Sizing fish and ponds: The joint effects of individual- and group-based feedback

publication-status: PublishedCopyright © 2012 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2012, Vol. 48, pp. 244 – 249 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.The present paper explores the combined effects of individual- and group-directed feedback on perceived need for individual and collective change. Valence of feedback about individual and group performance (positive versus negative) was manipulated orthogonally. The results revealed that responses to various combinations of two-level feedback were moderated by group identification. With respect to the perceived need for collective change, high-identifiers (but not low-identifiers) were motivated by discrepant feedback: When group feedback was negative but individual feedback was positive, high identifiers perceived collective change to be more important than low-identifiers. With respect to the perceived need for individual change, low-identifiers (but not high-identifiers) were discouraged by the discrepant feedback: When group feedback was positive but individual feedback was negative, low-identifiers perceived individual change to be less important than high-identifiers. These data highlight the interplay between individual and collective feedback, and suggest that the meaning of feedback at each level (individual or group) is framed by the feedback received at the other level. Moreover, group identification seems to play a crucial role in reconciling differences between one's individual self and the performance of one's group

A Significance Test for Inferring Affiliation Networks from Spatio-Temporal Data.

Scientists have long been interested in studying social structures within groups of gregarious animals. However, obtaining evidence about interactions between members of a group is difficult. Recent technologies, such as Global Positioning System technology, have made it possible to obtain a vast wealth of animal movement data, but inferring the underlying (latent) social structure of the group from such data remains an important open problem. While intuitively appealing measures of social interaction exist in the literature, they typically lack formal statistical grounding. In this article, we provide a statistical approach to the problem of inferring the social structure of a group from the movement patterns of its members. By constructing an appropriate null model, we are able to construct a significance test to detect meaningful affiliations between members of the group. We demonstrate our method on large-scale real-world data sets of positional data of flocks of Merino sheep, Ovis aries

Where Are You From? An Investigation into the Intersectionality of Accent Strength and Nationality Status on Perceptions of Non-native Speakers in Britain

We explore how interpersonal and intergroup perceptions are affected by a non-native speaker’s accent strength and the status of their home country. When nationality information was absent (Study 1), natives who heard a strong (vs. weak) accent rated the speaker as warmer but immigrants as a group as more threatening. This result was replicated when the speaker’s nationality was familiar (Study 2) but in this study, country status further shaped accent-based perceptions: the strong (vs. weak) accented speaker evoked more positive interpersonal perceptions when her country status was low, but more negative intergroup perceptions when her country status was high. When the status of the speaker’s nationality was manipulated (Study 3), we replicated the interpersonal perceptions found in Study 1 and the intergroup perceptions found in Study 2. Findings support a holistic approach to investigating perceptions of non-native speakers: one that considers nationality as well as accent strength

Who says we are bad people? The impact of criticism source and attributional content on responses to group-based criticism.

addresses: University of Exeter, UK. [email protected]: Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tCopyright © 2010 SAGE Publications. Author's draft version; post-print. Final version published by Sage available on Sage Journals Online http://online.sagepub.com/We investigated the interplay between the source of criticism and the attributional content of their message on behavioral responses to group-based criticism. Studies 1 and 2 revealed that outgroup critics were more effective when their criticism included internal attributions (to the ingroup's character) rather than external attributions (the ingroup's circumstances), whereas there was no effect of attributional content for ingroup critics (a significant Source x Content interaction). Study 3 explored the role of audiences in responses to outgroup criticism. The results indicated that the positive effects of internal versus external attributions were only evident when an outgroup audience was witness to participants' responses. Furthermore, these effects were mediated through concerns about the ingroup's image. Together, these patterns suggest that responses to criticism depend not just on the identity of the critic but also on what the critic says and who is watching. People may be surprisingly responsive to outgroup criticism-particularly when inaction might lead others to perceive them as "bad people.

Recent Wetland Losses at the GSU Marsh Restoration Site, Neches River Valley

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's (TPWD) plans to restore a marsh in the lower Neches River valley south of the Gulf States Utilities (GSU) power plant, an area of known historical marsh loss due partly to subsidence and faulting, emphasized the need to investigate potential long-term impacts of subsidence on the marsh site (fig. 1). Marsh restoration efforts could fail, however, if the area continues to subside at a rate that exceeds marsh vertical accretion. Determining whether the GSU area is subsiding at a rate higher than that of the surrounding landscape could be answered by benchmark releveling surveys across the area, but those surveys have been conducted only across regions more inland (Ratzlaff, 1980). Although site-specific releveling surveys would provide the most quantitative and reliable data regarding subsidence, lack of time and funding for establishing benchmarks and conducting releveling surveys over a sufficient period of time prevented such an approach. Consequently, potential future marsh loss as a result of submergence had to be estimated by other means.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Submerged Lands of Texas, Brownsville-Harlingen Area: Sediments, Geochemistry, Benthic Macroinvertebrates..

Surface sediment textures, sediment geochemistry, and benthic fauna of the State-owned submerged lands were mapped and described using bottom samples collected at 1-mi (1.6-km) intervals from bays, estuaries, and lagoons, and the inner continental shelf. In one area of Laguna Madre samples were collected at 0.5-mi (0.8-km) intervals. In addition, the distribution of wetlands in adjacent areas was mapped using color infrared photographs taken primarily in 1979. Textural maps of the Brownsville-Harlingen area show that sand and muddy sand, having a mean grain size of between 2.5 and 5, are the dominant sediment types in bay-estuary-lagoon and inner-shelf areas. Generally, in Laguna Madre sands occur on the barrier island side of the lagoon, whereas muddier sediments are more abundant along the mainland side and in deeper areas. Muddy sand is dominant in the relatively wide southern end of Laguna Madre, and sand is dominant along the narrower, northern two-thirds of the lagoon where broad sandy wind-tidal flats on Padre Island grade into shallow subaqueous lagoon sands. Dominantly sand-sized sediments blanket most of the inner shelf and extend about 10 mi (16 km) offshore from Padre Island. The greatest extent of sand is associated with marine reworked late Pleistocene fluvial-deltaic deposits that underlie much of the inner shelf. Water depths average about 90 ft (30 m) at the outer limits of this sand-rich area. A nearshore patch of mud occurs near the mouth of the Rio Grande and represents the most recent deposition of the river. To the east and north the mud grades into muddy sand that represents a mixture of relict shelf sands and more modern fluvial muds.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Ghosts of the past and dreams of the future: the impact of temporal focus on responses to contextual ingroup devaluation.

addresses: University of Exeter, Exeter, UK. [email protected]: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tCopyright © 2012 SAGE Publications. Author's draft version; post-print. Final version published by Sage available on Sage Journals Online http://online.sagepub.com/The authors investigated the impact of temporal focus on group members' responses to contextual ingroup devaluation. Four experimental studies demonstrated that following an induction of negative ingroup evaluation, participants primed with a past temporal focus reported behavioral intentions more consistent with this negative appraisal than participants primed with a future temporal focus. This effect was apparent only when a negative (but not a positive) evaluation was induced, and only among highly identified group members. Importantly, the interplay between temporal focus and group identification on relevant intentions was mediated by individual self-esteem, suggesting that focus on the future may be conducive to separating negative ingroup appraisals from individual self-evaluations. Taken together, the findings suggest that high identifiers' responses to ingroup evaluations may be predicated on their temporal focus: A focus on the past may lock such individuals within their group's history, whereas a vision of the future may open up opportunities for change