Nancy Dorr’s research while affiliated with Jamestown Community College and other places

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. The meta-analysis reveals that perceived status stability, legitimacy, and permeability moderate the effects of group status. 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.

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. The meta-analysis reveals that perceived status stability, legitimacy, and permeability moderate the effects of group status. 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.

It is observed that hot weather and violence go hand in hand. This fact can be derived from a variety of sources, from a variety of centuries, and from a variety of continents. The first major review of the empirical literature on temperature effects on aggression relied on two epistemological strategies—namely, triangulation and meta-analysis. However, this chapter considers a third strategy the aggression hypothesis, parsimony. The temperature-aggression hypothesis includes the theoretical statement that uncomfortable temperatures cause increase in aggressive motivation, and under the right conditions, in aggressive behavior. The heat hypothesis refers more specifically to the hot side of this hypothesis and is the most widely studied version. The heat effect refers to the empirical observation of an increase in aggressive behavior in hot temperatures. It is noted that people believe that hot temperatures increase feelings of anger and hostility, decrease alertness and energy, and increase aggression and violence. Cold temperatures exhibit exactly the opposite effects.

This study examines the relationship between allocentrism and subjective well-being among African Americans and European Americans. In addition, for these groups we tested the relationship between idiocentrism and subjective well-being. Eighty-four African Americans and 122 European Americans completed measures of allocentrism, idiocentrism, self-esteem, extraversion, life satisfaction, and general positive affect. The results show that the relationship between allocentrism and subjective well-being is of greater magnitude for African Americans than for European Americans. Similarly, there is a tendency for idiocentrism to be more highly negatively related to subjective well-being for European Americans than for African Americans. The results are discussed in terms of Baldwin and Hopkins’s theory of African American and European American worldview.

Although past research has examined correlates of HIV testing, much of it has focused on demographic differences between tested and nontested individuals. The present study examined psychosocial differences between individuals seeking a voluntary HIV test at a college student health center and individuals who have never had an HIV test. Variables included in the model were four components of the health belief model (perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers), as well as perceived norms, consideration of future consequences, and risky sexual behavior. Results suggest that individuals seeking an HIV test perceived more benefits of having a test, tended to perceive fewer barriers to having a test, were higher in consideration of Future Consequences, and engaged in riskier sexual behavior than individuals never having had an HIV test. Implications for both HIV testing interventions and the health belief model are discussed.

To evaluate and compare the efficacy of pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). This meta-analysis of 49 fibromyalgia treatment outcome studies assessed the efficacy of pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatment across four types of outcome measures-physical status, self-report of FMS symptoms, psychological status, and daily functioning. After controlling for study design, antidepressants resulted in improvements on physical status and self-report of FMS symptoms. All nonpharmacological treatments were associated with significant improvements in all four categories of outcome measures with the exception that physically-based treatment (primarily exercise) did not significantly improve daily functioning. When compared, nonpharmacological treatment appears to be more efficacious in improving self-report of FMS symptoms than pharmacological treatment alone. A similar trend was suggested for functional measures. The optimal intervention for FMS would include nonpharmacological treatments, specifically exercise and cognitive-behavioral therapy, in addition to appropriate medication management as needed for sleep and pain symptoms.

This study investigates whether the greater in-group favoritism typically expressed by numerical minorities could be minimized by cross-cutting role assignment to the tasks in a cooperative setting. Study 1 manipulated the numerical representation of two groups and role assignment to a team task. The results showed that cross-cut role assignment decreased the in-group bias of both minority and majority groups, compared to convergent role assignment. Study 2 further examined the benefits of cross-cut assignment while controlling interaction among in-group and out-group members. The outcomes of Study 2 replicated those of Study 1 and showed that even without prior interaction during the cross-cut task, both minorities and majorities were less biased when role assignments cross-cut category membership. Moreover, the results showed that whereas both social category salience and identification were affected by role assignment, only identification mediated the effect of role assignment on in-group bias.

The Monty Hall dilemma (MHD) involves interaction between a host and a contestant in a game show format. Two experiments on 2-stage decision making in the MHD are reported. Exp 1 tested an illusion-of-control hypothesis using a 2-person condition in which participants made only the second stage of the decision; control participants made both the initial and final decisions. More switching occurred on Trials 1–20 in the 2-person condition, but the conditions did not differ on Trials 21–50. In Exp 2, varying the number of doors and the number of incorrect doors shown had no effect on the initial propensity to stick, but had a strong effect across trials. Satisficing can occur when the situation is not compelling, as in the standard 3-door MHD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The present studies examined the relationship between allocentrism and subjective well-being. In addition, the mediational role of collective self-esteem for ascribed and acquired groups was tested. Study 1 showed that the reliable relation between allocentrism and life satisfaction was mediated by private, public, and membership collective self-esteem. Study 2 showed that once personal self-esteem was controlled, only private and public collective self-esteem mediated the relation between allocentrism and subjective well-being.

A box score review conducted by Graham (1994) concluded that no difference existed between Blacks and Whites on measures of need for achievement. A meta-analysis reported in this article using the same research base revealed reliable and complex race differences. Overall, Whites scored higher than Blacks on measures of need for achievement, but the race difference all but disappeared in studies conducted after 1970. As a possible explanation, the meta-analysis revealed that since 1970 samples of participants from various socioeconomic levels have been preferred and that such samples showed differences between races of only half the size of those shown for samples of participants of strictly lower socioeconomic status. The method of assessment and the age and education of participants also influenced outcomes of race comparisons. Finally, Graham concluded that the research showed a consistent pattern of more positive self-concept of ability among Blacks than Whites. The meta-analysis also found this effect but revealed it to be smaller (though nonsignificantly so) than the difference in need for achievement rejected by the box score. Thus, the meta-analysis found that effects are no larger in an area where Graham concluded they existed than in an area where she concluded they did not.