The purpose of this research was to develop a self-directed Galatea intervention that enables individuals to enhance their positive leadership and followership self-expectation through Associative Conditioning (AC). While traditional Galatea interventions are typically administered by a facilitator (e.g., squad leader, researcher, teacher) to enhance individuals' self-expectation through contrived verbal feedback, none of the studies have explored the plausibility of a self-directed Galatea intervention. That is, a self-directed Galatea intervention that enhances individuals’ positive self-expectations without any contrived manipulations Results across two studies (total N = 320) supported the plausibility of a self-directed Galatea intervention via AC. Study 1 (n = 160) provided evidence for a self-directed Galatea leadership intervention. Individuals in the experimental group who were conditioned to associate themselves with positive leadership schemas perceived themselves more positively as leaders than those in the control group. Additionally, individuals in the experimental group had higher leadership self-efficacy and social-normative motivation to lead than those in the control group. Study 2 (n = 160) provided evidence for a self-directed Galatea followership intervention. Individuals in the experimental group who were conditioned to associate themselves with positive followership schemas perceived themselves more positively as followers than those in the control group. Lastly, individuals in the experimental group had higher general self-efficacy and personal mastery than those in the control group. Overall, this research contributed to the leadership, followership, AC, and self-fulfilling prophecy literature, offering new insights into leadership and followership processes.

The current study explores the potential psychological explanations for the underrepresentation of Asian Americans (AAs) in management positions. Making AAs aware of their collectivist identities was expected to be related to lower leadership aspirations and intrapersonal leadership perceptions as compared to a no prime control group. Moreover, making AA leaders aware of their collectivist backgrounds was expected to be related to evaluating their followers positively according to Implicit Followership Theory. A new Social Identity Model of Organizational Followership (SIMOF) is proposed in this paper, in which AA individuals’ positive implicit followership theories are expected to be related to higher leadership aspirations and intrapersonal leadership perceptions. Two hundred ninety-nine AA undergraduates were primed with their collectivist vs. individualist cultural backgrounds and told that they would be developing a business plan with the colleagues in the room (other AAs or European Americans) based on their answers to leadership aspiration questions, intrapersonal leadership perception questions, and indirect measures of implicit followership theories. No actual business plan was created. Participants primed with their collectivist identity were more likely to have lower leadership aspirations and be more self-conscious about being a good leader than those primed with their individualist identity. Moreover, participants primed with their collectivist identities were more likely to view European American followers as worse citizens and as less industrious than AA followers. Finally, although the SIMOF was largely unsupported in this study, a relationship was found between viewing followers as enthusiastic and both leadership perception and leadership aspiration.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an implicit measure of implicit followership theory (IFT), and to investigate its behavioral outcomes. Validation of an implicit measure of IFT would complement the only existing explicit IFT measure (Sy, 2010). I developed an implicit measure of IFT using a variant of the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Swartz, 1998) called the Single-target IAT (Karpinski & Steinman, 2006). The Single-target IAT IFT measure was tested across three studies using student and employee samples. The pilot study assessed the content and criterion validity of the implicit measure. Study 1 assessed the construct (convergent and discriminant) validity of the implicit measure with student and employee samples. Study 2 assessed the predictive validity of the implicit measure in a simulated leader-follower interaction task.

Results across three studies do not support validation of the Single-target IAT IFT measure. Overall, the recurring pattern of non-significant relationships across all three studies indicates the measure in its current form is unsuitable as an implicit measure of IFT.

Despite these results, another implicit measure of IFT, the projective IFT (Sy, 2013) provided preliminary evidence that a projective approach can be successfully used to capture individuals' IFTs. Notably, the projective IFT was significantly correlated with various criterion and discriminant measures, including but not limited to: entity theory of followers, positive and negative affect, conscientiousness, job performance, and job satisfaction. The projective IFT was also significantly correlated with several behaviors such as frowning, competence, and hostility.

This study has two main contributions. First, this study provides valuable feedback about Single-target IATs and IATs, both of which are relatively young scientific methods. At a minimum, the results will lead to greater utility and design of the IAT or implicit measures. From a broader perspective, my hope is that these results will advance our theoretical understanding of implicit measures. Second, this study contributes to the field by demonstrating support for the projective IFT. Results from three independent samples indicate the projective IFT measure is a viable, implicit measure of IFT.

Demand is a perceived need to exhaust resources to manage a situation. Although previous models of demand and stress have acknowledged the existence of potential gain in these taxing situations, they have focused primarily on the potential for loss. The present research tests a multivalence extension of the transactional model of stress to address the role of secondary appraisal in positively-valenced demand. Across three experiments, I demonstrate that secondary appraisal moderates the relationship between demand and valence, as well as an important cognitive outcome: problem solving. When secondary appraisal is high, demand increases positive valence and improves problemsolving performance. When secondary appraisal is low, demand increases negative valence and impairs problem-solving performance. These results are consistent with the theoretical structure of eustress and demonstrate the need to further explore positivelyvalenced demand in stress research.