The role of expectations in comparisons

Expectations are proposed as a unifying framework for explaining a variety of findings on comparative judgment. Expectations may pertain to either the features of each separate object or their simultaneous occurrence in all relevant objects. Two experiments demonstrate that inducing expectations by varying the frequency with which a component occurs, as well as the frequency with which it is shared by the compared objects, results in augmented weighting of unexpected components. Expectations can arise not only from experienced frequencies but also from an inferred set of alternatives. Features of cohesive stimuli are shown to be more expected than features of noncohesive stimuli, in the latter sense. The relatively higher weighting of distinctive features in cohesive stimuli, as well as the higher weight assigned to structurally aligned differences, could thus reflect modifications in feature expectedness. Further experiments show how task-dependent weighting interacts with expectations to produce asymmetries between similarity and difference judgments. Finally, it is argued that changes in expectations regarding objects' attributes can explain context effects across different domains, including some types of preference reversals.     

Neuropeptide and cardiovascular responses to intravenous catheterization in normotensive and hypertensive blacks and whites

Research suggests that heightened cardiovascular and neuroendocrine (typically catecholamine) responses to stressors may lead to the development of hypertension and that there may be race differences in patterns of reactivity that are potentially pathogenic. Certain neuropeptides exert profound effects on blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR), yet no published studies have examined relationships between these peptides, hypertensive status, race, and reactivity. Seventeen Black and 20 White normotensive and borderline-hypertensive male 19- to 50-year-olds underwent intravenous catheterization while cardiovascular and neuropeptide responses to the stress of being catheterized were examined. Results indicate that, in response to the stressor, Black hypertensives, showed significantly lower endorphin levels compared to Black normotensives, and White hypertensives showed significantly higher levels of beta-endorphin compared to White normotensives. Groups were not significantly different in endorphin levels at recovery. Black hypertensives also showed significantly higher stressor-induced HR and systolic and diastolic BP compared to White hypertensives and normotensives. Lower levels of beta-endorphin and lower urine sodium excretion were associated with higher BP and HR.     

The transmission of racial attitudes from fathers to sons: a study of blacks and whites

This study examines relationships between racial attitudes of fathers and sons. The sample includes one hundred white fathers and sons and an equal number of black fathers and sons. Three measurements of social distance were undertaken. The fathers indicated their own racial attitudes, while sons indicated their perceptions of their fathers' racial attitudes, as well as their own. The findings indicated that sons of both races perceive their fathers to be more prejudiced than they actually are. There is a relationship between fathers' perceived racial attitudes and sons' attitudes in the white sample, but black fathers appear to have no influence on the racial attitudes of their sons. It appears that adolescents' perception of parental attitudes is more relevant to socialization than actual attitudes. With regard to racial attitudes, black families appear to be less influential in the socialization process.     

Attitudes toward women and their work roles: Effects of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations

This study examined the effects of personal religious orientation, religious denomination, and gender on attitudes toward women and their work roles using a sample of 263 single undergraduate university students. Subjects with a high intrinsic religious orientation put significantly more emphasis on family than career in their anticipated general lifestyle relative to those with a low intrinsic religious orientation. Subjects with a high intrinsic religious orientation were also more likely to anticipate the female spouse spending less time in a profession during the children's early years. Males showed more traditional attitudes toward women than females, but there were no gender effects on measures of preferred general lifestyle, preferred child-care distribution, or preferred career involvement for the wife. Subjects belonging to mainline and conservative denomination did not differ significantly in their attitudes toward women or their work roles.     

Achievement goal orientations and motivational outcomes in youth sport: The role of social orientations

ObjectivesSocial goal orientations, which reflect ways of conceptualizing competence in terms of social relationships with others, have been researched minimally in the physical domain. While the relationship between task and ego orientations and motivational outcomes has been well-studied, the link of friendship, group acceptance, and coach praise orientations with enjoyment, perceived physical competence, and intrinsic motivation warrants further study.MethodMale and female middle-school students (N = 303) completed questionnaires assessing task, ego, coach praise, friendship, and group acceptance orientations; enjoyment; perceived physical competence; and motivation. Two approaches to data analysis (variable-centered, person-centered) examined whether social orientations were significantly related to motivational outcomes among adolescents.ResultsVariable-centered analysis (i.e., canonical correlation) showed that social orientations were related to enjoyment, perceived physical competence, and intrinsic motivation. Person-centered analyses (i.e., cluster analysis, MANOVA) classified participants with similar patterns of goal orientations and then compared the emergent groups on motivational outcomes. Participants who defined success using either higher task, ego, and social goal orientations or higher friendship and lower ego orientations reported the most adaptive responses (higher perceived competence, enjoyment, and intrinsic motivation).ConclusionsSocial orientations in sport are important to consider alongside task and ego orientations in research stemming from achievement goal theory. Defining success or competence in terms of social relationships can have positive motivational benefits in sport.     

Attitudes toward the male role and their correlates

This study investigated relationships between college men's attitudes toward the male role and five theoretical concomitants of the role. It was expected that males endorsing traditional male-role norms would be more homophobic, more strongly support the Type A behavior orientation, support less self-disclosure to male and female friends, and approve of the maintenance of asymmetrical decision-making power with their intimate partner. Men from two liberal arts college in a New England metropolitan area (N=223) provided the data to test the hypotheses. Endorsement of the traditional role was associated with all predicted concomitants, expect the measure of disclosure to male friend. The results are discussed in terms of the pervasive nature of the antifemininity norm within the male role.An earlier version of this article was presented as a paper at the meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, 1984.     

Reactions to two versions of affirmative action among whites, blacks, and Hispanics

Houston-area Whites (n = 414), Blacks (n = 392), American-born Hispanics (n = 162), and Hispanic immigrants (n = 177) evaluated a self-defined "typical" affirmative action plan (AAP) and a tiebreak AAP that applies under conditions of equal qualifications and underrepresentation. Whites preferred Tiebreak; Blacks and Hispanics preferred the typical AAP. The groups differed in beliefs about the procedures and fairness of affirmative action (AA), perceptions of workplace discrimination, and political orientations. Perceived fairness predicted support for both AAPs in all American-born groups, but the impact of other predictors varied greatly across AAPs and ethnic groups. The results clarify the bases for Whites' opposition to AA as they construe it. The results also underscore the importance of specifying the AAP procedures, of uncovering the predictors of AA attitudes among target-group members, and of conducting separate analyses in each ethnic community.     

A statistical note on "differential misdiagnosis of blacks and whites by the MMPI".

This report presents a critique of the conclusion by Strauss et al, that MMPI diagnostic decision-making rules derived from whites are inapplicable to blacks. It is shown that for the data from two of their three MMPI indices, a multiple discriminant function and the Goldberg Index, there was no clear evidence for greater misdiagnosis among blacks than whites when the hit rates among psychotics, behavior disorders or both are examined. For the third measure, semiactuarial profile analysis, the results show less diagnostic accuracy for blacks psychotics, but this one result does not warrant a broad generalization. A preferable method of analysis and a source of potential bias in one of the measures are pointed out.     

The mediating role of parental expectations in culture and well-being

In two studies, we examined the role of perceived fulfillment of parental expectations in the subjective well-being of college students. In Study 1, we found that American college students reported having higher levels of life satisfaction and self-esteem than did Japanese college students. American college students also reported having fulfilled parental expectations to a greater degree than did Japanese college students. Most importantly, the cultural difference in well-being was mediated by perceived fulfillment of parental expectations. In Study 2, we replicated the mediational finding with Asian American and European American college students. Asian American participants also perceived their parents' expectations about their academic performance to be more specific than did European Americans, which was associated with the cultural difference in perceived fulfillment of parental expectations. In short, perceived parental expectations play an important role in the cultural difference in the well-being of Asians and European Americans.     

College women’s value orientations toward family, career, and graduate school

This study was designed to examine how college women’s valuing of graduate education predicted their intentions to attend graduate school, using a new measure of the valuing of graduate school. A second purpose was to assess relations of college women’s perceptions of the relative importance of family and career to their valuing of graduate education. Two hundred and sixteen college women completed a newly developed survey that assessed these constructs. The items assessing task values were designed to assess components of task value defined by Eccles et al. (1983). Reliability and factor analyses demonstrated that the instrument adequately measured different components of task value. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that components of task value predicted intentions to attend graduate school. The women were strongly career-oriented, and their orientations to career related positively to their valuing of graduate education.     

The role of dialogic processes in designing career expectations

This article examines the role played by dialogic processes in the designing or redesigning of future expectations during a career guidance intervention. It discusses a specific method (“Giving instruction to a double”) developed and used during career counseling sessions with two recent doctoral graduates. It intends both to help them outline or specify a career expectation and to create a means to observe the involved dialogic processes. This method was designed within the framework of the “making oneself self” model (Guichard, 2004, 2005, 2009). Dialogic processes were analyzed by referring to (a) this model's conceptualization of individual reflexivity, (b) the Benveniste general linguistic theory, and (c) the concept of “acts of thought”, as recently developed from the Peirce semiotic theory. It appeared that each of these two graduates favored different dialogic processes and acts of thought and evolved accordingly. One of them re-read her whole life and created a new career expectation. The other worked on his previous one to move it from the past university laboratory where he wrote his thesis to a future expected job in a specific private company.