Edgar C. O'Neal

Classroom Ecology The Effects of Seating Position on Grades and Participation

A two-phase study was conducted to examine the effects of classroom seating position on test scores and participation. When students selected their seats (Phase 1), those in the front performed better on the exam than did those in the rear. There was, however, no effect of proximity on participation. When students were randomly assigned to seats (Phase 2), there were no differences in test scores as a function of proximity; however, students in the front of the class participated more than did those in the rear. These results imply that the relationship between seating position and grades is mediated by self-selection processes, while participation is influenced by seat location per se.

Gender role masculinity and angry aggression in women

The extent to which gender role masculinity is related to degree of womens angry retaliation was investigated. The study also examined whether the relationship between gender role masculinity and anger is mediated by gender role differences in reactivity to provocation, or to differences in the labeling of anger. It was expected that the influence of gender role masculinity on affect and aggression would be greatest when the nature of the affective arousal is ambiguous. Sixty undergraduate women (predominantly upper middle class and white) were given a placebo pill. They were either given ambiguous information about the pills effects, or were told it was a vitamin or a stimulant. They then were either provoked or not provoked, and finally received an opportunity to retaliate. The participants had been divided by median split into high- and low-masculinity groups based on their scores on Spence and Helmreichs (1978) Personal Attributes Questionnaire. As expected, when provoked, high-masculinity subjects were more aggressive than low-masculinity subjects but only in the ambiguous drug information condition. Although they reported more arousal-related sensations, they did not rate themselves higher in anger. The results are discussed in terms of gender role influences on the experience of anger and the expression of aggression.

Status of the provoker, opportunity to retaliate, and interest in video violence.

Two hypotheses derived from affect-dependent stimulus arrangement theory [Zillmann D, Bryant J (1985): In: “Selective Exposure to Communication.” Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.] were tested: (1) provoked persons will express less interest in seeing video violence than will those not provoked, unless they anticipate an opportunity to retaliate against their provocateur; and (2) when provoked persons anticipate an opportunity to retaliate against a provocateur who is not high status, they will express greater interest in seeing video violence than will those not provoked. After being provoked or not provoked by a high or low status experimenter, half the 160 male college student participants were led to believe that their evaluation of the experimenter would determine the experimenters grade for conducting the research, and half were not given any reason to expect an opportunity to evaluate him. Then each man indicated his degree of interest in seeing each of twelve video selections that had been described in brief paragraphs, three each in four content categories: aggressive, humorous, mildly erotic, and neutral. In confirmation of the first hypothesis, provoked subjects who did not anticipate opportunity to retaliate expressed less interest in seeing aggressive material than did those not provoked. In relationship to the second hypothesis, provoked subjects showed the greatest interest in aggressive video material when they anticipated an opportunity to retaliate against a low status provocateur, but their interest was not greater than corresponding nonangered subjects. The effect of provocation upon interest in the other categories of video material was generally in line with what would be predicted from the theory. When there was no anticipated opportunity to retaliate, interest in humorous material was greater in provoked subjects than in those not provoked. In the case of the mildly erotic category of video selections, there was less interest expressed among provoked subjects when they anticipated having a chance to retaliate against a low status experimenter.

Volition, performance of a boring task and time estimation.

Subjective intervals were obtained from 40 subjects (20 males, 20 females) who were assigned to a group with or without volition in which choice regarding task involvement was varied. Orthogonal to volition, half the subjects engaged in a boring task, half in an interesting task. Subjects assigned to the group with no volition displayed typical temporal behavior (an interesting task was judged as significantly shorter), while subjects in the group with volition showed no difference in protensity as a function of task quality, yielding the predicted interaction.

Influence of Future Choice Importance and Arousal Upon the Halo Effect.

Two determinants of the magnitude of the influence of anticipated choice on the halo effect are investigated: importance of future choice and arousal. Male subjects ranked photographs on positive personality traits. Half of the photographs were of persons about which they anticipated making a choice. In confirmation of the hypotheses, (a) the intercorrelation of the rankings was greater for the choice photographs than for the nonchoice photographs when the subjects anticipated an important choice, but not when they anticipated an unimportant choice; and (b) the intercorrelation was greater for the choice photographs than for the nonchoice photographs when the subjects were aroused by caffeine and uninformed as to the source of their arousal, but not when they were informed as to the source of their arousal or not aroused.

Competitiveness in males and in females

Male and female undergraduates performed a task at which they either succeeded or failed in competition with either a male or female partner who subsequently either accepted or rejected them. Subjects who were rejected by a male partner following success or accepted following failure performed less well on a subsequent anagram task than did those who were accepted following success or rejected following failure. These results suggest the importance of situational factors as determinants of “fear of success” behavior.

Effect of insult upon personal space preferences

After sixty male undergraduates individually were either insulted or not insulted by the experimenter, each was tested for body-buffer zone (the physical distance between themselves and an approaching person at which they first reported being uncomfortable) by either the experimenter or an assistant. The body-buffer zones of the insulted subjects were larger when tested by the experimenter than when tested by his assistant; but for those not insulted, there were no differences in body-buffer zone produced by the identity of the tester. The results are discussed in terms of the interaction between affect and interpersonal proxemics.

The perception of an out-group after provocation by one of its members

How provocation by a single out-group member exacerbates perceptions of out-group dissimilarity was examined. Male American college students provoked by a Latvian college student not only perceived him as dissimilar from their own group of American college students but also perceived other Latvians (but not Senegalans, an irrelevant out-group) as dissimilar from American college students. Drawing negative inferences about the Latvian provocateur was correlated with perceiving other Latvians as dissimilar.

Petty Theft in a Naturalistic Setting: The Effects of Bystander Presence

Summary Thirty female undergraduates were tested for petty theft of a luxury shampoo in their dormitory shower room. In the testing situation, the S was either alone or in the presence of a bystander who either did or did not ascertain her identity. As predicted, Ss in the alone condition stole more shampoo than did those in the bystander conditions. There was, however, no reliable difference between the two bystander groups.

Effect of Attraction on Interpersonal Aggression

The study was designed to test the hypothesis that attracted individuals will be less aggressive toward one another than less attracted individuals by using a broader and more ecologically valid manipulation of attraction and by comparing aggression between acquaintenances with aggression between strangers.