William G. Graziano

Outcome Dependency: Attention, Attribution, and Attraction

Theoretical and empirical work on the processes by which we attribute dispositional characteristics to others has focused almost exclusively on how such processes proceed once the perceiver has been motivated to initiate them. The problem of identifying the factors which prompt the perceiver to engage in an attributional analysis in the first place has been relatively ignored, even though the influence of such factors may extend beyond the initiation of the causal analysis to affect the manner in which it unfolds and, ultimately, the form and substance of its conclusion. From the assumption that the function of an attributional analysis is effective control of the social environment, it was hypothesized that high outcome dependency upon another, under conditions of high unfamiliarity, is associated with the initiation of an attributional analysis as evidenced by increased attention to the other, better memory of the others characteristics and behavior, more extreme and confidently given evaluations of the other on a variety of dispositional trait dimensions, and increased attraction to the other. These hypotheses were tested within the context of a study of heterosexual dating relationships in which men and women volunteers anticipated varying degrees of dependence upon another for their dating outcomes. The findings support the view that the data processing operations of the social perceiver—from attention to memory to attribution—are part of a unified whole and may be viewed as manifestations of an underlying motivation to predict and control the social environment.

Agreeableness, empathy, and helping: a person x situation perspective.

This research program explored links among prosocial motives, empathy, and helping behavior. Preliminary work found significant relations among components of self-reported empathy and personality (N = 223). In Study 1, the authors examined the generality of prosocial behavior across situations and group memberships of victims (N = 622). In Study 2, empathic focus and the victims outgroup status were experimentally manipulated (N = 87). Study 3 (N = 245) replicated and extended Study 2 by collecting measures of prosocial emotions before helping. In Study 4 (N = 244), empathic focus and cost of helping as predictors of helping behavior were experimentally manipulated. Overall, prosocial motivation is linked to (a) Agreeableness as a dimension of personality, (b) proximal prosocial cognition and motives, and (c) helping behavior across a range of situations and victims. In persons low in prosocial motivation, when costs of helping are high, efforts to induce empathy situationally can undermine prosocial behavior.

You Can't Always Get What You Want Effortful Control and Children's Responses to Undesirable Gifts

This study examined individual differences in childrens regulation of emotional expression after receiving desirable and undesirable gifts. Effortful control, the ability to suppress a dominant response in favor of a subdominant one, was measured using a battery of behavioral tasks. Reactions to the gifts were videotaped, and emotional expression was coded. Age predicted effortful control, but not emotional displays. Effortful control predicted similarity of childrens displays of positive affect after receiving the two gifts. Specifically, children high in effortful control showed similar amounts of positive affect after receiving the desirable and undesirable gifts, whereas children low in effortful control showed less positive affect after receiving the undesirable gift than after receiving the desirable gift. Results are discussed in terms of temperament and the development of socially appropriate expressive behavior.

Emotional expression in cyberspace: searching for moderators of the Pennebaker disclosure effect via e-mail.

Research has shown that writing about emotional topics can positively influence physical and mental health. The current study tested the efficacy of an e-mail-based writing treatment and shows how such an implementation can aid in the search for moderators. Participants (N = 546) were randomly assigned to either a long- or short-interval traumatic writing condition or to a nonemotional writing control condition. In contrast to previous disclosure research, participants received and submitted their writing responses via e-mail. Health outcomes were assessed weekly for 5 weeks after treatment and were reported at the conclusion of the study. Results supported the effectiveness of an e-mail-based writing treatment in producing positive health outcomes and successfully identified several moderators of the writing treatment effect. The moderators implicated varied depending on the nature of the health outcome assessment.

Attraction, personality, and prejudice: liking none of the people most of the time.

Unfavorable evaluations of others reflect both specific prejudice and generalized negativity. Study 1 examined self-reported norms and personal endorsement of prejudices to various social groups. Study 2 used judgments of overweight persons to examine links among prejudice, personality, and prosocial motives. Study 3 examined negative evaluations and social distancing during interpersonal interaction. Study 4 observed the translation of negative evaluations into overt discrimination. Study 5 experimentally manipulated the behavior of the target and observed its interactive effects with weight, personality, and prosocial motives. Results suggest that prejudice can emerge from otherwise unprejudiced persons when situations permit justification. Patterns in negative evaluations are linked distinctively to (a) the Big Five dimension of Agreeableness, (b) proximal social cognition and motives, and (c) discrimination.

Deciding to Defect The Effects of Video-Game Violence on Cooperative Behavior

This experiment examined the effect of videogame violence on cooperative decision making. Participants (N = 48) were randomly assigned to play either a violent or a nonviolent version of the video game Doom™ in dyads. Following the video-game task, participants were separated and given an opportunity to choose to cooperate with their partner for mutual gain, withdraw from the interaction, or exploit their partner for their own benefit. Participants in the violent condition were significantly more likely to choose to exploit their partners than participants in the nonviolent condition. These findings suggest that playing violent video games may undermine prosocial motivation and promote exploitive behavior in social interactions.

Motivational Processes Underlying Both Prejudice and Helping

Examined at the behavioral level, prejudice and helping appear as qualitatively different and perhaps mutually incompatible social behaviors. As a result, the literatures on prejudice and helping evolved largely independent of each other. When they are examined at the process level, however, underlying similarities appear. Furthermore, when anomalies are examined within each of these two separate literatures, similarities become more apparent. Finally, the personality dimension of agreeableness is systematically related to both prejudice and helping. The authors propose that many forms of prejudice and helping are expressions of underlying processes of self-regulation and social accommodation. After discussing several other social-cognitive approaches to self-correction, the authors offer a novel opponent process model of motivation that integrates the apparently exclusive processes of prejudice and helping into a single system.

Beyond the School Yard: Relationships as Moderators of Daily Interpersonal Conflict

Interpersonal conflicts are an inevitable part of life and may be especially conspicuous in early adolescence. Recent research suggests, however, that structural aspects of relationships influence interpersonal conflicts. Specifically, closeness and openness of the relationships within which the conflicts occur moderate patterns of such conflicts. A total of 155 adolescents kept diary records of their in vivo, daily conflicts and interactions for 2 weeks using an adolescent-appropriate, conflict-oriented adaptation of the Rochester Interaction Record. On average, interactions without conflicts outnumbered conflicts 2 to 1; however, many reported diary records involved conflicts. Patterns of conflict were related to the kinds of relationships within which the conflicts occurred. Some results were consistent with predictions derived from a social exchange approach but other results were not. Outcomes are discussed in terms of interpersonal contributions to adolescent development.

Searching for the Prosocial Personality: A Big Five Approach to Linking Personality and Prosocial Behavior

The search for the prosocial personality has been long and controversial. The current research explores the general patterns underlying prosocial decisions, linking personality, emotion, and overt prosocial behavior. Using a multimethod approach, we explored the links between the Big Five dimensions of personality and prosocial responding. Across three studies, we found that agreeableness was the dimension of personality most closely associated with emotional reactions to victims in need of help, and subsequent decisions to help those individuals. Results suggest that prosocial processes, including emotions, cognitions, and behaviors, may be part of a more general motivational process linked to personality.

Person and Thing Orientations: Psychological Correlates and Predictive Utility

Individuals differ in their orientation toward the people and things in their environment. This has consequences for important life choices. The authors review 15 studies on Person and Thing Orientations (PO-TO) using data from 7,450 participants to establish the nature of the constructs, their external correlates, and their predictive utility. These findings suggest that these two orientations are not bipolar and are virtually independent constructs. They differentially relate to major personality dimensions and show consistent sex differences, whereby women are typically more oriented toward people and men more oriented toward things. Additionally, these orientations influence personal preferences and interests. For university students, PO and TO uniquely predict choice of major and retention within thing-oriented fields (e.g., science and engineering).