Publication year: 2010
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 99, Issue 1, July 2010, Pages 1-13

Minjung, Koo , Ayelet, Fishbach

Pursuing a series of progressive (e.g., professional) goals that form a goal ladder often leads to a trade-off between moving up to a more advanced level and repeating the same goal level. This article investigates how monitoring one's current goal in terms of remaining actions versus completed actions influences the desire to move up the goal ladder. The authors propose that a focus on remaining (vs. completed) actions increases the motivation to move up to a more advanced level, whereas the focus on completed (vs. remaining) actions increases the satisfaction derived from the present level. They find support for these...

Publication year: 2010
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 99, Issue 1, July 2010, Pages 14-31

Lorne, Campbell , Jeffry A., Simpson , Jennifer G., Boldry , Harris, Rubin

Little is known about why some people experience greater temporal fluctuations of relationship perceptions over short periods of time, or how these fluctuations within individuals are associated with relational processes that can destabilize relationships. Two studies were conducted to address these questions. In Study 1, long-term dating partners completed a 14-day diary study that assessed each partner's daily partner and relationship perceptions. Following the diary phase, each couple was videotaped trying to resolve the most important unresolved problem from the diary period. As predicted, (a) individuals who trusted their partners less reported greater variability in perceptions of relationship quality across...

Publication year: 2010
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 99, Issue 1, July 2010, Pages 32-51

Alison, Ledgerwood , Yaacov, Trope , Shelly, Chaiken

Researchers have long been interested in understanding the conditions under which evaluations will be more or less consistent or context-dependent. The current research explores this issue by asking when stability or flexibility in evaluative responding would be most useful. Integrating construal level theory with research suggesting that variability in the mental representation of an attitude object can produce fluctuations in evaluative responding, we propose a functional relationship between distance and evaluative flexibility. Because individuals construe psychologically proximal objects more concretely, evaluations of proximal objects will tend to incorporate unique information from the current social context, promoting context-specific responses. Conversely, because...

Publication year: 2010
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 99, Issue 1, July 2010, Pages 52-61

Ed, Diener , Weiting, Ng , James, Harter , Raksha, Arora

The Gallup World Poll, the first representative sample of planet Earth, was used to explore the reasons why happiness is associated with higher income, including the meeting of basic needs, fulfillment of psychological needs, increasing satisfaction with one's standard of living, and public goods. Across the globe, the association of log income with subjective well-being was linear but convex with raw income, indicating the declining marginal effects of income on subjective well-being. Income was a moderately strong predictor of life evaluation but a much weaker predictor of positive and negative feelings. Possessing luxury conveniences and satisfaction with standard of living...

Publication year: 2010
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 99, Issue 1, July 2010, Pages 62-77

Saul L., Miller , Jon K., Maner , D. Vaughn, Becker

Across 6 studies, factors signaling potential vulnerability to harm produced a bias toward outgroup categorization—a tendency to categorize unfamiliar others as members of an outgroup rather than as members of one's ingroup. Studies 1 through 4 demonstrated that White participants were more likely to categorize targets as Black (as opposed to White) when those targets displayed cues heuristically associated with threat (masculinity, movement toward the perceiver, and facial expressions of anger). In Study 5, White participants who felt chronically vulnerable to interpersonal threats responded to a fear manipulation by categorizing threatening (angry) faces as Black rather than White. Study 6...

Publication year: 2010
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 99, Issue 1, July 2010, Pages 78-106

Amy, Canevello , Jennifer, Crocker

Perceived partner responsiveness is a core feature of close, satisfying relationships. But how does responsiveness originate? Can people create relationships characterized by high responsiveness and, consequently, higher quality relationships? The authors suggest that goals contribute to cycles of responsiveness between two people, improving relationship quality for both of them. The present studies examine (a) how interpersonal goals initiate responsiveness processes in close relationships, (b) the self-perpetuating nature of these processes, and (c) how responsiveness evolves dynamically over time through both intrapersonal projection and reciprocal interpersonal relationship processes. In a semester-long study of 115 roommate dyads, actors' compassionate and self-image goals...

Publication year: 2010
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 99, Issue 1, July 2010, Pages 107-119

Isabel R., Pinto , José M., Marques , John M., Levine , Dominic, Abrams

In 3 experiments, participants (Ns = 50, 95, and 75, respectively) judged 2 ingroup or outgroup members who occupied 1 of 3 statuses—new members, full members, or marginal members. In each case, 1 of these members adopted a normative position and another supported a deviant position regarding a relevant issue. Participants upgraded normative ingroup full members and derogated deviant ingroup full members compared with all other members. In addition, derogation of deviant ingroup members was associated with a socializing and a punishing intention toward new members and full members, respectively. These results are discussed in terms of the group socialization...

Publication year: 2010
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 99, Issue 1, July 2010, Pages 120-132

Phillip S., Kavanagh , Sarah C., Robins , Bruce J., Ellis

Two studies (Ns = 80 and 108) tested hypotheses derived from Kirkpatrick and Ellis's (2001) extension and application of sociometer theory to mating aspirations. Experiences of social rejection–acceptance by attractive opposite-sex confederates were experimentally manipulated, and the impact of these manipulations on self-esteem, mating aspirations, and friendship aspirations was assessed. Results indicated that social rejection–acceptance by members of the opposite sex altered mating aspirations; that the causal link between social rejection–acceptance and mating aspirations was mediated by changes in state self-esteem; and that the impact of social rejection–acceptance by members of opposite sex was specific to mating aspirations and did...