Cathryn Johnson

What Is the Relationship Between Socioemotional Behavior and Status in Task Groups

This paper analyzes the way task proceedings engender emotional reactions, the conditions under which these are expressed in positive and negative socioemotional behavior, and their effect on the status hierarchy in informal task groups. In links developments in the sociology of emotions to theories of status and provides a theoretical explanation of the predominance of positive over negative socioemotional behavior in task groups. The analysis indicates that the status herarchy asymmetrically limits the expression of negative socioemotional behaviors arising from disagreements but does not constrain positive socioemotional expressions arising from agreements. Performance expectations determine the causal attributions of disagreement and consequently the emotion felt and the likelihood that negative behavior will result. As a result, the overall level of negative, but not positive, behaviors is reduced, status struggles are contained, and group solidarity is encouraged. Also, low-status members often elicit negative emotions but must absorb rather than respond to them.

Passing as Black Racial Identity Work among Biracial Americans

Drawing on interview data with black-white biracial adults, we examine the considerable agency most have in asserting their racial identities to others. Extending research on ‘‘identity work’’ (Snow and Anderson 1987), we explore the strategies biracial people use to conceal (i.e., pass), cover, and/or accent aspects of their racial ancestries, and the individual and structural-level factors that limit the accessibility and/or effectiveness of some strategies. We further find that how these biracial respondents identify is often contextual—most identify as biracial, but in some contexts, they pass as monoracial. Scholars argue that passing may be a relic of the past, yet we find that passing still occurs today. Most notably, we find a striking reverse pattern of passing today—while passing during the Jim Crow era involved passing as white, these respondents more often report passing as black today. Motivations for identity work are explored, with an emphasis on passing as black.

Legitimacy, compliance, and gender in peer groups

Peer groups pose special problems for understanding the legitimation of informal hierarchies. How and to what extent are cultural accounts evoked to support these hierarchies and make them normative for group members ? We test a theory of this process that makes two predictions : 1) peer group members are less likely to treat their hierarchy as legitimate than are members of a group where standing is based on consistent external status advantages that evoke more cultural support for the hierarchy ; 2) legitimation in peer groups is more likely than in groups where standing is based on high task ability but low external status and cultural support is uncertain. Using compliance with a high-ranking members directive dominance attempts as an indicator of legitimacy, an experiment with same-sex dyads confirmed both predictions for male groups. In female groups, the first prediction was supported but not the second. Other effects of gender composition occurred as well.

Power and Justice: Toward an Understanding of Legitimacy

Legitimacy generally compels people to feel an obligation to follow the social rules dictated by an authority. While much social psychological research focuses on the consequences of legitimacy, far less pertains to its emergence. Here the authors examine the role of justice and power in establishing the legitimacy of a decision maker. The authors outline the identity-based model offered by Tyler that highlights the role of procedural justice and offer a complementary resource-based model. The authors argue that the power structure in an organization and the nature of power use by authorities affect the availability of the material and nonmaterial resources necessary for subordinates to do their jobs well, which in turn creates social obligations that allow for the germination of legitimacy. With emphasis on resources, the analysis thus reconsiders the role of distributive justice. The authors conclude by emphasizing the conditions under which identity concerns and resource concerns are relevant to the emergence of legitimacy and by speculating on how these social psychological processes may parallel arguments in this volume regarding the emergence of state legitimacy.

Organizational contexts and conversation patterns

We investigate whether the larger organizational context affects conversation patterns in informal same-sex task groups. We draw on Ridgeways recent extension of status characteristics theory to make predictions about the effects of the social composition of an organizations authority structure and gender on conversation variables. Using a quasi-experimental design, we compare conversation patterns in all-male and all-female task groups at a coeducational college with a male-dominated authority structure to conversation patterns in all-female groups at a womens college with a female-dominated authority structure. We examine tentative and supportive forms of speech. In keeping with Ridgeways extension, women at the womens college show lower rates of tentative behaviors than women at the coeducational college; contrary to her approach, however, they register higher rates of tentative behaviors than men at the coeducational college. Results of the analysis of supportive behavior show that women attending the womens college are more supportive in their groups than both coeducational men and coeducational women.

Living green: examining sustainable dorms and identities

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of living in “green” dorms on students’ environmentally responsible behaviors (ERBs), in concert with other factors, including individual identity and social context in the form of behavior modeling by peers. Design/methodology/approach – The sample of 243 consists of students who resided in two newly constructed, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold-certified dorms and two conventional dorms. The authors analyze the data collected at the end of the respondents’ freshmen year at Emory University using seemingly unrelated regression analysis. Findings – Findings indicate that students who live in “green” dorms engage in more recycling and advocacy behaviors than students in conventional dorms. Environmental identity and perceived behavior modeling by peers positively affect recycling, advocacy and conservation. Furthermore, results indicate an interaction between dorm and identity whereby students with weak environmental identitie...

Feeling Injustice, Expressing Injustice: How Gender and Context Matter

Although cultural beliefs about gender differences in emotional experience and expression are pervasive, empirical evidence does not always bear out those beliefs. This disjuncture has led scholars to argue for the examination of specific emotions in specific contexts in order to understand more clearly the conditions under which gender differences emerge. Heeding this call, we focus on the justice context, reviewing and investigating mens and womens feelings about and emotional displays regarding distributive justice. Using a vignette study, we specifically examine how gender and the contextual factors of procedural justice, legitimacy of the decision-maker, and gender of the decision-maker affect emotional responses of injustice victims. We argue that a focus on the gender combination of actors in a situation moves the study of gender and emotions beyond the assumption that gender-specific cultural beliefs dictate individuals feelings across situations. Our findings show few gender differences in the experience and expression of anger, resentment, and satisfaction. Rather, contextual factors, including the gender of the decision-maker, had stronger effects on emotional responses than gender of the victim. In our justice situation, then, context matters more than gender in understanding emotional responses.

Disparities in Social Support Systems for Youths With Type 1 Diabetes

IN BRIEF Low socioeconomic status (SES) is consistently identified as a major risk factor for poor health outcomes in youths with type 1 diabetes, yet little is known about the social factors that yield such disparities. This study used survey research to examine the role of SES by focusing on differential resourcing in social support systems for youths with type 1 diabetes and their parents/caregivers. We identified significant inequalities in social support systems and found that parents from lower-income households engage in few coping activities and rarely identify a primary care provider as the main point of contact when facing a diabetes-related problem. Our findings underscore the need to better connect low SES families to diabetes-specific professional resourcing and to raise awareness about the importance of extracurricular activities as a form of social support for youths.

Leadership Structures in Same-Sex Task Groups

This article investigates contradictory findings reported in the literature concerning differences in leadership differentiation between same-sex groups. Drawing on arguments developed by Walker et al. (1996) addressing measurement validity in this literature, and on an extension in the status literature developed by Ridgeway (1988) and Fennell et al. (1978), this article develops and tests three predictions. Specifically, the authors predict greater differences in leadership differentiation between all-male and all-female groups when assessing leadership based on procedural behaviors than when assessing leadership based on influence. Also, leadership differentiation will be greater in all-male groups within a male-dominated organization, and in all-female groups within a female-dominated organization, than in all-female groups within a male-dominated organization when assessing leadership based on procedural compared with influence behaviors. Contrary to predictions, results show that all-male and all-female groups are equally likely to develop differentiated leadership structures when using procedural- and influenced-based measures. Implications of these results are discussed.

Gender, Formal Authority, and Leadership

Do women and men in official leadership positions act similarly toward their subordinates? The majority of research in the area of gender, leadership, and formal authority addresses this question. One might think it would be easy to answer, but such is not the case. Available empirical evidence provides only contradictory answers. For example, a number of studies show no gender differences in leadership behavior, measured by subordinates’ perceptions of their leaders’ behavior or by observing actual leader behavior (Adams, 1978; Bartol, 1973; Bartol & Martin, 1986; Birdsall, 1980; Camden & Witt, 1983; Day & Stogdill, 1972; Dobbins & Platz, 1986; Donnell & Hall, 1980; Instone, Major, & Bunker, 1983; Koberg, 1985; Osborn & Vicars, 1976; Rice, Instone, & Adams, 1984; Terborg, 1979).1 Other studies, however, find evidence for gender stereotypic behavior where women leaders are more person oriented (considerate, appreciative, supportive) than men leaders (Gupta, Jenkins, & Beehr, 1983; Statham, 1988) who are more task oriented (directive, instructive, and commanding) (Baird & Bradley, 1979; Eskilson & Wiley, 1976; Fowler & Rosenfeld, 1979). In contrast, yet other studies find men leaders to be more person oriented than women leaders (Winther & Green, 1987), and women leaders to be more task oriented than men leaders (Bartol & Wortman, 1979; Helmich, 1974). Finally, Eagly and Johnson (1990), in a meta-analysis of leadership behavior, conclude that women leaders are slightly more person oriented and less task oriented than men leaders.