“Be a Man”: The Role of Social Pressure in Eliciting Men’s Aggressive Cognition

[Pre-print accepted for publication in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin on November 20, 2020.] Threatening a man’s manhood—but not a woman’s womanhood—elicits aggression. In two studies, we found evidence that this aggression is related to the social pressure men experience to “be a man.” In Study 1a, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis to isolate participants’ (N = 195; Mage = 19.92) differential motivations for conforming to gender norms. Study 1b then showed that pressure to be masculine moderates the relationship between gender identity threat and aggressive cognition for men. In Study 2a, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis to validate the aforementioned scales with an age-diverse sample of men (N = 391; Mage = 33.16, range 18-56 years). Study 2b replicated Study 1b, most notably with younger men. In all, these findings reveal one pathway—the pressure men experience to be stereotypically masculine—that elicits aggressive cognition when under threat in a U.S. context.

Construal Level Research in Decision Making: Analysis and Pushing Forward the Debate Using Bibliometric Review and Thematic Analysis

This study examines the extant literature on Construal Level Theory through bibliometric analysis that traces the path of research from 1998 to November 2019. It uses the Scopus database to identify emerging trends, seminal and most-cited papers, authors, universities, and countries that contributed to the development of the theory. A total of 680 papers from 1445 authors, were published in as many as 322 journals. The results indicate that ‘Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,’ ‘Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,’ and ‘Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,’ were the three most productive sources of knowledge for this theory. The results show that over time, the discussion has progressed from theory to application in different areas of decision sciences, psychology, and management with a recent trend towards application in sustainability. This is the first literature review that has been conducted on the Construal Level Theory using bibliometric analysis. This study attempts to describe, explore possibilities, and provide a roadmap for future research in this field.

On Attenuated Interactions, Measurement Error, and Statistical Power: Guidelines for Social and Personality Psychologists

The replication crisis has seen increased focus on best practice techniques to improve the reliability of scientific findings. What remains elusive to many researchers and is frequently misunderstood is that predictions involving interactions dramatically affect the calculation of statistical power. Using recent papers published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (PSPB), we illustrate the pitfalls of improper power estimations in studies where attenuated interactions are predicted. Our investigation shows why even a programmatic series of six studies employing 2 × 2 designs, with samples exceeding N = 500, can be woefully underpowered to detect genuine effects. We also highlight the importance of accounting for error-prone measures when estimating effect sizes and calculating power, explaining why even positive results can mislead when power is low. We then provide five guidelines for researchers to avoid these pitfalls, including cautioning against the heuristic that a series of underpowered studies approximates the credibility of one well-powered study.

Jealousy as a Function of Rival Characteristics: Two Large Replication Studies and Meta-Analyses Support Gender Differences in Reactions to Rival Attractiveness But Not Dominance

Jealousy is a key emotion studied in the context of romantic relationships. One seminal study (Dijkstra, P., & Buunk, B. (1998). Jealousy as a function of rival characteristics: An evolutionary perspective. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24 (11), 1158–1166. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672982411003) investigated the interactions between a participant’s gender and their reactions to the attractiveness or dominance of a romantic rival. In a vignette-based study, it was found that women’s jealousy was more responsive than men’s to a rival’s attractiveness, whereas in contrast, the rival’s dominance evoked more jealousy from men than from women. Here, we attempt to replicate these interactions in two samples ( N = 339 and N = 456) and present subsequent meta-analyses (combined Ns = 5,899 and 4,038, respectively). These meta-analyses showed a small, significant effect of gender on jealousy provoked by rival attractiveness, but no such response to rival dominance. We discuss the potential reasons for these findings and future directions for research on jealousy and rival characteristics.

The MTurkification of Social and Personality Psychology

The potential role of brief online studies in changing the types of research and theories likely to evolve is examined in the context of earlier changes in theory and methods in social and personality psychology, changes that favored low-difficulty, high-volume studies. An evolutionary metaphor suggests that the current publication environment of social and personality psychology is a highly competitive one, and that academic survival and reproduction processes (getting a job, tenure/promotion, grants, awards, good graduate students) can result in the extinction of important research domains. Tracking the prevalence of brief online studies, exemplified by studies using Amazon Mechanical Turk, in three top journals ( Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology) reveals a dramatic increase in their frequency and proportion. Implications, suggestions, and questions concerning this trend for the field and questions for its practitioners are discussed.

Interrelationships of Personal Values: A Moderated Mediation Analysis Based on Gender and Age

The present study describes ten personal values expressed by men and women from two countries, and it explores the relationships between two opposing values, Achievement and Benevolence, specifying Stimulation as a mediator between them. It is further explored whether such a mediation model could be further qualified by age and Gender as moderators. The 40-item Portraits Values Questionnaire (PVQ), measuring ten basic values, was administered to 1,000 young adults from two countries. Hierarchical regression methods were applied to examine mediation and moderation mechanisms.Minor gender and country differences emerged for some of the ten basic values. An indirect relationship among the three selected values was identified. Stimulation was found to operate as a mediator between achievement and benevolence. A conditional process model was established with Gender moderating the Achievement – Stimulation path (men had a steeper slope than women), whereas age moderated the Stimulation – Benevolence path (younger individuals had a steeper slope than older ones). Gender also moderated the Achievement – Benevolence path (men had a steeper slope than women). For men, the association between achievement and stimulation was stronger than for women. For the younger persons, the association between stimulation and benevolence was stronger than for older ones. For women, the level of benevolence was independent of their achievement level. The present analyses shed new light on indirect and differential associations among personal values, adding a novel perspective to research on cognitive mechanisms involved in the ten basic values’ becoming. References Bardi, A., & Schwartz, S.H. (2003). Values and behaviour: Strength and structure of relations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(10), 1207–1220. Berlyne, D. Conflict, arousal and curiosity. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1960. Burgoyne, C.B. & Lea, S.E.G. (2006). Money is material. Science, 314(5802), 1091–1092. Hayes A. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. New York: Guilford Press. Kluckhohn, C. (1951). Values and value-orientations in the theory of action: An exploration in definition and classification. In: Toward a General Theory of Action, (pp. 388-433). T. Parsons & E. Shils (Eds.), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Korman, A. (1974). The Psychology of Motivation. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Maio, G. R., Hahn, U., Frost, J., & Cheung, W. (2009). Applying the value of equality unequally: Effects of value instantiations that vary in typicality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(4), 598–614. Maio, G.R., Pakizeh, A., Cheung, W.Y. & Rees, K.J. (2009). Changing, priming, and acting on values: effects via motivational relations in a circular model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(4), 699–715. Maslow, A.H. (1965). Eupsychian management. Homewood, IL: Dorsey. Parks-Leduc, L., Feldman, G., & Bardi, A. (2015). Personality traits and personal values: A meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 19(1) 3–29. Parsons, T. & Bales, R. F. (1953). Family, Socialization, and Interaction Process. Glencoe: Free Press.Prince-Gibson, E., & Schwartz, S. H. (1998). Value priorities and gender. Social Psychology Quarterly, 61, 49-67. Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1-65. Schwartz, S. H. & Sagiv, L. (2000). Value Priorities and Subjective Well-Being: Direct Relations and Congruity Effects. European Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 177-198. Schwartz, S. H., Melech, G., Lehmann, A., Burgess, S., Harris, M., & Owens, V. (2001). Extending the cross-cultural validity of the theory of basic human values with a different method of measurement. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 32, 519-542. Vohs, K.D., Mead, N.L. & Goode, M.R. (2006). The psychological consequences of money. Science, 314 (5802), 1154–1156. Wade, M.D., Liu, L.A. & Vacek, J. (2011). Values and Upward Influence Strategies in Transition: Evidence From the Czech Republic. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 42 (2), 288–306.

Corrigendum

Fuesting, M. A., & Diekman, A. B. (2017). Not by success alone: Role models provide pathways to communal opportunities in STEM. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(2), 163-176.

Personality Psychology in the First Decade of the New Millennium: A Bibliometric Portrait

Nine principal personality psychology journals— Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP), Journal of Personality (JP), Journal of Research in Personality (JRP), European Journal of Personality (EJP), Personality and Individual Differences (PAID), Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (PSPB), Personality and Social Psychology Review (PSPR), Journal of Personality Assessment (JPA), and Journal of Personality Disorders (JPD)—have published 8510 research papers from 2001 to 2010. These papers have been cited 149 108 times (September 2011) by papers published in journals indexed in the Web of Science. Although personality psychologists from the US published the largest number of papers (4924, 57.9%) and had the largest number of citations (101 875, 68.3%), their relative contribution to personality literature has slightly diminished during the first decade of the new millennium. Unlike other countries, personality psychologists residing in the US demonstrated a strong country self–citation bias: They were about 14% more likely to cite papers which were written by their compatriots rather than non–US authors in three leading journals JPSP, PSPB, and PSPR. The intensity and pattern of citations indicate that personality psychology indeed occupies one of the core positions at the heart of psychological knowledge. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Retraction of “The Motivated Self: Self-Affirmation and the Better-Than-Average Effect”

Guenther, C.L, & Timberlake, E.A. (2012). The Motivated Self: Self-Affirmation and the Better-Than-Average Effect. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Original DOI: 10.1177/0146167212457074)