Psychology Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2801
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Item The Role of the Need for Cognitive Closure in Implicit and Explicit Rule Learning(2009) Sheveland, Anna Cecile; Kruglanski, Arie W; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Two studies investigated the role of the need for cognitive closure in implicit and explicit rule learning. I generally hypothesized the existence of a relationship between the need for closure (NFC) and the learning of rules moderated by the type of learning, implicit versus explicit, occurring (Hypothesis 1). More specifically, I predicted that high (vs. low) NFC would predict better performance on an explicit rule learning task (Hypothesis 2) but worse performance on an implicit rule learning task (Hypothesis 3). I tested these hypotheses both by measuring the NFC as a stable, dispositional trait variable (Study 1) and manipulating it as a transient state variable (Study 2). The findings of Study 1 provide support for Hypotheses 1 and 2 but not Hypothesis 3. The findings of Study 2 provide support for Hypothesis 3 but not Hypotheses 1 and 2.Item Effects of Group Status and Cognitive Appraisal Prime on Integrative Complexity in a Decision Making Context(2009) Van Allen, Katherine Lynn; Stangor, Charles; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Integrative complexity has been shown to influence information-processing and decision-making in different social situations. The present research assessed the effects of group status and cognitive appraisal prime on complexity in a group decision-making context. Experiment 1 assessed group status effects, and Experiment 2 tested whether priming threat or challenge would moderate those effects. Both experiments found that minority members showed greater complexity than majority members. Experiment 2 found that appraisal prime moderated the relationship between status and complexity. Minority members receiving the threat prime were the most complex, while majority members in the threat and control conditions were the least complex. The mediating roles of cognitive appraisal, anxiety, and coping expectancy were assessed, but none were found to be significant mediators of complexity.Item Cognitive and Motivational Parameters in Motivated Biases in Human Judgment(2009) Chen, Xiaoyan; Kruglanski, Arie W.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Motivational and cognitive factors can determine the extent and direction of information processing in judgment. When biasing motives are present, information can be distorted and judgment biased. The extent of this bias can be determined by the nature of the information, the relative magnitude of competing goals, and the individual's cognitive resources. Studies 1, 2 and 3 explored the effect of resource depletion on motivated distortions in judgment. Studies 4 and 5 examined the role of relative goal magnitude (of a biasing goal vs. a specific judgment goal) in the phenomena. I departed from the assumption that human knowledge is malleable, and that its alteration in a motivationally desirable direction may vary in difficulty across instances. It was assumed that overcoming the difficulty requires cognitive and/or motivational resources hence under certain circumstances resource-depletion should diminish individuals' ability to motivationally bias judgments. I also hypothesized when information is clear-cut (rather than ambiguous) making distortion difficult, a sufficient amount of biasing motivation could overcome the "reality constraints," holding the cognitive resources constant. In my first two studies participants' resources were depleted either via complex or simple presentational format of the information given (Study 1), or via engagement in a fatiguing prior activity (Study 2). In the third study (Study 3), I measured participants' stable cognitive capacity as a proxy for their available cognitive resources. All three studies provided supportive evidence for the hypothesis that motivated distortion is resource dependent. In Study 4 I manipulated the relative goal magnitude by experimentally increasing goal importance for either an academic success goal in line with the specific judgment task or a social wellbeing goal as the biasing goal. In Study 5 I altered relative goal magnitude through enhancing either a neutral goal or health concerns as the biasing goal. In both Study 4 and 5, orthogonal to the relative goal magnitude manipulation, stimulus ambiguity was made either high or low. Findings from Study 4 and 5 supported the hypothesis that sufficient magnitude of biasing goal could overcome distortion difficulty even in highly constraining circumstances.Item The Role of Epistemic Motivation in the Link between Arousal and Focus of Attention(2009) Orehek, Edward; Kruglanski, Arie W; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Over 60 years of research has led to a law-like acceptance of the Easterbrook (1959) hypothesis. Easterbrook (1959) famously reviewed the evidence on the arousal-attention link and concluded that as arousal increases, the range of cues utilized decreases, and the focus of attention narrows. However, the present set of eight studies suggests that the Easterbrook hypothesis needs to be seriously qualified. Recent developments in the understanding of the role of arousal in information processing suggests that rather than invariably leading to a focus of attention, arousal instead serves as information regarding the urgency and/or importance of active processing strategies (Storbeck & Clore, 2008). Because some processing strategies lead to a broadening of attention, arousal should sometimes be negatively related to a focusing of attention. A first set of four studies investigated the need for closure as it relates to the arousal-attention link. The need for closure refers to the motivation to make quick, firm judgments, and has been shown to lead to the use of fewer available cues. Because of this, it seems that the need for closure should lead to a tendency to focus one's attention. However, when need for closure is low, individuals tend to process more available cues, broadening attention in order to avoid reaching premature closure. The results indicate that when individuals are high on the need for closure, arousal is positively related to focus of attention, whereas when individuals are low on the need for closure, arousal is negatively related to focus of attention. A second set of four studies investigated the influence of the regulatory modes of locomotion and assessment on the arousal-attention link. Because locomotion is oriented towards movement, it should lead to a focus of attention. Because assessment is oriented towards making evaluations based on comparisons among alternatives, it should lead to a broadening of attention. The results show that when a locomotion mode is active, arousal is positively related to focus of attention, whereas, when an assessment mode is active, arousal is negatively related to focus of attention.Item SOCIAL ATTENTION THEORY: A NEW LOOK AT KNOWLEDGE FORMATION IN GROUPS(2009) Shteynberg, Garriy; Gelfand, Michele J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Individuals in crowded theaters, stadiums and lecture halls know that they attend to the events on the stage, on the field, and at the podium with others. Extending the literature on social foundations of knowledge formation, Social Attention Theory posits that knowingly attending to a stimulus with one's group renders that stimulus more cognitively accessible in memory. The theory is tested across three studies where participants attend to stimuli such as words (study 1), goals (study 2), and time pressure (study 3) with members of their group or a control group. Across all three experiments, participants exhibited greater cognitive accessibility for the stimuli attended to with their group (i.e., similar others). Results also showed that individuals felt more social when attending to stimuli with their group, but did not feel happier, more motivated or more alert.Item Affect and Cognition as Antecedents of Intergroup Attitudes: The Role of Applicability and Judged Usability(2009) Leary, Scott; Stangor, Charles; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)When making intergroup evaluations we experience cognitive and affective responses. Given that the content of the cognitions or affective reactions are applicable and judged usable, each has the potential to influence one's attitudes towards that group. In a Pilot Study participants reported significantly more disgust than fear when thinking about gay men, and significantly more fear than disgust when thinking about African-Americans. Studies 1 and 2 provided initial support that these specific emotional responses to social groups are moderated by the extent to which that information is judged as usable. Data from Study 3 did not fully support my hypotheses, as personal relevance did not moderate the extent to which affect was related to social distance. Implications and limitations are discussed.Item Effects on Communal Relationships of the Presence of Need, Responsibility for the Need, and the Ability to Satisfy the Need.(2008-12-08) Buzinski, Steven G.; Sigall, Harold; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The relationship between a communal other's needs and one's communal strength toward that other, and general communal orientation were examined. Three variables were examined in a 2 x 2 x 2 experimental design: a communal other's need (need-unmet vs. need-met), the other's responsibility for creating the need (yes vs. no), and the other's ability to satisfy the need (yes vs. no). Participants (N = 48) completed pre- and post-test measures of communal strength toward the other and communal orientation. Results showed that the presence of need and the other's responsibility affected communal orientation. An interaction between these variables was observed as well: communal orientation was lower when the need was met and the other was not responsible for creating it than in the other conditions. There were no effects on communal strength. The relationship between the needs of a communal other and both communal strength and communal orientation are discussed.Item The Development and Testing of an Implicit Lie Detection System(2008-12-01) Roberts, Scott Peter; Sigall, Harold; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A series of five experiments were conducted to explore whether Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz's (1998) Implicit Association Test (IAT), which purportedly measures implicit affective evaluations, could be modified to differentiate between honest and deceptive responding to forced-choice questioning. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that a dual-discrimination task can in fact be useful in deception detection but that the relative reaction time differences run opposite in direction from those expected from the typical IAT bias pattern. Subsequent experiments assessed the procedure's susceptibility to simple countermeasures (Experiment 4) and tested variations to its trial sequence (Experiment 3) and stimulus presentation (Experiment 5). Neither of the two procedure variants was successful in producing above-chance predictions and instructions to delay reactions times to a constant latency sufficiently undermined the original procedure's efficacy. The applied limitations notwithstanding, the present research extends the relevance of dual-discrimination methodologies and supports the idea that biographical information is cognitively represented such that what is known to be true or false is implicitly associated with one's general concepts of "truth" and "lie" respectively.Item "Born That Way" and Other Notions: Measuring Sexual Minority Individuals' Beliefs About Sexual Orientation(2008-08-03) Arseneau, Julie; Fassinger, Ruth; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The focus of the present study was the creation and initial validation of a measure of popular beliefs about sexual orientation in a sample of sexual minority (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or otherwise same-sex attracted) adults, the Sexual Orientation Beliefs Scale (SOBS). While drawing from the empirical literature on essentialist beliefs about social groups, the current project sought to investigate ontological assumptions that are both essentialist and non-essentialist in nature, specifically including beliefs rooted in agentic and social constructionist perspectives as yet untested in the empirical literature. Participants (N = 332) were a national sample of sexual minority adults ranging in age from 18-74 years. Data was collected using through the use of an internet-based survey, and exploratory factor analysis was used to investigate the underlying factor structure of the SOBS. An initial 91 items were reduced to a 35-item scale using a best-fit four-factor solution that accounted for 35.33% of the obtained variance. Based on their component items, the four subscales of the SOBS were named Naturalness, Discreteness, Entitativity, and Personal and Social Importance of Sexual Orientation. Relationships between sexual orientation beliefs and right-wing authoritarianism, need for cognitive structure, collective self-esteem, and sociodemographic characteristics of participants were explored and results of these analyses are presented. Notably, the level of endorsement of specific types of beliefs, as measured by the SOBS subscales, was found to differ significantly according to gender and sexual orientation self-labeling of participants. Results broadly suggest the need for further investigation of popularly-held beliefs about sexual orientation and their correlates. Strengths and limitations of the present study, as well as recommendations for future research with the SOBS, are also discussed.Item When Apologies Work: The Benefits of Matching Apology Content to Victims and Context(2007-11-30) Fehr, Ryan; Gelfand, Michele; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research shows that apologies are useful social tools. Yet common sense tells us that apologies often differ in terms of what is said, who they are said to, and the circumstances under which they are said. In each of these cases, an apology's impact can be expected to change. Data from 171 students participating in a policy capturing experiment were used to explore the interacting effects of apology content, victim self-construal, and harm severity on forgiveness. Results suggest that each apology component positively and independently influences forgiveness. Furthermore, victim self-construal moderates apology effectiveness. Specifically, the independent self strengthens the impact of compensation, the relational self strengthens the impact of concern and acknowledgement of a violated rule/norm, and the collective self strengthens the impact of acknowledgement of a violated rule/norm. Lastly, harm severity is found to strengthen the relationship between apology length and forgiveness. Implications for research and practice are discussed.