Although women in general are aware of and concerned about the 'gender wage gap,' individual women do not report significantly greater dissatisfaction with their pay. Crosby (1982) termed this phenomenon, 'the paradox of the contented female worker.' The current study focused on the reasons for women's satisfaction with lower pay, and proposed a model of the factors leading to pay satisfaction that were expected to account for this difference Specifically, men and women were expected to have different motives for making social comparisons, which would lead to differences in the direction of comparison. The direction of comparison, in turn, was hypothesized to affect pay expectations, which, along with actual pay, should impact entitlement. Finally, entitlement was expected to lead to satisfaction, with value of pay moderating this relationship These hypotheses were tested using a sample of male and female attorneys employed in public and private sector organizations. Limited support was found for the hypothesized relationships. There were no significant gender differences in motives for comparison, and the only motive for comparison significantly related to comparison direction was self-improvement. Comparison direction was not significantly related to pay expectations, and pay expectations was, unexpectedly, negatively related to feelings of entitlement. However, lower actual pay was related to greater feelings of entitlement for both men and women. Higher entitlement, higher value of pay, and lower actual pay all were associated with lower pay level satisfaction. Value of pay moderated the relationship between entitlement and benefit satisfaction, but only feelings of entitlement was predictive of raise satisfaction and administration satisfaction The results of this study suggest that although women have lower pay, they also have lower pay expectations, and thus men and women did not differ significantly in terms of their feelings of entitlement or satisfaction. Based on these findings, researchers interested in pay satisfaction are encouraged to investigate additional personal and situational characteristics that affect pay expectations / acase@tulane.edu

In two studies, motivational factors which could influence the extent to which negative affect selectively facilitates memory for negative material were investigated. In the first experiment, male undergraduates memorized words with positive, negative, and neutral connotations. The men were then exposed to treatments intended to make them either happy, angry, or unchanged in affect, and either anticipated or did not anticipate a later opportunity to evaluate the individual responsible for their treatment. They were next asked to recall then recognize the words. Angered men in the evaluation (retaliation) condition were found to recall more words with a negative semantic content than other words, and more than all other subjects. In contrast, happy men recalled more positive words regardless of evaluation condition. No recognition differences were found. In the second experiment, memory for details of a provoking experience was tested. Male undergraduates either received or did not receive information that they would later have an opportunity to retaliate against a provocateur, with the information being given either before or after they were provoked. Men informed that they would be able to retaliate more accurately recalled the details of the provoking experience, but the timing of retaliation information had no bearing on memory for these details. Results are discussed in terms of motivation-based selective generation of items in memory / acase@tulane.edu

Citizen participation is central to the sustainability of development projects. It is difficult to achieve any level of community participation in programs, especially those offered in urban settings. This study investigates the relationship between participation and psychological sense of community in an urban primary health care project that operates in the city markets of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. This study employs a cross-sectional survey design to test the central hypothesis that a sense of community among market women is related to their participation in the urban primary health care project, Proyecto Alternativas. The survey, based on the work of McMillan and Chavis (1986) and other community psychologists, includes measures of a sense of community, locus of control, and demographic and health status/use characteristics. The principal research question is whether a relationship between participation in Proyecto Alternativas (i.e., community participation) and psychological sense of community among mothers who are vendors in the city markets of Tegucigalpa, Honduras exists A factor analysis of the sense of community construct yields a four-factor solution. Results indicate that mothers have a strong sense of community and that it is highly correlated with level of participation. A market-level analysis reveals that mothers from smaller markets have a stronger sense of community. Important predictors of participation are age, education, fees paid, the number of children working in the market, use of the nearest health center, having family in the market, the mothers' opinion of the administration, and the influence factor of the sense of community construct An important strength of the study is the investigator's familiarity with the markets, vendors, and the project and staff in Honduras. A limitation is the adaptation of measures developed for U.S. neighborhood studies to the markets of Tegucigalpa, as well as using mothers and children's participation in the project as a proxy for participation in community development. The results demonstrate, however, that the markets are close-knit communities whose members have a strong sense of community and willingness to participate in organized activities. This has implications for municipal governments and organizations in urban areas seeking local participation for sustainable development / acase@tulane.edu

Social interactions of twenty-four adult female rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were examined in groups containing one, two and three adult males from August 1995 to June 1996. Hypotheses were: (1) Social rank will influence female access to mates: Higher-ranking females would have priority of access to mates. (2) Adult sex ratio will influence female interactions with adult males and females: In groups with fewer males per female, female access to mates will depend on dominance rank. In groups with more males per female, female access to mates will depend on active competition: All females will initiate more frequent affiliative and sexual interactions toward males, and exchange more frequent agonistic behaviors with other females. (3) Difference in female access to males in the three groups will disappear after the breeding season The four highest and the four lowest ranking females in each group were chosen as focal animals. Affiliative, sexual, and agonistic interactions between focal females and other adults were recorded using focal animal sampling method (Altmann, 1974). Female interactions in the three groups were compared using 2-way ANOVAs for fall, transition period and spring. Changes of female interactions over time were analyzed using three-way ANOVAs with repeated measures Results did not support the hypothesis of female's social rank influencing access to mates but supported the hypothesis that the number of adult males affects female access to mates. Females in multi-male groups significantly initiated more frequent and maintained longer proximity to males during the early breeding season than females in one-male groups. This suggests female-female competition for mate choice in multi-male groups. Results did not support the hypothesis of subsiding differences in female access to mates after the breeding season. Post-conception estrus in one of the multi-male groups, and peaks of conceptions present in multi-male groups, suggest female competition for mates in multi-male groups / acase@tulane.edu

An experiment examined how speakers, level of prejudice would affect several dimensions of their communication to either an outgroup or an ingroup member. Stereotypes influence a person's expectations about the not only through their generally negative valence, but also through implicit information a stereotyped group's competence. Therefore, someone who consciously believes stereotypes of African-Americans (i.e., a high prejudiced person) should be more likely to interact with an African-American in a Americans in a way that 'talks down' to him or her. Previous research has shown that, compared to low prejudiced people, high prejudiced people tend to use higher levels of linguistic abstraction in describing stereotype-consistent behaviors of African-Americans when speaking about them to a European-American audience. However, this difference has never been examined in speech to an outgroup member. A second line of research has demonstrated that people use more presumptuous speech when they assume that they have higher status than their conversation partner. However, how presumptuousness may vary as a function of an individual difference variable, such as prejudice level, has never been examined. In the present study, high and low modern racists played the role of a 'peer counselor' to an alleged African-American or European-American target person. Four main hypotheses were tested. First, it was expected that high modern racists would use higher levels of linguistic abstraction when describing stereotypical behaviors of the African-American target than would low modern racists. Second, it was expected that high modern racists would use more presumptuous speech when describing stereotypical behaviors of the African-American target than would low modern racists. For both linguistic abstraction and presumptuousness, the hypothesized effects were expected to be, most evident in descriptions of negative stereotypical behaviors. Third, high modern racists were expected to spend more time counseling the African-American target than would low prejudiced participants. Finally, high modern racists were not expected to use more overt negativity in their communication to the African-American target than would low modern racists. The hypotheses generally were supported. The findings are discussed as evidence for subtle indicators of prejudice in the speech of high modern racists, although the possibility that a suppression mechanism is operating in low modern racists also is considered / acase@tulane.edu

Recent research in the area of organizational obedience and wrongdoing has focused on examining the contextual factors that influence race-based selection in organizations (Brief, Buttram, Elliott, Reizenstein, & McCline, 1995; Pugh, Brief, & Vaslow, 1995; Reizenstein & Brief, 1995). Brief and his colleagues have found that subordinates will comply with instructions from their superiors to use race as a selection criterion even though such instructions are unethical and illegal. These researchers have also found that the degree of compliance from subordinates is a function of their racial attitudes. The current study was an attempt to constructively replicate Brief and his colleagues as well as an attempt to expand on their findings. One topic that these researchers have failed to address is the cognitive processes that subordinates engage in when given an illegal or unethical instruction from their superiors. This study attempted to discover more about organizational obedience by examining the cognitive processes of individuals as they were deciding whether or not to comply with instructions to discriminate against a job candidate. In addition, this study attempted to determine how racial attitudes relate to decision behavior. Support was found for the hypothesis that individuals will comply with instructions not to hire job candidates on the basis of race. Support was not found, however, for the hypothesis that there would be an interaction between condition and modern racist attitudes such that the relationship between scores on a measure of modern racism and compliance behaviors would be stronger in the instruction condition than in the no instruction condition. Potential explanations for this finding were presented. Finally, the hypotheses concerning the cognitions of the participants in this study could not be tested. Nevertheless, post-hoc analyses provided some support for the hypotheses that individuals' cognitive processes reflect thoughts concerning their role obligations and expectations as well as the mechanisms of moral disengagement as they are engaging in discriminatory behavior. These results were discussed in terms of their implications for contributing to our understanding of what is occurring in real organizations that are facing issues of racial discrimination on a regular basis / acase@tulane.edu

This study centers on the effect that participating in a voluntary association has on its members' general level of trust, proposing that not only a direct effect exists, but that the relationship is moderated by three specific characteristics of an association: its goals, the diversity of its composition, and the outside contacts that the association provides its members. Thus, associations proposed to create conditions fostering the spillover of personalized trust to others in society were those with the following characteristics: (a) engage in activities that go beyond the attainment of its members' self-interested goals, seeking public goods beneficial to society as a whole; (b) congregate dissimilar people in terms of demographic characteristics---age, education, sex, regional provenance and social class; and (c) foster frequent interaction with outsiders who are not similar to the members of the association. Additionally, the study examines the assertion that intense family ties prevent trust from developing beyond family boundaries, by looking at the relationship between the cultural values of individualism and collectivism at the individual level and general trust in others. The following hypotheses were stated: (a) individuals high in individualism will, in general, show higher general trust in others than individuals high in collectivism, (b) horizontal-individualists will, in general, show higher general trust in others than verticals-individualists, (c) individuals high in individualism will, in general, belong to more voluntary associations, and (d) the number of memberships in voluntary associations of a given individual will be directly related to his or her general trust in others. Through a field study in two cities in Colombia, I found that none of the study's hypotheses were supported, suggesting that either methodological flaws prevented results from materializing or the relationships that have been evidenced in other countries are non-existent in this country due to some proposed explanations. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed and the need for further research in Colombia and elsewhere on maturation processes of general trust in other people is underscored / acase@tulane.edu

This study examined the intricate ways in which modern racists aggress against African-Americans. Under most circumstances, blatant displays of interracial aggression are negatively viewed and socially condemned. However, if a covert mode of aggression is available, modern racists will utilize it in lieu of overt retaliation. This pattern of aggression may not hold, however, if modern racists are not motivated to control their prejudiced reactions. It was hypothesized that both overt and covert forms of aggression would be used in such situations. Furthermore, angry affect was expected to mediate the relation between Modern Racism and aggression when there was low motivation to control prejudice. Results indicated, however, that dispositional levels of internal and external motivation to respond without prejudice were better predictors of aggressive behavior. In particular, people with primarily external motivations were far more aggressive toward White competitors than other individuals. Also, they were affected by situational inhibitory factors more than other individuals. Participants were reluctant, however, to behave in either an overtly or covertly aggressive manner toward Black competitors, even when situational inhibitory motivations were low. Additionally, none of the various measures of angry affect mediated the relationships between prejudice and aggression. Discussion focuses on the multitude of inhibitory factors present in competitive interracial encounters, and the role of dispositional motivations to respond without prejudice in provoking situations / acase@tulane.edu

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the independent as well as interactive effects of arousal and affect upon cognitive processing. Subjects were 108 pre-school children, 54 males and 54 females, recruited from various pre-school facilities. Children were randomly assigned to conditions in which they were exposed to one of three arousal inductions and one of three affect inductions. Arousal inductions involved listening to either fast or slow music or viewing pictures, and demonstrating either excessive or limited motor activity during the induction period. Children were later grouped according to low or moderate arousal level, depending upon arousal response demonstrated as a result of the arousal induction procedure. Arousal level was determined by calculating pulse deviation from baseline. Affect was induced by telling children a story of either social acceptance, social rejection, or of neutral material. After having participated in both inductions, subjects completed 10 items from a design construction task taken from the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (Kaufman and Kaufman, 1983). The number of problems correctly completed and time taken to complete problems served as the dependent measures within the investigation Results of the study revealed that subjects who experienced positive affect combined with low arousal (i.e., a calm state) correctly completed the greatest number of problems. Subjects who experienced negative affect combined with either low or moderate arousal (i.e., sad or distressed affect) completed significantly fewer problems than calm subjects as did subjects who experienced neutral affect combined with low arousal. Arousal level was particularly important in the neutral affect condition, for neutral affect subjects who experienced moderate arousal correctly completed significantly more problems than neutral affect subjects in the low arousal condition. Males and females performed with similar levels of speed under low arousal, but in the moderate arousal condition, males worked with significantly greater speed than females. This finding was interpreted as suggesting that task demands may have been lower for males than females; hence, moderate arousal was facilitative to performance for males but debilitating for females / acase@tulane.edu

Langley (1990) found that a moderate level of caffeine-induced arousal elevated violence-primed men's interest in films involving aggression, but that higher levels did not. The current investigation tested three possible explanations for this inverted-U pattern of effects of arousal and priming upon attraction to media violence. Male participants primed with an aggressive story-writing task expressed more interest in seeing violent films (from a number of film selections described in brief paragraphs) than did men primed by writing nonaggressive stories, an effect enhanced by moderate caffeine dosage (2 or 4 milligrams per kilogram of body weight) but not by a greater dosage (6 mg/kg). Aggressively primed participants also considered violent films to be more violent, an effect linearly enhanced by increasing arousal by caffeine administration. Results indicate that priming and arousal each enhanced salience of violent content, which increased the men's interest in the material except among those most highly aroused who were more motivated to avoid material that could be additionally arousing / acase@tulane.edu