Uncertainty Orientation and the Self

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Uncertainty Orientation and the Self

• Individual Differences in How We Process and
  Evaluate Information with regard to the Self

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The Uncertain Mind Individual Differences in
Facing the Unknown

• Richard Sorrentino, Chris Roney,
• Judy Short, and Students
• The University of Western Ontario

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Two Types of Uncertainty Orientation
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The Uncertainty-Oriented Person

• Needs to Know About the Self and the World
• Approaches Uncertain Situations in Order to
  Resolve the Uncertainty
• Most North American Social Psychologists believe
  all people are like this

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The Certainty-Oriented Person

• Needs to maintain clarity about the self and the
  world
• Approaches Certainty and Avoids Confusion
• We believe the majority of North American people
  are in fact like this

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Measurement of Uncertainty Orientation

• Two Components
• nUncertainty Used to infer ones desire to
  resolve uncertainty
• Authoritarianism Used to infer ones desire to
  maintain clarity
• Uncertainty-oriented (UO) Hi nUncertainty, Lo
  Authoritarianism
• Certainty-oriented (CO) Lo nUncertainty, Hi
  Authoritarianism

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Uncertainty Orientation and Self-Assessment
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• Self-assessment theories say that we want to find
  out about our abilities, regardless of whether we
  are likely to be good or bad at that ability.
• Self-enhancement theories say that we want to
  find out about our abilities only if we are good
  at them. We do not want to find out anything bad.
• The theory of uncertainty orientation says that
  uncertainty-oriented persons want to find out
  about their abilities, regardless of whether they
  are likely to be good or bad at that ability
• BUT
• certainty-oriented persons do not want to find
  out about their abilities, regardless of whether
  they are likely to be good or bad at that
  ability.

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Mean number o f subtest items chosen by
uncertainty-oriented (UO) and certainty-oriented
(CO) persons as a function of condition
diagnosticity. From Sorrentino Hewitt (1984).M
uncertainty orientation (U/O Ascending and
Descending Conditions (Sorrentino Hewitt, 1984)
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UNCERTAINTY ORIENTATION AND COGNITION
Memory
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• Cognitive theorists argue that we should recall
• incongruent information better than congruent
• information because we should attend more to
• incongruent than congruent information. This
• would increase the chances of storing the
• information into long-term memory.
• We say that this is true only for UOs. COs
• should not attend to incongruent information
• any more and perhaps less than congruent
• information.

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Mean recall of congruent and incongruent
information by uncertainty and certainty
-oriented persons (UO and CO) (Driscoll,
Hamilton, Sorrentino, 1992)
Cough
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Mean recall of congruent and incongruent
information by uncertainty and certainty
-oriented persons (UO and CO) (Driscoll,
Hamilton, Sorrentino, 1992) Note residuals of
interaction illustrated
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Uncertainty Orientation and Cognition

• Memory
• Other studies
• King Sorrentino (1988) Cognitive schemas and
  distortion of Memory
• Sorrentino et al., (1995) Close Relationships,
  Memory, and Trust as a Heuristic

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Uncertainty Orientation and Cognition

• Information Processing

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Previous theories relating personal relevance or
importance to information processing

• Automatic vs. Controlled (Fazio, Schneider
  Shriffin)
• Heuristic vs. Systematic (Chaiken Eagly)
• Peripheral vs. Central Routes (Petty Cacioppo)
• All say systematic forms of information
  processing increase and nonsystematic decrease
  with increased importance

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WRONG !!!

• See two studies by Olson et al., (1988
  Sorrentino, Bobocel, Gitta, Olson Hewitt)

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Differences in Attitudes toward comprehensive
exams as a function of strength of arguments,
source expertise, and personal relevance for UOs
vs. COs
Note Bars indicate increases or decreases in
attitude as one goes from Low to High Personal
Relevance
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Differences in Attitudes toward comprehensive
exams as a function of one-sided vs. two-sided
arguments, and personal relevance for UOs vs. COs
Note Bars indicate increases or decreases in
attitude as one goes from Low to High Personal
Relevance
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Information Processing Model of Uncertainty
Orientation

• Increases in uncertainty will lead to increases
  in systematic processing of information for UOs
  but decreases for COs.
• Uncertainty includes imbalanced or incongruent
  situations, discrepant information,
  inconsistencies in thoughts or behaviors as well
  as not knowing what will happen in the future.
• Increases in certainty will lead to increases in
  systematic processing of information for COs but
  decreases for UOs.
• Certainty includes balanced or congruent
  situations, nondiscrepant information,
  consistencies in thoughts or behaviors, as well
  as knowing what will happen in the future.
• All of the above increases with increases in
  personal relevance.
• Fru Fu Fc (U-C)R(Pu - Pc).

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Uncertainty Orientation and Intelligence
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Mean IQ Scores as a function of Uncertainty
Orientation, Achievement- related motives, and
Task Diagosticity. Note SO success-oriented, FT
failure-threatened, UO uncertainty-oriented,
CO certainty- oriented. From Sorrentino,
Brouwers, Hanna, Roney, 1996) (1996)
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SO FT
SO FT
Interaction residuals of mean IQ Scores
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Motivation and Action Model of Uncertainty
Orientation

• Primary motivation increases in situations
  congruent with ones uncertainty orientation.
• e.g., success-oriented persons become more
  positively motivated and failure-threatened
  persons become more negatively motivated.
• This is true for UOs in uncertain situations and
  COs in certain situations.
• Secondary motivation increases in situations
  incongruent with ones uncertainty orientation.
• e.g., failure-threatened persons become more
  positively motivated and success-oriented persons
  become more negatively motivated.
• All of this increases with increases in personal
  relevance
• e.g., Fru (Ms - Maf)(U-C)R(Pu - Pc).

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An Informational and Affective Model of Thought
and Action
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Uncertainty Orientation, Health and Clinical
Psychology
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Uncertainty Orientation and Health Compliance
Behaviour

• Brouwers Sorrentino (1993)

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Protection Motivation Theory (Rogers, Rogers and
Maddux) says that as threat (severity,
vulnerability) and efficacy (self efficacy and
response efficacy) increase, motivation
to undertake actions to protect the self
increases. We say that this is true for UOs, but
not for COs
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Uncertainty Orientation and Self-Disclosure

• Physiological Effects of Revealing Traumatic
  Events about the Self
• From Brouwers Sorrentino (submitted)

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Pennebakers self-penetration theory says that
revealing traumatic aspects about the self should
increase skin conductance and generally increase
physical and mental well-being. We say that
this would work for UOs, but might be harmful
for COs
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CO
UO
CO
UO
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Mean Change in Heart Rate as a function of High
and Low Disclosure Intensity. Borrowers
Sorrentino (submitted)
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Uncertainty Orientation, Depression, and Control

• Information Processing and Performance when
  Moderately Depressed.
• From Walker Sorrentino (2000)

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Weary and others argue that moderate depression
leads to increased information processing and
performance because moderately depressed persons
are motivated to restore control over their
lives. We say that this could be harmful for COs
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Uncertainty Orientation and Close
Relationships
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Trust and Uncertainty Orientation

• Sorrentino, Holmes, Hanna, Sharp (1995)

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Uncertainty Orientation, Trust, and Attachment
Styles

• Carswell Sorrentino (submitted)

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Field
U
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Exptl
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Uncertainty Orientation and Educational
Psychology The Merits of Cooperative Learning
and the Jigsaw Method
Huber, Sorrentino, Davidson, Roth, Epplier
(1992)
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Huber et al (1992, Study 1)
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Huber et al. (1992, Study 3)
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Huber et al. (1992, Study 4)
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(Thank you)