Jennifer L. Bowler

The Impact of Interpersonal Aggression on Performance Attributions

This study examined the causal attributions made by aggressive and nonaggressive individuals—as classified by a conditional reasoning measure of aggression—in response to incidents of subordinate success and failure. Following the presentation of traditional patterns of performance information (i.e., consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency), participants (N = 407) made attributions regarding the cause of the subordinate’s behavior and indicated their preferred behavioral intentions. Overall, when evaluating incidents of subordinate success, the causal attributions of aggressive individuals were similar to those of nonaggressive individuals. However, when evaluating incidents of subordinate failure, the causal attributions of aggressive individuals deviated from those of nonaggressive individuals for three information patterns. Moreover, following a person attribution, aggressive individuals were more likely to endorse punitive responses to incidents of subordinate failure. Implications, potential limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

The cognitive underpinnings of addiction.

A new conditional reasoning measure was developed to evaluate the role of implicit biases in perpetuating addictive behavior. Data (N = 669) were collected in 2005 from two samples in a suburban area: individuals with a known history of chemical dependency and individuals from the general population. Results indicated a strong correlation between overall test scores and group membership (rpb = .48), which increased when the groups’ demographic characteristics were equalized (rpb = .65). Overall, findings suggest that addiction-prone individuals rely on a distinct set of cognitive biases that rationalize self-destructive behavior. The studys limitations are noted and implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Evaluating the fakability of a conditional reasoning test of addiction proneness.

The quest to assess personality objectively is riddled with challenges. However, conditional reasoning (CR) methodology takes an innovative approach to personality measurement by indirectly evaluating the cognitive biases associated with specific dispositional traits. In addition to demonstrating strong criterion-related validities, the CR format has been shown to be more resistant to response distortion than traditional self-report measures so long as indirect measurement is maintained. The present study evaluated the necessity of maintaining the indirect nature of a CR-based measure of addiction proneness. Results indicated that disclosing the purpose of assessment yielded significant mean shifts on a CR-based measure of addiction proneness compared to those of an uninformed group. Specifically, when the construct of interest was made explicit, participants could identify the keyed response options when instructed to do so. These findings further underscore the necessity of maintaining indirect measurement when administering CR measures.

Conditional Reasoning Test for Creative Personality Rationale, Theoretical Development, and Validation

The innovations of creative individuals are regarded as vital for business functioning and survival. To this end, efforts have been made to design measures of creative personality in hopes of predicting creative performance. Current measures of creative personality all reside at the explicit level, yet theory and research both suggest that a large proportion of personality can also be conceptualized at the implicit level. We address this issue by presenting a theoretical basis for creative personality that operates on an implicit level. Using conditional reasoning methodology, we describe five cognitive biases that serve as justification mechanisms for creative personality. Next, we link implicit creative personality to creative abilities through a developmental process. We then test this model and our new measure of creative personality in five different studies. Our results provide evidence in support of an implicit component of creative personality and suggest that it is a substantial predictor of creative performance. Finally, we describe the management and human resources implications of the conceptualization of creative personality as an implicit construct.