Gender Differences in the Influence of Professional Tenure on Work Attitudes

In this study we examined gender differences in the influence of professional tenure on 3 work attitudes: career salience, organizational commitment, and job involvement. In total, 220 men and 125 women working in high-level jobs in a large multinational organization completed a written questionnaire. Using hierarchical regression analyses, and controlling for differences between men and women in age, the presence of children, and number of working hours, we found no significant gender differences in the 3 work attitudes. The results further show that although career salience, job involvement, and organizational commitment increase with age, these work attitudes decrease with professional tenure. In terms of organizational commitment, the negative influence of professional tenure was significantly stronger for women than for men. Finally, the implications for future studies and for organizational practice are discussed.     

What You Feel Influences What You See: The Role of Affective Feelings in Resolving Binocular Rivalry

It seems obvious that what you see influences what you feel, but what if the opposite were also true? What if how you feel can shape your visual experience? In this experiment, we demonstrate that the affective state of a perceiver influences the contents of visual awareness. Participants received positive, negative, and neutral affect inductions and then completed a series of binocular rivalry trials in which a face (smiling, scowling, or neutral) was presented to one eye and a house to the other. The percepts “competed” for dominance in visual consciousness. We found, as predicted, that all faces (smiling, scowling, and neutral) were dominant for longer when perceivers experienced unpleasant affect compared to when they were in a neutral state (a social vigilance effect), although scowling faces increased their dominance when perceivers felt unpleasant (a relative negative congruence effect). Relatively speaking, smiling faces increased their dominance more when perceivers were experiencing pleasant affect (a positive congruence effect). These findings illustrate that the affective state of a perceiver serves as a context that influences the contents of consciousness.     

Racial Differences on the Conners Teacher Rating Scale

Factor congruence and mean differences on the Conners Teacher Rating Scale were assessed across African-American and Caucasian school children. Factor analyses conducted separately by gender revealed similar factors across races for males and females. The main differences in factor structure within gender were the presence of an Antisocial factor in black males and an Inattention factor in white females. Across both males and females, teachers tended to rate black children higher than white children on factors relating to externalizing behaviors. Whether mean differences are a result of teacher bias or actual behavioral differences in the classroom needs further research.     

Gender Attitudes Mediate Gender Differences in Attitudes Toward Adoption in Guatemala

Gender differences in gender role attitudes, including machismo, and attitudes toward adoption were studied in Guatemala, a country that provides a large number of children for international adoption. Guatemalan university students (N = 152) completed the machismo subscale of the Multiphasic Assessment of Cultural Constructs–short form (Cuéllar, Arnold, & González, 1995), the attitudes toward women scale for adolescents (Galambos, Peterson, Richards, & Gitelson, 1985), and an adoption beliefs scale developed for the present study. Men endorsed more machismo, more traditional gender role attitudes, and held less favorable attitudes toward adoption than women did. Gender differences in adoption attitudes were mediated by machismo and gender role attitudes. These results suggest that machismo and traditional gender role attitudes may serve as barriers in the promotion of intra-country adoption.     

Overconfidence: It Depends on How, What, and Whom You Ask

Many studies have reported that the confidence people have in their judgments exceeds their accuracy and that overconfidence increases with the difficulty of the task. However, some common analyses confound systematic psychological effects with statistical effects that are inevitable if judgments are imperfect. We present three experiments using new methods to separate systematic effects from the statistically inevitable. We still find systematic differences between confidence and accuracy, including an overall bias toward overconfidence. However, these effects vary greatly with the type of judgment. There is little general overconfidence with two-choice questions and pronounced overconfidence with subjective confidence intervals. Over- and underconfidence also vary systematically with the domain of questions asked, but not as a function of difficulty. We also find stable individual differences. Determining why some people, some domains, and some types of judgments are more prone to overconfidence will be important to understanding how confidence judgments are made.     

The Black-White Malleability Gap in Implicit Racial Evaluations: A Nationally Representative Study

This study replicates and extends the experimental design originated by Dasgupta and Greenwald (2001), who found a decrease in implicit pro-White biases after exposure to pictures of admired Black individuals. A nationally representative sample was analyzed comparing implicit pro-White biases among Black and White participants. Hypothesis 1 (H1) predicted a replication of previous research among White participants, and H2, derived from the balanced identity theory, predicted an increased pro-Black bias among Blacks after exposure to admired Black individuals. Results provided partial support for H1 and a lack of support for H2. This is the first study to use a nationally representative sample to examine implicit pro-White biases. System justification theory was used to explain the malleability gap in Black and White pro-racial biases.     

I Like You More if I Think You Like Me: The Effect of Metastereotypes on Attitudes Toward People With Deafness

In the present article we aimed at investigating the role of metastereotypes and gender on hearing people’s attitudes towards people with deafness. Ninety-six Italian hearing adults participated in a 2 × 2 experimental study. Participants were presented with the results of a fictitious but apparently real survey concerning the opinions people with deafness have of hearing people. Metastereotypes (positive vs. negative) were manipulated through this presentation. Results showed that metastereotypes interacted with participants’ gender in determining their attitudes towards people with deafness: when positive metastereotypes were activated, women’s attitudes appeared more favorable toward people with deafness if compared to the negative metastereotypes condition. No effect of metastereotypes was observed among male participants. In conclusion, the activation of metastereotypes can be a useful means in intervening to improve attitudes toward people with deafness.     

Race-Based Stress in White Adults: Exploring the Role of White Racial Identity Status Attitudes and Type of Racial Events

The impact of racial experiences on Whites has been underresearched and has rarely been considered traumatic. To understand these experiences, it is important to consider variation in one's orientation to their racial group (i.e., racial identity) and the type of racial encounter. Using a White adult sample and hierarchical cluster analysis, the authors found that reactions to race-based encounters were associated with varying levels of psychological distress and well-being and racial identity statuses. Clinical implications are discussed. El impacto de las experiencias raciales en personas blancas no ha sido suficientemente investigado y en raras ocasiones ha sido considerado traumático. Para comprender estas experiencias, es importante considerar la variación en la orientación de cada individuo hacia su grupo racial (es decir, la identidad racial) y el tipo de encuentro racial. Usando una muestra de personas adultas blancas y un análisis jerárquico de clústeres, los autores hallaron que las reacciones a los encuentros raciales estaban asociadas a niveles variables de malestar psicológico, así como de estados de bienestar e identidad racial.     

Racial Attitudes Predicted Changes in Ostensibly Race‐Neutral Political Attitudes Under the Obama Administration

Past research demonstrated that racial prejudice played a significant role in the 2008 presidential election, but relatively less is known about the relationship between prejudice and public opinion throughout the Obama administration. In the present research, we examined not only whether racial attitudes were associated with evaluations of Mr. Obama and his administration, but also whether they may have influenced the development of more general political attitudes during the early years of the Obama administration. We investigated this question using panel data from a nationally representative sample of Americans interviewed between September 2008 and July 2010. Racial attitudes measured prior to the election predicted early disapproval of President Obama's handling of important issues. Early disapproval of President Obama's performance, in turn, predicted later perceptions of whether the state of the nation was improving. Further, the divergence between high‐prejudice and low‐prejudice individuals in their perceptions of the state of the nation became greater over time, consistent with the idea that racial attitudes were more powerfully expressed in political judgments as time passed.     

A Regional Study of Risk Factors for Drug Abuse and Delinquency: Sex and Racial Differences

Many juveniles are at high risk for delinquency and drug abuse by virtue of the characteristics of their neighborhoods, which are often economically impoverished, socially unstable, physically neglected, and rife with crime, drug use, and drug selling. However, a significant proportion of these youth do not engage in deviant behavior, while others participate to varying degrees. This study examined what factors discriminate between high-risk youth who do and who do not exhibit deviant behavior. Self-reported measures of several attitudes and behaviors known to correlate with drug abuse and delinquency were assessed in relation to reports of property offenses, person offenses, drug use, and drug selling. Additional analyses were conducted to distinguish between sex and racial groups to further qualify the relationships between deviant behaviors and attitudes. The most notable finding was that types of deviance that primarily involve material and monetary gain may be largely influenced by relationships with significant others, while deviance with potentially harmful consequences to both self and others are influenced largely by personal attitudes. Examination of individual variables showed that negative peer influences and positive attitudes toward fighting significantly increased the likelihood of reporting involvement in three of the four deviance measures, and that positive relationship with the father and prosocial values were inversely related to two of the behavioral deviance measures. There were very few differences in significant predictors of deviance for males versus females. Several self-reported attitudes and behaviors distinguished African Americans from Hispanics and Whites, even though Whites were reportedly responsible for a higher incidence of deviant behaviors.     

MLK Day and Racial Attitudes: Liking the Group More but Its Members Less

Intuition suggests that the Martin Luther King holiday (MLK Day) should improve racial attitudes toward African Americans. However, its influence may depend on whether African Americans are evaluated as a group or individually. In two studies, we assessed racial attitudes either on MLK Day or on a control day. As might be expected, participants had more sympathetic attitudes towards African Americans as a group on MLK Day compared to control days; however, they evaluated individual African American exemplars more negatively on MLK Day compared to control days, who presumably seemed worse by comparison to the eminent political figure.     

Challenging the Stubborn Core of Opposition to Equality: Racial Contact and Policy Attitudes

A Random Digit Dialing survey (n = 794) examined the interracial contact experiences and racial attitudes of White South Africans. The survey measured racial attitudes not only in terms of individuals' prejudice, but also in terms of their perceptions of group threat, perceived injustice, and support for various government policies designed to rectify the legacy of apartheid. The results indicated that the frequency and quality of interracial contact predicted Whites' support for both race compensatory and race preferential policies of redress, and these effects were partly mediated by perceived threat, sense of fairness, and racial prejudice. The research points to a potential rapprochement between the social psychological theories of intergroup contact and group positioning theories derived from the work of Blumer. It also highlights the value of adopting a more expansive and politically nuanced conception of the “consequences” of contact and desegregation.     

Neuromarketing Research Practices: Attitudes,Ethics, and Behavioral Intentions

As a new addition to the marketing research toolbox, neuromarketing science has given rise to a variety of questions relevant to consumer perceptions of this nascent area of investigation. Neuromarketing researchers are dependent on consumer involvement as research participants, and finding means to educate the public about neuromarketing is a priority for professionals working in the field. This article describes the results of two online questionnaire studies focused on the role of personal constructs presumed to underlie perceptions of neuromarketing research. The findings point to neuromarketing research knowledge, attitudes toward science, attitudes toward technology, and ethical ideology as important factors linked to neuromarketing research attitudes, perceptions of the ethicality of neuromarketing research, and willingness to participate in neuromarketing studies. We discuss the implications of our findings for educating the public about neuromarketing research and encouraging research participation, and we conclude by suggesting directions for future research.     

Linking Work Events,Affective States,and Attitudes: An Empirical Study of Managers' Emotions

The aim of the paper is to contribute to knowledge on the causes and consequences of affective states at work by identifying several job-related events likely to produce affective states and then studying the impact of the latter on work attitudes. Affective Events Theory was the theoretical framework used for the study and two main hypotheses were stated: experiencing certain work events leads to affective reactions, which in turn influence work attitudes. An empirical study based on 203 questionnaires was performed on a sample of French managers. The results support both research hypotheses, although the impact of affective states on work attitudes appeared larger than the impact of work events on affective states. The mediating effect of affective events with respect to the impact of work events was also tested, but only partially supported.     

态度研究的新进展——双重态度模型

态度一直是社会心理学领域一个极为重要的研究课题,一直以来研究只关注有意识状态下人们的外显态度,对于无意识状态下的内隐态度最近才引起人们的意识。双重态度模型理论认为,人们对同一态度客体可能同时拥有两种不同的态度－－外显态度和内隐态度,这一理论对传统的态度概念及测量技术都提出了新的挑战。该对双重态度模型的理论来源、基本观点、双重态度类型及相关的研究证据作了详细介绍,最后探讨了双重态度模型理论对态度改变、态度测量及态度与行为一致性等未来研究方向的意义与启示。     

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut, Sometimes You Don't: Citizens' Ambivalence About Abortion

Recent research has recognized that many people simultaneously hold positive and negative attitudes about important political issues. This paper reviews the concept of attitudinal ambivalence and introduces a survey measure of ambivalence adapted from the experimental literature. An analysis of two statewide telephone surveys of Florida voters reveals that (1) a number of voters have ambivalent attitudes about abortion rights; (2) the amount of ambivalence varies according to the circumstances (elective versus traumatic) under which an abortion is obtained; (3) ambivalence about elective abortions is essentially unrelated to ambivalence about traumatic abortions; (4) voters who support abortion rights are more ambivalent about elective abortions than about traumatic abortions, whereas the pattern is reversed for abortion rights opponents; and (5) extreme views in support of or opposition to abortion rights can sometimes mitigate the amount of ambivalence felt by voters.     

The Influence of Diversity Context on White Men's and Racial Minorities' Reactions to Disproportionate Group Harm

Abstract

The author examined the influence of organizational diversity management on White men's and racial minorities' perceptions of fairness when members of their identity group were disproportionately harmed in a layoff. Using a scenario design, the author studied the reactions of 284 White male and racial minority layoff survivors under 2 different diversity contexts. White men saw the layoff as less fair to their group when other White men were laid off disproportionately in an active-diversity context versus an inactive-diversity context. Racial minorities' perceptions of fairness when other minorities were laid off disproportionately were not influenced by the diversity context, but they perceived the layoff as more fair to their group in an active-diversity context when White men were laid off disproportionately. The findings suggest that during layoffs or other significant organizational changes where job insecurity is heightened, different identity groups might perceive diversity management differently.     

A Change is Gonna Come: Generational Membership and White Racial Attitudes in the 21st Century

The election of President Barack Obama offers a unique opportunity to test the impressionable‐years hypothesis—the theory of political socialization that predicts that widely experienced political events can have a lasting impact on the political attitudes of individuals who experience that event in their youth, thereby creating a generational distinction. Using data from an original survey embedded in the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, we examine the racial attitudes of White youth who came of age during Barack Obama's presidential campaign and election to see if those individuals are significantly more liberal on racial attitudes than older generations of Whites. In other words, we look for early evidence that an “Obama generation” has emerged. We find there are indeed early signs of a generational distinction. Members of the “Obama generation” are more strongly opposed to racial resentment, but they exhibit similar levels of opposition to old‐fashioned racism as older cohorts. Additionally, we uncover that the factors that traditionally structure racial attitudes among Whites, most notably contact, education, and residential proximity, work quite differently for members of this generation. We take these findings as initial evidence that Barack Obama's presidency will have a lasting impact on the racial views of a generation of Americans.     

Ethnic Differences in Parents' Attitudes toward Girls' Use of Aggression

Few studies have attempted to explain ethnic differences in female aggression. The degree to which ethnic differences exist in the influence of parents' approval of aggression on their preadolescent daughters' use of physical, verbal, and relational aggression was explored in a sample of 97 parent-child dyads. Results indicate that European American parents were more disapproving of their daughters' aggressive behavior than were African American parents. Parents' attitude toward aggression was predictive of European American girls' use of physical and verbal aggression and African American girls' use of relational aggression. Implications for aggression prevention and intervention for girls are discussed.     

Attitudes Toward Violence Against Women: A Cross-Nation Study

An understanding of attitudes toward violence against women is vital for effective prevention strategies. In this study we examined attitudes regarding violence against women in samples of undergraduate women and men students from four countries: India, Japan, Kuwait, and the United States. Attitudes toward sexual assault and spousal physical violence differed between men and women and across the four countries. Variations in gender differences across countries indicated that, for attitudes regarding sexual assault of women in particular, sociocultural factors may be a stronger influence than gender. Findings suggest the importance of examining differences within the larger sociocultural context of political, historical, religious, and economic influences on attitudes toward gender roles and violence against women.