Activity Question

STATUS

& Expectation States

ORGANIZING

02.STATUS CHARACTERISTICS

THEORY

Focuses on the way certain evaluations or attitudes

shape interactional behavior

ACTIVATE GENERAL & SPECIFIC EXPECTATIONS ABOUT PERFORMANCE

Differentially valued attributes associated with sex, as well as generalized expectations about which sex will be more or less capable in different situations

GENERATE DISTINCT EXPECTATIONS ABOUT SPECIFIC ABILITIES

Mathematical ability, creative writing, etc. Has the potential to affect the status organizing

process in a task-related setting, if the ability is

relevant to the task

TYPES OF STATUS CHARACTERISTICS

DIFFUSE SPECIFIC

ASSUMPTIONS Status characteristics

theory seeks to explain how beliefs about status characteristics get

translated into performance expectations, which shape

the behaviors of individuals in a group. In other words, it explores the process of

attributing specific abilities to individuals

based on the status characteristics they

possess.

Five assumptions that link beliefs about status to behavior

Salience Assumption

For any attribute to affect performance expectations, it must be socially significant. A status characteristic is salient if it either differentiates actors or is relevant to the task

● The same characteristic (e.g., having a college degree) can advantage an actor in one setting (with a less educated group), have no impact in another (in a group where all have university degrees), & disadvantage the actor in a third setting (with a more educated group)

○ No status characteristic advantages or disadvantages an actor in all settings

PERFORMANCE EXPECTANCIES Those with higher performance expectancies will be higher in this order

Higher positioning entails greater opportunities to perform, initiate problem-solving, higher evaluations, reject influence, & to influence others in the group

ADVANTAGES & OPPORTUNITIESA group member’s performance expectancy determines their positioning in the power & prestige order of the group

SALIENCE

Burden of Proof Assumption

Concerns the way status characteristics that differentiate actors, but are not initially relevant to the performance of the group’s task, impact the formation of performance expectations

● All salient information is incorporated, unless something in the setting explicitly dissociates the status characteristic from the task

Sequencing Assumption

Specifies what happens in the more complicated situation when actors either enter or leave an existing social setting

● The performance expectations that formed in one encounter carry over to the next encounter, even if the specific actors change

○ This assumption has been used to intervene in the status generalization process

Aggregate Assumption

Explains how the status information associated with multiple characteristics is combined to form aggregated performance expectations

● In groups, people often differ from one another on several status characteristics at the same time, and often these multiple status characteristics generate inconsistent expectations for performance

○ It offers a procedure for making predictions for the order of performance expectations actors will construct from a given set of salient status characteristics

Comparison Assumption

Describes how aggregated performance assumptions are translated into behavior. Relative aggregated performance expectations for any two actors are compared

● The higher the expectations that an actor holds for herself compared to another actor, the greater the expectation advantage she will have over the second actor

03.REWARDS Differential

distribution of rewards, like status characteristics, can

actually create a status hierarchy among actors or

modify positions in an existing hierarchy

The Formation of Performance Expectations & Status Hierarchies

Socially significant

characteristics

Social rewards

Behavioral interchange patterns

Performance expectations

Behavioral inequalities/ status hierarchies

REWARDS & PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS

When a socially valued reward is distributed unequally

among members of a group, the actors will infer performance

expectations from their reward differences

One study showed that when a third party gave differential rewards to group members who

had no other basis for evaluating their performances on a shared task, the members used the reward differences to infer ability differences

THEORY EXAMPLE

REWARDS & PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS

In this way, the differential distribution of rewards, like status characteristics, can actually create a status hierarchy among actors or modify positions in an

existing hierarchy

Another study showed that allocating differential pay levels to participants in an

experiment created corresponding influence

hierarchies among them during interaction

THEORY EXAMPLE

04. The third factor that affects performance expectations

BEHAVIORAL INTERCHANGE PATTERNS

BEHAVIORAL INTERCHANGE PATTERNS

Such a pattern occurs between two or more actors when one engages in assertive,

higher status behaviors (e.g., initiating speech, making a task suggestion, resisting

change in the face of disagreement) that are responded to with deferential, lower

status behaviors by the other actors (e.g., hesitating to speak, positively evaluating the other’s suggestion, changing to agree

with the other)

Behavioral interchange patterns shape performance expectations most among actors in a group who are equals in both their external status characteristics & their reward levels, such as between two women in a mixed sex group

A

Behavioral interchange patterns are the means by which expectation states theory accounts for the development of status structures in homogeneous groups

B

Following the common assumption that people speak

up more confidently about things at which they have more

experience, salient status typifications induce actors to assume that the more assertive actor is more competent at the task than the more deferential

actor, creating differential performance expectations for

them

BEHAVIORAL INTERCHANGE

RESEARCH EXAMPLE One study showed that when mixed sex dyads shifted from a gender neutral task, where the man had a status advantage, to a feminine typed task, where the woman had a status advantage, the actors’ participation rates & assertive nonverbal behaviors reversed from a pattern favoring the man to one favoring the woman

When actors differ in status characteristics, the

differentiated performance expectations created by the

status characteristics shape the actors’ verbal & nonverbal

assertiveness. Consequently, differences in status characteristics shape

behavioral interchange patterns

BEHAVIORAL INTERCHANGE

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