Social behaviors as determined by different arrangements of social consequences: diffusion of responsibility effects with competition

According to a recently proposed synthesis, social loafing, social facilitation, and deindividuation can be viewed as different ways of arranging social consequences (B. Guerin, 1999). The effects of such arrangements have been measured in past research as productive output (social loafing and social facilitation) or as antinormative behaviors (deindividuation), but all 3 effects are manipulable by changing individual identifiability, evaluation, social identity, task difficulty, and presence in a group. The synthesis also predicted that these same variables would apply to other measures and other arrangements of social consequences. To this end, in the present 2 experiments, the author varied the arrangements for consequence diffusion in a competition situation by varying small and large competing groups and measured productive output and antinormative behaviors simultaneously. The 2 experiments showed social-consequence effects in competition situations with college students, giving further support for the social-consequence synthesis and the idea that the verbal naming of phenomena in social psychology is arbitrary.     

How to Cook Rice: A Review of Ingredients for Teaching anti‐Prejudice

There is a pressing need to address prejudice, racism, and discrimination against marginalised groups in Australia. This involves change from the structural to the individual level. In this article, we discuss the merits of individual anti‐prejudice mechanisms within the Australian context. First, we expand on nine mechanisms described in a previous paper and then review five new mechanisms. We conclude that while some mechanisms are likely to be useful regardless of location, others need to be tailored to the local context. We also conclude that effective interventions need to utilise multiple mechanisms. It is hoped that the synthesis of the different mechanisms provided here will assist anti‐prejudice researchers, practitioners, and policymakers striving to improve relations among different groups in our society.     

Cognitive tuning sets: Anticipating the consequences of communication

This paper reviews the literature on cognitive tuning sets: the expectations of having to transmit or receive information. It is shown that having to transmit information leads to a unified and distorted summary being transmitted, a reluctance to receive additional information, a rejection of inconsistent information, and a shaping of the material to accommodate the anticipated audience. As well, the opinions of the transmitters become polarized. It is argued that the receiver condition is probably not the correct control group to use since the outcome depends on the uncontrolled perceived goals. It is suggested that future research should probably treat the multiple effects of cognitive tuning sets separately. An integrated explanation is given in terms of anticipating the consequences of communication. This work was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Grants Scheme.     

Attitudes and beliefs as verbal behavior

Attitudes and beliefs are analyzed as verbal behavior. It is argued that shaping by a verbal community is an essential part of the formation and maintenance of both attitudes and beliefs, and it is suggested that verbal communities mediate the important shift in control from events in the environment (attitudes and beliefs as tacts) to control by other words (attitudes and beliefs as intraverbals). It appears that both attitudes and beliefs are constantly being socially negotiated through autoclitic functions. That is, verbal communities reinforce (a) reporting general rather than specific attitudes and beliefs, (b) presentation of intraverbals as if they were tacts, and (c) presentation of beliefs as if they were attitudes. Consistency among and between attitudes, beliefs, and behavior is also contingent upon the reinforcing practices of verbal communities. Thus, attitudes and beliefs can be studied as social behavior rather than as private, cognitive processes.     

What Do People Think About the Risks of Driving? Implications for Traffic Safety Interventions1

Two studies found that people generally think of themselves as better than average drivers. Both older and younger people rated themselves slightly better than peers, with the younger people rating their peers as the worst drivers but rating themselves as if they did not belong to this group. University students rated their peers as being more similar to themselves than did nonuniversity younger people. A factor analysis found five dimensions along which people thought about driving risks: environmental and road conditions, unexpected events, driver problems, necessary or unavoidable driving risks, and voluntary driving risks. Speeding was thought of in two ways, as both an unavoidable driving risk and as a voluntary risk. Differences were found between general and specific questions, and a theoretical framework for exploring these in future research was proposed predicts differences between a situational or dispositional focus. The implications of the results for traffic safety interventions were drawn out, and specific recommendations, made for targeting such interventions.     

Anticipating the consequences of social behavior

Some forms of psychological theory explain behavior in part by its consequences. The consequences are called reinforcing if the behavior is strengthened; punishing if the behavior is weakened. Through repetition, the consequences eventually become generalized or anticipated. While social psychology has used consequences extensively in its manipulations, this has been implicit rather than explicit. This paper reviews ten such manipulations over ten areas of social psychology for the first time and shows how implicit consequences can determine social behavior. The problems with executing and interpreting these manipulations are extensively discussed. It is concluded that the notion of “anticipating the consequences of social behavior” can bring unity to many areas of social psychology and provide a sound motivational basis.     

Combating prejudice and racism: new interventions from a functional analysis of racist language

Based on a conversational model of language‐use‐in‐social‐context, this article focuses on one particular form of racist and prejudiced talking that has not received enough attention—conversations in which racist statements function to maintain groups and relationships rather than seriously promote racism. Despite their casualness, such statements are still pernicious, and a range of potential interventions are proposed for this language function. These involve actively altering a community's discursive resources to include more rejoinders to racist comments. Such rejoinders must be utilized in the most appropriate way for any relationship, and this might mean polite corrections, witty repartee, strong put‐downs to silence someone making racist comments, or as counter‐jokes to racist jokes, depending upon the social context and power relations involved. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Memory distortion: an adaptive perspective

Memory is prone to distortions that can have serious consequences in everyday life. Here we integrate emerging evidence that several types of memory distortions - imagination inflation, gist-based and associative memory errors, and post-event misinformation - reflect adaptive cognitive processes that contribute to the efficient functioning of memory, but produce distortions as a consequence of doing so. We consider recent cognitive and neuroimaging studies that link these distortions with adaptive processes, including simulation of future events, semantic and contextual encoding, creativity, and memory updating. We also discuss new evidence concerning factors that can influence the occurrence of memory distortions, such as sleep and retrieval conditions, as well as conceptual issues related to the development of an adaptive perspective.     

Family factors associated with self‐harm in adults: a systematic review

The aim of this study was to systematically review the literature pertaining to family dynamics in the adult self‐harming population. PsycINFO, Medline, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA) were searched for studies containing two keywords, one relating to self‐harm and the second relating to a family relationship. The final search was run on 4 August 2017. The electronic search yielded a total of 2,623 studies; 119 texts were selected for full review and twenty‐seven articles were included in the analysis. Thematic analysis was used to synthesize the results. Results indicated that insecure parental attachments, neglectful, overprotective, disempowering and abusive parenting were associated with self‐harm. Similarly, insecure attachments and abusive relationships with romantic partners were linked to self‐harm. Finally, self‐harm was found to be related to poor family functioning.