Face-ism as a Determinant of Interpersonal Perceptions: The Influence of Context on Facial Prominence Effects

The influence of facial prominence on traitratings made about videotaped men and women described aspursuing either stereotypically masculine or femininecareers was examined. Most participants (N = 168) were White women. Facial prominence failed toinfluence perceptions when gender or occupationstereotypes were strong. However, when those stereotypeswere weaker, facial prominence effects emerged such that individuals were rated as possessing moreof the trait when shown with high facial prominence. Forexample, men were rated higher on evaluative traits whenshown with high, as opposed to low, facial prominence. The results suggest that facialprominence differences observed in the media mayreinforce stereotypes.     

Higher Education as Moral Community: Institutional Influences on Religious Participation During College

Borrowing from the literature on religion and deviance, the concept of moral communities is applied to religious and secular postsecondary education to explain institutional influences on student religious participation. Results from nationally representative panel data indicate that students attending Catholic and mainline Protestant affiliated institutions decline in religious participation at a faster rate than students attending evangelical institutions or students attending nonreligious public colleges and universities. This finding is consistent with Catholic and mainline Protestant institutions less successfully providing a shared moral order that legitimates religious language, motive, and behavior when compared to conservative Protestant colleges. At the same time, the religious and ethnic pluralism that activates minority religious identity at nonreligious public institutions is also less likely to be present on Catholic and mainline Protestant college campuses. Additional results indicate that evangelical students' religious participation declines while attending Catholic colleges and universities, while Catholic students increase their participation while attending evangelical institutions. The religious composition of students may act to alter friendship networks, and thus participation rates, on these campuses, although further research is necessary to validate the proposed institutional mechanisms.     

Sales Promotions and the Choice Context as Competing Influences on Consumer Decision Making

Although brand switching is one of the most researched topics in marketing, we still know very little about the moderators of switching between brands in different price‐quality tiers (e.g., from Häagen–Dazs ice cream to Breyers or to a store brand). Building on the notion that buyers have a (category‐specific) consideration set of price–quality tiers, we propose that sales promotions and the choice set composition (or the choice context) have compensatory effects on brand switching between price–quality tiers. Specifically, if one of these factors causes buyers to switch to a higher price–quality tier within their brand‐tier consideration set, then the other factor is less likely to induce switching in the same direction (to an even higher tier) and more likely to induce switching in the opposite direction. This general proposition leads to several specific hypotheses, including (a) the likelihood of switching between particular brand tiers due to price promotions can be predicted based on the choice set composition; (b) asymmetric switching, whereby consumers are more likely to switch up from a low‐tier to a promoted high‐tier brand than from a high‐tier to a promoted low‐tier brand, is reduced or eliminated if consumers consider three price–quality tiers; and (c) the compromise effect is reduced when the lowest tier brand offers a price promotion. These hypotheses were supported in a series of studies, which also examined rival explanations. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Assessment of Interpersonal Influences on Adolescents: The Parent and Peer Influence Scale

Peer influence is a common topic of interest for parents, clinicians, and researchers, but results from research on the relative importance of parents’ versus peers’ influence on adolescents and young adults has been contradictory. For example, some research suggests that peer attitudes about school influences future academic aspirations, other research suggests that parents and peers differ on their level of influence based on topic (e.g., parents’ are the primary source of influence about moral issues), and other research suggests that peer-oriented children are a product of parental disregard. A reliable and valid measure of the relative strength of parent versus peer influence could enhance research in this area. As a result, the Parent and Peer Inventory Scale (PPI) was developed, which demonstrates strong reliability as well as face and concurrent validity. The PPI can be used both by researchers to address contradictions in the literature, as well as clinicians seeking to evaluate level of peer influence in a family.     

Personal,Interpersonal, and Situational Influences on Behavioral Self-Handicapping

ABSTRACT

This study explored the combined effects of personal factors (participant sex), interpersonal factors (experimenter sex), and situational factors (performance feedback) on two forms of behavioral self-handicapping. Participants received non-contingent success or failure feedback concerning their performance on a novel ability and were given the opportunity to self-handicap before performing again. Behavioral self-handicapping took the form of (a) exerting less practice effort (practice) or (b) choosing a performance-debilitating tape (choice). Men practiced least after failure feedback and chose a debilitating tape if they were interacting with a female experimenter. Generally, across all participants in both choice and practice conditions, high performance concern and the presence of a male experimenter led to the most self-handicapping. Results are interpreted in terms of self-presentational concerns that emphasize a desire to impress or an awareness of the female or male experimenter's acceptance of self-handicappers.     

Influences on Sexual Partnering Among African American Adolescents With Concurrent Sexual Relationships

Adolescents often engage in concurrent sexual partnerships as part of a developmental process of gaining experience with sexuality. The authors qualitatively examined patterns of concurrency and variation in normative and motivational influences on this pattern of sexual partnering among African American adolescents (31 males; 20 females), ages 15 to 17 years. Using content analysis, gender and contextual differences in social norms and motivations for concurrency were explored. Findings describe the normative influences on adolescent males and females with regard to sexual concurrency and the transfer of these norms from one generation to the next.     

Televised Sexual Content and Parental Mediation: Influences on Adolescent Sexuality

Little research has been conducted to examine the influence of exposure to televised sexual content on adolescent sexuality or how parental intervention may reduce negative effects of viewing such content. This study uses self-report data from 1,012 adolescents to investigate the relations among exposure to sexually suggestive programming, parental mediation strategies, and three types of adolescent sexuality outcomes: participation in oral sex and sexual intercourse, future intentions to engage in these behaviors, and sex expectancies. As predicted, exposure to sexual content was associated with an increased likelihood of engaging in sexual behaviors, increased intentions to do so in the future, and more positive sex expectancies. Often, parental mediation strategies were a significant factor in moderating these potential media influences.     

Multisurface Interpersonal Assessment in a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Context

The interpersonal paradigm of personality assessment provides a rich nomological net for describing and assessing constructs of interpersonal functioning. The aim of this article is to demonstrate for clinicians how the use of a multisurface interpersonal assessment (MSIA) battery can augment psychotherapy (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy). We present 2 clinical case examples and specify interpretative guidelines for MSIA that integrate multiple circumplex profiles (e.g., problems, traits, sensitivities, strengths, values, and efficacies) for each patient. Subsequently, we demonstrate how this approach provides a context to better understand patient symptoms and difficulties, and discuss how it can inform case conceptualization, treatment planning, and intervention.     

Sex Role Ideology, Relationship Context, and Response to Sexual Coercion in College Females

This study examined the impacts of traditional sex role orientation and relationship context upon women’s responses to sexual coercion in a sample of 114 female undergraduates in the northwestern USA. We examined differences in the amount of time participants allowed a simulated sexually coercive situation to continue, comparing groups based upon the extent to which participants endorsed traditional feminine sex roles on the Sex Role Ideology Scale, as well as the context of the relationship in which such behaviors occurred, which was manipulated as an independent variable. Results indicated that individuals in the long-term relationship condition took significantly longer to terminate the vignette than did their peers. However, no significant effect of traditionality upon response latency was observed.