The dispositional shift in attribution over time

Two experiments examined the effect of time on causal attributions. In Experiment I, subjects who described themselves into a tape recorder assumed more personal responsibility for their behavior after 3 weeks' time than others who explained their behavior immediately after its occurrence. In Experiment II, actor-subjects took part in a getting acquainted conversation and explained their behavior more dispositionally and less situationally after 3 weeks' time than they had initially, while observer-subjects experienced no change over time. Results were interpreted in terms of an altered self-perspective in memory and the diminished salience of situational details over time.     

How Personality and Reward Relate to Automobile Drivers' Judgments of Affordances Using Their Own Vehicles

Abstract

Researchers have long recognized the importance of psychological processes in motor vehicle safety, but ecological theory-based research on factors that might contribute to motor vehicle crashes has lagged. This study was designed to test factors that might influence motor vehicle drivers' judgments of passability and fit-ability affordances. In particular, the authors tested personality and behavioral reinforcement as factors that might influence automobile drivers' judgments of affordances in three tasks set at various π-numbers: driving forward through a gap, driving backward through a gap, and fitting into a parallel-parking spot. Results across two studies suggest that personality does not relate to judgment of driving environment affordances, but institution of a behavioral reward system causes drivers to judge affordances in different ways. Implications for future research and for automobile safety intervention are discussed.     

Crowding,Perceived Control,and Behavioral Aftereffects1

A laboratory experiment was conducted in which groups of Ss performed simple and complex tasks for one hour in three conditions of crowding: (1) noncrowded, (2) crowded, (3) crowded-with-perceived-control. Immediately afterward, all groups worked in a noncrowded situation on two additional tasks, one involving frustration tolerance and the other involving quality of proofreading performance. Conditions of crowding had no effect on simple or complex task performance. In the postcrowding situation, however, significant negative behavioral aftereffects were observed for the crowded groups on the frustration tolerance measure, though perceived control ameliorated these aftereffects. There were no significant aftereffects on the prooofreading measure.     

Social skills and the stress-protective role of social support

Cross-sectional analyses of data collected from a large sample of incoming college freshmen were used to determine whether the perceived availability of social support protects persons from stress-induced depressive affect; whether social competence, social anxiety, and self-disclosure are responsible for the stress-protective effect of perceived social support; and whether these social skill measures discriminate among persons for whom support will help, hinder, or be ineffective in the face of stress. Prospective analyses based on the original testing (beginning of school year) and 11- and 22-week follow-ups of a randomly selected subsample were used to determine how the same social skill factors influence the development and maintenance of support perceptions and of friendships. Evidence is provided for a stress-buffering role of the perceived availability of social support. The stress-buffering effect is unaffected by controls for the possible stress-protective influences of social anxiety, social competence, and self-disclosure. Although these social skill factors do not discriminate among persons for whom support will help, hinder, or be ineffective, they are prospectively predictive of the development of both social support and friendship formation. These prospective relations between social skills and the development of perceived availability of social support are only partly mediated by number of friends.     

Environmental determinants of altruism: The effects of stimulus overload and perceived control on helping

In an experiment designed to measure the effects of stimulus overload on altruism, 60 female subjects were randomly assigned to three stimulus conditions of 20 subjects each: (1) overload, (2) overload with perceived control, and (3) no overload. Subjects performed simultaneous proofreading and number attention tasks while at the same time listening to distracting or nondistracting background sound, and one group believed they could have the sound turned off if they desired. Following task performance, all subjects received a request for a favor from an ostensibly unrelated confederate. Although all subjects performed the tasks about equally well regardless of stimulus condition, altruism increased significantly across the three conditions. Results were discussed in terms of stimulus overload associated with the urban environment.     

Effects of personal causation and perceived control on responses to an aversive environment: The more control,the better

A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the effects on reactions to aversive noise of three types of personal control: control over the initiation of noise, control over its termination, and combined control over both initiation and termination. On an attention-to-detail measure which occurred concurrently with noise stimulation, subjects' error rates decreased linearly as degree of control increased. Likewise, on a post-noise measure of task persistence, subjects' performance rates increased linearly across the three conditions as degree of control increased. Results were discussed in terms of Seligman's theory of learned helplessness and deCharms' theory of personal causation, and the motivational effects of personal control were emphasized.