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There are two aims to this paper; to report in brief preliminary form a number of studies on group risk-taking that have been carried out in Bristol in the past two years, and to relate these studies to an explanation of group risk-taking phenomena primarily in terms of group polarization. The paper has five sections. The first section supplies some background material regarding basic phenomena and previous attempts at explanations. The second section relates to initial individual decisions and the third section to decisions following group discussion and consensus. In the fourth section a tentative explanation of group risk-taking effects is proposed in terms of group polarization processes, together with something like an overall value for risk. Group polarization itself is discussed in terms of normative and informational aspects of social influence. The final section deals with two implications of the proposed explanation, one relating to the role of individual familiarization and the other to the generality of group polarization processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Judgments of attitude statements with the method of equal-appearing intervals have been found to vary as a function of the judges' attitudes. In this paper explanations of the relationship between judges' attitudes and judgments of attitude statements in terms of models of psychophysical judgment are discussed. It is argued that psychophysical models such as adaptation-level theory, the range-frequency model, and the 'rubber-band' model and its derivations, cannot account satisfactorily for judges' performance of the attitude rating task in a great number of studies. The reason for this failure, it is argued, is that the stimulus series employed in the psychophysical judgment research on which these models are based typically varied only on the dimension being judged. The sets of statements' judged in attitude rating studies, however, vary not only on the dimension of interest (favourability-unfavourability) but also on a number of other dimensions. It is suggested that this incidental stimulus variation of attitude statements may account for the failure of psychophysical models to predict accurately the performance of judges in the attitude rating task. It is argued that if principles which could account for the effects of this incidental stimulus variation on attitude ratings could be incorporated into psychophysical models, the predictive qualities of these models could be improved considerably. One such model is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a rejoinder to Plods critique of the social psychology of conflict published in this Journal. The rejoinder reviews the history of American social psychology, the meaning of 'conflict resolution', the nature of the dilemma in the Prisoner's Dilemma, and other related matters which Plon has apparently misconstrued. The rejoinder criticizes Plon's crude 'economic determinism' version of Marxist theory and briefly considers the role of power in politics. The characteristics of the present author's social-psychological approach to conflict is outlined, and it is suggested that such an approach has direct relevance to the intellectual concerns of those who seek to bring about social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is introduced by an analysis of how the effects of a negotiator's intragroup status (leader versus non-leader) on his negotiation performance (in particular, toughness) may be modified by such factors as the source of the status assignment (e.g., election versus imposition) and the presence and timing of position formation in the group. The accountability experienced by a negotiator vis-à-vis his group is proposed as the central intervening variable mediating status effects on negotiation. In a series of (previously published) experiments, all using the same procedural paradigm - a prenegotiation, intragroup phase followed by intergroup negotiation among equal-status group delegates, issues requiring a choice between higher and lower risk levels - some of the above variables and additional ones, were investigated. Overall, there was evidence of greater toughness among group-elected leaders (relative to non-leaders) and among subordinates (relative to imposed, 'dicta tonal' leaders). The latter effect obtained only when the negotiators were being continuously monitored by and had to consult, their respective group partners during the negotiations. Results concerning risky shift (enhancement of risk acceptance through the negotiation discussions) are considered in the light of relevant theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first two parts of the paper a distinction is made between a 'conflict or convergence of interests' approach (Sherif) and a 'categorisation' approach (Tajfel) in the area of the experimental study of intergroup relations. Some recent experimental findings are mentioned and a theoretical development of the categorisation approach is proposed. In the third part a new experiment illustrating the relevance of the categorisation approach is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Certain areas such as person perception and the judgment of attitude statements are candidates for inclusion in the field of social judgement. Others, such as attitude organization and group decision making, may be either excluded or included, depending on the standpoint from which they are approached. It is therefore perhaps more reasonable to define social judgment, not in terms of any rigid circumscription of the topics to be investigated, but rather as a particular kind of approach to the study of social psychological phenomena. The assumption, common to many psychological theories, is that, to explain and understand social behaviour, one needs more than just a description of the particular behaviour in which one is interested and the stimulus conditions under which it is observed.

The article analyzes the perceived usefulness of person-person telecommunications media as a function of the intended application based on an experiment. The aim was to determine businessmen's perceptions of how well a variety of different types of interactions could be handled electronically when compared with face to face mode. The article explains how the experiment was conducted and provides a brief account of results. Based on results, it is stated that the perceived usefulness of the media varies according to the application considered.

Copyright of European Journal of Social Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article focuses on the broad objective of publishing "European Journal of Social Psychology," while there were so many journals dedicated to this particular field of social psychology. It reveals that since long European social psychologists remained largely ignorant of what their colleagues in other parts of Europe were doing. This led to the idea of a journal which would serve the needs of all social psychologists in Europe by providing them with a common forum. It informs that the contents including articles, reporting empirical research, theoretical papers and articles on methodology, contributions by authors from related fields, dealing with social psychological topics, and review articles are welcomed.

M. Plon commits the same offense that he finds so odious in American social psychology: A confounding of political axioms and scientific reasoning. His desire to demonstrate ideological blindness in Americans leads him to misinterpret some published works on the Prisoner's Dilemma paradigm in bargaining research and to ignore the issue of the most useful balance in emphasis between conflict maintenance and conflict resolution when these topics are studied experimentally. Thus, M. Plon's angry attack is not a clarification of the deep issues that he essays but, rather, another data point that will itself need to be understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the experiments reviewed in this article the subjects are asked to produce ideas that are relevant to a given task request (e.g., possible consequences of a hypothetical event). After describing the specific task material and the performance measures used in the relevant research studies, some analytic background is given by outlining the cognitive resources required in this kind of experimental task and by listing the various factors that may come into play when subjects perform in groups (with discussion) instead of individually. We then review the studies comparing individual and group performance. In all of these experiments the subjects were asked to work according to the rules of brainstorming, which prescribe that participants refrain from evaluating their ideas. This procedure purportedly results in superior group. relative to individual, performance. However, the empirical evidence clearly indicates that subjects brainstorming in small groups produce fewer ideas than the same number of subjects brainstorming individually. Less clear evidence is available on measures of quality, uniqueness and variety. The discussion considers factors that may be responsible for this inferiority of groups. The role of social inhibition receives particular attention also in terms of suggestions for research. Apart from the group-individual comparison we review the existing research concerning factors that may influence group performance on idea-generation tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two experiments four sets of both favorable and unfavorable verbal material were classified as belonging to four labels, two specific labels (politicians) and two less specific labels (classes of people). Ss' attitudes towards one of the politicians were more positive than towards the other. Ss stored these stimuli in their memory under casual, incidental instructions. Then Ss retrieved information by deciding which one of two labels was formerly connected to the given verbal items. Ss were expected to accentuate on two orthogonal dependent variables: (1) Discrimination performance between labels; (2) response preference for labels. Discrimination performance was improved for politician labels compared to classes of-people labels but was not affected by the favorableness of the verbal material. However, response preference for one politician label occurred when two conditions were fulfilled: (a) Both the verbal material and Ss' attitudes towards the label were unfavorable, and (b) the content of verbal material was characteristic of the label. The accentuation theories of Brunet-Goodman and Tajfel were reformulated and integrated into a two-level model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an attempt, based on historical materialism (the science of the history of social formations), to critically analyse the notion of conflict as social psychology has defined it and as social psychology has developed it with models of non-zero sum games imported from game theory. Whether it concerns the postulate of conflict resolution (which governs this domain of social psychology), or the ideological foundations of the notion of conflict, the structure of a game of the 'PDG' type and the imaginary trap it forms, or even the staging which the psycho-sociologist produces in utilizing this model, it is shown that this whole proceeding is an ideological construction which functions principally as an obstacle to true scientific knowledge of the field it covers-which can be defined as constituted by the relationships between the subjective and the political-and secondly as the raw material for a theory of ideology, which is understood as having the double function of recognition and misappreciation. Both tasks demand intensive theoretical study as part of the development of historical materialism and, from that point of view, this work should be considered only as a preliminary study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that compliance in groups will be highest where the composition is maximally confrontation-generating; identification will be highest where composition is support-generating; and internalisation will be highest where both some support and some confrontation are present. The hypotheses were tested in sixteen one-day experimentally composed T-groups. All the hypotheses were supported, particularly the first two. In this setting internalisation was found to be related to confrontation but not to support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects of fear- and anxiety-inducing situations on affiliative behaviour of approach-oriented and avoidance-oriented Ss. Two samples of high school and university students were utilized to examine the following hypotheses: a) In fear situations, affiliative behaviour will increase in both approach- and avoidance-oriented subjects; b) in anxiety situations, affiliative behaviour will increase in approach-oriented subjects and decrease in avoidance-oriented ones. The results confirmed the hypotheses for a verbal criterion of affiliative behaviour, and partially for a behaviour criterion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Seven experiments were conducted which measured changes in the subjects' actual performance resulting from manipulated personal and categorical comparison of performance with another subject. In line with Festinger's (1954) theory of social comparison of ability, it was found that subjects who were visually isolated from sources of evaluation (setting 2) experiment 2 and 3) showed relatively low performance after a VI (very inferior) or VS (very superior) outcome and relatively high performance after an EQ (equal) outcome, whereas subjects who were visually exposed to sources of evaluation (setting 1, experiment I and 4) showed relatively low performance only after a VS outcome and relatively high performance after both a VI and EQ outcome. When (also in setting 1) the manipulation of outcome was combined with a manipulation of expectation (experiment 5), ii was found that an EQ expectation did not alter the original pattern of outcome effects, but that a VI or VS expectation markedly influenced the effect of out- come: A complete confirmation of VI expectation and an almost complete dis-confirmation of VS expectation resulted in relatively high performance, whereas all other combinations of VI or VS expectation with a given outcome resulted in relatively low performance. Finally, it was found that changing the manipulation of personal comparison of performance of the previous experiments into a manipulation of categorical comparison of performance (experiment 6a and 6b) resulted in a pattern of data which was about the opposite of the typical previous pattern. In setting 1 (experiment 6a), the subjects' performance was relatively low after being categorized into a VI or EQ category and relatively high after being categorized into a VS category, whereas in setting 2 (experiment 6b) both the VI and VS categorization resulted in the same performance and the EQ categorization resulted in a slightly lower performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of European Journal of Social Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of European Journal of Social Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A content analysis is report of child-rearing manuals published in sixteenth to nineteenth centuries and of the themes of the Don Juan plays in seventeenth of twentieth centuries. The relationship between the content of the manuals and the themes of the play supports the thesis that child-rearing patterns advocated in one century are reflected in the next in the attitudes expressed in popular cultural activities towards aggression, achievement and sex roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we have presented a theoretical outline and a body of empirical work relating to the processes of social differentiation and social originality. If, in a competition, someone else seems to possess a decisive advantage or if mere comparison with this other person constitutes a threat to social identity, there are signs, in given conditions of a tendency to differentiate oneself from the other, to be different or to do something else, to invent new criteria of being or doing with others or to combine accepted criteria in an original way. In other words, one tends to give proof of originality or, to use a Darwinian metaphor, to occupy 'vacant places'. Doubtless the strategies described here only apply to certain social systems in which the visibility of the agent is an important social value and in which comparison may pose a threat to that identity. The restoring of identity by way of the search for otherness merits that attention of social psychology. But originality is not a necessarily accepted or not necessarily immediately. Innovation may take time, may necessitate the creation of schismatic groups and the waging of battles for recognition, etc. We give a brief account of observations made with regard to groups of children in summer camps, laboratory experiments and the results of surveys in the scientific and artistic communities which fit into our theoretical framework. It will not be difficult for the reader to see that this article is a first step in a direction which in our eyes, holds out a great deal of promise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diffusion of responsibility' hypothesis as an explanation of helping behaviour (or lack of same) is qualified by suggesting that the hypothesis applies only in non-interacting situations. It is hypothesized that interacting groups who are aware of a help-demanding situation actually focus the responsibility and, therefore, take action as a group more rapidly than will a non-interacting group. Evidence is gathered in a contrived help-demanding situation employing a 2× (sex× condition) in which three conditions - alone, non-interacting (pseudo) groups, and interacting groups - are used. The evidence substantiates the major hypothesis. Speculation is also presented concerning the relationship of the 'alone' condition to the interacting and non-interacting groups and concerning sex effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows that group polarization occurs in regard not only to person perception but in the domain of social judgments as well. It attempts to clarify the nature of the transition from the individual to the group judgment by focusing on two aspects of the shift, the cognitive and the interactional aspects. This experiment shows that group discussion leads to polarization in the realms of social judgment. Group polarization is related to cognitive simplification and has a fundamentally normative character.

The study was designed, using the `matched-guise' technique, to determine how different groups of Welshmen perceive members of their own national group who use various linguistic codes. Three matched groups of adult Welsh Sc were used: Bilinguals, those who were learning Welsh and those who could nor speak Welsh and were not learning it either. These Ss were asked vu evaluate on 22 scales the personalities of various Welsh speakers they heard reading the same passage of prose on tape. Essentially, the stimulus tape consisted of two male bilinguals reading the passage once each in Welsh, in English with a Welsh accent and in English with an RP accent. It was found, despite the fact that the groups differed in their language skills and self-perceived Welshness, that Ss as a whole upgraded the bilingual speakers on most traits. Indeed, the RP speakers were evaluated most favourably on only one trait-self-confidence. It was suggested that language to a large extent serves as a symbol of Welsh identity, and the results were discussed in relation to how other ethnic groups appear to view their own linguistic codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this experimental study, individual risk taking for self and others was observed for three experimental situations (the choice dilemma situations of Kogan and Wallach, 1964, the Pruitt and Teger gambling situation, 1969, and a simple one-trial gamble game). The results of the present study suggest that one takes as much risk for oneself as for somebody else. An attempt was made to determine to what degree the results could be explained by properties of the experimental situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experimental method for inquiring into the organization of an act of communication is presented, the basic idea being to create an interactional setting where one of the basic prerequisites for successful communication is not satisfied. In this particular design, the subjects interact under the false belief that they are sharing the same `here'. (In mean the subjects interacted more than a quarter of an hour before any doubt or suspicion about the situation was expressed, indicating that our manipulation had been successful.) During the subjects trying (1) to `diagnose' their communicative difficulties, and (2) to apply different `therapeutic tools' in order to improve their communication, one is in a very good position to study the impact from a variety of bask phenomena upon communication. It is argued that this situation `nay well be applied as a `standard experimental method'. And an experiment where this method revealed interesting differences in the communication between couples having and couples not having a schizophrenic offspring is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An implication was examined of three assumptions of Personal Construct Theory. Personal and supplied construct systems were compared for their capacity to account for 34 subjects' behavior in an independent sorting task. It was found that either construct system tended to account for a significant amount of the variance in sorting behavior, but that more was accounted for by personal construct systems. Observations were made on the way in which this phenomenon varied between subjects, sub-tasks, and parts of construct systems. The assumptions examined were held so be relevant to social perception and cognitive theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moscovici and Zavalloni (1969) suggest that both risk shifts and attitude shifts after group discussion are examples of a general group tendency to polarize opinions. In the present experiment, using both attitude and risk items, group discussion did not make individual opinions more extreme: only the group average became more extreme. This group extremity increase was not simply a more general way of conceptualizing the directional shifts in attitude and risk; group extremity increase appeared to be an effect of discussion that was independent of the risk and attitude shifts. Also, subjects in the co-working pretest of the standard risk-shift paradigm were found to be less extreme and more 'agreeing' than pretest subjects who were truly alone. This co-working/alone difference persisted after discussion and was not related to group extremity increase. On both attitude and risk items, group extremity increase was strongly correlated with group opinion convergence. It is argued from this correlation that group extremity increase may be an effect of some aspect of conformity influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A model of subject behaviour in scale answering situations is derived, developed and illustrated empirically. The model allows for the possibility that a subject, faced with a request to describe how much of some attribute an object possesses, may internally represent either that object or some other. Additionally, it allows that he may give honest expression to his internal representation or modify so as to proffer a more 'functional' description. Thus two basic parameters (representation and description) characterise the process whereby a response emitter (S) gives a descriptive-evaluative response to a response elicitor (E). The parameters of the model are demonstrated by two studies using a psychometrically sophisticated personally scale (Mach. V). In the first, object substitution is shown by contrasting self-referent and other-referent responses using a personating technique. In the second, response modification, due to favourable self-presentation, is found to operate despite a scale-format designed specially to eliminate such biases. Two major implications of the model are discussed: a. That the nature of descriptive-evaluative responding is such as to render the construction of non-fakeable descriptive scales impossible. b. That many experiments using descriptive scales are dubious tests of their stated hypotheses because there are no provisions for the control of the parameters of description and representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Component ratings in impression formation vary with context Ratings on personality trait adjectives within the context of other traits are displaced toward the context. According to the meaning-change hypothesis, trait adjectives have no fixed meaning, rather a range of possible meanings. That meaning is selected which best fits the context in which it is embedded. If the meaning-change formulation was valid, the greater the connotative variability of test traits the greater the effects of context.

The effects of reinforcement, social approval and sex on conformity were studied. Seventy-two male and 72 female college Ss were divided into equal high and low need for social approval groups. Each group was assigned to 1 of 3 experimental conformity conditions: (a) True-agree; (b) neutral; and (c) true-disagree. The groups were tested via a social conformity apparatus. It was found that: (a) Reinforcement for agreeing with a contrived group consensus (true-agree group) elicited more conformity than social pressure without reinforcement (neutral group), which in turn elicted more conformity than reinforcement for disagreeing with the consensus (truedisagree group); (b) females conformed more than males; (c) there was a slight tendency for high social approval Ss to conform more than low social approval Ss. Conformity was explained in terms of social learning, and it was suggested that the situational factor of reinforcement was a more important determinant of conformity than the motivational factor of social approval. The modified conformity scoring procedure used focuses on the conformity process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present experiment was designed to determine relative preference for fulfillment of consistency motivation. Ninety-two students rated their attraction to, identification with, and idealization of a hypothetical stimulus person who was represented as having fulfilled particular social motives such as approval, power, achievement and consistency. Results confirmed that subjects prefer persons who have satisfied traditional needs more so than others whose consistency desires have been fulfilled. Implications for the role of consistency motivation in social behavior are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An examination of the relation between authoritarianism and conservatism is made using newly developed balanced forms of the 'D' and 'F' scales together with scales to measure political, social, moral and economic conservatism. Neither 'BD' nor 'SF' scales predicted voting preference. The 'BD' scale was significantly, positively related to the political, social and moral conservatism scales but was non-significantly, negatively related to economic conservatism. It was concluded that both the 'BD' and 'SF' scales are equally good measures of general authoritarianism among supporters of Australian political parties and that while it is in general true that dogmatic people tend to be ideologically conservative, an exception must be made for economic conservatism. This exception is seen to be inferable from the theory of 'working class authoritarianism' advanced by Lipset (1960). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty-six male and 61 female university students participated in a 2 × 2 × 2 design with task correctness-incorrectness, group agreement-disagreement and sex of subject constituting the classification factors. A modified Crutchfield apparatus served to manipulate a subjects prior experience of correctness and agreement and to measure subsequent conformity. Correctness and group agreement were seen to interact to produce varying degrees of perceived competence relative to a simulated group. Relative competence mediated conformity such that (a) on the basis of both experimentally manipulated competence and perceived competence, subjects who were less competent than the group manifested more conformity than subjects who were more competent than the group. This finding replicates the Ettinger et at. (1971) study: (b) subjects who perceived themselves and the group as equally competent conformed more than subjects who perceived themselves as either more competent or less competent than the group. This result was explained in terms of reciprocity; (c) no sex differences were found and possible explanations for this result were discussed; (d) no conformity differences between suspicious and unsuspicious subjects suggested the possibility that suspicious subjects were role playing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two experiments on choice the durations of attention to the alternatives were measured. In experiment 1 each subject chose one from two pictures; in experiment 2 the choice was one from three pictures. In both experiments the subjects understood that they would acquire the picture that they selected. In each experiment higher and lower conflict conditions were induced by offering subjects a choice between alternatives that had been evaluated either equally or disparately. In both experiments a significant relationship appeared between duration of attention and preference order with most subjects looking longest at the alternative that was preferred. In the comparison between conditions this effect was found to be stronger under lower conflict than under higher conflict; this difference reached a significant level in experiment 2. These results are contrary to findings by Gerard (1967) and this matter is discussed. The relevance of the results to other theories is examined. Inferences were drawn from dissonance theory about re-evaluation effects after decision and evaluation changes were measured in the experiments. After adjustment for measurement regression, the data failed to reveal a significant chronic re-evaluation effect. Contrary to dissonance theory, the re-evaluation effect was weaker in the three-alternative choice experiment than in the two-alternative choice experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Journal of Social Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of European Journal of Social Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of European Journal of Social Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of European Journal of Social Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Likableness ratings of 100 German personality-trait words corresponding to a subset of sociologist Norman H. Anderson's 555 trait words have been very useful in selecting trait descriptions for various experiments in impression formation. Therefore the author decided to make use of an opportunity to collect data for corresponding German norms that may be of service for related studies in German settings and for cross-cultural research. It turned out that the data obtained are also of interest in their own right in comparison to Anderson's American ratings.

In a strong bargaining condition, group set higher aspiration levels than the average of prior individual judgments, in the weak bargaining condition the opposite trend occurred. An effort was made to relate these findings to the various theories developed in the risky-shift literature. The direction of the direction of the group-induced shifts varied as a function of the bargaining strength of the parties involved. The vacation allowance and travel compensation issue, groups within the strong bargaining condition set higher levels of aspiration than individuals.

Ten introverts and 10 extraverts were selected from a student population on the basis of their responses to the E.P.I. The groups contained 5 men and 5 women and were matched for Neuroticism. Each subject took part in two 4-minute conversations, one with a male confederate, one with a female confederate. The same two confederates were used throughout the experiment, and no attempt was made to programme any aspect of their behavior. Two trained observers, who sat behind a one-way screen situated close to the speakers, recorded the visual and speech behavior of both subject and confederate by speakers of a four-channel event-recorder. The recordings were made for the last 3 minutes of each interaction. Extraverts Looked more frequently than introverts, but there were no differences between the two groups in the proportions of time spent in Looking and eye-contact, or in the mean length of Looks. Extraverts also spoke more frequently than introverts, a finding which may complement that for the number of Looks. The findings could not be explained by the behavior of the confederates, since they behaved consistently across the two groups of subjects. The experiment is discussed with particular reference to Mobbs (1968) and Kendon and Cook (1969). Comparisons of methodology are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author presents some developments in European social psychology. The major ones are financial, political, those concerning membership policy and the level of general involvement in the activities of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology. A simple and basic truth is that the association cannot survive without funds. Without them the Committee cannot function and in author's experience, without the Committee functioning properly nothing else would function, nor would one be able to maintain the present level of activities and to initiate new projects. Even if the present funds can be stretched for a time, in the long run the continuing active existence of the Association depends on a good deal of individual initiative, both from the Committee members and others.

In this study expectancy and equity theory were compared. An experiment was carried out on the effect of overpayment. Overpayment was manipulated by varying perceived input (perceived qualifications) and received outcome (financial compensation). The experiment consisted of a 2 × 3 design: two levels of payment (4 guilders p.h. and 8 guilders p.h.) and three levels of perceived qualifications (high, medium, low). Sixty-six subjects were hired through the students placement service to decode personality questionnaires. Overpayment by manipulation of monetary rewards did not lead to greater production, as was hypothesized by Adams' equity theory (1965). As far as overpayment has been manipulated by perceived qualifications for the job the data confirmed equity theory. Several other theories (e.g. expectancy theory: Lawler, 1968b) can explain both results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment was conducted to determine the nature of position blares in the cognitive representation of hierarchical social structures. A position in such a structure reflects the relative Influence of its occupants. Using DeSoto's technique, 24 Dutch and 24 French Ss learned either a completely ordered or incompletely ordered structure. No significant differences were found between countries. The completely ordered structure was found easier to learn than the incomplete ones. According to the results of previous studies (Van Kreveld and Zajonc, 1966; Poitou, 1970) the learning curves for completely and incompletely ordered structures were expected so be respectively curvilinear and monotonic. The results did no: support this expectation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present experiment was to show that the occurrence of psychological reactance is diminished when a person a) estimates the freedom eliminating source of social influence as highly attractive, and b) shows strong need for social approval and that c) psychological reactance might be stored up when the actual freedom eliminating social influence is too strong. In an experiment with 3 phases female students served as Ss. Two partners (S and stooge) had to decide whether or not to answer an item from a set of everyday questions with two choice alternatives. In the case of a positive decision they had to give their judgments covertly. In the first phase the S decided whether to answer or not; then the stooge urged the S not to answer a special set of questions. In the second phase the stooge announced her decision whether to answer a question or not and she left out the 'crucial' items. In the third phase the S answered the items alone since the stooge left the room for a short time having good reasons. The independent variables were interpersonal attraction: high vs. low (manipulated by instruction) and social desirability: high vs. low (measured by median split-half of the scores of a German version of the Marlowe-Crowne-scale). Reactance was measured as the number of answers to the crucial items in phase 3 in relation to the previous phases. The delay effect of psychological reactance was tested by a comparison of answers in phase 2 and 3. The data lent support to the first (attraction) and third (delay) experimental hypotheses stated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research shows that in an experimental game it is the perception of an actual relationship, of an interaction with the other person more titan the nature of the game which creates a climate in which cooperative responses can be established. Cooperative sets can be induced through the Representation of the partner: a reactive partner promoting cooperation, and a rigid one promoting competition. In addition it is noted that in order to understand the reactions induced by the partner's behavior, the behavior in itself it not sufficient. Indeed it is interpreted and understood in terms of the initial representation. The analysis of a person's behavior when in relation with another, should be based on a joint study of the existing representations and of the actual behavior observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three dependent variables, derived from an extended Signal-Detection paradigma, were used in each of 3 experiments: memory performance, confidence-level, and response-bias. Each memory item was first fudged by S and then fictitiously by 2 confederates providing different degrees of agreement and disagreement. As compared to agreement moderate disagreement yielded both better recognition performance and, if S's judgments were false, less confidence. Strong disagreement failed to repeat these findings. Balanced agreement/disagreement raised the level of both performance and confidence relative to a situation without information from the group. In all the experiments correct decisions yielded higher confidence than errors. Festinger's theory of social comparison processes accounts for all results in performance, but for explaining the confidence shifts assumptions on 'internal cues' should also be incorporated. The response-bias was not affected by social treatment differences, thus supporting the view of some Signal-Detection theorists. Proposals towards a general theory of stimulus processing in social context are outlined and some of its consequences are discussed by taking as examples some conformity experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]