Social Psychological Phenomena Research Articles

The Social Construction of Romantic Relationships in Adolescence: Examining the Role of Peer Networks, Gender, and Race*

Romantic activity is a social psychological phenomenon. Gender, race, and peer networks are key contexts for understanding the social construction of this behavior as gender‐ and race‐based norms structure feelings and behaviors that define “appropriate” romantic activity and peer networks serve as incubators of this activity. With a nationally representative sample of adolescents (N= 8510) drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study explored the linkages among peer networks, conceptions of idealized romantic relationships and actual romantic relationships, and the ways in which gender and race moderate these associations. Several characteristics of peer networks predicted adolescent attitudes about romantic behaviors as well as actual romantic behavior. Moreover, the linkages among peer networks, romantic attitudes, and romantic behaviors varied by race.

Toward a Social Psychology of Culture and Globalization: Some Social Cognitive Consequences of Activating Two Cultures Simultaneously

AbstractDespite the increased attention given to cultural phenomena in social psychology, the field has neglected issues related to globalization's cultural impacts. Meanwhile, opinions in the debates over these issues are divided, polarized, and often motivated by political and ideological commitments. Globalization has brought symbols of diverse cultures together and provided ample opportunities for the simultaneous activation of two or more cultural representations. Using our research on the social cognitive consequences of activating two cultural representations simultaneously as an example, we argue for constructing a social psychology of globalization that offers nuanced understandings of people's psychological responses to globalization. Although simultaneous activation of cultural representations does not determine an individual's cultural identity, it enlarges the felt distinctions between different identity options and magnifies the effects of identity choice. Furthermore, in situations that emphasize appropriating intellectual resources from diverse cultures to foster creativity, simultaneous activation of cultural representations may facilitate creative performance.

Communication and laboratory performance in parapsychology experiments: Demand characteristics and the social organization of interaction

This paper reports findings from a conversation analytic study of experimenter-participant interaction in parapsychology experiments. It shows how properties of communication through which the routine business of the experiment is conducted may have an impact on the research participant's subsequent performance. In this, the study explores social psychological features of the psychology laboratory. In particular, it examines aspects of Orne's (1962) account of what he called the demand characteristics of the psychological experiment. The data come from a corpus of audio recordings of experimenter-participant interaction during experiments on extra-sensory perception. These kinds of experiments, and the phenomena they purport to study, are undoubtedly controversial; however, the paper argues that there are grounds for social psychologists to consider parapsychology experiments as a class (albeit distinctive) of psychology experiments, and, therefore, as sites in which general social psychological and communicative phenomena can be studied. The empirical sections of the paper examine interaction during part of the experimental procedure when the experimenter verbally reviews a record of the participant's imagery reported during an earlier part of the experiment. The analysis shows that the way in which the experimenter acknowledges the research participants' utterances may be significant for the trajectory of the experiment and explores how the participants' subsequent performance in the experiment may be influenced by interactionally generated contingencies.

Interpreting and Extending G. H. Mead's “Metaphysics” of Selfhood and Agency

G. H. Mead developed an alternative “metaphysics” of selfhood and agency that underlies, but is seldom made explicit in discussions of, his social developmental psychology. This is an alternative metaphysics that rejects any pregiven, fixed foundations for being and knowing. It assumes the emergence of social psychological phenomena such as mind, self, and deliberative agency through the activity of human actors and interactors within their biophysical and sociocultural world. Of central importance to the emergence of self-consciousness and deliberative forms of human agency is the ability of developing individuals to take the perspectives of others within their own conduct. However, precisely what is involved in this process, and whether or not it assumes the preexistence of exactly those forms of selfhood and agency, the emergence of which it seeks to explain, have been much disputed. In this essay, recent reinterpretations of Mead's “metaphysics” are used to argue that his overall theoretical program contains resources necessary to overcome charges of ontological and epistemological circularity. In particular, once his interactionism, perspectivism, emergentism, and compatibilism are explicated, it is possible to see that Mead's “taking the perspective of the other” is not primarily a process of internalization that requires a preexisting “internalizer,” but a process of participation with others within conventionalized sequences of interactivity. This participatory process enables the development of prereflective forms of perspective taking and self–other differentiation that serve as necessary conditions for the further emergence of more reflective forms of perspective taking, self-consciousness, and deliberative agency. Compatibilist interpretations of deliberative agency, thus understood, also are discussed.

Are DIT scores empirically distinct from measures of political identification and intellectual ability? A test using post‐9/11 data

Emler, Renwick, and Malone (1983) argued against a developmental interpretation of the Defining Issues Test (DIT), suggesting instead that it actually measures a social psychological phenomenon – political identification. On the other hand, Sanders, Lubinski, and Benbow (1995) have argued that DIT scores measure intellectual ability. In this study, we pitted the DIT against measures of political identification and intellectual ability in order to test its ability to incrementally predict variation in post‐9/11 attitudes. We found that both DIT‐2 scores and political identification were significant predictors of attitudes toward restricting human rights/civil liberties, while our index of intellectual ability (i.e. ACT scores) was not. DIT‐2 scores, political identification and intellectual ability each accounted for significant variation in attitudes toward President George W. Bush in our undergraduate college sample during the spring of 2004.

L'intervention des explications causales internes en termes d'effort dans les stratégies d'autoprésentation et le jugement social : perspectives sociocognitives

This article pursues two aims. The first one is to propose an extension of the theory of the social norm of internality by studying the value of various types of internal and external causal explanations of reinforcements. A first study shows that students ( n = 155) choose more effort-based explanations to explain spontaneously a success or a failure to an exam. A second study, realized with students placed in judge's position ( n = 80), reveals that effort-based explanations are more appreciated than others explanations, regardless of the event desirability. The second aim of this article is to show that attributional approach and the theory of the social norm of internality are based on different definitions of social judgment and concern different psychological phenomena. A third study realized with students ( n = 63) placed in judge's position shows that the effect of the type of explanations for explaining a success or a failure varies according to the nature of the judgment (approval/punishment, probability of success, competence and motivation).

Balance Theory, Unit Relations, and Attribution: The Underlying Integrity of Heiderian Theory

Fritz Heider's theory of social perception is reviewed, and the close connection between attribution, balance, and unit relationship are examined, primarily through Heider's own writings. Attribution and balance have historically been considered separate theories, but the authors show how these two ideas, in conjunction with the idea of unit formation, create a broad-ranging and integrated theory of social perception. Attributions were seen by Heider as a particular kind of unit relationship, and people make attributions that preserve an affectively consistent view of others. The authors then show how this integrated understanding of Heider's ideas generates new predictions and informs a wide range of clinical, personality, and social psychological phenomena, as a reminder of the modern power of Heider's theory.

How can Asian social psychology succeed globally?†

The present article is inspired by the provocative ideas of Atsumi, Hofstede, Leung, and Ward expressed in this Special Issue on the past achievements, current status, and future opportunities and challenges of Asian social psychology as an international (vs a regional) endeavour. I believe that the success of Asian social psychology as a new voice and emerging perspective in social psychology hinges upon several factors: (i) adoption of an international (vs regional) outlook; (ii) not letting arbitrary geographical or intellectual boundaries restrict creative expansion of research ideas; and (iii) striving to craft a global identity with an Asian character by developing communicable theories that describe and explain important Asian social psychological phenomena for the benefits of Asia and beyond.

A Within-trial Contrast Effect and its Implications for Several Social Psychological Phenomena

Contrast refers to a comparison between two conditions of reward such that the relation between them is magnified (relative to an appropriate control condition). It is an effect that is opposite in direction from generalization (which is a form of averaging). Three kinds of contrast have received substantial empirical attention: Incentive contrast in which a sudden change in reward (either an increase or a decrease) results in an overreaction to the change, relative to a control condition; anticipatory contrast in which an anticipated improvement in reward results in less consumption of an initial reward; and differential or behavioral contrast in which a change in reward associated with one stimulus results in a change in behavior associated with a second stimulus in the opposite direction. Here I discuss a fourth kind of contrast that I call within-trial contrast. In this form of contrast a discriminative stimulus is preferred when it follows a less appetitive event (effort, delay, or the absence of reward). A model of this kind of contrast is proposed that is based on a presumed change in the hedonic state of the organism between the end of the less appetitive event and the reward (or stimulus signaling the reward). It is distinguished from an account based on the relative reduction in delay to reinforcement. Finally, I suggest that a general form of this within-trial contrast may help to explain various complex human social phenomena including cognitive dissonance, justification of effort, the effect of extrinsic rewards on behavior that is maintained by intrinsic rewards, and learned industriousness.

When Am I My Group? Self-Enhancement Versus Self-Justification Accounts of Perceived Prototypicality

The tendency to view the self as a prototypic member of a group is thought to be at the foundation of many social psychological phenomena. Two opposing accounts of perceived prototypicality have been suggested in the psychological literature. The self-justification account portrays this as a defensive tendency that occurs in response to threatened group status. The self-enhancement account portrays this as a strategic tendency to associate the self with positively viewed groups. These competing views were tested using both a minimal group (Study 1) and a naturalistic group (Study 2). Both studies showed that perceived prototypicality increased with increasing group status. Moreover, the effect of status was moderated by group importance (Study 1) and behavioral choice (Study 2). Both interaction patterns supported the self-enhancement view, suggesting that people view themselves as prototypic group members when doing so will promote a positive identity. These findings contradict common statements in the social identity literature.

Cognitive vulnerability to depression: A dual process model

Dual process models offer powerful accounts of cognitive phenomena in social and personality psychology but they have not been widely adapted to clinical phenomena. This review presents a dual process model of cognitive vulnerability to unipolar depression. According to dual process theories, humans possess two modes of information processing. An associative mode involves quick, effortless processing that rests on well-learned associations. A reflective mode involves slow, effortful processing that rests on symbolic rule-based inferences. Whereas the associative mode occurs automatically, the reflective mode operates when expectancies are violated and sufficient cognitive resources are available to respond. A cognitive vulnerability to depression is observed when negatively biased associative processing is uncorrected by reflective processing. The circumstances when this is likely to occur are reviewed. New insights and implications for assessment, etiology, and treatment of cognitive vulnerability to depression are discussed.

Evaluative conditioning in social psychology: Facts and speculations

The aim of the present paper is to examine the contribution of evaluative conditioning (EC) to attitude formation theory in social psychology. This aim is pursued on two fronts. First, evaluative conditioning is analysed for its relevance to social psychological research. We show that conditioned attitudes can be acquired through simple co‐occurrences of a neutral and a valenced stimulus. Moreover, we argue that conditioned attitudes are not confined to direct contact with a valenced stimulus, but can be formed and dynamically reformed indirectly, through association chains. Second, social research is examined in an effort to identify evaluative learning mechanisms. We suggest that several important phenomena in social psychology (e.g., ingroup favouritism, prejudice, name letter effect) are at least partly due to simple mechanisms of evaluative learning. The implications for attitude formation theory and for applied settings are discussed.

Homoseksualiteit: Die kerk, die tradisie en die Bybel – homofobie en sarkofobie en die evangelie

Homosexuality: Church, tradition, and the Bible – homophobia, sarcophobia, and the gospelThe article demonstrates a trend in the current debate on the church’s attitude towards homosexuality, namely that exegetical results supersede authentic faith experiences of gays. It shows that this trend causes an untenable tension between the dialectical notions sola fidei and sola Scriptura. Such an unacceptable tension contributes to the social psychological phenomena of homophobia and sarcophobia. The article investigates this empirical approach (theoretical reason) to homo-sexuality from the dialectical perspective of a theological approach (practical reason). The latter includes an investigation of the epistemological processes behind exegetes’ diverse use of Scripture. The article aims to show that homophobia in society and church, and the sarcophobia of homosexuals can be challenged and healed if the church holds on to the dialectic between sola fidei and sola Scriptura and the dialectic between pastoral concerns and the engagement with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“Who Done It?” Attributions by Entrepreneurs and Experts of the Factors that Cause and Impede Small Business Success

Attribution theory deals with how individuals infer causality between events and has been used to explain various social psychological phenomena such as achievement, sex stereotyping, and the impact of reward on behavior. But the direct application of the theory to entrepreneurship has been made only recently. The present study tests for the existence of a self‐serving attribution bias among entrepreneurs when they enumerate the factors that contribute to or impede their business success as well as for the presence of an actor–observer attribution bias. Three samples are compared. Two are samples of entrepreneurs: one of independent pharmacists and the other a broadly based sample of business owners. A third sample is of experts. The presence of a self‐serving attribution bias is shown in the two business owners’ samples. In addition, clear differences are shown between the entrepreneurs and the experts, confirming the expectation of an actor–observer attribution bias.

When Stepfathers Claim Stepchildren: A Conceptual Analysis

AbstractGuided by social constructionist and symbolic interactionist perspectives and a grounded theory method, my conceptual analysis explores stepfathers’ experiences with claiming stepchildren as their own. Using in‐depth interviews with a diverse sample of 36 stepfathers, my analysis focuses on paternal claiming as a core category and generates 10 properties relevant to this social psychological phenomenon: timing, degree of deliberativeness, degree of identity conviction, paternal role range, solo‐shared identity, mindfulness, propriety work, naming, seeking public recognition, and biological children as benchmarks. In addition, I consider how five conditions may influence stepfathers’ perceptions of stepchildren. My analysis reveals a number of sensitizing concepts for studying stepfathers’ efforts to develop a sense of group belonging and a fatherlike identity.

Logical Soft Systems Methodology for Education Programme Development

Introduction Hong Kong is an important financial, commercial, and industrial centre in the Asia-Pacific region. The IT (Information Technology) and Business Computing (collectively called Business Information Systems (BIS)) have proliferated and been used extensively in both the private and public sectors of Hong Kong. The application of BIS has been considered an important factor in maintaining Hong Kong's position as one of the world's leading financial and commercial centres. Employers are demanding BIS professionals who are capable of managing the business aspects of BIS, for example, project and contract management, business analysis, and sales. BIS practitioners need to have a more rounded approach to work, that is, having technical expertise along with an understanding of how technology impacts on business. Many colleges and Universities Universities in Hong Kong provide different courses in their curricula to provide knowledge of computer and information technology to their undergraduates and postgraduates. As society depends more and more on computers, there is an increasing demand for BIS professionals. Recognising the importance of developing BIS human resources, the Hong Kong government has been investing substantially at all levels of education and training, especially on post-secondary education (Hong Kong Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau 2001; Way forward, 2001). Over the past few years, despite tight government finances caused by the financial crisis after 1997, the Hong Kong government has still continuously increased its investment in local education. The planned target is that, within 10 years, 60% of school leavers will have a chance to receive tertiary education. To achieve this policy objective, the Hong Kong government introduced a series of support measures for both students and providers of post-secondary programmes, such as introducing the Associate Degree (hereafter AD). AD is a common recognised post-secondary qualification in North America. The Hong Kong government introduced and drew up a set of common descriptors of an AD and equivalent qualifications. It paved the way for the AD in Hong Kong to be internationally recognised. Moreover, the Hong Kong government also encourages several local education providers, private or government-funded Institutes, to launch new AD programmes or convert existing Higher Diploma programmes into AD courses in order to achieve their goal. The project considered in this paper incorporated an approach and soft system methodology intervention. Section 2 of this paper overviews the processes and principles of Action Research. Section 3 of this paper introduces the Soft System Methodology and investigates the application of the Soft System Methodology in the design of an education programme. The methodology identifies rules that are suitable for programme planning. Section 4 summarises the outcomes and discusses future work. Why Action Research? Generally, education and teaching are an applied discipline; such needs to be relevant to practice. It is essential for ideas, principles, and methods developed in a environment to be tested in practice. However, it is very difficult to get new approaches accepted and used in practice. As a result, many proposed methods are theoretically sound but unproven in practice. This adopts the approach (Avison, Lau, Myes, & Nielsen., 1999; Kemmis, 1980; Lewin, 1946) to bridge the gap between theory and practice. It enables researchers to become deeply involved with the processes that take place in an organisation. Action is an established method in use in the social and medical sciences since the mid-twentieth century. The term action research was first proposed by Kurt Lewin (1946). He believes that social-psychological phenomena can be studied experimentally and the results are a huge impetus for scientific research. …

Race, Racism, and Discrimination: Bridging Problems, Methods, and Theory in Social Psychological Research

Scholars spanning the social sciences and humanities wrestle with the complex and often contested meanings of race, racism, and discrimination. In all of this enterprise, sociologists rightly retain a special claim to illuminating processes of group boundary maintenance, systems of racial inequality and supporting ideologies, and attendant patterns of intergroup behavior (Jackman 1994; Lamont 2000). Mainstream sociological research, however, has focused principally on the structural manifestations of race, racism, and discrimination, particularly as they characterize black-white relations (Wilson 1978). Sociologists have made signal contributions to the understanding of modern ghetto joblessness and poverty (Wilson 1996), of racial residential segregation (Massey and Denton 1993), and of fundamental disparities in accumulated wealth (Oliver and Shapiro 1995). In some critical respects this work has expanded to include multiracial and multiethnic comparisons with respect to both key economic (Lichter and Oliver 2000; Smith 2001; Waldinger 1996) and residential outcomes (Charles 2001; Emerson, Yancey, and Chai 2001). To a surprising degree, however, the micro social processes necessarily embedded in these structural analyses are still largely unaddressed. Yet the basic social processes invoked by the terms race, racism, and discrimination are quintessentially social psychological phenomena; sociologists ignore or downplay this basic insight at the discipline's peril. These concepts concern the meanings of social groupings and how those meanings come to guide patterns of relations among individuals recognized as members of particular groups. They immediately entail the labeling and social learning of group categories, identity, feelings, beliefs, and related cognitive structures. These factors, in turn, are expressed in lines of interaction and behavior that flow from, reinforce and reconstitute, or come to transform those social categorizations. In addition, such categorizations have direct implications for the structure and basic conditions of social organization. That is, race,1 racism,2 and discrimination3 are also, and perhaps most fundamentally, bases and mechanisms of hierarchical differentiation that shape the ordering of social relations as well as the allocation of life experiences and life chances (Zuberi 2001a).

One Hundred Years of Social Psychology Quantitatively Described

This article compiles results from a century of social psychological research, more than 25,000 studies of 8 million people. A large number of social psychological conclusions are listed alongside meta-analytic information about the magnitude and variability of the corresponding effects. References to 322 meta-analyses of social psychological phenomena are presented, as well as statistical effect-size summaries. Analyses reveal that social psychological effects typically yield a value of r equal to.21 and that, in the typical research literature, effects vary from study to study in ways that produce a standard deviation in r of.15. Uses, limitations, and implications of this large-scale compilation are noted.

Whistleblowing and the Public Director: Countering Corporate Inner Circles

I argue that, in the corporate scandals, the contrast between the behavior of many executives, board members and corporate advisors who were reluctant to challenge corporate misbehavior and that of the small number of corporate whistleblowers who did points to a disturbing social psychological reality that has been overlooked in the discussion of, and reforms addressing, the scandals: a group dynamic that binds group members together so that it blinds them to their failings and abuses. I contend that this social psychological reality, long known to and studied by social psychologists, is a basic cause of the scandals. I first review recent corporate scandals and highlight the evidence of the social psychological phenomenon of the inner group or circle in them. I next explain how social psychological theories, such as groupthink and the group production of evil, account for why corporate inner circles behaved improperly. I then look at reform proposals of advisory groups on corporate governance and self-regulatory organizations and argue that the reforms these groups either propose or implement will prove ineffective because they fail to recognize the role of the inner circles in the scandals. I offer a response, inspired by social psychological theory, that would help prevent future scandals by keeping a board from falling under the domination of an inner circle. I propose that companies have a significant minority of public directors who would be selected for shareholder election to boards from a group of individuals identified by a new government oversight board and whose goal would be to oppose and monitor the firm's inner circle. Since I assume that many existing board members, who now compose an elite coming from a few specific backgrounds, are particularly prone to joining inner circles, I argue that board members should primarily be drawn from outside this elite. This ambitious reform is needed because investments in companies have replaced bank investing for most ordinary Americans and because private ordering is not solving the inner circle problem. I then explain how provisions in Sarbanes-Oxley, and the implementing SEC regulations, that change board practices can be understood as an implicit, but imperfect, effort to create an oppositional attitude among board members and their advisors that would counter the rise of inner circles and their groupthink. I discuss the reforms' limitations due to their inadequate grounding in social psychology.

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.