Showing papers in "Journal of Personality in 1975"

Restrained and unrestrained eating

Abstract: Nisbett's (1972) model of obesity implies that individual differences in relative deprivation (relative to set-point weight) within obese and normal weight groups should produce corresponding within-group differences in eating behavior. Normal weight subjects were separated into hypothetically deprived (high restraint) and non-deprived (low restraint) groups. The expectation that high restraint subjects' intake would vary directly with preload size while low restraint subjects would eat in inverse proportion to preload size, was confirmed. It was concluded that relative deprivation rather than obesity per se may be the cirtical determinant of individual differences in eating behavior. Consideration was given to the concept of "restraint" as an important behavioral mechanism affecting the expression of physiologically-based hungar.

How relevant is an individual difference theory of personality

Abstract: Doubts are raised as to the extent of "applicability of the conceptualization that "personality" consists "of more or less stable internal factors that make one person's behavior consistent from one time to another, and different from the behavior other people would manifest in comparable situations". This is done by demonstrating the questionable validity of much of the extant empirical support for the "personality" concept. Respondents on interpersonal checklists, personality inventories and questionnaire interviews are shown to unwittingly sub stitute a theory of conceptual likenesses for a description of behavioral co-occurrences. Considerations about similarity are confounded with judgments about probability to such an extent that items alike in concept are inferred to be behaviorally characteristic of the same person even when, as is typically the case, conceptual relationships among items do not correspond to the actual behavioral relationships among items. Examined are extant "personality theories" having to do with children's social behavior, adult behavior in small groups, maternal socialization practices, and psychopathology. These "theories" are shown to be no more than statements about how respondents (and psychologists) classify things as alike in meaning.

Effects of explicit instructions to "be creative" on the psychological meaning of divergent thinking test scores.

Abstract: The Alternate Uses Test was administered to 50 undergraduate males instructed to produce creative (i.e., novel and worthwhile) uses and to 55 comparable subjects simply instructed to produce as many uses as possible. All uses were rated for creativity. An index of self-assessed creative thinking ability correlated significantly more strongly (p less than .05) with the number of creative uses produced in the qualitatively-oriented condition than with the number of creative or total uses produced in the standard, quantitatively-oriented condition. The correlation between self-rated creative ability and creative uses production in the qualitatively-oriented condition remained significant (p less than .001) after indices of achievement motivation and general verbal aptitude were partialled out. The results were interpreted as demonstrating the value of coordinating informative divergent thinking test instructions with qualitative scoring criteria.

Reward and purpose as incentives for children differing in locus of control expectancies.

Abstract: The Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire was used to classify 248 fourth- and fifth-graders as internals, mediums, and externals on the internal-external locus of control personality dimension. Subjects were assigned to four treatment groups resulting from the manipulation of intrinsic (purpose vs. non purpose) and extrinsic (reward vs. no reward) motivational conditions and administered a coding task with number of figures coded as the dependent variable. An analysis of variance with IE, reward, purpose, sex, and grade as factors yielded significant purpose, sex, grade, and IE X Reward X Purpose effects. The performance of internals was found to be unaffected by motivational manipulations; purpose together with reward improved the performance of mediums: reward and purpose (individually and together) improved the performance of externals. Implications for future investigation of the IE construct and the social psychology of psychological research were discussed.

Complexity, extremity, and affect in male and female judgments.

Abstract: Two studies were conducted to elucidate aspects of the interpersonal judement process as it is applied to and by males and females. Measurement of judgments by means of the Role Construct Repertory Test allowed consideration of cognitive complexity scores, as well as the use of extreme ratings and a total affective rating. Consistent findings from both studies suggest that males and females differ in their use of extreme scores and total affective ratings, but not in complexity. Characteristics of the stimulus person affect each of the three dependent measures. Interrelationships among the three judgmental measures provide information about the methodological and conceptual interplay of various factors in interpersonal judgment.

Field dependent eating and perception as a function of weight and sex

Abstract: It was hypothesized that the greater influence of external cues on obese than on normal individuals' eating behavior is a manifestation of a generalized sensitivity to external cues. Responsivity of nut consumption to the external cue of shells on the nuts and responsivity of judgment of verticality to the external cue of a tilted visual field were assessed for male and female, obese and normal-weight subjects. As predicted, both obese subjects' nut consumption and their judgments of verticality were more influenced by external cues than were those of normals. Females' judgments of verticality were more influenced by external cues than males' were, but the sex differences in eating behavior were not statistically significant. A significant correlation between the field dependence of subjects' eating behavior and their judgments of verticality suggests that a single cause may generate sensitivity to external cues in these two diverse situations.

Extraversion, arousal, and speed of retrieval from secondary storage†

Abstract: Fifty-two subjects were assigned to one of four groups on the basis of scores on the Extraversion scale of the Eysenck Personality Inventory and on the General Activation scale of the Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List The subjects learned two lists composed of categorically related groups of words, with the number of categories and the number of words per category varied Memory was probed by simultaneously presenting the subject with a category name and an item-position cue, and recording the recall latency The major finding was that activation and extraversion interactively determined the recall latency for both category and item recall The results were considered in light of arousal theory

False physiological feedback and persuasion: effect of fear arousal vs. fear reduction on attitude change.

Abstract: Two experiments tested the hypothesis that increases in false physiological feedback of fear arousal will enhance persuasion and that reduction in the arousal feedback is unnecessary for increased persuasion to occur. Prior research has usually found a positive relation between level of arousal and persuasion, but support for the drive reduction hypothesis is tenuous. However, Harris and Jellison (1971) claimed support for such a hypothesis. They manipulated subjects' fear arousal cognitively via false physiological feedback while the subjects listened to a persuasive communication. The present experiments used a similar procedure in an attempt to test an "arousal only" against an "arousal reduction" hypothesis. Subjects listened to a persuasive speech while receiving false feedback via a meter concerning their fear arousal. In Experiment I half of the subjects received high arousal and half received moderate arousal information. Within each of these conditions half of the subjects had their arousal reduced, and the other half did not. In Experiment II subjects received either low arousal, high arousal, or high then low arousal feedback while listening. The results of the two studies generally provided support for the "arousal only" hypothesis. An interpretation in terms of Bem's attribution theory was tentatively suggested.

Hostility as a function of the opportunity to counteraggress.

Abstract: Half of the subjects, college students, were insulted by the experimenter while half were not. Within each of these conditions, half of the subjects were led to believe they would have an opportunity to administer electric shock to the experimenter, while the other half were not. A measure of hostility toward the experimenter was taken before there was any actual opportunity to shock him. As predicted from reactance theory, it was found that the mere opportunity to shock the experimenter reduced hostility that was produced by his insulting behavior. Alternative interpretations and implications were discussed.