Showing papers in "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1971"

Constants across cultures in the face and emotion

Abstract: This study addresses the question of whether any facial expressions of emotion are universal. Recent studies showing that members of literate cultures associated the same emotion concepts with the same facial behaviors could not demonstrate that at least some facial expressions of emotion are universal; the cultures compared had all been exposed to some of the same mass media presentations of facial expression, and these may have taught the people in each culture to recognize the unique facial expressions of other cultures. To show that members of a preliterate culture who had minimal exposure to literate cultures would associate the same emotion concepts with the same facial behaviors as do members of Western and Eastern literate cultures, data were gathered in New Guinea by telling subjects a story, showing them a set of three faces, and asking them to select the face which showed the emotion appropriate to the story. The results provide evidence in support of the hypothesis that the association between particular facial muscular patterns and discrete emotions is universal.

Effects of Externally Mediated Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation.

Abstract: Two laboratory experiments and one field experiment were conducted to investigate the effects of external rewards on intrinsic motivation to perform an activity. In each experiment, subjects were performing an activity during three different periods, and observations relevant to their motivation were made. External rewards were given to the experimental subjects during the second period only, while the control subjects received no rewards. Of interest was the difference in the experimental group's motivation between Period 1 and Period 3, relative to the difference in the control's. The results indicate that (a) when money was used as an external reward, intrinsic motivation tended to decrease, whereas (b) when verbal reinforcement and positive feedback were used, intrinsic motivation tended to increase. Discrepant findings in the literature were reconciled using a new theoretical framework which employs a cognitive approach and concentrates on the nature of the external reward. If a boy who enjoys mowing lawns begins to receive payment for the task, what will happen to his intrinsic motivation for performing this activity? Or, if he enjoys gardening and his parents seek to encourage this by providing verbal reinforcement and affection when he gardens, what will happen to his intrinsic motivation for gardening? These are examples of the classical problem concerning the effects of external rewards on intrinsic motivation. One is said to be intrinsically motivated to perform an activity when he receives no apparent rewards except the activity itself. This intrinsic motivation might be either innate or learned (White, 1959). It is not the purpose of this study to deal with the specific nature of, or development of, intrinsic motivation, but rather, it assumes that at a given time a person can be intrinsically motivated to do an activity, and it then asks: What are the effects of external rewards on this motivation ? In the two examples of the boy, he is performing the activity for no apparent rewards 1 These studies were conducted at Carnegie-Mell on University. The author wishes to thank Victor H. Vroom and Daryl J. Bern for helpful suggestions about the research and about earlier drafts of the manuscript.

Evaluation of the Performance of Women as a Function of Their Sex, Achievement, and Personal History.

Abstract: A study was designed to investigate the conditions under which women are prejudiced against women. Paintings were shown to 120 college women for evaluation. Half of the subjects thought that the artist was female, half thought that the artist was male; half thought that the painting was an entry in a contest, half thought that it was a winner. Some questionnaire data showed that women judged the entry paintings by men to be significantly better than the identical paintings by women. Winning paintings were not evaluated differently depending on sex. Obstacles faced by winners or entrants had no effect. It was concluded that women who are attempting to accomplish are judged less favorably than men, but that women who have successfully accomplished work are evaluated as favorably, as arc men. One explanation for the apparent failure of women to achieve as much success as men is prejudicial evaluations of their work by men (cf. Klein, 1950; Scheinfeld, 1944). If men undervalue the accomplishments of women, women also may do so. Women's misjudgment of themselves should contribute to an actual lack of achievement. If women devalue their own and each other's work, they should be less willing to try to achieve and less supportive of their fellow women's efforts. The present study investigates the conditions under which women devalue female performance. Goldberg (1968) designed a study to investigate prejudice among women toward women in the areas of intellectual and professional competence. College women were asked to evaluate supposedly published journal articles on linguistics., ]aw, art history, dietetics, education, and city planning; for each article, half of the subjects saw a male author's name and half saw a female author's name. The results confirmed the hypothesis

Validation of Feeling, Belief, and Intention to Act as Three Components of Attitude and Their Contribution to Prediction of Contraceptive Behavior.

Abstract: Using attitude toward birth control as the issue an attempt was made to establish whether feeling belief and intention to act are 3 separate components of global attitude structure and to determine the contribution of these components to prediction of contraceptive behavior. 4 verbal measures of each component were independently constructed using the techniques of Thurstone equal-appearing intervals Likert summated ratings Guttman scalogram analysis and Guilford self-rating. The scales were developed by interviewing 2 random samples of 32-36 users and 32-36 nonusers of contraceptives among low-income married Negro women (15-45 years) who were residents of North Carolina public housing projects. Administration of the 12 scales on 50 users and 50 nonusers of the same ethnic group yielded a 12 x 12 multitrait-multimethod correlational matrix. 2 factor analysis of the matrix identified 3 factors - feeling belief and intention to act - which although correlated were shown to possess convergent and discriminant validities as predicted by the first hypothesis. A stepwise multiple discriminant analysis performed to determine the best predictor of behavior supported a second hypothesis: verbal measures of intention to act were better predictors of behavior than either the feeling or the belief verbal measures. Implications of this finding for prediction and control of behavior and for educational programs are considered. The sensitivity of each method of measurement is discussed.(Authors modified)

Discovery-Oriented Behavior and the Originality of Creative Products: A Study with Artists

Abstract: In order to examine the significance of the “problem-formulation” stage of creative activity, 31 advanced art students were observed in a quasi-naturalistic setting of an art school while carrying out an assignment to produce a still-life drawing. Observations of “discovery-oriented” behavior were recorded for each subject from the time he began organizing the still-life objects until he completed the actual drawing. The finished art work was independently evaluated by an expert panel on three dimensions: overall value, originality, and craftsmanship. A positive relationship was found between discovery-oriented behavior at the problem-formulation stage and the originality (but not the craftsmanship) of the creative product. The study affirms the theoretical and empirical importance of the problem-formulation stage of the creative process and suggests a method for observing and analyzing behavior at this stage.

Equity and the distribution of rewards.

Abstract: Abstract : The paper reports the results of two studies which examined propositions derived from equity theory concerning how persons distribute rewards to themselves and others. Such behavior can be classified into three types of distribution responses. Study 1 investigated the distribution responses of persons who each had unilateral power to determine their own rewards and those of one other person, when both had equal inputs. Results supported predictions generated from equity theory concerning the relative frequencies of distribution responses. Also, a number of situational and personal variables were found to affect responses. In Study 2, subjects distributed rewards in one of four groups constituted such that differences in the input levels of the chooser and his co-worker were systemically varied. Results only partially supported equity theory since only the inputs of the co-worker affected choices. Taken together, the results of both studies indicate that persons do conform to a norm of equity which lessens the potential for conflict present in all social situations. (Author)

Contribution of emotional and instrumental response processes in adaptation to surgery.

Abstract: Predispositional measures of anxiety, internal-external control, and situational measures of worry, fear, pain, speed of recovery, and doses of analgesics were obtained from 62 female surgical patients. Preoperative measures of fear and worry were (a) positively and linearly related to postoperative emotionality and (/>) unrelated to speed of postoperative recovery and doses of analgesics. Birth order (first and later) and manifest anxiety (high, medium, and low) affected emotionality. Later borns low in manifest anxiety were least emotional; later borns high in manifest anxiety and firstborns either high or low in manifest anxiety were most emotional. Internal-external control was associated with ability to influence care. Internals obtained more needed analgesics, and if they were also firstborn, they had longer hospital stays than externals. The evidence contradicts the hypothesis that preoperativc emotion is causally related to adaptive responses in this stressful situation. The data suggest that emotionality should lie treated as a response and that these responses and instrumental responses can be independent.