Self-reported arousal Factorial complexity as a function of the subject's arousal level

Abstract.— The factorial stability of a previously constructed six-factor check-list for self-reported arousal was studied in three different situations which were conceived of as inducing different levels of arousal, viz. in the evening before going to bed, at a lecture, and at an examination. The analyses showed that the six factors obtained in the Lecture group were reduced to five in the Examination group and to four in the Evening group. This reduction was due to a combination of the items from pairs of the original factors into one factor. Significant differences between the three groups were obtained in all factors but one. The results were regarded as support for the usefulness of the six-factor instrument, the implication being that one or two of the factors in some situations might be redundant. The relevance of the results for a previously proposed model of arousal was discussed.     

Patch choice as a function of procurement cost and encounter rate.

The effects of patch encounter rate on patch choice and meal patterns were studied in rats foraging in a laboratory environment offering two patch types that were encountered sequentially and randomly. The cost of procuring access to one patch was greater than the other. Patches were either encountered equally often or the high-cost patch was encountered more frequently. As expected, rats exploited the low-cost patch on almost 100% of encounters and exploited the high-cost patch on a percentage of encounters that was inversely proportional to its cost. Meal size was the same at both patches. Surprisingly, when low-cost patches were rare, the rats did not increase their use of high-cost patches. This resulted in spending more time and energy searching for patches and a higher average cost per meal. The rats responded to this increased cost by reducing the frequency and increasing the size of meals at both patches and thereby limited total daily foraging cost and conserved total intake.     

Comparative identity and evaluation of socio-political change: Perceptions of the European Community as a function of the salience of regional identities

Using questionnaire data concerning perceptions of the European Community (EC) in Scotland and Andalucia we explored how the EC is perceived, and a European identification adopted as a function of the salience of these ‘regional’ identities. Drawing on the work concerning the concept of ‘comparative identity’ (Ros, Cano & Huici, 1987) it is argued that disidentification with the ‘nation-state’ (i.e. Britain and Spain respectively) is a useful way of measuring the salience of such regional identities in the self/concept. We predicted that such identities would be more salient in Scotland than in Andalucia and that in Scotland the salience of subjects' regional identities would be associated with beliefs concerning the need for strategies of regional empowerment in its relation to the nation (Britain). We further predicted that the EC would be judged as a function of this comparative identity so that in Scotland (but not in Andalucia), a European identification would be associated with what may be called ‘social change’ beliefs (e.g. beliefs concerning the need for changing aspects of the region's relationship with the nation). Supportive evidence is found for all these predictions. However, no support was found for our prediction of a correlation between the Scots' regional identification and their European identification. The paper concludes with a discussion of the utility of the concept of comparative identity. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The victim's reaction to an attack as a function of his perception of the attacker following a verbal insult

This study investigated the role of perception in the victim's behaviour following a verbal attack. It was expected that the victim's counterattack and evaluation of attacker would be influenced by: (a) the victim's level of aggressiveness; (b) the attacker's perceived level of aggressiveness; (c) the attacker's status (prestige in the classroom); and (d) retaliation threat for counterattack. High and low aggressive subjects (victim's) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions differing in the attacker's attributed level of aggression and status. Half of the subjects in each condition received a retaliation threat treatment. The victims were interacting with an assumed partner (attacker) in a guessing game during which they were insulted. After each insult the victim could counterattack by withholding a monetary reward from the attacker. At the end, the victim rated his attacker on aggressiveness, potency and social desirability. The results indicated that there were significant main effects of the victims level of aggressiveness, the attacker's status and retaliation threat. There was also a significant interaction between victim's and attacker's aggressiveness, for the two dependent variables. In addition, victim's behaviour was influenced by the interaction between attacker's status and his aggressiveness.     

Misattribution of arousal and attraction: Effects of salience of explanations for arousal

Based on previous research demonstrating that salience of a plausible cause increases the likelihood of causal attribution (S. E. Taylor & S. T. Fiske, in J. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 11), New York: Academic Press, 1978) it was predicted that salience of plausible causes of arousal would affect romantic attraction. Male subjects were differentially aroused by running in place. Aroused subjects were particularly likely to be attracted to an attractive female confederate if they expected to meet her (high salience of confederate) and if cues associated with the running in place were minimized (low salience of exercise). Though results are consistent with a misatribution of arousal hypothesis, it is suggested that emotion schemata are a potentially more useful explanation.     

Disdain for anxious individuals as a function of mortality salience

Terror management theory research has shown that reminders of mortality tend to decrease liking for people who threaten one's worldview. In research, these worldview threats typically come from outgroup members, but they may also come from ingroup members who are negatively characterized. Presumably the negative characteristics of ingroup members threaten to diminish or undermine the worldview by their association with it. In this research we examine anxious individuals as potentially threatening ingroup members. We hypothesized that a brief contemplation of mortality would lead people to decrease their liking for anxious individuals associated with their ingroup. Study 1 showed that a mortality reminder led people to react more negatively to an anxious police liaison from their community, but not to a calm police liaison. Study 2 showed that a mortality reminder led people who strongly identified with university students to react more negatively to a fellow university student who was anxious, but not to a student who did not display anxiety. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perceptions of women's power as a function of position within an organization

In the present study the authors investigated how people perceive women as a function of position within an organization. Introductory psychology students (N = 456) were given 1 of 6 vignettes depicting people in various occupations, along with an adjective checklist adapted from the Bem Sex Role Inventory (S. L. Bem, 1974). The students indicated on a Likert-type scale the adjectives they believed described the character in the paragraph they received. They were also given a power style scale by T. R. Hinkin and C. A. Schriesheim (1989) and were asked to rate the vignette characters' ability to use each different style (e.g., reward, expertise, referent, legitimate, coercive). The students rated women in high positions as more masculine than men and women in low positions and as masculine as men in high positions. There was little difference in power styles as a function of either the sex or the position level of the vignette character.     

Leftists’ and rightists’ IQ as a function of stereotype salience

This study examined the intellectual performance of leftists (or liberals) and rightists (or conservatives) when a stereotype about members of a disadvantaged outgroup (immigrants) is salient. Building on system-justification theory (SJT) and the motivated social cognition approach of political conservatism, it was predicted that when the stereotype about immigrant students’ underachievement is salient in academic settings, leftist students would perform worse, whereas rightist students would perform better than in a control condition. In two samples, Swiss native students were first reminded (or not) of the stereotype and then performed a difficult intellectual test. The results yielded support for the predictions. These findings illustrate how different ideological motives (system-challenging vs. system-justifying) might influence performance among leftist and rightist students.     

Physiological arousal,exposure to a relatively lengthy aggressive film,and aggressive behavior

Male college students viewed either a 15-minute aggressive television program excerpt or a neutral one. Half of the students in each group were then angered or treated in a neutral fashion by a confederate. Each subject was allowed to retaliate by delivering electric shocks to the confederate as an evaluation of a problem solution he supposedly had completed. Heart rate was measured (a) before exposure to the television program, (b) after exposure to the program, (c) immediately before delivering the shock, and (d) immediately after shock delivery. Angered men who had seen the aggressive film were most aggressive toward the confederate and exhibited the lowest average pulse rates both before and after shock delivery. The findings are discussed in terms of their implication for arousal vs disinhibition conceptualizations of aggressive behaviors following exposure to television violence.     

Dimensional salience as a function of educational attainment and method of discrimination training

The effects of three methods of selective-attention training with 4-sided forms on the salience of an invagination physical dimension in discrimination judgments with a stimulus domain of 12-sided forms were examined for 6-year-old Ss of low and high educational attainment. The results demonstrated that training procedures involving perceptual demonstration or manipulation increase the invagination dimension salience in the 12-sided stimulus domain more than a verbal training procedure for low educational attainment Ss. Implications for the psychophysical study of relatedness of stimulus domains are discussed.