Some Personality Effects on Extreme Responding and on the Relative Weighting of Items in CombinationWARR, PETER; ROGERS, COLIN
doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1974.tb00129.xpmid: 4441802
Variations in judgement associated with differences in ethnocentrism‐authoritarianism are examined. The tendency to make extreme responses is seen here to derive from the content of the belief system in question rather than from any stylistic features of judgement. Both high and low scorers may be more extreme than their counterparts, according to the content of the belief being recorded. A second feature studied is the relative importance of cues in combination. Previous work has demonstrated the prepotence of negatively evaluated material, but this overall pattern is now shown to require modification when personality‐relevant judgements are made. In such cases greater importance is given to the inference which is consistent with the personality belief‐system. This suggests the operation of two types of stimulus importance: ‘importance in context’ and ‘overall salience’.
The Basis of Interviewee Matching of Interviewer Self‐disclosureDAVIS, JOHN D.; SLOAN, MARGARET L.
doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1974.tb00130.xpmid: 4441803
The second author interviewed 16 male and 16 female undergraduates, inviting them to disclose information about themselves on a series of 10 high‐intimacy topics presented in an individually randomized order. Subjects were assigned to one of four treatments defined by the possible combinations, over two five‐topic blocks, of disclosure or non‐disclosure on the part of the interviewer. (Interviewer disclosure on a topic immediately preceded the corresponding disclosure by a subject.) Two judges (one of whom was the second author) independently rated audiotape recordings of interviewees' presentations for disclosure and modelling of content. Interviewee disclosure was strongly facilitated by disclosure on the part of the interviewer, but was sustained at a high level only if the interviewer continued to disclose. Deep disclosures by interviewees showed somewhat greater originality of content than more shallow disclosures. These results suggested that the facilitating effect of the interviewer's disclosure was best interpreted in terms of social exchange theory rather than in response disinhibition or discriminative cueing terms. However, subjects showed no clear preference for a disclosing interviewer. For given levels of interviewer disclosure their interview reactions were less favourable the more they had disclosed, suggesting that the ‘dispensation’ of self‐disclosure was costly. Sensitizing subjects were apt to disclose more than repressing subjects and to have less favourable interview reactions.
Justice and Generosity in Social Exchange: an Experimental Study of Reactions to Winning or Losing a GameWHITE, JAMES H.
doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1974.tb00131.xpmid: N/A
It was predicted from exchange theory that distributive justice would be fulfilled in a game when a player with high investments defeated an opponent with low investments. Were the reverse to occur, the ‘low’ winner should feel embarrassment and the ‘high’ loser anger. This hypothesis was tested experimentally. Unacquainted boys whose leadership status was high or low raced model cars, winning or losing being predetermined. After racing, the boys were separately asked to divide a sum of money between them, which provided a measure of their anger or embarrassment over the outcome. The boys behaved in accordance with predictions in that high status boys who had lost to low status were less generous than low status who had lost to high status. Parallel results were obtained amongst the winners.
Age, Group Decisions on Risk‐related Topics and the Prediction of Choice ShiftsSPENCER, CHRISTOPHER; WILLIAMS, MARYLIN; OLDFIELD‐BOX, HILARY
doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1974.tb00132.xpmid: N/A
Assertions in the literature that the elderly are less willing to make decisions involving risk than are the young were tested by comparing the decision‐making of two samples: one of 36 undergraduates and one of 26 subjects aged 55–65. Neither on their initial decisions nor in their group discussions of choice dilemma items did the older differ from the younger sample. The predictive validity of Stoner's Value Ranking Instrument was tested with both samples; and in neither was the instrument successful in indicating which items subsequently produced cautious shifts and which shifts to greater risk following group discussion. One reason for the inadequacy of Stoner's method of examining particular cultures' value for risk may lie in the abstractness of the instrument he has developed.
Judgement of Emotion: Attention versus AccuracyWESTBROOK, MARY
doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1974.tb00133.xpmid: 4441804
An attempt was made to account for reported failures to find sex and related personality correlates of ability to judge emotions accurately, in terms of attention to emotional cues. It was hypothesized that attention to emotional cues is (a) independent of accuracy, (b) consistent across different types of cues, and also (c) characterizes women, and people who are (d) socially orientated, and (e) field dependent. It was predicted that accuracy is related to (f) field independence and (g) intelligence. One hundred subjects were tested and support found for hypotheses a, b, c, f and g. A canonical analysis revealed a cognitive style‐intellectual factor relating accuracy to field independence and intelligence.
Variables Influencing the Sources, Frequency and Intensity of Worry in Secondary School PupilsSIMON, A.; WARD, L. O.
doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1974.tb00134.xpmid: 4441805
This study attempts to seek data on the main sources of worry among secondary school pupils, the extent to which the type of worry and its frequency vary with age, and the influence of the type of school attended, grammar or secondary modern, upon the frequency and intensity of the type of worry. Two worry list questionnaires were constructed. There was a general decrease with age in the frequency and intensity of worry, and no significant worry differences between grammar and modern pupils, except for the 13‐year‐old group, where the secondary modern pupils had more frequent and intense worries than the grammar. The percentages for the frequency and intensity of worry were similar in both groups for each type of worry, the most frequent sources of worry being the family, social relationships and school, and the least frequent being animals, economic and personal health concerns. Some significant differences existed: grammar school pupils reported significantly more frequent and intense economic and school worries, secondary modern pupils significantly more imagination and health worries, and the only significant difference between the sexes was the tendency for grammar school girls to worry more frequently and intensely than grammar school boys.
Towards the Investigation of Personality DevianceMcIVER, DAVID; PRESLY, ALLAN S.
doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1974.tb00135.xpmid: 4441806
This study derives from Foulds' (1971) model of personality deviance and is concerned with identifying measures of deviant traits characteristic of personality deviants of the ‘psychopathic’ type. The Character Disorder Scale of the SSI (Foulds, 1967) was employed as the criterion measure and three groups of female patients were studied. By the Kolmogorov‐Smirnov one‐sample test, 16 PF G, L and Q3 satisfied Foulds' distribution criterion for measures of deviant traits. Patients were described in terms of patterns of scores on these factors and two patterns associated with personality deviance were identified. These patterns accounted for half of the sample. None of the other six logically possible patterns was clearly associated with personality deviance. Cross‐validation was considered satisfactory. Further support was obtained using a different criterion of personality deviance (a rating scale devised by Presly & Walton, 1973). Since this study dealt only with the distributions of 16 PF scores, evidence of the temporal stability of G, L and Q3, and also the relevance of these measures to personality deviance of the psychopathic type, are discussed. Finally, some of the problems arising from the use of personality categories are considered.
Factors Affecting the Declaration and Communication of Symptoms by Psychiatric PatientsSHACKLETON, V. J.
doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1974.tb00136.xpmid: 4441807
Two experiments are reported which examine the effect of different situations on the responses of psychiatric patients to self‐report personality and symptom measures. The first experiment compares the responses of patients seen in a psychiatric out‐patient clinic with a comparable group seen at home. The second experiment investigates the effect of a first psychiatric interview on patients' responses. Results showed that female patients consistently reported more symptoms, and a greater intensity of symptoms, than males. The different situations had no significant effect on neuroticism, extraversion and symptom scores. It was concluded that the situational variables investigated can be regarded as insignificant influences on the responses of similar psychiatric patients.