Self and Identity — New issue

A new issue of the journal Self and Identity is out, including papers on defense mechanisms and self-perception.

Volume 5 Number 1 / 01 Jan 2006 of Self and Identity is now available on the psychologypress.metapress.com web site

This issue contains:

Domain-specific effects of stereotypes on performance by Margaret Shih, Todd L. Pittinsky, Amy Trahan

Abstract – We report the results of an experiment mirroring an earlier study that found that Asian American women performed better on a math test when their Asian identity was salient and worse when their female identity was salient (Ambady, Shih, Kim, & Pittinsky, 2001; Shih, Ambady, Richeson, Fujita, & Gray, 2002; Shih, Pittinsky, & Ambady, 1999). In this paper, we assessed the performance of Asian American women on a verbal test, a situation in which the valence of the stereotypes associated with the same two identities (i.e., female, Asian) is reversed. Consistent with the stereotypes, women performed better on the verbal test when their female identity was made salient than when their Asian identity was made salient. These results, taken together with the previous findings, indicate that identities are not globally adaptive or maladaptive.

Trait self-report as a “fill in” belief system: Categorization speed moderates the extraversion/life satisfaction relation by Michael D. Robinson, Shigehiro Oishi

Abstract – The present studies pursue the premise that self-reported traits such as extraversion can be viewed in terms of beliefs about the self that may be used as a default, particularly when encoding skills are poor. Encoding skills were measured by several choice reaction time tasks. Study 1 supported the hypothesis that individual differences in categorization speed predict abilities to assign self-relevant meaning to events as they occur. Studies 2 – 4, involving 213 undergraduates, sought to build on this foundation in the context of potential interactions between categorization speed and trait extraversion in the prediction of life satisfaction. As hypothesized, the trait of extraversion predicted reports of life satisfaction particularly among slow categorizers; among fast categorizers, such relations did not occur. The results in total suggest that individuals differ in their episodic encoding abilities and that trait/outcome relations (at least as measured by self-report) might be somewhat particular to those who lack an ability to assign meaning to events as they occur.

Two paths of defense: Specific versus compensatory reactions to self-threat by Donna Eisenstadt, John L. Hicks, Kevin Mcintyre, Jennifer A. Rivers, Michael Cahill

Abstract – Eisenstadt and Leippe (1994) and Eisenstadt, Leippe, and Rivers (2002) proposed that people respond to threatening feedback by engaging in a self-comparison process in which they ultimately accept or reject the feedback based on its refutability. The aims of the current study were to test the processes involved in: (a) specific feedback acceptance and refutation; and (b) compensatory adjustments in the self-concept following feedback. Participants received threatening feedback of high or low importance while under high or low cognitive load and then rated the self-descriptiveness of the specific feedback trait, non-feedback traits, affect, state self-esteem, and listed thoughts about the feedback. As hypothesized, counterarguments mediated acceptance of the specific feedback. Affect and state self-esteem, however, mediated compensatory adjustments in the self-concept.

Better than better-than-average (or not): Elevated and depressed self-evaluations following unfavorable social comparisons by John J. Seta, Catherine E. Seta, Todd McElroy

Abstract – Two experiments were designed to investigate perceivers’ self-evaluations when they received objectively positive above-average performance feedback but were told about another coactor who performed either moderately or much better than the participant. Results indicated that participants responded negatively to this comparison information even though they received better-than-average performance feedback. Participants were given the opportunity to evaluate themselves relative to another coactor who was described as performing at an average level. When the negative implications of the unfavorable social comparisons were relatively mild, both low and high self-esteem participants raised their self-evaluations vis-à-vis the inferior coactor who performed at an average level on the task. However, when the upward comparisons were especially unfavorable (i.e., when there was a large discrepancy between the performance level of the participant and the coactor—the comparison target), only high self-esteem participants raised their self-evaluations. Results provided evidence for active compensation and relatively passive spreading activation, supporting a schema-maintenance through compensation model (e.g., Seta & Seta, 1982, 1993; Seta, Seta, & McElroy, 2003).

Motivated self-perception and perceived ease in recall of autobiographical memories by Rasyid Bo Sanitioso, Paula M. Niedenthal

Abstract – The present study examines motivational influence on the perceived ease with which autobiographical memories are recalled, and the role perceived ease plays in momentary self-perception as characterized by inferences of success-promoting attributes (Kunda & Sanitioso, 1989). Participants were first induced to believe that introversion is conducive of success or of failure in one’s university studies and beyond. Next, in a supposed separate experiment, they recalled five past behaviors they considered to be related to introversion. Introversion-success participants, presumably motivated to see themselves as introverted, perceived the recall task as easier than did introversion-failure participants. Perceived ease, in turn, mediated self-perception as characterized by the success-promoting trait inferences: introversion-success participants rated themselves as more introverted compared to introversion-failure participants. The present findings extend past research emphasizing the biased content in the recall of autobiographical memories (Sanitioso, Kunda, & Fong, 1990) to the subjective experience associated with the recall itself, to realize a desired self-perception.

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