Based on situated identity theory, which postulates that behaviors are enacted in order to claim particular identities, it was hypothesized that differences in conformity rates for males and females are a function of sex differences in the identity implications of conformity. Identity implications of conformity were assessed in a simulation of a recent conformity experiment (Santee and Maslach, forthcoming). Observers indicated the relative values of identities available in the experimental situation (normative judgments) and made inferences about actors' identities based on information about their conformity behavior (attributional judgments). Factor analysis of observers' normative judgments revealed two evaluative dimensions: instrumentality and expressiveness. For both normative and attributional judgments, females judge conformity as a more positive, self-defining act. This finding explains the higher rates of conformity exhibited by females in the original conformity experiment and in a self-presentational simulation reported in the present study. Inconsistencies in research on sex differences in conformity may be understood by examining the identity implications of conformity in {he context of various experimental paradigms.

The Summer Threshold Program at the University of California at Berkeley provides entering freshmen with an introduction to college life. The program was evaluated using a variety of measures and data sources. Primary outcome variables centered on grade point averages and persistence levels of Threshold and non-Threshold freshmen. Other variables examined for program and comparison students include: expectations about college life, perceptions of first year at college, level of academic effort, faculty ratings of students' educational attitudes, and other attitudinal variables. Through comparative data, multiple measures, and longitudinal follow-up, useful conclusions were reached concerning the program's problems and successes.

This paper describes a self-systemic approach to the study of personality structure and process. Personality is conceptualized as organized around the ways one is committed to identifying oneself. Central to personality structure are those social roles the person is committed to performing. These role identities are the fundamental criteria by which goals, activities, and situations are selected by the person. Associated with role identities are identity goals, self-attributed characteristics that the person is motivated to exemplify when he or she is performing a particular role identity. Normative expectations are the person's beliefs as to which behaviors will express his or her identity goals. Data from a longitudinal and a cross-sectional sample of students supported this conceptualization. The theory is contrasted with the traditional self-concept approach, and is applied to an analysis of personality consistency; development, and adaptability.

One way to conceptualize interpersonal attraction is to place it within a dyadic framework of mutual evaluation and appraisal. Two variables that may influence our beliefs about how others evaluate us are congruence (the fit between their preferences and our attributes and behavior) and similarity of personalties. In a 2 x 2 factorial design, the congruence of subjects' selfdescriptions with a stranger's preferences was shown to affect their estimates of the stranger's appraisal, but similarity of self-descriptions did not. In turn, both estimated appraisal and the congruence of the stranger's attributes with subjects' preferences influenced attraction. In general, one is attracted to others who are evaluatively positive, both as the source and object of appraisal.