Self‐judgment and reputation monitoring as a function of the fundamental dimensions,temporal perspective,and culture

Social acceptance and the development of one's competencies and status are fundamental aspects of the human experience, but the former (communion) should take precedence over the latter (agency) in self‐judgment. Study 1 results indicated that (i) people across two cultures judged themselves as possessing higher communion than agency characteristics; (ii) communion self‐judgments were more consistent across temporal perspective; and (iii) level of self‐enhancement across cultures was similar for communion but different for agency. In Study 2, people across culture reported being more troubled and demonstrated a greater desire to repair their reputation when they imagined others perceived them as lacking in communion compared with agency. These findings support the idea that social life pressures people to view themselves as possessing communion traits and to ensure that others have this perception as well. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The dynamics of masculine-agentic and feminine-communal traits: findings from a prospective study

A reciprocal impact hypothesis posits an influence of gender-related traits (agency and communion) on role enactment and a reciprocal impact of role enactment on gender-related traits, for both men and women. Specifically, in this study it was predicted that agency influences career success and career success influences agency. In addition, the reciprocal influence of communion and family roles was examined. A prospective study with almost 2000 university graduates, who were tested after graduation and 1.5 years later, clearly supported the reciprocal impact hypothesis for agency and career success. Communion influenced family roles, but there was no reciprocal influence. Implications for theories of career success and of sex and gender are discussed.     

Sex-role stereotyping of nurses and physicians on prime-time television: A dichotomy of occupational portrayals

Utilizing the methodology of content analysis, this study investigates the sexrole variables in prime-time television portrayals of nurses and physicians from 1950 to 1980. A 20% sample of 28 relevant series yielded 320 individual episodes, 240 nurse characters, and 287 physicians characters. Results show extreme levels of both sexual and occupational stereotyping. Television nurses are 99% female, and television physicians are 95% male. The cluster of sex and occupational role characteristics, personality attributes, primary values, career orientation, professional competencies, and the tone of nurse-physician relationships converge to yield an image of the female professional nurse as totally dependent on and subservient to male physicians. The development of this dichotomous sex and occupational role imagery has resulted in male television physicians who not only have outstanding medical competencies but also embrace all the attractive competencies of professional nurses. Television nurses largely serve as window dressing on the set and have little opportunity to contribute to patient welfare. Action is needed to improve the quality of nurse portrayals by making them more congruent with the real world of work in health care.This study was supported by a research grant from the U.S. Public Health Service, Health Resources Administration (NU 00579).     

社会认知基本维度对现实威胁感知的作用研究

个体感知中表达性优先于能动性,但群体感知中表达性和能动性的作用仍存在争议,两个研究探索表达性和能动性特质在对外群体现实威胁感知中的作用。研究1选用成人被试,采用问卷调查法考察表达性和能动性特质与现实威胁感的关系,发现表达性和能动性特质都能预测现实威胁感,表达性特质越低,能动性特质越高,现实威胁感越强。研究2采用最简群体范式,通过实验法操纵表达性和能动性特质,发现外群体表达性特质越低,能动性特质越高,其现实威胁感越强。两个研究共同说明,表达性和能动性特质在对外群体的现实威胁感知中起到重要作用。     

Toward understanding sex differences in pay allocation: Agency,communion, and reward distribution behavior

This research examined the extent to which the personality characteristics of agency and communion are sex linked, and the extent to which differences in these orientations can account for sex differences in reward distribution behavior. In two studies, the agency and communion level of large samples of male and female undergraduates were assessed. As expected, males were more agentic and females were more communal. Moreover, when subjects who scored high or low on agency and high or low on communion were asked to allocate rewards between themselves and a co-worker, these personality differences were related to their allocation decisions. These results were used as the basis for discussing the role that sex-linked personality differences might play in distributive justice judgments.This article is an adaptation of a colloquium presentation at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, August 1981. The research reported here was supported by NIMH grant MH29987-1, Goals, Motives, and Norms of Reward Distribution, and by NIMH Biomedical Research Support Grant from the College of Social Science, Michigan State University. The authors wish to thank Andrea Doughty for her valuable advice, and to gratefully acknowledge the help of Mark Teicher, Julie B. Klein, Sue Schnelbach, Pat Loepp, Barb Allen, Gavin Goodrich, Bob O'Hara, Kelly Bowen, Rod Hollenstein, Steve Schultz, and Mary Hurst.     

Power,communion and satisfaction: Authenticity as a common mediator in China

We investigated the mediating effect of authenticity on the ability of power and communion to predict feelings of satisfaction in work, romantic and friendship roles in a Chinese sample. That authenticity mediates the effect of power on satisfaction in specific roles has been previously demonstrated in studies with Western participants, and this study sought to replicate these findings in an East Asian context. Furthermore, given the importance of communion in maintaining Chinese satisfaction, our second aim was to extend previous studies by testing whether authenticity mediates the effects of communion on Chinese satisfaction. One hundred and fifty Chinese participants completed the surveys addressing work, romantic relationships and friendships. The results reveal that both power and communion are significant predictors of Chinese satisfaction but their impact differed according to relationship type. Power and communion significantly predicted satisfaction in an interactive manner in business roles, but did so in an additive manner in close roles. More importantly, authenticity mediated the effects of both power and communion on Chinese satisfaction. These results show that authenticity is one of the common essences in the prediction of power and communion to Chinese satisfaction.     

Unmitigated communion and health among adolescents with and without diabetes: the mediating role of eating disturbances

The authors examined the implications of unmitigated communion--a focus on others to the exclusion of the self--for psychological and physical health among adolescents with (n = 132) and without (n = 131) diabetes times/during a 1-year period. Unmitigated communion predicted greater psychological distress and lower levels of competence cross-sectionally and longitudinally, controlling for sex, pubertal status, and communion. Health status moderated some longitudinal relations, such that relations held only for adolescents with diabetes. In addition, unmitigated communion was associated with poor metabolic control and predicted a deterioration in metabolic control over the year for adolescents with diabetes. Unmitigated communion also was associated with disturbed eating behavior cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and disturbed eating behavior explained some of the relations of unmitigated communion to psychological but not physical health outcomes.     

Evolution and Developmental Sex Differences

From an evolutionary perspective, childhood is the portion of the life span during which individuals practice and refine those competencies that facilitate survival and reproduction in adulthood. Although the skeletal structure of these competencies appears to be inherent, social interaction and play flesh them out during childhood so that they are adapted to local conditions. Darwin's principles of sexual selection, including male-male competition over mates and female choice of mating partners, successfully explain the acquisition and expression of reproductive competencies in hundreds of species. When this perspective is applied to humans, it predicts sex differences that are, in fact, found in the childhood activities of boys and girls and that reflect sex differences in reproductive strategies in adulthood. A few of these differences are described, along with cultural factors that modify their expression. The article closes with a brief discussion of the social and scientific implications.     

Self‐esteem is dominated by agentic over communal information

We present a Double Perspective Model (DPM) explaining why agency (competence) and communion (warmth) constitute two basic content dimensions of social cognition. Every social action involves two perspectives: of the agent (a person who performs an action) and of the recipient (a person at whom the action is directed). Immediate cognitive goals of the agent and recipient differ, which results in heightened accessibility and weight of content referring either to agency (from the agent's perspective) or to communion (from the recipient's perspective). DPM explains why evaluations of other persons are dominated by communal over agentic considerations and allows a novel hypothesis that self‐esteem is dominated by agentic over communal information. We present several studies supporting this hypothesis. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Leadership roles and the gender stereotype traits

Men generally occupy the role of leader and women the role of follower in marital relationships. This research tested the hypothesis that these implicit leader-follower roles determine the way in which the gender stereotype traits are typically assigned to women and men. In one condition, the man was described as the leader in the marriage, and in another condition, the traditional power relationship was reversed and the woman was described as the leader. Regardless of sex, the leader was perceived as strong in agency and weak in communion; the follower was perceived as strong in communion and weak in agency. A man and woman, who were described as equal leaders, did not differ in the strength of their agentic and communal traits. A relationship approach was used to formulate the connection between leader-follower roles and the gender stereotype traits.     

社会认知基本维度与主观幸福感：未来时间洞察力的中介作用

基于社会认知双视角模型和人类适应机制,探讨能动性和表达性与主观幸福感的关系及其作用机制,采用社会认知基本维度形容词词库、未来时间洞察力问卷和幸福感指数量表对全国21个省市居民进行调查,共回收有效问卷4071份,其中男性1714人（42.1%）,女性2342人（57.5%）。结果表明：（1）能动性、表达性显著正向预测主观幸福,且能动性的预测效力大于表达性;未来时间洞察力显著正向预测主观幸福感;（2）能动性、表达性能通过未来时间洞察力的中介作用间接预测个人主观幸福感。本研究结果有利于揭示能动性、表达性如何影响个体主观幸福感体验,以及能动性、表达性对主观幸福感的影响程度,对于提升个人主观幸福感有一定启示意义。     

自我知觉视角和元知觉视角下能动性评价对自尊的预测作用

本研究探讨自我知觉视角和元知觉视角下社会认知基本维度对自尊的预测作用。研究1中36名被试同时完成自我知觉和元知觉视角下的能动性和社群性评价任务,结果发现仅有自我知觉视角下的能动性评价能预测自尊,元知觉视角下能动性评价对自尊的预测作用被自我知觉视角下的能动性评价所中介;研究2中120名被试完成自我知觉视角评价任务,另120名被试完成元知觉视角评价任务,结果发现无论是自我知觉视角还是元知觉视角,能动性评价都能预测自尊,而社群性评价对自尊没有预测作用,这表明能动性评价能预测个体的自尊。     

Psychological androgyny and ego development

Psychological androgyny has often been described as associated with increased behavioral flexibility, with the availability of skills in both traditionally masculine and feminine areas. Ego development has been described as involving an increasing differentiation of one's perception of self, of behavior, and of one's thoughts and feelings, as well as an increasing ability to integrate these differentiated aspects. We therefore predicted that androgynous individuals would show higher levels of ego development than sex-typed individuals, who would in turn be higher than undifferentiated subjects. Eighty-four undergraduate and graduate students completed the Washington University Sentence Completion Test and the Personality Research Form AN-DRO scale. No evidence of a relation between these measures was found. Several other negative findings have recently been reported, using other sex role measures. It appears that ego development, as currently measured, is not associated with sex-related self-concepts, as typically measured, though it may be associated with more androgynous sex role expectations of others, and with self-perceptions of agency and communion. Measures of sex-related self-concepts that provide separate scores for positive and negative attributes should be employed in future studies.This report is based on a thesis conducted by the first author in partial fulfillment of requirements for a master's degree in psychology, under the supervision of the second author. The authors are grateful to Leo Goldberger, Bob Holt, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this report.     

Children in the public eye: The functioning of Pastors' children

Pastors' children have been thought to have more behavioral problems than other children since they face high expectations and are part of families that are often under public scrutiny. The purpose of this study was to describe the social competencies and behavioral problems of a national sample of pastors' children, aged 4–16, and to compare them to age and sex standardized norms. Data were obtained on 98 children from a random sample of 62 families, using the Child Behavior Checklist. Results indicate that scores for both boys and girls at each age grouping fell within the acceptable norms for both social competencies and behavioral problems.     

Gender stereotypes and power: Perceptions of the roles in violent marriages

Men are generally observed to exercise more power than women within the marriage relationship. One way of expressing such power is through the roles in violent marriages, in which the man is usually the more powerful, violent person and the woman is the less powerful, abused person. This research tested the hypothesis that roles differing in power can explain why men are believed to be high in agency and women to be high in communion. Agency involves both positive traits (self-assertiveness) and negative traits (motivated to master and subjugate others); communion involves positive traits (accommodation and concern for others) as well as negative traits (excessive selflessness and vulnerability). College students rated stimulus persons on the gender stereotyped traits. In one condition, the husband was described as violent towards his wife, and in another condition, the traditional power relationship was reversed and the wife was described as violent towards her husband. On both the positive and negative traits, violent women and men were perceived as high in agency and low in communion. Abused men and women were seen as high in positive communion and low in positive agency, although the abused woman was lower in positive agency than her male counterpart. For abused women and men, the hypothesized results were found for negative agency, but not all of the expected findings were obtained for negative communion. The sex differences that were found could be explained by differences in the perceived physical aggression inflicted by violent men and women.Portions of this paper were presented at the 1991 annual meetings of the Eastern Psychological Association, New York, and the Association for Women in Psychology, Hartford, CT. I would like to express my appreciation to Carl F. Wiedemann for his statistical advice.     

群际威胁与社会认知基本维度自我肯定对自我评价的影响

两个实验探索群际威胁情境下表达性和能动性自我肯定对个体自我评价的影响。实验一诱发群际威胁,操作表达性自我肯定,测量被试的自我评价水平。实验二与实验一采用相同的方法,诱发群际威胁,操作能动性自我肯定,之后测量自我评价水平。两个实验均发现,群际威胁组的自我评价显著低于控制组;在群际威胁情境下,表达性自我肯定组和能动性自我肯定组的自我评价显著高于无自我肯定组。研究表明,群际威胁虽然是群体水平的感知,但会对个体水平的自我评价产生消极影响,通过社会认知基本维度进行自我肯定能有效缓解群际威胁对自我评价的消极影响。自我肯定对群际威胁与自我评价之间关系的作用机制还需要进一步探讨。     

Unmitigated Communion and Adjustment to Breast Cancer: Associations and Explanations1

The goal of this study was to examine the implications of unmitigated communion (a focus on others to the exclusion of the self) for adjustment to breast cancer and to explain any observed relations. Cognitive adaptation theory was the primary explanatory framework adopted. Unmitigated communion was cross‐sectionally associated with poor mental and physical functioning among women newly diagnosed with breast cancer. Prospectively, unmitigated communion predicted a decline in a couple of indicators of mental and physical functioning over 3 months. Unmitigated communion was inversely associated with indicators of cognitive adaptation: low self‐esteem, poor body image, less optimism, and greater reliance on external control. Unmitigated communion also was associated with more negative interactions with network members and a decline in support over time. The decline in body image over time had the greatest potential to explain links of unmitigated communion to poor adjustment to disease.     

Negotiators who give too much: unmitigated communion, relational anxieties, and economic costs in distributive and integrative bargaining

A series of studies found that the personality dimension of unmitigated communion (H. L. Fritz & V. S. Helgeson, 1998) leads negotiators to make concessions to avoid straining relationships. Results indicate that even within the population of successful business executives, this dimension of relational anxiety can be identified distinctly from more general relational orientations, such as agreeableness, and that it distinctly predicts accommodating tendencies in everyday conflicts. In economic games, unmitigated communion predicts giving in contexts in which the relational norm of reciprocity applies, but not in contexts tapping instrumental or altruistic motives for cooperation. In distributive negotiations, the effect of unmitigated communion in lowering a negotiator's outcome is mediated by prenegotiation anxieties about relational strain and plans to make large concessions if needed to avoid impasse (lower reservation points). In integrative negotiations, high unmitigated communion on both sides of the negotiation dyad results in relational accommodation, evidenced by decreased success in maximizing economic joint gain but increased subjective satisfaction with the relationship.     

Divine Energies or Divine Personhood: Vladimir Lossky and John Zizioulas on conceiving the transcendent and immanent God

This essay explores a debate between two contemporary Orthodox theolo-gians, Vladimir Lossky and John Zizioulas, over how to adequately conceive the doctrine of the Trinity as an expression of the realism of divine-human communion, and hence, of the God who is transcendent and immanent. The essay critically analyzes the implications of Zizioulas's reworking of the patristic category of hypostasis . Zizioulas's theology is suggesting a paradigm shift in contemporary Eastern Orthodox theology insofar as it prioritizes hypostasis over energies for expressing the realism of divine-human communion. The implications of this study also extend to debates within contemporary trinitarian theologies over the adequacy of the concept of "person" for conceptualizing the Trinity.     

What we think we do (to each other): how personality can bias behavior schemas through the projection of if-then profiles

People's knowledge about others includes not only person schemas about the typical traits of others but also behavior schemas about the likely interpersonal consequences of different behaviors. In this article, it is argued that perceiver effects can be interactive at the level of behavior schemas. A person's own personality configuration of if-then responses in social interactions (Mischel & Shoda, 1995) may contribute to that person's beliefs about the meaning and impact of relational behaviors more generally. In consequence, people who experience strong (or weak) responses to behaviors that vary along a particular trait dimension, such as warmth-coldness, may expect others to experience similarly strong (or weak) responses to those same kinds of behaviors. In 3 studies, people who were high in trait communion expected others to respond more strongly to behaviors that varied in warmth-coldness than did people who were low in trait communion, and people who were low in trait agency expected others to respond more strongly to behaviors that varied in assertiveness-unassertiveness than did people who were high in trait agency. Studies 2 and 3 provided evidence that participants' behavior schemas were based on assumptions derived from their own if-then personality profiles.