Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

The authors examined the extent to which level and stability of fifth-grade children's self-esteem predicted intrinsic motivation and related achievement behaviors, and reasons for anger. The findings indicated that the more unstable the children's self-esteem, the lower their scores on measures of curiosity/interest and preference for challenge. In addition, the lower the children's self-esteem, the lower their preference for challenge. Additional analyses indicated that (a) self-evaluations of scholastic competence mediated the effects of both stability and level of self-esteem and (b) day-to-day variability in self-evaluations of scholastic competence was so intertwined with stability of self-esteem that neither uniquely predicted either curiosity/interest or preference for challenge. Finally, the more unstable the children's self-esteem, the greater the likelihood that they reported that they would become angry because of the self-esteem-threatening aspects of aversive interpersonal events. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Charlan Nemeth argued in 1986 that exposing people to a majority point of view causes them to focus exclusively on that view (convergent thought). Exposure to a minority viewpoint stimulates people to consider an issue from multiple perspectives (divergent thought) -to go beyond what is given by either the majority or the minority. This study supports and extends that cognitive processing hypothesis by demonstrating that (a) minority influence encourages understanding an issue from multiple perspectives and encourages flexible, or integrative, thinking among those perspectives, (b) majority influence can aid performance tasks requiring convergence on one dimension of a two-dimensional task (i.e., the Stroop task), and (c) majority influence can teach multiple perspectives on a problem one at a time but does not encourage flexible thinking among those perspectives. The convergent nature of majority-influenced thought interferes with the ability to use both of the dimensions simultaneously.

Effects on intrinsic motivation of three elements of the competitive situation (viz., competitive set, competitive outcome, and inter-personal context) were explored. Participants solved puzzles with a same-sex confederate under one of five experimental inductions, and intrinsic motivation was assessed by subsequent free-choice behavior and self-reports of interest/enjoyment. As predicted by cognitive evaluation theory, competitive outcome(viz., winning vs. losing) and interpersonal context (viz., pressured vs. nonpressured) affected intrinsic motivation. Path analyses showed that (a) winning (relative to losing) increased intrinsic motivation by enhancing perceived competence and (b) a pressured (relative to nonpressured) interpersonal context decreased intrinsic motivation by diminishing perceived self-determination. Further, competence valuation-the importance one places on doing well-related positively to perceived competence, perceived self-determination, and intrinsic motivation.

Two studies illustrate the importance of a distinction between communal and exchange relationships in understanding reactions to helping and refusing to help. In Study 1, refusing to help caused declines in positive affect when a communal (but not an exchange) relationship with the help seeker was desired. In Study 2, recalling a refusal to help a communal (but not an exchange) partner caused declines in positive affect. Recalling when some-one else helped or refused to help did not produce analogous changes. Results demonstrate that there are differential reactions to refusing to help in communal and exchange relationships, differential reactions apply to naturally occurring relationships as well as desired relationships created by laboratory manipulations, and affective reactions in communal relationships are not due to merely knowing the other has (or has not) been helped. The authors suggest that they reflect the impact that helping or failing to help may have on communal relationships.

Affective reactions to prejudice-related discrepant responses were examined either before (standard-salient condition) or after (standard-not-salient condition) subjects' personal standards for responding were made salient. The standard-salience manipulation had little influence on discrepancy-associated discomfort. However, discrepancy-associated guilt was significantly attenuated in the standard-not-salient condition. Correlations within prejudice levels revealed that, even among low-prejudiced subjects, the relation between guilt and discrepancies was quite weak in the standard-not-salient condition. This indicates that self-regulatory processes aimed at reducing prejudice may not be initiated on a regular basis. The results also revealed that the correlation between guilt and discrepancies was significant, although modest, among moderately prejudiced and high prejudiced subjects in the standard-salient condition. The implications of this finding are discussed.

This investigation examined the function of substance use as an impression management tactic. Using a model linking self-monitoring to self-esteem via perceived success in impression management and interaction anxiety, it was hypothesized that (a) self-monitoring, perceived success in impression management, and interaction anxiety predict self-esteem; (b) self-monitoring, perceived success in impression management, interaction anxiety, and self-esteem discriminate alcohol initiators from noninitiators, and (c) the same four variables discriminate cigarette initiators from noninitiators. Introductory psychology students (n = 377) responded to a survey instrument measuring the aforementioned variables. Hierarchical regression and discriminant function analyses produced results supportive of the first two hypotheses but not the third. Results suggest that alcohol use may serve an impression management function.

Two studies examined the processing of responses directed toward the self versus others by dysphoric, clinically depressed, and remitted depressed subjects. Study 1 showed that dysphoric subjects found positive and negative responses toward the self equally informative. Nondysphoric subjects found positive responses toward the self more informative than negative responses. When responses were directed toward others, dysphoric subjects found positive responses more informative than negative responses. In contrast, nondysphoric subjects found positive and negative responses directed toward others equally informative. Study 2 replicated these results with clinically depressed versus nondysphoric subjects. Study 2 also showed that remitted depressed subjects found positive responses more informative than negative responses, regardless of whether they were directed toward the self or toward others. Results suggest that positive and negative constructs are differentially accessible for dysphoric, clinically depressed, remitted depressed, and nondysphoric subjects when processing information directed toward the self versus others.

Based on a terror management analysis of depression, the authors hypothesized that mildly depressed individuals would engage in especially vigorous worldview defense after mortality salience. Two studies were conducted in which mildly depressed and nondepressed American college students contemplated their own mortality or a neutral topic and then evaluated targets who supported or threatened aspects of their worldviews. Replicating previous research, subjects who contemplated their own mortality engaged in more defense of the worldview (more positive reactions to worldview supporters and more negative reactions to worldview threateners). Moreover, as predicted, mildly depressed subjects in both studies responded to mortality salience with significantly more worldview defense than did nondepressed subjects. Implications of these results for understanding and treating depression are briefly considered.

Although power-seeking and controlling behaviors on the part of physicians have been well documented, the source of these behaviors on the individual psychological level has not yet been identified. This study examined whether the individual personality characteristic of power motivation, one indicator of desires for power and control, increases during medical school and whether this process varies by race or sex. Transcripts of interviews with a diverse group of medical students at two time points were coded for power motivation. The results showed that White students' power motivation decreased, whereas minority students' levels remained the same, suggesting race-linked differences in the medical socialization experience.

Self-definition, a personality style associated with internally developed identity and behavior is differentiated from social definition, the tendency to adopt social category definitions of self. These personality patterns, sampled in imaginative thought, were related to plans, actions, rationales, and life outcomes both cross-sectionally and longitudinally over 14 years in a sample of 118 women first studied as college seniors. Self-defining women showed more autonomy in relation to personal relationships and the traditional female role, took more instrumental initiatives, sought excellence in multiple roles with less role conflict, and took more social system initiatives (starting and leading organizations and goal-oriented family-formation activities). Socially defined women chose more traditionally female careers initially, reported more career goal indecision and compromises, changed to more role-innovative careers, reported more role conflict, and gave more social rationales for actions.