Reuben M. Baron

The Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinction in Social Psychological Research: Conceptual, Strategic, and Statistical Considerations

In this article, we attempt to distinguish between the properties of moderator and mediator variables at a number of levels. First, we seek to make theorists and researchers aware of the importance of not using the terms moderator and mediator interchangeably by carefully elaborating, both conceptually and strategically, the many ways in which moderators and mediators differ. We then go beyond this largely pedagogical function and delineate the conceptual and strategic implications of making use of such distinctions with regard to a wide range of phenomena, including control and stress, attitudes, and personality traits. We also provide a specific compendium of analytic procedures appropriate for making the most effective use of the moderator and mediator distinction, both separately and in terms of a broader causal system that includes both moderators and mediators.

Toward an Ecological Theory of Social Perception

The ecological approach to perception (J. Gibson, 1979; Shaw, Turvey, & Mace, 1982) is applied to the social domain. The general advantages of this approach are enumerated, its applicability to social perception is documented, and its specific implications for research on emotion perception, impression formation, and causal attribution are discussed. The implications of the ecological approach for our understanding of errors in social perception are also considered. Finally, the major tenets of the ecological approach are contrasted with current cognitive approaches, and a plea is made for greater attention to the role of perception in social knowing.

Contrasting Approaches to Perceiving and Acting With Others

How and why the presence of a person directly affects the perception and action of another person is a phenomenon that has been approached in a limited and piecemeal fashion within psychology. This kind of diffuse strategy has failed to capture the jointness of perception and action within and between people. In contradistinction, the authors offer a perspective that retains both integrally social features (e.g., involves interaction) and yet adequately exploits the current state of knowledge regarding the ecological properties of perception–action, while at the same time drawing on aspects of dynamic systems theory. In this article the authors review the best attempts to examine how one individual affects anothers perceptions and actions in the emergence of a social unit of action. Two important approaches, the individual-level and cognitive dynamics approaches, have yielded insights that derive in significant degree from principles of ecological psychology and/or dynamical systems theory. Prototypic of the individual-level approach is a focus on what can be perceived by coactors with the aim of uncovering how the dispositional qualities (affordances) of another person are informationally specified during social interaction. In contrast, the cognitive dynamics approach simulates dynamical characteristics of cognition and psychological influence with the aim of uncovering how cooperative interaction emerges out of its component parts. The authors argue that these approaches involve, respectively, insufficient mutuality and insufficient embodiment. Consequently, a social synergy perspective is discussed that approaches the problem of socially cooperative interaction at the relational, nonreductive level, using novel methods to examine how social perception and action emerge through self-organizing processes. The coupling of Gibsons ideas with those of Bernstein forms a natural basis for looking at the traditional psychological topics of perceiving, acting, and knowing as activities of ecosystems rather than isolated animals. (Shaw, Mace, & Turvey, 2001, p. xiv)

An equity-based model of vandalism

An equity-based model of vandalism is proposed which views this behavior as often having meaning for vandals and for society. Type and intensity of vandalism are then predicted based upon a specification of first and second order moderators of inequity resolution, and an ordering of vandalism along dimensions of instrumentality, expressiveness and message ambiguity. The role of perceived control as a primary determinant of mode and intensity of vandalism is stressed. Second order moderators such as state of the physical environment and availability of various group level processes are also incorporated into the model as sufficient, but not necessary, conditions. Illustrative predictions include the occurence of diffuse, malicious vandalism when inequity is high and control is low; whereas more tactical-selective forms of vandalism are proposed when control approaches moderate levels.

Dispositional Knowing from an Ecological Perspective

A direct perception analysis of dispositional knozwng, based on an ecological approach that is grounded in the use of activity to get mind into the world, is presented. It is proposed that social dispositions such as dominance or cooperativeness can be directly perceived, as opposed to inferred, if they are embodied in relational activities that activate the disposition. The choice of the particular activity as a way of turning dispositions into perceivable social affordances is related to an evolutionarily oriented analysis of dispositions as evolved adaptive solutions for solving basic social problems such as mate selection and group formation. Objections to the possibility of direct perception that are based on claims of insufficient or deceptive information are countered by the introduction of event-activity tests, modeled after perturbation and bifurcation processes in dynamic systems formulations. Comparisons are then made between the ecological claims of realism, mutualism, and activity and aspects of current constructive models of dispositional knowing, such as Wright and Mischels conditional hedge model and Tropes Bayesian inference approach.

Quantized displays of human movement: A methodological alternative to the point-light display

In this paper, we describe a methodological alternative to the point-light display for the study of the impact of human movement on social perception. This quantization technique involves degrading standard videotapes via a special effects generator at the time of editing. As is the case with a point-light display, quantization disguises structural characteristics of videotaped stimulus persons, and highlights their patterns of movement. Because quantization requires no special procedures during videotaping, it is unobtrusive, and helps maintain the ecological validity of the original stimulus. We offer empirical support from two studies for our proposal that dynamic quantization is a valuable methodological approach to the study of nonverbal behavior.

Affording cooperation: Embodied constraints, dynamics, and action-scaled invariance in joint lifting

Understanding the physical and interpersonal constraints that afford cooperation during real-world tasks requires consideration of the fit between the environment and task-relevant dimensions of coactors and the coactors’ fit with each other. In the present study, we examined how cooperation can emerge during ongoing interaction using the simple task of two actors’ moving long wooden planks. The system dynamics showed hysteresis: A past-action mode persisted when both solo and joint actions were possible. Moreover, pairs whose arm spans were both short, both long, or mismatched made action-mode transitions at similar points, when scaled by a relational measure. The relational measure of plank length to arm span was dictated by the pair member with the shorter arm span, who, thus, had a greater need to cooperate during the task. The results suggest that understanding affordances for cooperation requires giving more consideration to constraints imposed by the fit between coactors’ action capabilities.

Room Utilization and Dimensions of Density: Effects of Height and View

Students in a high rise dormitory complex were surveyed to investigate the effects of floor height, view, and sex on perceptions of spaciousness and lightness of a room and evaluations of its decor. Height, and not view per se, was related to perceived spaciousness of ones room, with women on higher floors reporting their rooms more spacious than those on lower floors. Opposite results were obtained for men. Further, there were fewer posters and wall hangings on the upper floors than on the lower floors, and women were found to spend more time in their rooms and to decorate them more than men. Of related interest: while men showed no preference for a social or spatial definition of crowding, women significantly preferred a spatial definition. These findings are related to an optimal level of stimulation model and to sex differences in the dormitory literature.

Effects of Expected Communication Target Expertise and Timing of Set on Trait Use in Person Description

The effects of expecting to convey ones impression of a person to another on the tendency to use traits in person description were examined when the expected recipient of the impression was an expert in peon assessment, a peer, or a grade school child. The communication expectancy set was induced either before or after exposure to impression formation information. Results showed lessened use of traits when subjects expected to report to the expert. Tuning-set timing effects included increased reporting of specific behaviors in the preimpression condition and reduced trait use with the exert in the postimpression condition, but only on a recognition measure. Results have implications for factors affecting the general trait categorization process and for Kruglanskis lay epistemic model of motivational factor in construct formation.

On Making Social Psychology More Ecological and Ecological Psychology More Social

This special issue grew out of a symposium offered at the Thirteenth International Conference on Perception and Action held in Monterey, CA, in July 2005. Although none of the articles in this issue cite these quotes, much if not all of what is offered could be construed as trying to develop our understanding of social ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY, 19(2), 79–84 Copyright