Opposing determinants of compliance and interrogative suggestibility

The Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales (GSS 1 & 2) can illuminate social and cognitive factors which affect forensic interviewees’ vulnerability to pressure from interrogators. Variations of the GSS procedure can highlight detail in the dynamics of interrogative suggestibility (IS). Induced malingering is one such variation. The present study used this method in an attempt to reconcile conflicting findings of two previous malingering studies. An innovation was to pre-test participants on the standard GSS 2 to identify them as showing Low, Medium, or High IS. These groups then undertook the parallel GSS 1 but with the instruction to role-play a suspect who is attempting to appear abnormally suggestible. Results showed marked differences in the direction in which faking scores changed, from those at pre-testing, between the Low and the High groups, with the High group showing a decrease in GSS scores and the Low group an increase: the Medium group scores followed the trend of the Low group scores. It is suggested that these results explain why previous results using induced malingering have been inconsistent. The results are also discussed in terms of how differing expectancies and levels of interpersonal trust may affect interviewees.     

Women as authority figures: The use and nonuse of authority

This paper reports the results of two experiments designed to investigate the effect of sex-role stereotypes on evaluations of authority figures. Female and male subjects read short accounts of various situations in which an authority figure confronted a subordinate who had transgressed in some way and then evaluated the authority figure on a variety of dimensions. Sex of the authority figure and of the subordinate were varied factorially. In Experiment 1, where the authority figure took a hard line with the transgressing subordinate, it was found that a female authority figure being firm with a male subordinate was evaluated most negatively. In Experiment 2, where the authority figure was lenient with the subordinate, it was found that a female authority figure being lenient with a female subordinate was evaluated most negatively. Implications of the results are discussed.     

Effectance and control as determinants of video game enjoyment.

This article explores video game enjoyment originated by games' key characteristic, interactivity. An online experiment (N=500) tested experiences of effectance (perceived influence on the game world) and of being in control as mechanisms that link interactivity to enjoyment. A video game was manipulated to either allow normal play, reduce perceived effectance, or reduce perceived control. Enjoyment ratings suggest that effectance is an important factor in video game enjoyment but that the relationship between control of the game situation and enjoyment is more complex.     

Induced arousal and orienting tasks as determinants of intentional recall.

In this study, the author examined the effects of intention to learn, noise, and different types of orienting tasks on short-term and long-term recall for 15 Hindi paired-associates. Intention to learn improved recall, as did encoding of semantic features, and noise impaired both short-term and long-term recall. The analysis of short-term recall scores indicated that there were no significant interactions between these factors, but the analysis of long-term recall scores indicated that there were significant interactions between noise and orienting tasks and between intentionality and orienting tasks.     

"Seesaw of emotions" and compliance: beyond the fear-then-relief rule

Previous researchers have found that people who experience anxiety whose source is abruptly eliminated usually respond positively to various requests addressed to them. The authors of the present study used 3 experiments to demonstrate that a sudden withdrawal of positive emotions leads to a similar effect (i.e., increased compliance to requests and commands). The mechanism underlying this effect is probably related to how each emotion generates its own specific behavior program. When this program suddenly proves to be inadequate to new, modified external circumstances, the person begins to function mindlessly. The authors propose the term seesaw of emotions for situations in which a sudden retraction of the external sources of affect (regardless of its type) leads to an individual's increased compliance.     

The Racial Components of "Race-Neutral" Crime Policy Attitudes

Past studies have found evidence of a connection between race and crime in the minds of many white Americans, but several gaps remain in our knowledge of this association. Here, a multimethod approach was used to examine more closely the racial component of whites' support for ostensibly race-neutral crime policies. Conventional correlational analysis showed that negative stereotypes of African Americans—specifically, the belief that blacks are violent and lazy—are an important source of support for punitive policies such as the death penalty and longer prison terms. A survey experiment further showed that negative evaluations of black prisoners are much more strongly tied to support for punitive policies than are negative evaluations of white prisoners. These findings suggest that when many whites think of punitive crime policies to deal with violent offenders, they are thinking of black offenders.     

The analyst's knowledge and authority: a critique of the "new view" in psychoanalysis

A critical assessment is presented of positions recently taken by Mitchell and Renik, who are taken as representatives of a "new view" in psychoanalysis. One article by Mitchell and two by Renik are examined as paradigmatic of certain ways of construing the nature of mind, the analyst's knowledge and authority, and the analytic process that are unduly influenced by the postmodern turn in psychoanalysis. Although "new view" theorists have made valid criticisms of traditional psychoanalytic theory and practice, they wind up taking untenable positions. Specifically called into question are their views on the relation between language and interpretation, on the one hand, and the mental contents of the patient on the other. A disjunction is noted between their discussion of clinical material and their conceptual stance, and their idiosyncratic redefinitions of truth and objectivity are criticized. Finally, a "humble realism" is suggested as the most appropriate philosophical position for psychoanalysts to adopt.     

Experience-related factors as determinants of leisure satisfaction

Two studies were conducted to investigate the effects on leisure satisfaction of factors related and unrelated to a leisure experience. The first study showed that subjects' sex and educational level were not significantly related to leisure satisfaction which was measured without regard to any particular explicit leisure experience. However, when the measures of leisure satisfaction were taken in close temporal proximity to a leisure experience (the second study), two significant interaction effects were obtained. The one involving sex and outcome indicated that the experience of a basketball game itself, regardless of its outcome, increased males' leisure satisfaction, whereas females' leisure satisfaction was outcome-dependent. The interaction of outcome and competitiveness revealed that leisure satisfaction was higher for the competitive than recreational players before the game, with this difference enlarging after winning and especially after losing. Theoretical and practical implications of the results were discussed.     

Learning strategies as determinants of memory deficiencies

Two tests were made of inferences about how learning strategies affect recall accuracy, and how peculiarities of strategy might account for mentally retardeds' memory deficiencies. Learning strategy was defined as the pattern of pauses generated by S as he paced himself through serial lists of letters. When given freedom to proceed as they wished, normally intelligent Ss paused increasingly the deeper they went into the list. Retarded Ss did not. It was concluded that the normals' active strategies contribute to their high primacy, while the retardeds' lack of distinctive pauses accounts for their low primacy. In the second test, the strategies were reversed. The normals were forced to abandon rehearsal; the retardeds were forced to rehearse. This resulted in greatly enhanced primacy for the retardeds, and greatly decreased primacy for the normals. In addition to showing how spontaneous strategies and forced strategies can directly influence recall accuracy, these findings suggest a reasonably simple means of mitigating short-term memory deficiencies.     

Dependency and fault as determinants of helping

In a natural setting, helping was investigated as a function of a female requestor's dependency on the subject for help and whether or not she was at fault for her plight. Based on previous research and the hypothesized operation of two norms, it was predicted that the negligent requestor would be more likely to receive help than the victim of circumstance when her dependency was high, but would be less likely to receive help when her dependency was low. Randomly selected telephone subscribers received a “wrong number” telephone call from a stranded women motorist. The woman asked the subject to make a phone call for her; the dependent variable was whether the subject helped by making the call. Results were consistent with predictions. When dependency is high, the victim's negligence appears to operate as an indication of greater need, whereas when dependency is low, it seems to operate as a sign that the victim is less deserving of help. Results were discussed in relation to different social norms that may be activated as a function of the dependency of the requestor.     

Group-based emotions as determinants of ingroup identification

Events affecting an ingroup with which one identifies trigger group-based emotions. Thus, identification with a group seems to be a crucial determinant of group-based emotions. However, some theories (e.g., Russell, 2003) suggest bi-directional causal links between components of emotions. The current research examines whether group-based emotions may also influence ingroup identification. In a study, type of emotion (happiness vs. anger) and object of emotion (ingroup vs. outgroup) were manipulated. The results show an interaction effect of type of emotion and object of emotion on change in ingroup identification. Identification increases with happiness towards the ingroup or anger towards the outgroup, whereas identification decreases with anger toward the ingroup and happiness toward the outgroup. Moreover, the intensity of emotions determines the degree of change in identification. The implications for approaches of group-based emotions are discussed.     

Knowledge and authority: the godfather fantasy.

Three strategies are tentatively proposed by which human beings try to assuage the need for transcendence: (1) seizing the godhead; (2) submission to God; and (3) the godfather fantasy, whereby an attempt is made to clothe a mere mortal in the cloak of godly power. These strategies are connected to our innate, often conflicted, tendencies to obedience and rebellion, later elaborated into submission to authority or resistance to or cooptation of authority. These psychic tendencies are illustrated in Dostoevsky's "The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor" and in Mario Puzo's The Godfather, both brilliant demonstrations of social hierarchical control. The almost universal pull to obedience is demonstrated in the research of Stanley Milgram on obedience in hierarchical situations and theorized by Freud in his formulation of "the thirst for obedience" as a product of infantile life. It is proposed that the function of the group mind, in the form of ideology, is to counter anxieties generated throughout life, not only the remnants of childhood anxiety but also fears of death and oblivion. That a person's will to power can get out of hand and lead to disaster hardly needs saying; yet the will to submission, when connected to a shared ideology, can lead to results no less devastating. More people are killed in the name of an ideological cause run amok than are destroyed by virtue of thwarted passion, personal vendettas, criminality, or greed.     

Harm-doing and victim's racial or orthopedic stigma as determinants of helping behavior.

Three experiments tested a prediction derived from an ambivalence theory of behavior toward the stigmatized. The prediction was that unintentional harm-doers would be more likely to make restitution by doing a favor for a stigmatized victim than for a nonstigmatized one. In Experiment 1 it was upheld for black versus white victims. In Experiment 2, where the victim of harm-doing was either physically handicapped or normal, the prediction was upheld only among older subjects, following the post hoc introduction of an age variable. Experiment 3 also used a physical disability variable. The data were consistent with the prediction, although the adequacy of the harm-doing manipulation was not checked empirically. On the whole, these results are seen as complementing previous findings of amplified post-harm-doing denigration of black and disabled victims. An assumption that the relationship between harm-doing and altruism was mediated by guilt arousal received only fragmentary support. That is, self-reports of guilt were highest in the harm-doing black confederate condition in Experiment 1, and self-reports of negative affect were highest in the harm-doing/wheelchair confederate condition in Experiment 3, but there were no significant relationships between individual differences in guilt or negative affect on the one hand, and amount of helping, on the other.