Attitudes towards favoring the fall of Tall Poppies: The role of Social Dominance Orientation, Authoritarianism, Political Ideologies, and Self-Esteem.

Individuals occupying high-status positions are sometimes victims of the tall poppy syndrome where people want to see them cut down to size. These attitudes reflect a tension between achievement, authority, and equality. In a pre-registered study (Study 1: N = 47,951), and a replication (Study 2: N = 5,569), of two representative New Zealand samples we investigated how social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, political ideologies and self-esteem predicted favoring the fall of the tall poppy. Novel findings showed individuals high in social dominance orientation favored the fall of the tall poppy. In both studies, high authoritarian aggression and submission, and low conventionalism (in Study 1 only) were also associated with negative tall poppy attitudes. So too were individuals with lower self-esteem and who were less conservative in their political ideology. These findings advance our understanding of how group-based hierarchy and inequality relate to attitudes toward individuals in high-status positions.

Phenotypic, genetic, and environmental properties of the portrait values questionnaire.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the 10 value types from the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ; Schwartz et al., 2001) both at the phenotypic (observed) level as well as the genetic and environmental level. Australian twins (N = 695) completed the PVQ as part of a larger questionnaire battery. Nine of the value types were found to have a genetic component with heritability estimates ranging from 10.8% for power to 38% for conformity. The achievement scale was best explained by environmental factors. The interscale correlations were found to range from -.02 to .70 at the phenotypic level. Of these 45 correlations, 16 were found to be explained by overlapping genetic factors and almost all (41) were found to have significant unique environment correlations.

Understanding unemployed people's job search behaviour, unemployment experience and well-being: a comparison of expectancy-value theory and self-determination theory.

Previous unemployment research has directly tested hypotheses derived from expectancy-value theory (EVT; Feather, 1982, 1990), but no comparative analysis has been executed with another motivational framework. In one large study with 446 unemployed people, separate analyses provided good evidence for predictions derived from both EVT and self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000). Comparative analyses indicated that the type of people's job search motivation, as conceptualized through the notions of autonomous versus controlled motivation within SDT, is an important predictor of people's unemployment experience and wellbeing, beyond people's strength of motivation assessed within EVT through expectancies of finding a job and employment value. The importance of simultaneously testing two theoretical frameworks is discussed.

Value correlates of ambivalent attitudes toward gender relations.

This study related measures of hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, hostility toward men, and benevolence toward men to value priorities. It was predicted that these variables would be positively related to the importance of power values for self and negatively related to universalism and benevolence values and that measures of benevolent sexism and benevolence toward men would be positively related to tradition values and negatively related to self-direction values. These predictions were supported in a study in which student participants in Adelaide, South Australia, completed the Glick and Fiske Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, the Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory, and the Schwartz Value Survey. The results demonstrate how values influence attitudes toward gender relations and provide an additional perspective on current discussions of prejudice.

Reactions to mandatory sentences in relation to the ethnic identity and criminal history of the offender.

This study investigated the responses of 181 participants (87 men, 94 women), from Adelaide, South Australia, to scenarios describing mandatory sentences for perpetrators of a property offense committed in the Northern Territory, Australia. Four scenarios that were randomly distributed varied ethnic identity (White Australian, Aboriginal Australian) and criminal history (first-time offender, third-time offender). Participants completed attitude measures for both mandatory sentencing and capital punishment, a right-wing authoritarianism scale, and a scale concerned with sentencing goals (retribution, deterrence, protection of society, and rehabilitation). Results showed strong effects of attitude toward mandatory sentencing on scenario responses for variables such as perceived responsibility, deservingness, leniency, seriousness, anger and pleasure, and weaker effects of ethnic identity and criminal history. Participants were generally more sympathetic when the offender was an Aboriginal Australian. Results of a multiple regression analysis showed that attitude toward mandatory sentence was predicted by right-wing authoritarianism and by sentencing goals relating to deterrence and the protection of society.

Judgments of deservingness: studies in the psychology of justice and achievement.

This article presents a review and conceptual analysis of the concept of deservingness that incorporates the effects of personal values, perceived responsibility, ingroup-outgroup relations, and like-dislike relations. Selected studies show that reactions to another's success or failure and to the rise or fall of "tall poppies" or high achievers depends on the degree to which the positive or negative outcome is seen to be deserved; that individual differences in personal values and in value syndromes may be assumed to affect deservingness via the subjective values assigned to actions and outcomes; that group membership, status, interpersonal liking-disliking, and perceived moral character also affect judgments of deservingness; and that deservingness is a key variable that mediates how observers react to penalties imposed on the perpetrators of different kinds of offense. It is argued that the inclusion of deservingness goes beyond approaches in which perceived responsibility is accorded central status by adding a further link in the causal chain, thus enabling a more complete consideration of the effects of justice and value variables on how people react to positive and negative outcomes for both self and other.

Reactions to penalties for offenses committed by the police and public citizens: testing a social-cognitive process model of retributive justice.

This research investigated situations involving the police and public citizens in which both committed offenses and were punished. Participants responded to either a scenario describing police violence against a "green" protester (n = 177) or one describing dangerous driving by detectives leading to injury of juveniles in a car chase (n = 149). Results showed that information about following orders mitigated participants' reactions to offenses committed by authority figures. The perceived seriousness of the offenses committed by police authorities was negatively related to participants' level of right-wing authoritarianism and positively related to the importance participants assigned to universalism values. These relations were opposite in direction for the public offenders who refused to obey a police order. Other relations supported a social-cognitive process model in which values, responsibility, seriousness, and deservingness are key variables.

The role of self-perceived usefulness and competence in the self-esteem of elderly adults: confirmatory factor analyses of the Bachman revision of Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale.

This article reports on a confirmatory analytic study of the Bachman Revision (1970) of Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (1965) that was used in the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ALSA). Participants comprised 1,087 elderly people aged between 70 and 103 years (mean 77 years). Five competing factor models were tested with LISREL8. The best-fitting model was a nested one, with a General Self-Esteem second-order factor and two first-order factors, Positive Self-regard and Usefulness/Competence. This model was validated with data from a later wave of ALSA. Usefulness and competence have received little attention in the gerontological literature to date. Preliminary results indicate that usefulness/competence may be an important predictor of well-being. Further work is required on the relationships among usefulness, competence, self-esteem, and well-being in elderly people.

Reactions to penalties for an offense in relation to authoritarianism, values, perceived responsibility, perceived seriousness, and deservingness.

Two studies involving participants from metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia (Study 1: N = 220, Study 2: N = 181) examined variables that were assumed to influence cognitive and affective reactions to penalties imposed for offenses relating to domestic violence, plagiarism, and shoplifting (in Study 1), and resisting a police order in a protest against logging (in Study 2). Results of path analyses supported a model that assumed paths linking perceived responsibility to the perceived seriousness of an offense; responsibility and seriousness to deservingness of the penalty; deservingness to the perceived harshness of the penalty, to reported positive affect about the penalty, and to reported sympathy for the offender; and perceived harshness of the penalty to reported positive affect and sympathy. Right-wing authoritarianism and relevant values had direct effects on perceived seriousness consistent with the assumption that values affect the way an offense is construed in relation to its negative valence or aversiveness. Deservingness had a central role as a mediator of reactions.

Variables relating to the allocation of pocket money to children: parental reasons and values.

This study was concerned with relations among parents' beliefs, values and practices in regard to the allocation of pocket money to their children. Mothers and fathers in 133 Adelaide families provided information about the pocket money allowance they gave to each child in their family and they completed items designed to measure the importance of various possible reasons for their allocations (family concern, independence training, child's needs), as well as items that assessed value dimensions (work ethic, social welfare, compassion). Results showed that social welfare values were associated with family concern reasons, and that individualistic work ethic values were associated with independence training reasons but were antagonistic to reasons concerned with meeting the child's needs. The amount of pocket money provided was positively related to both the age of the child and to the importance of family concern reasons. Parents saw independence training and meeting the child's needs as more important reasons for older children and mothers emphasized children's needs more than fathers. These results were discussed in relation to other research on distributive justice, allocation decisions, pocket money and household tasks.

Preference for situations involving effort, time pressure, and feedback in relation to type A behavior, locus of control, and test anxiety.

Eighty subjects from an introductory psychology course rated the desirability of eight course structures that differed according to all combinations of the presence or absence of effort required for success, time pressure, and the provision of feedback. Subjects also completed questionnaire measures of the Type A behavior pattern, test anxiety, and external locus of control. Results showed that the Type A behavior pattern was negatively related to external locus of control and that externals tended to have higher test anxiety scores than internals. Multiple regression analyses that involved the personality variables and age and gender showed that the Type A variable predicted preference for course structures that involved effort and feedback and that external control predicted preference for course structures that were independent of effort and provided little feedback. Test anxiety and desirability ratings were positively correlated for the course structure that was not dependent on effort, had little time pressure, and had little feedback. The results were consistent with the view that individuals seek out and prefer situations that are consistent with their personality characteristics.

A longitudinal analysis of the effects of different patterns of employment and unemployment on school-leavers.

Large samples of young employed and unemployed respondents in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia, completed questionnaires on two occasions one year apart. A wide range of variables was assessed that included measures of aspects of the self-concept, Protestant Ethic values, desired work values, stress symptoms, life satisfaction, unemployment disappointment, job need, employment value, external control and attributions for youth unemployment. There was little evidence from longitudinal analyses of change scores that a shift from employment to unemployment or the reverse transition had significant effects on psychological well-being, but unemployment attributions were affected. The shift from employment to unemployment led to less internal and more external causal attributions for youth unemployment; the reverse transition had the opposite effects. Cross-sectional comparisons of findings from the employed and unemployed samples replicated previous results that were consistent with the conclusion that many of the obtained differences were present when respondents were still at school. Variables assumed to reflect employment importance did not have moderating effects on psychological well-being when employed and unemployed groups were compared in either longitudinal or cross-sectional analyses but they were involved in significant associations with other measures. Results suggested the need for more empirical and conceptual analysis of the concepts of psychological well-being and employment importance.

Positive prejudice in ethnic attitudes: Australian data.

An experiment was conducted to determine whether members of a majority ethnic group would exhibit positive prejudice in their attitudes toward an ethnic minority. Subjects were given written communications which evaluated Aborigines and white Australians either favourably or unfavourably. The occurrence of positive prejudice was assessed by examining subjects' overall agreement with each communication as a whole and their level of agreement with specific descriptions which comprised the communications. Results confirmed the existence of positive prejudice in these responses, but also indicated that subjects' reactions to the communications were influenced by the predispositional variable of ethnocentrism. The study further investigated whether positive prejudice is limited to responses illustrating minimal commitment or whether it forms a central component of inter-ethnic attitudes. Analysis of delayed recall of the specific descriptions from the written communications and of agreement with an independent ethnic attitudes questionnaire suggested that positive prejudice does not generalize beyond short-term, inconsequential reactions. The implications of these findings and the relevance of the positive prejudice concept are discussed.

Values and attitudes of medical students at an Australian University.

This paper reports the results of an Australian study in which successive cohorts of medical students at Flinders University were tested and retested in 1975, 1977, and 1979 to trace changes in their attitudes and values since their freshman year. All respondents completed the Rokeach Value Survey and specific attitude items concerned with federal government intervention in health insurance. Those respondents tested in 1977 and 1979 also completed a measure of general conservatism and rated the importance of a set of reasons for studying medicine as a career. The results showed considerable stability in both attitudes and value priorities, irrespective of cohort and time of testing. The students tended of favor government intervention in health insurance and to rate as most important those reasons concerned with helping others, working with people, and meeting challenges. Male and female students differed in the degree of importance they attached to some of the reasons, and these differences reflected commonly noted sex role differences.

Unemployment and depressive affect: a motivational and attributional analysis.

It was hypothesized on the basis of expectancy-valence theory that the negative affect that follows failure to obtain employment will be stronger among those individuals who are more strongly motivated to seek employment than among those who are less motivated. This hypothesis was tested by administering a questionnaire to a sample of 212 unemployed youth contacted through helping agencies in Adelaide, South Australia. Consistent with the hypothesis, the results showed that subjects who indicated in their ratings that they were highly motivated to get a job also provided higher ratings of depressive affect. Those subjects with higher levels of depressive affect were less likely to blame themselves for their unemployment and more likely to blame external difficulties, such as the current economic situation. They also provided higher ratings of the valence or perceived attractiveness of work itself. Their retrospective ratings concerning how confident they were of getting a job on leaving school and how much they needed and tried for a job also tended to be higher than those of the less depressed subjects. Results are discussed in relation to the expectancy-valence approach, Beck's theory of depression, the helplessness theory of depression, and recent discussions of cognitive-effect linkages that employ attribution concepts.

Value systems and delinquency: parental and generational discrepancies in value systems for delinquent and non-delinquent boys.

A sample of 82 delinquent boys in two institutions and a matched sample of 82 nondelinquent boys from three secondary schools ranked values from the Rokeach Value Survey in their order of importance for self, mother and father. Order of rankings was counter-balanced. Results indicated that the sets of rankings (value systems) were more discrepant between boys and their parents and between the parents themselves in the delinquent sample than in the non-delinquent sample, but only in regard to the set of terminal values. Marked differences in the relative importance of particular values occurred between the two groups both in relation to rankings for self and for parents, and (for both groups) between the boys and their parents (generational) and between mother and father (parental). Favourability towards father correlated positively with degree of value similarity between sons and fathers but only for the terminal values.

Reactions to male and female success and failure in sex-linked occupations: impressions of personality, causal attributions, and perceived likelihood of different consequences.

Female subjects responded to three short verbal cues in which either a male or female character succeeded or failed in an examination qualifying the male (or female) for entry into an occupation. Three occupations were involved varying in masculine dominance (medicine, teaching, and nursing). In responding to each cue, subjects first rated the character in the cue on semantic differential scales to provide impressions of personality, then rated the importance of different possible causes of the outcome (causal attribution), and finally rated the likelihood that each of a set of possible consequences might follow the outcome. Results indicated a fairly pervasive tendency for the female subjects to upgrade successful males in relation to unsuccessful males but to downgrade successful females in relation to unsuccessful females. Results were discussed in relation to sex roles in society as they relate to permissible achievements for males and females.