bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Observational learning of attitudes: A behavioral analysis
Authors: Kanekar Suresh 
Published: May 2007

AbstractAnalyzes observational learning of attitudes within the classical conditioning paradigm after reviewing the relevant theoretical formulations and empirical evidence. In this analysis an attitude is conceived of as a habit between an attitudinal stimulus and an attitudinal response, the attitudinal response being an internal emotional response. Thus vicarious emotional arousal is the basis of observational learning of attitudes. A model's positive or negative emotional behavior should normally lead to an arousal of a similar emotion in an observer because of the latter's conditioning history. Given that the model's emotional behavior is in the context of a particular stimulus situation, this stimulus situation should be able to elicit the relevant emotion in the observer through higher‐order conditioning. Thus the specific stimulus situation, or another similar stimulus situation, comes to be a positive or negative attitudinal object for the observer, depending on the nature of the model's emotional response.
Property
Authors: Loewental Kate 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper first reviews material dealing with the question of whether possession and related behaviours are innately determined or secondary. It is considered that the significance of property‐related behaviour can best be understood by reference to its ontogenesis, and to the social context, and to the intentions of the actor. Some relevant material is reviewed, and it is proposed that some forms of acquisition and possession of property may be limited to societies with a high degree of role flexibility and mobility and have to do with the building and maintenance of self‐respect.
Limits to participative leadership: Task, structure and skill as contingencies‐a German‐British comparison
Authors: Heller Frank A. , Wilpert Bernhard 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe research investigated the relationship between managerial decision‐making and a set of specified contingent situational factors: decision type, perceived skill requirements and objective skill inputs. The study was based on 663 German and British managers in two interlocking senior management levels of 37 large enterprises. The data were collected by means of Group Feedback Analysis as part of a large study of managerial decision‐making in eight countries.The results show a significant (p = <.05) relationship between the choice of decision styles and the postulated contingency variables. Only 1 % of 615 senior managers consistently use a single decision style, more than two‐thirds use four or five different styles. Very large variations occur as a function of different decision tasks, perceived skill requirements and objective skill availability.There are differences between the relatively well matched samples of German and British managers, but they are less significant than the broadly similar way in which both samples respond to the particular contingencies under investigation.The results are interpreted in the context of an open systems contingency framework. Their action implications are seen to suggest a link with sociotechnical theory on job design and wider issues of organisational and social policy.
A perspective on the study of social attitudes
Authors: Hartmann Paul 
Published: May 2007

AbstractArgues that the comparative neglect of the cognitive component and social origins of social attitudes has produced serious inadequacies in social psychology and limited its social relevance. Discusses critically the question of how far social change can be brought about by changing attitudes. The argument is exemplified with reference to the literature on authoritarianism and recent British research on racial prejudice and mass communication. Concludes that the psychology of social attitudes needs to take greater account of the way the production and communication of culture are related to social structure and change.
Polarization and moderation of person perception judgements as a function of group interaction style
Authors: Forgas Joseph P. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractStudied the effects of group discussion on the extremity of person perception judgements with a view towards (a) evaluating the role of alternative ‘modes of interaction’ in selectively inducing polarization or moderation of judgements, and (b) further extending the generality of the group polarization phenomenon. Two traditional theories of group shift (leadership theory, value theory) were also evaluated. Both the video‐taped stimuli and the subject, object and situation‐relevant measuring instrument were specially developed in a pilot study (N = 90) in order to approximate real‐life conditions. The person stimuli were rated by subjects (N = 72) in a traditional repeated measures design, with a control group for familiarization effects. Free exchange of opinions in group discussion was either encouraged or discouraged. A significant polarization effect with marked postdiscussion recidivism was found when spontaneous interaction was encouraged, while group consensus judgements were more moderate in the more formalized group interaction condition. Neither of the traditional theories examined were supported by the data. The results are discussed in term of their potential relevance to real‐life groups specializing in person perception judgements (juries, interviewing panels), and the connection between the mode of interaction formulation and other recent theories of the group shift are examined, with some suggestions for the further elaboration of the present model.
Friendly or just polite? The effect of self‐esteem on attributions
Authors: Stroebe Wolfgang , Eagly Alice H. , Stroebe Margaret S. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractStudied the effect of a person's self‐esteem on his inferences about another person's feelings toward him. Fifty‐six mule and female college student subjects of high or low chronic self‐esteem (median split; modified version of Janis and Field's ‘Feelings of Inadequacy Scale’) received either a negative or a positive evaluation of themselves. They were told that the evaluation had been written by another subject who had acted either under ‘sincere’ instructions, which allowed him to give his own opinion, or under ‘role‐playing’ instructions, which assigned him to write either a positive or a negative evaluation. The subject's take was to decide under which instruction his evaluation had been written. It was predicted from a self‐concistency logic that low self‐esteem subjects would attribute negative evaluations to ‘sincere’ and positive evaluations to ‘role‐playing’ instructions, while high self‐esteem subjects would make the reverse attributions. A significant self‐esteem × evaluation positivity interaction (p <.01) supported this prediction.
The new social psychology and ‘fascism’
Authors: Billig Michael 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis article examines the claims of ethnomethodologists, symbolic interactionists and ethogenists to provide an improved basis for social psychology. The basic assumptions of these approaches are outlined, especially their common emphasis upon language and meaning. However, differences between the approaches are also noted. The problem is how this new social psychology would be capable of dealing with important social issues, such as fascism. There are criticisms from the point of view of the new social psychology of previous approaches to the social psychology of fascism, i.e., the authoritarian personality and value‐analysis. A historiographical survey of fascism is made to show the sorts of problems which could be tackled by the new social psychology, particularly in relations to the concept of ‘fascism’ itself. However, it is argued that the new perspectives are inappropriate for a serious examination of a social issue like fascism, because they lack clear political commitment. They are based upon attitudes of either disassociation or sympathetic understanding, both of which are unsatisfactory for an examination of fascism. A return to a socially committed social psychology is urged.
The intercultural recognition of emotional expressions by three national racial groups: English, Italian and Japanese
Authors: Shimoda Kimiko , Argyle Michael , Bitti Pio Ricci 
Published: May 2007

AbstractSimilar samples of English, Italian and Japanese subjects were asked to identify 8 emotional states and 4 interpersonal attitudes from video‐taped expressions of 2 performers from each of these cultures. AN sets of judgements were above chance, except Italians judging Japanese. The Japanese subjects were no different from English and Italian subjects in recognition ability but the Japanese performances were harder to recognize supporting Ekman's theory of display rules; in fact all Japanese expressions were difficult to recognize, with the exception of happy‐friendly. The Japanese (performers) make a clearer distinction between sad and depressed than other cultural groups, but did not distinguish between happy and friendly, or between angry and hostile.
Socio‐cognitive conflict and structure of individual and collective performances
Authors: Mugny Gabriel , Doise Willem 
Published: May 2007

AbstractA previous experiment (Doise, Mugny and Perret‐Clermont, 1975) has shown that pairs of subjects perform better on a spatial representation task than subjects alone. As a conclusion the hypothesis was put forward that conflicts of cognitive centrations, embedded in a social situation, lead children to coordinate their centrations. The present research was planned to verify several predictions following from this general hypothesis. Results show that indeed more progress takes place when children with different cognitive strategies work together than when children with the same strategies do so, and that not only the less advanced but also the more advanced child progresses when they interact with each other.
Novel argumentation and attitude change: The case of polarization following group discussion
Authors: Vinokur Amiram , Burnstein Eugene 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis study is concerned with attitude polarization as a function of two properties of a persuasive message: (a) its validity or acceptability and (b) its novelty. The latter is defined as the extent to which the message contains new arguments unlikely to have been already considered by the individual. Acceptability is assumed to be a necessary condition for inducing attitude change; the impact of novelty, therefore, was expected to be most pronounced for arguments of high validity. This hypothesis was tested in two related studies using arguments produced in response to choice dilemma items, widely used in research on polarization. First, it was shown that arguments rated as both valid and novel were perceived as more persuasive than arguments rated either as highly valid but obvious (non‐novel) or as low in validity (non‐valid) but novel. Second, when subjects read samples of valid arguments, their attitudes polarized in the direction advocated by the novel arguments rather than by the non‐novel ones. These findings are considered relevant to the polarization of attitudes in groups. Other research demonstrates that this phenomenon is the result of persuasive arguments raised during group discussion, The present study suggests why such arguments may be persuasive.
Studies in social influence IV: Minority influence in a context of original judgments
Authors: Moscovici Serge , Lage Elisabeth 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis research was devoted to the studv of minoritv influence in a context of originality of judgments. It was stimulated by a consideration of the role pla‐ved by the normative context in influence processes. In most research, this implicitlv underlies the phenomena studied. Thus, studies of social control have naturally appealed to the objectivity context. Innovation, in the social milieu in which it is involved, frequentlv implies an originality context. We hoped to study experimentally its effects on the process of social change.To this end, five experimental conditions were created, in which the originality norm was introduced in different ways – by experimental instructions, by influencing the perception of his own creativity by each individual and by using the time factor to encourage the fuller acceptance of this norm. In each condition, a consistent minority defended a deviant response in a colour perception task (the experimental paradigm used in our previous research using an objectivity context).The originality context affected the development of minority influence. Judgment based on perceptual evidence was abandoned to a significant degree, and new influence behaviours appeared. Individuals followed the minority or avoided the conflict by apparently original compromise responses. They were able to adopt several modes of response in the destructured way during the experiment, as they could oppose the minority by adopting a counter‐norm. Although these reactions depended on the way in which the originality norm was introduced, theprimary role in this process was nevertheless played by the minority, which provided the pole of attraction and persuasion in the group.
Experimentation in social psychology: A reappraisal
Authors: Gergen Kenneth J. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractPsychological inquiry into social phenomena has become virtually indistinguishable from controlled experimentation. Although the assets and liabilities of psychological experiments have been subject to periodic debate, a continued increase in the reliance placed experiments is evidenced. The present paper re‐examines the adequacy of experimentation in light of major features of social interaction. Significant failures of the experiment emerge when the following characteristics of social events are considered: their imbeddedness in broader cultural patterns, their position within extended sequences, their open competition within real‐life settings, their reliance on psychological confluences, and their complex determination. The additional consideration of social phenomena within historical context indicates that all reasonable hypotheses are valid and that critical testing between hypotheses about social behaviour is fruitless. Criteria for the productive usage of experiments are detailed.
Why did he do it? attribution of obedience and the phenomenon of dispositional bias
Authors: Bierbrauer Günter 
Published: May 2007

AbstractTwo studies are reported which demonstrate the influence of perceptual or ‘perspective’ variables in mediating attribution processes. In both studies subjects first observed a re‐enactment of Milgram's (1963) experiment of obedience in which a ‘teacher’ obeys an experimenter's request to deliver dangerously high levels of shock. They were then asked to make judgements concerning the magnitude of situational forces acting upon the teacher and also to make inferences about his personality dispositions. Study I showed that passage of time can lead observers to assume more situational control when they were required to think and write about the witnessed re‐enactment of the Milgram situation compared with observers who had no time to contemplate or who were prevented from doing so. Study II did not support the notion that focus of attribution is a simple function of what one pays attention to, or a function of the differing perspectives which actors and observers employ. Both of these results seriously challenge Jones and Nisbett's (1972) contention that the differences in attribution tendencies between actors and observers arise from the difference in perspective, Moreover, considerable evidence suggests that changes in situational and dispositional attributions may not follow a simple ‘zero‐sum’ model, and that subjects seem to be unwilling to treat the two sources of control as if they were inversely correlated.
Values of British political extremists and potential extremists: A discriminant analysis
Authors: Billig Michael , Cochrane Raymond 
Published: May 2007

AbstractStudied the value systems of political extremists and potential extremists, comparing them with the value systems of centrist activists and supporters. Samples of political activists from the Labour, Conservative, Communist and National Front parties were obtained, as well as samples of non‐active supporters. The non‐active supporters were defined as Potential Extremists, if they supported a centrist party as first choice, but either Communist or National Front as second choice. All subjects completed the Rokeach Value Survey. Discriminant analysis showed that the four groups of activists could be clearly distinguished on the bask of their values. However the values of the Potential Extremists did not especially resemble the values of actual National Front or Communist activists. There were value differences between the Potential Extremists and the centrist supporters; nevertheless these two groups tended to be distinguished by very different values from those which distinguished between the activists. The appeal of value symbols for different types of political involvement was discussed.
Levels of explanation in the European Journal of Social Psychology
Authors: Doise Willem 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe nature of explanation in experimental social psychology is the subject of much controversy. To advance the debate, the present article provides a grid of analysis allowing a more [thorough study of experimental social psychologists] work. Four levels of explanation are distinguished as works can be seen as studying intra‐individual processes (level 1), interindividual but intra‐situational dynamics (level 2), effects of social position in a situational interaction (level 3) and intervention of general beliefs (level 4). An important characteristic of experimental work is the possibility of combining different levels of analysis in the same study, and of surpassing, in this way, the old dichotomy between [psychologizing] and [sociologizing] explanations. Experiments published in the first seven volumes of the European Journal of Social Psychology were explored within this framework.
Towards situational classification
Authors: Nascimento‐Schulze Clclia Maria 
Published: May 2007

AbstractStudied the dimensionality of judgments made by groups of persons evaluating described face‐to‐face social interactions. In these interactions, three situational elements are varied systematically, to wit: topic of conversation, partner status, and purpose of interaction. Twenty female and 20 male British social studies students compared the similarity of 12 such descriptions of dyadic interaction. A Principal Component Factor Analyses indicates that two dimensions (‘constraint’, ‘involvement’) are significant, by providing a two‐subset partition of the set of adjective pairs used by the judging groups. Furthermore, a Multiple Regression Analysis identifies the situational elements which account most for the two dimensions (partner's status for ‘constraint’, topic of conversation for ‘involvement’). The results are discussed in terms of social categorization and social order rheories. Conclusions are drawn as 10 further research on the relationship between perception of social situations and patterns of behaviour.
The beholder beheld: A study of social emotionality
Authors: Semin Gün R. , Manstead A. S. R. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe study reported in this paper is concerned with social emotions. These are defined as states which are experienced either exclusively or more intensively before a real or imagined audience. It is argued that when social emotions arise as a consequence of disrupting social rules, this is because the actor in question is aware of a discrepancy between his or her self‐image, which is assumed to be neutral, and the image which he or she assumes to have conveyed to those who witness the incident, in a role‐playing experiment, subjects were presented with four situations depicting disruptions of routine activity, two of which involved rule disruption. These situations were described from one of two perspectives (actor or observer) and set in one of two social contexts (public or private). Results confirmed the main predictions, which were (1) that in the case of rule disruptions, the emotionality attributed to the actor would be greater in public than in private; (2) that dispositional ratings of the actor would reveal a discrepancy between self image and public image, and that this discrepancy would covary with the actor's emotionality; and (3) that dispositional ratings of the actor would reveal a discrepancy between public image and subjective public image.
Social stereotypes held by different occupational groups in post‐revolutionary Iran
Authors: Beattie Geoffrey W. , Agahi Cyrus , Spencer Christopher 
Published: May 2007

AbstractStudied how level of education and degree of contact with target groups affect stereotypes held by different occupational groups in post‐revolutionary Iran. Male university lecturers, taxi drivers and factory workers from Isfahan—25 of each—rated target groups (Americans, English, Arabs, Iranians) on 22 seven‐point trait scales. Fifteen subjects rated trait favourability. Results were analysed descriptively and by Spearman rank correlations of trait ratings across targets and trait assignments across subject groups. Stereotypes of Americans tend to be high in clarity and favourable across all three occupational groups (particularly ‘progressive’ and ‘industrious’), with the English somewhat less so. In contrast, Arabs are viewed highly unfavourable (‘lazy’, ‘happy‐go‐lucky’, ‘not industrious’). Autostereotypes are less consistent; the lecturers—educated in the West—are most unfavourable. It was concluded that low education and little personal contact lead to more extreme hetero‐stereotype, the reverse being true for (negative) autostereotype. Also, it seems that saturated media coverage does not necessarily have much effect on social stereotypes.
The elimination of visible behaviour from social interactions: Effects on verbal, nonverbal and interpersonal variables
Authors: Rimé Bernard 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe study intended to test a number of implications of the alleged communicative functions of nonverbal behaviours. Four sets of specific hypotheses were defined under the general expectation of important effects of the suppression of visible behaviours from a channel of communication. Pairs of subjects were requested to interact either face‐to‐face or through a wooden screen depriving them of reciprocal visibility. Dependent variables comprised nonverbal behaviours, indices of paralinguistic, syntactic, grammatical and content aspects of the speech, and ratings of the partner and of the interpersonal situation. In spite of the number and variety of measurements, differences in line with the predictions were extremely rare. It is concluded that, better than the communicative ones, other functions such as assistance to the speech encoding processes, probably account for the abundance of nonverbal behaviours among speaking subjects.