Showing papers in "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1975"

The illusion of control.

Abstract: While most people will agree that there is much overlap between skill and luck, a full understanding of how inextricably bound the two are has yet to be attained. In principle the distinction seems clear. In skill situations there is a causal link between behavior and outcome. Thus, success in skill tasks is controllable. Luck, on the other hand, is a fortuitous happening. Success in luck or chance activities is apparently uncontrollable. The issue of present concern is whether or not this distinction is generally recognized. The position taken here is that it is not. While people may pay lip service to the concept of chance, they behave as though chance events are subject to control. If this is correct, it is of interest to determine the variables responsible for this confusion. … Some observational support for the assertion that people treat chance events as controllable comes from sociologists Goffman (1967) and Henslin (1967). While studying gambling practices in Las Vegas, Goffman noted that dealers who experienced runs of bad luck ran the risk of losing their jobs. Henslin studied dice playing and noted that dice players clearly behave as if they were controlling the outcome of the toss. They are careful to throw the dice softly if they want low numbers or to throw hard for high numbers. They believe that effort and concentration will pay off.

Ratings of self and peers on sex role attributes and their relation to self-esteem and conceptions of masculinity and femininity.

Abstract: Male (N = 248) and female (N = 282) subjects were given the Personal Attributes Questionnaire consisting of 55 bipolar attributes drawn from the Sex Role Stereotype Questionnaire by Rosenkrantz, Vogel, Bee, Broverman, and Broverman and were asked to rate themselves and then to compare directly the typical male and female college student. Self-ratings were divided into male-valued (stereotypically masculine attributes judged more desirable for both sexes), female-valued, and sex-specific items. Also administered was the Attitudes Toward Women Scale and a measure of social self-esteem. Correlations of the self-ratings with stereotype scores and the Attitudes Toward Women Scale were low in magnitude, suggesting that sex role expectations do not distort self-concepts. For both men and women, "femininity" on the female-valued self items and "masculinity" on the male-valued items were positively correlated, and both significantly related to self-esteem. The implications of the results for a concept of masculinity and femininity as a duality, characteristic of all individuals, and the use of the self-rating scales for measuring masculinity, femininity, and androgyny were discussed.

The role of expectations and attributions in the alleviation of learned helplessness.

Abstract: The purpose of the investigation was to determine whether altering attributions for failure would enable learned helpless children to deal more effectively with failure in an experimental problem-solving situation. Twelve children with extreme reactions to failure were identified and were given intensive, relatively long-term experience with one of two training procedures. It was hypothesized that a procedure which taught the helpless children to take responsibility for failure and to attribute it to lack of effort would result in unimpaired performance following failure in the criterion situation, but that a procedure which provided success experiences only (as in many programmed learning and behavior modification programs) would lead to changes of a lesser magnitude. The results revealed that following training, the subjects in the Success Only Treatment continued to evidence a severe deterioration in performance after failure, while subjects in the Attribution Retraining Treatment maintained or improved their performance. In addition, the subjects in the latter condition showed an increase in the degree to which they emphasized insufficient motivation versus ability as a determinant of failure. The present study of the alleviation of learned helplessness in children has grown out of several relatively independent lines of investigation: contingency learning in experimental animal psychology, attribution theory in personality-s ocial psychology, and cognitive therapy in clinical psychology. The phenomenon of learned helplessness, conceptually related to the earlier notion of

Generality of learned helplessness in man.

Abstract: Learned helplessness, the interference with instrumental responding following inescapable aversive events, has been found in animals and man. This study tested for the generality of the debilitation produced by uncontrollabl e events across tasks and motivational systems. Four experiments with college students were simultaneously conducted: (a) pretreatment with inescapable, escapable, or control aversive tone followed by shuttlebox escape testing; (b) pretreatment with insoluble, soluble, or control discrimination problems followed by anagram solution testing; (c) pretreatments with inescapable, escapable, or control aversive tone followed by anagram solution testing; (d) pretreatments with insoluble, soluble, or control discrimination problems followed by shuttlebox escape testing. Learned helplessness was found with all four experiments: Both insolubility and inescapability produced failure to escape and failure to solve anagrams. We suggest that inescapability and insolubility both engendered expectancies that responding is independent of reinforcement. The generality of this process suggests that learned helplessness may be an induced "trait." Inescapable aversive events presented to animals or to men result in profound interference with later instrumental learning (e.g., Hiroto, 1974; Overmier & Seligman, 1967; Seligman & Maier, 1967; Thornton & Jacobs, 1971). If a subject can escape the aversive event, later instrumental behavior remains normal. This phenomenon has been interpreted as learned helplessness (Maier, Seligman, & Solomon, 1969; Seligman, Maier, & Solomon, 1971). This interpretation claims that organisms learn that responding and reinforcement (e.g., shock termination) are independent when shock is inescapable. Such learning undermines the motivation for initi

Perseverance in self-perception and social perception: biased attributional processes in the debriefing paradigm.

Abstract: Two experiments demonstrated that self-perceptions and social perceptions may persevere after the initial basis for such perceptions has been completely discredited. In both studies subjects first received false feedback, indicating that they had either succeeded or failed on a novel discrimination task and then were thoroughly debriefed concerning the predetermined and random nature of this outcome manipulation. In experiment 2, both the initial outcome manipulation and subsequent debriefing were watched and overheard by observers. Both actors and observers showed substantial perseverance of initial impressions concerning the actors' performance and abilities following a standard "outcome" debriefing. "Process" debriefing, in which explicit discussion of the perseverance process was provided, generally proved sufficient to eliminate erroneous self-perceptions. Biased attribution processes that might underlie perserverance phenomena and the implications of the present data for the ethical conduct of deception research are discussed.

Turning play into work: Effects of adult surveillance and extrinsic rewards on children's intrinsic motivation.

Abstract: Preschool children engaged in a novel activity in individual sessions. In the expected reward conditions, subjects expected to win a chance to play with highly attractive toys by engaging in the activity; in the unexpected reward conditions, subjects had no prior knowledge of this reward. Orthogonally, subjects in the surveillance conditions were told that their performance would be monitored via a television camera; while subjects in the nonsurveillance conditions were not monitored. Two weeks later, unobtrusive measures of the subjects' intrinsic interest in the activity were obtained in their classrooms. Two significant main effects were obtained reproducing and expanding findings from earlier studies. Subjects who had undertaken the activity expecting an extrinsic reward showed less subsequent interest in the activity than those who had not expected a reward, and subjects who had been placed under surveillance showed less subsequent interest than those not previously monitored.

Empathy and altruism.

Abstract: The psychophysiological responses of 60 subjects were measured as they observed a performer play a roulette game. Half of the subjects were led to believe that they were similar to the performer in personality and values, and half were led to believe that they were dissimilar. Half of the subjects in each condition believed that the performer won money and experienced pain as he played the game, and half believed that he performed a cognitive and motor skill task. Subjects who observed a performer who ostensibly experienced pleasure and pain exhibited greater psychophysiological reactions than subjects who did not. Subjects who believed they were similar to the performer tended to react more strongly than subjects who believed they were different from him. Similar subjects also reported identifying most with the performer and feeling the worst while he waited to receive shocks. It was concluded that the similar subjects empathized most with the performer who appeared to experience pleasure and pain. When required to make a choice between helping themselves at a cost to the performer or helping the performer at a cost to themselves, the subjects who reacted most empathically behaved most altruistically. The results were interpreted as casting some light on century-old questions about the human capacity for altruism.

Desirable versus undesirable life events: their relationship to stress and mental distress.

Abstract: The research of Holmes, Rahe, and their associates disclosing that life events and stress are related to the onset of physical illness is extended to the psychological domain in the present study. Using a modified version of their life events checklist, it is shown that an accumulation of life events is correlated with self-reported tension and distress, with emotional disturbances manifested by depression, paranoid thinking, suicidal proclivity, and anxiety, as well as with behavioral indications of stress such as drinking and traffic accidents. Most importantly, it is shown that these relationships do not hold for desirable life events but primarily for undesirable events. Thus, the authors suggest that the quality of the events in terms of their desirability is the crucial determinant of stress and the above-mentioned relationships rather than simply the life change produced by the events, as suggested in earlier studies. Methodological and theoretical implications for future research are discussed, emphasizing the importance of studying additional stress-relevant dimensions such as anticipation of the events and control over their outcome.

Reciprocal Concessions Procedure for Inducing Compliance: The Door-in-the-Face Technique

Abstract: Three experiments were conducted to test the effectiveness of a rejection-thenmoderation procedure for inducing compliance with a request for a favor. All three experiments included a condition in which a requester first asked for an extreme favor (which was refused to him) and then for a smaller favor. In each instance, this procedure produced more compliance with the smaller favor than a procedure in which the requester asked solely for the smaller favor. Additional control conditions in each experiment supported the hypothesis that the effect is mediated by a rule for reciprocation of concessions. Several advantages to the use of the rejection-then-moderation procedure for producing compliance are discussed. The foot-in-the-door technique has been investigated by Freedman and Eraser (1966) as a procedure for inducing compliance with a request for a favor. They demonstrated that obtaining a person's compliance with a small request substantially increases the likelihood of that person's compliance with a subsequent, larger request. Freedman and Fraser suggest that the mediator of the foot-in-thedoor effect is a shift in the self-perception of the benefactor. After performing or agreeing to perform an initial favor, a person "may become, in his own eyes, the kind of person who does this sort of thing, who agrees to requests made by strangers, who takes action on things he believes in, who cooperates with good causes. . . . The basic idea is that the change in attitude need not be toward any particular person or activity, but may be toward activity or compliance in general." Thus, one effective way to obtain a favor is to begin by making a minimal first request which is sure to produce compliance and then to advance to a larger favor (the one which was desired from the outset). It may well be, however, that an equally effective method for getting a favor done involves the exact opposite procedure. What would be the result of making an extreme first request which is sure

Self-perception of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Abstract: Self-perception theory predicts that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation do not combine additively but rather interact. To test this predicted interaction, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were both manipulated as independent variables. The results revealed a significant interaction for task satisfaction and a trend for the interaction on a behavioral measure. These results are discussed in terms of a general approach to the self-perception of motivation.

Individual differences in game motivation as moderators of preprogrammed strategy effects in prisoner's dilemma.

Abstract: The impact of three programmed strategies (tit-for-tat, 100% cooperation, and 100% defection) on cooperation level in the Prisoner's Dilemma game is examined as a function of the subject's motivational orientation (cooperative, competitive, or individualistic). Motivational orientation was assessed on the basis of each subject's choices across four classes of decomposed games. Following this assessment, subject's played 30 trials of Prisoner's dilemma in matrix form against one of the above-mentioned strategies. Results were wholly consistent with predictions, showing that (a) cooperatively oriented subjects cooperate with a tit-for-tat and a 100% cooperative strategy, but defect against a 100% defecting strategy, (b) competitive subjects defect against all three strategies; and (c) individualistic subjects defect against both 100% cooperative and 100% defective strategies, but they cooperate with a tit-for-tat strategy. It appears reasonable to conclude that the outcomes of a Prisoner's Dilemma have affectively different meaning (i.e., values) for subjects of differing orientations, and that subjects of all three orientations adopt strategies that effectively maximize their particular type of reward in the game.

Attribution versus persuasion as a means for modifying behavior.

Abstract: The present research compared the relative effectiveness of an attribution strategy with a persuasion strategy in changing behavior. Study 1 attempted to teach fifth graders not to litter and to clean up after others. An attribution group was repeatedly told that they were neat and tidy people, a persuasion group was repeatedly told that they should be neat and tidy, and a control group received no treatment. Attribution proved considerably more effective in modifying behavior. Study 2 tried to discover whether similar effects would hold for a more central aspect of school performance, math achievement and self-esteem, and whether an attribution of ability would be as effective as an attribution of motivation. Repeatedly attributing to second graders either the ability or the motivation to do well in math proved more effective than comparable persuasion or no-treatment control groups, although a group receiving straight reinforcement for math problem-solving behavior also did well. It is suggested that persuasion often suffers because it involves a negative attribution (a person should be what he is not), while attribution generally gains because it disguises persuasive intent.

Beautiful but dangerous: Effects of offender attractiveness and nature of the crime on juridic judgment.

Abstract: The physical attractiveness of a criminal defendant (attractive, unattractive, no information) and the nature of the crime (attractiveness-related, attractiveness-unrelated) were varied in a factorial design. After reading one of the case accounts, subjects sentenced the defendant to a term of imprisonment. An interaction was predicted: When the crime was unrelated to attractiveness (burglary), subjects would assign more lenient sentences to the attractive defendant than to the unattractive defendant; when the offense was attractiveness-related (swindle), the attractive defendant would receive harsher treatment. The results confirmed the predictions, thereby supporting a cognitive explanation for the relationship between the physical attractiveness of defendants and the nature of the judgments made against them.

Empathy and attribution: Turning observers into actors.

Abstract: A laboratory experiment was conducted to test Jones and Nisbett's information-processing explanation of the often-observed tendency for individuals (actors) to provide relatively more situational and less dispositional causal attributions for their behavior than those provided by observers of the same behavior. According to this explanation, aspects of the situation are phenomenologically more salient for actors, whereas characteristics of the actor and his behavior are more salient for observers. To test this explanation, the phenomenological perspective of observers are altered without making available any additional information. Subjects watched a videotape of a get-acquainted conversation after instructions either to observe a target conversant or to empathize with her. As predicted, taking the perspective of the target through empathy resulted in attributions that were relatively more situational and less dispositional than attributions provided by standard observers. The results support Jones and Nisbett's information-processing explanation of actor-observer attributional differences, and shed additional light on the process of empathy.

The nature of extraversion: a genetical analysis.

Abstract: A biometrical-ge netical analysis of twin data to elucidate the determinants of variation in extraversion and its components, sociability and impulsiveness, revealed that both genetical and environmental factors contributed to variation in extraversion, to the variation and covariation of its component scales, and to the interaction between subjects and scales. A large environmental correlation between the scales suggested that environmental factors may predominate in determining the unitary nature of extraversion. The interaction between subjects and scales depended more on genetical factors, which suggests that the dual nature of extraversion has a strong genetical basis. A model assuming random mating, additive gene action, and specific environmental effects adequately describes the observed variation and covariation of sociability and impulsiveness. Possible evolutionary implications are discussed. One of the central problems in personality research has been the question of whether such higher order factors as extraversion can be regarded in any meaningful sense as unitary or whether there are several independent factors, such as "sociability" and "impulsiveness," which should not be thrown together artificially. Carrigan (1960) concluded her survey of the literature by saying that "the unidimensionality of extraversion/introversion has not been conclusively demonstrated" (p. 355); she further pointed out that several joint analyses of the Guildford and Cattell questionnaires show that at least two independent factors are required to account for the intercorrelations between the extraversion-impulsiveness variables. These two factors, she suggested, may correspond to the European conception of extraversion, with its emphasis on impulsiveness and weak superego controls, and the American conception, with its emphasis on sociability and ease in interpersonal relations. Eysenck and Eysenck (1963) have reported

Effects of Supply and Demand on Ratings of Object Value

Abstract: Subjects were asked to rate the value and attractiveness of cookies that were either in abundant supply or scarce supply. In the scarce condition, the cookies were either constantly scarce or they began in abundant supply and then decreased. Subjects were told that this decrease in supply was cither due to an accident or to a high demand for the cookies. In the abundant condition, the cookies were either constantly abundant or first scarce and then abundant. The increase in supply was either due to an accident or to a lack of demand for the cookies. These conditions were crossed with a manipulation in which subjects thought either a high or low number of additional subjects were still to participate in the study. The results indicated that (a) cookies in scarce supply were rated as more desirable than cookies in abundant supply; (b) cookies were rated as more valuable when their supply changed from abundant to scarce than when they were constantly scarce; and (c) cookies scarce because of high demand were rated higher than cookies that were scarce because of an accident. With regard to abundance, cookies that were constantly abundant were rated higher than cookies that began scarce but later became abundant. The results were interpreted as extending commodity theory, and reactance was hypothesized as an intervening process responsible for some of the results. A second study was performed to rule out the possibility that demand characteristics were responsible for the obtained results.

Sociocultural context of individual creativity: a transhistorical time-series analysis.

Abstract: Hypotheses were stated which specify individual creativity as a function of developmental and productive period variables. It was then argued that these hypotheses could be better tested by examining generational fluctuations in creativity. Information from cultural and political archival sources was thus aggregated to form time series spanning 127 generations of European history. Data quality checks, control variables, data transformations, time-lagged comparisons, and trend analyses were used to improve the validity of the causal inferences. While the results varied according to the type of creativity (discursive or presentational) and the degree of achieved eminence, creative development was found to be affected by the following: (a) role model availability, (b) political fragmentation, (c) imperial instability, and (d) political instability.