Einstellung effect and goal-setting behavior.

"Goal-setting behavior of rigid Ss was compared to that of nonrigid Ss… . The two groups were found to differ on six of the 11 measures derived from the level-of-aspiration situation. Four measured variability of goal-setting behavior and two described height of aspiration. The rigid group was more heterogeneous on all six measures; as a group they scored higher on the measures of variability and set lower aspiration levels." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conforming behavior of psychiatric and medical patients.

"A group of ten non-psychotic psychiatric patients in the open ward of a general hospital was compared with seven medical patients without disabling psychiatric symptoms, with respect to the variability of their judgments of the autokinetic phenomenon… . The results indicated that neurotic Ss were consistently more variable than nonneurotic Ss in their judgments and were less affected by the group influence." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of the schedule of reinforcement on operant conditioning of a verbal response in the autokinetic situation.

The autokinetic effect was employed to compare the effect of 2 different schedules of reinforcement on verbal behavior. One group of Ss was given 20 reinforcements of "Right" under a regular reinforcement schedule for emitting verbally the estimate designated as the response. A second group was given similar reinforcement under a variable interval schedule. The regular reinforcement group reached the criterion of extinction in 10 to 35 verbal emissions while no S in the variable interval group extinguished within 10 to 80 verbal emissions. 15 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Authoritarianism, intolerance of ambiguity, and rigidity under ego-and task-involving conditions.

"Individual laboratory sessions involving judgments of autokinetic stimuli were conducted with 69 college students whose standings on the California F scale were known; approximately half received ego-orienting instructions, half received a task orientation… . The results of the study were felt to be consonant with positions taken by Frenkel-Brunswik regarding the typical rigid and ambiguity-intolerent behavior of authoritarians. Limitations to this relationship were noted and alternate hypotheses suggested." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety, birth order, and susceptibility to social influence.

The effect of order-of-birth and susceptibility to social influence (suggestibility) was studied. The reactivity of first-born and non-first-born Ss was observed in the autokinetic situation. First born Ss showed themselves to be more suggestible than non-first-born Ss under conditions which entailed the arousal of anxiety or not. Results are related to previous research. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HK16S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The use of tape recording to simulate a group atmosphere.

"The present study explores the possibility that tape recordings can be used to communicate to a test subject the experience that he is a participating member of a social group… . In this study a group frame of reference was created for the autokinetic effect solely by auditory stimulation. The reports of all 'other' Ss were recorded and communicated to the critical S over headphones." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception of disturbing and neutral words through the autokinetic word technique.

Disturbing and neutral words were selected individually for Ss by means of a word association test. It was then suggested to these Ss that an apparently moving but actually motionless point of light in a completely darkened room (autokinetic effect) would write a sentence containing a given word. The given word was either a disturbing or neutral word. The Ss reported perceiving fewer of the disturbing words. Those disturbing words that were perceived had a greater latency than perceived neutral words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-evaluation maintenance and the mediational role of emotion: The perception of friends and strangers.

Examined the causal role of emotional arousal in self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) processes. In previous work, A. Tesser and J. Campbell (see record 1983-12693-001) found that Ss were most charitable in their perception of another's performance when self-relevance was low and the other was close. If emotional arousal mediated this pattern of behavior, then the pattern of behavior should be replicated when arousal is present but attenuated when arousal is misattributed or low. The misattribution hypothesis was tested in Study 1. Study 2 was a correlational study in which physiological arousal and misattribution were measured. Results supported the prediction that SEM processes would be attenuated when arousal was attributed to external sources. The misattribution effect was particularly pronounced among more highly aroused Ss. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the SEM model and person perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reorganization and the recall of prose.

The hypothesis that reorganizing written material while taking notes would aid free recall was evaluated in 2 experiments with high school juniors. 82 Ss read a passage on anthropology organized either by society or by topic. They were then instructed to take notes either (a) in the same order as the material was presented or (b) by reorganizing the information according to specified categories. Free recall was higher for Ss who reorganized the material. In Exp II, with 146 Ss, the effect persisted when the categories were given to Ss in all conditions. Ss of average verbal aptitude benefited from reorganizing to a greater extent than did Ss of higher verbal aptitude. Results are discussed in terms of the encoding variability hypothesis. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol and social behavior: I. The psychology of drunken excess.

Conducted a meta-analysis of 34 studies of tests of alcohol's effect on a social behavior to test the hypothesis that alcohol impairment makes a social response more extreme or excessive when the response is pressured by both inhibiting and instigating cues (when it is under inhibitory response conflict). Each test was rated (validated against independent judges) as to whether it was under high or low inhibitory conflict. Results show that over low-conflict tests, intoxicated Ss behaved only a tenth of a standard deviation more extremely than their sober controls, while over high-conflict tests intoxicated Ss were a full standard deviation more extreme. The effect of conflict increased with alcohol dosage, was not mediated by drinking expectancies, and generalized (with few exceptions) across the 34 studies and 12 social behaviors included in the analysis. Studies included in the meta-analysis and rules for coding inhibitory response conflict are appended. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of group identity on resource use in a simulated commons dilemma.

Used 172 undergraduates in 3 experiments to assess the effects of making salient either a superordinate (collective) or subordinate (differentiating) group identity in heterogeneous groups. In Exp I, 22 male and 36 female Ss were assigned to either a superordinate-group identity (small community resident behavior vs other areas) or a subordinate-group identity (behavior of young people vs elderly people) condition and were asked to perform a computer task individually; Ss were led to believe they were interacting with 5 other persons (2 real and 3 bogus Ss) in their group in accumulating as many points as possible while making the resource last as long as possible. Bogus feedback about group behavior was given. In Exp II, 29 male and 19 female Ss were told that the bogus Ss were economics majors and were asked to perform as in Exp I. In Exp III, the level of social-group identity for 40 male and 26 female Ss was manipulated by varying the common fate of the group members. Results of all 3 experiments show support for the hypothesis that individual restraint would be most likely when a superordinate group identity was made salient and under conditions in which feedback indicated that the common resource was being depleted. A sex-response difference found in Exp I was not sustained in subsequent experiments. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Additivity versus nonadditivity of intrinsic and extrinsic incentives: Implications for work motivation, performance, and attitudes.

80 male Ss were randomly assigned to either an intrinsically appealing or an intrinsically nonappealing assembly task. Half of the Ss were paid according to a highly salient, continuous, contingent reward schedule, while the other half were paid according to an extremely noncontingent payment schedule. Thus, 20 Ss worked for both intrinsic and extrinsic incentives, 20 for extrinsic only, 20 for intrinsic only, and 20 for minimal incentives of either type. Data on 4 dependent variables (performance, intrinsic motivation, orientation toward the task, and intrinsic satisfaction) provided convergent support for E. L. Deci's (see record 1968-02190-001) hypothesis that intrinsic and extrinsic incentives are not additive in determining attitudes and behavior. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inconsistencies and anomalies of response as a defining characteristic of hypnosis.

Investigated the hypothesis that a major defining characteristic of hypnosis can be observed in inconsistencies and in gross anomalies in the hypnotized person's behavior, as has been suggested by M. T. Orne (1974). This hypothesis was evaluated using hypnotic age regression to index inconsistencies and anomalies. 44 undergraduates were selected for high, medium, and low hypnotic susceptibility, and the insusceptible Ss were given Orne's simulation instructions. All Ss were hypnotically age regressed to age 5 yrs and presented with 15 standard questions previously sampled from a group of 20 kindergarten children. Immediately afterwards, the Ss were regressed to age 1 yr and presented with 3 further questions. The central hypothesis of the study was supported partially in that the highly susceptible Ss showed significantly greater inconsistency in their response, as defined in terms of 3 different criterion measures. There was no evidence of significantly more gross anomaly in their responses. Results indicate that hypnotized, highly susceptible Ss in hypnosis differ from less susceptible Ss in terms of qualitative differences in their cognitive functioning and in their subjective experience of hypnosis. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subject-situational interaction in response to tranquillizing medication.

Classified 68 female mental hospital patients as high or low in susceptibility to social influence on the basis of conformity behavior to the opinions of high prestige medical staff within an autokinetic situation. Each S then completed an 8-wk treatment program which ran as follows: 2 wk. off all medication, 4 wk. on chlorpromazine, placebo, or no-drug treatment condition, followed by 2 wk. off all medication. Results indicate no differences in level of hospital adjustment and general intellectual functioning of Ss on chlorpromazine, placebo, and no-drug treatments. Ss on chlorpromazine showed impaired foresight. This implies that chlorpromazine treatment may present a serious handicap to the social readjustment of patients. The failure of the measure of susceptibility to social influence to interact in the hypothesized direction with the drug dimension is interpreted in terms of a reevaluation of the attitudinal milieu. (French summary) (36 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of perceived dependency relationships upon conformity to group expectations.

The study was designed to test the hypothesis that "group members perceiving themselves as interdependent for their reward attainment become highly motivated toward the group task." Results generally are in accord with several predictions, one of which is that: "Members of groups who are instrumentally interdependent become more highly motivated toward the group task than Ss who can achieve their goals independently of the others in the group." Another prediction supported by results is that: "Under conditions of instrumental independence, Ss who are told that both they and their teammates can attain a valued goal through the group activity become more highly task motivated than Ss who are told either that only S or Ss partner can attain this goal." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dependence on external influence: Correlates in perception, attitudes, and judgment.

The hypothesis that people have a generalized tendency to accept or reject external influence is tested in perceptual and conformity situations, using 53 college males as S's. The results show that S's who are highly influenced by the field in one perceptual test perform similarly in other perceptual tests, conformity measures are not significantly interrelated, and field dependent perceptual behavior is associated with high conformity in other tests, particularly autokinetic and attitude change measures. It is suggested that while perceptual performance reflects central tendencies of the person, his performance in specific conformity situations is subject to greater fluctuation as a result of more peripheral factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal order and the perceived mutability of events: Implications for blame assignment.

Hypothesized that later occurrences in a series of events tend to evoke counterfactual alternatives more strongly and, hence, tend to be blamed more for ensuing negative outcomes than do earlier occurrences. In Study 1, Ss played the role of students whose task it was to read an article and then to identify the questions they thought a teacher might include on a test of it. Consistent with the hypothesis, Ss were less critical of a teacher whose test questions did not match their own when the teacher generated his or her questions before they did than when he or she generated them after they did. In Study 2, Ss played the role of teachers whose task it was to select questions to be answered by a student. Presumably, because of a greater fear of being blamed, Ss selected easier questions when their selection of questions occurred after the student had finished studying than when it occurred before the student began studying. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Feminine self-esteem, self-ratings of competence, and maternal career commitment.

Conducted a study with 71 college females to examine the relationship between self-esteem (as measured by Coopersmith's Self-Esteem Inventory) and self-ratings of competence on Rosenkrantz's Sex-Role Stereotype Questionnaire. Comparisons were made of Ss whose mothers differed in work history and attitudes toward careers. Higher self-esteem was predicted for Ss who rated themselves highly on competence-related traits; this hypothesis was supported. Higher self-esteem and higher self-ratings on competence were expected for Ss whose mothers worked and Ss whose mothers desired a career. Findings were that maternal preference for a career had a positive effect upon Ss' self-esteem and evaluations of their own competence; maternal employment did not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of information source status and dogmatism upon conformity behavior.

This study explored the relationship between degree of authoritarianism, as measured by Rokeach's (1960) Dogmatism Scale, and susceptibility to influence by individuals of high and low social status. College Ss were placed in the autokinetic problem (see 10: 1332); a confederate of E, introduced as either a research scientist or a high school senior, gave his responses to the situation prior to S. The confederate's judgments were contrived so as to disagree with S's. Ss high in authoritarianism tended to agree with (conform to) the responses of the "scientist"; Ss low in authoritarianism, with the "high school student." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The autokinetic word technique.

The autokinetic effect is utilized to explore the minimum limits of structure necessary to elicit interpretable responses of a projective nature, in an experimental situation. Ss were asked to report words written by a small, stationary light source presented in a darkened room. All Ss reported words being written by the point of light. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)