Psychological androgyny and social desirability

The concept of psychological androgyny, because of its implications for sex roles, social change, and human development, is presently of special theoretical interest. Psychologically androgynous persons, as identified by the Bern Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), score higher on both its femininity and masculinity scales. Given the psychometric properties of the BSRI, it can be hypothesized that androgynous persons will have higher social desirability scores. Yet, the "masculine male" and the "feminine female" may be the most socially desirable, in that they conform to normative expectations. Consequently it can also be hypothesized that individuals who are either masculine-typed males or feminine-typed females on the BSRI will have the higher social desirability scores. Neither prediction was found to be entirely accurate; instead, androgynous and feminine-typed individuals were found to have higher social desirability scores. Moreover, the data reveal that the BSRI femininity scale has social desirability characteristics which are sex-specific.     

Being imitated, conformity, and social influence: An integrative review

The recently developed literature on the effects of being imitated and the social influence function of imitation are reviewed, as is related literature on conformity from social psychology. Then, this research is considered within a number of theoretical contexts, but especially within the conceptual framework of Byrne's elaboration of effectance motivation. Finally, questions are raised which need to be addressed in future research.     

Evolving conformity: Conditions favouring conformist social learning over random copying

There is a growing interest in the relative benefits to the learner of the different social learning strategies used to transmit information between conspecifics, and in the extent to which they require input from individual learning. To date, theoretical models have tended to examine the success of particular strategies in relation to specific parameters or circumstances. This study employs individual-based simulations to derive the optimal proportion of individual learning that co-exists with random copying and conformist social learning strategies in populations experiencing wide-ranging variation in levels of environmental change, reproductive turnover, learning error, and individual learning costs. Predictions derived from the literature – that optimal levels of individual learning will be higher for both strategies when the rate of environmental change is higher, and when reproductive turnover and individual learning costs are lower, are supported. Contrary to the theoretical prediction, optimal levels of individual learning are sometimes higher under higher levels of learning error, particularly when reproductive rates are low. Results for the two strategies are qualitatively similar, but demonstrate numerous parameter combinations under which random copying is fitter than conformist social learning. Contrary to established expectations, the strategy employing the lesser proportion of individual learning is not always the fittest.     

社会治理中的心理学问题

近年来社会治理中的心理学问题开始受到心理学者的关注。要正确识别这些问题, 我们必须从社会治理的心理内涵出发, 认识到社会治理的核心是“人”：社会治理的主体是人, 治理的对象是以人为中心的社会事务, 治理的过程是多元主体的群体决策过程, 治理的路径之一是面向人的心理建设。由此, 心理学家应该着力研究社会治理内生的各种心理学问题, 包括各种主体的治理能力, 作为治理对象的现实社会心理问题(尤其是社会心态问题), 群体决策心理, 以及心理建设的战略和实践方案。对这些问题的深入研究, 有望建立“社会治理心理学”的原创理论体系, 实现“由心而治”。     

Psychological space and regulation of social behaviour

The theory of social categorization assumes that the social behaviour of people can be explained as a result of cognitive differentiation of social objects into dichotomous categories (in-group, out-group). An argument can be put forth that social Categorization is a specific instance of functioning of a cognitive system that operates as multidimensional psychological space. Distances between representations of objects in the space influence the process of application of judgements to the given object and to the degree of involvement instigated by a state of an object and tendency lo produce specific behavioural acts toward the object. Typically, the relationship has a characteristic of an exponential function. There are conditions (social and psychological) that foster a discontinuity in a functioning of a cognitive system and therefore, lead to a dichotomous classification of social phenomena, while in some other conditions a continuity may prevail. Data that seem to support the above conjecture are described.     

信息性从众行为和规范性从众行为比较研究

目的:从众可分成两种,即信息性从众行为和规范性从众,探讨它们两者之间的区别。方法:通过瑞文智力测验为材料创造了这两种从众情境,观察大学生被试在两种实验条件下的行为差异。结果:信息性从众和社会规范性从众两者之间存在显著差异(Z=-3.183,P=0.001)。结论:大学生被试的信息性从众行为多于社会规范性从众行为,两者存在统计学上的显著性差异。     

The social side of abstraction: psychological distance enhances conformity to group norms

Intuition suggests that a distanced or abstract thinker should be immune to social influence, and on its surface, the current literature could seem to support this view. The present research builds on recent theorizing to suggest a different possibility. Drawing on the notion that psychological distance regulates the extent to which evaluations incorporate context-specific or context-independent information, we suggest that psychological distance should actually increase susceptibility to sources of social influence that tend to be consistently encountered across contexts, such as group norms. Consistent with this hypothesis, two studies showed that psychological distance and abstraction increased conformity to group opinion and that this effect persisted in a novel voting-booth paradigm in which participants believed their voting behavior was both anonymous and consequential. We discuss implications of these findings for understanding the social side of abstraction as well as the conditions under which different types of social influence are likely to be most influential.     

Effects of achievement motivation, social identity, and peer group norms on academic conformity

This study investigated whether academic achievement motivation and social identity explain variation in children’s conformity to positive academic behaviors (n = 455 children in grades three through five). Structural equation modeling suggested that academic value and peer group academic norms were positively related to academic conformity. Specifically, children who enjoyed academic pursuits and who belonged to academically-inclined peer groups were more likely to conform to novel academic behaviors than children who did not. Additionally, academic value moderated the relationship between peer group norms and conformity, implying that, for students who do not value academics, belonging to a peer group with high academic norms will lead to more conformity to academic behaviors than belonging to a peer group with low academic norms. In contrast, analyses suggested that some aspects of achievement motivation and social identity are unrelated to academic conformity. Implications for encouraging positive academic behaviors in middle childhood are discussed.