Effects of alcohol on social anxiety in women: Cognitive versus physiological processes.

Randomly assigned 32 female social drinkers (18–25 yr old undergraduates) to 4 conditions in a 2?×?2 factorial design that controlled for drink content and expectations. Ss were administered either an alcoholic or a nonalcoholic beverage and were led to believe that their drinks contained or did not contain alcohol. After finishing their drinks Ss participated in a study of social anxiety in which they were requested to interact with a male confederate of the experimenter. Multiple measures, including heart rate, skin conductance, and overt behavioral and self-report responses, were recorded. Ss who expected alcohol showed significant elevations in physiological arousal and were rated as more anxious on observational measures of social behavior. Self-report measures failed to yield any differences among groups. Implications for the tension reduction theory of alcohol use and the importance of multiple response measures are discussed. (1? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of erotic stimuli on male aggression toward females.

To examine the effects of highly erotic films on aggression toward females, 72 male undergraduates were first either angered or treated in a neutral manner by a male or female confederate. After viewing a highly erotic or a neutral film, Ss were given an opportunity to both aggress against and reward the confederate. Erotic films were found to increase aggression overall, but there was no indication of differential aggression as a function of sex of target. Results for physiological arousal, however, suggested that aggression was possibly inhibited for Ss exposed to an erotic film and paired with a female. Suggestions for future lines of research based on the notion of inhibition are offered, along with observations regarding the sexual arousal and aggression relationship. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Focus of attention and self-evaluation in social interaction.

Prior to an interview with a confederate posing as an interviewer (I), 95 undergraduates received instructions that directed their attention during the interaction to their own thoughts and feelings, to the I's behavior, or to neither source in particular. The I's nonverbal and paralinguistic responses became either progressively more warm or progressively more cold during the course of the interview. Results support the notion that different attentional perspectives alter the meaning of another person's social behavior. Other-directed attention resulted in correspondent inferences: The I's behavior was directly reflected in Ss' self-ratings of performance—warm behavior caused positive ratings, cold behavior caused negative ratings. This pattern of results is consistent with predictions derived from a symbolic interactionist perspective on social interaction but is inconsistent with those derived from the model that causal attribution follows focus of attention. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modifying shyness-related social behavior through symptom misattribution.

An experimental misattribution paradigm proved to be a significant intervention treatment of altering social participation among 14 dispositionally shy undergraduate women. When specific arousal symptoms previously associated with their social anxiety were misattributed to a nonpsychological source (high-frequency noise), Ss behaved as if they were not shy. Their verbal fluency and interactional assertiveness resembled that of 16 not-shy Ss given the same treatment. Moreover, their scores on these measures were significantly elevated from the low levels recorded by 15 shy controls who had been led to expect shyness-irrelevant "side effects" from their exposure to noise. A male partner (a confederate) accurately perceived whether or not Ss in the 2 control groups were shy, but he misjudged as "not shy" the shy Ss in the misattribution group. The greater enjoyment of the interaction by those in this latter group, despite high-frequency noise bombardment, was also reflected in their stronger preference for further affiliation than that shown by either comparison group. The continuously monitored heart rate data provide grounds for speculation as to the relationship of physiological arousal and behavior. However, a paradoxical placebo finding emerged when it appeared that not-shy Ss in this same misattribution condition experienced a higher level of arousal, and this anxiety-like arousal was associated with preferences for nonaffiliation. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Passionate love and the misattribution of arousal.

Two studies provide evidence that misattribution of arousal facilitates romantic attraction. In Exp I, arousal of 54 male undergraduates was manipulated through exercise. Arousal Ss liked an attractive female confederate more and an unattractive female less than did controls. In Exp II, arousal of 66 Ss was manipulated in a positive (comedy tape) or negative (mutilation tape) way; other Ss heard a nonarousing tape (textbook excerpt). Results replicate the interaction found in Exp I: Valence of initial arousal did not affect attraction to the confederate. Salience of plausible labels for arousal is hypothesized to mediate the misattribution effect. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral control over aversive events: Does control that requires effort reduce anxiety and physiological arousal?

Investigated whether the amount of effort required to control an aversive event influenced the amount of anxiety and physiological arousal associated with the aversive event. 89 male undergraduates participated in a 3 (unavoidable threat, avoidable threat, no threat)?×?2 (high-effort task performance, low-effort task performance)?×?2 (anticipation period, performance period) factorial experiment. Results indicate that (a) the aversive event (threat of electrical shock) increased Ss' anxiety and physiological arousal; (b) exercising control was effective for decreasing Ss' anxiety to the nonthreat level, but only when low effort was required; (c) the prospect of control decreased Ss' physiological arousal to the no-threat level while the Ss were waiting to exercise control over the aversive event; and (d) while actually exercising the control, Ss showed high physiological arousal similar to Ss who could not control the event. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of objective evidence of expertness, nonverbal behavior, and subject sex on client-perceived expertness.

The effects of objective evidence of specialized training, expert nonverbal behaviors, and S sex were studied in a counseling analog setting. 80 undergraduates viewed videotapes of a standardized counseling interaction between a confederate counselor and client. Ss then rated the counselor on a credibility checklist. The results of a 2?×?2?×?2 ANOVA indicate that both objective evidence and nonverbal behaviors significantly affected perceived expertness and that there was no difference in the credibility ratings of the counselor between male and female Ss. There were mixed interactions from the data. Objective evidence and sex did interact significantly, as did objective evidence and nonverbal behavior. The interaction of sex and nonverbal behavior and of sex, objective evidence, and nonverbal behavior did not achieve significance. Implications for practice and research are discussed. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of facial response in the experience of emotion.

Facial expression and emotional stimuli were varied orthogonally in a 3?×?4 factorial design to test whether facial expression is necessary or sufficient to influence emotional experience. 123 undergraduates watched a film eliciting fear, sadness, or no emotion while holding their facial muscles in the position characteristic of fear or sadness or in an effortful but nonemotional grimace; those in a 4th group received no facial instructions. The Ss believed that the study concerned subliminal perception and that the facial positions were necessary to prevent physiological recording artifacts. The films had powerful effects on reported emotions, the facial expressions none. Correlations between facial expression and reported emotion were zero. Sad and fearful Ss showed distinctive patterns of physiological arousal. Facial expression also tended to affect physiological responses in a manner consistent with an effort hypothesis. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Arousal as a necessary condition for attitude change following induced compliance.

In a 2?×?3 design, 63 university students were induced to write counterattitudinal essays under either high- or low-choice conditions. All Ss were led to believe that a pill, which they had just taken in the context of a separate experiment, was a placebo. In reality, Ss were given a pill that contained either 30 mg of phenobarbital (tranquilizer condition), 5 mg of amphetamine (amphetamine condition), or milk powder (placebo condition). In this last condition, the results yielded the usual dissonance effect: High choice produced more attitude change in the direction of the essay than low choice. When Ss were given a tranquilizer, this effect was virtually eliminated; when Ss were given amphetamine, attitude change increased under high choice and was exhibited for the 1st time under low choice. These results are consistent with the notion that attitude change is in the service of reducing arousal and with the idea that arousal from other sources can be misattributed to attitude-discrepant behavior. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Erotica and aggression: The influence of sexual arousal, positive affect, and negative affect on aggressive behavior.

95 male college students who had never taken a psychology course were first either angered or not angered by a confederate of the experimenter and were then ostensibly given an opportunity to aggress against the confederate by means of electric shock. Prior to aggressing, Ss were shown 1 of 4 sets of stimuli chosen to effect a factorial variation in the intensity of positive sexual arousal (high, low) and negative affect (high, low) elicited by exposure to such material. In addition, 1 group of angered Ss (no-exposure control) was included who did not view any of the 4 sets of stimuli prior to being given an opportunity to aggress. Results indicate that exposure to affectively positive erotic stimuli significantly reduced retaliatory behavior by angered males to a level below that exhibited by Ss exposed to neutral stimuli and by those in the no-exposure control group. In contrast, relative to baseline controls, Ss' exposure to erotic stimuli that were reported to be disgusting and unpleasant slightly enhanced subsequent aggressive behavior. Several possible mechanisms (e.g., attentional shifts, incompatible responses, cognitive labeling) are discussed in relation to the results. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitation of social interaction through deindividuation of the target.

Hypothesized that actors want their perception of a target to be consistent with the type of interaction they expect. It was predicted that Ss expecting to aggress would deindividuate their target through the selective recall of deindividuating information. Conversely, Ss expecting a prosocial interaction should individuate the target. Further, angry Ss should deindividuate the individual who angered them. 124 male undergraduates were either angered or not angered by an experimental confederate and then given the opportunity to either shock, reward, or have no interaction with him. Ss recalled information about the confederate either prior to or after the learning task. Ss expecting to aggress deindividuated the target, whereas Ss expecting a prosocial interaction individuated him. Angry Ss deindividuated the target; nonangry Ss did not. Since the selective recall of information occurred prior to the interaction, the deindividuation (individuation) was aimed at facilitating future behavior rather than justifying it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of interaction anticipation upon the extremity of trait ratings.

Examined the effect of interaction anticipation upon the perception of a future partner by 80 undergraduates. Experimental Ss were led to anticipate interaction with a stimulus person for either 3 or 30 min. Control Ss anticipated either no interaction or interaction with a different person. A process of "commitment reluctance" was discovered; experimental Ss made less extreme ratings across warm-cold dimensions of stimulus persons who had been described as either "warm" or "cold." These ratings were not, however, related to the length of the expected interaction. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sociability: Traits, settings, and interactions.

Sociability, measured behaviorally as verbal participation in an unstructured conversation, was expected to be greater for Ss who were affiliative and exhibitionistic but not defensive (traits); for "sociopetal" seating arrangements and for greater environment-elicited pleasure, arousal, and dominance (settings); and for interactions among and between these trait and setting measures. In a study with 60 undergraduates, sociability did increase with the traits of affiliativeness and exhibitionism, the setting variables of pleasure and arousal, 1 Person?×?Person interaction, and 1 Setting?×?Setting interaction. However, seating arrangements and 12 Person?×?Setting interactions were unrelated to sociability; assertions that Person?×?Setting interactions account for large portions of variance in behavior are unsupported. Instead, results suggest that more attention should be paid to the predictive utility of interactions among person measures and among setting measures. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual fantasies of females as a function of sex guilt and experimental response cues.

Investigated the effects of response cues (erotic, romantic, or neutral) and level of sex guilt on the self-reported sexual fantasies of 90 undergraduate females. Ss completed a sex guilt inventory (Masher Forced-Choice Guilt Inventory—Female Form), the Nowlis Mood Adjective Check List, the Fantasy Theme Checklist, and ratings of their affective responses and physiological arousal associated with the writing of the fantasies. High sex guilt Ss preferred fantasy themes indicating a lack of responsibility for engaging in sexual interaction. Ss in the erotic fantasy condition wrote more explicit fantasies and described more varied content. Arousal seemed to be affected by the response cuing in the predicted direction but not by the Ss' guilt levels. Sex guilt level seemed to be a better predictor of affective responses, such as guilt and embarrassment, than the response cuing. Results suggest that sexual fantasy behavior may be part of a cluster of sexual behaviors governed by an individual's level of sex guilt. It is suggested that the demonstration that fantasy production seemed to be influenced by situational demands has implications for collection and use of fantasy information by both clinicians and researchers. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectancy and pharmacological effects of alcohol on human cognitive and motor performance: The compensation for alcohol effect.

42 male undergraduate social drinkers were led to expect either alcohol or tonic. After actually consuming no alcohol, a low dosage, or a moderate dosage, they performed various cognitive and motor tasks. A questionnaire assessed Ss' responses to the expectancy manipulation and either preceded or followed task administration. A 2?×?3?×?2 MANOVA resulted in a significant Expectancy?×?Dosage interaction for cognitive tasks (letter cancellation, digit span, Raven Progressive Matrices). Ss apparently compensated for alcohol-induced deterioration on these tasks when they were aware they had consumed alcohol. No consistent effects were found for motor tasks (finger tapping, stylus monitoring, standing steadiness, and walking steadiness). (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Situational determinants of social anxiety in clinic and nonclinic samples: Physiological and cognitive correlates.

Compared the level of physiological reactivity and frequency of negative cognitions in 26 nonclinic, socially anxious (SA) Ss (mean age 20.8 yrs), 17 clinic SA patients (mean age 40.8 yrs), and 26 nonsocially anxious (NSA) Ss (mean age 22.0 yrs) to investigate the consistency of cognitive and physiological reactivity in the assessment of social anxiety. A social interaction self-statement test served as the cognitive measure. Physiological reactivity was monitored continuously throughout Ss' completion of the following behavioral tasks: an unstructured interpersonal interaction with an opposite-sex confederate, a similar interaction with a same-sex confederate, and an impromptu talk on a topic selected by the S. The clinic and nonclinic samples of SA Ss differed significantly from the NSA Ss in level of physiological reactivity and type of cognition. There were no significant differences between the 2 anxious groups. The results indicate that both thoughts and physiological reactivity were influenced by situational parameters. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuroticism and disclosure reciprocity.

32 college males with either normal or neurotic MMPI profiles participated in a dyadic interaction via telephone with a confederate who disclosed at either a high or low level of intimacy. Following the confederate's disclosure, Ss disclosed as long and as intimately as they cared to. Ratings of Ss' disclosures revealed that (a) normal Ss exposed to a high-disclosing confederate spent significantly more time in intimate disclosure than those exposed to a low-disclosing confederate and (b) neurotic Ss spent very little time in intimate self-disclosure, regardless of the level of disclosure they received from a confederate. This failure of neurotic Ss to reciprocate highly intimate disclosure is examined via a model that views appropriate self-disclosure as requiring several intra- and interpersonal skills. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of dispositional empathy and social evaluation in the empathic mediation of helping.

J. S. Coke et al (see record 1980-00984-001) proposed a 2-stage model of empathy-mediated helping, based on emotional arousal and perspective taking. The present study hypothesized that a dispositional factor—individual differences in empathy—and a situational factor—potential evaluation from others (demand)—should be included in the process. 123 female undergraduates received false GSR feedback, indicating that they had either high or low arousal during a broadcast of a person's need for help. In addition, Ss were led to believe that the experimenter either did or did not know their level of arousal (demand vs no demand). Ss' premeasured dispositional empathy (A. Mehrabian and N. Epstein's 1972 empathy scale) constituted the 3rd (continuous) variable. The effect of greater help following high- rather than low-arousal feedback found by Coke et al was replicated. However, this was true only for Ss higher in dispositional empathy in the demand condition. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Oral imagery and autonomic arousal in social isolation.

Electrodermal activity of 120 male Ss high and low on Rorschach oral-dependent responses was monitored in 1 of 3 conditions while the S was in a soundproof chamber for 40 min: alone with no task, alone working on a clerical task, and together with a male confederate, both working independently on the clerical task. Oral-dependent Ss placed in the chamber with the confederate showed fewer electrodermal increases over time than orals sitting alone or nonorals either alone or with the confederate. On the clerical task there was a strong main effect of orality, with nonorals showing more accuracy than orals. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in memory for massed and distributed repeated actions.

Adult age differences in memory for actions were investigated in 2 experiments in which actions were repeated with massed or distributed spacing. In Exp 1, Ss received a mixed series of actions, half performed once, the others twice, with repetitions either massed or distributed. Young Ss recalled more actions than did the elderly, and more distributed actions were recalled than massed actions. However, the Age?×?Spacing interaction was not significant. A probable inhibitory mechanism with a mixed list was avoided in Exp 2 by use of unmixed series. Actions were performed once only, twice only in massed repetitions, or twice only in distributed repetitions. The age difference was significant, and more actions were recalled in the distributed condition than in either of the other conditions, the results of which did not differ from one another. The Age?×?Conditions interaction was negligible. These results imply that elderly Ss are as likely as young Ss to encode contextual information while performing actions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)