The Effects of Social Roles and Personality Motives on Autobiographical Memory

In the present study we examined how agentic and communal social roles and personality motives were related to the quality (including emotions and agentic and communal themes) and cognitive structure (differentiation and integration) of women's autobiographical memories. One hundred twenty-seven college-aged women were asked to describe a personal memory after being randomly assigned to either agentic or communal task conditions. In the agentic task condition, participants completed a creative building task alone, and in the communal task condition, participants completed the same task with a confederate. Personality motives were measured by both explicit (self-report) and implicit (TAT stories) measures. Following the task, participants wrote about an autobiographical experience in which they were in either agentic or communal social roles. Linear multiple regression analyses indicated that participating in an agentic task, as compared to a communal task, was related to the inclusion of fewer agentic themes as well as to a higher frequency of shame and anger words in autobiographical memories. Congruence between social roles and implicit personality motives (e.g., an agentic task assignment and high agentic motives) yielded less negatively laden autobiographical memories than incongruence between social roles and personality motives (e.g., an agentic task assignment and high communal motives). Furthermore, participants who scored high on both explicit agentic and communal motives included more positive emotion words in their memories than did other groups.     

On the formation of favourable impressions: Associations between self-presentation motives,task behaviour,and others’ evaluations of the self in a team-sport setting

Individuals adopt self-presentation motives in sport settings to shape others’ perceptions of the self. However, the effectiveness of different types of motives in shaping favourable evaluations has not been explored. We examined pathways from 2 × 2 self-presentation motives to others’ evaluative perceptions via task behaviour. Participants (N = 112) reported their self-presentation motives immediately prior to a basketball game, had their behaviours (i.e., shots, time spent on the sideline) recorded via video during the game, then completed agentic (e.g., competent) and communal (e.g., supportive) ratings of their teammates following the game. Structural equation modeling revealed positive pathways from acquisitive motives to behaviour (i.e., acquisitive agency) and favourable evaluations (i.e., acquisitive-agency and -communion). Negative pathways were observed from protective communion to behaviour and others’ evaluations. The findings indicate that different types of self-presentation motives may differ in their impression management effectiveness and may either promote or suppress task behaviour.     

The role of motives in the content and structure of autobiographical memory

Findings from 4 studies suggest that differentiation and integration are used by individuals high in agency and communion to structure motive-related information in episodic memory. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that agentic and communal individuals recalled more emotional experiences related to their motives, and that agentic individuals used more differentiation whereas communal individuals used more integration to structure these memories. Study 3 showed that agentic and communal individuals used more differentiation and integration to structure memories about social separation and connection, respectively. Study 4 demonstrated a similar pattern of recall in an experimentally controlled retrieval task. For a motive-congruent topic, agentic individuals recognized more differentiated information and had fewer differentiation recognition errors, and communal individuals freely recalled more integration.     

The big two dictionaries: Capturing agency and communion in natural language

Four studies developed and validated two dictionaries to capture agentic and communal expressions in natural language. Their development followed the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) approach (Study 1) and we tested their validity with frequency-based analyses and semantic similarity measures. The newly developed Agency and Communion dictionaries were aligned with LIWC categories related to agency and communion (Study 2), and corresponded with subjective ratings (Study 3), confirming their convergent validity. Very low or absent correspondence between proposed dictionaries and unrelated LIWC categories demonstrated their discriminant validity (Study 2). Finally, we applied both dictionaries to language used in advertisements. In correspondence to gender stereotypes, male-dominated jobs were advertised with more agentic than communal words, and female-dominated jobs with more communal than agentic words (Study 4). Both dictionaries represent reliable tools for quantifying agentic and communal content in natural language, and will improve and facilitate future research on agency and communion.     

Self‐esteem is dominated by agentic over communal information

We present a Double Perspective Model (DPM) explaining why agency (competence) and communion (warmth) constitute two basic content dimensions of social cognition. Every social action involves two perspectives: of the agent (a person who performs an action) and of the recipient (a person at whom the action is directed). Immediate cognitive goals of the agent and recipient differ, which results in heightened accessibility and weight of content referring either to agency (from the agent's perspective) or to communion (from the recipient's perspective). DPM explains why evaluations of other persons are dominated by communal over agentic considerations and allows a novel hypothesis that self‐esteem is dominated by agentic over communal information. We present several studies supporting this hypothesis. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hierarchical integration of agency and communion: a study of influential moral figures

The purpose of this research is to (a) identify which of recent history's influential figures did and which did not personify moral excellence, and (b) to examine the motives that drove these individuals along such divergent paths. In Study 1, 102 social scientists evaluated the moral qualities of influential figures from Time Magazine's lists. In Study 2, we selected the 15 top ranking of these figures to comprise a moral exemplar group and the bottom 15 to comprise a comparison group of similarly influential people. We measured the motivational aspects of their personality (agency and communion) by content-analyzing extant speeches and interviews. Moral exemplars exhibited the hierarchical integration of agency and communion by treating agentic motives as a means to an end of communal motives. Comparison subjects, by contrast, personified unmitigated agency by treating motives of agency as both a means to an end and an end unto itself. These results imply that both the strength and structure of a person's motives account for moral behavior.     

Agency‐Communion and Interest in Prosocial Behavior: Social Motives for Assimilation and Contrast Explain Sociocultural Inconsistencies

Identifying the “prosocial personality” is a classic project in personality psychology. However, personality traits have been elusive predictors of prosocial behavior, with personality‐prosociality relations varying widely across sociocultural contexts. We propose the social motives perspective to account for such sociocultural inconsistencies. According to this perspective, a focal quality of agency (e.g., competence, independence, openness) is the motive to swim against the social tide—agentic social contrast. Conversely, a focal quality of communion (e.g., warmth, interdependence, agreeableness) is the motive to swim with the social tide—communal social assimilation. We report two cross‐sectional studies. Study 1 (N = 131,562) defined social context at the country level (11 European countries), whereas Study 2 (N = 56,395) defined it at the country level (11 European countries) and the city level (296 cities within these countries). Communion predicted interest in prosocial behavior comparatively strongly in sociocultural contexts where such interest was common and comparatively weakly where such interest was uncommon. Agency predicted interest in prosocial behavior comparatively strongly in sociocultural contexts where such interest was uncommon and comparatively weakly where such interest was common. The results supported the social motives perspective. Also, the findings help to reestablish the importance of personality for understanding prosociality.     

Unmitigated agency and unmitigated communion: An analysis of the negative components of masculinity and femininity

The negative components of masculinity and femininity, conceptualized by Spence and her colleagues (1979) as unmitigated agency and unmitigated communion, were explored by examining dominant and submissive acts used in their expression. In three separate sessions, subjects (N=129) completed scales designed to measure these constructs, a Dominance Act Report, and a Submissiveness Act Report. Dominant acts used in the expression of unmitigated agency involved the formation of separations (e.g., making decisions without consulting the others involved in them), narcissistic self-assertion (e.g., telling others to perform one's menial tasks), and self-protection (e.g., bluffing one's way out of an embarrassing situation). Submissive acts used in the expression of unmitigated communion involved failing to make normatively appropriate agentic responses (e.g., walking out of a store knowing that one had been short-changed) and subjugating personal desires to group wishes (e.g., giving up vacation plans in deference to the preferences of others). Discussion focuses on elaborating the concepts of unmitigated agency and unmitigated communion.     

自我知觉视角和元知觉视角下能动性评价对自尊的预测作用

本研究探讨自我知觉视角和元知觉视角下社会认知基本维度对自尊的预测作用。研究1中36名被试同时完成自我知觉和元知觉视角下的能动性和社群性评价任务,结果发现仅有自我知觉视角下的能动性评价能预测自尊,元知觉视角下能动性评价对自尊的预测作用被自我知觉视角下的能动性评价所中介;研究2中120名被试完成自我知觉视角评价任务,另120名被试完成元知觉视角评价任务,结果发现无论是自我知觉视角还是元知觉视角,能动性评价都能预测自尊,而社群性评价对自尊没有预测作用,这表明能动性评价能预测个体的自尊。     

The development of moral motivation across the adult lifespan

What explains the behaviour of moral exemplars, individuals who dedicate themselves, in long-term service, to others' betterment? Such exemplars actualize their self-interest (agency) by promoting the interests of others (communion), whereas most people engage agency to attain more agency. In two studies we determine how these profiles develop across adulthood. Young adult exemplars and matched comparison participants described their personal goals and completed a semi-structured interview. Agentic and communal motives were coded from these materials and compared to the motivational profiles of older exemplars and comparisons. We found that (a) young adults actively separated their agency from their communion (suggesting a heightened motivational tension during this developmental period), and (b) younger exemplars used their agency to further agency and communion equally, whereas younger comparisons used their agency to further more agency. These findings explicate the nature of moral motivational development across the adult lifespan.     

Dancing on the Razor’s Edge: How Top-Level Women Leaders Manage the Paradoxical Tensions between Agency and Communion

Research documents a heightened need for women leaders to be perceived as both agentic and communal and to deal with the incongruity between communal gender-role expectations and agentic leader-role expectations. However, paradoxical tensions exist between agency and communion because they are associated with distinct, and at times conflictual, cognition, behavior, and motivation. How women leaders manage these tensions remains under-explored. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted an inductive study based on interviews with 64 U.S. women executives from various industries. Drawing from a paradox lens, we first identified four pairs of apparently contradictory agentic and communal tendencies that are interwoven in women leaders’ narratives: demanding and caring, authoritative and participative, self-advocating and other-serving, and distant and approachable. We also identified five mechanisms through which women leaders bring together agency and communion: situational accentuating, sequencing, overlapping, complementing, and reframing. Our findings highlight the underlying mechanisms and constructive routes through which women leaders juxtapose agency and communion to cope with role incongruity. They also offer guidance to women leaders and leadership-development practitioners in expanding mental models and behavioral repertoires to deal with the challenges stemming from tensions between agency and communion.     

Goal striving within agentic and communal roles: separate but functionally similar pathways to enhanced well-being

ABSTRACT Do agency and communion strivings provide functionally similar but predictively independent pathways to enhanced well‐being? We tested this idea via a year‐long study of 493 diverse community adults. Our process model, based on self‐determination and motive disposition theories, fit the data well. First, the need for achievement predicted initial autonomous motivation for agentic (work and school) role‐goals and the need for intimacy predicted felt autonomy for communal (relationship and parenting) goals. For both agentic and communal goals, autonomous motivation predicted corresponding initial expectancies that predicted later goal attainment. Finally, each type of attainment predicted improved adjustment or role‐satisfaction over the year. Besides being similar across agency and communion, the model was also similar across race and gender, except that the beneficial effects of communal goal attainment were stronger for high need for intimacy women and Blacks. Implications for agency/communion theories, motivation theories, and theories of well‐being are discussed.     

Agentic and Communal Personality Traits: Their Associations with Depression and Resilience among Transgender Women

Research reports the perpetuation of communal traits by transgender women, possibly to affirm their core gender identity. Transgender women in the United States are nearly 6 times more likely than the general population to experience significant depressive symptoms. Studies among non-transgender individuals in the United States demonstrate that agentic traits are associated with less depressive symptoms, while studies on communal traits are more inconsistent in their association with indicators of depression. Our study’s central objective was to examine the associations of agency and communion with depression and resilience (i.e., personal competence and acceptance of self and life) among transgender women living part-time and full-time in the female gender role. Participants in the United States were recruited through online and offline purposive sampling. One hundred and twenty-two transgender women (primarily Caucasian; ages ranging from 22 to 75) completed a web-based questionnaire. Results indicated that agentic and communal traits were significantly associated with decreased symptoms of depression and increased levels of resilience. One component of resilience – acceptance of self and life – mediated the relationship between agentic/communal traits and depression, however, for communal traits this pattern was only found for transgender women living in the female role full-time. There were no significant differences on depressive symptoms and one component of resilience - personal competence – among transgender women living full-time compared to transgender women living in the female role part-time. Transgender women living full-time in the female gender role reported higher levels of agentic/communal traits and acceptance of self and life compared to those living part-time in the female gender role. Our findings are discussed in the context of mental health among transgender women.     

Leadership roles and the gender stereotype traits

Men generally occupy the role of leader and women the role of follower in marital relationships. This research tested the hypothesis that these implicit leader-follower roles determine the way in which the gender stereotype traits are typically assigned to women and men. In one condition, the man was described as the leader in the marriage, and in another condition, the traditional power relationship was reversed and the woman was described as the leader. Regardless of sex, the leader was perceived as strong in agency and weak in communion; the follower was perceived as strong in communion and weak in agency. A man and woman, who were described as equal leaders, did not differ in the strength of their agentic and communal traits. A relationship approach was used to formulate the connection between leader-follower roles and the gender stereotype traits.     

Within-person covariation of agentic and communal perceptions: Implications for interpersonal theory and assessment

Interpersonal theory identifies agency and communion as uncorrelated (orthogonal) dimensions, largely evidenced by research examining between-person analyses of single-occasion measures. However, longitudinal studies of interpersonal behavior demonstrated the within-person association of agency and communion is not orthogonal for many individuals, and between-person differences in these associations relate to adjustment. We applied a similar approach to investigate the association of interpersonal perceptions. 184 university students completed a 7-day event-contingent study of their interpersonal experiences. Using multilevel regression models, we demonstrated that agentic and communal perceptions were positively associated, and the strength of this within-person association was moderated by between-person scores of dependency and narcissism. We discuss the benefits of incorporating within-person interpersonal associations (termed interpersonal covariation) into interpersonal theory and assessment.     

Social role effects on gender stereotyping in Germany and Japan

Social role theory postulates that gender stereotypes are restrained for men and women observed in the same social role. Cultural differences in the valuation of communal attributes might moderate this effect. To examine this possibility, 288 participants (144 German, 144 Japanese) estimated the communal and agentic attributes of an average man or woman described in a male‐dominated role, a female‐dominated role, or without role information. We hypothesized and found that in Germany and Japan, participants perceived men as more agentic than women without role information and as similarly agentic in the same role. However, for communion, German and Japanese participants reacted differently. German participants perceived women as more communal than men without role information and in male‐dominated roles and perceived men as more communal than women in female‐dominated roles. Japanese participants perceived all targets as similarly communal, regardless of role or gender, suggesting that communion is generally expected in Japan.     

The relationship between implicit and explicit motives, goal pursuit, and autobiographical memory content during a diary study

This online diary study investigated how motives interact with goal pursuit to predict daily autobiographical experiences. Participants (N = 141) completed measures of implicit and explicit achievement, provided daily memories and reports of their goal pursuit during a 3-week diary period. A stronger implicit achievement motive at the onset of the study was associated with more agentic (and fewer communal) autobiographical content. Goal progress was linked with using more agentic words, while goal attainability was related to using more communal words. Interactions between motives and goal pursuit on autobiographical memory suggests a trade-off: Favorable goal pursuit conditions may prompt people not motivated for achievement to shift their focus from agentic to communal themes, while individuals motivated for achievement maintain their priorities.