Emotion & Affect

Arrogant, Abusive, and Disruptive -- and a Doctor

He became arrogant and said, "You don’t know what to look for — you’re not a doctor."  He ignored her third page, and after another harrowing hour she called the attending physician at home. The child was rushed into surgery.

“He could have died or had serious brain injury,” Ms. Silverthorn said, “but I was treated like a pest for calling in the middle of the night.”

A resident at a University of California hospital failed to report a problem with a fetal monitoring strip because the attending physician was “notorious for ridiculing and yelling at the residents.”

Several recent hospital surveys have found that badly behaved doctors cause low morale and high stress.

• 67% of people surveyed at 102 hospitals think there is a connection between disruptive behavior and medical mistakes.

• 18% said they knew of a mistake that occurred from an obnoxious doctor (Rosenstein 2004).

• 40% of medical staff said that they had been so intimidated by a doctor that they were afraid to share medical concerns (The Institute for Safe Medication Practices).

These doctors are clearly exhibiting anger, a high arousal, unpleasant emotion.  Anger can have many negative effects because emotions tend to guide behavior. For instance, strong emotions can influence people to engage in risky behavior and ignore future consequences (Baumeister 205).  

Emotions, which arise automatically in response to a situation, are often difficult to control.  In the case of the doctors, stress in the workplace probably caused anger, which blinded them to the risk of acting rude and dismissive toward the nurses.

These hospitals would clearly benefit from positive emotions.  The broaden-and-build theory states that positive emotions expand an individual's attention and mind-set.  Positive emotions prepare individuals for hard times that may come in the future, such as, in this case, operations and medical procedures.  Positive emotions are just what stressed doctors need.

Additional benefits of positive emotions include increased flexibility, creativity and problem-solving ability (Baumeister 206).  In another instance with doctors, researchers put some physicians in a good mood by giving them candy.  Those physicians that had been given candy were 19% quicker and more accurate in diagnosing a patient with liver disease (Estrada, Isen & Young).

People in a positive mood also perform better, are more persistent, try harder, and are more motivated than people in a neutral mood (Erez & Isen).

The moral of the story: always give your doctor candy.

Social Identity Theory

Rivalry Traditions

There are few better examples of social identity theory than the age-old football rivalry between the Boston College Eagles and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Social identity theory explains that a person has not one “personal self” but several selves that correspond to widening circles of group membership. Different social contexts may trigger an individual to think, feel and act on the basis of his different “levels of self” (Turner et al, 1987).

Central to this concept is the idea of “us” versus “them.” Internalized group membership refers to the idea that people make their group identities into a crucial part of who they are. Thus, anyone who belongs to a different or opposing group is separate, and shoved into the “them” category. This is often the basis of rivalries.

Social identity theory contends that group membership creates a sense of in-group favoritism that is often exercised at the expense of the out-group. Tajfel’s experiments have shown that the mere act of categorizing people, even if the cause is arbitrary, spurs immediate in-group favoritism. Choosing Boston College over Notre Dame (or vice versa) is hardly an arbitrary distinction, which enhances in-group favoritism even more.

Both schools made their team favoritism perfectly clear in different ways ranging form proudly positive to disgracefully disparaging. For instance, men flaunted maroon and gold-painted chests and went wild cheering for BC. Gold Superfan knock-off shirts questioned boldly, “What rivalry?” And, of course, a bit of name-calling ensued. But what can you expect? We’re all on the quest for positive distinctiveness, aren’t we?

Tajfel and Turner (1979) identify three variables that contribute to in-group favoritism. First, the extent to which individuals internalize their group membership as an aspect of their self-concept is important. Students at BC are encouraged to make their school a part of their identity, with class quotes like “For here all are one” and the mantra “We are BC!”

Also important is the extent to which the prevailing context provides ground for comparison between groups. It’s college football. Enough said.

Finally, in-group favoritism is affected by the perceived relevance of the comparison group. Since BC and Notre Dame are both private Jesuit universities rich in tradition, they are certainly liable to be compared.

Groupthink

The Bis Station That Couldn't

“Ever since it opened it 2003, the sprawling Frank R. Lautenberg railroad station next to the northern end of the New Jersey Turnpike in Secaucus has left everyone inclined to use it scratching their heads in bewilderment." Why? Because there is no place for commuters to park their cars within miles of the station, which was originally intended to be a transfer station.

This has left many wondering why the city would spend $450 million to build a commuter railroad station, when, “commuters are, in effect, barred from using it.” There seems to be no answer from New Jersey Transit. Furthermore, many wonder why the New Jersey Turnpike Authority spent millions on a long exit ramp connecting the station to the turnpike. Of course, this would make it easy to reach the station...by car!

When things go this wrong, you have to stop and ask yourself: is this an unfortunate byproduct of groupthink?

Groupthink is defined as the tendency of group members to think alike. It is when “a group clings to a shared but flawed or mistaken view of the world rather than being open to learning the truth” (Baumeister 496). The group sticks to a preferred course of action, rather than giving alternatives a fair chance. It often fails to recognize serious dangers or flaws in the plan.
Groupthink may explain why no one decided to build a parking lot. But why does groupthink happen? Many believe its roots lie in the desire to get along (Baumeister 496). Members of a group would rather agree than “waste time” arguing.

There are several conditions that enhance the likelihood of groupthink. First, the group tends to be fairly similar and cohesive from the start. Did members of the Board hold traditionally similar views, and were they accustomed to making decisions together?

Second, the presence of a strong, directive leader increases the likelihood of groupthink by discouraging dissension. Might the president of New Jersey Transit rule with an iron fist?

Third, isolation of the group closes it off from new information. Perhaps members of the Board have a hidden meetinghouse in which they make their decisions.

Finally, the group may have high self-esteem, regarding itself as superior and causing it to disregard other people’s opinions and desires.

If they decide to meet to discuss new alternatives in the future, they should try limiting premature seeking of concurrence, having an open style of leadership, perhaps having someone play “devil’s advocate,” and having subgroup discussions. These strategies should all decrease groupthink and prevent bad decisions.

Implicit Personality Theories & Biases

Court Details Opposition to Bias in Jury Selection

The Supreme Court, overturning its 1996 decision, ruled that a Louisiana prosecutor had used improper tactics to pick an all-white jury. Since it was a murder trial against a black defendant, this is certainly cause for controversy.

Jury selection draws on several social psychological principles. It is important to examine potential biases in jurors, which can unintentionally cause incorrect convictions. First, community members are called to form a venire, or jury pool. Attorneys, guided by their own hypotheses, ask several questions to determine whether anyone holds attitudes, preconceptions or biases that would prevent them from fairly hearing the case. This process is known as voir dire, meaning “to speak the truth.”

There are two ways in which a potential juror can be eliminated. A challenge for cause must be upheld by the judge. A peremptory challenge allows an attorney to excuse a venireperson for almost any reason, except race, gender or membership in a particular group.

What caused the Louisiana prosecutor to choose an all-white jury? Peremptory challenges may be based on implicit personality theories, or sets of beliefs, developed through experience, about how demographic characteristics and attitudes are interrelated. In this case, it seems likely that the prosecutor held a racist belief that a white jury, acting on race loyalty, would be eager to convict a black man.

In order to modify juries but do so in a scientific, ethical way, social scientists are entering the field with growing influence. They may work as consultants who collect survey data about community attitudes, enabling informed decisions.

Self-Concept

In Kalaupapa, Hawaii, a Story of Exile and Union

Clarence “Boogie” Kahilihiwa was sent to the island of Kalaupapa , Hawaii in 1959. He’s one of some 8,000 people who were effectively banished against their will to the island because they had Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy. Isolation laws, later abolished in 1969, permitted the government to do so.

Today, just 24 of the banished bunch remain, Boogie among them. Why does he still stick around? The answer probably lies in his working self-concept. The working self-concept is defined as the image of self that is currently active in the person’s thoughts. When someone is self-aware, he or she can only be aware of a small part of all of the information known about oneself. Changes can occur based on situational factors as well as cognitions about those around you.

Initially, Boogie and the other ill people’s self-concepts were those of victims. The “separating sickness,” as it is appropriately nicknamed, tore victims from their families and friends, never again to “feel the embrace of loved ones living somewhere beyond the volcanic formations that rise like stone sentries just offshore.” Being taken away from your family is certainly cause for negative affect and feelings of victimization.

After living for years under medical supervision, Boogie began to “consider himself a patient, not a resident.” In the context of “normal” people, state health employees and National Park Service workers, Boogie’s identity as a patient was easily magnified. An “us vs. them” stigma arose, as Boogie describes his inability to feel like part of the community as a whole. His role became that of one to be cared for, unable to care for himself.

Whatever aspects of you that stand out as unusual become prominent in the phenomenal self. But whenever he was in the company of other afflicted people, Boogie didn’t stand out and said he felt most “at home.” Today, this is Boogie’s justification for remaining on the island. “This is my home,” he states fondly.

Though his fondness for his “home” could merely be an attempt to silence cognitive dissonance about his troubled life, I’m glad he has found solace in his situation.

Positive Psychology

Even if You Can’t Buy It, Happiness Is Big Business

The theory of the hedonic treadmill suggests that people stay at about the same level of happiness regardless of what happens to them circumstantially. Thus, researchers have turned to personality and outlook as predictors of happiness. For instance, studies have shown that “the strongest predictor of a person’s happiness was how happy the person had been 10 years before (Baumeister 193).” This brings to light the question of how to improve one’s outlook and promote a happier life.

Addressing this question, the “positive psychology” movement is on the rise. Last week, the first American “Happiness and its Causes” conference was held in San Francisco. A two-day affair bringing together philosophers, scientists, psychologists and Buddhists, the conference incorporated several different cheerful workshops.

Topics considered at the conference included “Compassion and the Pursuit of Happiness” and “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.” People discussed things like mindfulness-based stress reduction as well as the role of emotional support in cancer.

Positive psychology, which began in Sydney in 2006, studies “ways of making human life better, enriching human experience, and helping people cultivate their potentialities” (Baumeister 50). It’s all about focusing on positive things. For instance, “Several psychological patterns have been shown to increase happiness, such as forgiving others, being grateful for blessings, practicing religious beliefs, and being optimistic” (Baumeister 193). And since happiness is linked to health and success in life, studying and having conferences about positive psychology sounds really worthwhile.

The award for the biggest bubble burster went to Darrin M. McMahon, a professor of history at Florida State University, who said, “We cannot feel good all the time, nor should we.” Is he advocating negative affect balance? I always strive to keep the frequency of my positive emotions minus the frequency of my negative emotions positive. Someone needs to check his life satisfaction!

References: Social Psychology & Human Nature, Baumeister

Deindividuation

The Special Sting of Personal Terrorism

It’s difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the atrocities that occurred in Verla, India, this week. Terrorists stormed the streets of Mumbai carrying machine guns and bags of grenades. Rumors of executions of children, torturing of hostages, and group shootings flew around the city. What is most chilling about the conflict, however, is the way the terrorists went about their work.

Typically, acts of terror require a sense of deindividuation among members: Terrorists or soldiers experience a loss of individual identity, accompanied by diminished self-regulation. In other words, being a part of a group helps them feel less like individuals. They consequently feel lessened responsibility for their actions, lessened concern with evaluation of others, and weakening of internal controls.  

This is useful to terrorists because when shame, guilt and fear are diminished, they can commit horrific acts with ease. Paired with the energizing effect of others in a group, they will do almost anything.

Additionally, terrorists typically experience thoughts of deindividuation among their victims. They are conditioned to view their enemies as “less than human” so that killing them will not produce any cognitive dissonance. In other words, if a man killed someone, he would most likely feel an aversive state of arousal because killing typically carries a great deal of guilt. However, if he made the cognitive change of defining his victim as less than human and unworthy of living, then cognitive dissonance ceases to exist for him.

What occurred in India was an act of pure hatred that defied these usual “rules.”  “They did not strike with the terrorist’s fleeting anonymity,” says the New York Times.

“…What slowly became clear was that this was an attack of especial barbarism, because it was so personal. It was unlike the many strikes of the last many months, bombs left in thronging markets or trains or cars: acts of shrinking cowardice. The new men were not cowards...They killed face to face; they wanted to see and speak to their victims; they could taste the violence they made.”

The personal nature of these attacks is both horrifying and intriguing. Here, deindividuation of the victims is clearly not necessary. In fact, the opposite is true. These terrorists derive pleasure from killing “face to face” and getting to know their victims. Disturbingly,

“Their work was fastidiously deliberate…They took time to ask your nationality and vocation. Then they spared you, or herded you elsewhere, or shot you in the back of your skull.”

Social Influence

French First Lady Becomes AIDS Embassador

French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is putting her star power behind the global AIDS campaign to help fight a disease that counts her brother among its millions of victims.
"I can put all of the media coverage directed toward me to the service of a useful cause," the 40-year-old supermodel-turned-singer said in an interview to be published in Monday's edition of Elle magazine."

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is capitalizing on the “who” segment of Carl Hovland’s systematic study of persuasion, which identifies “who says what to whom” as the three most important components of persuasion.

The “who” segment refers to the source of a persuasive message. Credibility and likability of the source are both key determinants of how well a message is received. To many, Bruni clearly exhibits both of these traits.  

Credibility is most influenced by expertise and trustworthiness. Bruni can be seen as an “expert” on AIDS because of her brother’s battle with the disease. She watched him die of AIDS in 2006 and is familiar with its traumatic influence. The fact that she has experience with AIDS gives her more credibility in the public eye: she’s not simply jumping on the bandwagon of a cause.  

Trustworthiness is likely to come from the fact that she is married to the President of France. Hopefully, such an authority figure would not choose an incompetemt wife. Thus, it is likely that the public trusts her enough to listen to what she has to say.

Bruni also seems very likeable. Likeability is influenced by physical attractiveness and similarity. Based on the fact that Bruni is a former supermodel-turned-singer, it is safe to say that she is attractive. Her physical attractiveness is likely to garner liking, and, in turn, influence on the public. As for similarity, Bruni’s identity as a French woman should benefit her in France’s eyes.

Finally, also in Bruni’s favor, people tend to believe “What is beautiful is good.” The effect is that people assume physically attractive people will be superior to others on many other traits, including happiness, sexual warmth, popularity, intelligence and success. (Baumeister 338). If a beautiful woman advocates the fight against AIDS, she is likely to gain support.

Helping Behavior

T.I. was on probation stemming from a 1998 conviction for violating a state controlled substances act and for giving false information. After being released on probation, he earned a litany of probation violations in several counties around Georgia for offenses ranging from possession of a firearm to possession of marijuana. (Wikipedia.com)

On October 13, 2007, federal authorities arrested T.I. four hours before the BET Hip-Hop Awards. He was charged with two felonies — possession of three unregistered machine guns and two silencers, and possession of firearms by a convicted felon. (Wikipedia.com)

When you add to the list threatening a man outside a strip club, assaulting a female sheriff deputy, and failing to complete required community service hours,  it’s clear that T.I.’s resume is lackluster at best.  

Thus, this November’s headline, “T.I. Serves Thanksgiving Dinner to Atlanta Needy” sounds like a flat-out lie. Yet coupled with lyrics from T.I.’s latest album, Paper Trail, listeners learn more of the truth.

I've been travelin
on this road to long
Just trying to find
my way back home
The old me
is dead and gone
dead and gone.

says T.I. in “Dead and Gone.” So what’s with the huge turnaround? There are several explanations social psychologists use for helping behavior.

Could T.I. be engaging in egoistic helping, in which the helper wants something in return for his help? If this is so, T.I. would be helping in order to increase his own welfare. Perhaps he is trying to bolster his image among the philanthropic populace in order to increase record sales.
Or could it be altruistic helping, in which the helper expects nothing in return and merely wants to increase others’ welfare? If this is the case, T.I. might feel empathy, an emotional response that corresponds to the feelings of another person, for the needy. Perhaps he sees his past self in the poor and feels their distress as his own. According to the empathy-altruism hypothesis, empathy motivates should motivate him to reduce other people’s distress.
With lines like,

That part of me left yesterday
the heart of me is strong today
No regrets I’m blessed to say
the old me’s dead and gone away

I like to think altruism is at work here.

Later in the song he states:

Now I get it now I take
time to think,
before I make mistakes
just for my family’s sake

This could be evidence of kin selection, the evolutionary tendency to help people who have our genes. Evolutionary psychologists would contend that T.I. feels motivated to help his family since he wants his family’s genes to be passed on to future generations.

Now, due to his strong social influence among the urban population, hopefully T.I. will be able to encourage helping behavior among others who view him as a role model. After all, in the “who says what to whom” model of persuasion, the source of the message is “instrumental.”

Prejudiced Politics

Election spurs 'hundreds' of race threats, crimes

"Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars. Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America."

So much for “hope for change,” right? In a country that’s dedicated a Civil War and an entire Civil Rights Movement to eradicating racism, one would think prejudice, or an unjustifiable negative feeling or emotional response toward a group and toward its individual members, is a thing of the past. Caused by stereotypes, cognitions about the personal attributes of a group of people, prejudice is explained in three different ways.

One of these ways, known as the Economic Perspective contends that groups develop prejudice and discriminate against others when they compete for natural and symbolic resources, including power, jobs, and status.

“Potok, who is white, said he believes there is ‘a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them.’"

Clearly, economic motives are at work here. Many racist people think that Obama’s election is a sign of control over America passing away from tradition, into new, unworthy hands. White elitists exhibiting in-group favoritism align themselves with traditional white leaders and do not identify at all with the black race. Thus, they view the transfer of power to a black man as a personal loss of power as members of their own group.

In addition to the symbolic resource of power, literal economic resources are a source of competition as well. Many people argue that Obama gives too many resources, like money, to the poor. Realistic group conflict theory predicts that prejudice should increase under times of poverty. This was observed in the case of lynching in the 20th Century: whenever the price of cotton went down, the number of lynchings rose. With a suffering economy, current times predict an increase in prejudice. This offers a strong explanation for the discrimination occurring today.

Realistic group conflict theory also predicts that prejudice and discrimination should be strongest among groups that have the most to lose from another group’s economic advancement. Some of Obama’s wealthy opponents argue against his plan to “level the playing field” among the rich and the poor. The rich have a great deal to lose if Obama raises taxes to help support the needy. Therefore, their sentiments against the poor should be strong.

The best we can do is hope that goals that can only be solved by working together will encourage cooperation among both groups. With an ailing economy, a suffering environment and a messy war overseas, superordinate goals certainly abound. Hopefully these will become unifying forces among the diverse groups that make up America.

References:  Social Psychology & Human Nature, Baumeister