What’s good for me depends on what I see in you: Intimacy avoidance and resources derived from close others

Past research has demonstrated that comfort with intimacy differentially affects the extent to which a person assimilates/contrasts to a close other. Specifically, individuals comfortable with intimacy benefit most from assimilating to those who embody positive aspects, whereas individuals uncomfortable with intimacy benefit most from contrasting to those who embody a mix of positive and negative aspects. Using a multi-method approach, the current research provides evidence suggesting that both those who are positively regarded and those who engender mixed feelings have the potential to benefit the perceiver differentially as a function of the types of traits that are most salient at the time. In Study 1, consistent with predictions, high-avoidant individuals contrasted to the salient traits of a romantic partner and performed better on an intelligence test after thinking about their partner’s unintelligent compared to intelligent traits, whereas low-avoidant individuals assimilated. In Study 2, high-avoidant individuals contrasted to friends’ traits and exhibited more positive cardiovascular responses (i.e., greater challenge) while talking about friends’ negative traits and more negative responses (i.e., greater threat) while talking about friends’ positive traits. Together, these findings suggest that there are situations during which low- and high-avoidant individuals differentially benefit from highly regarded close others.     

Expectations of consistency about the self: Consequences for self-concept formation

This study proposes that the on-line versus memory-based judgment distinction has important implications for understanding self-concept formation and content. Past research has shown that perceivers form on-line judgments of targets who are expected to display a great deal of behavioral consistency (e.g., individuals) but form memory-based judgments of targets who are expected to display less behavioral consistency (e.g., groups). Experiment 1 found that perceptions of behavioral consistency for the self were strong and closer to perceptions of consistency for individuals than for groups. Thus, we predicted that self-concepts should, by default, be formed on-line. Experiment 2 supported this prediction. Experiment 3 manipulated participants’ expectations of behavior consistency and found that those expecting greater consistency in their behaviors formed on-line self-concepts. Experiment 4 used a different methodology and behavioral domain, and it collected more direct process data that further supported the importance of the on-line versus memory-based distinction for the self. Implications for understanding self-concepts and for comparing self-knowledge to how people understand other types of social entities are discussed.     

Adult attachment and perceptions of closeness

An online sample of more than 150,000 participants was used to examine whether—in addition to predicting how much intimacy people want—attachment styles also predict how people define and perceive intimacy. Results indicated that, as compared with relatively secure individuals, people with high levels of attachment anxiety required more time, affection, and self‐disclosure to construe a relationship as “close.” Additionally, anxious individuals perceived less intimacy in relationship vignettes than did their less anxious peers. In contrast, highly avoidant individuals required less time, affection, and self‐disclosure to define a relationship as “close,” and they perceived more intimacy in vignettes than did their more secure peers. These findings indicate that people who are relatively anxious not only want more intimacy in their relationships, but they are also less likely to perceive intimacy, as compared with their less anxious peers. Conversely, people high in avoidance not only want less intimacy, but they are also more sensitive to its presence, as compared with their less avoidant peers.     

Gender differences in self-presentation: A comparison of the roles of flatteringness and intimacy in self-disclosure to friends

This study examines the role of self-flattery in the disclosure of young adults to their best and less close, same- and cross-sex friends. One hundred eighty-five college students participated by filling out an anonymous questionnaire that asked about their disclosure of 55 topics to each of four friends. In addition, each subject indicated (1) how self-flattering they perceived such disclosure to be and (2) how intimate they believed each topic to be. The results indicate that both the degree of flatteringness of a topic and its intimacy strongly affect tendency to disclose, with intimacy being the larger of the two influences. These effects of these factors were not uniform with respect to subject’s gender, friend’s gender, and friend’s closeness, but instead interacted with them.     

Being accepted for who we are: evidence that social validation of the intrinsic self reduces general defensiveness

Three studies examined the possibility that being liked intrinsically by others--for who one is--reduces self-esteem defense, whereas being liked for what one has achieved does not. All 3 studies contrasted the effects on self-esteem defense of liking based on intrinsic or achievement-related aspects of self. Study 1 showed that thoughts of being liked intrinsically reduced defensive bias toward downward social comparison. Study 2 demonstrated that being liked for intrinsic aspects of self reduced participants' tendency to defensively distance themselves from a negatively portrayed other. Study 3 revealed that being liked for intrinsic aspects of self encouraged a preference for upward over downward counterfactuals for a negative event. In all 3 studies, similar reductions in defensiveness were not found when liking was based on achievements. Discussion focuses on implications for understanding the functional value of different bases of self-worth.     

Adult attachment styles and mothers' relationships with their young children

This research examined the relationship between adult attachment styles and mothers' feelings of closeness to their children, mothers' interaction styles in a teaching situation, individual differences in the desire to have children, and the concerns individuals have about their ability to relate to young children as parents. Investigation 1 revealed that more avoidant mothers did not feel as close to their preschool children as did more secure mothers, and they behaved less supportively toward their children during a laboratory teaching task. Anxious-ambivalence was also associated with feelings of less closeness, but the level of closeness achieved depended on marital quality. Investigation 2 showed that more avoidant college men and women, compared to secure ones, were more uncertain about their capacity to relate to young children and about whether they wanted to have children. Highly ambivalent men and women reported being more uncertain about their capacity to function well as parents, but ambivalence was not related to the strength of the desire to have children. These findings are discussed in the context of attachment theory.     

The Role of Individual Factors in Friendship Formation: Considering Shyness,Self‐Esteem,Social Skills,and Defensive Pessimism

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of four individual factors (shyness, self‐esteem, social skills, and defensive pessimism) on the formation of friendships among undergraduate students. Freshmen (N = 93) completed a questionnaire assessing their shyness, self‐esteem, social skills, and level of defensive pessimism. Then, they answered questions about interpersonal indices (number of friends, satisfaction with friendships, their willingness to continue relationships, and their feelings of interpersonal friction). After 3 months, they completed a questionnaire about their anxiety state and behavior when talking with the people they had met since university admission. Moreover, they discussed the interpersonal indices they used in a pre‐questionnaire. Path analysis indicated that shyness directly leads to having fewer friends, whereas social skills lead to having more friends through extroversive behavior. Moreover, self‐esteem was positively related to an increase in the willingness to continue relationships, and reflection and pessimistic thinking (which is one component of defensive pessimism) led to a feeling of being fatigued from the effort of considering and respecting the reactions of others.     

Power,testosterone, and risk‐taking

Power has been found to increase risk‐taking (Anderson & Galinsky, 2006 ) but this effect appears to be moderated by individual differences in power motivation (Maner, Gailliot, Butz, & Peruche, 2007 ). Among individuals high in power motivation, the experience of power leads to more conservative decisions. As testosterone is associated with the pursuit of power and status (Dabbs & Dabbs, 2000 ), we reasoned that high‐testosterone individuals primed with power might be similarly risk‐avoidant. Conversely, we hypothesized that high‐testosterone individuals primed with low power, would see risk‐taking as a vehicle for pursuing potential gains to their status and resources. We report findings from two experiments that are consistent with these predictions. In Experiment 1, higher testosterone males (as indicated by second–fourth digit ratio) showed greater risk‐taking when primed with low power. Experiment 2 replicated this effect and also showed that when primed with high power, higher testosterone males took fewer risks. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Changes in attachment orientations across the transition to parenthood

According to attachment theory, individuals should experience changes in attachment orientations (styles) if they encounter experiences or events that strongly reinforce or directly contradict the major concerns of their existing orientations. Systematic changes should be most evident across stressful life transitions. Wives and husbands expecting their first child completed scales measuring their attachment orientations along with perceptions of themselves, their spouses, and their marriage both 6 weeks before and 6 months after childbirth. As predicted, women became more ambivalent across the transition if they entered parenthood perceiving less spousal support and more spousal anger, with perceptions of anger having stronger impact. Women who entered parenthood seeking less spousal support and those whose husbands were higher in avoidance became more avoidant across the transition. Men who perceived themselves as providing more prenatal support to their wives became less avoidant. These results extend attachment theory and research in novel directions.     

Stereotypes and crossed‐category evaluations: The case of gender and science education

A sample of UK adolescents (n = 1140), grouped by sex and liking of science, evaluated themselves, and girl and boy targets who did or did not like science, on masculine, feminine and gender non‐specific traits. Contrary to sociological concerns about the masculine image and appeal of science, those who liked science more rated themselves more positively on feminine and gender non‐specific—but not masculine—traits. The girl target was rated lower on feminine traits if she liked science, but the boy was rated higher on feminine traits if he liked science. Target ratings also showed in‐group enhancement based on liking of science, and a ‘black sheep’ effect: those who liked science less discriminated against the same‐sex target who liked science, especially on gender in‐group relevant traits. We argue that gender differences in science education should be attributed partly to subjective group dynamics and not solely to images of science.     

Self‐Representations in Immersive Virtual Environments1

This experiment varied whether individuals interacted with virtual representations of themselves or of others in an immersive virtual environment. In the self‐representation condition, half of the participants interacted with a self‐representation that bore photographic resemblance to them, whereas the other half interacted with a self‐representation that bore no resemblance to them. In the other‐representation condition, participants interacted with a representation of another individual. The experimental design was a 2 (Participant Gender) × 3 (Agent Identity: high‐similarity self‐representation vs. low‐similarity self‐representation vs. other representation). Overall, participants displayed more intimacy‐consistent behaviors for representations of themselves than others. Implications of using immersive virtual environment technology for studying the self are discussed.     

矛盾态度对决策后自我评价的影响：有中介的双阶段调节作用

矛盾态度不仅影响信息搜索、态度形成和决策行为, 而且影响决策后自我评价。本研究构建了一个基于不确定性的中介作用、决策困难水平和结果效价的双调节作用的矛盾态度与决策后自我评价关系模型, 3个实验通过设计冲突情境对矛盾态度进行操纵, 冲突情境包括选择一所大学和就业企业, 运用SPSS 20.0软件对数据进行分析, 发现矛盾态度对决策后自我评价存在积极影响, 矛盾态度通过不确定性影响决策后自我评价的中介过程受到决策困难水平和结果效价的调节。矛盾态度和决策困难水平对不确定性产生影响, 不确定性和结果效价对决策后自我评价产生影响, 由于不确定性的分离效应, 使矛盾态度和决策困难水平对决策后自我评价产生相互冲突的双重作用结果。当获得负面结果时, 相较于低决策困难水平, 高决策困难水平的个体, 矛盾态度通过不确定性对决策后自我评价产生积极影响; 当获得正面结果时, 相较于高决策困难水平, 低决策困难水平的个体, 矛盾态度通过不确定性对决策后自我评价产生积极影响。     

Attachment and dependence regulation within daily interactions with romantic partners

For 2 weeks, 74 New Zealand undergraduate students recorded their reactions to two components of situational dependence during interactions with their romantic partner: low personal control and high partner impact. Lower personal control predicted lower perceived regard and intimacy, greater partner derogation and withdrawal (self‐protective dependence regulation), and reduced attempts to improve interaction quality (relationship‐promotive dependence regulation). Participants also reported greater self‐protective dependence regulation the more their partner was impacting on their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. As expected, more anxious individuals reported higher drops in perceived regard and greater self‐protective dependence regulation when experiencing lower control, whereas more avoidant individuals reported lower regard and reduced relationship‐promotive behavior when experiencing stronger partner impact. The links between attachment and dependence are discussed.     

What will I be? The role of temporal perspective in predictions of affect, traits, and self-narratives

This article examined the effect of temporal perspective on the multifaceted future self (i.e., affect, traits, and self-narratives). Participants imagined themselves in the near versus distant future, and subsequently predicted their affect (Experiment 1), traits (Experiment 2), and naturalistic self-concepts (Experiment 3). Drawing from the Construal Level Theory and self-enhancement literatures, we hypothesized and found across three experiments that predictions of one's self in the distant future are more positive than predictions of one's self in the near future. Furthermore, building upon literature on the existence of normative and culturally sanctioned implicit theories of positive growth throughout the life span, we hypothesized and found that increased temporal distance yielded less variable predictions of affect, traits, and self-narratives (all three experiments) and that higher-level attributions mediated the effect of temporal perspective on the positivity of self-narratives (Experiment 3) and that time distance leads to more positive and less variable future selves.     

But I'm No Bigot: How Prejudiced White Americans Maintain Unprejudiced Self‐Images

Four experiments investigate a modern paradox: White Americans harbor racial prejudice, but view themselves as unprejudiced. We hypothesized that social representations of prejudice available in American culture lead many Whites to conclude that they are relatively unprejudiced. In Experiment 1, participants primed with the bigot stereotype viewed themselves as less prejudiced. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants exposed to media representations of racists viewed themselves as less prejudiced. In Experiment 4, participants sought exposure to media representations of prejudice after a threat to their unprejudiced self‐image. These experiments suggest that representations of prejudice in American culture lead prejudiced individuals to view themselves as unprejudiced, and the effect of these representations on people's unprejudiced self‐images can be passive or intentional.     

“We” are familiar but “It” is not: Ingroup pronouns trigger feelings of familiarity

The notion that language can shape social perception has a long history in psychology. The current work adds to this literature by investigating the relationship between ingroup-designating pronouns and perceptions of familiarity. In two experiments, participants were exposed to nonsense syllables that were primed with ingroup (e.g., we) and control (e.g., it) pronouns before perceptions of the syllables’ familiarity (Experiments 1 and 2) and positivity (Experiment 2) were assessed. Because previous work has shown that ingroup pronouns are perceived positively (Perdue, Dovidio, Gurtman, & Tyler, 1990), and that positivity can trigger familiarity (e.g., [Garcia-Marques et al., 2004] and [Monin, 2003]), we predicted that syllables primed with ingroup-designating pronouns would be perceived as more familiar and positive than would syllables primed with control pronouns. These predictions were confirmed. Additionally, Experiment 2 provided suggestive evidence that the effect of ingroup pronouns on perceived familiarity is mediated by positivity. Implications of these results for the literatures on how language shapes intergroup biases and on how positivity triggers feelings of familiarity are discussed.     

Self‐knowledge in childhood: Relations with children's imaginary companions and understanding of mind

Relations between interior self‐knowledge and (a) imaginary companion (IC) status and (b) theory of mind (ToM) abilities were investigated in a sample (N= 80) of 4‐ to 7‐year‐olds. Interior self‐knowledge was assessed in terms of the extent to which children acknowledged that they (rather than an adult) were the authority on unobservable aspects of themselves (e.g., dreaming, thinking, hunger). Compared with children without an IC, those who possessed a parentally corroborated IC ascribed less interior self‐knowledge to an adult, with a trend for them to assign more interior self‐knowledge to themselves. Children's interior self‐knowledge judgments were not associated with their ToM performance. IC status was also unrelated to ToM performance. We consider how having an IC may provide children with opportunities to distinguish between knowledge that is inaccessible to an external observer and that which an external observer may glean without being told.     

Self-construal priming modulates the scope of visual attention

Although it is well documented that cultures influence basic cognitive processes such as attention, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We tested the hypothesis that self-concepts that characterize people from different cultures mediate the variation of visual attention. After being primed with self-construals that emphasize the Eastern interdependent self or the Western independent self, Chinese participants were asked to discriminate a central target letter flanked by compatible or incompatible stimuli (Experiment 1) or global/local letters in a compound stimulus (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 showed that, while responses were slower to the incompatible than to the compatible stimuli, this flanker compatibility effect was increased by the interdependent relative to the independent self-construal priming. Experiment 2 showed that the interdependent-self priming resulted in faster responses to the global than to the local targets in compound letters whereas a reverse pattern was observed in the independent-self priming condition. The results provide evidence for dynamics of the scope of visual attention as a function of self-construal priming that switches self-concept toward the interdependent or independent styles in Chinese.