Relationship of ascendant-submissive behavior in dyadic groups of human subjects to their emotional responsiveness.

It was hypothesized that "ascendant-submissive relationship between two verbally interacting subjects can develop as a function of their differential emotionality." The experiment was designed to form experimental pairs having different emotionality scores and control pairs with equal scores. Ascendant behavior was defined by greater participation in discussion, shorter latency of the first statement, and greater resistance to change of opinion. Results indicated that in experimental pairs, high emotional Ss were more ascendant. In control pairs there were no significant differences in behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)