Psi Chi Journal Summer 2014

PSI CHI JOURNAL

Volume 19.2 | Summer 2014

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The Links Between Parenting Styles and Imposter Phenomenon

Sijia Li, Jennifer L. Hughes, and Su Myat Thu, Agnes Scott College

ABSTRACT: Clance and Imes (1978) coined the term imposter phenomenon to describe the phoniness an individual feels about his/her achievement and the inability to internalize success. They proposed that imposter feelings are often rooted in early family relations. Prior empirical research found partial support for this proposition. The current study investigated the links between parenting styles and the imposter phenomenon, and examined the role of the sex of adult children as a moderator variable. The sample constituted 506 American undergraduate and graduate students (105 men, 401 women). Participants were recruited using a snowball sampling technique. We found that lack of parental care, r(444) = .25, p < .001, and parental overprotection, r(445) = .23, p < .001, were linked with higher imposter scores. Parental care, β = -.18, t(442) = -3.30, p = .001, and parental overprotection, β = .18, t(442) = 2.38, p = .02, both emerged to be predictors of imposter scores. The predictive power of parenting variables weakened when maternal and paternal parenting styles were examined separately. Only maternal care was found to be negatively predictive of imposter scores, β = -.41, t(440) = -4.18, p < .001. Men were overall less responsive to parenting variables. For men, only maternal care was found to be negatively correlated with imposter scores. For women, maternal and paternal care was found to be negatively correlated with imposter scores, and maternal and paternal overprotection was found to be positively correlated with imposter scores. Our results provided support for the proposed relationship between family environments and imposter phenomenon, and indicated that men may develop imposter feelings based on different mechanisms than women.

https://doi.org/10.24839/2164-8204.JN19.2.50

The Effects of Prohibiting Gestures on Speech Production

Allison M. Douglas and Lori E. James, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

ABSTRACT: Evidence has indicated that gestures can impact speech production. Specifically, restricting participants’ gestures can negatively impact the production of individual words and the fluency of connected speech (e.g., Frick-Horbury & Guttentag, 1998; Morsella & Krauss, 2004). We manipulated participants’ ability to gesture while describing pictures with active or static content. We predicted that prohibiting gestures would decrease speech fluency, especially for pictures with active content. We measured the amount of time participants paused during speech, the rate of speech fillers, and the occurrence of obvious tip-of-the-tongue instances during the descriptions. Neither gesture condition nor picture content yielded main effects on speech fluency, but allowing gestures reduced the production of speech fillers in descriptions of pictures with static but not active content, F(1, 21) = 6.34, p = .02, η²_p = .23, contrary to prediction. Findings have suggested that being able to gesture may slightly impact fluency even if gestures are not actually produced while speaking.

https://doi.org/10.24839/2164-8204.JN19.2.58

Women's and Men's Preferences for First and Last Names

Michelle L. Ceynar and Sarah E. Stewart, Pacific Lutheran University

ABSTRACT: Although both men and women report strongly identifying with their names (Intons-Peterson & Crawford, 1985), people tend to assume that men are more attached to their surnames because most women choose to take their spouses’ names at marriage. Twenty-one men and 70 women reported their explicit attitudes about their names and completed two implicit measures of name preference: an adaptation of the Implicit Association Test (IAT), and a test designed to measure the name letter effect. Results revealed no differences between the IAT latencies of men and women and that both sexes have an implicit preference for their first names. Women and men also reported a greater explicit fondness for their first names. Although both sexes reported that their first names describe them more as an individual, men were more likely to view their names as central to their identity than women. Additionally, women were more willing to consider changing their last name at marriage than men. The results were discussed in terms of modern name usage trends.

https://doi.org/10.24839/2164-8204.JN19.2.65

Own-Gender Bias in Change Detection for Gender-Specific Images

Victoria L. Reis, Marianne Fallon, and Bradley M. Waite, Central Connecticut State University

ABSTRACT: Change blindness is a phenomenon that occurs when individuals fail to notice changes that take place in the visual world. Although individual differences in change blindness have been relatively well-studied, no one has examined differences in detection for gender-relevant images. In the present study, men and women (N = 53) determined whether subtle changes were present in three types of images: male-oriented, female-oriented, and gender-neutral. Images were presented using a modified flicker paradigm. As expected, there were no overall differences in change detection across biological sex or image type. However, men and women more accurately detected changes for images that pertained to their gender, F(1, 51) = 4.78, p = 0.03, η² = .09. Men detected more changes in male-oriented images (M = 3.30, SD = 0.86) than female-oriented images (M = 3.10, SD = 0.86). Conversely, women detected more changes in female-oriented (M = 3.50, SD = 0.69) images than male-oriented images (M = 3.20, SD = 0.69). All remaining interactions were not significant, all Fs < 2.24, and all ps > .14. These findings are consistent with research positing an own-gender bias and extend previous research indicating that top-down processes can partially explain change blindness.

https://doi.org/10.24839/2164-8204.JN19.2.71

How Are Prosocial Responses to Ostracism Related to Thwarted Psychological Needs?

Julian Leiro and Jennifer Zwolinski, University of San Diego

ABSTRACT: This study investigated the extent to which ostracized individuals engaged in prosocial responses after an opportunity for inclusion and the extent that these responses were related to thwarted fundamental needs. A total of 206 primarily European American female first-year college students played two games of Cyberball. In Game 1, participants were randomly assigned to the ostracism group or the inclusion group. In Game 2, all participants were assigned to the inclusion group and were told that one of the 2 other players was a repeat player from Game 1 and the other player was a newcomer. Results revealed that ostracized participants in Game 1 passed the ball to the repeat player fewer times than included participants in Game 1, U = 2859.50, Z = -5.46, r = -.38, p < .001. After Game 1, ostracized participants reported more threats to the 4 fundamental needs relative to included participants. After Game 2 inclusion, Game 1 ostracized participants reported higher needs scores than the Game 1 included group. Individuals who reported higher needs states in Game 1 and lower needs states in Game 2 showed more prosocial responses in Game 2, which suggests that the need states, not ostracism status, are related to prosocial responses to ostracism.

https://doi.org/10.24839/2164-8204.JN19.2.76