Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Hendrick, Clyde

doi: 10.1177/014616727500100301pmid: N/A

Prui, Dean G.

doi: 10.1177/014616727500100302pmid: N/A

Shaver, Kelly G.; Gilbert, Marcia A.; Williams, Marylie C.

doi: 10.1177/014616727500100303pmid: N/A

This paper argues that the legal principle of discretion forms an excellent basis for the participation of social psychology in the criminal justice system. Social and psychological factors that enter into arrest, investigation, selective enforcement, plea- bargaining, criminal sentences, and prison operation are reviewed. The bibliography includes 15 case citations and 132 references.

Thorngate, Warren

doi: 10.1177/014616727500100304pmid: N/A

The currently popular belief that social behaviour is governed by invariant processes is critically examined. Evidence indicating that processes vary considerably and unpredictably is reviewed. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Kruglanski, Arie W.

doi: 10.1177/014616727500100305pmid: N/A

Recent shifts in the publication scene are interpreted to signify a restoration of the theoretical emphasis and a decline of the empiricism that has characterized personality and social psychology in the 50's and the 60's. It is contended that the empiricist creed may have obstructed scientific progress, and that the modi operandi of personality and social psychologists need to change.

Swann, William B.; Pittman, Thane S.

doi: 10.1177/014616727500100306pmid: N/A

The effects of level of initial attitude salience and severity of threat on attitude change were assessed utilizing the forbidden toy paradigm. Second and third grade children were warned to refrain from playing with a preferred toy, using either a mild or severe threat. Initial attitude salience was varied by having a second experimenter either show the subjects their initial rating during the temptation period or not. A significant interaction between threat and salience was obtained when derogation scores were analysed. With mild threat, increased salience led to increased derogation of the forbidden toy. With severe threat, increased salience had no effect on derogation.

Shaffer, David R.

doi: 10.1177/014616727500100307pmid: N/A

Bem and McConnell (1970) reported a high correlation between recalled initial attitudes and final attitudes for subjects in a forced- compliance experiment. These correlational data were taken as support for the self-perception proposition that subjects in forced-compliance experiments perceive their pre- and postmanipulation attitudes as "phenomenologically idential." The present study suggests an alterna tive interpretation based upon demands created by Bem and McConnell's sequencing of attitudinal judgments and provides data consistent with this alternative explanation.

Wish, Myron

doi: 10.1177/014616727500100308pmid: N/A

A questionnaire study was conducted in order to dis cover the conceptual structures people implicitly use in coding interpersonal communication. In the section of the questionnaire discussed in this report subjects made semantic-differential-type ratings of a large number of hypothetical communication episodes. Each "communication episode" was comprised of a dyadic relation involving the subject (e.g., "you and a coworker") and a situa tional context (e.g., "attempting to work out a compromise when your goals are strongly opposed"). A multidimensional analysis of the data revealed five dimensions, which were interpreted as "cooperative and friendly vs, competitive and hostile," "informal and open vs, formal and cautious," "intense vs. superficial," "equal and symmetric vs, unequal and asymmetric," and "task-ori ented vs. non-task-oriented." The relative importance of the interpersonal relations and the situational contexts varied con siderably for different dimensions.

Weiner, Michael Jay; Daughtry, Timothy

doi: 10.1177/014616727500100309pmid: N/A

Rotter's (1966) internal-external control scale was administered to 182 students enrolled in introductory psychology. The data supported the hypothesis that the amount of task relevant infor mation sought by internals and externals would not differ in situations in which the degree of control was specific, but that internals would seek more information than externals when the degree of control was vague. The hypothesis that subjects who were informed that their outcome depended entirely on their own task performance would seek more information than subjects who were informed that their outcome was a function of chance was not supported.

Page, Monte M.; Roy, Robert E.

doi: 10.1177/014616727500100310pmid: N/A

Rotter's internal-external control theory as well as some recent experimental research on reactions to failure and negative evaluations suggests that externals should react differ ently from internals to receiving poor grades in a college course. Externals were expected to downgrade the course and the fairness of examinations when asked to report their attitudes towards the course. Internals and externals who were receiving good grades were not expected to differ. The present field-correlational study found support for these predictions.