The importance of race and social class information in the formation of expectancies about academic performance.

Studied the perceived locus of control, expected academic performance, and relative importance of 5 causal factors (ability, effort, luck, task difficulty, and quality of instruction) in the academic performance of a stimulus student. Both the race (Black vs White) and social class (middle vs lower) of the stimulus student were varied. Ss were enrolled in elementary education (n = 64) or introductory psychology (n = 64). Results indicate that middle-class Ss were expected to receive higher grades than lower-class Ss (p     

Examination of race and sex effects on performance ratings.

The effects of rater source, rater and ratee race, rater and ratee sex, and job type were investigated on ratings collected for 8,642 first-term Army enlisted personnel. Ratings were made on 10 behaviorally based dimensions developed for evaluating all first-term soldiers. Results of between-Ss analyses similar to those conducted in past research revealed significant main effects and interactions for sex, race, rater source, and job type, but the variance accounted for by these effects was minimal. Repeated measures analyses were also performed, with each ratee evaluated by one Black and one White rater for the race effects analyses and one female and one male rater for the sex effects analyses. These analyses, which unconfounded rater bias and actual performance differences, yielded results similar to those obtained with the between-Ss design. Implications of the findings are discussed. ? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analysis of ratee race effects in performance ratings.

Conducted a meta-analysis of how the race of the ratee affects performance ratings by examining 74 studies with a total sample of 17,159 ratees for White raters and 14 studies with 2,428 ratees for Black raters. The 5 moderators examined were the study setting, rater training, type of rating, rating purpose, and the racial composition of the work group. Results show that the corrected mean correlations between ratee race and ratings for White and Black raters were .183 and –.220, with 95% confidence intervals that excluded zero for both rater groups. Substantial moderating effects were found for study setting and for the saliency of Blacks in the sample. Race effects were more likely in field settings when Blacks composed a small percentage of the work force. Both Black and White raters gave significantly higher ratings to members of their own race. It is suggested that future research should focus on understanding the process underlying race effects. References for the studies included are appended. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of maternal attributions on parenting: An experimental analysis.

To address the direction of causality underlying the robust association of mothers' attributions for child misbehavior and mothers' parenting, mothers' child-centered responsibility attributions for their hard-to-manage toddlers' misbehavior were experimentally manipulated. Mothers and children were then videotaped interacting in typical but challenging situations. Relative to mothers who were told that their children were not to blame for misbehaving, mothers who were told that their children would misbehave voluntarily and with negative intent were rated as significantly more overreactive in their discipline and felt angrier; their children exhibited higher rates of negative affect. Therefore, mothers' attributions for children's misbehavior can determine the harshness of their discipline. Further research on attribution-focused interventions and their role in facilitating treatment response and maintenance in parenting programs is warranted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of control beliefs and attributions on memory self-assessments and performance.

Individual differences in memory performance among elderly adults may be due, in part, to variability in personality and metamemory variables. We examined whether control beliefs, attributions, and depression were related to memory self-assessments, performance, and change in these variables across two trials. Participants were 47 elderly adults (M age?=?69.72 years). Results of multiple regression analyses were consistent with predictions. Those individuals with stronger internal control beliefs made higher self-assessments at the first trial. Those who made higher assessments and those younger in age had higher performance at the first trial. Those with higher performance at the first trial and those who attributed this performance to internal, stable, and global causes were less likely to show decrements in self-assessments and performance across trials. Implications of the findings for enhancing memory performance are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causal attributions, expectations, and task performance.

College students' performance on each of 2 chemistry tests (n?=?253 on the 1st test and 233 on the 2nd test) was classified as a success (or failure) if it met (or failed to meet) a minimum criterion of success that each S set prior to taking each test. Using a paired-comparison technique, Ss attributed their performance on each test to ability, effort, luck, and task difficulty. Among Ss who succeeded on the tests, expected and actual future performance were positively related to attributions to high ability and negatively related to attributions to good luck. Among Ss who experienced failure, expected performance was positively related to attributions to low effort and negatively related to attributions to low ability. Results of these analyses are related to D. T. Hall's (1976) model of psychological success. In addition, although expectations were strongly related to subsequent performance, the relationship was substantially weakened when prior performance and ability attributions were held constant. The implications of this finding for understanding expectancy perceptions are discussed. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of performance attributions on others' perceptions of the attributor.

Two studies investigated the effects that performers' attributions actually have on others' impressions. 441 undergraduates served as Ss. "Self-serving" internal attributions for success and external attributions for failure produced slightly higher ability evaluations than did the opposite pattern in 1 of the 2 experiments. However, in both experiments, these self-serving attributions produced lower ratings on a modesty dimension. External attributions were also perceived as relatively dishonest for all Ss in Exp I and for unsuccessful Ss in Exp II. Publicity (Exp I) and task variables (Exp II) did not affect ability, modesty, or honesty judgments made from performance attributions but did strongly affect the influence these dimensions had on overall likability evaluations. In general, Ss who made internal attributions tended to be better liked than those who made external attributions. The implications and limitations of these results are discussed relative to self-presentational considerations. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal expectancies and performance after alcohol

Previously, we identified macrophage-stimulating protein (MSP) as being expressed during hamster lung injury induced by nitrosamine carcinogens. Transient, generalized epithelial-cell hyperplasia during the preneoplastic period, and eventually nonneuroendocrine (non-NE) lung tumors, are known to develop in these nitrosamine-treated hamsters. We wished to test the hypothesis that MSP and its tyrosine kinase receptor, RON, might represent an autocrine/paracrine system involved in the pathogenesis of human nonneuroendocrine lung tumors, the non-small-cell carcinomas (NSCLCs). We found that this occurred in a paracrine fashion in three of eight primary human NSCLCs that expressed messenger RNA (mRNA) for MSP at high levels in histologically normal lung adjacent to the tumor, but not in the primary tumor, together with mRNA for RON in both normal and tumor tissue. MSP and RON could also constitute an autocrine/paracrine system in human NSCLC cell lines: five of 16 cell lines (squamous and adenosquamous) expressed both MSP and RON; and an additional five of 16 cell lines expressed RON without detectable MSP. Although three cases of primary squamous-cell carcinomas expressed MSP (two of three in the tumor and one of three in nonneoplastic lung), mRNA for RON was not detectable in these cases. RON was functional in all tested RON mRNA-positive cell lines, with exogenous MSP inducing RON-mediated tyrosine phosphorylation. Treatment of a RON-positive adenosquamous carcinoma cell line with MSP additionally resulted in increased motility in a cell-migration assay, suggesting that MSP might promote cell migration of some NSCLCs. In conclusion, MSP and RON might represent an autocrine/paracrine system involved in the pathogenesis of lung cancer, although the nature of the biologic responses in different cell types might vary considerably.     

Disruptive effects of disconfirmed expectancies about crowding.

Utilized a 2 (high vs low room density)?×?2 (forewarning of a crowded room vs no forewarning)?×?2 (simple vs complex task) design to examine the effects of anticipation of crowding on task performance of 80 undergraduates. More tasks were attempted and efficiency was higher when expectancies about the crowd were confirmed. Ss not told to anticipate a crowd who actually worked under high density and Ss warned about a crowd that did not materialize performed most poorly. These differences were largest for the complex task. The results of A. Baum and C. I. Greenberg (see PA, Vol 56:2328) were replicated with the performance data. Perceptions of the experimental room also differed as a function of anticipation, but failure to obtain a Crowding?×?Anticipation interaction did not support their hypothesis that anticipating a crowd induces perceptions identical to those obtained under actual crowding. Results are discussed in terms of disconfirmed expectancies being disruptive of performance, particularly complex task performance. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential effects of voluntary expectancies on reaction times and event-related potentials: Evidence for automatic and controlled expectancies.

Expectancy has been used to explain the effects of stimulus sequences both on reaction times (RTs) and on the P300 component of the human event-related potential. However, there are conflicting views about the control obtainable over these underlying expectancies. The effects of voluntary expectancies for stimulus changes or repetitions in random tone series on RTs and the P300 were compared. Ss responded according to either stimulus identity (Exp 1) or stimulus sequence (Exp 2). In both experiments, RTs were strongly affected by event expectedness. P300 amplitude, on the other hand, was affected (as a trend) only in Exp 2. Results suggest that there are at least 2 types of "expectancy," one that is largely automatic and inflexible, reflected in P300 amplitude, and a second, controlled process that is reflected mainly in RT. The latter type of expectancy appears to affect processing stages beyond stimulus evaluation and classification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task-based performance appraisal for blue-collar jobs: Evaluation of race and sex effects.

Court standards for job analysis were used to develop a task-based performance appraisal instrument for use with multiple blue-collar jobs in a small plastics plant. The instrument consisted of 10 performance categories (i.e., general reasoning, written communications) that were rated in terms of importance to the job and performance. Race and sex effects in performance appraisal scores and overall performance rankings of 150 employees (of whom 62 were Black and 88 were female) in 3 jobs were analyzed with separate factorial analyses of covariance. Neither race nor sex effects were significant with the performance appraisal data. There was a significant race difference with the overall ranking data, although it accounted for only 2% of the variance. In a 2nd study, a similar instrument was used to analyze race and sex differences in performance appraisal for 233 employees (of whom 31 were female, 50 were Black, and 30 were Hispanic) in 3 job groups of a large petroleum refinery. Neither race nor sex effects were significant. Findings support the use of the task-based approach to performance appraisal. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structure of freshmen's causal attributions for exam performance.

This article explores the structure underlying causal attribution for achievement in an actual academic context. Ss were 859 university freshmen drawn from 4 samples. First, they rated the influence of 10 possible causes on their exam performance. Procrustes factor analysis of the causes revealed 4 factors in each of the samples reflecting the dimensions of locus, stability, control, and globality. The fit of the factor solution with theoretical predictions was r?=?.73. Second, 209 Ss drawn from the same population assessed 10 causes for exam performance along the dimensions of locus, stability, and control. The theoretical fit of these direct judgments was also substantial, r?=?.75. The author concludes that the four dimensions of locus, stability, control, and globality reflect the major characteristics of causal attributions given for academic achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The generalization of expectancies.

To test the proposition that generalization of expectancy changes occurs along a dimension of learned-goal similarity, a level-of-aspiration paradigm was utilized. The results were dealt with in terms of proportion of Ss who changed their expectancies on three generalization tasks (which varied in goal-relatedness to a control task by decreasing amounts) after experiencing success or failure on the control task. The data supported the hypothesis and indicated that the three tasks were significantly different from each other in relative position along the dimension of goal similarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of familial risk, personality, and expectancies on alcohol use and abuse.

This study tested a structural model of the association between familial risk, personality risk, alcohol expectancies, and alcohol abuse in a sample of 224 young adult offspring of alcoholics and 209 offspring of nonalcoholics. The results provided support for 2 personality-risk pathways, a social deviance proneness and an excitement/pleasure seeking path, that accounted for a significant portion of the association between a familial alcoholism and alcohol abuse. The path from familial alcoholism to social deviance proneness lead directly to alcohol problems. The path from familial alcoholism to excitement/ pleasure seeking was associated with increased drinking, which, in turn, was associated with alcohol problems. Positive alcohol expectancies accounted for part of the association between excitement seeking and alcohol use. The results suggest 2 different biopsychosocial mechanisms that elevate risk for abuse in the offspring of alcoholics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding performance ratings: Dynamic performance, attributions, and rating purpose.

The present two studies integrate and extend the literatures on dynamic performance, performance attributions, and rating purpose, making several important contributions. First, examining attributions of dynamic performance, Study 1 predicted that performance mean and trend would affect judged ratee ability and effort and that performance variation would affect locus of causality; both predictions were supported by the results. Second, investigating the interaction between dynamic performance and rating purpose, Study 2 predicted that performance mean would have a stronger impact on administrative than on developmental ratings, whereas performance trend and variation would have a stronger impact on developmental than on administrative ratings; again, both predictions were borne out by the results. Third, both studies found that performance trend interacted with performance mean and variability to predict overall ratings. Fourth, both studies replicated main effects of dynamic performance characteristics on ratings in a different culture and, in Study 2, a sample of more experienced managers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Study of race effects in objective indices and subjective evaluations of performance: A meta-analysis of performance criteria.

Used meta-analytic techniques to examine the race effect for objective measures of performance and to compare the relative effect sizes for objective indices and subjective ratings. 53 samples from both published and unpublished studies were located that included at least 1 objective index of actual performance, absenteeism, or cognitive test performance and 1 subjective measure of performance for the same group of Black and White employees. Ss were firefighters, police officers, bank tellers, skilled technicians, production workers, nurses, or clerical workers. The corrected average effect sizes across the 53 samples were low but similar for the objective ad subjective criteria. Moderating effects for the objective criteria were found, as race effects were much higher for cognitive than for performance criteria. Subjective ratings had a lower effect size than objective cognitive test scores but were higher than comparable objective performance indices. Implications for personnel research practices are discussed, and the need for a better understanding of the constructs underlying criterion measures is emphasized. (61 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counselor race and experience effects on black clients.

Investigated how black freshmen Ss rated counselor effectiveness and if these ratings reflected the race or experience level of the counselors. 17 Ss participated in initial interviews with 4 counselors, 2 black counselors, 1 experienced and 1 inexperienced, and 2 white counselors, with the same experience differences as the black counselors. Upon completion of the 4 interviews, Ss rated each of the counselors on 3 counselor dimensions and indicated those counselors they would be willing to return to for future counseling. Unlike previous research findings, Ss did not show a preference for the counselors as a function of race but did show a preference as a function of the counselors' experience level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactive effects of alcohol outcome expectancies and alcohol cues on nonconsumptive behavior.

Experimental research and popular belief suggest that, among its many effects, alcohol consumption reduces tension and facilitates aggression. Such observations could result from direct, pharmacological effects of alcohol on neural control of behavior but also may be accounted for by positing that drinking behavior activates mental representations of relaxation-related or aggression-related alcohol expectancies in long-term memory. Building on this latter view, in 2 experiments, the authors investigated whether rudimentary drinking-related cues, which presumably activate encoded alcohol expectancies, facilitate tension reduction and hostility in the complete absence of actual or placebo alcohol consumption. In Experiment 1, following contextual exposure to alcohol-related words, individuals with stronger expectancies that drinking reduces tension showed an increased willingness to meet with an opposite-gender stranger under relatively anxiety-provoking circumstances, suggesting that they experienced less apprehension regarding the meeting. Analogously, in Experiment 2, following near-subliminal exposure to alcohol-related words, individuals with stronger expectancies that drinking fosters aggression showed greater hostility toward a target person following an experimentally engineered provocation. Neither of the latter effects was obtained following exposure to nonalcoholic beverage words, which presumably did not activate alcohol outcome expectancy representations in long-term memory. Moreover, the strength of relevant, content-specific expectancies (i.e., for tension reduction or aggression, respectively) moderated alcohol cue exposure effects, but the strength of other expectancies (e.g., for sociability or sexual arousal) did not. Together, these findings demonstrate that exposure to rudimentary alcohol cues independently engenders expectancy-consistent behavior, thereby attesting to the remarkable breadth and subtlety of the behavioral impact of alcohol expectancy activation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of race and problem type on teachers' assessments of student behavior.

The authors tested the hypothesis that race bias in teacher evaluations may be problem specific by examining the extent to which ratings of child behavior were influenced by the interaction between the race of the child and the type of presenting behavior. Teachers (N=197) were presented with three vignettes (overcontrolled, undercontrolled, and "normal"), systematically paired with a photograph of a male child (African American, Asian American, or Caucasian). Respondents rated the seriousness, referability, and typicality of the behavior; the child's family life; academic ability and performance; and causal dimensions. Although results did not reveal a bias in the ratings of African American students, data suggest that stereotypes remain embedded in teachers' interpretive framework for Asian Americans, particularly regarding expectations of overcontrolled traits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rebound following failure to quit smoking: The effects of attributions and self-efficacy.

In this study the authors examined the process of rebound from failure, operationalized as a deliberate quit attempt within 6 months of failure in which the participant achieved at least 24 hr of abstinence, in a group of 63 smokers who failed to quit smoking. Guided, in part, by G. A. Marlatt and J. R. Gordon's (1985) abstinence violation effect model, the authors evaluated participants' reactions to failure by assessing causal attributions and self-efficacy immediately after the end of the failed quit effort and used these to predict rebound 3 and 6 months later in correlational and logistic regression analyses. Results showed that participants who rebounded attributed their prior failure to more unstable causes and had higher levels of self-efficacy following failure. Participants who rebounded also reported significantly more helpful attributional influences on their initial cessation effort. Logistic regression analyses indicated that more unstable reasons for failure to quit and helpful attributions moderately predict subsequent rebound. These effects are not mediated by self-efficacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)