Social relationships and intraindividual variability in interpersonal behavior: correlates of interpersonal spin

Personality constructs are typically conceptualized as central tendencies of the individual. We explore whether dynamic personality constructs that quantify the within-individual variability of behavior across situations and over time predict the closeness of social relationships. We focused on interpersonal spin, defined as the degree of dispersion in a person's interpersonal behaviors around the interpersonal circumplex across situations and over time. We predicted that individuals with high spin would have social relationships that are less close than individuals with low spin. In 3 studies with different measures of relationship closeness, we found that (a) higher spinners reported that a larger proportion of their contacts in their workplace social networks were distant (Study 1); (b) co-workers were less satisfied and less often engaged in pleasant activities with higher spinners (Study 2); and (c) co-workers avoided higher spinners with whom they were well acquainted (Study 3). Moderated mediation analyses in Study 3 revealed that co-workers avoided well-acquainted higher spinners because they felt more negative affect when interacting with these individuals. The findings suggest the potential of dynamic personality constructs for improving our understanding of the characteristics of individuals' social relationships.     

Assessments of learning‐related skills and interpersonal skills constructs within early childhood environments in Singapore

Social skills are necessary for developing successful relationships and promoting learning. Interpersonal skills (IPS) are needed for maintaining friendships while learning‐related skills (LRS) are required for positive classroom behaviours. In this study, we investigated the construct validity of LRS and IPS within two existing assessments: the Child Behavior Rating Scales (CBRS) and the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales—2nd edition (PKBS‐2). Teachers completed the CBRS and PKBS‐2 for 117 Singaporean children aged 3–6 years. Rasch analysis was used to identify items that fit the unidimensional constructs of LRS and IPS within each instrument. Specific items from within the CBRS were found to measure LRS and IPS. Within the PKBS‐2, items were found to measure IPS and a new construct labelled Compliance. Instead of creating new assessment tools to measure new constructs, this study innovatively demonstrated how Rasch analysis can be used to document the existence of new constructs within already existing tools. The identification of new constucts and the use of these tools in an Asian context are presented. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pride and punishment: Entitled people's self‐promoting values motivate hierarchy‐restoring retribution

What is the purpose of punishment? The current research shows that for entitled people—those with inflated self‐worth—justice is about maintaining societal hierarchies. Entitled people more strongly hold self‐enhancing values (power and achievement; Studies 1 and 3). They are also more likely, when thinking about justice for offenders, to adopt a hierarchy‐based justice orientation: Perceptions that crime threatens hierarchies, motives to restore those hierarchies, and support for retribution (Studies 2 and 3). Further, the relationship of entitlement to justice orientation is mediated by self‐enhancing values when entitlement is measured (Study 3) and manipulated (Studies 4, 5 and 6). Together these studies suggest that entitlement—and the resultant preoccupation with one's status—facilitates a view of justice as a hierarchy‐based transaction: one where criminal offenders and their victims exchange power and status. These findings reveal the self‐enhancing and hierarchy‐focused nature of entitlement, as well as the roots of retribution in concerns about status, power, and hierarchies.     

Relationships among self‐construal,gender, social dominance orientation,and interpersonal distance

The present research focuses on the cognitive embodiment of physical proximity, through interpersonal distance’s relationship with self‐construal, gender, and social dominance orientation. Previous work showed that more independent self‐construal was associated with higher distancing preferences of participants, and that females tend to have higher interdependent self‐construal that lead them to prefer less interpersonal distance. We expected to replicate these findings. However, due to the relationship between power and interpersonal distance, it was argued that gender and perceptions regarding the social hierarchy would also play a role in predicting interpersonal distance. More specifically, it was predicted that while females who accept social hierarchies between males and females would prefer more distance when interacting with males, males would not differ in their preference for social distance. One hundred participants (67 female) completed the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale, Independent and Interdependent Self‐Construal Scales and the Social Dominance Orientation Scale. Interdependent self‐construal was negatively correlated with overall preferred interpersonal distance. Moreover, females high on social dominance orientation preferred larger interpersonal distance from male adult strangers than from female adult strangers. The findings provide further support for the embodiment of self‐construal by showing that psychological closeness and heteronomy are related to physical closeness. The findings also highlight the importance of investigating communal sharing and authority ranking dimensions simultaneously when focusing on interpersonal distance as well as differentiating females’ interpersonal sensitivity due to low power with their high affiliation.     

Social and emotional self‐efficacy at work

Research has shown that self‐efficacy is often one of the most important personal resources in the work context. However, because this research has focused on cognitive and task‐oriented self‐efficacy, little is known about social and emotional dimensions of self‐efficacy at work. The main aim of the present study was to investigate social and emotional self‐efficacy dimensions at work and to compare them to a cognitive and task‐oriented dimension. Scales to measure social and emotional self‐efficacy at work were developed and validated and found to be well differentiated from the cognitive task‐oriented occupational self‐efficacy scale. Confirmatory factor analyses of data from 226 Swedish and 591 German employees resulted in four separate but correlated self‐efficacy dimensions: (1) occupational; (2) social; (3) self‐oriented emotional; and (4) other‐oriented emotional. Social self‐efficacy explained additional variance in team climate and emotional self‐efficacy in emotional irritation and emotional exhaustion, over and above effects of occupational self‐efficacy. Men reported higher occupational self‐efficacy, whereas social and emotional self‐efficacy revealed no clear gender differences. The scales have strong psychometric properties in both Swedish and German language versions. The positive association between social self‐efficacy and team climate, and the negative relationships between self‐oriented emotional self‐efficacy and emotional irritation and emotional exhaustion may provide promising tools for practical applications in work settings such as team‐building, staff development, recruitment or other training programs aiming for work place health promotion. The next step will be to study how social and emotional self‐efficacy relate to leadership, well‐being and health over time.     

Individualized learning environments: Intra- and interpersonal consequences

This study examines the effects of individual goal structures on the intra- and interpersonal behavior of 120 fourth-grade children. Each group of four children was introduced to one of two individualized learning programs: (a) workbook materials color-coded according to level of difficulty (allowing implicit comparisons among children as to progress), and (b) materials not coded according to difficulty (discouraging comparisons). In both learning programs, children worked individually (at story writing) and were rewarded for the work. Results indicate that boys, but not girls, who were rewarded equally for doing good work in an individualized setting but who start and end at a lower step than other more frequently took away a toy from those peers with whom they compared themselves than did boys who were rewarded equally for good work and where there were no comparisons. Boys as a group, regardles of condition, gave more prize tickets to themselves than to others and gave more prize tickets to themselves than girls gave either to themselves or others. Both boys and girls appear to adopt the evaluations of their work given by the experimenter and appear to be influenced thereby in later prized-giving to themselves and to others.     

Adult attachment and feedback‐seeking patterns in relationships and work

Adults with different attachment orientations rely on different areas of life to maintain self‐views. This paper reports two studies that examine the link between attachment and feedback‐seeking patterns in interpersonal and competence‐related domains. Participants in Study 1 imagined receiving feedback from a friend. Participants in Study 2 completed dyadic tasks and were promised feedback from interpersonal‐ and competence‐relevant sources. Across both studies, secure individuals consistently chose the most positive feedback. Individuals high in attachment avoidance sought negative feedback over positive, although dismissing‐avoidant individuals sought positive hypothetical feedback about autonomy. Study 2 further suggested that highly avoidant individuals were more open to negative feedback than positive feedback and than were secure individuals. Moreover, individuals high in attachment anxiety failed to seek positive interpersonal feedback but pursued interpersonal over competence feedback. Results highlight the role of feedback‐seeking in maintenance of positive or negative self‐views for adults with different attachment orientations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The attenuating effect of role overload on relationships linking self-efficacy and goal level to work performance

The reported research examines the moderating effects of role overload on the antecedents and consequences of self-efficacy and personal goal level in a longitudinal study conducted in an industrial selling context. The results indicate that role overload moderates the antecedent effect of perceived organizational resources on self-efficacy beliefs. They also show that role overload moderates the direct effects of both self-efficacy and goal level on performance, such that these relationships are positive when role overload is low but not significant when role overload is high. Further, the results reveal a pattern of moderated mediation, in which goal level mediates the indirect effect of self-efficacy on performance when role overload is low but not when it is high. Implications for theory and managerial practice are discussed.     

Forgiveness and interpersonal relationships: a Nepalese investigation

The present study examined the practice of forgiveness in Nepal. A model relating collectivism and forgiveness was examined. Participants (N = 221) completed measures of collectivism, individualism, forgiveness, conciliatory behavior, and motivations for avoidance and revenge toward the offender. Collectivism was positively related to forgiveness. Forgiveness was strongly related to conciliatory behavior and motivations for avoidance and revenge toward the offender. Decisional forgiveness was a stronger predictor of motivations for revenge than was emotional forgiveness.     

Social dominance orientation,anti‐egalitarianism and the political psychology of gender: an extension and cross‐cultural replication

This study explored differences in levels of anti‐egalitarianism and social dominance orientation among groups with different social status, and examined the degree to which these differences in anti‐egalitarianism varied across a number of situational and contextual factors. Consistent with both the cultural deterministic (CD) and social dominance (SD) paradigms, when defining social status as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or ‘race’, differences in anti‐egalitarianism between members of high‐ and low‐status groups were found to be contingent upon a range of contextual and situational factors, such as the degree to which the two groups varied in social status. However, consistent with the SD perspective and the invariance hypothesis, the data also showed that males were more anti‐egalitarian than females, and that this male/female difference in social and group dominance orientation tended to be largely invariant across cultural, situational, and contextual boundaries. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social comparison in virtual work environments: An examination of contemporary referent selection

The current trend with organizations is to streamline operations, cut cost, and operate with fewer employees (i.e., to do more with less). This trend has encouraged events such as downsizing and mergers as well as fostered the development of virtual work environments and new organizational forms like virtual organizations. Consequently, this change in organizational forms and the context of work has the potential to cause other associated consequences. One possible consequence is a change in the availability and type of referent others available. Likewise, a better understanding of worker referent choice remains a common issue of debate among researchers of comparison theories. This paper examines how referent selection relative to worker social comparison is (and will be) affected by the changing nature of organizations and the context of work.     

Associations among shyness,interpersonal relationships,and loneliness in college freshmen: A longitudinal cross‐lagged analysis

This short‐term longitudinal study examined the reciprocal associations among shyness, interpersonal relationships, and loneliness in a sample of 361 Chinese college freshmen (138 male students, mean age = 18.57 years). A fully cross‐lagged panel design was used in which shyness, interpersonal relationships, and loneliness were assessed at three time points separated by 8 months. The results indicated that the associations among shyness, interpersonal relationships, and loneliness were dynamic and bidirectional. The self‐report scores and the pattern of cross‐lagged associations among shyness, interpersonal relationships, and loneliness were the same for male and female students at all three times. Implications for loneliness interventions and future research directions are provided.     

Unravelling the riddle of exhibitionism: a lesson in the power tactics of perverse interpersonal relationships

Through an examination of the varied paradoxes embedded within the phenomenon of genital exhibitionism, the author establishes exhibitionism as a paradigm for interpersonal relations whereby one individual entices another to lose himself, to a benign or dangerous degree, in a presented portrayal/enactment. Efforts to entice that cause an extreme loss of the subject's sense of self--making it exceedingly hard to break free of--are designed to render the subject powerless and take psychic possession of him. The perpetrator accomplishes this feat by interacting with his victim in ways capable of producing a sudden and profound regression with sufficient loss of autonomous ego functioning that the subject finds it hard, if not impossible, to act on his own behalf. The essential feature of the perpetrator's efforts is his violation of the unspoken but understood rules of interpersonal engagement that, when violated, cause extreme disorientation and a loss of trust in one's most basic assumptions about how humans treat one another. When this happens, we would describe the interaction as having been perverted to serve the exclusive needs of the predator--to gain as complete control over the other as possible.     

Relational mobility promotes subjective well‐being through control over interpersonal relationships among the Chinese

The present research investigated the relationship between relational mobility (RM) and subjective well‐being and revealed its psychological mechanism among the Chinese. Study 1 demonstrated that RM positively predicted subjective well‐being. In Study 2, imagined ecology with high RM led to higher expected subjective well‐being relative to that observed in low RM. In Study 3, a correlational study, interpersonal relationship mastery mediated the relationship between RM and subjective well‐being. This result was replicated by an experiment in Study 4. These findings highlight a socioecological perspective in understanding people’s subjective well‐being and shed light on understanding the relationship between different types of mobility and subjective well‐being.     

Social power and emotional experience: Actor and partner effects within dyadic interactions

A dyadic methodological and statistical approach to social power is used to test the notion that an individual’s power and a partner’s power have distinct effects on the individual’s emotional experience. Two studies examined actor and partner effects of social power on emotion within dyadic interactions. Across interpersonal contexts and measures of social power, the individual’s own social power, theorized to activate behavioral approach, was associated with positive emotion (an actor effect). In contrast, being subject to a partner’s elevated social power, theorized to activate behavioral inhibition, was associated with increased negative emotion (a partner effect). The discussion focuses on how dyadic methodological and statistical approaches point to new lines of inquiry in the study of social power.     

Social anxiety and interpersonal stress generation: the moderating role of interpersonal distress

Background and Objectives: Existing models of social anxiety scarcely account for interpersonal stress generation. These models also seldom include interpersonal factors that compound the effects of social anxiety. Given recent findings that two forms of interpersonal distress, perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, intensify social anxiety and cause interpersonal stress generation, these two constructs may be especially relevant to examining social anxiety and interpersonal stress generation together.

Design: The current study extended prior research by examining the role of social anxiety in the occurrence of negative and positive interpersonal events and evaluated whether interpersonal distress moderated these associations.

Methods: Undergraduate students (N?=?243; M?=?20.46 years; 83% female) completed self-report measures of social anxiety, perceived burdensomeness, and thwarted belongingness, as well as a self-report measure and clinician-rated interview assessing negative and positive interpersonal events that occurred over the past six weeks.

Results: Higher levels of social anxiety were associated only with a higher occurrence of negative interpersonal dependent events, after controlling for depressive symptoms. This relationship was stronger among individuals who also reported higher levels of perceived burdensomeness, but not thwarted belongingness.

Conclusions: It may be important to more strongly consider interpersonal stress generation in models of social anxiety.     

Assessing interpersonal functioning: Views from within and without

In order to better integrate research on personality pathology, interpersonal problems, and social skills, we applied the traditional methods of these three research strands (questionnaires, interviews, and interpersonal role-plays) to the same sample. Participants who attributed higher levels of interpersonal problems to themselves in general were also more critical of their own role-play performances, but these impressions were not mirrored by observer-ratings. Self-observer agreement in judging overall role-play performance was essentially zero. Interviewer-ratings of personality pathology had incremental validity over self-ratings in predicting observer-rated role-play performance. Self-reports of interpersonal functioning leave relevant behavioral variance untapped and thus should be complemented by other sources of information.     

Janus‐faced nature of colorblindness: Social dominance orientation moderates the relationship between colorblindness and outgroup attitudes

Colorblindness is a popular diversity ideology promoted as a means to intergroup harmony in ethnically diverse nations. While some research suggests that colorblindness reduces intergroup bias, other work suggests that colorblindness may increase it. The present research utilizes a national sample of European New Zealanders to examine whether the relationship between colorblind endorsement and outgroup attitudes is moderated by perceivers' individual differences in social dominance orientation (SDO). Data revealed that for participants low in SDO, colorblind beliefs predicted more negative attitudes toward ethnic minorities. However, for those high in SDO, colorblind beliefs predicted more positive attitudes toward ethnic minorities. Taken together, these findings suggest that colorblindness is not all good or bad for intergroup relations—instead, its effects may depend on perceivers' own egalitarian sentiments.