Attitude Change During College: Normative or Informational Social Influence?

Students from a small, tightly knit military college participated in a longitudinal study which assessed attitudes toward sociopolitical issues as well as military attitudes at entrance and three years later. A college-wide change in a conservative direction was predicted and observed (p < .001). While a normative influence explanation argues that peer group pressure is responsible for such attitude change, an explanation based on informational influence would argue that the knowledge communicated by faculty also plays a role. The results confirmed the existence of peer group influence on measures of military attitudes but not on measures of sociopolitical attitudes. Rather, and consistent with a process of informational influence, the academic major pursued by the students emerged as a significant predictor of change in sociopolitical attitudes, regardless of reference group identification.     

Postdrinking Sexual Inferences: Evidence for Linear Rather Than Curvilinear Dosage Effects1

Observers infer more sexual availability and willingness from a drinking dater. We hypothesized that, as dosage rises, these sexual inferences follow a linear pattern. College participants rated a woman (Study 1) and man (Study 2) exhibiting a sober, moderate, or high level of intoxication while with a light-drinking companion. Alcohol was perceived as having linear effects on sexual availability; and, except for male participants in Study 2, alcohol was perceived as having linear effects on willingness. Thus, with rising intoxication and diminished capacity for arousal, drinkers are perceived as more available and willing. Findings are discussed relative to expectancy models of sexuality. Reasons for desynchrony between alcohol's actual supression of sexual arousal and its perceived enhancement of willingness are presented.     

COMPARISON OF EXTINCTION,DRO 0-SEC,AND DRO 6-SEC IN THE ELIMINATION OF IMITATIVE RESPONDING UNDER DISCRETE-TRIAL PARADIGMS1

Imitative response levels were observed for normal 5-yr-old children within a discrete-trial imitation paradigm. Following imitation training sessions, children were observed under conditions of contingent reinforcement for three experimental sessions. Following the contingent reinforcement phase, children were then observed under reversal conditions for four sessions. A 3 × 4 repeated measures design was employed for observing response decrements under conditions of extinction, DRO 6-sec, and DRO 0-sec. The DRO 0-sec group demonstrated a significantly greater decrement in imitative responding than did the DRO 6-sec and extinction group. The differences in effects between the two DRO conditions and results from previous studies in which DRO procedures have had little effect in reducing imitative responding, suggest an incomplete understanding of the ways in which DRO procedures may operate.     

Studies in social influence: I. Those absent are in the right: Convergence and polarization of answers in the course of a social interaction

The theories of social influence assert that: a) the existing dependence on the source of influence and hence the presence of the latter, is the cause of the above changes, b) the effective qualities of the stimulus or those which are attributed to it - ambiguity, clarity and certitude, etc., - can be seen in the divergence or convergence of the estimations made on the stimulus have an independent effect from the relations which exist between this source and its target. In this research OUI aim is to question both postulates by using a very well know phenomenon. On the one hand we have shown that the style of behaviour of the source, its consistency, is sufficient to produce the desired influence. On the other hand, we have shown that if this behaviour creates a conflict of response, the subject will adopt the proposed response on the condition that he has done so of his own free will and not because of having given in under pressure. That is why an absent source of influence can be successfull; the subject has the impression of approaching it without giving in to it, while the presence of a source of influence causes the polarization, this being the only means for the subject to preserve his independence. The experimental paradigm used is the same as that of Sherif. Dozens of experiments have shown that the greater the distance between the stooge subjects and the naive subjects, the greater the tendency for response polarization. In the control situation where subjects were confronted with a constant stoodge for the entire duration of the experiment, we obtained the same results. In the experimental situation where the stooge would leave the room with a justified excuse before the end of the experiment, we have found a trend converging towards his judgements. The polarization phenomenon is therefore due to the relation between the source and the target of influence, to the meaning which is assigned to the distances of judgment rather than to the distances themselves. Moreover, the withdrawal of the source in no way diminishes its influence and so, those who are absent are sometimes right.     

The Making of an Interdisciplinary Partnership: The Case of the Chicago Food System Collaborative

Interdisciplinary partnerships foster innovation to address pressing social problems. This paper describes an interdisciplinary partnership called the Chicago Food System Collaborative (CFSC) composed of a team of partners from four academic institutions and three community-based organizations representing a total of eight disciplines that included: community development and community organizing, community psychology, geography, nursing, nutrition, public health, sociology, and urban planning and policy. Partners came together to address the issue of access to healthy foods and nutrition in a working class African American neighborhood. We analyze and discuss the core principles that guided the partnership and its impact across three dimensions: understanding through interdisciplinary action research, building capacity, and facilitating innovations in practices and policies. Despite the challenges of interdisciplinary partnerships, the potential benefits and impact of such efforts reflect their value as a comprehensive approach to addressing complex social problems.     

Short article one's own face is hard to ignore

One's own face possesses two properties that make it prone to grab attention: It is a face, and, in addition, it is a self-referential stimulus. The question of whether the self-face is actually an especially attention-grabbing stimulus was addressed by using a face-name interference paradigm. We investigated whether interference from a flanking self-face on the processing of a target classmate's name was stronger than interference from a classmate's flanking face on the processing of one's own name as the target. In a control condition a third familiar face served as the flanker for both decisions from the participant's own name and from the classmate's name. The presentation of the self-face as a flanker produced significantly more interference on the identification of a classmate's name than the presentation of that classmate's face did on the identification of one's own name. This result was due to the interfering power of the self-face and not to a particular resistance of one's name to interfering facial stimuli. We argue that the emotional value or the high familiarity of one's own face may explain its attention-grabbing property.     

Computer supported mathematics with Ωmega

Classical automated theorem proving of today is based on ingenious search techniques to find a proof for a given theorem in very large search spaces—often in the range of several billion clauses. But in spite of many successful attempts to prove even open mathematical problems automatically, their use in everyday mathematical practice is still limited.The shift from search based methods to more abstract planning techniques however opened up a paradigm for mathematical reasoning on a computer and several systems of that kind now employ a mix of interactive, search based as well as proof planning techniques.The Ωmega system is at the core of several related and well-integrated research projects of the Ωmega research group, whose aim is to develop system support for a working mathematician as well as a software engineer when employing formal methods for quality assurance. In particular, Ωmega supports proof development at a human-oriented abstract level of proof granularity. It is a modular system with a central proof data structure and several supplementary subsystems including automated deduction and computer algebra systems. Ωmega has many characteristics in common with systems like NuPrL, CoQ, Hol, Pvs, and Isabelle. However, it differs from these systems with respect to its focus on proof planning and in that respect it is more similar to the proof planning systems Clam and λClam at Edinburgh.     

The confederate's and others' self-conversion: a neglected phenomenon

The authors analyzed a neglected phenomenon: self-conversion. Rather than concentrating on the influence exerted by a confederate on a naive participant, the authors studied how the confederate is himself or herself influenced by the position that he or she defends at the request of the experimenter. This experiment is particularly revealing with respect to a fundamental aspect of the psychology of the proselytizing of minority groups: In the process of convincing others, one also convinces oneself. Exerting influence on others thus leads to self-conversion, which allows the group to reinforce its beliefs and to stand up to conformity pressures.