Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Help for an Eating Disorder: The Role of Stigma and Anticipated Outcomes

This study examined the relationship between self‐stigma, anticipated risks and benefits associated with seeking counseling, and attitudes toward seeking counseling among college students with disordered eating attitudes and behaviors. The results of hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that self‐stigma and the anticipated risks and benefits significantly predicted attitudes toward counseling for people with disordered eating. In addition, self‐stigma had a stronger relationship with men's attitudes toward counseling than with women's, and anticipated benefits had a stronger relationship with women's attitudes toward counseling than with men's.     

Anticipating Public Performance: Do Women Fear Appearing Intellectually Less Able?

Two ecologically valid studies involving anticipated public performance offer insight into women's tendencies to avoid placing their abilities under a spotlight. First, in an experimental study, women felt less comfortable than did men and experienced more personal risk when they anticipated that their test scores would be public. Second, in a naturalistic observational setting, students taking an experiential forensic psychology course were required to perform intellectually challenging activities in public. Women displayed more concern about the course requirements than did men, and subsequently dropped the course in disproportionate numbers. Higgins' (1997 ) regulatory focus theory provides a theoretical framework for interpreting the data.     

Solo status and self-construal: being distinctive influences racial self-construal and performance apprehension in African American women

A preliminary study and main experiment tested the hypothesis that racial solo status (being the only member of one's race in a group) increases racial self-construal among African Americans. The preliminary study showed that African American men and women reported greater collectivist (i.e., group-based) over individualist self-construal under solo compared to nonsolo status, whereas Whites did not. The main experiment showed that the increased collectivism among African American solo women appears to be strongly reflected in racial identity becoming a salient aspect of self-construal. African American participants were also more likely than Whites to perceive that their anticipated performance would be generalized to their race, to feel like representatives of their race, and to show greater performance apprehension (indirectly evidenced by increased self-handicapping) when in racial solo status. The implications of solo status for African Americans in evaluative situations (such as academic testing sessions) are discussed.     

The Uncanny Self in Love: Divorced Catholic Women Remember Abortion in Romania

This essay presents an ethnographic account of two divorced Catholic women's memories of praying to the Virgin Mary while seeking illegal abortions under the Romanian socialist regime. These women's stories focused on troubling memories of being in love, reflections that were retrospectively shaped by divorce. Drawing on Sigmund Freud's notion of the uncanny, I call these recollections uncanny memories of the self in love. Uncannily remembering one's self in love combines experiential self‐examination and ethical assessment of actions. The notion of the uncanny self in love thus helps bridge the divide between experience‐ and action‐oriented approaches to lived ethics. I argue that the ethical significance of the Virgin Mary's actions depended on my acquaintances’ approach to love. For one woman seeking to stay estranged from her ex‐husband, the Virgin Mary's actions accentuated his ethical immaturity. My other acquaintance harbored more ambivalent feelings toward her ex‐husband; for her, talking about the Virgin Mary helped her relativize feelings of ethical indignation. As a core implication of this argument, I urge greater awareness of the problematic tendency to include the need for greater awareness of tendencies in theories of lived ethics to reify socially situated perspectives on love.     

Testing Error Management Theory: Exploring the Commitment Skepticism Bias and the Sexual Overperception Bias

Research on error management theory indicates that men tend to overestimate women's sexual interest and women underestimate men's interest in committed relationships ( Haselton & Buss, 2000 ). We test the assumptions of the theory in face‐to‐face, stranger interactions with 111 man‐woman dyads. Support for the theory emerges, but potential boundary conditions are observed. In addition, we find that women's perceptions of men's desire for commitment is related to the women's own self‐reported sexual interest but that the reverse does not hold for men. Finally, we find evidence consistent with the proposition that people project their own level of interest in sex or in a committed relationship onto their interaction partners.     

Academic self‐handicapping: Relationships with learning specific and general self‐perceptions and academic performance over time

Background. Academic self‐handicapping (ASH) tendencies, strategies students employ that increase their chances of failure on assessments while protecting self‐esteem, are correlated with classroom goal structures and to learners' general self‐perceptions and learning strategies. In particular, greater ASH is related to poorer academic performance but has yet to be examined with respect to learners' performance across a series of tests. Aims. This research was designed to examine the relationship between students' ASH tendencies and their self‐concept clarity, learning strategies, and performance on a series of tests in a university course. Sample. A total of 209 (153 female; 56 male) Canadian university psychology students participated in this study. Methods. Participants' ASH tendencies, self‐concept clarity, approaches to learning, and self‐regulatory learning strategies were assessed along with expected grades and hours of study in the course from which they were recruited. Finally, students' grades were obtained for the three tests for the course from which they were recruited. Results. Students reporting greater self‐handicapping tendencies reported lower self‐concept clarity, lower academic self‐efficacy, greater test anxiety, more superficial learning strategies, and scored lower on all tests in the course. The relationships of ASH scores and learner variables with performance varied across the three performance indices. In particular, ASH scores were more strongly related to second and third tests, and prior performances were accounted for. ASH scores accounted for a relatively small but significant proportion of variance for all three tests. Conclusions. These results showed that ASH is a unique contributing factor in student performance outcomes, and may be particularly important after students complete the initial assessment in a course.     

Subjective Social Standing and Conflict Tactics Among Young Kenyan Men

Efforts to reduce intimate partner violence in sub‐Saharan Africa generally approach the issue through the lens of women's empowerment. These efforts include foci on women's relative power in the relationship, educational background, and earning potential. The social status of men has largely been ignored, reducing the potential to involve them in efforts to demote intimate partner violence. In this study we consider whether a man's perceived social status predicts conflict tactics, and whether these tactics are mediated by loneliness and collective self‐esteem from a community‐based sample in semi‐rural Kenya (n = 263). We find that men who reported lower perceived social status also reported significantly more frequent violent conflicts with their intimate partners. This association was significantly, and completely, mediated by lower collective self‐esteem and higher loneliness. There was no direct association between subjective social status and negotiation‐based conflict tactics, although there was an indirect association. Men with higher perceived social status reported higher collective self‐esteem, and men with higher collective self‐esteem reported more negotiation‐based conflict tactics. These findings inform efforts to reduce intimate partner violence by involving men, showing potential to reduce violence by building self‐esteem among men—particularly those with lower perceived social status.     

Gender differences in intimate‐conflict initiation and escalation tendencies

According to gender motivation theory, men are driven by a desire to enhance their status; whereas, women are motivated by a desire to reduce risk, and the behavioral expressions of those motivations are context‐dependent. In order to test this theory in the context of intimate relationships, this study compared men's and women's escalatory tendencies in the initial development of intimate conflict. These tendencies were conceptualized in terms of four attributes: two attributes that represent response intention (decision and style) and two others that represent motivations for that intention (putting one's partner in his or her place and avoiding conflict). These attributes were measured in the context of five hypothetical situations. Each of those scenarios involved potential escalation of intimate conflict, following an intimate partner's aggressive verbal demand. The study involved a convenience sample of 403 male and female participants. The findings show that, in the initial steps of intimate‐conflict development, women tend toward escalation more than men. The findings also show that the escalatory tendency, as conceptualized and measured using the examined scenarios, corresponds to actual behavior exhibited in the resolution of common issues in the couples' lives. These findings reinforce gender motivation theory.

     

Intended and Unintended Reverberation of Traditional and Pro‐age Commercials as a Function of Viewer Age

Pro‐age advertising campaigns feature mature models, at least in part to reduce the depiction of unrealistic body ideals associated with the use of young models. The introduction of mature models into advertising campaigns may have hitherto unexamined effects on viewers' self‐esteem. We therefore compared the impact of mature and young models on women's levels of self‐esteem. Young adult and middle‐aged women were subtly exposed to young or pro‐age female models before completing an affective priming task designed to measure self‐esteem. As predicted, exposure influenced only appearance‐based self‐esteem, but not global self‐esteem. Furthermore, age congruency led to decreased self‐esteem, whereas age incongruency led to increased self‐esteem. Specifically, exposure to young models decreased young women's self‐esteem, just as exposure to mature models decreased middle‐aged women's self‐esteem. By contrast, exposure to mature models increased young women's self‐esteem, and exposure to young models increased middle‐aged women's self‐esteem. The implications for marketing campaigns are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dialectical beliefs and savings tendency: Opposite patterns in good versus bad current status

People often experience a dilemma: whether we should invest now for a better future or save now for an unexpected future. The current research investigated the influence of dialecticism, a constellation of lay beliefs stating that the world is full of constant changes, coexisting contradictions, and interdependent relationships, on people's savings tendencies when they are with good versus bad status. Study 1 verified that dialectical beliefs were negatively associated with optimistic expectations among people with good status (i.e., high socioeconomic status) but positively associated with optimistic expectations among people with bad status (i.e., low socioeconomic status). Next, Studies 2 and 3 examined the interaction effect between dialectical beliefs and people's current status in predicting their savings tendencies in the investment scenarios with the focus on savings decision‐making and emotional experiences related to savings scenarios, respectively. Finally, to test generalizability, Study 4 examined people's savings tendencies in the situation that they needed to prevent failure instead of doing investments. The results converged to support the hypothesis that stronger dialectical beliefs predicted greater savings tendencies among people with good current status but weaker savings tendencies among people with bad current status. These findings demonstrated that the effect of dialectical beliefs on savings tendencies varies as a function of the characteristics of the situations, which advances the theoretical understanding of dialecticism in decision‐making research.     

Vigilant Self‐regulation and Costly Punishment in Public Goods Situations

Applying regulatory focus theory to the context of social dilemma situations, the present research demonstrates that individual differences in vigilant, prevention‐focused self‐regulation predict the tendency to invest private resources to punish uncooperative interaction partners (costly punishment), a behaviour that typically has strong positive effects on the collective level of cooperation. Analyses further support the distinctiveness of the vigilance system proposed in regulatory focus theory (prevention focus) in comparison with general defensive inhibitory tendencies (measured with Carver and White's Behavioral Inhibition System scale). Results document that individual differences in prevention‐focused self‐regulation but not differences in general defensive inhibitory tendencies are positively related to costly punishment. In sum, the findings indicate that vigilant, prevention‐focused self‐regulation plays a crucial role in the context of sanctions that enforce cooperation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Sensitivity of the CPI Good Impression Scale for Detecting ‘Faking Good’ among Norwegian Students and Job Applicants

This study assessed the sensitivity of the California Psychological Inventory's Good Impression scale in the detection of ‘faking good’ in Norway. The original development of the scale was replicated using Norwegian students (N = 248). Paired sample T‐tests revealed significant differences for 31 of the 40 items when scores from normal test conditions were contrasted with scores obtained under `fake good' instructions. Further, job applicants (N = 494) scored significantly higher on the Good Impression scale than students. Comparisons of mean scale scores between Norwegian and US student samples suggested that the Norwegian students displayed a more modest self‐presentation. The Commonality Scale of the CPI was employed to investigate differences in scale usage between these two cultures. The analyses suggested that the differences in the Good Impression scale observed between these two cultures could not be explained by differences in acquiescence tendencies. Results suggest that the Good Impression scale is able to capture response distortion in Norwegian personnel selection situations, but modification of some items is needed.     

Sexual‐perception processes in acquaintance‐targeted sexual aggression

This study analyzes data from seven published studies to examine whether three performance‐based indices of men's misperception of women's sexual interest (MSI), derived from a self‐report questionnaire, are associated with sexual‐aggression history, rape‐supportive attitudes, sociosexuality, problem drinking, and self‐reported MSI. Almost 2000 undergraduate men judged the justifiability of a man's increasingly unwanted advances toward a woman on the Heterosocial Perception Survey‐Revised. Participants self‐reported any sexual‐aggression history, and some completed questionnaires assessing rape‐supportive attitudes, sociosexuality, problem drinking, and self‐reported MSI. A three‐parameter logistic function was fitted to participants’ justifiability ratings within a non‐linear mixed‐effects framework, which provided precise participant‐specific estimates of three sexual‐perception processes (baseline justifiability, bias, and sensitivity). Sexual‐aggression history and rape‐supportive attitudes predicted: (a) reduced sensitivity to women's affect; (b) more liberal biases, such that the woman's affect had to be more negative before justifiability ratings dropped substantially; and (c) greater baseline justifiability of continued advances after a positive response. Sexual‐aggression history and attitudes correlated more strongly with sensitivity than baseline justifiability; remaining variables showed the opposite pattern. This work underscores the role of sexual‐perception processes in sexual aggression and illustrates the derivation of performance‐based estimates of sexual‐perception processes from questionnaire responses.

     

Is it harmful to me or to us? A dyadic analysis of Chinese young adults' dysfunctional individuation and romantic relationship satisfaction

This study aimed at examining how romantically involved Chinese young adults' dysfunctional individuation was associated with their and their partners' perceptions of romantic relationship satisfaction. We recruited 296 Chinese couples who were currently in heterosexual romantic relationships at the university. The couples completed self-report measures of their dysfunctional individuation and relationship satisfaction. Results from the cross-sectional actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) indicated that (a) for both genders, actor effects existed: Chinese young adults' dysfunctional individuation was negatively associated with their romantic relationship satisfaction; (b) in terms of partners' effects, women's dysfunctional individuation was negatively associated with men's perceptions of relationship satisfaction; but (c) men's dysfunctional individuation was not significantly associated with women's perceptions of relationship satisfaction. The findings were the first to reveal the actor and partner effects of dysfunctional individuation on romantic relationship satisfaction. The study results provided practical implications regarding how young adults can have satisfying romantic relationships.     

Gender differences in students’ rational decisions to cheat

Few rational choice studies of deviant behavior have reported statistical tests of difference in the effects of explanatory variables between men and women. Using scenario‐based survey data from a sample of 330 university students (171 women and 159 men), this study examined gender differences in levels and effects of explanatory variables on intentions to cheat on exams. Findings showed significant gender differences in mean scores of low self‐control, anticipated shame states, perceived external sanctions, grade point average, and reported test‐cheating intentions. Regression analyses showed that the effects of moral beliefs and perceived pleasure of cheating were significantly more pronounced in predicting women's cheating intentions, whereas men were more affected by prior cheating experiences and friends’ cheating behavior. Findings also indicated that anticipated shame states accounted for the association between gender and cheating intentions. These results are consistent with recent studies dealing with gender‐related developmental differences regarding deviant propensities.     

Fail or flourish? Cognitive appraisal moderates the effect of solo status on performance

When everyone in a group shares a common social identity except one individual, the one who is different from the majority has solo status. Solo status increases one's visibility and performance pressure, which may result in stress. Stress has divergent effects on performance, and individuals' response to stressful situations is predicted by their cognitive appraisal (challenge or threat) of the situation. Two experiments test the hypothesis that cognitive appraisal moderates the effect of solo status on performance. Experiment 1 finds that at relatively high appraisal levels (resources exceed demands), solo status improves men's and women's performance; at relatively low appraisal levels, solo status hurts performance. Experiment 2 replicates this effect for solo status based on minimal group assignment. Results suggest that for individuals who feel challenged and not threatened by their work, it may help to be a solo.     

Comparisons over time: Temporal trajectories,social comparison,and self‐evaluation

Social comparison information fluctuates over time. We examined how people evaluate their task performance and ability after receiving test feedback specifying not only that they ranked above or below average, but also that their social status was rising, falling, or remaining constant. Participants' self‐evaluations were more positive when their social standing was rising over time rather than remaining constant. On the other hand, participants whose status was falling did not evaluate themselves less favorably than those with a constant position in the performance distribution. These reactions to performance feedback were observed on self‐evaluations of ability, but not on more even‐handed assessments of performance. Implications for social comparison and self‐evaluation maintenance theories are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Body Esteem: An Exception to Self‐Enhancing Illusions?1

Participants were 192 university students (96 males, 96 females) who completed the Body Esteem scale (Franzoi & Shields, 1984) under instructions to rate their feelings about their own bodies, rate their feelings about a specific or “average” student's body, and rate the importance they and others attached to these feelings. One of the findings is that when individuals perceived themselves as less positive on a particular desirable physical trait, they also rated the trait as less important to possess in the first place. The only exception to this was women's weight concern. It was also found that men generally rated themselves higher on body‐esteem subscales than they rated other men, while women did not exhibit such self‐serving evaluations of their bodies. One implication from these results is that the same self‐enhancement strategies successfully employed by individuals in other areas of self‐evaluations were not successful in enhancing one's body esteem, especially women's weight concern.     

Competition in stereotyped domains: Competition,social comparison,and stereotype threat

The current work examines a novel and specific way in which competition can hurt the performance of negatively stereotyped individuals: by evoking stereotype threat. In four experiments, we demonstrate that women's underperformance in math when primed with competition was due to feeling worried about confirming negative stereotypes about women's math ability (i.e., stereotype threat), that the activation of negative performance stereotypes for women primed with competition was due to increased group‐level social comparisons (i.e., comparing the self with men and women), and that priming competition led men to perform more poorly than women in a domain where they are negatively stereotyped (i.e., verbal ability). This research suggests that priming people with competition in contexts where they are negatively stereotyped leads to greater social comparison, activation of negative stereotypes, and concern about confirming these stereotypes, thereby decreasing stereotyped individuals' performance in the stereotyped domain. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The relation between remembered parental acceptance in childhood and self‐acceptance among young Turkish adults

This study examined the relation between young adults' age and remembrances of parental acceptance in childhood, and their current self‐acceptance. The study was based on a sample of 236 young adults in Turkey (139 women and 97 men). The adult version of the Parental Acceptance‐Rejection/Control Questionnaire for mothers and fathers along with the Self‐Acceptance subscale of the Psychological Well‐Being Scale, and the Personal Information Form were used as measures. Results showed that both men and women tended to remember having been accepted in childhood by both their mothers and fathers. Women, however, reported more maternal and paternal acceptance in childhood than did men. Similarly, the level of self‐acceptance was high among both men and women. However, women's self‐acceptance was higher than men's. Correlational analyses showed that self‐acceptance was positively related to remembrances of maternal and paternal acceptance among both women and men. Results indicated that age and remembered paternal acceptance significantly predicted women's self‐acceptance. Age and remembered maternal acceptance made significant and independent contributions to men's self‐acceptance. Men's remembrances of paternal acceptance in childhood did not make significant contribution to their self‐acceptance. Finally, the relation between women's age and self‐acceptance was significantly moderated by remembrances of paternal acceptance in childhood.