Studies in social influence VI: Is Lenin orange or red? Imagery and social influence

Two experiments dealing with the effects of a majority or a minority source influence, solely on the recognition of a portrait, let us study the generalization of the influence to a portrait symbolically linked to a colour. According to the theory of conversion, the bringing into play of the validation process of the stimulus when the source is a minority should allow such a generalization cognitive association. When the source is a majority, a social comparison process should lead to compliance about the portrait, without any cognitive investigation of the whole stimulus. In the first experiment, four slides were shown successively using material similar to Luchins' (1945) and progressively drawing the portrait of Lenin, with a red-orange background for each phase. The dependant variables are: (1) the drawing, (2) the colour of the background, (3) the after-image. On the two last slides for which the answer ‘Lenin’ is given by the source, changes towards red (and the complementary colour green), in the absence of the source under the minority influence, and changes towards orange under majority influence in the absence of the source are registered. Moreoever, the most significant changes of the colour judgment are due to the subjects who refuse to answer ‘Lenin’ during the interaction. In the second experiment, only the fourth slide, on which Lenin's portrait completely appears is shown. The subjects submitted to majority influence answer ‘Lenin’ more than the control group does, only in the presence of the source and change their judgment on the colour of the after-image towards the complementary of orange in the absence of the source. When the source is a minority a sinificant effect towards the red and its complementary colour is shown.     

A look at social support patterns

The issue of how to provide support for patients with a life-threatening illness continues to be a problem for pastors and chaplains. The authors discuss the significance and reasons for looking at the present day social support patterns as an unnatural problem. Unless the unnatural nature of support in the modern medical setting is understood pastors and chaplains can miss the target on answering the question of how to provide support. The authors conclude the article by addressing this question from the position of reserving the unnatural nature of providing support.Dr. Bergen is Professor of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH 03755. Dr. Nelson is affiliated with the Chaplain Service, Veterans Administration Center, White River Junction, VT 05001 and Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School.     

Extinction of a phobia of physical examination in a seven-year-old mentally retarded boy—A case study

Counterconditioning is a process in which aversive stimuli that ordinarily evoke emotional or avoidance responses are paired with positive stimuli which evoke incompatible activities. Several sets of operations have been employed to induce these incompatible activities (e.g. food, Jones, 1924; relaxation. Grossberg, 1964; positive imagery, Lazarus and Abramowitz, 1962; pharmacological agents, Friedman, 1966; laughter, Ventis, 1973).Although the Counterconditioning process has been successfully applied to a wide variety of emotional disorders, special problems arise when the procedure is applied to the mentally retarded. First, because of the limitations in cognitive abilities, it is generally impossible to train the subject in either relaxation or positive imagery processes. Consequently, it is necessary to place the child in direct contact with the anxiety-inducing situation. Secondly, it is often difficult to find an anxiety-free situation which is incompatible with the anxiety-arousing situation and which can be practically implemented, particularly when the phobia involved is complex.The purpose of this paper is to describe a case whereby a phobic response of physical examination by male doctors in a 7–yr-old mentally retarded boy was extinguished by pairing the examination with an anxiety-free situation, i.e. an extremely comfortable relationship between the patient and a nurse on the ward. Previous research had indicated that parents and people who have positive relationships with a person might possibly serve as effective anxiety reducers in fear-provoking situations (Jersild and Holmes, 1935).     

Pattern identification of pure tones and frequency glides by untrained listeners

Six subjects identified the order of four-event sequences. Contiguous pure tones (713, 1,031, 1,209, and 1,514 Hz in permuted orders) were presented by earphones at 40 dB SL, with individual events Itones) from 20, to 40, 60, and 300 msec in duration. Again, silent intervals of 20 or 60 msec were inserted among tones of 20 or 40 msec duration. Finally, the pure tones of 713 and 1,209 Hz were combined, in any four-event sequence, with two glissandi chosen from 466 to 714 Hz, from 714 to 1,208 Hz, and their mirror reversals. The temporal and frequency continuity both of tonal and of glissando-plus-tonal sequences affected the identification of sequential order. Degraded performance in the glissando-plus-tonal condition was attributed partially to a subjective experience of pitch blurring. The inclusion of silent intervals in the sequences of the shorter pure-tone durations improved identification performance to that of contiguous sequences of equal overall duration, i.e., adding silent processing time was as efficacious as increasing by the same amount the duration of the individual frequency event.