Human dominance has been empirically conceptualized in four ways: attempts to dominate, outcomes of disputes, as a personality trait, and as perceived by others. This study investigated the interrelationships of these four concepts under different conditions Individuals classified as either high or low in personality dominance were paired in two dyadic decision making situations, separately with a high and low dominant person. All participants individually indicated their preferences in a series of binary choices, then these choices were the basis for determining each person's outcome dominance in the joint binary decision making During the dyadic situation, the participants' behavioral attempts to dominate through monopolizing and attempting to control the conversion by speaking longer and speaking first in a disagreement were recorded. Following the session each participant rated their partners' dominance and likability The three main variables of wins, vocalization duration, and speaking first failed to discriminate between high and low dominant subjects. These variables were interrelated in that subjects who spoke first tended to vocalize longer and lose more. Subjects, regardless of dominance, won more disagreements when paired with a low dominant partner. High dominant partners were rated higher in dominance the more often they won, vocalized, and spoke first. High and low dominant partners were not differentiated by the subjects' ratings of partners' dominance The self-report written measure of dominance did not correlate with behavioral measures of dominance or perceived dominance. However, there was a relation between behavioral measures of dominance and perceived dominance. The two vocalization measures had an inverse relation to the measure of wins, showing that some attempts to dominate are inversely related to outcomes. Overall, these poor interrelations among dominance measures highlight dominance as an ambiguously defined concept and account for some of the incongruity in the literature / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

The goal of this research was to examine whether members of a stigmatized social category exhibit bias or enhanced accuracy in person perception during interpersonal interaction with out-group individuals. Tulane University students (N = 104) completed a set of measures to assess level of self-esteem and self-consciousness, as well as demographic information and personal characteristics, including smoking status. Based on smoking status, participants were divided into groups of four, representing one of three possible group compositions: all smokers, all nonsmokers, and two smokers with two nonsmokers. Participants interacted in dyads in a round-robin design, rated each other on evaluative items, and postdicted others' ratings of themselves (specific metaperceptions). Based on past research, smokers were expected to show less accuracy in their postdictions of how others view them when engaged in social interaction with nonsmokers. Using a social relations model framework, results provided some support for the hypotheses. Preliminary variance components analyses indicated that both perceiver and relationship variance components emerged as significant sources of variance in evaluations for nonsmokers and smokers across group compositions. In general, evaluations of others were driven by both response sets and unique interaction experiences. Perceiver variance was an important contributor to variance in metaperceptions for nonsmokers rating smokers, nonsmokers rating other nonsmokers, and smokers rating other smokers. Thus, in most situations, postdictions of others' ratings of the self were driven primarily by response set. When smokers were interacting with nonsmokers, however, none of the variance components was statistically significant. Thus, smokers' postdictions of how nonsmokers rated them were not particularly influenced by the smokers' response sets, consensual postdiction of nonsmokers' evaluations, or unique impressions that smokers formed of particular nonsmokers. Covariances and disattenuated correlations between variance components confirmed that smokers in mixed groups were less accurate in judging nonsmokers' evaluations of them, relative to metaperceptions that occurred among nonsmokers of smokers and in homogeneous group situations. In addition, self-esteem emerged as a potential moderator as it significantly predicted perceiver variance in metaperceptions for all conditions except smokers in the mixed group situation. Conclusions, statistical limitations, and implications for future research are discussed / acase@tulane.edu

In a laboratory study, individual differences in private body consciousness (PBC), or the ability to detect body sensation changes, were investigated as a determinant of excitation transfer in aggression. Under the guise of a study of the effects of non-prescription drugs on problem solving and memory functioning, 80 male introductory psychology students participated in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design where they were (a) assigned by PBC (high or low), (b) consumed or did not consume 300 mg caffeine, and (c) given accurate or inaccurate information as to the drug (stimulant or vitamin) they consumed. Repeated measures of blood pressure, heart rate, and self-reports of both body sensation perception and anger were collected Within the course of the experiment, all subjects were insulted by a research assistant, and subsequently given the opportunity to aggress against him by rating his performance as a research assistant. This rating, used as the measure of aggression, was not found to be related independently to PBC, drug, or information conditions. However, a three-way interaction among these variables did occur. High PBC subjects without caffeine but with stimulant information aggressed more than highs with caffeine and stimulant information, and more than lows with caffeine and vitamin information. Lows, on the other hand, aggressed more when under the influence of caffeine and stimulant information than highs in the same drug and information conditions, and more than lows without caffeine but with vitamin information. In addition, PBC was found to interact with the drug information subjects received. High PBC individuals aggressed more when given inaccurate drug information while low PBC subjects aggressed more after receiving information consistent with the drug they had consumed. Anger was not related to magnitude of aggression. Also, physiological recovery after the opportunity to aggress was related to PBC. High PBC persons given caffeine exhibited a reduction in mean arterial blood pressure after the aggression opportunity while low PBCs did not. Findings were discussed in light of the failure of excitation transfer to occur, in relation to possible application to biofeedback training, and with reference to avenues for further research / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

This experiment was designed to explore the relationship between sex-role adaptability as measured by Bem's (1974) Sex-Role Inventory and leader emergence in small discussion groups. Individuals classified as androgynous were expected to be more likely than those classified as sex-typed to emerge as leaders in situations calling for sex-incongruent leadership styles. Specifically, it was predicted that androgynous males would show a greater tendency than masculine males to attain leadership status in groups calling for socioemotional leadership and androgynous females would be more likely than feminine females to attain leadership status in groups calling for task-oriented leadership Subject's interpersonal behaviors were analyzed using Bales (1970) revised interaction category analyses for the following reasons: (a) to further examine hypotheses regarding sex-role orientation of emergent leader and to aid in interpretation of findings; (b) to determine the extent to which androgynous and sex-typed individuals differ in interpersonal style; and (c) to assess the influence of group situational variables and group sex composition on subjects' interaction patterns The hypotheses regarding the relationship between sex-role orientation of leader and group situation were confirmed. Androgynous males showed a significantly greater tendency than sex-typed males to emerge as leaders in group situations calling for socioemotional leadership. A similar pattern was found with respect to female subjects, that is, androgynous females showed a significantly greater tendency than sex-typed females to emerge as leaders in groups calling for task-oriented leadership. The results of this study also indicated that sex-typed subjects engaged in higher levels of sex-congruent interactions and lower levels of sex-incongruent interactions than androgynous subjects. This finding explains in part why androgynous subjects were more likely than sex-typed subjects to emerge as leaders in group situations favoring emergence of sex-incongruent leadership. However, there was no evidence suggesting than androgynous subjects were generally more adaptable to group situations than sex-typed subjects. Although androgynous subjects were found to engage in higher levels of situation appropriate behaviors when faced with a sex-incongruent role demand as compared with a sex-congruent role demand, they did not appear to 'adapt' in a similar manner to sex-congruent demands. Conversely, sex-typed subjects heightened situation appropriate behavior in response to the sex-congruent role demand as contrasted with the sex-incongruent role demand but failed to show an increase in appropriate behaviors in sex-incongruent situations. Thus, androgynous subjects were found to be more adaptable than sex-typed subjects only with respect to sex-incongruent conditions / acase@tulane.edu

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The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which a teacher's orientation is related to differing perceptions of aggressiveness in girls than in boys. Sixty-nine female teachers in the first through sixth grades were asked to rate students in their classes on the following behaviors: Tries to be First or Best, Insults Others, Expresses Own Opinion, Hits Others, Physically Active, Destroys Others' Things, and is Aggressive. Teachers' sex-role attitudes were measured using the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (Bem, 1974) and the Scott Sex-Role Inventory (Scott & Brantley, 1983) (which also measures teachers' knowledge about sex-role stereotyping). Results offered no evidence that teachers perceive of nonhurtful behaviors such as Expresses Own Opinion and Physically Active differently in girls than in boys. Moreover, the teachers' ratings of the aggressiveness of their students was highly associated with their ratings of the students' nonhurtful as well as hurtful behaviors, and was not associated with their own sex roles. Finally, modifications were discussed that would improve chances of demonstrating a relationship between a teacher's sex-role orientation and implicit definition of aggression in girls and in boys / acase@tulane.edu

Much empirical work has focused on individual impression formation. The study of impression formation at a dyadic or intersubjective level, however, has been neglected. This study was concerned with the motivation to achieve a consensual impression, as well as the cognitive capacity to do so. Dyads that have both the motivation to achieve consensus and cognitive capacity (i.e., were nondistracted) were expected to be particularly concerned with label-consistent information; consistent information previously has been shown to aid achieved consensus. In particular, nondistracted dyads working toward consensus were expected to increase time allocation to, questioning about, and efforts toward fit about consistent information. These processes would indicate more controlled processing of target attributes, as well as efforts to achieve a consensual impression. In the experiment dyads received information about a stigmatized target person, and then were asked to discuss their impressions of the target. Dyads were either instructed to reach a consensus or not so instructed, and were either distracted or not distracted during their discussion. Results indicated that dyads did process information differentially depending on their consensus motivation, in that consensually motivated dyads spent a greater amount of time discussing attribute information. These dyads did not, however, distinguish between label-irrelevant and label-consistent information. Moreover, contrary to predictions, distraction did not interact with consensus motivation. Distraction, it seems, had little effect on consensual processing, suggesting that consensus motivation is resilient to reduced cognitive capacity; thus consensual processes may be less controlled than was previously anticipated, and may even be automatic. Finally, perceived dyadic closeness emerged as an important factor in that low closeness dyads worked hard to ascertain their common ground (i.e., they showed more nonverbal signs of ascertaining agreement and more efforts to ascertain agreement about label-consistent information). The possibility that consensual processing may be automatic or spontaneous as a function of dyadic closeness, and the importance of intersubjective social cognition are discussed / acase@tulane.edu