Dissonance and self-perception: An integrative view of each theory's proper domain of application

The literature concerning the controversy between dissonance and selfperception theories is reviewed. It is proposed that the two theories be regarded not as “competing” formulations but as complementary ones and, furthermore, that each theory is applicable only to its own specialized domain. Self-perception theory, it is suggested, accurately characterizes attitude change phenomena in the context of attitude-congruent behavior and dissonance theory attitude change in the context of attitude-discrepant behavior. Attitude-congruent is defined as any position within an individual's latitude of acceptance; attitude-discrepant as any position in the latitude of rejection. An experimental test of these notions produced confirming evidence. Subjects who were given an opportunity to misattribute any potential dissonance arousal to an external stimulus did not change their attitudes, relative to low choice subjects, if they were committed to endorsing a position in their latitude of rejection. If the commitment concerned a position in the latitude of acceptance, however, these subjects did exhibit attitude change relative to low choice subjects.     

Further evidence for meaning change in impression formation

Hamilton and Zanna (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1974, 29, 649–654) demonstrated that the meaning of an attribute as rated on connotatively related scales changed as a function of context desirability. This finding was viewed as supporting a meaning change interpretation of context effects in impression formation. Kaplan (Memory and Cognition, 1975, 3, 375–380, Exp. 1) found that similar changes also occurred on scales unrelated in meaning to the test attribute and argued that changes on both kinds of scales were due to halo effects produced by the contexts. Controlling for possible scaling artifacts, the first experiment reported here showed that substantially greater changes occurred on related than on unrelated scales. Kaplan (1975, Exp. 2) also found that the magnitude of context-induced differences in judgments of trait likability was not increased by creating contexts denotatively related to the test attributes. Adding measures of connotative meaning, the second experiment in this paper showed that substantially greater context-induced changes did occur on related meaning scales and, in contrast to Kaplan, on trait likability for the denotatively related contexts. The results of each experiment are consistent with a meaning change position but would not be expected on the basis of the halo effects model.     

The role of “irrelevant” derogation in vicarious aggression catharsis: A field experiment

In order to test hypotheses about the occurence of aggression catharsis, a field experiment was conducted in which passengers in taxi cabs served as subjects. En route to each subject's destination, the taxi driver left the cab with the meter operating for an amount of time which resulted in a small or large overcharge (the first independent variable). When the driver returned, subjects read one of four letters which either praised or derogated the driver (the second independent variable) on a relevant or irrelevant dimension (the third independent variable). Subjects' responses confirmed the principal hypothesis on several different atitudinal and behavioral dependent measures: angered subjects tended to complain less often, more often paid the overcharge, and more often left a tip, when they read the irrelevant derogation letter. The results contribute to the delineation of a set of conditions under which vicarious catharsis can be clearly observed.     

Differential acquisition of conditioned suppression in rats with increased and decreased luminance levels as CS + s

Using a conditioned suppression procedure, it was demonstrated that suppression of responding was substantially enhanced when the CS signaling the occurrence of shock was an increment in luminance level (bright CS), relative to an equivalent decrement in luminance level serving as a signal for shock (dim CS). The results of a pseudoconditioning control procedure illustrated that the differential effectiveness of the bright and dim CSs was dependent upon explicit CS-US pairings. The bright and dim stimuli were found to produce equivalent rates of conditioning when they were used to signal the availability of reinforcing stimuli in an appetitive discrimination procedure. The interpretation considered to be most consistent with the data is associative in nature; rats may be brought into the experimental setting prepared to associate bright light with danger and contraprepared to associate dim light with danger.     

Matching as a multivariate power law: Frequency of behavior versus frequency and magnitude of reinforcement

Two groups of food-deprived rats responded for access to liquid reinforcers on a wide range of concurrent variable-interval schedules. During the first part of the experiment, one group chose between two different sucrose solutions; for a second group, the choice involved a sucrose solution and a solution of condensed milk. In the latter part of the experiment, the two groups chose between identical sucrose solutions. A variety of multivariate equations were applied to data obtained from both conditions. The best-fitting equation proved to be a multivariate power function, which is an extension of Herrnstein's basic matching law.     

Training strategic study time apportionment in educable retarded children

Two groups of educable retarded children differing in functioning level served as subjects. One group, the High group, consisted of 31 children drawn from the upper two classes of a five-class stream. The Low group consisted of 39 children drawn from the lowest two classes. During pretesting, on each trial but the first of a multitrial free recall procedure, subjects were allowed to select half of the to-be-remembered items to see if they would strategically select missed items for extra study. Following pretesting, subjects were divided for training into three groups for which the experimenter selected items for study: in the Standard group, missed items; in the Creeping group, recalled items plus one missed item; and in the Random group, half missed and half recalled items. Children in the High group improved in the Standard condition, and those in the Low group benefited from Creeping training. There was no evidence of maintenance of training in the Low group, but children in the High group given training in the standard strategy selected missed items for recall on the posttests. The results are discussed in terms of the stability of trained strategies in retardates, and the question of what constitutes an optimal strategy is considered.     

Religion and pseudo-religion: an elusive boundary

This paper examines the possibility of setting a boundary between religion and “pseudo-religion” (or superstition). Philosophers of religion inspired by Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ideas, in particular, insist that religious language-use can be neither legitimated nor criticized from the perspective of non-religious language-games. Thus, for example, the “theodicist” requirement that the existence of evil should be theoretically reconciled with theism can be argued to be pseudo-religious (superstitious). Another example discussed in the paper is the relation between religion and morality. The paper concludes by reflecting on the issue of relativism arising from the Wittgensteinian contention that the religion vs. pseudo-religion division can only be drawn within a religious framework, and on Wittgenstein’s own suggestion that the religious person “uses a picture”.     

Beyond Deep Incarnation: Rethinking Christology in Radical Lutheran Terms

This article takes the demise of Christendom and what Diana Butler Bass calls the end of religion as its point of departure for a “radical” rethinking of God in fully kenotic terms. It rejects any vestige of otherworldly transcendence as a temptation to escapism, inviting us instead to seek God's complete presence among us here in the world. Going beyond Niels Gregersen's understanding of the deep incarnation of the Logos and starting instead with a complete commitment to the infra‐Lutheranum, the author presents a radical Lutheran theology that embraces a total kenosis of God whose liberating and life‐giving reappearance we must find implicit among us in unexpected places, not least of which might include the embers of a dying church or the crumbling of our religious institutions.     

Affaire Vincent L. : les maux de la fin

As called back it June 24th, Council of State in its press release, the Vincent L.’s case “raise scientific, ethical and human questions”. At first, to decide on the fate of this 38-year-old man, the administrative jurisdiction recovered from it in expert opinions asked to establish the existence or not of an unreasonable stubbornness. But the objectivity of the medical science cannot solve only this litigation where the outcome is the life or the death of a patient. That is why the court opened its doors to the ethical speech too. If in this case, the science could not exist without consciousness, if the legal word could not exist without the ethical word, it's because of the human dimension which fills this media and legal affair. So behind this patient's case, called now “the Vincent L.’s affair”, it's a question about the death, that of a young man in the incapacity to express its will. It's also a question of a family disagreement on the future of their son, brother, or husband. In this context, “politically and mediatically charged”, the administrative jurisdiction pronounced four times on the decision of the stop of Vincent L.’s treatment. The educational position of the French judges allowed to clear up statutory provisions of the Leonetti's act.