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Stereotype threat and lift occur when a negative or positive group stereotype results in a shift in task performance for group members. Social identity theory (SIT) explains that the socio-structural variables influence the group members’ strategy to maintain a positive group identity and predicts that perceived intergroup conflict would interact with status to affect their experience of the stereotype and potentially impact on stereotype threat and lift on test performance. The experimental design manipulated the task-related group status of science students (assigning 122 students to high status, low status or control conditions) and their perceived intergroup conflict (high and low) with an out-group of humanities students whom they believed to be real but were actually simulated. The high and low status were manipulated using test instructions that activated the stereotype that the science group compared a humanities group either possessed an analytic cognitive ability that was required for test performance and post degree success (high status) or possessed an alternate flexible cognitive ability that was not required for post degree success (low status); whilst the status control condition excluded a diagnostic comparison of cognitive ability. The inter-group conflict and cooperation were experimentally manipulated by presenting hostile or cooperative feedback using intergroup matrices adapted from Tajfel (1981) in a computer simulated interaction with a virtual humanities out-group. The change in status (stereotype threat and lift) and conflict were measured using the Ravens Advanced Progressive matrices (APM) which was presented as the test of performance which measured post degree success. The APM was used as a dependent measure of the group level stereotype-related differences in performance for high conflict-threat, high conflict lift, high conflict control, low conflict threat, low conflict lift and low conflict control conditions. The results showed that status and conflict interact to impact on test performance outcomes of the science students. Specifically, the change in stereotype threat is reversed when science students receive cooperative feedback from the humanities out-group. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sci.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermartizburg, 2011.

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Stereotype threat or boost (STB) is a situational modifier of task performance that occurs when a group stereotype becomes relevant to the performance of a stereotype-relevant task. This dissertation aimed to re-imagine STB in light of social identity theory. Ten studies were undertaken that each manipulated status and either identifiability, conflict or permeability and explored the effects on the performance of the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices. Additional identity and socio-structural constructs were also measured and explored, including stability, legitimacy and ingroup identification. The results showed that STB is not simply “activated” or “deactivated” when stereotypes become relevant to task performance. On the contrary, the specific features of identity, the contextual features of the social environment in which the identity performance takes place, and the performer’s strategic engagement with their identity resources and liabilities are important features of how STB impacts on performance, and how it is sometimes resisted and overturned by experimental subjects. Indeed, performance was generally not predictable on the basis of stereotype activation until resistance to the negative or positive status manipulations were also accounted for. Although the STB literature is tightly focused on the case of negative stereotypes undermining performance, incongruent effects in which negative stereotypes enhance performance and positive stereotypes undermine it have also been reported. In the present studies incongruent STB effects were frequently observed. Underperformance in boost conditions was most consistently predicted by perceived intergroup conflict, while enhanced performance under threat was consistently predicted by perceived group boundary permeability. Additionally, underperformance in boost conditions was often a result of ‘slipstreaming’ rather than ‘choking under pressure,’ since participants were evidently counting on their generally secure identity in the experimental context to buffer poor performance on the experimental task. Improved performance in threat conditions was most likely when participants perceived themselves to be representatives of their group and when they believed that their improved performance would make a difference for their own reputation or the reputation of their group. These findings challenge the common image of the passive subject in the STB literature and, instead, suggest that STB effects are an outcome of situated identity performance. This model of STB effects understands task-performance in a specific performance context as an active and strategic expression of situated identity oriented not only to the social features of the performance context (as argued by most SIT theorists), but also to the their own reading of that context, their total identity liabilities and resources (including individual ability and alternative identities) and their strategic motivations in the context. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

This thesis investigated the influence of mindset on the accuracy and bias of relationship evaluations. Because deliberation about important decisions is a time when people are more realistic and impartial in processing information about themselves and the world, a deliberative mindset was expected to increase the predictive accuracy of relationship appraisals compared to an implemental mindset. Four studies using different methodologies tested this hypothesis. In Study 1, relationship mindset assessed via content coding interacted with commitment in predicting the survival of the relationship 4 months later. In Study 2, mindset assessed via closed questions about academic goals interacted with explicit forecasts in predicting the survival of the relationship 9 months later. In studies 3 and 4, an experimental manipulation of mindset interacted with explicit forecasts or relationship assessments of relationship constructs in predicting relationship survival 6 months later. Overall, a deliberative mindset increased the accuracy of relationship predictions and the validity of relationship constructs in predicting the dissolution of a relationship compared to an implemental mindset. Importantly, deliberatives were not more pessimistic than were implementals; they were more realistic. Nonetheless, a deliberative mindset about an important goal in the relationship can be threatening. Previous work found that boosting perceptions of partner superiority is one way to cope with such threat (Gagne & Lydon, 2001, Study 1). Study 5 further showed that participants in a deliberative mindset boosted their perceptions of partner superiority only if they were sufficiently committed to their relationships. Those in an implemental mindset boosted their perceptions of partner superiority irrespective of their commitment level. In sum, a deliberative mindset about the relationship increases the accuracy of evaluations serving epistemic needs (i.e., relationship predictions) while n

The human voice is a common and important part of the social environment. In addition to being the primary carrier of language, there is growing evidence that the sound of a person’s voice contains a great deal of socially relevant information. Drawing on a functional approach to perception, the current research investigated the attunement of social perceivers to the vocal specification of speaker physical properties. An initial study developed a set of vocal samples for use in subsequent perceptual studies, and conducted exploratory analyses investigating relationships between speaker vocal and physical characteristics. Significant differences in the acoustic properties of male and female voices were identified, but the relationships between acoustic properties and speaker age, body size, and body configuration were less robust. Study 2 investigated the ability of listeners to accurately perceive the physical characteristics of speakers from vocal information. Perceivers made assessments of speaker physical characteristics that were highly consensual and that accurately reflected speaker sex, age, and body size. Studies 3 and 4 investigated perceiver judgments of vocal attractiveness. In Study 3, both male and female perceivers rated the voices of male speakers with lower indices of body asymmetry (a marker of genotypic and phenotypic condition) as more attractive. However, for female perceivers it was shown that this relationship is influenced by changes in fertility levels associated with the menstrual cycle. At times of high fertility female perceivers displayed a stronger attraction to the voices of male speakers with low asymmetry than they did at times of low fertility. This finding was interpreted as a functional shift increasing attraction to males possessing phenotypic markers of high fitness when the likelihood of conception is highest. Study 4 considered the effects of menstrual cycle variation on the voices of female speakers. Both male and female perceivers rated female voices recorded during a phase of high fertility to be more attractive than the same voices recorded during a phase of low fertility. This finding extends previous research demonstrating cyclic shifts in visual and olfactory attractiveness to the auditory domain, and is discussed in terms of the vocal specificity of female fertility status. Study 5 extended the previous studies by considering how vocal cues specifying the sex and age of a social target interact with visual cues to influence social perception. Relative to concordant voice and face information, discordant information was found to facilitate social memory. This finding is discussed with regards to the integration of multiple sources of information in social perception. The results of all studies are discussed in terms of the adaptive significance of perceivers accurately detecting the physical characteristics of others that are specified vocally.

Studies on the effects of marital conflict and child adjustment have documented a consistent relationship between higher amounts of marital conflict and increased child adjustment problems. Recently, researchers have focused on viewing children's perceptions of marital conflict as an important variable that may influence the strength of the association between marital conflict and child adjustment. Recent research has indicated that children's perceptions of interparental conflict may influence overall child adjustment. The present study examined the relationship between marital conflict and child adjustment and the role of children's perceptions of marital conflict in a clinical sample.Forty-four 8- to 12-year-old children and one of their parents participated in this study. Adult participants completed four questionnaires: (1) The O'Leary- Porter Scale; (2) The Conflict Tactics Scale; (3) The Child Behavior Checklist; and (4) a demographic questionnaire. The child participants completed one scale, The Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale. The following research questions were investigated: (1) Is parental assessment of marital conflict related to child adjustment in a clinical sample? (2) Are children's appraisals of marital conflict related to child adjustment in a clinical sample? (3) Are boys' appraisals of interparental conflict related to the parents' appraisals of interparental conflict in a clinical sample? (4) Are girls' appraisals of interparental conflict related to the parents' appraisals of interparental conflict in a clinical sample? And (5) Are children's perceptions of marital conflict better predictors of child adjustment than parents' perceptions of marital conflict in a clinical sample?A significant relationship was found between parents' perceptions of marital conflict and child adjustment. However, children's perceptions of marital conflict did not significantly predict their overall adjustment. In accordance with these findings, it was also found that parents' perceptions of marital conflict were better predictors of child adjustment than children's perceptions of marital conflict in a clinical sample. It was also found that boys' appraisals of marital conflict were significantly related to parents' appraisals of marital conflict. Whereas, girls' perceptions of marital conflict were not significantly related to parents' perceptions of marital conflict. Implications and limitations of these findings and recommendations for future research were discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Recent research has shown that children under two years demonstrate some early social understanding. Previous research has also demonstrated that mother talk about mental states is a factor in older preschoolers� later theory of mind understanding. In order to learn more about the predictive nature of mother mental state talk to very young children, this study examined the relation between mother talk about mental states at 15 and 24 months and their later mental state language and emotion understanding at 24 and 33 months. At all three time points, 71 mothers and 3 fathers (N=74) described pictures to their infants and mother talk was coded for mental and non-mental state language at 15, 24 and 33 months. In addition, at all three time points, children�s mental and non-mental state vocabulary levels were obtained via parental report. At the second and third time points the children were administered an emotion situation and a body emotion task. The mothers� ability to interpret emotion faces was also assessed. The results showed that mother use of desire language was more prevalent at 15 months, with references to thinking and knowledge increasing at 24 months. Partial correlations demonstrated that mother use of desire language with 15-month old children uniquely predicted a child�s mental state language and emotion situation task performance at 24 months, even after accounting for earlier child language, mother socioeconomic status, mothers� own emotion understanding, and other types of mother non-mental state language. Similarly, at 24 months of age, after accounting for potentially confounding variables, such as child language, mother use of think/know language as well as desire language were both predictors of children�s mental state language and emotion task performance at 33 months. The results further demonstrated that mothers� tendency to refer to the child�s (versus others�) desires at 15 months was the more consistent correlate of children�s mental state language and emotion understanding at 24 months. At 24 months a different pattern emerged with both references to the child�s and others� thoughts and knowledge correlating with child mental state language and emotion task performance at 33 months. It is proposed that Vygotsky�s zone of proximal development provides a framework within which maternal talk about specific mental states scaffolds the development of children�s later social understanding. I also suggest that such scaffolding motivates mothers to talk more about the child�s mental states when they are younger, before introducing talk that focuses on others� mental states.

This thesis aims to firstly, explore the effects that perceived age and ability have on person perception. Secondly to discover how these two constructs add to the theory on person perception, and thirdly to test a new methodological approach to the study of person perception. / Thesis (MPsy(Specialisation)--University of South Australia, 2003.