An extension of inoculation theory, controverted belief, was investigated by manipulating previous attack as part of a group discussion situation in which actual defense of an issue was considered essential for having an inoculating effect. The experimental groups were equally immunized against verbal attacks. (Author)

Hypothesized that dogmatism and attitude discrepancy-congruency would be interactively related to attitude change. Results suggest that supportive information may be more effective in polarizing opinions or attitudes of nondogmatic persons than dogmatic persons. (Author)

This study was designed to test two alternative explanations for the foot-in-the-door phenomenon. It was found that the issue similarity variable had no effect on compliance. However, within the similar issue condition there was a cumulative effect of persuasive message and small request. (Author)

Examined friendship formation as developing a common understanding of social reality. Individuals engaged in weekly discussions completed repertory grids and attraction ratings after the 4th and 18th weeks of acquaintance. Deteriorating partnerships were significantly less similar in their assessment of other group members than were developing…

Two experiments are reported: one in which presentation of external information about a stranger evoked significantly higher attraction ratings than available psychological information; and a second where similarity of Subject and Other on external characteristics had greater effects upon attraction scores than did similarity of psychological…

Investigated the relationship between self-esteem and performance outcome as related to causal attribution. Results indicated that: (1) success was attributed more to ability and effort; (2) performance outcomes consistent with self-esteem were attributed more to ability and task difficulty; and (3) performance outcomes inconsistent with…

Males (N=54) and 46 females who scored high or low on a sensation seeking scale were exposed to slides of physically attractive or unattractive person stimuli. High sensation seekers both liked and expected to recognize the physically attractive persons in the future more than the physically unattractive persons. (Author)

Examines the effect on a recipient of another's effort to provide help. Two variables, locus of responsibility for initiating a help attempt and type of outcome resulting from the help attempt, were manipulated in a three x two factorial design. Results indicated that the Requested help condition yielded the strongest obligation to help others.…

In this study a male experimenter's style of dress had significant influence upon the number of agreements from older and younger women to answer the interviewer's questions and no influence upon men. Older individuals were more influenced by clothing than were younger ones. Results are discussed. (Author)

Review of the literature suggests that hair color influences the quality of interpersonal interactions. Results of a factorially designed study show that while women helped confederates equally regardless of their gender, men helped women more than they helped men. Hair color of confederates was not shown to affect helping behavior. (Author/ABB)

Mother-son dyads interacted with the Interpersonal Game Test. Various patterns of interacting were identified and some differences in mother-son interactions seemed related to aggression/withdrawal in children. Potential advantages of this procedure over more conventional procedures for assessing family interactions were discussed. (Author/BEF)

The relative power of cooperative and trusting patterns of behavior versus those of exploitation and distrust in affecting the results of group decision-making processes was investigated. The outcome of a study using the Prisoner's Dilemma Game seems to suggest the disproportionate influence of competitive people in these settings. (Author)

The relationship between the ability to coordinate social perspectives and levels of anxiety induced by the social context was studied. Results showed a relative failure to coordinate perspectives in the "anxious" compared with the "neutral" condition and were discussed in terms of social contextual effects on aspects of social cognitive…

It was predicted that the amount of satisfaction following an interpersonal exchange will be higher when the resource given is similar to the one reciprocated and lower when they are dissimilar. Interpersonal exchange situations were experimentally created in which two independent variables were manipulated. (Author)

Married couples rated their marital satisfaction and played interpersonal competitive games which revealed the success with which they interacted. Younger husbands who scored more maturely on the Stewart measure of psychosocial maturity belonged to more successful marriages, as did college-educated wives who showed less immaturity and more phallic…