On work environments and social roles

Whether instructions to be creative will act as goals or constraints was examined by comparing creative, practical, and analytical performance ratings under special instructions to be creative, practical, analytical, or under no special instructions at all, for 110 students with 2 different thinking styles. Consistent with goal-setting theory, specific-related instructions resulted in higher performance for each of the 3 performance ratings over no special instructions. In line with a person-situation fit model, people who prefer to play with their own ideas (i.e., those with a legislative thinking style) showed higher creative performance, whereas people who prefer to analyze and evaluate ideas (i.e., those with a judicial thinking style) showed lower creative performance when not given any special instructions.     

A relational model of workplace victimization: social roles and patterns of victimization in dyadic relationships

This article proposes a model of the ways in which dyadic interactions between employees who occupy 1 of 4 archetypal social roles in organizations can lead to either episodic or institutionalized patterns of victimization. The model shows how the occurrence of victimization involving these 4 role types is influenced by organizational variables such as power differences, culture, and access to social capital. The model integrates behavioral and social structural antecedents of victimization to develop a relational perspective on the dynamics of harmful behavior in the workplace.     

Conditional discrimination in young children: the roles of associative and relational processing

Two experiments examined conditional discrimination in 4- to 6-year-olds. Children learned to choose one of two objects (e.g., circle) when the background was, say, red and to choose the other object (e.g., triangle) when the background was, say, blue. Awareness was assessed and interpreted as a marker of relational processing. In Experiment 1, most 4- and 5-year-olds did not reach the learning criterion. Children in Experiment 2 solved simpler reversal learning problems before the conditional discrimination problems. Most 4- to 6-year-olds reached criterion, but they did not necessarily demonstrate awareness, suggesting that reversal learning and conditional discrimination can be acquired through associative or relational processing. Relational processing increased with age and was used more on simpler problems. Fluid intelligence predicted Problem 2 performance in children who used relational (not associative) processing on Problem 1. Prior experience with simpler problems and awareness of relational structure are influential in children's conditional discrimination.     

The roles of associative and executive processes in creative cognition

How does the mind produce creative ideas? Past research has pointed to important roles of both executive and associative processes in creative cognition. But such work has largely focused on the influence of one ability or the other—executive or associative—so the extent to which both abilities may jointly affect creative thought remains unclear. Using multivariate structural equation modeling, we conducted two studies to determine the relative influences of executive and associative processes in domain-general creative cognition (i.e., divergent thinking). Participants completed a series of verbal fluency tasks, and their responses were analyzed by means of latent semantic analysis (LSA) and scored for semantic distance as a measure of associative ability. Participants also completed several measures of executive function—including broad retrieval ability (Gr) and fluid intelligence (Gf). Across both studies, we found substantial effects of both associative and executive abilities: As the average semantic distance between verbal fluency responses and cues increased, so did the creative quality of divergent-thinking responses (Study 1 and Study 2). Moreover, the creative quality of divergent-thinking responses was predicted by the executive variables—Gr (Study 1) and Gf (Study 2). Importantly, the effects of semantic distance and the executive function variables remained robust in the same structural equation model predicting divergent thinking, suggesting unique contributions of both constructs. The present research extends recent applications of LSA in creativity research and provides support for the notion that both associative and executive processes underlie the production of novel ideas.     

False recall in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm: The roles of gist and associative strength

Theories of false memories, particularly in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, focus on word association strength and gist. Backward associative strength (BAS) is a strong predictor of false recall in this paradigm. However, other than being defined as a measure of association between studied list words and falsely recalled nonpresented critical words, there is little understanding of this variable. In Experiment 1, we used a knowledge-type taxonomy to classify the semantic relations in DRM stimuli. These knowledge types predicted false-recall probability, as well as BAS itself, with the most important being situation features, synonyms, and taxonomic relations. In three subsequent experiments, we demonstrated that lists composed solely of situation features can elicit a gist and produce false memories, particularly when monitoring processes are made more difficult. Our results identify the semantic factors that underlie BAS and suggest how considering semantic relations leads to a better understanding of gist formation.     

Integrating research on social class and social relationships

A decade of research on social class has shown that those lower in social class tend to be more interdependent or focused on others. Here, we show that considering social class as an aspect of culture, which means that it shapes thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, can improve the precision, generalizability, and utility of theories about relationships. Moreover, we show the value of research on social class that integrates theories and methodologies developed in relationship science (e.g., studying existing relationships in real life, over time) with those developed in the science of social class (e.g., social class as a form of culture; the distinction between material resources and rank in society). Integrating these perspectives will accelerate understanding of when and how relationships can be beneficial for all. Recent research on social-class variation in interpersonal processes lays the groundwork for substantial advances across domains of psychology.     

Metarelational models: Configurations of social relationships

Beyond cognizing persons and social relationships, people also think about combinations of relationships: metarelational models (MeRMs). If relationships are words, then MeRMs are syntax; if relationships are atoms, MeRMs are chemical compounds. MeRMs are the motivated, emotionally experienced, morally directive models for generating, understanding, coordinating, planning, evaluating, modulating, sanctioning, and redressing configurations of social relationships. Previous research and theory on triads and balance, networks, cross‐cutting ties, and kinship systems has explored the causal connections among social relationships, but MeRM theory posits something more: shared, culturally informed MeRMs that people use to jointly construct meaningful coordinated action. The social interactions of nonhuman animals and pre‐verbal infants indicate that they use MeRMs, supporting the contention that core innate cognition includes the basic structures of MeRMs. There are six elementary kinds of MeRMs, and recursive linking of relational models (RMs) generates indefinitely more. MeRMs shape individual psychology, relationships, groups, institutions, and cultures. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personal goals in social roles: divergences and convergences across roles and levels of analysis

Most contemporary personal goal research aggregates across goals, perhaps masking important differences between goals. We assessed this risk by examining both similarities and differences between the goals that participants pursued in five important social roles. Previous relevant findings (Cantor, Norem, Niedenthal, Langston, & Brower, 1987) and self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) were used to predict between-role differences in goal appraisal dimensions. Although theoretically meaningful differences were found across child, employee, romantic, friendship, and student goals, and also across within- and between-subject levels of analysis, all goals were essentially the same in one important way: Making longitudinal progress in them predicted positive change in accompanying role-circumstances and role-satisfaction (excepting friendship goals). This indicates that researchers do not necessarily lose information by aggregating, and affirms that goal-attainment is generally desirable.     

Predicting performance on the Raven's Matrices: The roles of associative learning and retrieval efficiency

Previous studies have shown that performance on Williams and Pearlberg's (2006) complex associative learning task is a good predictor of fluid intelligence. This task is similar in structure to that used in studying the fan effect (Anderson, 1974), as both tasks involve forming multiple associations and require retrieval in the face of interference. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relations among complex associative learning, working memory, and fluid intelligence. Specifically, we asked whether retrieval efficiency, as measured by the fan effect, could account for the relation between complex associative learning and performance on Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices. Consistent with previous findings, complex associative learning predicted Raven's performance, but the fan effect did not account for this relation. Notably, the learning phase of the fan effect task was significantly correlated with both complex associative learning and Raven's performance, providing further support for the importance of learning as a predictor of fluid intelligence.     

Team roles: Their relationships to character strengths and job satisfaction

Well-functioning teamwork has frequently been linked to increased work satisfaction and performance. However, there is a paucity of research on the different types of roles in teams. Recently, a new model of role behavior in teams was proposed (comprising seven such team roles: Idea creator, information gatherer, decision-maker, implementer, influencer, energizer, and relationship manager), but an assessment instrument was lacking so far. The present study describes the construction of an instrument for the assessment of these roles in two samples (N = 291 and 274) and examines their relationships with character strengths and job satisfaction. Results show that the team roles are positively related to job satisfaction and most character strengths. The findings support the important role of character strengths in work-related settings and lay ground for further studies on team roles.     

Correlations between optimism and social relationships

This study examined the relationships between self-report scores of 275 Japanese college students on the Japanese version of the revised Life Orientation Test and the Interpersonal Relationship Inventory. Ratings for optimism were positively correlated with those for social support and reciprocity (rs= .39 and .29, respectively) and negatively correlated with those for interpersonal conflict (r = -.26).     

Seductive father-daughter relationships and sex roles in women

The present study evaluated the relationship of three variables reportedly characteristic of families in which father-daughter incest occurs to women's sex-role functioning and attitudes toward heterosexual interactions. The results showed that a sexualized father-daughter relationship was correlated with negative male traits (e.g., arrogance), low levels of positive female traits (emotionality), and negative attitudes toward male sexuality and female competitiveness. Discord in the parental marriage was associated with positive female traits and negatively with attributions of danger to male sexuality. Low levels of paternal encouragement of autonomy correlated with negative female traits (spinelessness, subordination to others) and low positive masculine traits (competitiveness). The implications of the findings to our understanding of incest are discussed.     

Relationship social comparisons in dating and marital relationships: Adding relationship social comparison interpretations

ABSTRACT

How an individual interprets a relationship social comparison may have important implications for the self and one’s relationship. We asked whether these interpretations significantly mediated the relation between the manipulated social comparison direction and relationship satisfaction, relationship commitment, satisfaction with life, and happiness for both dating (Studies 1 and 2) and married (Study 2) individuals. Participants were randomly assigned to make an upward or downward comparison to a friend’s romantic relationship and completed measures of their interpretations, relationship quality, satisfaction with life, and happiness. For both dating and married individuals, there were indirect effects of manipulated social comparison direction through the interpretations for all dependent variables. Although there were some differences in mediation for married and dating individuals, the effect sizes were not significantly different.     

Roles of the qualities and locations of stimuli and responses in simple associative learning

The Quality-Location Phenomenon is defined by the previous research of Lawicka (1964 and 1969) in which dogs easily learn go/no-go tasks to differences in stimulus quality and go-left/go-right tasks to differences in stimulus location whereas the opposite pairings of tasks and stimulus attributes are difficult to learn. The Lawicka-Konorski explanation in terms of drive differentiation and response selection is described, and a new hypothesis, the Quality-Location Hypothesis, is offered. This hypothesis states that the quality of a stimulus best serves as a cue for the quality of a response, whereas the location of a stimulus best serves as a cue for the location of a response. The evidence for the hypothesis is reviewed, and experimental considerations for its evaluation are mentioned.     

Good governance,law and social reality: Problematic relationships

This article examines the ways in which the linkage between good governance and economic development has originally developed as alegal discussion constrained by the constitution of the World Bank. This normative character of the linkage has subsequently shaped discussions about good governance. It is here argued that this tends to lead these discussions to focus on selective and normative aspects of the interrelations between economic, political and legal-administrative structures and institutions. While the role of law is increasingly acknowledged in more recent debates and policy statements, law tends to be approached from a normative economic or legal perspective that does not provide much insight into the social significance of law. Too little attention is given to anthropological or sociological approaches to legal pluralism in society. These factors combine to detract attention from the fact that governance issues in reality deal withbad rather than with good governance. Franz von Benda-Beckmann is professor in the department of Agrarian Law of the Agricultural University Wageningen and teaches on law and rural development in Third World states and anthropology of law. He holds a doctorate in law and aHabilitation in anthropology. His primary research interests are issues of property rights and social security in rural development, legal pluralism and legal anthropological theory. This is a revised version of a paper presented in the 1993 RAWOO (Advisory Council for Scientific Research in Development Problems) lecture series.     

Developmental relationships among metamemory,elaborative strategy use,and associative memory

Two experiments examined the relationships among metamemory knowledge, the use of associative memory strategies like elaboration, and cued-recall memory. In Experiment 1, 5th and 12th graders verbalized their strategies while studying noun pairs; their cued-recall memory of those pairs was then tested. Metamemory knowledge was assessed before or after this task. ANOVAs revealed developmental increases in associative strategies, cued recall, and metamemory. Multiple regression indicated the increase in associative strategies predicted all but 4% of the increase in cued recall; metamemory development in turn predicted all but 4% of the increase in associative strategies. Metamemory was a better predictor than a nonverbal measure of intelligence. The strong relationships were due partly to methodological refinements, including a counterbalanced design, a direct strategy measure, a reliable composite rather than single-item metamemory measure, ordinal rather than dichotomous scoring of metamemory items, and regression rather than χ² analyses. The results of Experiment 1 were replicated in Experiment 2. Metamemory development also predicted most of the grade difference in cued recall that remained after study strategies were equated by elaboration instructions, suggesting it may explain improvements in retrieval strategies as well.     

Sex roles,social roles,and clinical judgments of mental health

This study examined whether clinical psychologists expect similar behavior from males and females in contexts that are traditionally male vs. female. In a modification of the task by Broverman et al. (Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1970, 34, 1–7), practicing psychologists (N=104) rated the appropriate behavior of a mature, healthy, socially competent man in the home environment, man in the work environment, woman in the home environment, or woman in the work environment. There was a significant effect of environment, with ratings closer to the pole traditionally labeled masculine in the work environment (p<.001). However, clinicians did not assign significantly different ratings to men vs. women. These data call into question the continued use of feminine and masculine to describe behavior, and emphasize the need to specify the environmental context in research on sex role stereotypes.This report is based on an undergraduate honors thesis conducted by the second author under the sponsorship of the first. Order of authorship is alphabetical.