Ursula Athenstaedt

The Role of Injustice in the Elicitation of Differential Emotional Reactions

Data from a large-scale study on emotional experiences in 37 countries are used to examine correlates of emotion-antecedent events being judged as unfair or unjust. This study included 2,921 students who reported situations in which they had experienced joy, anger; fear, sadness, disgust, shame, and guilt and described their situation appraisals and reactions. Anger-producing events were most frequently perceived as very unfair followed by disgust, sadness, fear, guilt, and shame. The results showed strong main effects of the perception of injustice for all negative emotions. Events experienced as unjust were described as more immoral, more obstructive to plans and goals, and having more negative effects on personal relationships. In addition, events regarded as unjust elicited feelings that were longer in duration and more intense. It is concluded that perceived injustice plays a powerful role in the elicitation of many different negative emotions and may serve as a mediating variable in emotion-antecedent appraisal.

On the Content and Structure of the Gender Role Self-Concept: Including Gender-Stereotypical Behaviors in Addition to Traits

The present study introduces a conceptualization of gender role self-concept that implies not only the commonly measured socially desirable expressive and instrumental traits (F+ and M+) but also feminine and masculine behaviors (FBehav and MBehav), and socially undesirable gender traits (F- and M-). Three different models were tested using structural equation modeling. For both men and women, F+ and FBehav load together on one dimension whereas M+ and MBehav load on a second dimension. F- and M- are conceptualized as independent dimensions that are mainly related to the cross-gendered latent factor. With the exception of these similarities, the self-concepts of men and women differed in several important aspects that point to a different meaning of gender roles for the two sexes.

Does it only depend on the point of view ? Perspective-related differences in justice evaluations of negative incidents in personal relationships

A series of four studies investigated systematic differences between actor and recipient interpretations and justice evaluations of negative incidents in interpersonal relationships. Due to a refined methodology, each negative incident was assessed both by the respective recipient and actor, and each participant reported incidents from both perspectives. The studies provided clear evidence of systematic recipient-actor differences and showed that the quality of the relationship between the parties involved in the incidents can moderate the occurrence and shape of the differences. Significant gender differences were found showing that women respond more accusingly than men in the role of the recipient and more defensively than men in the role of the actor. Copyright

Coping with Self-Threat and the Evaluation of Self-Related Traits: An fMRI Study.

A positive view of oneself is important for a healthy lifestyle. Self-protection mechanisms such as suppressing negative self-related information help us to maintain a positive view of ourselves. This is of special relevance when, for instance, a negative test result threatens our positive self-view. To date, it is not clear which brain areas support self-protective mechanisms under self-threat. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study the participants (N = 46) received a (negative vs. positive) performance test feedback before entering the scanner. In the scanner, the participants were instructed to ascribe personality traits either to themselves or to a famous other. Our results showed that participants responded slower to negative self-related traits compared to positive self-related traits. High self-esteem individuals responded slower to negative traits compared to low self-esteem individuals following a self-threat. This indicates that high self-esteem individuals engage more in self-enhancing strategies after a threat by inhibiting negative self-related information more successfully than low self-esteem individuals. This behavioral pattern was mirrored in the fMRI data as dACC correlated positively with trait self-esteem. Generally, ACC activation was attenuated under threat when participants evaluated self-relevant traits and even more for negative self-related traits. We also found that activation in the ACC was negatively correlated with response times, indicating that greater activation of the ACC is linked to better access (faster response) to positive self-related traits and to impaired access (slower response) to negative self-related traits. These results confirm the ACC function as important in managing threatened self-worth but indicate differences in trait self-esteem levels. The fMRI analyses also revealed a decrease in activation within the left Hippocampus and the right thalamus under threat. This indicates that a down-regulation of activation in these regions might also serve as coping mechanism in dealing with self-threat.