Empathic concern: Distinguishing between tenderness and sympathy

The present research proposes that empathic concern, as assessed by six items of the ERQ, consists of two separate emotions, i.e., tenderness and sympathy. To test this assumption, nine studies were conducted among, in total, 1,273 participants. In these studies participants were presented with a hypothetical scenario of someone in need, after which empathic concern was assessed. Factor analyses showed that, indeed, the ERQ items that assess empathic concern can be split up in two factors, that is, one reflecting sympathy and one reflecting tenderness. In addition, in line with previous studies, our research showed that, in response to a need-situation that reflects current needs, individuals scored higher on the ERQ factor reflecting sympathy than on the ERQ factor reflecting tenderness. Findings are discussed in terms of the practical and theoretical implications of distinguishing between sympathy and tenderness.     

Phantom Behavioral Assimilation Effects: Systematic Biases in Social Comparison Choice Studies

ABSTRACT Consistent with social comparison theory (SCT), Blanton, Buunk, Gibbons, and Kuyper (1999) and Huguet, Dumas, Monteil, and Genestoux (2001) found that students tended to choose comparison targets who slightly outperformed them (i.e., upward comparison choices), and this had a beneficial effect on subsequent performance—a behavioral assimilation effect (BAE). We show (Studies 1 and 2) that this apparent BAE is due, in part, to uncontrolled measurement error in pretest achievement. However, using simulated data (Study 3), these phantom BAEs were eliminated with latent‐variable models with multiple indicators. In Studies 4 and 5, latent‐variable models were applied to the Blanton et al. and Huguet et al. data, resulting in substantially smaller but still significantly positive BAEs. More generally in personality research based on correlational data, failure to control measurement error in pretest/background variables will positively bias the apparent effects of personality variables of interest, but widely applicable approaches demonstrated here can correct for these biases.     

I am Not a Better Teacher,But Others are Doing Worse: Burnout and Perceptions of Superiority Among Teachers

This study examined differences between teachers high and low in burnout in the perception of being superior to others. Because burnout implies a decline in well-being and because well-being is related to perceived superiority, it was hypothesized that perceived superiority would be reduced among individuals high in burnout. This would be particularly true for superiority with respect to positive behaviors (feeling better than others). As negative behaviors of others are generally highly salient, it was expected that even individuals high in burnout would be able to maintain a sense of negative superiority (feeling less bad than others). One hundred twenty teachers in secondary education were asked to generate information about inferior and superior others. Perceived superiority was assessed by response latencies and the quality of the information generated. As expected, only positive superiority was reduced among teachers high in burnout. Thus, they felt less good, but also less bad than others. Consequences for classroom performance and suggestions for the treatment of burnout are discussed.     

Affect Generated by Social Comparisons Among Nurses High and Low in Burnout1

The affective consequences of social comparison were examined in 2 field studies among nurses and related to the 3 dimensions of professional burnout: emotional exhaustion, reduced personal accomplishment, and depersonalization. Study t was conducted in a sample of 99 nurses of a psychiatric hospital, and Study 2 in a sample of 237 nurses employed in various settings In general, upward comparisons evoked more positive and less negative affect than did downward comparisons. However, the affective consequences of social comparison were different for those high and low in burnout. Those low in personal accomplishment reported higher levels of negative affect from upward comparisons and higher levels of positive affect from downward comparisons than did those high in personal accomplishment. In addition, in Study 2, those high in depersonalization and emotional exhaustion derived more positive affect from downward comparisons than did those with lower levels of burnout.     

Personality, birth order and attachment styles as related to various types of jealousy

The relationships between jealousy, personality, attachment styles and birth order were examined in a sample of 100 Dutch men and 100 Dutch women. Three types of jealousy were examined: reactive jealousy (a negative response to the emotional or sexual involvement of the partner with someone else), preventive jealousy (efforts to prevent intimate contact of the partner with a third person), and anxious jealousy (obsessive anxiety, upset, and worrying about the possibility of infidelity of the partner). The three types of jealousy were not at all related to egoism and dominance, but significantly correlated with neuroticism, social anxiety, rigidity and hostility. Only among women was a low self-esteem correlated with jealousy. On all three jealousy measures, those with an anxious-ambivalent attachment style were more jealous than those with an avoidant style, with those with a secure attachment style being the least jealous. Attachment style was strongly related to most personality dimensions, but the effects of attachment style upon jealousy stayed virtually the same when controlling for personality factors. The most important finding in the present study was that laterborns were more jealous according to all three measures than firstborns, a finding that was not due to personality differences between first- and laterborns, nor to differences in attachment style, gender or occupational level of the father. Because some evidence was found that only borns were slightly less jealous than firstborns, it is suggested that the experience of exclusive love and attention in one's childhood, leads to a lower level of jealousy among firstborns.     

Commitment to the Relationship,Extradyadic Sex,and AIDS Preventive Behavior1

This study was conducted among 251 heterosexual adults in The Netherlands that included a substantial number of individuals who had had unprotected sex with a new partner. Relationship status and commitment had independent effects upon the willingness to engage in extradyadic sex above and beyond the effects of past extradyadic sex and satisfaction, and commitment was the only psychological predictor of the intention to use condoms in extradyadic sexual contacts. Commitment predicted the willingness to inform the steady partner about one's unsafe extradyadic sex and to protect the steady partner against the possible risk of HIV infection after unsafe extradyadic sex. The implications for AIDS prevention are discussed.     

Aiming at the top? Upward social comparison of abilities after failure

This study examined the effects of feedback on a task on information seeking and partner preferences as forms of social comparison. It was predicted that subjects who experienced failure and perceived control over future performance would, for reasons of self-improvement, choose more strongly upward a comparison other than subjects who experienced success or perceived no control. In the experiment, 121 college students were given either failure, average, or success feedback on a bogus test for either a stable or a controllable ability. Next, the subjects choose a comparison other whose test material they would examine, and a comparison other as a partner for writing an evaluation of the test. As predicted, the preferences for information seeking and affiliation were more strongly upward when subjects experienced failure than when subjects experienced success. Perceived control partly resulted in more strongly upward choices in information seeking for subjects experiencing failure.