Catherine A. Riordan

The Effectiveness of Accounts Following Transgression

This study examined the relative effectiveness of excuses and justifications in ameliorating negative evaluations following transgression. Subjects read fictitious newspaper reports of a senators transgression (either accepting a bribe or soliciting a prostitute) that occurred in either a work-related or work-unrelated context, together with either an excuse or ajustification offered by the senator. Subjects made judgments concerning the senators responsibility for the act, his character, the wrongness of the act, and the acceptability of his account. Excuses reduced responsibility attributions while justifications reduced the perceived wrongness of the act. On some measures, the senators character was perceived less negatively when he offered an excuse than when he offered a justification. Finally the normativeness of the particular account, rather than its believability, was most predictive of the effectiveness of the account.

The Effects of Leadership on Quality

Abstract: Research examining quality management has focused primarily on manufacturing organizations with specific attention directed toward organizational employees. Many in the field of quality believe that management is key for a successful quality program, yet the effects of specific leadership styles on quality performance have not been determined. In this study, leadership styles within transformational, transactional and non-transactional classifications are evaluated relative to the organizations performance based on the criteria from the Baldrige Quality Award. Results indicate that leadership does have an affect on quality, and certain transformational and transactional styles are more effective.

Comparing BP and ART II neural network classifiers for facility location

Abstract This paper compares the performance of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) as classifiers in the facility location domain. The ART II (Adaptive Resonance Theory) and BP (Back Propagation) paradigms are used as exemplars of ANNs developed using supervised and unsupervised learning. Their performances are compared with that obtained using a linear multi-attribute utility model (MAUM) to classify the 48 states in the continental U.S.A. based on location profiles developed from government publications. In this paper, the models are used to classify the U.S. states based on their suitability for accommodating new manufacturing facilities. For this data set, the BP ANN model displayed robust performance and showed better convergence with the MAUM.

Effect of Self-Presentation on Perceptions and Recognition in an Organization

ABSTRACT We examined the role of gender in the efficacy of two acquisitive self-presentational tactics: modesty and disclosing obstacles. American undergraduate psychology students were asked to read a presentation given by a fictitious male or female project manager who had made a significant discovery and to evaluate one of two self-presentational tactics used by the managers. Results showed that the tactics used affected the credit given to the manager, the perceived difficulty of what he or she did, and the suggested recognition for the manager. Both recognition and perceived difficulty were affected by the sex of the managers and of the subjects.

Self-Monitoring, Gender, and the Personal Consequences of Impression Management

For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of a Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of a Macauley, the figure of Juno and the hide of a rhinoceros. —Ethel Barrymore

Job stress, social support and health amongst shrimp fishermen

Abstract Samples of shrimp fishermen (n = 211) and land-based workers (n = 99) drawn from a US Gulf Coast community are compared with regard to their degree of exposure to occupational stressors, level of social support, and extent of non-clinical depression and somatization. As hypothesized, shrimp fishermen report significantly greater levels of stressor exposure, support, depression and somatization at the zero-order level. At the multivariate level, with several covariates controlled, shrimpers report greater levels of stressor exposure, support and somatization. A model of the stress process which hypothesizes positive effects of stressors, and direct and indirect negative effects of social support on distress, is evaluated for each group. Occupational stressors predict as hypothesized, but social support does not. An explanation is offered which emphasizes the migratory character of shrimping as an occupation.

Interpersonal Determinants of Helping and the Transgression-Compliance Relationship

Abstract Hypotheses derived from a self-presentation analysis of the increments in helping following transgression were examined. Subjects (N = 63) present when a confederate spilled a box of computer cards were asked to volunteer to assist in an unrelated experiment. Prior to the solicitation of help, confederates either did nor did not confess to having spilled the cards. Help was solicited under either public or anonymous conditions. The prediction that subjects would be more willing to help under public than anonymous conditions was supported. Subjects under public conditions were more willing to help when confederates had confessed. The prediction that the mere occurrence of the accident would increase helping was not supported. Results are consistent with the self-presentation analysis but call into question the reliability of the transgression-compliance relationship.

Some variables affecting changes in interpersonal attraction

Abstract An expectancy theory of attraction predicts changes in attraction as a result of disconfirmations of a persons expectancies about anothers rewarding behavior. Attitude similarity and normative pressures are interpreted as cues eliciting positive or negative reward expectations. In a test of expectancy theory an experiment employing a 2 × 2 × 2 design was carried out. Subjects requested or did not request help from a similar or dissimilar confederate, who either did or did not provide help. A three-way interaction of these factors on changes in attraction from pre- to postinteraction revealed in general that increments of attraction following help were greater in the Dissimilar conditions and the decrements following no help were greater in the Similar conditions. Furthermore, the greatest decrement in attraction occurred when a similar confederate did not provide help after it had been requested. Secondary findings regarding the predictability of the confederate and the degree of altruism attributed to her supported the assumptions of expectancy theory.

Social Psychology and Cumulative Knowledge

A set of categories was developed and used to assess the character of research papers published in two journals for the years 1976 and 1977 and in one of them in 1967. The results indicated that about half of current research does not attempt to test available theories, but that over the last decade there has been a noticeable change in the direction of doing so.

SURE: a research-oriented program to increase the number of minority engineering students in graduate schools

In this presentation, the authors summarize a program sponsored by the National Science Foundation Research Careers for Minority Scholars Program (RCMS) at the University of Missouri-Rolla, USA. It was an intensive research and mentoring program to encourage minority students to pursue graduate school and eventually research careers in engineering. The grant was initially awarded in 1994 for a period of 4 years. The program was formalized as the Senior Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) in which each year 10 high achieving minority engineering students worked with faculty members to carry out individual research projects. The authors argue that, with little modification, they believe programs like SURE can be an important key to turning around problems with under-representation of minorities in science and engineering graduate schools.