Dissonance, awareness, and motivation.

The problems were whether dissonance can be aroused between 2 cognitions without awareness of 1 of them and whether change in consummatory strength of a motive can be an avenue of dissonance reduction. 40 high school Ss were hypnotized to a depth adequate for assuring amnesia for suggestions. ? ate sauce that was very thirst arousing (HT), and ?, sauce that aroused little thirst (LT). Placed under hypnosis again, the 20 experimental Ss were told that, on awaking, they would feel water bloated, while the control Ss were told they would feel fatigued. Ss were awakened and offered water. HT experimental Ss drank less water than LT experimental Ss, the reverse of the control group effect (interaction p     

The effects of personal liking, perceived ability, and value of prize on choice of partners for a competition.

"Ss who were told… that they had high ability at… [a] task were strongly inclined to choose partners who also had high skill, even though such choices meant abandoning their original personal preferences and working with their originally less preferred classmates." Monetary remuneration was seen to affect choice by these Ss. "Ss who were told they themselves had low skill scores continued to choose partners according to their original liking preferences, even though the monetary payoff increased." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GE98W. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of stress on the performance of normally anxious and high-anxious subjects under chance and skill conditions.

Studied whether a belief in personal control over a stressor would improve the performance of high-anxious Ss. Ss were 30 normal-anxious and 30 high-anxious undergraduates, classified according to Taylor Manifest Anxiety scale scores. The 2 groups did not differ on a complex learning task under nonstress conditions. Under a stress-chance condition, in which Ss were told they had no control over a shock stressor, the performance of high-anxious Ss was disrupted while that of the normals was not. In a stress-skill condition, Ss were told that they could control the stressor through their performance. Normals showed a marked improvement in performance in the stress-skill condition, but high-anxious Ss showed no significant improvement. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-disclosure in a simulated psychiatric interview.

Describes 2 experiments in which a total of 192 undergraduates received 49 items of personal information previously scaled in terms of their intimacy and presented according to the method of constant stimuli. For each item, Ss indicated whether they believed they would have withheld or revealed that information under actual psychiatric interview conditions. Exp. I manipulated the professional role of the interviewer, confidentiality of obtained information, and sex of the interviewee in a 4 * 3 * 2 design. Results indicate that (a) Ss avowedly revealed more personal information to mental health professionals than they would in a control employment interview situation, with no differences between the mental health professionals; (b) informing Ss that the interview was not confidential produced significant information loss from female but not male Ss; and (c) Ss who received no information regarding confidentiality behaved like Ss who were told the information was confidential. In Exp. II, Ss were asked to assume the motivational-attitudinal state of persons either coerced or voluntarily seeking a psychiatric interview because they had violated interpersonal norms. Significant information loss occurred in coerced Ss while confidentiality had no effect on self-disclosure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preparatory action and belief in the probable occurrence of future events.

This study was conducted to determine the influence of behaving as if an event will occur on the belief that it will occur. It was hypothesized that such behavior should increase the belief in the likelihood of the event occurring. Ss (volunteer female high school students) were told that ? the Ss who volunteered would have to take an exam, but not whether they were in that group (50% probability). All Ss were required to do some preparatory study; ? were told to memorize the data in preparatory for the exam, ? to only acquaint themselves casually with it. Ss were then asked their assessment of the probability that they were included in the group to be tested. A larger percentage of the group that had to make the greatest effort (memorize vs. acquaint) believed they would have to take the test. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The misattribution of smoking cessation symptoms.

Asked 15 female nurses who reported smoking at least 10 cigarettes per day to refrain from smoking for 1 day as part of a "study of heart rate." Experimental Ss were given a placebo and told that this pill would cause increased irritability, nervousness, and appetite. Controls received no information about side effects. It was predicted that experimental Ss would attribute their discomfort to the action of the pill and report less cessation difficulty than controls, who would attribute their discomfort to cigarette deprivation. This effect would be expected to appear only after several hours of deprivation when symptoms would be intense. Self-reports revealed a significant Condition * Time interaction, confirming the prediction. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responsibility and dependency.

In 2 experiments the Ss were "workers" operating under the supposed guidance of their peer (a stranger) who was playing the part of their "supervisor." The men in the High Dependency condition were informed that E's evaluation of the supervisor would depend largely upon their productivity, while the Low Dependency Ss were told that this evaluation would not be affected by their performance. There was a significantly greater performance in the High Dependency condition. In general, the Low Dependency Ss worked harder when told that the supervisor would soon learn of their performance than when they had been informed that he would not find out about their productivity until much later. The immediacy with which the supervisor would learn of S's productivity did not affect performance under high dependency, however. The Ss in this condition worked relatively hard presumably because of a feeling of responsibility to the dependent peer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-advocacy and self-esteem.

Explored the utility of treating self-esteem as an attitude that might be vulnerable to the same kinds of experimental manipulations usually directed at more traditional, less consequential attitudinal issues. Within an attitudinal advocacy paradigm, 109 undergraduates wrote 3 essays either about their personality attributes or about social propositions. Half the Ss writing on each of these topics were told to advocate a positive position (i.e., self-laudatory or proposition supporting) in their essays. The remaining Ss, although induced to advocate positive positions, were led to believe that they could elect to write negative (self-deprecatory or issue-opposing) essays. As anticipated, Ss who wrote the self-laudatory essays subsequently rated themselves more favorably than did Ss who wrote in support of social propositions. The latter Ss showed a corresponding advocacy effect with regard to the social proposition that they had espoused. The manipulation of perceived choice did not influence the magnitude of the advocacy effect. The results are regarded as encouraging with respect to the application of laboratory-derived attitude change procedures to issues of high personal relevance and clinical importance. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol and the balanced-placebo design: The role of experimenter demands in expectancy.

Tested the hypothesis that Ss who were debriefed so that experimenter demands were withdrawn would report beverage content and level of intoxication more accurately than Ss treated as usual in a balanced-placebo experiment. 48 male university students were randomly assigned to 1 of the 4 usual groups: told alcohol/received alcohol (.79 ml/kg), told alcohol/received no alcohol, told no alcohol/received alcohol, and told no alcohol/received no alcohol. Ss were told that the data file containing their actual group allocation and previous reports was lost owing to computer breakdown, and thus the experiment did not know which beverage they had drunk. The initial manipulation check revealed a greater effect of expectancy, but the later check revealed a larger effect of drink content. Only 8 of 24 Ss were successfully deceived. Conclusions derived from past studies and the use of the balanced-placebo design in the area of alcohol and expectancies are challenged, although the challenge may be restricted to the use of the design with relatively high doses of alcohol. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Misattribution of dissonance and behaviour-consistent attitude change.

Examined the prediction that people who have misattributed dissonance arousal to an external source may come to question the appropriateness of this attribution and may then be motivated to alter their attitudes. This was tested by having an experimenter discredit the plausibility of an external source after misattribution had presumably occurred. 80 female undergraduates participated in the study, with 16 of these Ss serving as controls. 64 Ss were given a pill described as having either unpleasant side effects or no side effects and then were committed to write counterattitudinal essays under high-choice conditions. Some Ss were then told that a mistake had been made and that they had actually been given the other form of the pill. As predicted, Ss who had initially been led to believe that the pill had aversive side effects but were later told that it did not manifested behavior-consistent attitude change. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear of interpersonal evaluation as a determinant of alcohol consumption in male social drinkers.

Investigated the effects of fear of interpersonal evaluation on drinking behavior. 64 male undergraduates classified as heavy social drinkers were assigned to 1 of 8 conditions in a 2 * 2 * 2 factorial design. All Ss participated in a wine-tasting task designed as an unobtrusive measure of drinking behavior. Half of the Ss were led to believe that they would take part in a 2nd experiment in which they would be evaluated by a group of women, and half did not expect to be evaluated in the 2nd study. Ss were also classified as either internally or externally oriented based on their scores on the locus of control scale. For the 3rd factor, 1/2 of the Ss were given an opportunity to exercise some situational control prior to the impending evaluation, and 1/2 of them were deprived of this control. Results show that Ss expecting to be evaluated drank significantly more alcohol than low-fear controls, but the locus of control and situational control factors did not significantly affect drinking rates. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of client characteristics on initial counselor perceptions.

Analyzed the reactions of 30 professionally employed counselors to a role-played, videotaped intake interview with a potential client by a counselor who was not in view. The Ss assessed the probability that they would elect to counsel the person. They also rated both themselves and the client on A. Barak and M. LaCrosse's (1975) Counselor Rating Form (CRF). Results indicate that the trustworthiness dimension seemed to incorporate those characteristics that most influence initial counselor perceptions. It is suggested that the CRF can be used to obtain counselor as well as client perceptions and that the use of relativistic measures of attributes, that is, the use of scores that reflect the differences between one's own attributes and those of the other, may be a valuable methodological addition to research that uses the CRF. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Authoritarianism and reactions to "sputniks."

"This study investigated the relationship between authoritarianism, as measured by an F scale, and changing or retaining predictions following a natural influence event. Following Sputnik I, college Ss made forced-choice predictions… about which nation is most likely to get to the moon first. The same prediction was again elicited following Sputnik II. Among Ss who initially favored the U. S., those who did not change their prediction… received significantly higher scores on the F scale than did those who changed their initial predictions." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Test anxiety, stress, and intelligence-test performance.

Administered the Test Anxiety Scale for Children and the CMA scale to 332 6th graders. Later Ss were given an intelligence test under a number of experimental conditions designed to induce varying amounts of stress. Results were analyzed by means of 2 (anxiety) * 5 (experimental conditions) * 2 (sex) analyses of covariance, Ss having been classified as high or low anxious on the basis of their anxiety-scale scores. These analyses revealed that none of the effects of the main independent variables or of their interactions were significant. Results do not support either of the hypotheses: that high-anxious Ss will be more adversely affected by stress; and that test anxiety is more directly related to test performance than is general anxiety. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Level of initial attitude, active rehearsal, and instructional set as factors in attitude change.

2experiments are reported in which Ss having extremely favorable, favorable, and neutral attitudes toward the church were induced to read an antichurch essay to 6 listeners of their choice outside the laboratory. ? of the Ss in each predisposition group were told that their own attitudes might be influenced as a result of the experience. Both those Ss who were "favorable" toward the church and those who were "neutral" became significantly less prochurch as measured by posttesting with the attitude scale. The extremely prochurch Ss were not significantly influenced by this mode of persuasion. Instructional set did not produce any significant differences in susceptibility of Ss in any of the groups to the compliance experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of diplomas, awards, and counselor sex on perceived expertness.

Employed a 2 * 2 factorial design in a counseling-analog investigation to evaluate the effects of environmental cues of competence (such as diplomas and awards) and the sex of the counselor on perceived expertness. 64 undergraduates were interviewed and subsequently completed a semantic-differential questionnaire which contained a 6-item scale of perceived expertness. Results indicate that diplomas and awards significantly influenced the S's initial perception of counselor expertness. Contrary to previous research, the sex of the counselor did not influence the initial perceptions of the Ss. It is suggested that further research is needed on the duration of the effects of the diplomas, the sex of the counselor, and the existence of such effects in additional populations and settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Liking for the group and the perceived merit of the group's behavior.

Paris of Ss were told, individually, that their partners were congenial and they would probably like them (high like), or the converse (low like). Ss were then separated and given an artillery gunnery problem in which they were to judge the accuracy of their "observer's" range estimates. Both Ss in each pair thought the other 3 was the "observer," which was actually a taped recording piped to each S. High like Ss judged their "observer's" estimates as more accurate than low like Ss. Ss who had been led to believe that they had "observers" of high proficiency in range estimates tended to judge the estimate as more accurate than when they had low proficiency "observers." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some characteristics of the achievement motive in women.

The hypothesis that female Ss would respond to arousal cues with heightened achievement motivation scores and high moitvation performance relationships when the cues were related to a goal that was achievement-relevant to the Ss but not otherwise was advanced to explain hitherto inconsistent experimental results obtained in this area with female Ss. Additional hypotheses stated that both these effects would be greater when female figures were used in the projective measure of motivation except in the case of girls who valued both the goals—intellectual and woman's role—when they were presented with intellectual arousal cues. In this case the effects should be greater when male figures are used. The hypotheses were confirmed except that motivation scores were always higher under intellectual arousal when male figures were used and under woman's role arousal when female figures were used. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal influence process in real-life counseling: Investigating client perceptions, counselor experience level, and counselor power over time.

Examined the interpersonal influence process within an actual counseling context over an average of 8 sessions. Counselors were either beginning or advanced practicum students or doctoral interns (n?=?27); clients were 31 students who sought counseling at a university center. Before and after counseling Ss completed the Counselor Rating Form, the Expectations about Counseling measure, and the Counselor Perceptions Questionnaire. Results indicate that (a) the actual counselor experience level did not affect client perceptions of the counselor; (b) perceived counselor expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness changed over time, but not in the same direction across counselors; (c) different levels of client need did not affect clients' perceptions of counselor characteristics; and (d) counselors rated as highly attractive indicated they had more therapeutic power over clients than counselors rated as moderately attractive. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mexican-American cultural commitment, preference for counselor ethnicity, and willingness to use counseling.

Mexican-American college students who expressed a strong commitment to the Mexican-American culture (28 Ss), strong commitment to the Anglo-American culture (18 Ss), strong commitment to both cultures (38 Ss), or weak commitment to both cultures (14 Ss) rated their preference for an ethnically similar counselor and completed a willingness to use professional counseling survey. Results show that preference for counselor ethnicity and willingness to self-disclose in counseling were related to cultural commitment. Ss with a strong commitment to the Mexican-American culture expressed the greatest preference for an ethnically similar counselor and the least willingness to self-disclose. The 51 females expressed a greater willingness to use professional counseling services than did males. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)