Robin R. Vallacher

Levels of Personal Agency: Individual Variation in Action Identification

This research examined individual differences in action identification level as measured by the Behavior Identification Form. Action identification theory holds that any action can be identified in many ways, ranging from low-level identities that specify how the action is performed to high-level identities that signify why or with what effect the action is performed. People who identify action at a uniformly lower or higher level across many action domains, then, may be characterized in terms of their standing on a broad personality dimension: level of personal agency. High-level agents think about their acts in encompassing terms that incorporate the motives and larger meanings of the action, whereas low-level agents think about their acts in terms of the details or means of action. Research on the convergent, divergent, and predictive validity of this construct examined its implications for the individuals overall competence in action, for the individuals inclination toward planful versus impulsive action and for the degree to which the individuals actions are organized by and reflected in the self-concept. Some people think they can do big things. They set out to write a book, to make a fortune, or to win an election. There are others, however, who may undertake much the same tasks with far more meager aims in mind. They might get some ideas on paper, make a profit this week, or shake a few hands at the factory gate. Ultimately, the people who see their acts in big ways may find the same success as those who focus on the details. However, the two ways of identifying action are appropriate and effective in vastly different situations, and they promote radically distinct styles of action. This research was designed to test the reliability and validity of an instrument assessing this action identification dimension. High levels of personal agency represent the tendency to understand ones action in terms of its consequences and implications, whereas low levels of personal agency represent the tendency to see ones action in terms of its details or mechanics. The dimension of personal agency level is derived from action identification theory, a set of principles on the understanding

The Dynamical Perspective in Personality and Social Psychology

Human experience reflects the interplay of multiple forces operating on various time scales to promote constantly evolving patterns of thought, emotion, and action. The complexity and dynamism of personal and social phenomena have long been recognized, but capturing these features of psychological process represents a serious challenge for traditional research methods. In this article, we introduce basic concepts and methods from the study of nonlinear dynamical systems, and we outline the relevance of these ideas and approaches for investigating phenomena at different levels of psychological reality. We suggest that the dynamical perspective is ideally suited to capture the emergence and maintenance of global properties in a psychological system, and for investigating the time-dependent relation between external influences and a systems internally generated forces. Although fairly new to personality and social psychology, the dynamical perspective has been implemented with respect to a wide variety of phenomena, utilizing both empirical methods and computer simulations. This diversity of topics and methods is reflected in the articles comprising the special issue.

Rethinking Intractable Conflict: The Perspective of Dynamical Systems

Intractable conflicts are demoralizing. Beyond destabilizing the families, communities, or international regions in which they occur, they tend to perpetuate the very conditions of misery and hate that contributed to them in the first place. Although the common factors and processes associated with intractable conflicts have been identified through research, they represent an embarrassment of riches for theory construction. Thus, the current task in this area is integrating these diverse factors into an account that provides a coherent perspective yet allows for prediction and a basis for conflict resolution in specific conflict settings. We suggest that the perspective of dynamical systems provides such an account. This article outlines the key concepts and hypotheses associated with this approach. It is organized around a set of basic questions concerning intractable conflict for which the dynamical perspective offers fresh insight and testable propositions. The questions and answers are intended to provide readers with basic concepts and principles of complexity and dynamical systems that are useful for rethinking the nature of intractable conflict and the means by which such conflict can be transformed.

Intrinsic Dynamics of Social Judgment

Ss expressed their moment-to-moment feelings about a target on a computer screen. In the 1 st study, the target was a positive, negative, or mixed-valence acquaintance; in the 2nd study, the target was a liked versus disliked acquaintance who committed a positive versus negative act. Several dynamic measures were derived from the positioning of the cursor (sampled 10 times per second) over a 2min period. The dimension of the structure underlying the observed dynamics was also assessed. Both sets of measures varied meaningfully across targets (e.g., feelings changed at a relatively fast and unstable rate for mixed-valence targets) and were correlated with self-report measures (e.g., instability in rate of movement was associated with self-reported uncertainty in feelings). Discussion centers on the viability and usefulness of framing social judgment in terms of dynamical systems concepts and principles.

That's easy for you to say: Action identification and speech fluency

Action identification theory holds that an action can be identified by the performer in different ways, and that these various act identities differ in their appropriateness for maintaining the action effectively. Optimal action identification exists when a personally easy action is identified in relatively high-level terms (i.e., the actions effects and implications) or a personally difficult action is identified in relatively low-level terms (i.e., the actions mechanical details). To test the optimality hypothesis with respect to speech fluency, subjects were asked to deliver a speech to either an easy-to-persuade audience or a difficult-to-persuade audience and induced to think about the action in either high-level or low-level terms. As predicted, subjects made fewer speech errors and felt more satisfied with their performance when the task was personally easy and identified at high level and when the task was personally difficult and identified at low level. Optimal action identification made things easier for them to say.

The Dynamics of Self-Evaluation:

We conceptualize self-concept as a self-organizing dynamical system and investigate implications of this perspective for the dynamic and fixed-point attractor tendencies of self-evaluative thought. Participants who differed in self-concept valence (self-esteem) and coherence (self-certainty, self-stability) engaged in verbal self-reflection for several minutes, then used a computer mouse to track the moment-to-moment self-evaluation expressed in their recorded narrative. Prior to self-reflection, participants recalled positive or negative past actions (positive vs. negative priming), or did not recall past actions (no priming). Priming affected overall self-evaluation (i.e., greatest positivity under positive priming), but only early in the narrative. The effects of self-concept, in contrast, became stronger over time. Self-esteem affected overall self-evaluation, whereas self-certainty and self-stability affected the dynamic properties (e.g., rate of movement between self-evaluative states) and attractor tendencies of self-evaluation. Discussion centers on the interplay between structure and dynamics in the self-system.

Toward understanding sex differences in pay allocation: Agency, communion, and reward distribution behavior.

This research examined the extent to which the personality characteristics of agency and communion are sex linked, and the extent to which differences in these orientations can account for sex differences in reward distribution behavior. In two studies, the agency and communion level of large samples of male and female undergraduates were assessed. As expected, males were more agentic and females were more communal. Moreover, when subjects who scored high or low on agency and high or low on communion were asked to allocate rewards between themselves and a co-worker, these personality differences were related to their allocation decisions. These results were used as the basis for discussing the role that sex-linked personality differences might play in distributive justice judgments.

Objective self-awareness, standards of evaluation, and moral behavior

Abstract In a performance setting, subjects were given an opportunity to cheat without fear of detection on puzzle problems. Subjects were led to believe that successful performance was due to ability in some conditions, but to luck in other conditions. In fact, most of the problems were insolvable, so that success was impossible without cheating. Self-awareness was induced in half the subjects by having them sit in front of a mirror and listen to a tape recording of their own voice as they worked on the puzzle problems; the remaining subjects were not exposed to a mirror and listened to a tape of someone elses voice as they worked on the problems. It was predicted that cheating frequency would be higher under ability attribution conditions than under luck attribution conditions, and that this effect of performance attribution would be greater among self-aware subjects than among non-self-aware subjects. Results confirmed these hypotheses. Discussion centered on the differential use of morality and competence standards for behavior when in a state of self-awareness.

To belong or to Self-Enhance? Motivational Bases for Choosing Interaction Partners

The present research investigated motives for choosing interaction partners in people with varying levels of self-esteem. The authors predicted that high self-esteem individuals would choose to interact with someone who provided positive feedback about their personalities, regardless of his or her interest in forming a relationship, whereas those with low self-esteem would choose to interact with someone who expressed interest in forming a relationship, regardless of his or her assessment of their personalities. In four studies, participants were asked to choose between two interaction partners who provided feedback that included different combinations of acceptance and positivity. Results supported the authors’ prediction. Discussion addressed the hierarchical nature of social motivation and the seemingly paradoxical interaction preferences of low self-esteem individuals.

Interpersonal Engagement in Social Perception: The Consequences of Getting into the Action

This study examined the effects on person perception of varying levels of observeractor engagement. Subjects observed a male actor (confederate) responding to interview questions on a prerecorded videotape under three conditions of interpersonal engagement. Subjects in a detachment condition knew that they were simply observing a tape; subjects in an anticipated interaction condition knew that they were observing a tape but expected to interact subsequently with the actor; subjects in an actual interaction condition thought that they were interacting with the actor over a video hook-up. Half of the subjects in these conditions observed the actor preface his responses with a positive comment regarding the interviewers question (positive actor); the other half observed the actor preface his responses with a negative comment (negative actor). It was predicted that anticipated interaction observers would demonstrate hopefulness by attributing the positive actors behavior dispositionally and the negative actors behavior situationally but that actual interaction observers would show the opposite causal attribution pattern in an attempt to protect or enhance their own self-esteem. Results confirmed these predictions. Trait inference and attraction, however, were primarily affected by the actor affect manipulation. Discussion centers on the different manifestations of observer self-concern in social contexts and on the conceptual independence among person-perception variables.