Harry S. Upshaw

The Personal Reference Scale: An Approach to Social Judgment1

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the judgment process as the means by which a person measures certain of his or her cognitions and perceptions. It introduces concept of the personal reference scale as a device for subjectively representing a set of stimuli. A reference scale measures a subjective quantity. The chapter develops logical criteria for inferring sameness and difference of quantity and scale and describes heuristic model of the reference scale for application in those situations in which it can be assumed that a reference scale and a physical scale measure the same quantity, or that two reference scales measure the same quantity. The chapter discusses theories of judgment in terms of that model. Theories of judgment, some of which have been contributed by social psychologists and some by psychophysicists, were surveyed in terms of the reference scale model. Most of them, it was revealed, can be viewed as theories of scale, rather than as theories of subjective quantities. Furthermore, all were seen to be fragmentary, referring primarily to one component of the reference scale model. An adequate theory of judgment would surely encompass all facets of the judges reference scale.

Social influence on attitudes and on anchoring of congeneric attitude scales

Abstract Criteria for distinguishing between attitude and response scale effects in “after-only” studies of source-recipient discrepancy were developed and applied in two experiments. These criteria refer to congeneric scales (i.e., multiple measures of the the same property, which may differ in origin, unit, and reliability). Persuasive information may function as a scale anchor, in which case it is expected to affect only that response scale to which it directly pertains. Alternatively, it may convice recipients to change attitudinal positions, and produce effects on all congeneric scales. In one experiment, the self-proclaimed leniency-sternness of a presiding judge in a manslaughter case was varied along with the sentence he imposed and his trustworthiness. In the second study, only the sentence was manipulated, while both leniency ratings and sentencing were measured as dependent variables. Both analyses revealed support for the response scale interpretation, in that effects were observed only on those scales that were directly manipulated.

Psychological Perspective in Attitude Research

The variable perspective approach to social attitudes was inspired by two events that occurred when the present authors worked together as faculty advisor and research assistant. One was a challenge by a granting agency to defend the use of Thurstone’s equal-appearing intervals scaling procedure in light of evidence that judges’ attitudes affect their judgments of opinion statements (Hovland & Sherif, 1952). The other was a televised interview of retiring President Dwight Eisenhower in which he described his manner of making political decisions. The first event led to a study in which it was demonstrated that judges whose own positions are not included in the range of statements offered for judgment act as though their positions were included, thereby effectively extending the range (Upshaw, 1962). In other words, the perspectives assumed by judges appeared to vary according to the judges’ own attitudes when those attitudes were out of the range of a set of items that were judged.

Stimulus range and the judgmental unit

Abstract The range of stimulus items describing moral offenses was manipulated in an experiment involving judgments of severity expressed by magnitude production. The results indicate that reference scale unit is related to stimulus range. Three manifestations of the relationship were observed: (1) the dispersion of scale values, over items, for individual judges was inversely related to stimulus range, (2) the dispersion of scale values, over judges, for individual items was inversely related to stimulus range, and (3) differences in mean judgment as a function of stimulus range were shown to be predictable from the observed differences in unit. The implications of these results for adaptation-level, range-frequency, and variable perspective theories are discussed.

East Asians' Responses to Western Health Items

A consistent disparity has been found between interview and self-report data on East Asian mental health. Two hypotheses, incomparability of item content and cultural differences in the social desirability of items, were raised as plausible explanations for the disparity. An empirical test rejected the hypothesis of cultural differences in the social desirability of questionnaire items. With somewhat less confidence, the content incomparability hypothesis was also rejected.

Self-persuasion, social approval, and task success as determinants of self-esteem following impression management.

Abstract Subjects were instructed to present themselves in the best or worst possible light in response to an “objective” personality inventory. Half of the subjects received a socially desirable profile in return, and half a socially undesirable profile. Subsequently, self-esteem was assessed. Three hypotheses derived from the literature on ingratiation were tested: self-persuasion, direct approval, and task success. The data support the task-success hypothesis which relates self-esteem in the “managed impression” situation to success in creating a false impression.

The effect of unit size on the range of the reference scale

Abstract Previous research has shown that the manipulation of reference scale range results in the concomitant variation of unit size. This study shows that the manipulation of unit size results in the concomitant variation in scale range. The implications of the reversibility of the relationship between unit and range are discussed in regard to theories of context effects in judgment and in regard to category width as a personality variable.

Punishment for One's Misdeeds as a Function of Having Suffered From Them

Experimental support was found for the hypothesis that injury to a wrongdoer in the course of his misdeeds reduces punishment of the offender. Models were compared which attributed the effect: 1) directly to attraction toward the offender; 2) to effects on the judgment scale that are induced by attraction; and 3) to scale effects that are not mediated by attraction. The third model fit best.

Attribution Theory A Factor-Analytic Evaluation of Internal-External and Endogenous-Exogenous Partitions

The interrelationship of the internal-external and endogenous-exogenous partitions in attribution theory was examined. Intentional actions were rated by undergraduates on four attributional scales (internal-external, enjoyment, endogenous-exogenous, freedom) and one methodological scale. A factor analysis revealed great consanguinity among the internal-external, enjoyment, and freedom scales only.