Biomedical subjects

G Weary

Publications and source records attributed to G Weary.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Chronic and temporarily activated causal uncertainty beliefs and stereotype usage.

In 3 studies, we examined the hypothesis that the effects of stereotype usage on target judgments are moderated by causal uncertainty beliefs and related accuracy goal structures. In Study 1, we focused on the role of chronically accessible causal uncertainty beliefs as predictors of a target's level of guilt for an alleged academic misconduct offense. In Study 2, we examined the role of chronic causal uncertainty reduction goals and a manipulated accuracy goal; in Study 3, we investigated the role of primed causal uncertainty beliefs on guilt judgments. In all 3 studies, we found that activation of causal uncertainty beliefs and accuracy concerns was related to a reduced usage of stereotypes. Moreover, this reduction was not associated with participants' levels of perceived control, depression, state affect, need for cognition, or personal need for structure. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the model of causal uncertainty and, more generally, in terms of the motivational processes underlying stereotype usage.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Chronic and temporary distinct expectancies as comparison standards: automatic contrast in dispositional judgments.

In 4 studies, the authors examined whether making outcome expectancies distinct resulted in their use as comparison standards and, consequently, in contrastive dispositional inferences for a target's behaviors. The expectancies examined were based on either chronic future-event expectancies (Study 1) or temporary, manipulated expectancy standards (Studies 2-4). Analyses revealed that when contextual expectancies were distinct or separable from target information, participants' dispositional judgments were contrasted from them under cognitive load and overcorrected (assimilated to them) under no load. These effects were mediated by participants' behavior categorizations. Evidence suggestive of a proceduralized form of correction for task difficulty and an effortful awareness-based correction for the effects of expectancies also were found. Results are examined in light of recent models of the dispositional inference process.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1998

Depressives' future-event schemas and the social inference process.

Two studies examined depressed and nondepressed perceivers' characterizations and thoughtful inferences about the behaviors of another person. In Study 1, depressed and nondepressed participants under a cognitive load or no load were asked to make either dispositional (ability) or situational (task ease) inferences about a target's videotaped performance. When cognitive resources were limited, depressed compared with nondepressed individuals made more pessimistic characterizations. No depression-related differences were found when sufficient cognitive resources were available for inferential correction. Study 2 provided evidence that the depressed-nondepressed differences in characterizations could be accounted for by schema-based future-event expectancies (S. M. Andersen, L. A. Spielman, & J. A. Bargh, 1992). Results are examined in light of previous failures to find consistent differences as a function of level of depression in inferences about others.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Individual differences in causal uncertainty.

This article presents a scale that measures chronic individual differences in people's uncertainty about their ability to understand and detect cause-and-effect relationships in the social world: the Causal Uncertainty Scale (CUS). The results of Study 1 indicated that the scale has good internal and adequate test-retest reliability. Additionally, the results of a factor analysis suggested that the scale appears to be tapping a single construct. Study 2 examined the convergent and discriminant validity of the scale, and Studies 3 and 4 examined the predictive and incremental validity of the scale. The importance of the CUS to work on depressives' social information processing and for basic research and theory on human social judgment processes is discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Depression and the impression-formation continuum: piecemeal processing despite the availability of category information.

A study explored depressed-nondepressed differences in impression formation. From S. T. Fiske and S. L. Neuberg's (1990) model of impression formation, mildly depressed perceivers were hypothesized to engage in more piecemeal processing when forming an impression of a target other, even when nondepressed perceivers would typically use less effortful, categorical processing. With an idiographic technique designed by M. Pavelchak (1989), depressed Ss were shown to use trait attributes in evaluating a person, even when induced to categorize the individual. Nondepressed Ss relied on category information when available, replicating Pavelchak's study. Depressed Ss' results are interpreted as arising from a motivation to engage in effortful analysis of social information, stemming from feelings of lack of control over life events.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Effect of depression on quantity and quality of social inferences.

Two studies explored depressives' sensitivity to social information as an impediment to their gaining a sense of confidence and control. In Study 1, Ss viewed a videotape of an actor performing an achievement task and were asked to list their impressions of the actor. As compared with nondepressed Ss, depressed Ss generated more inferences overall, generated more abstract inferences, and exhibited less overall confidence in their impression of the actor. In Study 2, Ss reported their beliefs of the utility of information about a person's past behaviors and personality for understanding, predicting future behavior, and describing that person. Depressed Ss expressed more interest than did nondepressed Ss in both types of information but were less confident of the utility of the information for prediction.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

Depressive self-presentation: beyond self-handicapping.

An experiment was conducted to examine the notion that depressives' responses would reflect a protective self-presentation style (Hill, Weary, & Williams, 1986), the underlying goal of which would be the avoidance of future performance demands and potential losses in self-esteem. In this study, depressed and nondepressed Ss were asked to perform a relatively simple visual-motor task. Half of the depressed and half of the nondepressed Ss were told that if they were successful at the task, they would be asked to perform a 2nd, similar task. The remaining Ss were given no such expectation of future performance. We predicted and found that depressed compared with nondepressed Ss strategically failed at the task when presented with the possibility of future performance and further losses in esteem. Moreover, this strategic failure was associated with some costs; depressed-future performance expectancy Ss experienced more discomfort or negative affect as a result of their performance. The relationship between this depressive self-presentation and self-handicapping strategies is discussed.

Achievement↗

PubMed1987

Attributional and social comparison processes in depression.

In this study we examined the consequences for depressed and nondepressed individuals of receiving comparison feedback regarding their causal understandings of an event. Specifically, the effects of similar, dissimilar, or no-comparison feedback on depressed and nondepressed subjects' evaluations of the comparison other and on their feelings about themselves were investigated. Because the reduction of uncertainty about one's conception of social reality is a major motive underlying social-comparison processes, we expected that depressed individuals, who are assumed to have experienced heightened uncertainty associated with frequent exposure to uncontrollable life events, would be more motivated to engage in social comparison and would be more sensitive to social-comparison feedback. Results generally were consistent with this reasoning. The implications of the results in terms of the development and maintenance of depression were discussed.

Depressive Disorder↗

PubMed1985

The attributional norm of internality and depressive sensitivity to social information.

Two studies examined the existence, within an achievement-related context, of a social norm favoring internal explanations for task performances. In the first study, we investigated the reactions of observers to an actor's high, moderate, or low self-attribution of causal responsibility for his negative performance outcome on an ostensibly standardized aptitude test. The results indicated that the actor was evaluated more positively to the degree that he accepted more personal responsibility for his performance. In the second study, we examined the reactions of depressed and nondepressed observers to an actor's high or low self-attributions of causal responsibility for his poor performance on a test of analytical ability. On the basis of the notion that the chronic lack of control and resultant uncertainty, presumably characteristic of depressed persons, motivates attributional information processing, we expected depressed observers to be more sensitive to the actor's violation of the norm of internality and to respond with more social disapproval than nondepressed observers. Results generally were consistent with this reasoning. Experimental findings are discussed in terms of the interpersonal implications of expressed attributions.

Achievement↗

PubMed1982

The acceptance of personality evaluations: constraints on consistency motivations.

One week subsequent to taking a projective test of personality, subjects high or low in chronic self-esteem rated the extent to which positively- or negatively-toned, bogus personality interpretations described their personalities. Half of these subjects were led to believe that the interpretations they received were based on their projective test responses. Remaining subjects rated the self-applicability of "sample" personality interpretations described as unrelated to their previous testing. Results indicated that both favorable and unfavorable interpretations purportedly based on projective test responses were regarded as accurate descriptions of subjects' personalities. However, "sample" interpretations unrelated to prior testing were accepted as significantly more accurate descriptions when consistent than when inconsistent with subjects' self-evaluations. The results are interpreted as illustrating the operation of constraints inherent in most personality assessment 'situations on self-consistency motivations.

Journal Article↗