Social Psychology Commons^™

Common Sense And Common Nonsense: A Conversation About Mental Attitudes, Science, And Society, Daniel S. Levine

Psychology Faculty Publications

Daniel S. Levine's Common Sense and Common Nonsense observes human decision making, ethics, and social organization as illuminated by the scientific disciplines of neural network theory, neuroscience, experimental psychology, and dynamical systems theory. It is a book whose aim is advocacy as well as research. Its goal is to use an understanding of our brains and minds to better operationalize Aldous Huxley's admonition to "try to be a little kinder." It wanders over examples from sociology, politics, economics, religion, literature, and many other fields but looks at all as examples of a few common themes. The "common nonsense" of the …

A Weight–Related Growth Mindset Increases Negative Attitudes Towards Obese People, Nic Hooper, Alison Crumpton, Michael D. Robinson, Brian P. Meier

Psychology Faculty Publications

In implicit personality theory, people with entity views or a fixed mindset perceive characteristics (e.g., intelligence) as uncontrollable, whereas people with incremental views or a growth mindset perceive characteristics as controllable. In addition to other benefits, the literature sometimes suggests that having a growth mindset will protect against prejudice, which the current two studies examine in terms of negative attitudes towards obese people. Participants (total N = 501) were randomly assigned to complete a questionnaire assessing attitudes towards an obese or non-obese person and a self-theory questionnaire also assessed ideas about body weight. People with a growth mindset, and not …

When Less Is More: Mindfulness Predicts Adaptive Affective Responding To Rejection Via Reduced Prefrontal Recruitment, Alexandra M. Martelli, David S. Chester, Kirk Warren Brown, Naomi I. Eisenberger, C. Nathan Dewall

Psychology Faculty Publications

Social rejection is a distressing and painful event that many people must cope with on a frequent basis. Mindfulness—defined here as a mental state of receptive attentiveness to internal and external stimuli as they arise, moment-to-moment—may buffer such social distress. However, little research indicates whether mindful individuals adaptively regulate the distress of rejection—or the neural mechanisms underlying this potential capacity. To fill these gaps in the literature, participants reported their trait mindfulness and then completed a social rejection paradigm (Cyberball) while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Approximately 1 hour after the rejection incident, participants reported their level of distress during …

Age, Gender, And Socioeconomic Status Differences In Explicit And Implicit Beliefs About Effortlessly Perfect Self-Presentation, Kathy R. Berenson, Tess M. Anderson, Jill Glazer, Melissa P. Menna, Huilin Xu

Psychology Faculty Publications

Feeling pressure to project an image of effortless perfection -- always appearing to perform with self-confidence and ease --- has been portrayed in the media as an increasingly common mental health vulnerability with potentially serious implications for college women. Despite this, almost no empirical research exists on effortlessly perfect self–presentation (EPSP) or demographic differences in it.

• Some recent research suggests that perfectionism is on the rise among young people (Curran & Hill, 2017), and that it is more associated with mental health problems among students with high rather than low socioeconomic status (Lyman & Luthar, 2014). However, these studies …

Development And Validation Of The Single Item Trait Empathy Scale (Sites), Sara Konrath, Brian P. Meier, Brad J. Bushman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Empathy involves feeling compassion for others and imagining how they feel. In this article, we develop and validate the Single Item Trait Empathy Scale (SITES), which contains only one item that takes seconds to complete. In seven studies (N = 5724), the SITES was found to be both reliable and valid. It correlated in expected ways with a wide variety of intrapersonal outcomes. For example, it is negatively correlated with narcissism, depression, anxiety, and alexithymia. In contrast, it is positively correlated with other measures of empathy, self-esteem, subjective well-being, and agreeableness. The SITES also correlates with a wide variety of …

Interpersonal Chemistry In Friendships And Romantic Relationships, Kelly Campbell, Jessie Nelson, Michele L. Parker, Silvana Johnston

Psychology Faculty Publications

Interpersonal chemistry refers to a perceived instant connection that exists when meeting a person for the first time. In this study, we inductively explored the characteristics of friendship and romantic chemistry for men and women. A social constructionist lens guided our data collection and interpretation. The sample consisted of 362 ethnically diverse individuals (men = 162, women = 200) who completed an online survey. Using textual coding methods, we identified the core themes for interpersonal chemistry as: Reciprocal candor, mutual enjoyment, attraction, similarities, personableness, love, instant connection, and indescribable factors. The similarities theme was more characteristic of friendship than romantic …