Considerations of elder sibling closeness in predicting younger sibling substance use: social learning versus social bonding explanations

Adolescent siblings are often similar in a variety of adjustment outcomes, yet little is known about the processes that explain sibling influences during adolescence. Two alternative explanations were tested, attachment (based in social bonding theory) and anaclitic identification (based in social learning theory). Hypotheses were tested with a sample of 613 adolescent sibling pairs (206 nonadopted, 407 adopted; elder sibling mean age = 16.1 years, younger sibling mean age = 13.8 years) across three sibling contexts (gender composition, age difference, and genetic similarity). Attachment explanations were supported so that the greater the perceived sibling emotional and behavioral closeness, the lower the likelihood of substance use; however, there were considerable moderating effects of sibling gender composition. Anaclitic identification explanations were not supported; closeness and elder sibling substance use did not interact to predict younger sibling substance use. Overall, this research adds to a body of work demonstrating important sibling influences on adolescent substance use.     

Heroism versus competence: Competing explanations for the effects of experimenting and consistent management

B. M. Staw and J. Ross (Journal of Applied Psychology, 1980, 65, 249–260) present data which suggest that one barrier to experimenting management is an implicit theory of heroic leadership favoring managers who are consistent in the face of failure, The currant research tests this theory of heroism against an implicit theory of competent management. Subjects read a case study describing a manager who was either experimenting or consistent, and either immediately successful or successful only after initial failure (i.e., ultimately successful). The results supported the implicit theory of competent management with the consistent managers, whose first policies were effective, rated significantly higher than the ultimately successful-experimenting manager, whose first two policies failed. The immediately successful-experimenting manager was unexpectedly rated significantly higher than all other managers. The results show that there is not a general bias against experimentation in favor of consistency, and that reactions to managers are based more upon evidence of competence than upon experimenting and consistency per se.     

Beyond arousal and valence: The importance of the biological versus social relevance of emotional stimuli

The present study addressed the hypothesis that emotional stimuli relevant to survival or reproduction (biologically emotional stimuli) automatically affect cognitive processing (e.g., attention, memory), while those relevant to social life (socially emotional stimuli) require elaborative processing to modulate attention and memory. Results of our behavioral studies showed that (1) biologically emotional images hold attention more strongly than do socially emotional images, (2) memory for biologically emotional images was enhanced even with limited cognitive resources, but (3) memory for socially emotional images was enhanced only when people had sufficient cognitive resources at encoding. Neither images’ subjective arousal nor their valence modulated these patterns. A subsequent functional magnetic resonance imaging study revealed that biologically emotional images induced stronger activity in the visual cortex and greater functional connectivity between the amygdala and visual cortex than did socially emotional images. These results suggest that the interconnection between the amygdala and visual cortex supports enhanced attention allocation to biological stimuli. In contrast, socially emotional images evoked greater activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and yielded stronger functional connectivity between the amygdala and MPFC than did biological images. Thus, it appears that emotional processing of social stimuli involves elaborative processing requiring frontal lobe activity.     

Point-particle explanations: the case of gravitational waves

Synthese - This paper explores the role of physically impossible idealizations in model-based explanation. We do this by examining the explanation of gravitational waves from distant stellar...     

The effects of social category norms and stereotypes on explanations for intergroup differences

A 2-stage model of the construction of explanations for differences between groups is presented. Category norms affect which of 2 groups becomes "the effect to be explained," and stereotypes shape attributions about that group. In 3 experiments, 288 participants wrote explanations for differences between gay and straight men. Explanations focused on gay men who were also judged to have more mutable attributes. However, these effects were not correlated. Participants focused explanations on straight men when explicitly instructed to do so (Experiment 1). Explanations focused on both groups equally when the gay men constituted the numerically larger sample, when gay men were more typical of the overarching category (i.e., people with AIDS) than straight men, or when more straight men were described as performing the behavior (Experiment 2). Stereotype-consistent information prompted more essentialist references and fewer reconstructive references to gay men than did stereotype-inconsistent information (Experiment 3). The relevance of this model for theories of norms, stereotypes, and for the conduct of social science is discussed.     

Self-serving bias in the attribution of responsibility: Cognitive versus motivational explanations

The purpose of this study is to compare the cognitive and motivational explanations of differences in the responsibility assigned to the victim of a crime. It has generally been found that the victim of a crime is assigned more responsibility for that crime by similar others if its consequences are severe. The motivational explanation for this finding is that subjects are threatened by the idea that a serious crime can happen by chance. The cognitive explanation is that serious crimes are rarer and subjects attribute more of the responsibility for rarer events to those who experience them. This study tested these two explanations by independently varying the severity and the likelihood of a crime and examining attributions of responsibility to its victim. The results of the study support the cognitive explanation. Similar others were found to attribute more responsibility for a crime to the victim when that crime was presented as rare, irrespective of whether its consequences were mild or severe. In addition, when likelihood was controlled experimentally no effect of severity upon attributions of responsibility was found. These results suggest that, within the context of attributions of responsibility to victims, patterns of attribution consistent with those predicted by theories suggesting motivational influences upon attribution may actually represent the operation of cognitive processes.     

Subadditive versus hyperbolic discounting: A comparison of choice and matching

Impulsive and myopic choices are often explained as due to hyperbolic discounting, meaning that people are impatient for outcomes available immediately, and become increasingly more patient the more the outcome is delayed. Recent research, however, has suggested that much experimental evidence for increasing patience is actually due to subadditive discounting: people are less patient (per-time-unit) over shorter intervals regardless of when they occur. Because previous research into subadditive discounting has used a choice elicitation procedure, the present paper tests whether it generalises to matching. We find strong evidence that it does, but also find weak evidence of increasing patience for matching. We suggest, however, that subadditive discounting alone may be sufficient to account for all of our results. We conclude by questioning the contribution that hyperbolic discounting makes to our understanding of time preference.     

Chronic parenting stress: moderating versus mediating effects of social support

The present study contrasted the widely cited "buffer" model of social support with an alternative mediator model. Distinctions were drawn between the functions of social support under chronic vs. acute stress conditions, and between situation-specific stressors and major life events. Ongoing parenting stress was assessed in 96 mothers of deaf children and 118 matched controls. Tests of the competing models showed no moderating effects for social support. However, path analyses suggested that social support mediated the relationship between stressors and outcomes. Chronic parenting stress was associated with lowered perceptions of emotional support, and greater symptoms of depression and anxiety. Furthermore, parenting stress accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in psychological distress scores in contrast to life event stress, which was only weakly related to psychological outcomes. The implications of mediational models for understanding adaptation to chronic stress are discussed.     

Beyond genetic explanations for leadership: The moderating role of the social environment

Leadership role occupancy has recently been shown to have a genetic basis. We extend prior research by examining the moderating effects of the social environment during adolescence on the genetic influences on leadership role occupancy at work. Utilizing a sample of male twins (89 pairs of identical and 54 pairs of fraternal twins, with a mean age of 36.5 years), we found that genetic influences are weaker for those reared in enriched environments (i.e., higher family socioeconomic status, higher perceived parental support, and lower perceived conflict with parents). For those twins who had relatively poorer social environments, genetic influences on leadership role occupancy are significantly greater. These results have important implications for early interventions on leadership development inside and outside organizations.     

Self-reported likelihood of sexually aggressive behavior: Attitudinal versus sexual explanations

The present study compared the relative effectiveness of sexuality variables versus attitudes hypothesized to be rape-supportive in the prediction of “likelihood to rape” (LR) and “likelihood to use sexual force” (LF) measures. This research was guided by the suggestion that understanding the variables which underlie LR and LF may shed light on the factors which cause some men to actually commit acts of violence against women. The results were inconsistent with viewing rape as primarily caused by sexual frustration or sexual maladjustment, since sexuality variables were generally not predictive of LF or LR. In contrast, a variety of rape-supportive attitudes and beliefs such as blaming the victim for her rape or viewing sexual violence as sexually arousing to women were successful predictors of both LF and LR. These data were interpreted as supporting theories of rape which consider cultural, socially transmitted attitudes about women and rape to be psychological releasers for sexual aggression. The findings also supported the notion of an “aggression toward women” continuum, rather than a conceptualization of rape as a discrete, isolated phenomenon with its own determinants.     

Disentangling encoding versus retrieval explanations of the bizarreness effect: Implications for distinctiveness

Recall effects attributed to distinctiveness have been explained by both encoding and retrieval accounts. Resolution of this theoretical controversy has been clouded because the typical methodology confounds the encoding and retrieval contexts. Using bizarre and common sentences as materials, we introduce a paradigm that decouples the nature of the encoding context (mixed vs. unmixed lists of items) from the retrieval set (mixed vs. unmixed retrieval sets). Experiment 1 presented unmixed lists for study, and Experiment 2 presented mixed lists for study. In both experiments, significant bizarreness effects were obtained in free recall when the retrieval set intermixed items but not when the retrieval set consisted of only one item type. Also, Experiment 1, using a repeated testing procedure, did not reveal evidence for more extensive encoding of bizarre sentences than of common sentences. The results support the idea that retrieval dynamics primarily mediate the bizarreness effect, and perhaps more generally, distinctiveness effects.     

Moderating effects of the valence of social interaction on the dysfunctional consequences of perseverative cognition: an ecological study in major depression and social anxiety disorder

Background and Objectives: Major depression disorder (MDD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) are characterized by the use of perseverative cognition (PC) as a dysfunctional coping strategy. We sought to investigate the dysfunctional physiological and psychological consequences of PC and how the valence of social interactions moderates such consequences in these psychopathological conditions.

Design/Methods: The study combined 24-hour heart rate variability (HRV) and ecological momentary assessments in 48 individuals with MDD, SAD, and sex-matched controls.

Results: In all participants, PC was associated with mood worsening and reduced ability of the parasympathetic nervous system, mainly the vagus, to inhibit sympathetic arousal (i.e., reduced HRV). Individuals with SAD had the highest frequency of daily PC, while those with MDD reported that PC interfered more with their ongoing activities. In SAD, daily PC was associated with significantly lower HRV after negative social interactions. Individuals with MDD reported higher levels of sadness during PC irrespective of the valence of the preceding social interaction but higher levels of anxiety and efforts to inhibit PC following positive interactions.

Conclusions: Results highlight the need to account for important moderators like the valence of social interaction when looking at the physiological consequences of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies.     

The effects of news report valence and linguistic labels on prejudice against social minorities

ABSTRACT

Combating prejudice against social minorities is a challenging task in current multicultural societies. Mass media can decisively shape prejudice, because it often represents the main source of information about social minorities. In 3 studies in the Czech Republic (N = 445) and Switzerland (N = 362; N = 220), we investigated how prejudice against negatively and positively perceived minorities (the Roma in Study 1, Kosovo Albanians in Study 2, Italians in Study 3) is influenced by a single exposure to a print news report, by manipulating the valence of reports about minority members (positive vs. negative vs. mixed) and linguistic forms for minorities’ ethnicity (nouns vs. adjectives). Positive and negative reports shaped prejudice in the respective directions; the effect of mixed reports mostly did not differ from positive reports. Labeling ethnicity with nouns (e.g., a male Roma) resulted in more prejudice than adjectives (e.g., a Roma man), independent of report valence. Report valence influenced the affective part of prejudice (i.e., feelings toward a minority), whereas language consistently shaped the behavioral part of prejudice (i.e., preferred social distance from a minority).     

Integrating social exchange and affective explanations for the receipt of help and harm: A social network approach

We integrated theories of social exchange and emotion to explain the receipt of interpersonal citizenship (help) and counterproductive behaviors (harm). Using social network methodology, data on a total of 534 relationships were obtained from three samples of employees working for a food services organization. Results were consistent across all three samples. Employees received help and harm from coworkers toward whom they engaged in those behaviors, as well as from coworkers in whom they elicited positive and negative affective states, respectively. Additionally, affective states predicted the receipt of help and harm controlling for engagement, suggesting a means by which social exchanges may become imbalanced. Overall, findings demonstrate the validity of social exchange and affective explanations for the receipt of help and harm in the workplace.     

Impact of an individualist vs. collectivist context on the social valorization of internal explanations

The theory of the norm of internality emphasizes the role of Western individualism in the normativity of internal explanations. The present study examines the link between the social value accorded to targets expressing internal vs. external explanations and individualist vs. collectivist contexts. Sixty-three male and female French management sciences students evaluated two targets (internal vs. external) in a simulated recruitment situation. The job vacancy was partially manipulated to create individualist vs. collectivist contexts. Participants were asked to state whether or not they would recruit the targets and to describe the targets on traits relating to social utility (market value) and social desirability (likeability). As expected, the results showed that the effect of the targets' internality on recruitment judgments and perceived social utility was stronger in the individualist context than in the collectivist context. However, the analysis also revealed that the participant's gender moderated the impact of the context on the evaluation of the targets. The results showed that the context strongly affected the men's judgments, whereas it had no effect on the women's judgments.     

Conceptual structure and social functions of behavior explanations: beyond person--situation attributions

The traditional approach to studying behavior explanations involves treating them as either person causes or situation causes and assessing them by using rating scales. An analysis of people's free-response behavior explanations reveals, however, that the conceptual distinctions people use in their explanations are more complex and sophisticated than the person-situation dichotomy suggests. The authors, therefore, introduce a model of the conceptual structure of folk behavior explanations (the network of concepts and assumptions on which explanations are based) and test it in 4 studies. The modes and features of behavior explanations within this conceptual structure also have specific social functions. In 2 additional studies, the authors demonstrate that people alter distinct features of their explanations when pursuing particular impression-management goals and that listeners make inferences about explainers' goals on the basis of these features.     

Self-schema and social comparison explanations of body dissatisfaction: a laboratory investigation

The current study was an investigation of the self-schema and social comparison theories of body dissatisfaction. The social comparison manipulation consisted of exposure to one of three levels of comparison figure: upward, downward, or no comparison. Two different imagery exercises served to prime either a participants’ appearance self-schema, or a non-appearance schema. Participants completed state measures of body image and mood at pre- and posttest. Results indicated no significant interaction between priming and social comparison and no significant main effect for priming. However, there was a significant effect of social comparison, such that those in the downward comparison condition showed an increase in body satisfaction and positive mood. Results are discussed in the context of self-schema theory and social comparison, and suggestions are given for future research that might further shed light on these theoretical approaches for understanding body dissatisfaction.     

Evaluating the effect of delay spacing on delay discounting: carry‐over effects on steepness and the form of the discounting function

Most delay discounting studies use tasks that arrange delay progressions in which the spacing between consecutive delays becomes progressively larger. To date, little research has examined delay discounting using other progressions. The present study assessed whether the form or steepness of discounting varied across different delay progressions. Human participants completed three discounting tasks with delay progressions that varied in the time between consecutive delays: a standard (increasing duration between delays), linear (equal duration between delays), and an inverse progression (decreasing duration between delays). Steepness of discounting was generally reduced, and remained so, following experience with the inverse progression. Effects of the delay progression on the best fitting equation were order‐dependent. Overall the hyperbola model provided better fits, but the exponential model performed better with data from the inverse progression. Regardless, differences in which model fit best were often small. The finding that the best fitting model was dependent, in some cases, on the delay progression suggests that a single quantitative model of discounting may not be applicable to describe discounting across all procedural contexts. Ultimately, changes in steepness of discounting following experience with the inverse progression appeared similar to anchoring effects, whose mechanism will require further study to delineate.     

Recruiting source effects: A test of two alternative explanations

This field study examined two alternative explanations for recruitment source effects which have been consistently reported in previous studies. For this sample of 98 social service workers, the ‘ realism’ explanation for source differences received more empirical support than the ‘ individual difference ’ explanation. Employee referrals were found to have more realistic expectations than individuals who responded to newspaper ads or directly applied to the organization. In addition, recruitment source was found to be related to employee performance and involuntary turnover. The authors suggest an, as yet, unexamined individual difference variable (motivation) as a possible explanation for the unexpected performance findings.