Psychological bulletin
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Psychological bulletin · Jan 2003
ReviewThe psychology of doing nothing: forms of decision avoidance result from reason and emotion.
Several independent lines of research bear on the question of why individuals avoid decisions by postponing them, failing to act, or accepting the status quo. This review relates findings across several different disciplines and uncovers 4 decision avoidance effects that offer insight into this common but troubling behavior: choice deferral, status quo bias, omission bias, and inaction inertia. ⋯ Prominent components of the model include cost-benefit calculations, anticipated regret, and selection difficulty. Other factors affecting decision avoidance through these key components, such as anticipatory negative emotions, decision strategies, counterfactual thinking, and preference uncertainty, are also discussed.
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Psychological bulletin · Jan 2002
Meta AnalysisRethinking individualism and collectivism: evaluation of theoretical assumptions and meta-analyses.
Are Americans more individualistic and less collectivistic than members of other groups? The authors summarize plausible psychological implications of individualism-collectivism (IND-COL), meta-analyze cross-national and within-United States IND-COL differences, and review evidence for effects of IND-COL on self-concept, well-being, cognition, and relationality. European Americans were found to be both more individualistic-valuing personal independence more-and less collectivistic-feeling duty to in-groups less-than others. ⋯ Among Asians, only Chinese showed large effects, being both less individualistic and more collectivistic. Moderate IND-COL effects were found on self-concept and relationality, and large effects were found on attribution and cognitive style.
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Psychological bulletin · Nov 2001
Comment ReviewThe validity and appropriateness of methods, analyses, and conclusions in Rind et al. (1998): A rebuttal of victimological critique from Ondersma et al. (2001) and Dallam et al. (2001).
The authors respond to 2 victimological critiques of their 1998 meta-analysis on child sexual abuse (CSA). S. J. ⋯ Ondersma et al. (2001) claimed that Rind et al.'s study is part of a backlash against psychotherapists, that its suggestions regarding CSA definitions were extrascientific, and that the moral standard is needed to understand CSA scientifically. The authors show their suggestions to have been scientific and argue that it is Ondersma et al.'s issue-framing and moral standard that are extrascientific. This reply supports the original methods, analyses, recommendations, and conclusions of Rind et al.
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Psychological bulletin · Jul 2001
Meta AnalysisStatus differences and in-group bias: a meta-analytic examination of the effects of status stability, status legitimacy, and group permeability.
This work examines the moderating effects of status stability, legitimacy, and group permeability on in-group bias among high- and low-status groups. These effects were examined separately for evaluative measures that were relevant as well as irrelevant to the salient status distinctions. The results support social identity theory and show that high-status groups are more biased. ⋯ Also, these variables interacted in their influences on the effect of group status on in-group bias, but this was only true for irrelevant evaluative dimensions. When status was unstable and perceived as illegitimate, low-status groups and high-status groups were equally biased when group boundaries were impermeable, compared with when they were permeable. Implications for social identity theory as well as for intergroup attitudes are discussed.
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Psychological bulletin · Jul 2001
CommentThe crucial importance of empirical evidence in the development of bereavement theory: reply to Archer (2001).
In his commentary, J. Archer (2001a) argued that G. A. ⋯ In this reply, the author first explains that although it was compelling to do so, Bonanno and Kaltman did not emphasize an evolutionary approach to the origins of grief reactions because in their current form these theories lack empirical and theoretical clarity. Second, the author shows that, contrary to Archer's reading, Bonanno and Kaltman's article viewed cognitive restructuring as a mechanism used primarily by extremely grieved persons and only in some cognitive domains. Last, the author shows that Bonanno and Kaltman have championed rather than ignored avoidant or distancing processes.