Appetitive motivation predicts the majority of personality and an ability measure: a comparison of BAS measures and a re-evaluation of the importance of RST

Our first study develops a measure of appetitive motivation and our second study compares several measures of Gray's (1987) behaviour activation system (BAS) in the prediction of the surface scales of personality. In particular, we were interested in determining the utility of the new appetitive motivation scale and Dickman's functional impulsivity scale. In comparison to other well-known measures, both scales were generally good predictors. We conclude that the appetitive motivation scale is a promising measure of BAS based upon construct validation. Contrary to previous studies which have suggested that BAS is a generally poor predictor of the surface scales of personality, we discovered appetitive motivation to be an important predictor of personality in general. Interestingly, the scale was also predictive of scores on the Baddeley reasoning test. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Which version of the Eysenck Personality Profiler is best? 6-, 12- or 20-items per scale

Data provided by 400 first year undergraduate students were analysed to develop two short forms of the Eysenck Personality Profiler (EPP) in which each of the 22 primary scales is assessed by a 6-item and a 12-item version instead of the usual 20-item per scale measure. In comparison with the 6-item per scale measure, the 12-item version retains more of the characteristics of the long version and seems a good compromise between quality of data and administration time. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Primary personality trait correlates of religious practice and orientation

The aim of the study was to examine the relationships between Eysenck's primary personality factors and various aspects of religious orientation and practice. Some 400 UK undergraduates completed questionnaires constructed from the Batson and Schoenrade Religious Life Inventory (Batson & Schoenrade, 1991) and the Eysenck Personality Profiler (Eysenck, Barrett, Wilson, & Jackson, 1992). As is generally found, all the religious variables correlated negatively with the higher order personality factor of psychoticism. In contrast, among the primary factors, those associated with neuroticism appeared to be the strongest indicators of religiosity. In particular, all the primary traits classically linked to neuroticism correlate positively with the quest orientation. However, fewer primary traits predict religious behaviour in regression and of these, a sense of guilt is the greatest and a common predictor of extrinsic, intrinsic and quest religiosities. Upon factor analysis of the significant personality predictors together with the three religious orientations, the orientations formed a single discrete factor, which implies that extrinsic, intrinsic and quest religiosities have more in common with one another than with any of the personality traits included in the study. This suggests that religious awareness may itself be an important individual difference that is distinct from those generally associated with models of personality. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Are interactions in Gray's Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory proximal or distal in the prediction of religiosity: a test of the joint subsystems hypothesis

Gray's Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) consists of the Behavioural Activation System (BAS) which is the basis of Impulsivity, and Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS) which is the basis of Anxiety. In this study, Impulsivity and Anxiety were used as distal predictors of attitudes to religion in the prediction of three religious dependent variables (Church attendance, Amount of prayer, and Importance of church). We hypothesised that Impulsivity would independently predict a Rewarding attitude to the Church and that Anxiety would independently predict an Anxious attitude to the church, and that these attitudes would be proximal predictors of our dependent variables. Moreover, we predicted that interactions between predictors would be proximal. Using structural equation modelling, data from 400 participants supported the hypotheses. We also tested Eysenck's personality scales of Extraversion and Neuroticism and found a key path of the structural equation model to be non-significant. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Phobic anxiety in 11 nations: part II. Hofstede's dimensions of national cultures predict national-level variations

Hofstede's dimensions of national cultures termed Masculinity-Femininity (MAS) and Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) (Hofstede, 2001) are proposed to be of relevance for understanding national-level differences in self-assessed fears. The potential predictive role of national MAS was based on the classical work of Fodor (Fodor, 1974). Following Fodor, it was predicted that masculine (or tough) societies in which clearer differentiations are made between gender roles (high MAS) would report higher national levels of fears than feminine (or soft/modest) societies in which such differentiations are made to a clearly lesser extent (low MAS). In addition, it was anticipated that nervous-stressful-emotionally-expressive nations (high UAI) would report higher national levels of fears than calm-happy and low-emotional countries (low UAI), and that countries high on both MAS and UAI would report the highest national levels of fears. A data set comprising 11 countries (N > 5000) served as the basis for analyses. As anticipated, (a) high MAS predicted higher national levels of Agoraphobic fears and of Bodily Injury-Illness-Death fears; (b) higher scores on both UAI and MAS predicted higher national scores on Bodily Injury-Illness-Death fears, fears of Sexual and Aggressive Scenes, and Harmless Animals fears; (c) higher UAI predicted higher national levels of Harmless Animals, Bodily Injury-Illness-Death, and Agoraphobic fears. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bad but bold: Ambivalent attitudes toward men predict gender inequality in 16 nations

A 16-nation study involving 8,360 participants revealed that hostile and benevolent attitudes toward men, assessed by the Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory (P. Glick & S. T. Fiske, 1999), were (a) reliably measured across cultures, (b) positively correlated (for men and women, within samples and across nations) with each other and with hostile and benevolent sexism toward women (Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, P. Glick & S. T. Fiske, 1996), and (c) negatively correlated with gender equality in cross-national comparisons. Stereotype measures indicated that men were viewed as having less positively valenced but more powerful traits than women. The authors argue that hostile as well as benevolent attitudes toward men reflect and support gender inequality by characterizing men as being designed for dominance.

Evaluating stranger and acquaintance rape: The role of benevolent sexism in perpetrator blame and recommended sentence length

In most jurisdictions, the law does not recognize the distinction between stranger and acquaintance rape. However, these two types of rape seem to elicit different responses from both lay observers and legal practitioners. Two studies investigating the role of benevolent sexism (BS) in accounting for participants' responses to acquaintance vs. stranger rape perpetrators are reported. Participants were presented with vignettes describing either an acquaintance rape or a stranger rape. As predicted, relative to low-BS individuals, participants who scored high in BS attributed less blame ( Study 1) and recommended shorter sentences ( Study 2) for the acquaintance rape perpetrator. Benevolent sexism was unrelated to reactions to the perpetrator in the stranger rape condition.

Effective leadership in salient groups: Revisiting leader-member exchange theory from the perspective of the social identity theory of leadership

Two studies compared leader-member exchange (LMX) theory and the social identity theory of leadership. Study 1 surveyed 439 employees of organizations in Wales, measuring Work group salience, leader-member relations, and perceived leadership effectiveness. Study 2 surveyed 128 members of organizations in India, measuring identification not salience and also individualism/collectivism. Both studies provided good support for social identity predictions. Depersonalized leader-member relations were associated with greater leadership effectiveness among high- than low-salient groups (Study 1) and among high than low identifiers (Study 2). Personalized leadership effectiveness was less affected by salience (Study 1) and unaffected by identification (Study 2). Low-salience groups preferred personalized leadership more than did high-salience groups (Study 1). Low identifiers showed no preference but high identifiers preferred depersonalized leadership (Study 2). In Study 2, collectivists did not Prefer depersonalized as opposed to personalized leadership, whereas individualists did, probably because collectivists focus more on the relational self.

Sibling relationships in adolescence: Learning and growing together

fit this article, I discuss the reasons for my interest in sibling relationships, and showcase studies on sibling relationships in adolescence carried out with my colleagues and students, in the context of the broader literature on sibling relationships. Our studies have focused on a number of important issues concerned with sibling relationships. First, I report on the associations between sibling relationships and other family relationships and the ways that the various family relationships affect each other. Second, I report a study of sibling relationships in the context of parental separation and divorce and show that sibling relationships in these families are more likely to be high in both warmth and hostility than is true for relationships in 2-parent families. Third, I report on several data sets showing an association between the quality of sibling relationships and adolescent adjustment and the link between differential parenting, adolescent adjustment, and the quality of the sibling relationship. Fourth, I report on a study of comparison and competition in sibling relationships and the associations between sibling relationship quality and reactions to being outperformed by a sibling. Finally, I discuss possible future directions for research on sibling relationships, including the importance of multimethod studies and a longitudinal perspective.

Caffeine, cognition, and persuasion: Evidence for caffeine increasing the systematic processing of persuasive messages

Caffeine is known to increase arousal, attention, and information processing-all factors implicated in facilitating persuasion. In a standard attitude-change paradigm, participants consumed an orange-juice drink that either contained caffeine (3.5 mg/kg body weight) or did not (placebo) prior to reading a counterattitudinal communication (anti-voluntary euthanasia). Participants then completed a thought-listing task and a number of attitude scales. The first experiment showed that those who consumed caffeine showed greater agreement with the communication (direct attitude: voluntary euthanasia) and on an issue related to, but not contained in, the communication (indirect attitude: abortion). The order in which direct and indirect attitudes were measured did not affect the results. A second experiment manipulated the quality of the arguments in the message (strong vs. weak) to determine whether systematic processing had occurred. There was evidence that systematic processing occurred in both drink conditions, but was greater for those who had consumed caffeine. In both experiments, the amount of message-congruent thinking mediated persuasion. These results show that caffeine can increase the extent to which people systematically process and are influenced by a persuasive communication.

Hurt feelings in couple relationships: Exploring the role of attachment and perceptions of personal injury

This research program focused on perceptions of the appraisals and emotions involved in hurtful events in couple relationships. Study I tested the broad proposition that hurt feelings are elicited by relational transgressions that generally imply relational devaluation and that evoke a sense of personal injury by threatening positive mental models of self and/or others. Participants (N = 224) provided retrospective accounts of an experience of being hurt by a romantic partner. These accounts, together with expert judges' ratings, showed that most hurtful events involved relational transgressions that signal both relational devaluation and threat to positive mental models; however, relational devaluation was relatively unimportant in explaining the hurt associated with partners' distrust. A sense of injury emerged as the dominant theme in open-ended accounts of emotional reactions; however, other negative emotions also featured and were related to the type of event reported. The emotion terms generated in Study I were used as stimuli in a word-sorting task (Study 2). This study confirmed that many of the terms were perceived specifically as injury related, and shed further light on the link between appraisals and emotions. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Keeping it in-house: How audience affects responses to group criticism

It is often assumed that group-directed criticism is best kept 'in-house', but the effects of audience on responses to criticism have not been directly examined. Consistent with predictions, ingroup members who criticized the group to an outgroup audience were seen to be making a less appropriate choice of audience (Experiments 2 and 3), aroused more negative feelings (Experiment 1), were downgraded more strongly on personality traits (Experiment 2), and were seen to be doing more damage to the group (Experiment 2) than were ingroup members who kept their criticisms in-house. Experiment 3 showed that, whereas moderate identifiers agreed with the comments less and showed weaker friendly intentions toward the critic when an outgroup audience as compared to an ingroup audience was chosen, high identifiers agreed with the criticisms just as strongly-and showed more friendly intentions toward the critic-when they were made to an outgroup as compared to an ingroup audience. Results are discussed in light of the broader literature on identity threat. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Speaking for others: The pros and cons of group advocates using collective language

We examined how rhetorical style affects evaluations of group advocates, and how these evaluations are moderated by group identification. University students were given a letter to the editor defending student welfare. The argument was either constructed using personal language ('I believe') or collective language ('we believe'). Furthermore, the letter was either attributed to an official advocate (president of the student union) or an unofficial advocate (a rank-and-file member of the student body). Consistent with the social identity perspective, participants who showed strong identification as a university student thought that the group would feel better represented by official advocates using collective rather than personal language. Low identifiers, however, did not rate the rhetorical styles differently on representativeness. Furthermore, low identifiers (but not high identifiers) rated official advocates as more likable and more effective when they used personal rather than collective language. The discussion focuses on the conflict low identifiers might feel between (a) needing to homogenize with other group members in order to maximize the influence and political effectiveness of their message at the collective level, and (b) protecting themselves against categorization threat.

When differences matter: Intergroup distinctiveness and the evaluation of impostors

The present study examined the effect of intergroup distinctiveness and group membership on evaluations of impostors. We predicted that ingroup members would be harsher than outgroup members on an impostor and that perceptions of intergroup distinctiveness would further moderate these evaluations. Specifically, we tested the social identity theory prediction that low intergroup distinctiveness would lead to greater derogation of the impostor (the 'reactive distinctiveness' hypothesis) against the self-categorization hypothesis that high intergroup distinctiveness would instigate more derogation of an impostor (the 'reflective distinctiveness' hypothesis). In this study, vegetarians (ingroup members) and meat eaters (outgroup members) were presented with a target claiming to be vegetarian, but caught indulging in a meat dish. We found that ingroup members derogated the impostor more and felt less pleased about discovering the impostor behaviour than did outgroup members. In line with the reflective distinctiveness hypothesis, the heightened derogation displayed by ingroup members only emerged when intergroup distinctiveness was high, an effect that was mediated by ratings of group identification. The discussion focuses on the different responses intergroup distinctiveness may evoke. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The representation of majorities and minorities in the British press: A content analytic approach

A content analysis examined the way majorities and minorities are represented in the British press. An analysis of the headlines of five British newspapers, over a period of five years, revealed that the words 'majority' and 'minority' appeared 658 times. Majority headlines were most frequent (66%), more likely to emphasize the numerical size of the majority, to link majority status with political groups, to be described with positive evaluations, and to cover political issues. By contrast, minority headlines were less frequent (34%), more likely to link minority status with ethnic groups and to other social issues, and less likely to be described with positive evaluations. The implications of examining how real-life majorities and minorities are represented for our understanding of experimental research are discussed. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.