Culpable control and the psychology of blame.
(2000)
Journal - Psychological bulletin (UNITED STATES )
Abstract :
A culpable control model is advanced to describe the conditions that encourage as well as mitigate blame and to assess the process by which blame and mitigation occur. The fundamental assumptions of the model are that evidence concerning harmful events is scrutinized for its contribution to personal control and spontaneously evaluated for its favorableness or unfavorableness. Spontaneous evaluations encourage a blame-validation mode of processing in which evidence concerning the event is reviewed in a manner that favors ascribing blame to the person or persons who evoke the most negative affect or whose behavior confirms unfavorable expectations. The author delineates the elements of perceived control and then discusses spontaneous evaluation influences on control and blame assessments. The blame-validation process is described next. Finally, the culpable control model is compared with extant theories of blame and responsibility and its basic tenets summarized.
| ISSN : | 0033-2909 |
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| Mesh Heading : | Humans Models, Psychological Models, Statistical |
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| Mesh Heading Relevant : | Internal-External Control Projection Social Control, Informal Social Perception |
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The person who outperforms me is a genius: maintaining perceived competence in upward social comparison.
(1997)
Journal - Journal of personality and social psychology (UNITED STATES )
Abstract :
People have many ways of protecting themselves against unfavorable social comparisons. Sometimes, however, the unfavorableness of a comparison is too unambiguous to deny. In such circumstances, people may indirectly protect their self-images by exaggerating the ability of those who outperform them. Aggrandizing the outperformer is conceived to be a construal mechanism that permits inferior performers to deflect the self-esteem threat of being outperformed while maintaining believability. The tendency to exaggerate an outperformer's ability was demonstrated in a context in which subjects learned they had been outperformed by a confederate on a perceptual intelligence test. Subjects' and observers' ratings of the confederate's intelligence showed that subjects consistently rated the confederate more favorably than did observers. Using a similar methodology in which subjects outperformed confederates, another study showed that subjects exaggerated the ability of the people they outperformed. The conditions in which these effects are most likely to be obtained are discussed.
| ISSN : | 0022-3514 |
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| Mesh Heading : | Analysis of Variance Female Humans Intelligence Male Psychological Theory |
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| Mesh Heading Relevant : | Achievement Self Concept Social Perception |
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