Discusses psychophysiological methods in relationship to personality research. The paper is organized in four sections: (l) advantages inherent in the use of psychophysiological measures; (2) psychophysiological constructs particularly well suited to personality research; (3) how to choose a set of psychophysiological measures; and (4) whether or…

If a motive for cognitive consistency and the extravert's preference for the arousing and novel are opposing tendencies, one would predict that highly extraverted individuals will show less preference for states of cognitive consistency than those who are less extraverted. Two experiments test this prediction. (Author/RK)

That anger engendered by means of insult or frustration is physiologically arousing has been demonstrated. This research was designed to investigate the availability of anger to misattribution, an attribution error, and, by this means, the effectiveness of misattribution in reducing aggressive behavior. (Author/RK)

Eighty male college freshmen participated in an experiment designed to investigate the hypothesis that enhanced arousal will facilitate subsequent aggressive behavior and that an increase in aggressive behavior will be more likely to occur in a setting of situational permissiveness rather than situational restrictiveness. (Editor)

The past decade has been marked by mounting public concern over noise as a source of environmental pollution. Simultaneously, research has shown that noise is also a potent cause of physiological stress. This research relates noise to aggression concluding that noise facilitates aggression in subjects who have been instigated to aggress to the…

The present experiments were designed to assess the hypothesis that arousal (indexed by measures of extraversion and neuroticism) focuses memory on physical cues while adversely affecting memory for semantic cues. (Author)

In an attempt to assess the effect of the general experimental situation on subjects in research on human sexuality, the present study addresses itself to systematically investigating the effect of the experimenter in experimentally induced reactions to sexually explicit stimuli. (Author/RK)

Administered caffeine to males (N=39) who were provoked or not provoked by a partner. Provoked participants attributed their feelings to both the drug and their partner's behavior. Angered subjects were more aversive when thinking they had taken caffeine but reduced their aggression when told the drug was a placebo. (Author/JAC)

Reviews studies in which the psychophysiological responses of Type A and B subjects were studied in various contexts. It appears that Type A's manifest greater psychophysiological arousal in solitary as well as interpersonal situations in which there is a moderate external incentive to accomplish something and an intermediate probability of…

Reviewed task-related differences in physiological arousal between Type A and Type B persons and found that differences are less consistent and of a smaller magnitude than what is usually assumed. Furthermore, the median difference in systolic blood pressure between Type A and Type B persons working on tasks was small. (Author/JAC)

Studied male students who viewed an aggressive television program or a neutral one. Half of the students were then angered by a confederate. Results indicated angered men who had seen the aggressive film were most aggressive and exhibited the lowest average pulse rates both before and after shock delivery. (Author/JAC)

The study examines emotional and cognitive processes associated with a response to provocation, using the "stream of consciousness" technique, as well as mood and attitude questionnaires. Physiological processes (heart rate, electrodermal responses, and blood pressure) and sex differences in a display of aggressive behavior are also…

Tested the prediction that individual differences in sensation seeking moderate the relationship between attitudinal similarity and attraction. Results showed high sensation seekers were more attracted than low sensation seekers to dissimilar others, whereas low sensation seekers were more attracted than high sensation seekers to people with…

Investigated was the hypothesis that high arousal increases processing of physical characteristics and reduces processing of semantic characteristics. While introverts and extroverts had equivalent scanning rates for physical features, introverts were significantly slower in searching for semantic features of category membership, indicating…