The function of self-esteem in terror management theory and sociometer theory: comment on Pyszczynski et al. (2004)

By applying different standards of evidence to sociometer theory than to terror management theory (TMT), T. Pyszczynski, J. Greenberg, S. Solomon, J. Arndt, and J. Schimel's (2004) review offers an imbalanced appraisal of the theories' merits. Many of Pyszczynski et al.'s (2004) criticisms of sociometer theory apply equally to TMT. and others are based on misconstruals of the theory or misunderstandings regarding how people respond when rejected. Furthermore, much of their review is only indirectly relevant to TMT's position on the function of self-esteem, and the review fails to acknowledge logical and empirical challenges to TMT. A more balanced review suggests that each theory trumps the other in certain respects, both have difficulty explaining all of the evidence regarding self-esteem, and the propositions of each theory can be roughly translated into the concepts of the other. For these reasons, declaring a theoretical winner at this time is premature.     

Temporal Induction of Missing Birdsong Segments in European Starlings

Four European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) discriminated a 300-ms segment of starling song from a 300-ms segment of budgerigar song in three contexts in a two-choice key-peck operant discrimination task. In the starling-song context, on each trial, one of the song segments was presented in the context of starling song; in the budgerigar-song context, the segments were presented in the context of budgerigar song. In the no-song context, the song segments were presented outside of a song context. On occasional unreinforced probe trials, the song segments were replaced by either white noise or silence. On noise trials in the two song contexts, but not on silent trials in the song contexts or noise trials in the no-song context, the starlings were significantly more likely to respond to the key associated with the starling song segment than to the key associated with the budgerigar song segment. This effect was especially pronounced in the starling-song context. The results indicate that noise induces perceptual restoration of missing birdsong segments in songbirds.     

INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY IN FRANCE

The current status of French industrial psychology is evaluated. Within the social and economic context of contemporary France, varying ideologies and scarce resources have created a gap between applied and academic industrial psychology. Personnel practices and systems and organizational research are noted.     

The division of labor in close relationships: An asymmetrical conflict issue

This research addresses couples’reports of their (hypothetical) attempts to maintain or change a gendered division of labor through conflict interactions. Two experiments in which spouses responded to scenarios showed that spouses reported more conflict over the division of housework than conflict over paid work and child care, and that wives more often than husbands desired a change in their spouses’contribution. Spouses reported more wife‐demand/husband‐withdraw than husband‐demand/wife‐withdraw interaction during hypothetical conflict over the division of labor, but only when the wife desired a change in her spouse's contribution. Together, the data imply that wife‐demand/husband‐withdraw interaction is a likely response to the asymmetrically structured conflict situation in which the wife is discontent with her husband's contribution to housework, while her husband wants to maintain the status quo. We further showed that defenders of the status quo were more likely expected to reach their goal than complainants. In the role of complainant, wives were more likely expected to reach their goal than were their husbands, but only when the conflict issue concerned their own gender stereotypical domain (i.e., family work).