Bringing Everyday Mind Reading Into Everyday Life: Assessing Empathic Accuracy With Daily Diary Data

ABSTRACT Individual differences in empathic accuracy (EA) can be assessed using daily diary methods as a complement to more commonly used lab‐based behavioral observations. Using electronic dyadic diaries, we distinguished among elements of EA (i.e., accuracy in levels, scatter, and pattern, regarding both positive and negative moods) and examined them as phenomena at both the day and the person level. In a 3‐week diary study of cohabiting partners, we found support for differentiating these elements. The proposed indices reflect differing aspects of accuracy, with considerable similarity among same‐valenced accuracy indices. Overall there was greater accuracy regarding negative target moods than positive target moods. These methods and findings take the phenomenon of “everyday mindreading” ( Ickes, 2003 ) into everyday life. We conclude by discussing empathic accuracies as a family of capacities for, or tendencies toward, accurate interpersonal sensitivity. Members of this family may have distinct associations with the perceiver's, target's, and relationship's well‐being.     

Gender Role Violations and Identity Misclassification: The Roles of Audience and Actor Variables

When people violate certain social role norms, they risk false categorization into a stigmatized group. For example, heterosexual men who perform female stereotypic behaviors are often misclassified as gay. This identity misclassification is aversive because it threatens fundamental psychological needs. Findings presented here reveal that expectations of identity misclassification fuel heterosexual actors’ (N?=?216) discomfort during imagined gender role violations and that audience variables that increase the likelihood of misclassification also increase role violators’ discomfort. Moreover, expectations of misclassification strongly predict people’s discomfort during gender role violations regardless of their standing along relevant actor dimensions (e.g., attitudes and self-views). These findings suggest that people’s—and particularly heterosexual men’s—expectations of identity misclassification are powerful mechanisms that underlie adherence to traditional gender role norms.     

The Accuracy of Academic Gender Stereotypes

This research assessed the accuracy of academicgender stereotypes. Approximately 9% of participantswere nonwhite (mostly African American and Hispanic).Participants' estimates of the percentage of female and male students and their GPAs were comparedto the actual percentage of female and male students andtheir actual GPAs in 12 majors. Participantssignificantly underestimated the percentage of female students regardless of the gendertype of themajor. Females and males made more accurate percentageestimates for gender-congruent majors. Participantsoverestimated the GPAs of male students significantly more than the GPAs of female students. This wasespecially pronounced for masculine majors. Althoughfemale participants estimated the GPAs of their in-groupmore accurately than the GPAs of the out-group, the reverse was true for male participants. Theimplications of this evidence for inaccurate genderstereotypes regarding academic competence arediscussed.     

Empathic Accuracy,Meta-Perspective,and Satisfaction in the Coach-Athlete Relationship

This study investigated the empathic accuracy of sixty coach-athlete dyads, its antecedents (meta-perceptions of relationship) and consequences (perceptions of satisfaction). An adaptation of Ickes's (2001) unstructured dyadic interaction paradigm was used to assess empathic accuracy whereby coach-athlete dyads were filmed during training. A selection of video clips containing the dyads' interactions during a typical training session were shown to them. The dyad members were asked to report their recollected thoughts and/or feelings while making inferences about what their partners' thought and felt at specific points of interaction. Empathic accuracy was estimated by comparing the dyads' self-reports and inferences. The results of a structural equation model analysis indicated an association between members' meta-perceptions or judgments that their partner is positive about the athletic relationship and increased empathic accuracy. Increased empathic accuracy was in turn associated with higher levels of satisfaction. These results are discussed based on issues they raise for theory and measurement.     

Perceptions of Gender Discrimination across Six Decades: The Moderating Roles of Gender and Age

In the current paper we examined whether women and men view gender discrimination as having changed over time, and if so: 1) how it has changed and 2) whether changes in anti-women bias are viewed as directly associated with changes in anti-men bias. Based on prior research (Norton and Sommers, 2011; Sidanius and Pratto, 1999), it was hypothesized that older men (35 years and older) compared to younger men (18–34 years of age) would hold a zero-sum view of gender discrimination trends in that older men would perceive increases in anti-men bias to accompany decreases in anti-women bias. Conversely, women, regardless of age, were expected to perceive changes in anti-women bias as unrelated to changes in anti-men bias. Results based on data from an online U.S. national sample (n?=?499) supported the hypotheses for older men (n?=?58), younger men (n?=?160), older women (n?=?96) and younger women (n?=?185) and corroborated parallel past findings that the historically dominant social group (older men in this case) perceive any status gained by a socially subordinate group (women) as coming at the dominant group’s expense.     

Gender Role Internalization, Multiple Roles, and Chinese Women's Mental Health

The influence of gender role internalization as a moderator in the relationship between women's multiple roles and psychological distress was investigated. Study 1 identified three components of gender role internalization, which were labeled "Traditional Ideal Person,""Self-sacrifice," and "Competence without Complaint," and found that it did not overlap with existing gender-typed measures among 128 female Chinese university students. The multidimensionality of gender role internalization was confirmed in Study 2 among a sample of 225 women in the paid Hong Kong workforce. As expected, role quality was a better predictor of psychological distress than role quantity. Gender role internalization accounted for significant portions of explained variance even after taking role quality into account. Internalization of Traditional Ideal Person and Competence without Complaint messages exacerbated distress in certain areas when role quality was low. However, internalization of Self-Sacrifice messages mitigated distress for Chinese women with low work quality.     

Gender Roles in the Arab World: Development and Psychometric Properties of the Arab Adolescents Gender Roles Attitude Scale

Scant research has been conducted on gender in the Arab world; one explanation is due to a lack of Arabic measures on gender-related issues. To advance scientific work on gender in the Arab world, we developed the Arab Adolescents Gender Roles Attitude Scale (AAGRAS), the first known reliable and valid Arabic measure of gender-role attitudes. To develop this measure, we conducted two studies based on data collected from 776 high school students 15–19 years-old from the state of Qatar. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis produced 12 items divided equally into two subscales. One subscale assesses traditional gender-role attitudes, whereas the other measures egalitarian gender-role attitudes. Our findings indicate that young men are more likely to resist gender equality than young women are. Moreover, those who hold traditional attitudes are more likely to disapprove of women occupying positions of authority. The AAGRAS is a useful assessment tool that policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and educators can use to study gender-role attitudes in the Arab world and to develop educational and intervention programs that encourage adolescents to identify, confront, and avoid prejudice and discrimination against women and ultimately adopt more egalitarian gender roles.     

Being Empathic: The Role of Motivation to Empathize and the Nature of Target Emotions

The effect of the observer's motivation to empathize and the nature of the target person's emotions on empathy was examined. The study distinguished intellectual empathy, the extent to which the observer takes the target person's perspective, and empathic emotion, the extent to which the observer feels the target emotions. Intellectual empathy was measured via attribution errors that the observer made in attributing the target person's situation, and empathic emotion by the congruence between the emotions of the target person and the observer. The first experiment showed that pleasant emotions and sadness elicited more empathic emotion than did shame and anger. The second experiment revealed that motivation increased intellectual empathy when the target person was sad, and empathic emotion when the target person was happy. Intellectual empathy and empathic emotion appeared to be distinguishable constructs and could correlate under certain conditions.     

Gender,Gender Roles,and Personality: Gender Differences in the Prediction of Coping and Psychological Symptoms

Path models of the effects of gender, gender roles, and personality variables (achievement and affiliation orientation, locus of control, empathy) on coping and symptoms were tested to explore the risk and protective effects of gender roles and personality on psychological symptoms, and to test whether or not gender roles or personality accounted for gender differences in coping and symptoms. In a sample of university undergraduates (35% Asian American, 59% European American or Caucasian, 6% other ethnic/racial background), masculinity predicted lower depression but higher antisocial and substance use problems, whereas femininity predicted lower antisocial and substance use problems. Personality variables did not account for the effects of gender or gender roles on coping or symptoms, but rather gender roles and personality each predicted unique variance in those variables. Significant gender differences in the relations among gender roles and personality emerged; however, there were no gender differences in the relations between coping and symptoms. Findings highlight the importance of studying gender differences in the effects of gender roles and personality on coping and symptoms, because it appears that gender roles and personality operate differently for males and females.     

Participant and Word Gender in Age of Acquisition Effects: The Role of Gender Socialization

The age of acquisition (AoA) effect represents the processing advantage for developmentally earlier-acquired words. An initial norming study identified early and late AoA words having either a strong female-oriented (e.g., flute) or male-oriented (e.g., cigar) semantic bias. Forty-seven female and 45 male Scottish university students participated in a lexical decision task using 100 early and late AoA female- and male-oriented words. Reaction time data showed significant AoA effects for both females and males across both female- and male-oriented words, with faster responses to earlier than later acquired words. Females, however, took longer to respond to male-oriented words, particularly late AoA ones. Males demonstrated no effect of semantic gender. The pattern of effects is consistent with differential gender role socialization.     

From Reading Minds to Social Interaction: Respecifying Theory of Mind

The aim of this paper is to show some of the limitations of the Theory of Mind approach to interaction compared to a conversation analytic alternative. In the former, mental state terms are examined as words that signify internal referents. This study examines children’s uses of ‘I want’ in situ. The data are taken from a corpus of family mealtimes. ‘I want’ constructions are shown to be interactionally occasioned. The analysis suggests that (a) a referential view of language does not adequately account for how mental state terms are used in talk, (b) the dominant methodology for examining children’s understanding of ‘desires’ is based on several problematic assumptions. It is concluded that participation in interaction is a social matter, a consideration that is obscured by Theory of Mind and its favoured methods.     

Gender and Roles in a Hospital Setting

No abstract available for this article.     

The Development of Self-Esteem and the Role of Agency and Communion: A Longitudinal Study among Chinese

There is a long and rich history of research on self-esteem in children. However, little is known about developmental changes in self-esteem and the association between self-esteem and two basic dimensions of social cognition. This study aims to examine the developmental trajectory of self-esteem and its relationships with two basic dimensions of social cognition: agency and communion among 276 Chinese elementary school students by a two-wave 1-year longitudinal study. Agentic characteristics aid in achieving goals, while communion refers to qualities that aid in social relationships. Both play a part in children’s developing self-esteem to varying degrees. The changes in self-esteem on mean-level and individual-level and the rank-order stability of self-esteem were assessed and the results showed that the development of self-esteem was relatively stable but with some fluctuations during childhood, and no gender difference was found in its development in a Chinese setting. Hierarchical regression was used to test the association of agency and communion with self-esteem and the findings showed that children’s self-esteem was dominated by agency over communion in general; however, when grade was taken into consideration, the predictive effect of agency and communion on children’s self-esteem changed from communion to agency from younger to older children, respectively.     

Gender Differences in Family Stories: Moderating Influence of Parent Gender Role and Child Gender

One hundred and twenty families and their 4-year-old children participated in a study on family stories. The participants were primarily White (91%), with the remainder Black (4%), Hispanic (2%), and Asian (2%). The parents were primarily middle class and upper class, with approximately 5% identifying themselves as from a lower socioeconomic background. Parents were asked to tell their son or daughter stories about when the parent was growing up. All parents completed measures of child behavior and a subset of parents completed the Bem Sex Role inventory. Stories were coded for the strength of affiliation, achievement, and autonomy themes. No gender differences were found for parents or child in the strength of affiliation themes. Fathers told stories with stronger autonomy themes than did mothers, and sons were more likely to hear stories with themes of autonomy than were daughters. An interaction was found between gender type of parent and gender of child for strength of achievement theme. Traditional gender-typed parents told stories with stronger achievement themes to their sons, and nontraditional gender-typed parents told stories with stronger achievement themes to their daughters. Exploratory analyses were conducted examining the relations among story theme, parent gender type, and child behavior. Higher levels of externalizing behaviors were found in boys whose fathers endorsed strong masculine attitudes, but told stories with weak achievement themes. Higher levels of internalizing behaviors were found in girls whose mothers told stories with strong affiliation themes, but endorsed weak feminine attitudes. Family stories are proposed to be one aspect of socialization that includes an interaction between child and parent characteristics.     

Confronting Sexism: The Role of Relationship Orientation and Gender

This study examined whether relationship orientation was associated positively with confronting sexism and whether confronting sexism was associated positively with competence, self-esteem, and empowerment for women but not men in stereotypically masculine domains. Men and women undergraduates from a United States Midwestern university (n?=?165) were exposed to a sexist statement during a staged, online interaction. Relationship orientation, confronting (i.e., publically rating the sexist statement as problematic and inappropriate), competence, self-esteem, and empowerment were assessed. Consistent with hypotheses, relationship orientation was associated positively with confronting. Additionally, confronting was associated positively with competence, self-esteem, and empowerment for women but not men. Implications for interpersonal confrontation, relationship orientation, and gender differences in response to everyday sexism are discussed.     

Race and Gender Differences in Self-efficacy: Assessing the Role of Gender Role Attitudes and Family Background

Research suggests race is associated with unique family structures and gender attitudes. Yet, extant research fails to examine how different gender role attitudes and family structures related to race impact other aspects of life. Self-efficacy refers to one’s belief in his or her abilities to achieve certain outcomes (Bandura, Self-efficacy: The exercise of control, Freeman, New York, p. 3, 1997). Using a sample of 486 traditional undergraduate college students from an American university in the middle south, we examine gender and race differences in self-efficacy and the impact of sex role attitudes and family structure on self-efficacy. We argue that gender differences in gender role attitudes and their impact on self-efficacy is moderated by race. For all but white males, sex role liberalism is positively related to self-efficacy. Mother’s full time employment is positively related to self-efficacy for whites. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.     

Religion and Sexism: The Moderating Role of Participant Gender

The present study examined the relationship between gender, religious belief and ambivalent sexism. Specifically, this study tested the hypothesis that participant gender moderates the relationship between religious belief and ambivalent sexism. Three-hundred thirty seven Evangelical Christian undergraduate students from the Southwestern United States were administered the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory and the Christian Orthodoxy Scale. Results showed that gender moderated the relationship between Christian orthodoxy and Protective Paternalism. This finding suggests the importance of intervening variables, such as gender, in understanding the relationship between religion and sexism.     

Public Attitudes about Transgender Participation in Sports: The Roles of Gender,Gender Identity Conformity,and Sports Fandom

Sex Roles - We examine the roles of gender, gender attitudes, and interest in sports on public attitudes about transgender people’s participation in athletics. Using a representative survey...     

Gender Roles and Self-Esteem: A Consideration of Environmental Factors

Much empirical research has examined the psychological well-being of individuals with varying gender role orientations. This research has typically shown masculinity to be a strong correlate of self-esteem and femininity to be relatively unrelated to self-esteem. This research has often failed to consider the relative environmental influences impacting this process. This study examines the relationships of masculinity and femininity to self-esteem and environmental presses for each of these sets of behavioral characteristics. Results indicate a stronger press for masculine characteristics than feminine characteristics. The person-environment interaction suggests that a masculine environment may place women who are low in masculinity at particular risk for low self-esteem. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.