributions. Psychologically androgynous and feminine women either succeeded or failed at a concept formation task and were provided with internal, external, or no causal attributions for their performance. Then a second concept formation task was administered. The attribution manipulation failed to affect task performance and was not involved in any interactions. For feminine subjects, failure increased the trials necessary to reach criterion on the second task, whereas success had no effect. In contrast, the performance of androgynous subjects was unaffected by failure but facilitated by success. Finally, whereas androgynous subjects attributed success primarily to their ability and failure to task difficulty, feminine subjects attributed success and failure about equally to these two factors. It was suggested that androgynous women's use of the “egotistical” pattern of performance attributions gives them an advantage over feminine women with respect to the maintenance of self-esteem.     

College females' perceptions of adult roles and occupational fields for women

College women rated the perceived marital, emotional, and role consequences; personality characteristics; and the overall evaluation of adult female stimulus persons who varied according to maternal role, career role, and sex dominance of occupational/educational field. The data indicated that marital and emotional reward and costs were associated with both the maternal and career roles, but only the mother role was perceived to involve role problems. Moreover, the overall evaluations of the mother and career roles were more favorable than those of the nonmother and noncareer roles. In relation to occupational field, sex dominance had no effect on the perception of rewards, costs, or role problems or on the overall impression. However, the data did indicate some tendency to stereotype occupational categories as well as roles, primarily in terms of expressiveness.     

What women think and what men think women think: perceptions of abuse and kindness in dating relationships

The purpose of this study was to investigate how college women and their boyfriends viewed their relationships in terms of both abuse and kindness. The women filled out the Psychology Abuse-Kindness Relationship Inventory for themselves and their boyfriends responded to the questionnaire as they thought their girlfriends would. Several intriguing findings resulted: (1) Men thought their girlfriends would respond more negatively about the relationship than the women actually did. (2) Certain aspects of the relationship resulted in more discrepancies between the men's and women's perceptions. (3) Women distinguished present from past relationships by describing the former as more positive and the latter as more negative; men made no such distinction. Alternative explanations were offered to account for these results including projection, denial, projective identification, lack of psychological separation within couples, men's emotional upbringing and deeply rooted feelings towards women.     

Power and provocativeness: The effects of subtle changes in clothing on perceptions of working women

The current study investigates the effects of subtle changes in professional women’s dress on women’s perceptions of power and competence. We replicate and extend Howlett, Pine, Cahill, Orakcioglu, and Fletcher’s (2015) research showing that women in provocative clothing are rated as less competent. We used a larger sample, tested a second independent variable, and fine-tuned the design for higher face validity. Participants (N = 198, 170 women and 29 men) from a Midwestern university in the USA rated four photographs of professionally dressed women whose blouses varied in the number of buttons left undone and whether they wore a camisole. We found main effects of buttons (undone/done) and camisoles (on/off) for participants perceptions of intelligence, competence, powerfulness, and on a global rating score. Results also showed significant interaction effects between buttons and camisoles on ratings of powerfulness. The results have many implications for how women dress professionally.     

High-level athletes' perceptions of success in returning to sport following injury

ObjectiveFor many injured athletes, a safe and successful return to sport following injury is the ultimate aim of injury recovery. Little consensus exists however, regarding the meaning of a “successful” return to sport following injury recovery [Evans, L., Mitchell, I., &; Jones, S. (2006). Psychological responses to sport injury: a review of current research. In S. Hanton, &; S. D. Mellalieu (Eds.), Literature reviews in sport psychology (pp. 289–319). New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers]. The purpose of this investigation was to obtain greater insight into this issue by examining high-level athletes' perceptions of a successful return to play following injury.MethodUsing a longitudinal design, 12 elite athletes from Australia and Canada were interviewed on a total of 40 occasions over a six–eight month period.ResultsPerceptions of success centered on (but were not limited to): a return to pre-injury levels and attaining pre-injury goals, staying on the “right” path, creating realistic expectations of post-injury performance, and remaining uninjured.ConclusionsConsistent with previous research [Podlog, L., &; Eklund, R. C. (2007a). Professional coaches perspectives on the return to sport following serious injury. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 1, 44–68], findings from this investigation highlight the importance of self-determination theory (SDT) constructs – namely, competence, autonomy and relatedness – in relation to athlete perceptions of a successful return to sport from injury. Such findings support the value of an SDT perspective in guiding future research and intervention efforts aimed at facilitating successful return from injury.     

Students' perceptions of characteristics associated with social success: Changes during early adolescence

Students' endorsement of different characteristics associated with social success (sincere, responsible, dominant, disingenuous behaviors, appearance/athletic characteristics) were examined at six-month intervals for four time points spanning the transition from elementary to middle school (N = 558; 53% girls, 47% boys; 56% African American, 44% European American). Students' perceptions of socially successful children as sincere and responsible declined over time, whereas students' perceptions of socially successful children as dominant, disingenuous, and attractive/athletic increased over time. However, sincere behavior remained a top-rated characteristic at all time points and dominant and disingenuous behavior remained at the bottom, indicating that although the developmental trends were concerning the overall picture was not bleak. At all time points, girls endorsed sincere behavior as more important, and dominant and disingenuous behaviors and appearance/athletic characteristics as less important, to social success than boys. African American girls perceived appearance/athletic characteristic as less important to social success than other students.     

Effects of induced mood on causal attributions for success and failure

The present research examined the influence of induced mood on causal perception and goal expectancies for an achievement-oriented activity. Prior to the administration of a laboratory task, positive and negative moods were experimentally induced in student volunteers. It was found that elated subjects were initially more confident of success than subjects temporarily made to feel depressed. Furthermore, following the receipt of bogus success/failure feedback, individuals in a positive mood perceived the causes of success as more stable than subjects in a negative mood. In addition, the judgments of elated subjects appear to have been biased in a self-enhancing direction following success, but outcome had no effect on the causal attributions of subjects temporarily induced to feel depressed. The findings indicate that prevailing affective state is an important determinant of causal perception, and suggest that mood may play a central role in the accurate or biased perception of valenced outcomes.The research reported in this article was supported by a Chancellor's Fellowship from UCLA to the author and by Grant #MH38014 to Bernard Weiner from the Public Health Service. I am grateful to Sandra Graham and Bernard Weiner for their many helpful suggestions, and to Anne Peplau and an anonymous reviewer for their perceptive comments on an earlier version of this paper. Appreciation is also expressed to the staff at the Center for Computer Based Research, UCLA, Gerald Shure, Director.     

Gender role perceptions of women in abusive relationships

A community sample of psychologically abused women (N = 93; 83 Anglo, 4 Hispanic, 4 African-American, 1 Native American, 1 “Other”) in 3 groups (psychological abuse only, with moderate violence, with severe violence) received payment for completing lengthy questionnaires and interviews. This study concerns women’s perceptions of their own and their partners’ gender roles and gender role attitudes. Women in all 3 groups rated themselves feminine and egalitarian, as hypothesized. Ratings of their partners were near the midpoint of the scales on masculinity and traditionalism, contrary to hypotheses. Women experiencing psychological abuse with severe violence had more negative perceptions of their partners and believed their partners had more negative views of them than did women who shared the common experience of psychological abuse but sustained less or no violence. This research was funded by Grant Number 1R29MH44217 from the National Institute of Mental Health awarded to the second author. Portions of this study were reported at the Fourth International Family Violence Research Conference, Durham, NH, July 1995. Thanks to Dr. Sue Rosenberg Zalk and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions.