Darío Páez

The ‘Black Sheep Effect’: Social Categorization, Rejection of Ingroup Deviates, and Perception of Group Variability

In this chapter we review evidence on the ‘black sheep effect’: subjects judge likable ingroup members more positively than similar outgroup members, while judging unlikable ingroup members more negatively than similar outgroup members. We attempt to relate these findings to traditional research on group uniformity (Cartwright & Zander, 1968; Festinger, 1950), and to more recent research on social identity (Hogg & Abrams, 1988), and outgroup homogeneity (Park, Judd, & Ryan, 1991). The general idea is that the black sheep effect operates to preserve a positive social identity. It is an outcome of subjective representations of a normative pressure towards ingroup uniformity.

Variation of Individualism and Collectivism within and between 20 Countries: A Typological Analysis

With data from a 20-nation study (N = 2,533), the authors investigated how individual patterns of endorsement of individualist and collectivist attitudes are distributed within and across national contexts. A cluster analysis performed on individual scores of self-reliance (individualist dimension), group-oriented interdependence (collectivist dimension), and competitiveness (individualist or collectivist dimension) yielded a typology of four constrained combinations of these dimensions. Despite the prevalence of a typology group within a given country, variability was observed in all countries. Self-reliant non-competitors and interdependent non-competitors were prevalent among participants from Western nations, whereas self-reliant competitors and interdependent competitors were more common in non-Western countries. These findings emphasize the benefits for cross-cultural research of a typological approach based on combinations of individualist and collectivist dimensions.

Social identity : international perspectives

PART ONE: REPRESENTATIONS OF SELF AND GROUP Regarding the Relationship between Social Identity and Personal Identity - Jean-Claude Deschamps and Thierry Devos Social Representations in Personal Identity - Willem Doise The Personal-Social Interplay - Carmencita Serino Social-Cognitive Prospects on Identity and Self-Others Comparison Self-We-Others Schemata and Social Identifications - Maria Jarymowicz PART TWO: ESTABLISHING GROUP IDENTITY A Developmental View of the Search for Group Identity - Stephen Worchel The Role of Prototypicality in Group Influence and Cohesion - Penelope Oakes, S Alexander Haslam and John C Turner Contextual Variation in the Graded Structure of Social Categories Group Beliefs as an Expression of Social Identity - Daniel Bar-Tal Social Identity and National Identity - Jos[ac]e Miguel Salazar PART THREE: IDENTITY AND GROUP/INTERGROUP PROCESS Social Identity and Intragroup Differentiation as Subjective Social Control - Jos[ac]e M Marques, Dar[ac]io P[ac]aez and Dominic Abrams Categorization and Social Influence - Juan Antonio P[ac]erez and Gabriel Mugny Social Identity and Interpersonal Relationships - Miguel Moya Social Identity and Aspects of Social Creativity - Steve Hinkle et al Shifting to New Dimensions of Intergroup Comparison Mere Categorization and Competition - Stephen M Drigotas, Chester Insko and John Schopler A Closer Look at Social Identity Theory and the Discontinuity Effect PART FOUR: THE IMPACT OF CULTURE ON IDENTITY AND CATEGORIZATION Discrimination and Beliefs on Discrimination in Individualists and Collectivists - J Francisco Morales, Mercedes L[ac]opez-S[ac]aez and Laura Vega Constructing Social Identity - Dar[ac]io P[ac]aez et al The Role of Status, Collective Values, Collective Self-Esteem, Perception and Social Behaviour

Expressive writing and the role of alexythimia as a dispositional deficit in self-disclosure and psychological health

Psychology students were randomly assigned to a condition in which they had to write for 20 min on 3 days or for 3 min on 1 day a factual description of disclosed traumas, undisclosed traumas, or recent social events. In the case of undisclosed traumatic events, intensive writing about these events showed a beneficial effect on affect and on the affective impact of remembering the event and appraisal. Participants who wrote briefly about an undisclosed traumatic event showed a more negative appraisal. Participants who wrote intensively about a traumatic event and had a dispositional deficit in self-disclosure, measured by a Toronto Alexithymia Scale subscale, showed a positive effect on self-reported measures of affect. Difficulty in describing feelings, an alexythimia dimension, correlated with psychological health problems, emotional inhibition, and a less introspective content of written essays about the emotional events.

Heroes and villains of world history across cultures

Emergent properties of global political culture were examined using data from the World History Survey (WHS) involving 6,902 university students in 37 countries evaluating 40 figures from world history. Multidimensional scaling and factor analysis techniques found only limited forms of universality in evaluations across Western, Catholic/Orthodox, Muslim, and Asian country clusters. The highest consensus across cultures involved scientific innovators, with Einstein having the most positive evaluation overall. Peaceful humanitarians like Mother Theresa and Gandhi followed. There was much less cross-cultural consistency in the evaluation of negative figures, led by Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein. After more traditional empirical methods (e.g., factor analysis) failed to identify meaningful cross-cultural patterns, Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was used to identify four global representational profiles: Secular and Religious Idealists were overwhelmingly prevalent in Christian countries, and Political Realists were common in Muslim and Asian countries. We discuss possible consequences and interpretations of these different representational profiles.

Psychosocial Variables of Sexual Satisfaction in Chile

This study analyzed psychosocial variables of sexual satisfaction in Chile using data from the COSECON survey. Participants were 5,407 subjects (2,244 min and 3,163 women, aged 18–69 years). We used a cross-sectional questionnaire with a national probability sample. Data were collected using a thorough sexual behavior questionnaire consisting of 190 face-to-face questions and 24 self-reported questions. A single item included in the COSECON questionnaire assessed sexual satisfaction. Results showed that high education level, marital status, and high socioeconomic levels were associated with sexual satisfaction in women but not in men. The results also showed important gender differences and sustain the idea that sexuality changes may be more present in middle and high social classes. The proximal variables typically used for measuring sexual satisfaction, such as the frequency of sexual intercourse and orgasm, showed a positive but smaller association with sexual satisfaction. Other important variables related to sexual satisfaction were being in love with the partner and having a steady partner. The results confirmed previous findings and are discussed in the frame of approaches like the exchange, equity, and sexual scripts theories.

Clima emocional: su concepto y medición mediante una investigación transcultural

ResumenSe ha elaborado un cuestionario sobre la evaluacion del clima emocional (CE). El CE se concibe como un conjunto de emociones salientes y unas representaciones sociales sobre el estado actual y futuro de la sociedad (De Rivera, 1992). Su medida se realiza a traves de agregados de respuestas individuales sobre la evaluacion del clima social, durante un momento sociopolitico. Se presenta una investigacion con estudiantes de 6 paises. La escala de CE tiene coeficientes de fiabilidad y validez dimensional transcultural satisfactorios. Encontramos dos dimensiones basicas congruentes con las investigaciones sobre afectividad individual, con relaciones coherentes con afectividad, estres post-traumatico y afrontamiento de traumas colectivos. La no independencia de las respuestas fue contrastada mediante el coeficiente de correlacion intraclase. Este confirmo la interdependencia de respuestas intragrupal, lo) que constituye evidencia estadistica de la existencia de un efecto de grupo. Este resultado justific...

Psychosocial effects of perceived emotional synchrony in collective gatherings.

In a classic theory, Durkheim (1912) predicted that because of the social sharing of emotion they generate, collective gatherings bring participants to a stage of collective effervescence in which they experience a sense of union with others and a feeling of empowerment accompanied by positive affect. This would lead them to leave the collective situation with a renewed sense of confidence in life and in social institutions. A century after Durkheims predictions of these effects, though, they remained untested as a whole. This article reports 4 studies, 2 correlational, 1 semilongitudinal, and 1 experimental, assessing the positive effects of participation in either positively valenced (folkloric marches) or negatively valenced (protest demonstrations) collective gatherings. Results confirmed that collective gatherings consistently strengthened collective identity, identity fusion, and social integration, as well as enhancing personal and collective self-esteem and efficacy, positive affect, and positive social beliefs among participants. In line with a central tenet of the theory, emotional communion, or perceived emotional synchrony with others mediated these effects. Higher perceived emotional synchrony was associated with stronger emotional reactions, stronger social support, and higher endorsement of social beliefs and values. Participation in symbolic collective gatherings also particularly reinforced identity fusion when perceived emotional synchrony was high. The respective contributions of perceived emotional synchrony and flow, or optimal experience, were also assessed. Whereas perceived emotional synchrony emerged as strongly related to the various social outcomes, flow was observed to be related first to collective efficacy and self-esteem, and thus, to encompass mainly empowerment effects.

“Remembering” World War II and Willingness to Fight: Sociocultural Factors in the Social Representation of Historical Warfare Across 22 Societies

Students from 22 nations answered a survey on the most important events in world history. At the national level, free recalling and a positive evaluation of World War II (WWII) were associated with World Values Survey willingness to fight for the country in a war and being a victorious nation. Willingness to fight, a more benign evaluation of WWII, and recall of WWII were associated with nation-level scores on power distance and low postmaterialism, suggesting that values stressing obedience and competition between nations are associated with support for collective violence, whereas values of expressive individualism are negatively related. Internal political violence was unrelated to willingness to fight, excluding direct learning as an explanation of legitimization of violence. Recall of wars in general (operationalized by WWI recall) was also unrelated to willingness to fight. Results replicate and extend Archer and Gartners classic study showing the legitimization of violence by war to the domain of collective remembering.

Cross-Cultural Dimensions of Meaning in the Evaluation of Events in World History?: Perceptions of Historical Calamities and Progress in Cross-Cultural Data From Thirty Societies

The universality versus culture specificity of quantitative evaluations (negative-positive) of 40 events in world history was addressed using World History Survey data collected from 5,800 university students in 30 countries/societies. Multidimensional scaling using generalized procrustean analysis indicated poor fit of data from the 30 countries to an overall mean configuration, indicating lack of universal agreement as to the associational meaning of events in world history. Hierarchical cluster analysis identified one Western and two non-Western country clusters for which adequate multidimensional fit was obtained after item deletions. A two-dimensional solution for the three country clusters was identified, where the primary dimension was historical calamities versus progress and a weak second dimension was modernity versus resistance to modernity. Factor analysis further reduced the item inventory to identify a single concept with structural equivalence across cultures, Historical Calamities, which included man-made and natural, intentional and unintentional, predominantly violent but also nonviolent calamities. Less robust factors were tentatively named as Historical Progress and Historical Resistance to Oppression. Historical Calamities and Historical Progress were at the individual level both significant and independent predictors of willingness to fight for one’s country in a hierarchical linear model that also identified significant country-level variation in these relationships. Consensus around calamity but disagreement as to what constitutes historical progress is discussed in relation to the political culture of nations and lay perceptions of history as catastrophe.