Gender Differences in Social Dominance Orientation: The Role of Cognitive Complexity

The present research examined the invariance hypothesis, which predicts lower levels of social dominance orientation (SDO) for women compared to men even when accounting for other factors. Previous research shows that gender linked variables mediate the gender difference in SDO. In two studies using undergraduates in the northeastern U.S., we tested mediation by cognitive complexity, a variable linked to social status but not to gender. Study 1 (n?=?117) found that women had higher levels of attributional complexity, but not need for cognition. Study 2 (n?=?206) further found that attributional complexity mediated the relationship between gender and SDO, suggesting that higher cognitive complexity due to low social status may be involved in gender differences in SDO.     

Neuroticism and the Architecture of the Self: Exploring Neuroticism as a Moderator of the Impact of Ideal Self‐Discrepancies on Emotion

ABSTRACT Two studies examined the moderating role of neuroticism in discrepancy‐emotion relations. In Study 1, neuroticism, self‐discrepancies, and depression were measured. Multiple regression analyses revealed a significant interaction between neuroticism and ideal self‐discrepancies such that the magnitude of ideal self‐discrepancies was a stronger predictor of depression for people high in neuroticism than people low in neuroticism. Study 2 used an experimental paradigm to test the same hypothesis. Participants were randomly assigned to an ideal self‐discrepancy salience condition or a control condition in which ideal self‐discrepancies were not made salient. A significant interaction between self‐discrepancy condition and neuroticism emerged such that the ideal self‐discrepancy condition produced higher dejection‐related affect relative to the control condition for people high in neuroticism compared to people low in neuroticism.     

Human agency and associative learning: Pavlovian principles govern social process in causal relationship detection

Estimates of a worker's causal relationship (CR) to production obeyed associative principles, despite the participants' a priori beliefs that workers are responsible or "at cause" for production. In three experiments, social analogues of conditioned stimuli (workers) and unconditioned stimuli (company production information) were manipulated in familiar Pavlovian paradigms. The findings included (1) CR acquisition, (2) unconditioned stimulus-intensity effects, and (3) CR blocking. The research plan employed an approach that Neal Miller (1959) termed "extension of liberalized S-R theory" and drew on the Rescorla-Wagner model to integrate the experimental results, to illuminate the empirical data of social attribution research, and to guide the study of causal relationship detection using social stimuli.     

TRAINING RESIDENTIAL SUPERVISORS TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK FOR MAINTAINING STAFF TEACHING SKILLS WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE SEVERE DISABILITIES

We evaluated procedures for training supervisors in a residential setting to provide feedback for maintaining direct-service staff members' teaching skills with people who have severe disabilities. Using classroom-based instruction and on-the-job observation and feedback, 10 supervisors were initially trained to implement teaching programs themselves. The training improved supervisors' teaching skills but was insufficient to improve the quality of feedback they provided to direct-service staff regarding the staff members' teaching skills. Subsequently, classroom-based instruction and on-the-job observation and feedback that targeted supervisors' feedback skills were provided. Following training in provision of feedback, all supervisors met criterion for providing feedback to their staff. Results also indicated that maintenance of teaching skills was greater for direct-service staff whose supervisors had received training in providing feedback relative to staff whose supervisors had not received such training. The need for analysis of other variables that affect maintenance of staff performance, as well as variables that affect other important areas of supervisor performance, is discussed.     

IDENTIFYING WORK PREFERENCES AMONG INDIVIDUALS WITH SEVERE MULTIPLE DISABILITIES PRIOR TO BEGINNING SUPPORTED WORK

We evaluated a prework assessment for predicting work-task preferences among workers with severe multiple disabilities prior to beginning supported work. The assessment involved comparing worker selections from pairs of work tasks drawn from their future job duties. Results of workers' choices once they began their jobs in a publishing company indicated that the assessment predicted tasks that the workers preferred to work on during their job routines. Results are discussed regarding other possible means of determining preferred types of supported work.     

Dimensions of Acculturation and Work Hope in International Students

Work hope is an emerging and important factor in the career development process of international students. In this study, the authors focused on the work hope of international students and examined its relation to dimensions of acculturation (i.e., dominant society immersion, ethnic identity, ethnic society immersion, individualism, and collectivism). A total of 340 international students completed an online survey. Results of a correlation analysis revealed associations in the expected directions. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that horizontal collectivism, horizontal individualism, and vertical collectivism had a significant and unique contribution in explaining work hope. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

“Rise Up and Walk”: Psychology,Comparative Theology,and the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion</Emphasis>

This article provides a review and assessment of the Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion (2014) as a resource for the emerging discipline of comparative theology and, in particular, Hindu-Christian studies. Co-editor Lewis Rambo has highlighted the importance of this volume as an example of a new multi-disciplinary approach to the psychology of religion, one that incorporates the insights of theological studies along with phenomenology of religion, history of religions, and other disciplines. In the vision of the Handbook, however, theology would seem to remain an object of inquiry, as its norms and patterns inform a broader, integrative, social scientific project. The article argues that theology can emerge as a subject as well as an object, opening at least the possibility of a deepened, renewed, and truly constructive comparative inquiry into the phenomenon of religious conversion.     

Attitude alignment increases trust,respect, and perceived reasoning ability to produce attraction

When others disagree with us, we like them more if they shift their attitude toward ours (i.e., engage in attitude alignment), but why? This article examined the effects of partner attitude alignment on dyadic (trust, inferred attraction) and personal (respect, perceived reasoning ability) evaluations. In two experiments, participants received feedback that imagined (Experiment 1) or real (Experiment 2) partners engaged (vs. did not engage) in attitude alignment; rated partners on trust, inferred attraction, respect (Experiments 1 and 2), and perceived reasoning ability (Experiment 2); and reported attraction. Individuals were more attracted to partners who engaged in attitude alignment because they viewed them as more trustworthy and worthy of respect and as possessing greater reasoning ability. The role of inferred attraction was unclear.