The symbolic/value-expressive function of outgroup attitudes among homosexuals.

The claim that attitudes toward an outgroup symbolically represent beliefs that the outgroup violates important values was examined through the investigation of the intergroup versus intragroup nature of the relations between a sample of feminist lesbians (primarily involved in the women's movement), gay movement lesbians (primarily involved in the gay movement), and gay men. Consistent with the intergroup relations documented between some feminist women and men, feminist lesbians (compared with gay movement lesbians) had less favorable attitudes toward gay men, associated with fewer gay men, perceived less common fate with gay men, wished to cooperate less with gay men, and perceived less value similarity with gay men. These and other findings suggested that feminist lesbians shared an intergroup relationship with gay men, whereas gay movement lesbians and gay men shared an intragroup relationship. Consistent with the notion that intergroup attitudes symbolically represent beliefs that an outgroup violates important values, feminist lesbians' attitudes toward gay men were explained by their perceptions that gay men placed less importance on values they themselves regarded as important. The implications of these findings for understanding the nature of symbolic attitudes and subsequent research are discussed.     

Contextual determinants of strategic choice: Some moderators of the availability bias

Three studies explored how the influence of the ‘availability heuristic’ on frequency judgement is mediated and moderated by the perceived meaning of the task, the perceived relevance of information for the task, and the salience of differential memorability of information. All studies adapted the ‘fumous names ’paradigm (Tversky and Kahneman, 1973) in which subjects are required to listen to a list of names of known personalities of both sexes and then judge the frequency of men and women. The availability heuristic (Tversky and Kahneman, 1973) posits that classes whose instances are easy to imagine or recall will be perceived as relatively frequent, so that when names of one sex are more famous and thus memorable this category will be rated as more numerous even when it occurs less frequently. Consistent with the notion that the use of availability is sensitive to task interpretation, we showed that the availability effect is eliminated over successive trials (Study 1) and moderated when task instructions render different categories salient (Study 2). In the third study it is shown that conditions which facilitate awareness of the biasing relationship between gender and fame (memorability), decrease the use of the availability heuristic by moderating frequency estimates of the more famous category. Results of these studies emphasize the context-bound and strategic aspects of judgement.     

Rewarded remembering: dissociations between self-rated motivation and memory performance

People often claim that they perform better in memory performance tasks when they are more motivated. However, past research has shown minimal effects of motivation on memory performance when factors contributing to item-specific biases during encoding and retrieval are taken into account. The purpose of the present study was to examine the generality of this apparent dissociation by using more sensitive measures of experienced motivation and memory performance. Extrinsic motivation was manipulated through competition instructions, and subjective ratings of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were obtained before and after study instructions. Participants studied a series of words, and memory performance was assessed by content recall (Experiment 1) and source recall (Experiment 2). Both experiments showed dissociation between subjective ratings of extrinsic motivation and actual memory performance, so that competition increased self-rated extrinsic motivation but had no effects on memory performance, including source recall. Inconsistent with most people's expectations, the findings suggest that extrinsic motivation has minimal effects on memory performance.     

Trajectories of perceived support in mother-adolescent relationships: the poor (quality) get poorer

The authors examined decreases across the early adolescent years in child reports of perceived support from mothers to determine whether the rate of decline differed as a function of the initial amount of perceived negativity in the mother-child relationship. Participants included a diverse sample of 197 girls and 116 boys who were in the 1st year of middle school (6th grade, ages 11 to 13 years) at the beginning of the study. Separate growth curve models revealed associations between the rate of change in child-reported perceived support and the initial level of both child-reported perceived negativity and mother-reported perceived negativity. Over-time declines in child-reported perceived support were larger for adolescents whose initial levels of perceived negativity were greater. The findings are consistent with the claim that mothers and children with the worst relationships at the outset of adolescence experience the greatest deterioration in relations across the early adolescent years.     

The relationship superiority effect is moderated by the relationship context

Previous research has identified the perceived superiority effect, defined as the tendency to regard one's own relationship as better than other people's relationships, as a cognitive maintenance mechanism that supports commitment to close relationships. The present research was designed to test the hypothesis that the perceived superiority effect is moderated by the relationship context — that is, to whom one's relationship is being compared. Two different measures based on a spontaneous thought-listing procedure demonstrated that the perceived superiority effect is significantly stronger when comparing one's own relationship to the relationships of people in general than to the relationships of close friends. Correlational analyses suggested that this difference may reflect people's tendency to experience close friends' outcomes as personal outcomes.     

Sugaring o'er the devil: Moral superiority and group identification help individuals downplay the implications of ingroup rule‐breaking

We examined how a group's claim to moral superiority influences evaluations of rule‐breaking by ingroup members. Moral superiority was manipulated among researchers (Study 1) and British citizens (Study 2), after which group members were presented with ingroup rule‐breakers: a researcher violating ethical rules (Study 1) and British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners (Study 2). In both studies, higher and lower identifiers in the control condition perceived the rule‐breaking as equally damaging, evaluated the rule‐breakers equally negatively and recommended equally harsh punishments. When the group had taken the moral high ground, lower identifiers perceived the rule‐breaking as more damaging than did higher identifiers. In addition, higher identifiers evaluated the rule‐breakers less negatively and recommended more lenient punishments. Results of mediation analyses demonstrated that negative evaluations of, and recommended punishment for, the rule‐breakers were explained by the perceived damage that their behaviour caused to the ingroup. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effort in the face of difference: Feeling like a non‐prototypical group member motivates effort

Three studies examined the relationship between individuals' perceived “prototypicality” in a group, their subsequent self‐presentation goals, and individual effort in that group. Consistent with the finding that feelings of marginal ingroup membership status elicit a desire to seek stronger social connections within ingroups, we predicted that non‐prototypical group members will have more salient self‐presentation goals than prototypical members, and as such will exert more individual effort to exhibit the value of their membership to the group. Correlational Study 1 confirmed that non‐prototypical group members may be more likely than prototypical members to volunteer for activities that would benefit their group. Two experimental studies were then conducted to test the causal influence of feelings of prototypicality while also identifying theoretically relevant moderating conditions of perceived task efficacy (Study 2) and public versus private task performance (Study 3). These findings suggest that effortful performance in groups is partly motivated by the desire to foster social ties. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

家庭经济压力与青少年抑郁:歧视知觉和亲子依恋的作用

对703名初中生(平均年龄14.30岁)进行问卷调查, 探讨了青少年歧视知觉、亲子依恋在家庭经济压力与青少年抑郁关系中的中介和调节作用。结果表明:(1)在控制了性别、年级后, 家庭经济压力对青少年抑郁具有显著的正向预测作用;(2)在家庭经济压力对抑郁的正向预测关系中, 歧视知觉起中介作用;(3)家庭经济压力通过歧视知觉对抑郁的中介作用受到亲子依恋的调节, 相对于亲子依恋水平较高的青少年, 中介效应仅在亲子依恋水平较低的青少年中显著。     

On work environments and social roles

Whether instructions to be creative will act as goals or constraints was examined by comparing creative, practical, and analytical performance ratings under special instructions to be creative, practical, analytical, or under no special instructions at all, for 110 students with 2 different thinking styles. Consistent with goal-setting theory, specific-related instructions resulted in higher performance for each of the 3 performance ratings over no special instructions. In line with a person-situation fit model, people who prefer to play with their own ideas (i.e., those with a legislative thinking style) showed higher creative performance, whereas people who prefer to analyze and evaluate ideas (i.e., those with a judicial thinking style) showed lower creative performance when not given any special instructions.     

Level of commitment,mutuality of commitment,and couple well-being

Interdependence theory identifies level of dependence and mutuality of dependence as two key properties of interdependent relationships. In ongoing relationships, these structural properties are subjectively experienced in terms of commitment–dependence level is experienced as greater or lesser commitment level, and mutuality of dependence is experienced as greater or lesser perceived mutuality in partners’commitment levels. We examined the associations of these variables with couple well-being using data from two three-wave longitudinal studies. One study examined partners in dating relationships and the second study examined partners in marital relationships. Consistent with predictions, both level of commitment and perceived mutuality of commitment accounted for unique variance in couple well-being: Couples exhibited greater adjustment to the degree that the partners were highly committed to their relationship and to the degree that their commitment levels were mutual. Mediation analyses revealed that the association of mutuality of commitment with couple well-being is partially mediated by negative affect (e.g., anxiety, guilt) and partially to wholly mediated by trust level; perceived mutuality of power is not a reliable mediator of this association.     

Faking the Desire to Learn: A Clarification of the Link Between Mastery Goals and Academic Achievement

ABSTRACT— Research on achievement goals has demonstrated that mastery goals positively impact achievement-related outcomes, but paradoxically hold an inconsistent relation with academic achievement. We hypothesized that this relationship depends on the reason why students endorse mastery goals—namely, to garner teachers' appreciation (social desirability) or to succeed at university (social utility). First-year psychology students completed a mastery-goal scale in a standard format, with social-desirability instructions and social-utility instructions. Participants' grades on academic exams were recorded later in the semester. Results indicated that students' perceptions of both social desirability and social utility related to mastery goals moderated the relationship between the endorsement of mastery goals and final grades. This relationship was reduced by the increase of perceived social desirability of mastery goals, and strengthened by the increase of perceived social utility of these goals.     

Managers’ theories of subordinates: A cross-cultural examination of manager perceptions of motivation and appraisal of performance

The present study sought to examine the relationship between managers’ perceptions of employee motivation and performance appraisal by surveying managers and employees in three distinct cultural regions (North America, Asia, and Latin America) within a single global organization. Three distinct cultural patterns emerged in the theories managers’ held about their subordinates. While North American managers perceived their employees as being more extrinsically than intrinsically motivated, perceptions of intrinsic motivation proved to be a more robust predictor of performance appraisal. Asian managers exhibited a holistic tendency in that they perceived their subordinates as equally motivated by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and their perceptions of both motivations proved to be comparable predictors of performance appraisal. Latin American managers perceived their employees as being more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated, and accordingly, only their perceptions of intrinsic motivation proved to be significantly correlated with performance appraisal. In contrast to the cultural variations exhibited in manager perceptions, employees consistently reported themselves as being more motivated by intrinsic than extrinsic incentives. Explanations for the distinct cultural patterns that emerged and their implications for the study of culture and organizational behavior are discussed.     

Effects of an expert-modeled attentional focus cue structure on skilled jump rope performance and learning

Instructions that direct attention externally have been shown to enhance motor performance. However, research on skilled performers and on learning effects has produced some distinct findings. Further, many studies have presented an overly simplistic view of attention and learning, such that all-internal focus protocols are contrasted with all-external focus protocols. Contrary to this approach, skilled performers have reported adopting combined focus strategies, revealing the need to test more realistic instructional protocols. The current study provided an experimental test of focus instructions that were modeled after the strategies of elite jump rope athletes. Four groups of skilled jump rope athletes practiced novel skills under various focus instructions. The internal focus (IF) and external focus (EF) groups were given traditional internal and external focus instructions, respectively. The expert modeled (EM) group was given a set of instructions that were based on experts' reported focus strategies. The expert modeled-autonomous (EM-A) group was allowed to choose how they used each of the expert-modeled instructions. All groups completed a baseline assessment, four practice sessions, and a learning assessment. Results of a chi-square test of independence revealed no relationship between group assignment and performance during baseline or practice. There was a significant relationship between group assignment and performance during the learning assessment (p < .05). Specifically, the IF group performed below expected values while the EM group performed better than expected. Findings support previous research showing learning detriments associated with internal focus instructions and also provide new insight into the advantages of using instructional approaches that are modeled after experts' strategies. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Trajectories of perceived superiority across the transition to marriage

ABSTRACT

Perceived superiority, the tendency to regard one’s own relationship as better than other people’s relationships, is a key relationship maintenance mechanism. Little is known about whether and how it changes during the transition to marriage, a pivotal moment in most couples’ life cycle. In a longitudinal study following 97 couples for three waves across the transition, men presented stable perceived superiority, whereas women presented a curvilinear change in superiority perceptions, with a substantial increase in perceived superiority between T1 and T2 and a significantly reduced change between T2 and T3. In addition, trajectories differed according to partners’ commitment level. More committed and less committed partners both showed a curvilinear change in perceived superiority, though following different patterns. Results point to the functional value of perceived superiority, which emerges as a strategy aimed at sustaining partners through the challenges deriving from the transition to marriage.     

Individual differences in motivated social cognition: the case of self-serving information processing

Three experiments examined the hypothesis that people show consistency in motivated social cognitive processing across self-serving domains. Consistent with this hypothesis, Experiment 1 revealed that people who rated a task at which they succeeded as more important than a task at which they failed also cheated on a series of math problems, but only when they could rationalize their cheating as unintentional. Experiment 2 replicated this finding and demonstrated that a self-report measure of self-deception did not predict this rationalized cheating. Experiment 3 replicated Experiments 1 and 2 and ruled out several alternative explanations. These experiments suggest that people who show motivated processing in ego-protective domains also show motivated processing in extrinsic domains. These experiments also introduce a new measurement procedure for differentiating between intentional versus rationalized cheating.     

The influence of identity leadership principles on followers' challenge and threat states and motor performance

It has been theorized that a follower can draw upon support from individuals they identify with when approaching competitive situations to improve psychophysiological challenge states, and performance potential. As such, we examine how perceptions of identity leadership influence resource appraisals, cardiovascular reactivity, and performance in a pressurised motor task across two laboratory experiments. In Study 1, 80 participants took part in a within-subjects double-blind design with two conditions: identity leadership (IL) vs no identity leadership (no IL). Results indicated that when instructions align with identity leadership principles (vs. not), followers reported greater resource appraisals to, challenge cardiovascular reactivity to, and motor performance within a motivated performance situation. In Study 2, 120 participants completed a 2 (identity leadership: IL vs. no IL) X 2 (appraisal: challenge vs. threat) between-subjects double-blind design. It was found that when instructions aligned to identity leadership (vs. not), followers reported greater resource appraisals and motor performance. When leaders used challenge (vs. threat) instructions this led to challenge cardiovascular reactivity on approach to competition. Advancing leadership and stress theory, we provide evidence that perceived identity leadership is salient for followers' resource appraisals, cardiovascular reactivity, and motor performance.     

Complementarity of Information and Quality of Relationship in Cooperative Learning

The effects of resource in(ter)dependence and quality of relationship with the partner on performance were studied during three sessions of cooperative dyadic work in order to examine the conditions under which cooperative learning can be more beneficial. This study was designed to test a hypothesis favouring the superiority of independence of resources (discussing identical information) against a hypothesis favouring the superiority of interdependence of resources (sharing complementary information). In each session, 64 students worked in dyads on two texts. Two roles were defined: summarizer and listener. Results showed that, though direct performance was higher when students discussed identical information, the quality and generality of information recalled a few months later did not differ between the two conditions. In the interdependence condition, listeners displayed poorer levels for direct performance. Participants were then dichotomized on the basis of their perceived quality of their relationship with the partner. With respect to direct performance, a more positive relationship allowed listeners in the interdependence condition to perform as well as summarizers, while a less positive relationship was detrimental for listeners. Conversely, as for recall, listeners in the interdependence condition who perceived a more positive relationship performed more poorly than summarizers, while listeners who perceived a less positive relationship performed as well as summarizers. When students shared identical information, neither roles nor quality of relationship affected recall. Results are discussed in terms of degree of partners' dependence and potential effects of socio-cognitive conflict (Doise & Mugny, 1984). This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Irrelevant speech,articulatory suppression,and phonological similarity: A test of the phonological loop model and the feature model

Two experiments tested competing predictions about the nature of the irrelevant speech effect that were derived from Neath's (2000) feature model and from Salamé and Baddeley's (1982) phonological loop model. The first experiment examined the combined effects of irrelevant speech and articulatory suppression when target items were presented auditorily. Contrary to the suggestions of Neath, but consistent with the phonological loop model, the effects of articulatory suppression and irrelevant speech were additive even when the irrelevant speech was presented during the retention interval The second experiment examined the combined effects of irrelevant speech and phonological similarity when target items were presented visually. Consistent with the phonological loop model, the effects of phonological similarity and irrelevant speech were additive when participants were specifically instructed to use articulatory/phonological rehearsal to remember the list items. The results therefore contradicted Neath's claim that irrelevant speech abolishes the phonological similarity effect when list items are presented visually. However, the effect of phonological similarity was abolished in the irrelevant speech conditions when no instructions were given concerning rehearsal. It is argued that the phonological similarity effect disappears in some experiments because participants sometimes employ a semantic rehearsal strategy, consistent with the views of Salamé and Baddeley (1986).