A theoretical analysis of the relationship between social structure and cognitive structure is presented. Based upon this analysis, a study was done in which the cognitive activity of high and low self-esteem (SE) women was assessed under some particular social conditions. The factors manipulated were: focus of attention on either orientation toward a career or on orientation toward family; activation (via priming) of either the cognitive structure encoding masculine tendencies or that containing information on feminine tendencies; and perceptions of how well family and career functions fit together for most women. The primary dependent measures used were tests of hand-eye coordination, of creativity, of memory and of level of negative emotion. The results partially supported the hypotheses. They indicated four-way interactions for the recall measure and for one measure of use of defense mechanisms. Two three-way interactions were observed in the analysis of the measure of creativity. The measure of emotion showed only a main-effect of the focus-of-attention manipulation, such that women in the family-focus condition exhibited significantly more emotion. There were no significant effects on the measure of hand-eye coordination. High self-esteem subjects were much more likely to use defense mechanisms, including repression of threatening information. Conflict increased creativity only when focus of attention was congruent with chronic or situationally-induced (masculine or feminine) tendencies. The applicability to this data of both cognitive-psychological and psychodynamic concepts and mechanisms is assessed. It is concluded that neither theory can completely account for the data. Some practical implications of the findings are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/183884 |
| Date | January 1986 |
| Creators | JAMES, KEITH. |
| Contributors | Greenberg, Jeff |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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