Book Description

"According to regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997, 2001), individuals may take either a promotion or a prevention focus to obtain their goals. These two foci have consequences for emotional outcomes, behaviors, and decision-making biases. However, social groups also play a large role in people’s identity (Sedikides & Brewer, 2001; Tajfel & Turner, 1986). I examined the role of regulatory focus with respect to an important social identity, one’s gender group membership. In Studies 1 and 2 , 1 examined the consequences of group promotion and prevention focus for individuals’ affective outcomes, using a measure of chronic focus (Study 1) and primed focus (Study 2). In Study 3 , 1 examined some of the correlates of group regulatory focus in terms o f beliefs about sexism and gender relations. In Study 4 , 1 examined the extent to which group regulatory focus predicts decision-making biases in contexts relevant to the group. In Study 5 , 1 examined the effects o f group regulatory focus for impressions of promotion and prevention focused targets. The overall pattern o f results from the first three studies suggests that group promotion and group prevention focus may have different antecedents and consequences for men and women. Women may be more comfortable adopting a group promotion focus, whereas men may be more comfortable adopting a group prevention focus. There was only limited support in Study 4 for the hypothesis that the effects of group regulatory focus would be limited to group contexts. In Study 5, ratings of an ingroup and outgroup target’s prototypicality were affected by the participants’ group regulatory focus, as well as the target’s regulatory focus and status as an ingroup or outgroup member. However, impressions were also strongly driven by the target’s regulatory focus: promotion focused targets were preferred over prevention focused targets. I discuss implications for regulatory focus theory in terms o f understanding the differential consequences o f regulatory focus for men and women, improved understanding o f how promotion and prevention focus are perceived by observers, and direction for research on group regulatory focus."--Pages ix-x.