Compensation for Inconsistencies: The Effects of Stereotype Strength on Expectations of Applicants’ Job Success and Satisfaction

This research was designed to examine how exposure to information about a man described in terms of gender-typed, cross gender-typed, or androgynous characteristics affected judgments about his potential satisfaction and suitability for male- and female-dominated occupations. In addition, we examined how this exposure affected judgments about another man who was applying for the same job. Drawing from prior theory and research on the schema maintenance through compensation model (e.g., Seta & Seta, 1993; Seta, Seta, & McElroy, 2003), it was predicted and found that participants with strong gender stereotypes develop compensatory expectancies. Specifically, in comparison to control conditions, participants exposed to information about the first applicant that was inconsistent with a typical man’s behavior expected the second applicant to be especially “macho” and to be unsuitable in and dissatisfied with traditionally, female-dominant occupations. Implications for employment interviews were discussed.     

Contextual Influences on Marriage

Abstract— Current proposals to promote and strengthen marriage among low-income populations focus on values and behavioral skills as primary targets of intervention. Marital research that examines contextual influences on marriage calls these emphases into question. Ethnographic and survey research reveal no evidence that populations experiencing higher rates of divorce value healthy marriages any less than other populations do. Longitudinal and observational research reveals two mechanisms through which the environment of a marriage may enhance or constrain effective relationship maintenance. First, some environments contain fewer sources of support and pose more severe challenges than others, presenting marriages in those environments with greater burdens than marriages in more supportive environments are faced with. Second, when demands external to the marriage are relatively high, even couples with adequate coping skills may have difficulty exercising those skills effectively. Together, such findings suggest that successful policies and interventions to strengthen marriages need to acknowledge the environments within which marriages take place.     

Affect and automatic mood maintenance

The hedonic contingency model (HCM; Wegener & Petty, 1994) states that individuals have learned to seek out positive activities while in a happy mood in order to maintain or elevate that mood. We argue that this tendency may become overlearned and, thus, automated. More specifically, the experience of a happy mood was predicted to automatically activate the mood-maintenance tendency proposed by the HCM. Participants induced into happy, sad, or neutral moods ranked their preferences for future activities that were nonconsciously associated with either a positive or negative valence. Supporting the notion of automatic mood maintenance, happy participants appeared to evaluate the affective qualities of the future activities and base their preferences on this evaluation without realizing that they were doing so. Theoretical implications of this finding are discussed.     

Bias in older adults’ driving self-assessments: The role of personality

A convenience sample of 50 older drivers (M_age = 73.14, SD = 4.85) completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) Step III™ instrument and rated their own driving abilities (compared to all other drivers, same age drivers, and their own driving 20 years prior) and their ability to perform 68 specific driving-related behaviors. Each subject’s driving performance was also evaluated in a comprehensive on-road assessment conducted by a certified driving rehabilitation specialist, who rated the same 68 driving behaviors as well as driving performance. Drivers identified by the MBTI Step III instrument as Extraverted, Sensing, and (above median) Confident rated their driving significantly more favorably than Introverts, Intuitives, and below median Confidence drivers. Step III Sufficiency scales were associated with on-road performance: drivers with scores indicating low Confidence, low Stamina, or critical high levels of Compensatory Strain received significantly lower evaluations. Drivers with a Sensing preference or critical Strain score rated their driving significantly more favorably than evaluators did. These findings present preliminary evidence for the utility of personality assessments in identifying self-serving bias in driving self-evaluations, essential for safe self-regulation of driving.     

垂直量尺化中的参数标定方法及其性能比较

在使用项目反应理论进行量尺化的语境下, 参数标定方法是垂直量尺化结果的一个至关重要的影响因素。目前的参数标定研究就部分标定方法的相对性能获得了较一致的结果, 就如何实现更佳量尺化也提出了很多新的标定方法。除了在既有框架内继续探索, 以形成完整的研究体系, 未来的研究应结合相关学科, 在深入了解学业增长的性质的基础上探究标定方法的性能, 并应考察特定的标定方法和特定的研究条件、量尺化语境之间的最佳匹配关系。     

What is implicit about implicit self-esteem?

Modern advances in implicit social cognition enabled development of novel methods for examining less conscious aspects of self-worth. The use of such “implicit” measures of self-esteem is based on the premise that because they circumvent direct self-reports, they must capture more implicit, automatic components of self-evaluation. Whether self-evaluations captured via “implicit” measures actually have these functional properties requires empirical verification, however. This investigation critically examined the evidence for such assumptions regarding the Name-Letter Test, one of the most popular implicit measures, by adopting a phenomenological approach. The results revealed that many respondents were aware of the self-relevant nature of the measure at the time of assessment. Moreover, at least some variance in the “implicit” measurement outcomes was accounted for by relevant conscious beliefs, particularly among those aware of the self-relevant nature of the task. The implications for understanding the nature and assessment of unconscious self-worth are discussed.     

Time course of selective attention in clinically depressed young adults: an eye tracking study

Depressed individuals display biased attention for emotional information when stimuli are presented for relatively “long” (e.g., 1 s) durations. The current study examined whether attentional biases are sustained over a much longer period. Specifically, clinically depressed and never depressed young adults simultaneously viewed images from four emotion categories (sad, threat, positive, neutral) for 30 s while line of visual gaze was assessed. Depressed individuals spent significantly more time viewing dysphoric images and less time viewing positive images than their never depressed counterparts. Time course analyses indicated that these biases were maintained over the course of the trial. Results suggest that depressed participants' attentional biases for dysphoric information are sustained for relatively long periods even when other emotional stimuli are present. Mood congruent information-processing biases appear to be a robust feature of depression and may have an important role in the maintenance of the disorder.     

Defining racism safely: The role of self-image maintenance on white Americans’ conceptions of racism

We suggest that the need to maintain a positive self-image motivates White Americans to conceive of racism as a phenomenon rooted in individuals instead of institutions. They do so because an institutional conception of racism, more so than an individual conception of racism, raises their awareness of White privilege, a concept threatening to Whites’ self-image. In support of this idea, Experiment 1 found that a self-affirmation manipulation increased Whites’ willingness to conceive racism in institutional terms. Experiment 2 found that a self-image threat lowered Whites’ willingness to conceive racism in institutional terms. In neither experiment did the self-image maintenance manipulation affect Whites’ conceptions of individual racism, suggesting that the individual conception of racism may be a less ego-threatening way for Whites to conceive of racism.     

Memory Maintenance

ABSTRACT— Change in the synaptic communication between neurons—known as synaptic plasticity—plays a key role in learning and memory. It is not yet clear, however, whether the properties of synaptic plasticity are sufficient to account for long-term-memory maintenance. Recent studies have revealed that synaptic plasticity can indeed persist for weeks or months, as might be expected of a long-term-memory mechanism. However, memories encoded by neural systems are not static; they continue to evolve as new learning occurs. Furthermore, neural-network modeling has shown that synapses must be able to reconfigure their connection strengths during new learning if old information is to be preserved. Recent tests confirm that synapses, once modified, retain their capacity for further modification, indicating that they can indeed operate in the manner predicted to be necessary for memory maintenance in a dynamic learning network.     

The role of individual differences in sandbagging on selective avoidance of self-evaluative information

In the current experiment (N = 86), I evaluated the hypothesis that high and low sandbaggers differ in their preference for self-evaluative information. Results demonstrate that low sandbaggers sought accurate self-assessment information in private and in public, but high sandbaggers bypassed such information when it would be made public. These data support the notion that high sandbaggers are self-protective and tend to focus on social evaluation, while low sandbaggers seek accurate self-assessment regardless of the potential for social evaluation. Furthermore, data help to distinguish between sandbagging and self-handicapping. Discussion focuses on the motivation of sandbaggers, along with how this motivation differs from that of self-handicappers.