Internalization of conflict and attitude change

In a 2 × 2 × 2 design, eighty smokers were exposed to an anti-smoking appeal attributed either to an expert source (superior status) or a minority source (inferior status). Subjects were either allowed or not to smoke during the experiment. In addition subjects had to memorize part of the appeal and a recall task either followed after reading the appeal (completed task) or not (uncompleted task). The results show that the expert source produces more attitude change than the minority when the tension induced by the source is weakened (either by the opportunity to smoke or task completion). In contrast the minority has more impact when subjects are not able to smoke or when the task is not completed, which is to say when the conflict has been internalized. An explanation of these effects is offered in terms of the more defensive forms of resistance involved with respect to sources of superior status compared to more assertive forms with respect to minorities.     

Changes of Cingulothalamic Topographic Excitation Patterns and Avoidance Response Incubation over Time Following Initial Discriminative Conditioning in Rabbits

Neurons in particular layers of cingulate cortex and in limbic thalamic nuclei exhibit peak firing rates in response to a positive conditional stimulus (CS+) in particular stages of discriminative learning. A given area is maximally activated by the CS+ in the initial, an intermediate, or a late stage of behavioral acquisition, and activation in all of the areas diminishes as training continues after the peak of activation occurs. Thus, the topographic distribution of activation in these areas depends on the stage of behavioral acquisition. The present study determined whether the acquisition-related changes of the topographic distributions of peak firing rates in CS-elicited activity are driven exclusively by the repetition of conditioning trials (i.e., practice) or may occur as well with the passage of time, similar to putative processes of memory consolidation. Multiunit activity was recorded in cingulate cortex and in the anterior dorsal (AD), anterior ventral (AV), and medial dorsal (MD) thalamic nuclei as rabbits learned to step in response to a warning tone (CS+) to prevent a scheduled foot-shock, and to ignore a different tone (CS-) not predictive of foot-shock. The rabbits received two training sessions, S1 and S2. S2 followed S1 immediately in one group of rabbits and after 48 h in a different group. Significant neuronal discharge increments occurred from S1 to S2 in the 48-h group but not in the 0-h group, for the areas (posterior cingulate cortex, AV thalamic nucleus) that previously showed only late-stage activation. Significant discharge increments occurred from S1 to S2 in the 0-h group but not in the 48-h group in areas (anterior cingulate cortex, the AD, and MD thalamic nuclei) that previously exhibited early stage activation. These results indicate that the trial-driven topographic distribution changes also occur with the passage of time after limited initial training. It is suggested that the trial-driven and time-related changes may have a common functional relevance concerning memory consolidation.     

Independence and interdependence of group judgments: Xenophobia and minority influence

A first experiment examined the effects of two methods of dividing resources between Swiss nationals and foreign residents in a study involving 118 subjects. Subjects gave judgments involving either interdependent allocation (resources allocated to the outgroup cannot be allocated to the ingroup) or independent allocation. The results indicated that the socio-cognitive functioning preferred by subjects varies as a function of their view of outsiders. Interdependence of judgments was more characteristic of the most xenophobic subjects, whereas the least xenophobic were more likely to reason in terms of independence. On the other hand, intermediate subjects (those who were clearly neither for nor against outsiders) were sensitive to these modalities of judgment: interdependence engendered an ingroup favoritism, while independence counteracted this bias. A second experiment further analysed the influence of a more or less imperative minority argument on the attitudes of 109 more xenophobic subjects. Independent as compared to interdependent judgment facilitated a latent influence by the source, especially when the source employed a more imperative rhetoric to urge a more favourable attitude to foreigners.     

Behavioural conversion in a compliance paradigm: A replication and a refinement

While a compliance strategy induced almost all subjects to agree to forego first a lunch and then a dinner and the following breakfast, simply observing an accomplice break his commitment to forego lunch was enough to produce a significant reduction in subjects' commitment to forego two meals, even though the effect was not immediate. This pattern of influence, similar to a ‘behavioural conversion’, appeared if the accomplice had first agreed to the initial request and only later refused to continue, but not if he refused to make the commitment at the outset.     

Environmental control of independent and dependent behaviors in preschool girls and boys: A model for early independence training

Differential adult response to the dependent behaviors of young girls and boys has been widely reported in the literature. The present study was an experimental investigation of the role of adult response patterns in shaping and maintaining independent behavior in preschoolers. A two-group design using random assignment was used to examine environmental control of independent and dependent behaviors, defined as task persistence and exploration, and proximity-seeking and socialization of attention, respectively. Subjects were 20 3- and 4-year-olds, 11 females and 9 males. Results indicated that independent and dependent behaviors are both strongly under the control of environmental contingencies in both boys and girls. Implications of these results for the theoretical understanding of sex-role development and women's mental health problems are discussed.     

Multivariate data analysis in empirical research

The interpretive benefits of employing multivariate analysis methods on experimental data with more than one dependent variable are described heuristically and illustrated on a set of data from a simply designed experiment in physiological psychology. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) is performed on the 9 dependent variables contained in the sample data and on the four composites derived from a principal components analysis (PCA) of the variability of the nine. A linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is conducted following both MANOVA results, and 5 methods of determining the “important” dependent variables in the experimental-control group difference are presented and discussed in terms of the data at hand.     

Compliance,conversion and the Asch paradigm

120 subjects took part in an Asch type experiment, using a material which was suitable for the measurement of indirect influence. The subjects were given the consistent incorrect response of a source which was either a majority (the response given by 88 per cent of a parent population of college students) or a minority (12 per cent). Part of the subjects were told that the experiment was investigating perceptual illusions and an example of such illusions was given. An authority condition was also introduced: the experimenter himself gave the incorrect response. A control condition did not involve any influence or illusion. The results show that direct influence increases when there is a stronger symbolic social pressure. They also show that an indirect influence may be induced by a numerical majority (provided that the subjects believe that there is an illusion) as well as a numerical minority (provided that an illusion does not invalidate its response). These results underline how important it is to control the exact significance of experimental situations that are supposed to represent the psychological conditions of majority or minority influence.     

Minority influence and psycho-social identity

Social influence mechanisms are considered as also relevant to intergroup dynamics. In a social influence situation, approaching or retreating from the source's position also involves accepting or rejecting psycho-social identification with the source, implicating self-attribution of the set of characteristics stereotypical of the category or categories to which the source belongs. This conception allows one to account for some of the difficulties encountered by minorities in their attempts to diffuse innovations. An experiment illustrates this conception of influence. It is shown that the influence of a minority is greater when subjects are led to believe that they have in common with the minority numerous category memberships (five out of eight presented) than when they think they share fewer (one out of eight). The difference between these two inductions is, as expected, revealed to be most marked when the source is rigid and for those subjects displaying opinions already relatively close to those of the source and for whom therefore the matter of psycho-social identification is more salient.