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The importance of status congruency in interaction processes
Author(s) -
van Kreveld David,
Willigers Ferd J. M.,
Gloudemans Theo,
Rancuret Frans,
van der Wiel Kiek,
Poot Ruud
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2420040203
Subject(s) - psychology , generality , social psychology , clarity , interpersonal communication , variation (astronomy) , cognitive psychology , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , astrophysics , psychotherapist
The literature on status congruency is summarized in two statements: 1) Individuals strive after status congruency, and 2) status congruency involves favorable state for individuals, groups and the society. The two reported experiments throw serious doubts on the generality of these statements. Experiment I is a variation of Burnstein and Zajonc's (1965) experiment. It is hypothesized and shown that the striving after congruency is weakened under condition of a competitive reward structure, the Ss giving incongruent self‐rankings. Moreover it is found that nominations for a different task are not congruent at all. Experiment II was designed to replicate and extend Exline and Ziller's (1959) experiment, in which it was shown that status congruency in small groups causes interpersonal conflict. On none of the several measures was clear support obtained. In the discussion it is argued that there is hardly any experimental evidence for the two statements formulated above. It is pointed out that the correlational relationships between status congruency and other variables may be attributed to some internal cognitive link in the person, serving as an intermediate variable, the forces of it perhaps being self‐interest (as supported by Experiment I), a need for clarity and a need for justice.