Gerald A. Mendelsohn

The Actor-Observer Effect Revisited: Effects of Individual Differences and Repeated Social Interactions on Actor and Observer Attributions

This research examined several factors hypothesized to influence the actor-observer effect (AOE). Participants engaged in 3 successive dyadic interactions: after each interaction, they rated the importance of 4 causal factors in influencing their behavior and that of their partner. The AOE held for 1 external factor, interaction partner, and 1 internal factor, personality, but not for situation or mood. Actor and observer attributions changed in predicted ways across the 3 interactions: Actors increasingly emphasized the importance of their partner, whereas observers increasingly emphasized personality: both actors and observers substantially lowered their attributions to the situation. We found consistent individual differences in attributional tendencies that allowed us to predict who showed the AOE. Together, the findings demonstrate that A-O differences depend on: (a) the specific causal factor invoked, (b) the individuals history in the situation, and (c) individual differences among attributors. Discussion focuses on the limited generality of the AOE and the need for a more complex formulation of A-O differences in attribution.

Partner Preferences Across the Life Span: Online Dating by Older Adults

Stereotypes of older adults as withdrawn or asexual fail to recognize that romantic relationships in later life are increasingly common. The authors analyzed 600 Internet personal ads from 4 age groups: 20-34, 40-54, 60-74, and 75+ years. Predictions from evolutionary theory held true in later life, when reproduction is no longer a concern. Across the life span, men sought physical attractiveness and offered status-related information more than women; women were more selective than men and sought status more than men. With age, men desired women increasingly younger than themselves, whereas women desired older men until ages 75 and over, when they sought men younger than themselves.

Individual Differences in Anagram-Solving Ability

Anagram solution was, as expected, significantly correlated with level of vocabulary (r = .29), but, while high anagram scores are associated with high vocabulary, low anagram scores are as often associated with high as with low vocabulary. MMPI measures of Anxiety and Repression were unrelated to anagram solution. In a second study, as predicted, Mednicks RAT, the Gottschaldt Figures Test and an incidental recall measure were significantly correlated with anagram solution (r = .43, .40, and .31, respectively, multiple R = .55), but the Stroop test, an incidental recognition measure and digit span measures were not. Two factors apparently underlie anagram solving ability—an adequate level of familiarity with words and the ability to shift attention in a directed but flexible manner.

Effects of communication medium on interpersonal perceptions

This paper uses a social psychological perspective to study the effectiveness of different media of communication and how they influence interactions in social groups and organizations. In particular, we are interested in the social richness of the media-how effectively they convey the personalities and intentions of their users. We studied CMC (email and chat) and voice telephony, and compared them with face-to-face interaction. Study 1 was a controlled laboratory study in which people got acquainted with a partner. Study 2 was a field survey in which employees reported on naturally occurring interactions at work that took place with people of varying levels of power (supervisor, peer, subordinate). The surprising result is that the telephone generally came out on top in both studies, suggesting that the telephone may provide the optimum blend of richness and presence for natural and satisfying interactions.

An hypothesis approach to the solution of anagrams

The attempts of subjects to reorganize the letters of an anagram were construed as a series of hypotheses about the correct letter order. It was predicted, consequently, that variables which reduce the number of tenable hypotheses or influence the order in which hypotheses are generated will affect problem difficulty. Five such variables, plus solution word frequency, were used to predict solution probabilities in two studies. The multiple Rs obtained were .92 and .82 and the two regression equations were effectively interchangeable. The process of anagram solution was described as entailing the retrieval of words from memory storage on the basis of letter order cues generated by the subject or, less usually, present in the anagram itself.

The solution of anagrams: A reexamination of the effects of transition letter probabilities, letter moves, and word frequency on anagram difficulty

Word frequency (WF), number of letter moves, and solution word transition letter probabilities (TP) were related to anagram solution. The solution word TP measure was based on the relative frequencies of correct to incorrect bigrams within the pool of bigrams defined by the letters of the anagram rather than on the absolute frequencies of the correct bigrams. This bigram rank measure, which also took word length and letter position into account, was a powerful predictor of anagram difficulty (p < .001). Likewise, number of letter moves predicted anagram solution strongly (p < .001), but WF was only a marginal predictor (.05 < p < .10). In addition, there were no significant interactions among the three variables, nor wasanagram TP consistently related to anagram difficulty. The results were interpreted in terms of an approach which combined elements of an hypothesis and an S-R mediational theory.

Relationship goals of middle-aged, young-old, and old-old Internet daters: an analysis of online personal ads.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY Research on courtship patterns and romantic relationship in later life has not kept pace with the burgeoning number of older adults interested in dating. DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted content analyses of themes arising from 450 personal ads written by middle-aged (40-54), young-old (60-74), and old-old (75+) participants. RESULTS Significant differences between the young-old and the middle-aged were few; those between the young-old and old-old were numerous. Compared to the old-old, the young-old and middle-aged were more likely to mention adventure, romance, sexual interests, and seeking a soul mate and less likely to mention health. IMPLICATIONS This study increases our understanding of relationship goals in later life and highlights the error of treating all older adults as a homogeneous group. Practice and policy can benefit from more nuanced distinctions between age groups and an enhanced recognition of the vibrant emotional, romantic, and sexual lives of older adults.

It’s Time to Put Theories of Personality in Their Place, or, Allport and Stagner Got It Right, Why Can’t We?

Among the various subfields of psychology, Personality is just about unique in its continued dedication to the teaching of courses and thus to the writing of textbooks devoted to “theory.” Where else, save perhaps in the closely allied field of Abnormal Psychology, can one find comparable courses and texts? Surely not in Cognitive or Biological Psychology, for example, and only with difficulty in Social Psychology. The contrast between the fates of Hilgard’s (1948) classic Theories of Learning and Hall and Lindzey’s (1957) comparably classic Theories of Personality is telling in this regard. The former, whose last edition was written a decade ago, can scarcely be considered representative of the current generation of textbooks in learning while the latter, in its most recent incarnation (Hall et al., 1985) (and with two additional authors), remains a leading textbook in the field. In what follows, I will be less concerned with the question of why this state of affairs exists than with the question of whether it is a desirable state of affairs. It should come as no surprise after so tendentious an opening that I intend to argue that the continued emphasis on theories of personality is not desirable, that it is both anachronistic and a misleading representation of what, in fact, personality psychologists think about and do.

Gender Clues and Cues: Online Interactions as Windows into Lay Theories about Men and Women

The Internet allows the process of “doing gender” (West & Zimmerman, 1987) to be examined in ways previously unavailable. In the studies presented here, dyads conversed online while (a) knowing or, (b) not knowing each others gender, or (c) with one participant feigning the opposite gender. Not knowing gender had a surprisingly small effect on the interaction. The results further suggested that successful detection of categorical gender when it is not known may be limited to circumstances in which conversational content is gender stereotypical, and particularly when it surrounds gendered interests or activities, yet these topics occurred infrequently in spontaneous conversation. The results have implications for a theoretically broad understanding of how gender manifests in social life.