Michael B. Lupfer

Impact of context on spontaneous trait and situational attributions

The role of background information in the generation of spontaneous inferences regarding a targets behavior was examined

Explaining life-altering occurrences : A test of the 'god-of-the-gaps' hypothesis

This experiment extends the growing literature aimed at identifying the conditions that impel people to make religious attributions. A total of 177 subjects were presented a series of 16 vignettes after each of which they provided an attributional analysis. The event depicted in each vignette was either (a) an action or occurrence having (b) a positive or negative outcome that was (c) life-altering or non-life-altering. Subjects selected their attributions from a menu that included religious causal agents (God, Satan), several naturalistic causes (e.g., the protagonists characteristics, other actors), and nonreligious-supernaturalistic causes (fate, luck). As predicted, attributions to God were most commonly made when the event was a life-altering occurrence having positive consequences. Attributions to Satan, rarely made, were prompted by life-altering events having negative consequences. As for whether subjects exhibited a God-of-the-gaps pattern of causal reasoning, the evidence was mixed but tended to support the conclusion that they did not.

Complicating Race: The Relationship between Prejudice, Race, and Social Class Categorizations

Although racial stereotyping and prejudice research have received considerable attention, the important element of social class has been largely excluded from social psychological research. Using the Statement Recognition Procedure, two experiments investigated social categorization along race and social class dimensions, the influence of racial and social class prejudice on these categorizations, and differences between White and Black perceivers. Analyses conducted at the subtype of race and social class memberships demonstrated differing patterns of categorization based on subtype membership. For example, lowerclass Black targets were primarily categorized by race, whereas middle-class Black targets were primarily categorized by social class. The results demonstrate the importance of considering social class membership independent of and in conjunction with race. Theoretical and methodological implications regarding the study for race and social class categorizations are discussed.

How Pervasive is the Negativity Bias in Judgments Based on Character Appraisal

Two experiments examined the generality of the negativity bias, the tendency of perceivers to regard immoral behaviors as more informative or diagnostic about an individual’s personal traits than moral behaviors. Both experiments yielded results indicating that perceivers are prone to the bias when information about others is inconsistent in its moral implications but not when information is consistent. Two category-based explanations for the results were considered, one postulating a two-stage process and the other proposing a simpler process that emphasizes the activation of perceivers’ character schemas. The results of both experiments suggest that the negativity bias, although prevalent, is not as pervasive as sometimes thought to be and that character appraisals, once made, are not immutable.

Death concern and attitudes toward the elderly in nursing home personnel

The present project investigated the relationship between death fear and threat, attitudes toward the elderly, and personal anxiety toward ones own aging in a group of 145 nursing home employees and a matched comparison group of 130 individuals who worked in non-death related occupations. Contrary to predictions, nursing home personnel did not have higher levels of death threat when compared to controls; in fact, control group subjects had higher levels of death concern on two dimensions of death fear (fear of the dead and fear of significant others dying). However, the results also indicated that increasing levels of death concern were associated with greater anxiety toward aging, especially in the nursing home sample, and nursing personnel displayed significantly fewer positive attitudes toward the elderly than did controls.

Religious Attributions and Proximity of Influence: An Investigation of Direct Interventions and Distal Explanations

Investigations into religious attributions have focused on attributers immediate, «proximal» causes of events, paying little attention to underlying, «distal» explanations. In an effort to explain the relatively low incidence of religious attributions and further a new model of proximal-distal attributions, we present two experiments investigating the proximal and distal use of religious and nonreligious supernatural attributions. Participants in both studies were presented a series of sixteen vignettes that varied on several attribution-relevant dimensions. After reading each vignette, subjects gave an initial explanation for the event, and were then probed for any underlying explanations. Experiment I used an interview format that allowed participants maximum latitude when explaining the events outcome. Consistent with our predictions, participants perceived God as having a greater distal than proximal influence, though this difference was not evident for attributions to Satan or nonreligious supernatural agents. Experiment 2 was performed via a microcomputer with a participants initial attributional response branching to a set of appropriate distal explanations. Overall, the results suggest that attributers perceive God working through indirect influences rather than direct intervention, with this effect being moderated by the attributers level of religiosity. This pattern was evident in the use of God as a distal explanation as well as in the distal explanations to proximal attributions to God.

AN EXPLORATION OF ADULTS’ RELIGIOUS ORIENTATIONS AND THE THEIR PHILOSOPHIES OF HUMAN NATURE

Do individuals of differing religious orientations also differ in their philosophies of human nature? This question was examined by interviewing a representative sample of the adult population of Memphis, Tennessee. Altogether, 359 adults were questioned about their religious beliefs and practices, their answers yielding scores on four religious dimensions: Christian Orthodoxy, Church Involvement, Devotionalism and Theocracy. Respondents were also administered a revised version of Wrightsmans Philosophies of Human Nature Scale which produced scores on five dimensions: Cynicism, Internal Locus of Control, Goodness, Complexity and Variability. These two sets of measures were submitted to canonical correlation analysis. Two significant correlations were revealed, providing empirical support for the contention that peoples religious outlook and their views of human nature are linked. The first canonical correlation of .35 (p < .001) suggested that people who adhere to orthodox Christian tenets, who make a habit of private devotions, and who are active in their churches see others as basically altruistic and truthful, hard to understand, and externally controlled. The second canonical correlation of .21 (p < .01) suggested that high levels of religious activism (in terms of participation in both church activities and private devotions) are associated with a belief in the uniformity of human nature. The demographic background of people exhibiting these patterns of belief was explored in an effort to interpret the correlations.

Exploring the relationship between gender identity and sexual functioning.

This study examined the hypotheses that individuals who are sexually functional and/or highly satisfied with their sexual relations exhibit an androgynous gender identity as well as high levels of congruence among their gender identity, sex-role expectations, and sex-role performance. Conversely, it was hypothesized that sexually dysfunctional and/or dissatisfied people display a polarized gender identity and low levels of congruence among their gender identity, sex-role expectations, and sex-role performance. A total of 61 married or intimate heterosexual couples served as subjects. Each subject completed a Bem Sex-Role Inventory three times, the instructions differing each time in order to provide measures of gender identity, sex-role expectations, and sex-role performance. Subjects also completed specially designed questionnaires which gauged their sexual functioning and sexual satisfaction. The results did not support the hypotheses. Instead, the evidence suggested that sexual functioning and satisfaction for both men and women are associated with the perception that the actor possesses significantly more masculine traits than the typical same-sex person, whereas dysfunctioning and lower levels of satisfaction are associated with the perception that the actor exhibits more feminine traits than the typical member of ones sex group. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Risk Taking as a Function of Skill and Chance Orientations

Whether a person believes the outcomes of his decisions are dependent upon skill or chance presumably influences the riskiness of his choices. 32 college students made a series of decisions while playing Jeopardy, a game which was perceived as requiring skill, and another series of decisions while playing a card game, the outcomes of which were believed to depend on chance. As expected, decisions made under a skill orientation were marked by (a) a higher mean level of risk and (b) a less variable pattern of risk than decisions made under a chance orientation. However, attempts to identify the process that mediated the relationship between skill-chance orientation and risk taking were unsuccessful.

Watergate Is Just a Bunch of Honky Jive: the Impact of Watergate On Black and White Youths' View of the Presidency:

Beginning with the pioneering studies of Easton and Hess (1960) and Greenstein (1960), much of political socialization research has focused on children’s views of the President. Implicit in much of the research have been the assumptions (1) that the President, being the most visible symbol of government to most children, represents both a cognitive and affective introduction to political authority, and (2) that early impressions of the President shape the development of children’s political attitudes and behaviors. Since most young Americans have been found to idealize their President (Greenstein, 1965; Hess and Torney, 1967; Easton and Dennis, 1969) -perceiving him as benevolent, nurturant and friendly -it has been argued that children’s idealization of the Presidency serves as &dquo;the mechanism by which the child first forms stable links to the political system&dquo; (Greenberg, 1971, p. 561). Accordingly, evidence of a shift away from idealization toward cynicism and distrust of the President might portend an era of political instability. The present study originated with several purposes, one being to compare images of the President (and the police, another visible political authority) held by a sample of black and white youths. The study, as initially conceived, was completed* in early June, 1972, approximately two weeks before the Watergate break-in. As the magnitude of the Watergate scandal increased during the Spring and Summer of 1973, we sensed an unusual