Stalking Myth-Attributions: Examining the Role of Individual and Contextual Variables on Attributions in Unwanted Pursuit Scenarios

Undergraduates from a large southeastern university in the U.S. (n?=?258) read a scenario describing an unwanted heterosexual pursuit that manipulated story perspective (pursuer’s vs. rejecter’s) and pursuer/rejecter gender. Measures of 1) external attributions for pursuer behavior, 2) negative internal attributions to rejecters, and 3) Stalking Myths endorsement followed. Individuals adopting the pursuer’s perspective showed higher rates of external attributions for pursuer behavior than those in the rejecter perspective condition. They also endorsed more negative internal attributions for rejecters than those in the rejecter perspective condition, especially when the rejecter was male. Participant gender also mattered. Men exhibited more victim blaming tendencies than women when the rejecter was female. However, stalking myth endorsement was the strongest predictor of attributions.     

Prototypes and same-gender bias in perceptions of hiring discrimination

The present study investigated the relative importance of two explanations behind perceptions of gender discrimination in hiring: prototypes and same-gender bias. According to the prototype explanation, people perceive an event as discrimination to the extent that it fits their preconceptions of typical discrimination. In contrast, the same-gender bias explanation asserts that people more readily detect discrimination toward members of their own gender. In four experiments (n = 797), women and men made considerably stronger discrimination attributions, and were moderately more discouraged from seeking work, when the victim was female rather than male. Further, a series of regressions analyses showed beliefs in discrimination of women to be moderately correlated with discrimination attributions of female victims, but little added explanatory value of participant gender, stigma consciousness, or feminist identification. The results offer strong support for the prototype explanation.     

Self-stereotyping in the context of multiple social identities

This research examines self-stereotyping in the context of multiple social identities and shows that self-stereotyping is a function of stereotyped expectancies held in particular relationships. Participants reported how others evaluated their math and verbal ability and how they viewed their own ability when their gender or ethnicity was salient. Asian American women (Experiment 1) and European Americans (Experiment 2) exhibited knowledge of stereotyped social expectancies and corresponding self-stereotyping associated with their more salient identity. African Americans (Experiment 3) exhibited some knowledge of stereotyped social expectancies but no corresponding self-stereotyping. Correlational evidence and a 4th experiment suggest that self-stereotyping is mediated by the degree to which close others are perceived to endorse stereotypes as applicable to the self.     

Episodic feeling-of-knowing resolution derives from the quality of original encoding

In recent studies, researchers have argued for adult age-related deficits in the resolution of episodic feeling of knowing (FOK) owing to a decline in inferential processes. In the present study, we introduce the memory constraint hypothesis, which argues that deficits are an outcome of differences in the level of learning. A repetition delay paradigm for a list of paired-associate items showed that repeated presentations at encoding increased memory performance and in turn increased FOK resolution for unrecalled items. Older adults who were given a 48-h delay between encoding and subsequent tests (and FOKs) had equivalent memory performance to younger adults who were given a 7-day delay. In this case, age equivalence arose in FOK resolution except at the lowest levels of recognition in the single-presentation condition. The use of effective strategies during encoding correlated with memory performance and FOKs, even for unrecalled pairs. These results are inconsistent with an inferential-deficit explanation of age deficits in FOK resolution; they point to the importance of original encoding quality as a potent contributor to FOK resolution, and they argue for equating age groups on memory performance when evaluating the episodic FOK resolution of age differences.     

Misconceptions About Intuition

This article outlines advances in intuition research and draws attention to several misconceptions, based on conflicting assumptions about the intuition construct and the intuiting process. In particular, it focuses on the distinction between process and outcome, the role of consciousness and affect, the research focus on decision making or problem solving, and the differential use of intuition in technical and creative settings. It calls for a comprehensive intuition model that would refute some of the misconceptions and proposes three types of intuition: intuitive expertise, intuitive creation, and intuitive foresight.     

Understanding Patients' Reactions to Services: The Role of Personal Service Values in Heart Patient Satisfaction and Wellness

This study proposed an individual-difference perspective on heart patients' customer-service satisfaction. We hypothesized that heart patients' satisfaction with service is positively related to wellness and that instrumental care, expressive care, and communication effectiveness are positively related to satisfaction and wellness. We also hypothesized that patients' values for services would moderate the relationship between service provision and outcomes. A survey of 217 heart patients provided support for these hypotheses. Of particular interest were findings that: (a) the service provision-service outcomes relationship was moderated by service values for some patient groups but not for others; and (b) the service provision-outcomes relationship differed across patient subgroups. We discuss the implications for patient satisfaction research and for planning individualized treatment strategies.     

A two year follow-up study of public vocational school graduates

A 2-year follow-up study of public vocational school graduates revealed that the graduates successfully obtained jobs. Among the factors deemed important by both graduates and employer, communication skills were mentioned as vital. Counseling and preparation in getting along with others were perceived by graduates as inferior. Except for cooperative work program graduates, adjustment to an 8 hr workday caused some problems.     

Getting along or ahead: Effects of gender identity threat on communal and agentic self‐presentations

When faced with a threat to gender identity, people may try to restore their gender status by acting in a more gender‐typical manner. The present research investigated effects of gender identity threat on self‐presentations of agentic and communal traits in a Swedish and an Argentine sample (N = 242). Under threat (vs. affirmation), Swedish women deemphasized agentic traits (d [95% CI] = ?0.41 [?0.93, 0.11]), Argentine women increased their emphasis on communal traits (d = 0.44 [?0.08, 0.97]), and Argentine men increased their emphasis on agentic traits (d = 0.49 [?0.03, 1.01]). However, Swedish men did not appear to be affected by the threat regarding agentic (d = 0.04 [?0.47, 0.55]) or communal traits (d = 0.23 [?0.29, 0.74]). The findings are to be considered tentative. Implications for identity threat research are discussed.