From cognition to behaviour - research

Question 1

Madon et al. (2018)

Answer 1

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 116(1) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2018-66103-004). In the article “The Accumulation of Stereotype-Based Self-Fulfilling Prophecies” by Stephanie Madon, Lee Jussim, Max Guyll, Heather Nofziger, Elizabeth R. Salib, Jennifer Willard, and Kyle C. Scherr (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2018, Vol. 115, No. 5, pp. 825–844. doi: 10.1037/pspi0000142), three errors occurred due to printer errors. The last sentence in the Type I Error section should read as follows: Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to examine the effect of experimental factors on multiple dependent variables of the same underlying construct. The second sentence of the Profile subsection of Experiment 1 should read as follows: The profile always described the target as female, European American, 21 years old, “between 5 feet 4 inches and 5 feet 6 inches tall,” and as having a constellation of personality traits that was held constant. The third sentence in the Accumulation subsection of Experiment 1 should read as follows: In the current data, for example, it was possible that the signal communicated by the situational affordances was too weak to elicit a self-fulfilling effect when only the expectations of individual perceivers were considered, in which case targets might have ignored or discounted the signal. The online version of this article has been corrected.] A recurring theme in the psychological literature is that the self-fulfilling effect of stereotypes can accumulate across perceivers. This article provides the first empirical support for this long-standing hypothesis. In three experiments (Ns = 123–241), targets more strongly confimed a stereotype as the number of perceivers who held stereotypic expectations about them increased. A fourth experiment (N = 121) showed that new perceivers judged targets according to the stereotypic behaviors they had previously been channeled to adopt, an effect that even occurred among perceivers who were privy to the fact that targets’ behavior had been shaped by the actions of others. The authors discuss ways in which these effects may contribute to group inequalities.

Question 2

Borovoi et al. (2017)

Answer 2

Method. - In the first experiment, ninety-nine participants were primed with either high-level or low-level perspective across decision scenarios about vaccination and physical safety. The second experiment investigated nutrition decisions, which asked seventy participants to taste food that either had no label or was labelled organic. Organic label should prime high-level construal as it implies outcomes (e.g., product quality and healthiness) that are more distant in time and uncertain, in contrast with sensory dimensions (e.g. taste and appearance), which are immediately present. Participants rated cognitive and sensory considerations as well as action intentions.

Results. - The first study revealed that after the priming with the high-level construal, cognitive considerations became more important than sensory considerations in predicting protective action intentions, whereas after priming with the low-level construal, sensory considerations became more important. The second study revealed that only sensory considerations predicted decisions to consume the non-labelled product and only the cognitive score predicted decisions to consume the organic-labelled product.

Conclusion. - We demonstrated a moderating effect of construal-level mindset in health-protective decisions. We also discuss the implications for health promotion and policy, such as optimizing the effectiveness of behavior change interventions

Question 3

Lu and Lui (2014)

Answer 3

As we all know, people is self-centered in a degree. But how do people jump out of here and now and make a decision for the future, understand from others’ perspective, or even take hypothetical alternatives into account? It refers to the question that how psychological distance affects consumers’ thought and behaviors. Construal level theory (CLT) has emerged as an explanation of this effect mechanism proposing that people do that by making abstract mental construals of distal events. Researches have shown that different dimensions of psychological distance affect people’s mental construal in a similar principle and the construal, in turn, guide evaluation, preference, prediction, decision making and other consumer behaviors. This paper reviews the antecedent researches and conducts a systematic analysis of the empirical findings from prior CLT literatures. Specifically, we firstly summarize the antecedent literatures and develop a whole theory frame of CLT. Then we classify the massive empirical findings to support our framework and some nuclear propositions. Finally, we discuss the limitations of present studies and conclude with many implications from the empirical findings for further research

Question 4

Kafetsios et al. (2018)

Answer 4

Greece = C - negative affect weakly related to the quality of social interactions in those with higher interdependence self-construal

Germany = I - positive affect strongly related to the quality of social interactions in those with higher independent self-construal

social interactions have different effects in different cultures

Question 5

Chang (2015)

Answer 5

support for a model proposing interdependent self-construal relates to different patterns of Facebook activity

also differ in their social goals which leads to different social orientations and leads to varied patterns of Facebook activities

suggests differential effects of construal on behaviour

Question 6

Annabi and Lauzier (2018)

Answer 6

The elusiveness of the Pygmalion effect is both fascinating and frustrating. It is probably why an important leadership phenomenon was for so long neglected by the research. Meta-analyzes identified on the Pygmalion effect in organizational environment show relatively robust effects, confirming the existence of this phenomenon. The aim of this article is to revisit the literature on the Pygmalion effect to better understand this phenomenon. Through research in the field of education and those of organizational sciences, it was possible to draw a portrait of the state of the research of the Pygmalion effect in the workplace. On the one hand, this article identifies leadership and self-efficacy as explanatory mechanisms of the Pygmalion effect. On the other hand, the text also discusses conditions that diminish or amplify this phenomenon by dividing them into three categories: (a) employee characteristics, (b) supervisor characteristics, and (c) work context.

Question 7

White and Locke (2000)

Answer 7

Over the last few decades, the Pygmalion effect (i.e., the finding that leader expectations for subordinate performance can subconsciously affect leader behavior and subordinate performance) has been explored extensively. Numerous studies have clarified the effect, and mediating mechanisms of leadership and self-expectations have been identified. However, a number of factors limit the application of the Pygmalion effect to the workplace. These include its lack of generalizability to women and established work groups, its subconscious nature, the ethical questions surrounding the deceptive procedure used to create the effect, and the failure of Pygmalion training. The primary purpose of this article is to present a review of these problems and to offer suggestions for dealing with them.

Question 8

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)

Answer 8

In 1965 the authors conducted an experiment in a public elementary school, telling teachers that certain children could be expected to be “growth spurters,” based on the students’ results on the Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition. In point of fact, the test was nonexistent and those children designated as “spurters” were chosen at random. What Rosenthal and Jacobson hoped to determine by this experiment was the degree (if any) to which changes in teacher expectation produce changes in student achievement.

Question 9

Good et al. (2018)

Answer 9

lots of research since Rosenthal

effect of teacher expectations of student performance

some students are aware of the differences in the way teachers behave towards students

implications for teaching programmes and successful teaching

help increase teacher expectations in a positive way

The laboratory studies conducted by Rosenthal and many others demonstrated that experimenters’ expectations often influenced how they interacted with subjects and how subjects (both animals and humans) responded to those expectations. Such work illustrated that expectations could be communicated to others in ways that impacted their performance. PC findings have been criticised by many reviewers: however, it is instructive to note that even those reviewers who dismissed PC on methodological grounds found that it explored an important topic.

In the 20 years that followed, researchers illustrated the generality of expectation effects and provided evidence that some teachers interacted differently with students believed to be more and less capable, but many did not. Similarly, early research indicated that students (especially in classrooms where teachers highly differentiated their interaction patterns between high- and low-achieving students) were aware of these differences and the implications they had for teachers’ perceptions of student achievement.

Teachers work in complex settings where they necessarily deal with rapid and often ambiguous events that demand quick interpretation and resolution. Research on teacher expectations has helped to identify how some teachers deal with classroom complexities in ways that meet the needs of all students. Although successful teaching demands much more than appropriate expectations that all students can learn, it is an important aspect of helping students to realise their potential. The directionality between teacher and expectations and student achievement has been difficult historically to untangle. Fortunately, recent experimental work has established that information about teacher expectations can be used to increase teacher expectations in ways that have a positive and casual influence on student achievement (see Rubie-Davies, 2014).

Question 10

Jussim and Harber (2005)

Answer 10

This article shows that 35 years of empirical research on teacher expectations justifies the following conclusions: (a) Self-fulfilling prophecies in the classroom do occur, but these effects are typically small, they do not accumulate greatly across perceivers or over time, and they may be more likely to dissipate than accumulate; (b) powerful self-fulfilling prophecies may selectively occur among students from stigmatized social groups; (c) whether self-fulfilling prophecies affect intelligence, and whether they in general do more harm than good, remains unclear, and (d) teacher expectations may predict student outcomes more because these expectations are accurate than because they are self-fulfilling. Implications for future research, the role of self-fulfilling prophecies in social problems, and perspectives emphasizing the power of erroneous beliefs to create social reality are discussed.

Question 11

Gunduzalp and Ozan (2019)

Answer 11

This study aims to discover the pygmalion effect, which suggests to affect a person’s expectations from other people on the actions of those people, by taking the opinions of primary school teachers. In order for the study to reach its goal, triangulation technique, which is a mixed method design, has been used. A likert-type five-point scale made up of 18 items and a semi-structured interview form comprising two open-ended questions have been used to acquire data. The scale has applied to take the opinions of teachers working at the schools administered by 25 managers mastering in a postgraduate program without thesis at the Education Management Inspection Planning and Economy Department of Firat University Institute of Education Sciences. The quantitative and qualitative data acquired have been analyzed by means of statistical softwares. It has been concluded from the findings acquired from teachers’ views reveal the reality and accuracy of pygmalion effect in the field of education, and show that high expectations pave the way for teachers’ motivation, effort, active working, commitment as well as the growth of their enthusiasm. It is seen that high expectations will generally reveal high performance, while low expectations, due to their negative effects on employees, will cause decrease in motivation as well as unwillingness towards the job being done and therefore, a decline or stability in performance.

Question 12

Rosenhan (1973)

Answer 12

It is clear that we cannot distinguish the sane from the insane in psychiatric hospitals. The hospital itself imposes a special environment in which the meanings of behavior can easily be misunderstood. The consequences to patients hospitalized in such an environment—the powerlessness, depersonalization, segregation, mortification, and self-labeling—seem undoubtedly countertherapeutic.

I do not, even now, understand this problem well enough to perceive solutions. But two matters seem to have some promise. The first concerns the proliferation of community mental health facilities, of crisis intervention centers, of the human potential movement, and of behavior therapies that, for all of their own problems, tend to avoid psychiatric labels, to focus on specific problems and behaviors, and to retain the individual in a relatively non-pejorative environment. Clearly, to the extent that we refrain from sending the distressed to insane places, our impressions of them are less likely to be distorted. (The risk of distorted perceptions, it seems to me, is always present, since we are much more sensitive to an individual’s behaviors and verbalizations than we are to the subtle contextual stimuli that often promote them. At issue here is a matter of magnitude. And, as I have shown, the magnitude of distortion is exceedingly high in the extreme context that is a psychiatric hospital.)

The second matter that might prove promising speaks to the need to increase the sensitivity of mental health workers and researchers to the Catch 22 position of psychiatric patients. Simply reading materials in this area will be of help to some such workers and researchers. For others, directly experiencing the impact of psychiatric hospitalization will be of enormous use. Clearly, further research into the social psychology of such total institutions will both facilitate treatment and deepen understanding.

I and the other pseudopatients in the psychiatric setting had distinctly negative reactions. We do not pretend to describe the subjective experiences of true patients. Theirs may be different from ours, particularly with the passage of time and the necessary process of adaptation to one’s environment. But we can and do speak to the relatively more objective indices of treatment within the hospital. It could be a mistake, and a very unfortunate one, to consider that what happened to us derived from malice or stupidity on the part of the staff. Quite the contrary, our overwhelming impression of them was of people who really cared, who were committed and who were uncommonly intelligent. Where they failed, as they sometimes did painfully, it would be more accurate to attribute those failures to the environment in which they, too, found themselves than to personal callousness. Their perceptions and behavior were controlled by the situation, rather than being motivated by a malicious disposition. In a more benign environment, one that was less attached to global diagnosis, their behaviors and judgments might have been more benign and effective.

Question 13

Pols (2019)

Answer 13

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6466/697.full

may have embellished results

some pseudo patients left after just 8 days after not having an unpleasant experience

notes about participants sparse, lacking information and unfinished in some situations

encouraged re-writing of the DSM - more scientific diagnoses

Question 14

Wang and Cai (2016)

Answer 14

The Pygmalion effect is the phenomenon whereby higher expectations lead to an increase in performance. The expectations of teachers showed a very powerful predictive relationship with student behaviour. High expectations of teachers create a better atmosphere for student learning. The Pygmalion effect can influence student achievement and offer the support to help students achieve their goals.

Question 15

Karakowsky et al. (2012)

Answer 15

For many years, the Pygmalion effect has served as a colourful, conceptual reminder of the power of supervisory expectations in enhancing subordinate performance. However, regardless of the myriad of studies that have sought to replicate this effect and identify its parameters, little attention has actually been paid to the processes underlying this phenomenon. Rather, the existing model implies that the subordinate is an always-willing, yet somewhat passive recipient of Pygmalion-oriented leader efforts. Our theoretical paper unpacks the role of subordinate perceptions of the leader and considers how it can influence receptiveness to the leader’s Pygmalion-oriented efforts. By revisiting and building upon the original Pygmalion model, we attempt to enrich our understanding of this phenomenon, as well as to offer insight into why not all Pygmalion leader efforts are equally successful.

Question 16

Snyder et al. (1977)

Answer 16

This research concerns the self-fulfilling influences of social stereotypes on dyadic social interaction. Conceptual analysis of the cognitive and behavioral consequences of stereotyping suggests that a perceiver’s actions based upon stereotype-generated attributions about a specific target individual may cause the behavior of that individual to confirm the perceiver’s initially erroneous attributions. A pa/adigmatic investigation of the behavioral confirmation of stereotypes involving physical attractiveness (e.g., “beautiful people are good people”) is presented. Male “perceivers” interacted with female “targets” whom they believed (as a result of an experimental manipulation) to be physically attractive or physically unattractive. Tape recordings of each participant’s conversational behavior were analyzed by naive observer judges for evidence of
behavioral confirmation. These analyses revealed that targets who were perceived (unknown to them) to be physically attractive came to behave in a friendly, likeable, and sociable manner in comparison with targets whose perceivers regarded them as unattractive. It is suggested that theories in cognitive social psychology attend to the ways in which perceivers create the information that they process in addition to the ways that they process that information

Question 17

Reis et al. (2018)

Answer 17

This study was undertaken to determine precisely how physical attractiveness affects people’s social participation in everyday life. The following results were obtained: (a) For males, physical attractiveness related positively to the quantity of social interaction with females and negatively to that with males; for females, attractiveness did not relate to the quantity of socializing, (b) Attractiveness related positively to the affective quality of social experience for both sexes, (c) Attractive males were more assertive and were lower in fear of rejection by the opposite sex. Attractive females were less assertive and were lower in trust of the opposite sex. (d) For both sexes, assertiveness related positively to the quantity and quality of social participation. Fear of rejection led males to interact less with females and more with males and to have poorer quality interactions overall. (e) Social competence was shown to mediate part of the influence of beauty on males’ interaction patterns. For females, the effects of social competence on social interaction were shown to be opposite to those of attractiveness, suggesting that they have independent influences. The results were interpreted in terms of the importance of understanding how and why physical appearance may influence people’s day-to-day social experiences.

Question 18

Wood et al. (2018)

Answer 18

Opening gambits, informally known as pick-up
lines, are brief verbal transmissions generally used to initiate a conversation with a potential mate. One potential factor that could play a role in the effectiveness of an opening gambit is the physical appearance of the contributor. A person’s physical appearance can be influential on other’s opinions and judgments, often leading into stereotyped expectations. The present study addressed the possibility that opening gambit expectations, from the perspective of the recipient, would be impacted by the approaching individuals’ physical appearance, specifically their facial attractiveness.
Results indicated that participants expected attractive
individuals to use direct opening gambits (M = 10.84,
SD = 3.33) more often than less attractive individuals
(M = 5.87, SD = 2.87), F(1,114) = 72.97, p < .001, ηp
2 = .39. Less attractive individuals were expected to more often use innocuous (Less attractive: M = 11.75, SD = 4.55; Attractive: M = 9.64, SD = 2.01), F(1,114) = 8.91, p = .003, ηp
2 = .07, or flippant opening gambits (Less attractive: M = 7.28, SD = 4.35; Attractive: M = 4.62, SD = 2.25), F(1,114) = 13.01, p < .001, ηp 2 = .10. The results also showed interactions between the expected opening gambits usage, the attractiveness of the stimulus, and the target gender stimulus. This study illustrates the impact that perceptions of facial attractiveness have on expectations regarding the initiation of social interactions and potential romantic relationships.

Question 19

Solomon et al. (1996)

Answer 19

An exploratory study was carried out to investigate whether the self-fulfilling prophecy (the potential influence of communicated expectations on behaviour) exists in elite sport settings. Specifically, it looked at whether college basketball coaches issue differential feedback to athletes of different ethnic identities. The participant sample consisted of 23 African American and European American athletes and eight coaches from two consistently successful Division I college basketball teams in the USA. Results found that there were no significant differences in the quantity of instruction or praise feedback to the athletes based on ethnicity or expectancy level. However, mean trends suggest that, regardless of expectancy level, European American athletes may receive more praise while African Americans may receive more instruction. It is concluded that ethnicity plays only a modest mediating role in the perpetuation of self-fulfilling prophecy effects in intercollegiate basketball.

Question 20

Word et al. (1974)

Answer 20

Two experiments were designed to demonstrate the existence of a self-fulfilling prophecy mediated by nonverbal behavior in an interracial interaction. The results of Experiment 1, which employed naive, white job interviewers and trained white and black job applicants, demonstrated that black applicants received (a) less immediacy, (b) higher rates of speech errors, and (c) shorter amounts of interview time. Experiment 2 employed naive, white applicants and trained white interviewers. In this experiment subject-applicants received behaviors that approximated those given either the black or white applicants in Experiment 1. The main results indicated that subjects treated like the blacks of Experiment 1 were judged to perform less adequately and to be more nervous in the interview situation than subjects treated like the whites. The former subjects also reciprocated with less proximate positions and rated the interviewers as being less adequate and friendly. The implications of these findings for black unemployment were discussed.

Question 21

Friesen et al. (2019)

Answer 21

white Ps predicted true/false smiles better on white pope than black - not demo’d by black Ps

white Ps look at white people’s eyes more than black

eye attention predicted happiness ratings

The present research comprises six experiments that investigated racial biases in the perception of positive emotional expressions. In an initial study, we demonstrated that White participants distinguished more in their happiness ratings of Duchenne (“true”) and non-Duchenne (“false”) smiles on White compared with Black faces (Experiment 1). In a subsequent study we replicated this effect using a different set of stimuli and non-Black participants (Experiment 2). As predicted, this bias was not demonstrated by Black participants, who did not significantly differ in happiness ratings between smile types on White and Black faces (Experiment 3). Furthermore, in addition to happiness ratings, we demonstrated that non-Black participants were also more accurate when categorizing true versus false expressions on White compared with Black faces (Experiment 4). The final two studies provided evidence for the mediating role of attention to the eyes in intergroup emotion identification. In particular, eye tracking data indicated that White participants spent more time attending to the eyes of White than Black faces and that attention to the eyes predicted biases in happiness ratings between true and false smiles on White and Black faces (Experiment 5). Furthermore, an experimental manipulation focusing participants on the eyes of targets eliminated the effects of target race or perceptions of happiness (Experiment 6). Together, the findings provide novel evidence for racial biases in the identification of positive emotions and highlight the critical role of visual attention in this process.

Question 22

Bluhm (2013)

Answer 22

Feminist scholars have shown that research on sex/gender differences in the brain is often used to support gender stereotypes. Scientists use a variety of methodological and interpretive strategies to make their results consistent with these stereotypes. In this paper, I analyze functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research that examines differences between women and men in brain activity associated with emotion and show that these researchers go to great lengths to make their results consistent with the view that women are more emotional than men.

Question 23

Zebrowitz et al. (1998)

Answer 23

Three studies tested the hypothesis that babyfaced adolescent boys would compensate for the undesirable expectation that they will exhibit childlike traits by behaving contrary to it: Studies 1 and 2 revealed that babyfaced boys from middle- and lower class samples, including a sample of delinquents, showed higher academic achievement than their mature-faced peers, refuting the stereotype of babyfaced people as intellectually weak. In the lower class samples, this compensation effect was moderated by IQ and socioeconomic status (SES), variables that influence the ability to overcome low expectations. Study 3 showed that babyfaceness also can produce negative compensatory behaviors. Low-SES babyfaced boys were more likely than their mature-faced peers to be delinquent, and babyfaced delinquents committed more crimes, refuting the stereotype of babyfaced people as warm, submissive, and physically weak.

Question 24

Steele and Aronson (1995)

Answer 24

Stereotype threat is being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one’s group. Studies 1 and 2 varied the stereotype vulnerability of Black participants taking a difficult verbal test by varying whether or not their performance was ostensibly diagnostic of ability, and thus, whether or not they were at risk of fulfilling the racial stereotype about their intellectual ability.
Reflecting the pressure of this vulnerability, Blacks underperformed in relation to Whites in the ability-diagnostic condition but not in the nondiagnostic condition (with Scholastic Aptitude Tests controlled). Study 3 validated that ability-diagnosticity cognitively activated the racial stereotype in these participants and motivated them not to conform to it, or to be judged by it. Study 4 showed
that mere salience of the stereotype could impair Blacks’ performance even when the test was not ability diagnostic. The role of stereotype vulnerability in the standardized test performance of ability-stigmatized groups is discussed.

Question 25

Carlana (2019)

Answer 25

exposure to teachers with gender stereotypes increases gender gap in maths performance

causes girls to underperform

lower self-confidence

fail to reach their full potential

I study whether exposure to teacher stereotypes, as measured by the Gender-Science Implicit Association Test, affects student achievement. I provide evidence that the gender gap in math performance, defined as the score of boys minus the score of girls in standardized tests, substantially increases when students are assigned to math teachers with stronger gender stereotypes. Teacher stereotypes induce girls to underperform in math and self-select into less demanding high schools, following the track recommendation of their teachers. These effects are at least partially driven by lower self-confidence on math ability of girls exposed to gender-biased teachers. Stereotypes impair the test performance of girls, who end up failing to achieve their full potential. I do not detect statistically significant effects on student outcomes of literature teacher stereotypes.

Question 26

Spencer et al. (2016)

Answer 26

When members of a stigmatized group find themselves in a situation where negative stereotypes provide a possible framework for interpreting their behavior, the risk of being judged in light of those stereotypes can elicit a disruptive state that undermines performance and aspirations in that domain. This situational predicament, termed stereotype threat, continues to be an intensely debated and researched topic in educational, social, and organizational psychology. In this review, we explore the various sources of stereotype threat, the mechanisms underlying stereotype-threat effects (both mediators and moderators), and the consequences of this situational predicament, as well as the means through which society and stigmatized individuals can overcome the insidious effects of stereotype threat. Ultimately, we hope this review alleviates some of the confusion surrounding stereotype threat while also sparking further research and debate.

Question 27

Stagnor (2016)

Answer 27

This chapter discusses the study of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination within social psychology. If there is a single theme that runs through this review, it is my opinion that we have spent too much time on the easier questions, with a relative neglect of the harder ones. One could argue that this is an issue of basic versus applied, and perhaps that is true. We have focused on the basic cognitive and affective processes that guide social perception, we have made huge progress in understanding these topics, and these findings have been applied in other domains. However, the tendency to ignore content, to keep our research in the lab, and to base our findings on the responses of college students has not come without some cost. In the end we know little about the truly prejudiced and bigoted—they are not in our domain of investigation. This could have some real consequences. For instance, some fundamental underlying assumptions, such as the idea that “true” attitudes are more negative than expressed attitudes may not be true across the population at large. Our research has also tended to be individual rather than social, and has tended to ignore the playing out of intergroup attitudes in real life. There are some exceptions. For instance, some recent studies have investigated the costs and outcomes of intergroup contact using real time intergroup interactions. and other research has focused on underlying implicit processes to better understand the tough decisions that law enforcement personnel must make. These are very important studies, and represent the kind of research that we must do more of.

Question 28

Olson et al. (1996)

Answer 28

elucidate the form and function of expectancies in humans / review some of the extensive literature in social psychology on expectancies / begin by defining the concept of expectancy and distinguishing it from some related concepts / consider the antecedents or sources of expectancies / identify some of the key properties of expectancies, which influence both how expectancies operate and their likely consequences / the consequences of expectancies are then discussed, with the cognitive, affective, behavioral, and physiological consequences addressed separately / consider the issue of expectancy confirmation and disconfirmation, outlining some of the effects of these respective outcomes / consider the functions of expectancies, including whether expectancies are typically “accurate” / develop a simple model of expectancy processes, based on our review of how expectancies operate / identify some important directions for future research

Question 29

Geers et al. (2018)

Answer 29

placebo effect - expect treatment to work

placebo-relevant variables influence expectancy - e.g. lab coat, price of drug

expectations caused under low/high thought

high thought - able to resist change and predict placebo effects better

Placebo effects are the measurable psychological, biological, and behavioral changes that can result from expecting a treatment to be effective. Here we argue that not all expectations are created equally and there is much to learn by clarifying the psychological processes that underlie the expectations that cause placebo effects. It is proposed that the formation and change of placebo expectations can be understood from the standpoint of a general psychological model describing the basic processes of mental change. Specifically, we use the Elaboration Likelihood Model to explain how placebo-relevant variables (e.g., doctor’s lab coat, drug price, number and color of pills, patient’s mood) can work to affect expectations. Clarifying the antecedent processes responsible for placebo expectations leads to new insights regarding placebo effects, including their durability, directionality, and ability to alter subsequent behaviors (e.g., treatment adherence). A key point from our approach is that expectations causing placebo effects can be formed under high or low thought. High-thought expectations should be more likely to resist change, last over time, predict placebo effects better than low-thought expectations, and have a greater likelihood to alter subsequent behaviors. We conclude by describing a variety of theoretical innovations that this new conceptualization raises and suggest novel paths for research and application.

Question 30

Wheeler and Petty (2001)

Answer 30

Considerable recent research has examined the effects that activated stereotypes have on behavior. Research on both self-stereotype activation and other-stereotype activation has tended to show that people behave in ways consistent with the stereotype (e.g., walking more slowly if the elderly stereotype is activated). Interestingly, however, the dominant account for the behavioral effects of self-stereotype activation involves a hot motivational factor (i.e., stereotype threat), whereas the dominant account for
the behavioral effects of other-stereotype activation focuses on a rather cold cognitive explanation (i.e.,
ideomotor processes). The current review compares and contrasts the behavioral research on self- and other-stereotype activation and concludes that both motivational and cognitive explanations might account for effects in each domain.

Question 31

Hawkins (2018)

Answer 31

The purpose of this study is to examine and define the impact of stereotype threat on progressive leadership opportunities of African American and Hispanic professionals in Christian higher education. Despite being in positions of authority within Christian higher education, African American and Hispanic professionals are underrepresented in leadership positions and appear more likely to self-select positions that seemingly support
stereotypical expectations. Stereotype threat is the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s in-group ability as being true. The effect of stereotype threat
adversely impacts an individual’s performance when the individual is positioned within a stereotype threat setting. Steele (2003) explained, “The cause of these effects was
contextual, the situationally aroused predicament of having a negative stereotype about one’s group be relevant to an important performance or behavior” (p. 316). Individuals
attempt to elude being judged according to negative stereotypes when in the threat situation—this is when the ensuing performance is compromised. The academic and
leadership performance literature has cited the overwhelming presence of negative stereotypes and the likelihood of heightened pressure on African American and Hispanic people nationally, especially given national movements, such as “#blacklivesmatter” and
other campaigns questioning the devaluing of the African American and Hispanic life. Thriving stereotype threat environments may compel African American and Hispanic
professionals working in Christian higher education to self-select out of leadership opportunities because of negative interactions; therefore, they may miss out on potential
progressive leadership opportunities due to evaluations of poor performance and others’ negative perceptions of the individual’s conduct. African Americans and Hispanics in
leadership positions are susceptible to the effects of stereotype threat when overtly or covertly made aware of known negative stereotypes.

Question 32

Barber (2017)

Answer 32

“Stereotype threat” is often thought of as a singular construct, with moderators and mechanisms that are stable across groups and domains. However, this is not always true. To illustrate this, the current review focuses on the stereotype threat that older adults face about their cognitive abilities. Drawing upon the multithreat framework, I first provide evidence that this is a self-concept threat and not a group-reputation threat. Because this differs from the forms of stereotype threat experienced by other groups (e.g., the threat that minority students face about their intellectual abilities), the moderators of stereotype threat observed in other groups (i.e., group identification) do not always generalize to age-based stereotype threat about cognitive decline. Looking beyond the forms of stereotype threat elicited, this review also provides evidence that the mechanisms underlying stereotype-threat effects may vary across the adult life span. Because of age-related improvements in emotion-regulation abilities, stereotype threat does not seem to reduce older adults’ executive-control resources. Overall, this review highlights the need to approach the concept of stereotype threat with more granularity, allowing researchers to design more effective stereotype-threat interventions. It will also shed light on why certain stereotype threat effects “fail to replicate” across domains or groups.

Question 33

Schmader et al. (2008)

Answer 33

Research showing that activation of negative stereotypes can impair the performance of stigmatized individuals on a wide variety of tasks has proliferated. However, a complete understanding of the processes underlying these stereotype threat effects on behavior is still lacking. The authors examine stereotype threat in the context of research on stress arousal, vigilance, working memory, and self-regulation to develop a process model of how negative stereotypes impair performance on cognitive and social tasks that require controlled processing, as well as sensorimotor tasks that require automatic processing. The authors argue that stereotype threat disrupts performance via 3 distinct, yet interrelated, mechanisms: (a) a physiological stress response that directly impairs prefrontal processing, (b) a tendency to actively monitor performance, and (c) efforts to suppress negative thoughts and emotions in the service of self-regulation. These mechanisms combine to consume executive resources needed to perform well on cognitive and social tasks. The active monitoring mechanism disrupts performance on sensorimotor tasks directly. Empirical evidence for these assertions is reviewed, and implications for interventions designed to alleviate stereotype threat are discussed.

Question 34

Rosenthal et al. (2007)

Answer 34

completed a shared academic characteristics test first

expressed higher performance expectancies and greater accuracy in maths performance than those who didn’t do the test

less worried about fulfilling a negative stereotype

The experiments presented here extend previous research on reducing stereotype threat, along with examining the mediating role of performance expectancies. Women who generated shared academic characteristics between men and women predicted higher scores for themselves on a math test compared to the baseline and those who generated shared non-academic characteristics or shared physical characteristics. No effects were found for male participants’ performance expectancies on an English test. Extending the relevance of these findings for stereotype threat research, women completing a math test, who first completed the shared academic characteristics task, both expressed higher performance expectancies and greater accuracy in math performance than participants in all other conditions. A partially mediating role of performance expectancies in relation to task and math performance was also found

Question 35

Cadinu et al. (2003)

Answer 35

The goal of this study, was to investigate to role of expectancy as a potential mediator of performance deficits under stereotype threat. In Experiment 1, female students were assigned to one of three experimental conditions in which they were told that women perform worse (Negative information), equally (Control) or better (Positive information) than men in logical-mathematical tests, Later: they were given a difficult math test and asked to estimate their performance prior to taking the test. Consistent with predictions, participants who considered logical-mathematical abilities important and received negative information regarding the ingroup showed lower levels of expectations and a sharp decrease in performance compared to women in the positive and control conditions. Moreover, expectancy, was found to partially, mediate the effect of stereotype threat on performance. In Experiment 2, we tested the generalizability, of these results to non-stigmatized groups. A group of Black Americans living in Italy were provided with favorable or unfavorable information about either their minority, (Blacks) or their majority (Americans) ingroup. Consistent with predictions, participants both in the minority, and in the majority condition had lower expectations and under-performed after negative information about the ingroup. However the level of expectancy was found to mediate the decrease in performance for participants in the Black but not in the American condition. In the discussion of these results it is suggested that, although comparable performance deficits are found for minority and majority, members, the underlying processes may, be different.

Question 36

Funder (2016)

Answer 36

The SCM describes behavior not only as a function of direct effects of personality and situations but also as a function of construalhow the individual perceives and responds to each situation he or she confronts.

After years of neglect, situations are beginning to be taken seriously in psychological research. Two recent steps include the development of a theoretical framework, the Situation Construal Model (SCM), and an assessment tool, the Riverside Situational Q-sort (RSQ). The SCM describes behavior not only as a function of direct effects of personality and situations but also as a function of construalhow the individual perceives and responds to each situation he or she confronts. The RSQ assesses situations in terms of 89 descriptive phrases that can be rated by observers or participants; the consensus of socially competent observers represents the objective nature of a situation. The SCM provides a basis for an ongoing program of research using the RSQ to examine topics including the consistency of behavior, person-environment congruence, consequences of situational construal in social and medical contexts, classification of situations based on evolutionary theory, and the comparison of situational experience across cultures. Promising directions for future research include applications to educational, medical, and industrial settings. Taking situations seriously opens the door to many potential theoretical advances and practical applications.

Question 37

Grejdanus et al. (2014)

Answer 37

Two experiments investigated when perceivers can construe stereotype-inconsistent information abstractly (i.e., interpret observations as generalizable) and whether stereotype-consistency delimits the positive relation between abstract construal level and stereotyping. Participants (N-1 = 104, N-2 = 83) prepared for intragroup communication or formed an individual impression without anticipating communication about a newspaper article describing outgroup members behaving stereotype-consistently or stereotype-inconsistently, and completed construal-level measures. Results supported our prediction that when people prepare communication, they prepare to share specific information (which may be stereotype-inconsistent) against the background of shared knowledge (often stereotypical). Communication thus creates the conditions for stereotype-inconsistent information to be processed abstractly. This effect occurred with centrally (Experiment 2) and peripherally (Experiment 1) presented stereotype-relevant information, in two different intergroup contexts. Additionally, Experiment 2 demonstrated that abstract construal level increases stereotyping only if the construed information is stereotype-consistent. Thus, preparing for communication may be a key to stereotype change because it enables, through abstract construal, generalization of stereotype-inconsistency.

Question 38

McCrea et al. (2012)

Answer 38

construal level theory suggests that events and objects can be represented at either a higher, more abstract level involving consideration of superordinate goals, desirability, global processing, and broad categorizations or a lower, more concrete level involving consideration of subordinate goals, feasibility, local processing, and narrow categorizations. Analogously, social targets (including the self) can be represented more broadly, as members of a group, or more narrowly, as individuals. Because abstract construals induce a similarity focus, they were predicted to increase the perceived fit between social targets and a salient social category. Accordingly, placing individuals into a more abstract construal mind-set via an unrelated task increased the activation and use of stereotypes of salient social groups, stereotype-consistent trait ratings of the self, group identification, and stereotype-consistent performance relative to more concrete construal mind-sets. Thus, nonsocial contextual influences (construal level mind-sets) affect stereotyping of self and others.