Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin RSS feed -- OnlineFirst Articles

No Place Like Home: Home Tours Correlate With Daily Patterns of Mood and Cortisol

Saxbe, D. E., Repetti, R. — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:59:50 PST

The way people describe their homes may reflect whether their time at home feels restorative or stressful.This article uses linguistic analysis software (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) to analyze 60 dual-income spouses’ self-guided home tours by calculating the frequency of words describing clutter, a sense of the home as unfinished, restful words, and nature words. Based on a principal components analysis, the former two categories were combined into the variable stressful home and the latter two into restorative home. Over 3 weekdays following the home tours, wives with higher stressful home scores had flatter diurnal slopes of cortisol, a profile associated with adverse health outcomes, whereas women with higher restorative home scores had steeper cortisol slopes.These results held after controlling for marital satisfaction and neuroticism.Women with higher stressful home scores had increased depressed mood over the course of the day, whereas women with higher restorative home scores had decreased depressed mood over the day.

Sheltering the Self From the Storm: Self-Construal Abstractness and the Stability of Self-Esteem

Updegraff, J. A., Emanuel, A. S., Suh, E. M., Gallagher, K. M. — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:00:49 PST

Self-construal abstractness (SCA) refers to the degree to which people construe important bases of self-esteem in a broad, flexible, and abstract rather than a concrete and specific manner. This article hypothesized that SCA would be a unique predictor of self-esteem stability, capturing the degree to which people’s most important bases of self-worth are resistant to disconfirmation. Two studies using a daily diary methodology examined relationships between SCA, daily self-esteem, and daily emotions and/or events. In Study 1, individual differences in SCA emerged as the most consistent and unique predictor of self-esteem stability. Furthermore, SCA contributed to self-esteem stability by buffering the influence of daily negative emotions on self-esteem. Study 2 manipulated SCA via a daily self-construal task and found an abstract versus concrete self-focus to buffer the influence of daily negative events on self-esteem. Implications of these findings for the study of the self and well-being are discussed.

Compensatory Rationalizations and the Resolution of Everyday Undeserved Outcomes

Gaucher, D., Hafer, C. L., Kay, A. C., Davidenko, N. — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:00:49 PST

People prefer to perceive the world as just; however, the everyday experience of undeserved events challenges this perception.The authors suggest that one way people rationalize these daily experiences of unfairness is by means of a compensatory bias. People make undeserved events more palatable by endorsing the notion that outcomes naturally balance out in the end—good, yet undeserved,outcomes will balance out bad outcomes,and bad undeserved outcomes will balance out good outcomes.The authors propose that compensatory biases manifest in people’s interpretive processes (Study 1) and memory (Study 2). Furthermore, they provide evidence that people have a natural tendency to anticipate compensatory outcomes in the future, which, ironically, might lead them to perceive a current situation as relatively more fair (Study 3).These studies highlight an understudied means of justifying unfairness and elucidate the justice motive’s power to affect people’s construal of their social world.

Loyal Deviance: Testing the Normative Conflict Model of Dissent in Social Groups

Packer, D. J., Chasteen, A. L. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:27:28 PST

The normative conflict model predicts that expressions of dissent within groups can be motivated by the collective interest and that strongly identified members may dissent from group norms if and when they are perceived to be harmful to the collective. We present convergent evidence from four studies in support of the model. Study 1 investigated retrospective reports of disagreements and found that strongly identified members reported collectively oriented motives for expressing disagreement within their groups. Studies 2a and 2b provided experimental tests of the prediction that strongly identified group members are willing to dissent when they reflect on how a norm could harm their group but not when they reflect on negative individualistic consequences of the same norm. Finally, Study 3 replicated these effects using a correlational design that measured actual opinion expression in an ostensible online chat room.

Same or Different? Clarifying the Relationship of Need for Cognition to Personality and Intelligence

Fleischhauer, M., Enge, S., Brocke, B., Ullrich, J., Strobel, A., Strobel, A. — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:51:52 PST

Need for cognition (NFC) refers to an individual’s tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive processing. So far, little attention has been paid to a systematic evaluation of the distinctiveness of NFC from traits with similar conceptualization and from intelligence. The present research contributes to filling this gap by examining the relation of NFC to well-established personality concepts (Study 1) and to a comprehensive measure of intelligence in a sample with broad educational backgrounds (Study 2).We observed NFC to be positively correlated with openness, emotional stability, and traits indicating goal orientation. Using confirmatory factor analysis and event-related potentials, incremental validity of NFC and openness to ideas was demonstrated, showing that NFC is more predictive of drive-related and goal-oriented behavior and attentional resource allocation. Regarding intelligence, NFC was more associated with fluid than with crystallized aspects of intelligence. Altogether, the results provide strong support for the conceptual autonomy of NFC.

Who Recognizes and Chooses Behaviors That Are Best for a Relationship? The Separate Roles of Knowledge, Attachment, and Motivation

Turan, B., Vicary, A. M. — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:43:25 PST

Participants made relationship decisions in several Choose Your Own Adventure–type dating story tasks by choosing between two options at each of 20 points throughout the computerized stories. One option was always the relationship-enhancing option; the other option was detrimental to the relationship. Study 1 included two experimental conditions: Participants were either asked to identify the relationship-enhancing option or to report which option they would actually choose. Individuals high in relationship knowledge were more likely to identify relationship-enhancing behaviors but not more likely to actually choose them. Secure individuals and individuals strongly motivated to have supportive relationships were more likely to identify and to choose relationship-enhancing options. In Study 2 partner supportiveness was manipulated; the fictitious partner was either supportive or nonsupportive. Individuals high in relationship knowledge were better at recognizing when a partner was supportive and when not, whereas attachment anxiety lessened the appreciation of having a supportive partner.

Enacted Support's Links to Negative Affect and Perceived Support Are More Consistent With Theory When Social Influences Are Isolated From Trait Influences

Lakey, B., Orehek, E., Hain, K. L., VanVleet, M. — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:43:25 PST

Social support theory typically explains perceived support's link to mental health as reflecting the role of specific supportive actions (i.e., enacted support). Yet enacted support typically is not linked to mental health and perceived support as predicted by theory. The links are examined among enacted support, affect, and perceived support when links reflected (a) aspects of support and affect that generalized across relationship partners and time (i.e., trait influences) and (b) aspects that reflected specific relationship partners (i.e., social influences). Multivariate generalizability analyses indicated that enacted support was linked to low negative affect as predicted by theory only when correlations reflected social influences. When correlations reflected trait influences, enacted support was linked to high negative affect. Furthermore, perceived and enacted support were strongly linked when correlations reflected social influences but not trait influences. Thus, findings for enacted support fit social support theory better when social influences were isolated from trait influences.

Giving Birth to Empathy: The Effects of Similar Experience on Empathic Accuracy, Empathic Concern, and Perceived Empathy

Hodges, S. D., Kiel, K. J., Kramer, A. D. I., Veach, D., Villanueva, B. R. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:33:44 PDT

This study examined how having had a similar experience to a target person’s experience affected three facets of empathy: empathic concern, empathic accuracy, and perceived empathy. Women who had never been mothers, who were pregnant with their first child, or who had just given birth to their first child (20 in each group) served as perceivers, watching videotapes of new-mother targets (N = 20) and providing measures of emotional and cognitive empathy. When perceivers had experienced the same life events as the targets, they expressed greater empathic concern and reported greater understanding of targets. However, experience had a much smaller effect on empathic accuracy, limited to comparisons between new-mother and never-pregnant perceivers and only for accuracy at guessing stereotypic attitudes, not individual thoughts. Perceived empathy, in contrast, appeared to be influenced by targets’ knowledge of whether perceivers had experienced similar events.

Manipulation Checks as Manipulation: Another Look at the Ease-of-Retrieval Heuristic

Kuhnen, U. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:33:44 PDT

Previous findings suggest that individuals rely on ease of retrieval primarily under low judgment elaboration. However, in these previous studies the manipulation check (MC) has always been measured before the dependent variable (DV). It is argued that this sequence increases the likelihood that individuals rely on subjective experience particularly under conditions that prevent considering retrieved contents. Four conceptual replications of such previous findings are reported where the manipulation of the MC-DV order was added to the original design. In all four cases (Study 1 on accuracy motivation, Study 2 on cognitive capacity, Study 3 using a misattribution paradigm, and Study 4 on power), ease-of-retrieval effects under low-judgment-elaboration conditions were observed only if the MC measurement preceded the DV, but not with reversed order.

There's No Substitute for Belonging: Self-Affirmation Following Social and Nonsocial Threats

Knowles, M. L., Lucas, G. M., Molden, D. C., Gardner, W. L., Dean, K. K. — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:02:27 PDT

Feelings of belonging are closely linked to feelings of self-esteem. This article examines whether these feelings are regulated in a similar manner. Research on self-esteem maintenance shows that self-enhancement strategies are interchangeable; selfesteem threats in one domain instigate indirect self-affirmations in unrelated domains that effectively replace needs to directly address the original threats. From this perspective, when self-esteem threats arise from a lack of belonging, indirect self-affirmations should again be both preferred and effective. However, belonging regulation may be distinct from self-esteem regulation. From this belonging maintenance perspective, indirect affirmations that enhance esteem, but do not directly repair belonging, may be relatively less preferred and effective following belonging threats. Supporting the belonging maintenance perspective, four studies demonstrated that whereas intelligence threats tended to elicit indirect self-affirmations, belonging threats elicited relatively more direct self-affirmations. Furthermore, whereas indirect affirmation strategies effectively repaired intelligence threats they did not effectively repair belonging threats.

A Culture of Genius: How an Organization's Lay Theory Shapes People's Cognition, Affect, and Behavior

Murphy, M. C., Dweck, C. S. — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:16:35 PDT

Traditionally, researchers have conceptualized implicit theories as individual differences—lay theories that vary between people. This article, however, investigates the consequences of organization-level implicit theories of intelligence. In five studies, the authors examine how an organization’s fixed (entity) or malleable (incremental) theory of intelligence affects people’s inferences about what is valued, their self- and social judgments, and their behavioral decisions. In Studies 1 and 2, the authors find that people systematically shift their self-presentations when motivated to join an entity or incremental organization. People present their "smarts" to the entity environment and their "motivation" to the incremental environment. In Studies 3a and 4, they show downstream consequences of these inferences for participants’ self-concepts and their hiring decisions. In Study 3b, they demonstrate that the effects are not due to simple priming. The implications for understanding how environments shape cognition and behavior and, more generally, for implicit theories research are discussed.

Perceived Maternal Control and Responsiveness to Distress as Predictors of Young Adults' Empathic Responses

Kanat-Maymon, M., Assor, A. — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:59:57 PDT

Two studies examined the relations between young adults’ empathic responding and their perceptions of two maternal behaviors. As predicted from self-determination theory, perceived maternal control had unique negative associations with empathic support of one’s romantic partner (indicated by both self-reports and partner reports) and with empathic concern for others in general, and a unique positive association with personal distress in response to others in need. Perceived maternal responsiveness to distress was a unique positive predictor of empathic concern. The findings suggest that the experience of one’s mother as controlling is likely to interfere with one’s empathic responding and that high levels of perceived maternal responsiveness do not cancel the negative effects of the experience of controlling parenting. Furthermore, the findings suggest that high levels of perceived maternal responsiveness might exacerbate the negative relations between perceived maternal control and personal distress in response to others in need.

On the Social-Communicative Function of Justice: The Influence of Communication Goals and Personal Involvement on the Use of Justice Assertions

Wijn, R., van den Bos, K. — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:14:26 PDT

This article reveals how people strategically use justice assertions when attempting to persuade others. In three studies participants communicated about a negative situation they or someone else had experienced and did so in a persuasive manner (Studies 1-3), an accurate manner (Study 1), by asking for an opinion (Study 2), or without a communication goal (Studies 1 and 3). Communicators who had a persuasion goal used more justice-related words than communicators who had a goal to be accurate, asked for an opinion, or had no goal. This was particularly the case when communications were about someone else rather than the participants themselves and for those high in self-monitoring whose identities were known (vs. anonymous). The article concludes that people use justice-related words in attempts to persuade others, but only when they know there is no doubt about their personal involvement. Implications are discussed.

Social Vigilantism: Measuring Individual Differences in Belief Superiority and Resistance to Persuasion

Saucier, D. A., Webster, R. J. — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:02:54 PDT

Social vigilantism (SV) is an enduring individual difference that assesses the tendency of individuals to impress and propagate their " superior" beliefs onto others to correct others' more "ignorant" opinions. After establishing a reliable measure of SV, three studies showed that SV was associated with greater expressions of belief superiority (whether reacting to others holding dissimilar or similar beliefs) and greater resistance to persuasion (via increased rates of counterarguing and greater attitude stability after persuasion appeals) even after controlling for relevant individual differences (narcissism, dogmatism, psychological reactance, and need for cognition), as well as attitude importance and extremity. Thus, SV predicts expressions of belief superiority and resistance to persuasion above and beyond characteristics of the attitude and individual difference variables previously studied in the attitude literature. SV is a meaningful construct in increasing the understanding of persuasion, attitude resistance, and attitude dissemination that can be applied in a variety of psychological domains.