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Perceptions of situational variability: Redefining its role in trait attributions
Title
Perceptions of situational variability: Redefining its role in trait attributions.
Creator
Janowsky, Alisha, Florida Atlantic University, Monson, Thomas C.
Abstract/Description
A basic difference between the perspectives of actors and observers is the amount of information each has to make attributional inferences. Jones and Nisbett (1971) suggested these informational differences lead to an inverse relationship between trait and situational attributions, such that better-known others receive more situational attributions while lesser-known others receive more trait attributions. We hypothesized that attributors typically ignore their perceptions of situational...
Show moreA basic difference between the perspectives of actors and observers is the amount of information each has to make attributional inferences. Jones and Nisbett (1971) suggested these informational differences lead to an inverse relationship between trait and situational attributions, such that better-known others receive more situational attributions while lesser-known others receive more trait attributions. We hypothesized that attributors typically ignore their perceptions of situational variability when constructing their trait attributions as these perceptions are biased by the number of available observations. Subjects were given two or eight samples of behavior for a series of different targets and asked to independently make both trait and situational attributions. Subjects with access to eight observations perceived more behavioral variability and made more trait attributions than those with access to two observations. Furthermore, attributors' perceptions of situational variability were more closely related to measures of biased "sample variances" than to measures of "estimated population variances."
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Date Issued
2001
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12838
Subject Headings
Personality, Attribution (Social psychology)
Format
Document (PDF)
Resolving the consistency paradox: An averaging explanation of the discrepancies between naive and professional psychologists
Title
Resolving the consistency paradox: An averaging explanation of the discrepancies between naive and professional psychologists.
Creator
Saigal, Elizabeth Anne, Florida Atlantic University, Monson, Thomas C.
Abstract/Description
Professional psychologists have frequently examined cross-situational correlations in behavior. Based upon low correlations in the range of 0.15 to 0.30, many professional psychologists have questioned the utility of using personality traits to describe and predict behavior. In contrast, the "naive psychologist" appears to have an inordinately high expectation that the behaviors that individuals exhibit are strongly related to the traits that they possess. This discrepancy in the views of...
Show moreProfessional psychologists have frequently examined cross-situational correlations in behavior. Based upon low correlations in the range of 0.15 to 0.30, many professional psychologists have questioned the utility of using personality traits to describe and predict behavior. In contrast, the "naive psychologist" appears to have an inordinately high expectation that the behaviors that individuals exhibit are strongly related to the traits that they possess. This discrepancy in the views of professional psychologists and naive psychologists has been termed the "consistency paradox". Based upon the many errors and biases that have been documented in the attribution process, most psychologists have assumed that the viewpoint held by the professional psychologist is correct and that held by the naive psychologist is wrong. The results of several studies are presented suggesting that naive psychologists are capable of accurately detecting traits through a behavior averaging process even when cross-situational correlations reach zero.
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Date Issued
2001
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12846
Subject Headings
Personality, Psychologists, Attribution (Social psychology)
Format
Document (PDF)
implications of self-selection for the adaptiveness of the fundamental attribution error
Title
The implications of self-selection for the adaptiveness of the fundamental attribution error.
Creator
Wilson, Lili Milian, Florida Atlantic University, Monson, Thomas C.
Abstract/Description
The fundamental attribution error (FAE) refers to the social perceiver's tendency to emphasize dispositional rather than situational information when determining the causes for an actor's behavior (Ross, 1977). The present study challenges previous FAE research by suggesting that highly constrained experimental circumstances, not representative of real-world occurrences in which self-selection variables play a major role, are perhaps responsible for these findings. Subjects were given...
Show moreThe fundamental attribution error (FAE) refers to the social perceiver's tendency to emphasize dispositional rather than situational information when determining the causes for an actor's behavior (Ross, 1977). The present study challenges previous FAE research by suggesting that highly constrained experimental circumstances, not representative of real-world occurrences in which self-selection variables play a major role, are perhaps responsible for these findings. Subjects were given behavioral information and asked to make attributions based on a target's level of agreeableness and predict their intentions concerning future interactions. The data indicates that limited information can still lead to accurate identification of true scores. Attributions for behaviors that were exhibited under both low and high situational constraint were useful in detecting a target's underlying trait. They also form a foundation for guiding future interactions. Together, these findings support the notion that the FAE serves as an adaptive and appropriate strategy.
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Date Issued
1993
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14927
Subject Headings
Attribution (Social psychology), Personality assessment
Format
Document (PDF)
Mixing properties in human behavioral style and time dependencies in behavior identification: The modeling and application of a universal dynamical law
Title
Mixing properties in human behavioral style and time dependencies in behavior identification: The modeling and application of a universal dynamical law.
Creator
Selz, Karen A., Florida Atlantic University, Vallacher, Robin R.
Abstract/Description
Human subjects perform simple, relatively unconstrained, game-like computer tasks. "Meso-level" measures of behavioral complexity and time-dependencies (including entropies, grammatical complexity estimates and run statistics) are derived and computed. Individual behavioral differences in the resulting complexity measures are robust and, in a temporal-forcing paradigm, are statistically significantly related to the same individual's scores on a range of personality and demographic variables....
Show moreHuman subjects perform simple, relatively unconstrained, game-like computer tasks. "Meso-level" measures of behavioral complexity and time-dependencies (including entropies, grammatical complexity estimates and run statistics) are derived and computed. Individual behavioral differences in the resulting complexity measures are robust and, in a temporal-forcing paradigm, are statistically significantly related to the same individual's scores on a range of personality and demographic variables. Through an experimental manipulation and the statistical selection of maximally useful predictor sets personality and demographic variables are united in a "macro-level" temperament typology, based on "micro-level" behavioral tendencies. Further, I can compute a parameter value of a one dimensional dynamical system, the symmetric tent map, matched to the symbol sequence "meso-level" parities of the subject. When this parameter is used in the iterated map, it produces sequences that are of the same autocorrelation "category" and share much of the fine structure of the autocorrelograms of the subjects to which the map parameter had been matched.
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Date Issued
1992
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12306
Subject Headings
Rape victims, Attribution (Social psychology)
Format
Document (PDF)
Dispositionally speaking, what you see is what you get
Title
Dispositionally speaking, what you see is what you get.
Creator
Shuhi, Robert P., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description
Many studies have been devoted to investigating the process by which individuals make dispositional attributions about the people that they encounter. Typically, individuals are more likely to seek future interactions with target individuals if those target individuals have a positive or rewarding disposition. Interactions with target individuals possessing negative or punishing dispositions reduce the likelihood that target individual will be selected for future interactions. An initial...
Show moreMany studies have been devoted to investigating the process by which individuals make dispositional attributions about the people that they encounter. Typically, individuals are more likely to seek future interactions with target individuals if those target individuals have a positive or rewarding disposition. Interactions with target individuals possessing negative or punishing dispositions reduce the likelihood that target individual will be selected for future interactions. An initial false positive trait ascription will be self-correcting with future interactions. An initial false negative trait label will likely remain stable if future interactions are not forced. The importance of quick accurate disposition identification carries important evolutionary implications as well as normal-life implications. Results from an experiment support the ability of subjects to accurately identify the true trait of target individuals with limited dispositional information.
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Date Issued
2008
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/165945
Subject Headings
Attribution (Social psychology), Interpersonal communication, Philosophy, Social interaction, Social perception
Format
Document (PDF)
Power, instability and regulatory focus
Title
Power, instability and regulatory focus: uncovering a hidden motivation for the maintenance and resolution of conflict.
Creator
Trew, Noel J.M., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description
This thesis applies Higgins (1997) Regulatory Focus Theory to the study of conflict by exploring the relationship between power and promotion vs. prevention orientation. After considering the earlier work of Keltner, Gruenfeld & Anderson (2003) that established the considerable effect that power has on approach and avoidance behaviors, the present research shows that this link also applies to regulatory focus. In this study, participants had their sense of power experimentally manipulated by...
Show moreThis thesis applies Higgins (1997) Regulatory Focus Theory to the study of conflict by exploring the relationship between power and promotion vs. prevention orientation. After considering the earlier work of Keltner, Gruenfeld & Anderson (2003) that established the considerable effect that power has on approach and avoidance behaviors, the present research shows that this link also applies to regulatory focus. In this study, participants had their sense of power experimentally manipulated by a set of vignettes and then answered follow-up questions to determine what effect this had on their regulatory focus orientation. Results indicated that high power is associated with a promotion focus, while low power, a prevention focus. The implication of these findings were discussed and were integrated with the work of Cesario, Higgins & Scholer (2008) on regulatory fit and persuasion to create a novel strategy for conflict resolution.
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Date Issued
2009
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/369388
Subject Headings
Conflict management, Conflict (Psychology), Attribution (Social psychology), Power (Social sciences), Self, Social aspects
Format
Document (PDF)
Adolescent conflict with parents and friends
Title
Adolescent conflict with parents and friends: the role of negative affect and resolution strategy in predicting relationship impact.
Creator
Pursell, Gwen R., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description
This study examined associations between conflict affect, resolution, and relationship impact in adolescent conflicts with mothers and friends. Participants included 231 adolescents who were on average 14 years of age. Over three consecutive days, participants completed a diary study in which they reported and described conflicts with mothers and friends. Path analyses were used to examine direct and indirect associations from negative affect and resolution to relationship impact contrasting...
Show moreThis study examined associations between conflict affect, resolution, and relationship impact in adolescent conflicts with mothers and friends. Participants included 231 adolescents who were on average 14 years of age. Over three consecutive days, participants completed a diary study in which they reported and described conflicts with mothers and friends. Path analyses were used to examine direct and indirect associations from negative affect and resolution to relationship impact contrasting disagreements with mothers and disagreements with friends. Moderator analyses examined whether patterns of association differed by gender or conflict topic. Findings revealed that lower levels of negative affect and higher levels of compromise were associated with improved relations for both adolescent conflicts with mothers and friends. Mediation analyses indicated that negative affect largely accounted for the association between compromise and relationship impact. There was no difference between mother-adolescent and friend-adolescent relationships in the strength of these associations. Gender and conflict topic did not moderate these associations. These findings are consistent with a larger body of research on marital relationships, which suggests that negative affect plays a key role in predicting relationship outcomes. Specifically, it appears that regardless of the amount of compromise, it is the expression of anger that determines whether a conflict improves or worsens a relationship.
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Date Issued
2009
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/359927
Subject Headings
Interpersonal relationships in adolescence, Adjustment (Psychology) in adolescence, Attribution (Social psychology), Social conflict, Psychological aspects
Format
Document (PDF)
Detection in dispositional change in romantic relationships: A dynamic explanation
Title
Detection in dispositional change in romantic relationships: A dynamic explanation.
Creator
Bodin, Sarah G., Florida Atlantic University, Monson, Thomas C.
Abstract/Description
Many studies have been devoted to investigating the process by which individuals make dispositional attributions about the people that they encounter. A surprisingly small number of studies have been directed at examining the process by which individuals may detect change in their impressions of people once they have been formed. In fact, traditional social psychology literature suggests that individuals will engage in a number of processes to maintain or improve, rather than change, their...
Show moreMany studies have been devoted to investigating the process by which individuals make dispositional attributions about the people that they encounter. A surprisingly small number of studies have been directed at examining the process by which individuals may detect change in their impressions of people once they have been formed. In fact, traditional social psychology literature suggests that individuals will engage in a number of processes to maintain or improve, rather than change, their initial attributions. With such alarming divorce rates, it is quite obvious that romantic couples are detecting change in their perceptions of one another. However, romance and attribution research has not been able to fully explain how detection of perception change occurs in romantic relationships. More specifically, traditional linear theories of attribution are not able to clarify how dramatic dispositional change can occur in romantic relationships. Results from an experiment lead us to believe that the detection of dispositional change in romantic relationships is actually quite dynamic, counter to current beliefs in the field. In addition, the Discounting Principle may be used in non-traditional ways.
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Date Issued
2005
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13245
Subject Headings
Attribution (Social psychology), Interpersonal communication, Interpersonal relations, Affect (Psychology)--Study and teaching, Social perception
Format
Document (PDF)
Selective exposure attribution theory: Implications for better than average biases
Title
Selective exposure attribution theory: Implications for better than average biases.
Creator
Kovalik, Jennifer T., Florida Atlantic University, Monson, Thomas C., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description
The better than average effect refers to the tendency of individuals to perceive themselves as above average on various dimensions of social desirability (Messick, Boldizar, & Samuelson, 1985). Most research suggests that the effect results from motivations to inflate levels of self-esteem (Alicke, 1985). The present study challenged that an information-processing mechanism driven by selective exposure of persons to the behaviors of others may instead promote an overall negative dispositional...
Show moreThe better than average effect refers to the tendency of individuals to perceive themselves as above average on various dimensions of social desirability (Messick, Boldizar, & Samuelson, 1985). Most research suggests that the effect results from motivations to inflate levels of self-esteem (Alicke, 1985). The present study challenged that an information-processing mechanism driven by selective exposure of persons to the behaviors of others may instead promote an overall negative dispositional asymmetry within a population. When subjects were asked to make assessments regarding a target's level of trait across situations permitting various levels of selective exposure, the data indicated an increased tendency to rate others more negatively when selective exposure was maximized. It was hypothesized that subjects had committed more "false negative attribution errors" and had corrected more "false positive attribution errors" upon drawing their conclusions.
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Date Issued
1996
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15359
Subject Headings
Attribution (Social psychology), Self-perception--Social aspects, Self-esteem--Social aspects, Personality
Format
Document (PDF)
Discounting the role of causal attributions in the ANOVA model of attribution
Title
Discounting the role of causal attributions in the ANOVA model of attribution.
Creator
Hakala, Kori A., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description
For years attribution research has been dominated by the ANOVA model of behavior which proposes that people construct their dispositional attributions of others by carefully comparing and weighing all situational information using mental computations similar to the processes used by researchers to analyze data. A preliminary experiment successfully determined that participants were able to distinguish differences in variability assessed across persons (high vs. low consensus) and across...
Show moreFor years attribution research has been dominated by the ANOVA model of behavior which proposes that people construct their dispositional attributions of others by carefully comparing and weighing all situational information using mental computations similar to the processes used by researchers to analyze data. A preliminary experiment successfully determined that participants were able to distinguish differences in variability assessed across persons (high vs. low consensus) and across situations (high vs. low distinctiveness). Also, it was clear that the subjects could evaluate varying levels of situational constraint. A primary experiment administered to participants immediately following the preliminary study determined that participants grossly under-utilized those same variables when making dispositional attributions. Results gave evidence against the use of traditional ANOVA models and support for the use of the Behavior Averaging Principle of Attribution.
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Date Issued
2008
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/166450
Subject Headings
Social sciences, Statistical methods, Analysis of variance, Data processing, Mathematical statistics, Attribution (Social psychology)
Format
Document (PDF)
effectiveness of a violence prevention program used as a nursing intervention tool on agression among children in pre-kindergarten
Title
The effectiveness of a violence prevention program used as a nursing intervention tool on agression among children in pre-kindergarten.
Creator
Stephenson, Carol W., Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing
Abstract/Description
Childhood aggression has captured media attention over recent years. Aggression and violence have permeated schools and affected many communities. There are policies and programs in place for young adults, teens and children in some high schools and elementary schools, but not in preschools or daycare centers. However, intervention programs need to be introduced at the preschool level. There is also a scarcity of nursing research on aggression among preschoolers and successful early...
Show moreChildhood aggression has captured media attention over recent years. Aggression and violence have permeated schools and affected many communities. There are policies and programs in place for young adults, teens and children in some high schools and elementary schools, but not in preschools or daycare centers. However, intervention programs need to be introduced at the preschool level. There is also a scarcity of nursing research on aggression among preschoolers and successful early intervention anti-aggression programs. This study evaluated the Second Stepª anti-aggression program, utilized as a nursing intervention tool, among 41 preschool children aged 3, 4, and 5 years of age. The 3-month long research study was based on King's 1981 general systems theory, which is classified as an interaction model. The research design was a randomized pre-test post-test, 2-group (control and experimental) experimental one, to test the hypothesis that children's aggression scores would be lower and their prosocial scores would be higher after the intervention program. It was also hypothesized that boys would have higher aggression scores than girls and that there would be differences in post aggression scores in the treatment group. Repeated measures ANOVA showed that there were no significant differences between the make-up of each group (p = .05). There was no statistically significant difference between pre- and post-test aggression scores (p = .14) or between genders (p = .13), with the exception that the preschool girls in both groups had slightly higher relational aggression scores than boys, pre- and post-test. The differences were statistically significant at p = <.05. The post-test relational aggression scores were not lower in either group. These findings are discussed in this paper.
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Date Issued
2009
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/186766
Subject Headings
Violence in children, Children and violence, Community health nursing, Developmental psychology, Attribution (Social psychology)
Format
Document (PDF)
Toward a pragmatics of intent
Title
Toward a pragmatics of intent: cognitive approaches in creative and critical writing.
Creator
Wolfe, Lois., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
Abstract/Description
Locus of an author poses questions of intentionality, how intention is discovered, expressed, hidden, revealed and interpreted. The purpose of the study is to find and apply productive interdisciplinary concepts in intentionality detection, decoding and evaluation in fictional texts. The investigation integrates traditions in literature, linguistics, cognitive science and creative writing, posing a pragmatics of intent that complements and complicates precepts in reader reception-based...
Show moreLocus of an author poses questions of intentionality, how intention is discovered, expressed, hidden, revealed and interpreted. The purpose of the study is to find and apply productive interdisciplinary concepts in intentionality detection, decoding and evaluation in fictional texts. The investigation integrates traditions in literature, linguistics, cognitive science and creative writing, posing a pragmatics of intent that complements and complicates precepts in reader reception-based constructivism. Basic to a vision of pragmatic strategies: 1) situating effect and affect in an embodied mind; 2) acknowledging mutual and/or oppositional intentionalities which an embodied author and embodied reader bring to the process of fictional communication; 3) accepting language as communication that requires cognitive translation of consensually-agreed upon symbols into private representations in an embodied mind; 4) assuming that an author's fictionalizing consciousness is more discernible w hen it is navigating tensions of selection, proportion, intervention and perspective. Perceptual and close reading of J.M. Coetzee's Foe yields descriptive problematics. Analytical readings in a neglected byway of I.A. Richards' New Criticism provide pragmatic cues for detecting and evaluating intentionalities in prose. Three cross-disciplinary strategies emerge to enhance perceptual and close readings of fictional texts: 1) awareness of priming effects in form and content; 2) identification of markedness patterns; and 3) perception of tensible connections in prosaic language and artistic devices., The study concludes that: reading in tensible awareness of author intentionality adds productively to critical analysis and argument; acknowledging positioned voices in texts supports ethical criticism and multicultural aesthetics; reading to apprehend perceptual units (image structures sensed through story) supports and contextualizes close reading of propositional units(discourse/language) . The formal element of perspective emerges as the most intensive locus of the reader's sense of integrated consciousness and management of effect in fiction. Perspective can create the most ergative construction of authorial perspective, i.e., one in which transitive energy appears equalized and the subject and patient / writer and reader positions in syntax can pivot.
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Date Issued
2008
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/165946
Subject Headings
Intentionality (Philosophy), Philosophy of mind, Attribution (Social psychology), Reportage literature (Authorship), Creative writing, Methodology
Format
Document (PDF)
Who dislikes whom
Title
Who dislikes whom: the characteristics of antipathy in adolescence.
Creator
Hafen, Christopher A., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description
The current study examined the process by which adolescents choose who to dislike in a sample of Finnish 10th graders. Information was available for the adolescents on their victimization, bullying behavior, problem behavior, school burnout, school grades, and their depressive symptoms. The initial analysis consisted of assessing which characteristics made individuals more likely to dislike someone, after taking into account the characteristics of the individual being nominated. This analysis...
Show moreThe current study examined the process by which adolescents choose who to dislike in a sample of Finnish 10th graders. Information was available for the adolescents on their victimization, bullying behavior, problem behavior, school burnout, school grades, and their depressive symptoms. The initial analysis consisted of assessing which characteristics made individuals more likely to dislike someone, after taking into account the characteristics of the individual being nominated. This analysis found that individuals form antipathy for dissimilar others. This process is hypothesized to be a result of mechanisms of threat. The secondary analysis compared the characteristics of unilateral and mutual antipathies. This analysis found that mutual antipathies are characterized by elevated differences between individuals on victimization. These results identify and describe important aspects of the adolescent peer environment.
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Date Issued
2010
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2684308
Subject Headings
Attribution (Psychology), Adjustment (Psychology) in adolescence, Social interaction in adolescence, Interpersonal relationships in adolescence, Peer pressure in adolescence, Social conflict, Psychological aspects
Format
Document (PDF)
Developing mechanisms of self-regulation
Title
Developing mechanisms of self-regulation: an integrative perspective.
Creator
Kadin-Pessoa, Aviva R., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description
Parents' and children's behaviors are intricately woven together over the course of development. Consequently it is difficulty to determine the sources of influence predicting socially and academically oriented outcomes. Research from several developmental fields suggests that developing mechanisms of attention during the preschool years is crucial for both emotional and cognitive control. The current study shows that parental responsive behavior is important in understanding the development...
Show moreParents' and children's behaviors are intricately woven together over the course of development. Consequently it is difficulty to determine the sources of influence predicting socially and academically oriented outcomes. Research from several developmental fields suggests that developing mechanisms of attention during the preschool years is crucial for both emotional and cognitive control. The current study shows that parental responsive behavior is important in understanding the development of voluntary attention. More specifically, the results suggest that parental awareness, assessed utilizing their perceptions of attentive temperament is an important factor in predicting their own behavior and the developmental outcomes of their children.
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Date Issued
2010
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2705084
Subject Headings
Parent and child, Attachment behavior in childhood, Family, Psychological aspects, Emotions and cognition, Cognition in children, Human information processing, Attribution (Social psychology)
Format
Document (PDF)