Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

An analysis of life task problem solving provides an illustration of a common language for personality and social psychologies. The personal needs of individuals and the situational affordances of social life interactively define strategic solutions to life task problems. Research on situations that encourage a gentic or communal goals in late adolescents' pursuit of the intimacy life task and on three achievement strategies in which social support takes different forms to serve different individuals' needs exemplifies the coordination of what people need to do and what situations afford to be done in daily-life problem solving.

Previous research and theorizing have suggested a 'fundamental paradox" in that individuals appear to be predisposed, both culturally and genetically, to be attracted to traditionally gender typed members of the other sex even though pairings between gender-typed persons are less than optimal for long-term relation-ship satisfaction. Two studies were undertaken to clarify the relationship between gender-typed traits and heterosexual attraction. Male and female subjects indicated how desirable opposite-sex targets would be for a date, a one-night sexual encounter, and/or marriage. The gender-typing of the target was manipulated such that each target was perceived as androgynous, masculine, feminine, or undifferentiated. Results indicated that both sexes perceived opposite-sex androgynous targets to be more desirable for each type of relationship. Further, for both sexes, possession of feminine/expressive characteristics was more important than possession of masculine/instrumental characteristics.

Research has shown that marriage is more beneficial for men than women and that men suffer more distress than women on marital dissolution. To explore the extent to which these findings generalize to nonmarital relationships, college students in long-distance dating relationships were followed over one semester to determine sex differences in adjustment to physical separation and breakup. Breakups increased men's distress but decreased women's. Women adjusted better than men to both physical separation and breakup. Frequency of contact prior to separation did not show a consistent pattern of effects on adjustment. Men, but not women, adjusted better to breakup if they had initiated it. The most distressed subjects were men whose partners initiated the breakup, most likely because they were less prepared for it. Many of the sex differences found here for dating relationships parallel those found in marriage.

Several hypotheses were investigated in relation to the group correspondence bias (GCB), an observer tendency to make correspondent attributions based on a contextually constrained group decision. It was predicted that processing mode (i.e., heuristic vs. systematic) would moderate observers' identification of constraint information and that the identification of constraint would, in turn, mediate the GCB. In addition, participants were provided with an expectancy about the target group, and it was expected that this information would place boundary conditions on the GCB. These predictions received strong support. The results also indicate that intragroup variability moderates the impact of expectancies on the GCB. More-over, observers generalized their attributions based on a constrained group decision, indicating that the GCB may have a widespread impact on the perceived character of individual group members.

This study examined the hypothesis that emotional reactions to national groups would be associated with evaluative responses to the traits forming the stereotypes of these groups. A hierarchical regression analysis of American and Russian subjects' emotional reactions to Americans, Russians, and Iraqis supported this prediction in four of six cases. In addition, simultaneous regression analyses indicated that self-esteem, ethnocentrism, and authoritarianism were each a significant predictor in two of the six analyses, weakly supporting trends found in other research. In general, the personality traits were not as consistently or as strongly associated with emotional reactions to these groups as were the evaluative aspects of stereotypes. A network model of cognition and affect is used to interpret the findings of this and related studies and to address their implications for changing prejudice.

The validity effect is the increase in perceived validity of repeated statements. In the first experiment, subjects rated repeated and nonrepeated statements for validity, familiarity, and source recognition. Validity and familiarity were enhanced by repetition, but source dissociation was not. A path analysis suggested that familiarity mediates perceived validity. In Experiment 2, statements presented in a natural setting were later rated for perceived validity, familiarity, and source recognition. Repetition had parallel effects on validity and familiarity ratings, but source dissociation was unaffected. Controlling for familiarity statistically eliminated the validity effect. In Experiment 3, the effect of prior knowledge on validity judgments was studied. Subjects rated the validity of statements that were related or unrelated to their field of expertise. Those most knowledgeable about the topic were most likely to exhibit the validity effect. Overall, the results suggest that familiarity is the basis of judged validity.

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that implicit personality theory person types are composed of causally interconnected traits. Experiment 1 showed that the weakest trait member of a person type is perceived as more causally related to the core trait members of the type than are nonmember traits, even when those nonmember traits are both more highly correlated with and closer in multidimensional scaling (MDS) space to the core members than the weakest member. Experiment 2 demonstrated that within-person-type members are perceived as more causally related to each other than to members of other types even when all are located in the same MDS space. The hypothesis that person types consist of causally interrelated traits was strongly supported. Implications for categorization, impression formation, and stereotyping are considered.

The validity of a rating paradigm used to measure relative degrees of movement coordination occurring within social interaction (i.e., interactional synchrony) was examined. Untrained judges viewed video clips from 60 dyads, each recorded in two interaction contexts. Two types of video displays were generated. In one condition, judges rated interactional synchrony from standard video. In the mosaic display condition, all features and fine detail that normally would provide a rich array of socially informative data (e.g., facial expressions and twitches) were removed by digitalizing the video image into a mosaic of monocolored blocks. The patterns of synchrony results generated from the two display conditions were virtually identical. Whereas the ratings of synchrony from standard displays could have been influenced by expressed affect and interest, such confounds were unlikely to influence ratings made using the silent mosaic displays.

Relationships between dominance and nonverbal deception skill were investigated in preschool children (Study 1) and in under-graduate men and women (Study 2). Subjects were assessed for dominance during peer group interactions. Later, they encoded and decoded deceptive messages. Raters assessed the credibility of each subject's encoded message using nonverbal cues alone. Ability to encode credible, deceptive messages predicted dominance in preschool children and men but not women. Decoding deception accurately from nonverbal cues was unrelated to dominance. Videotapes of subjects' performances were examined for nonverbal behaviors predictive of deception success. Very young children successfully masked their deception by smiling. Successful adult deceivers made eye contact with the listener and inhibited smiling while delivering deceptive messages. Overall, results were generally consistent with a social skills approach to dominance in which manipulative ability is believed to be integral to achieving and maintaining social power.

Relatively few studies have used standardized psychological instruments to describe personality characteristics of women intercollegiate athletes. Using members of women's intercollegiate volleyball teams from two midwestern conferences as subjects, this study investigated relationships of the four psychological factors underlying the Millon Behavioral Health Inventory with success of team, conference affiliation, occurrence of athletic injury, and, for players who had injuries, adherence to rehabilitation plans. The factor describing an assertive, self-assured, independent attitude distinguished one conference from the other, had higher values for successful than for unsuccessful teams, and was associated with higher injury rates. For players suffering moderate or severe injuries, this factor was also associated with adherence to rehabilitation plans. The relationship of this factor with the several variables is explained as resulting from risk taking and positive deviance.