Irving L. Janis

Communication and persuasion : psychological studies of opinion change

This is a report of a program of coordinated systematic research on variables determining the effects of persuasive communication.

Effects of Fear Arousal on Attitude Change: Recent Developments in Theory and Experimental Research1

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a preliminary theoretical framework that may help to bring some order out of the apparently chaotic state of existing data on the relation between fear arousal and attitude change. The implications of the theoretical analysis have been examined in the light of the available experimental findings. In reviewing the evidence, the chapter does not attempt to cover all investigations that purport to deal with the effects of fear arousal on attitude change, but concentrates on those that appear to have met the necessary conditions to compare the relative effectiveness of communications that induce different intensities of fear. It is apparent that although some puzzling inconsistencies can be resolved by the proposed theoretical framework, others remain that cannot be accounted for in any compelling way. Nevertheless, even in its rudimentary form, the theoretical model seems to have considerable heuristic value, and is pointed out by emphasis on some fresh leads concerning interacting variables that ought to be investigated. In discussing these leads, the chapter indicates why it is believed that research on the new questions posed by the theoretical model will have a fairly good chance of improving the quality and consistency of experimental results.

Psychological stress : psychoanalytic and behavioral studies of surgical patients

Many events occuring in hospital have been found to be stressful for patients. Psychoanalytic and behavioural studies of surgical patients. . Psychological preparation for hospitalization. in: Contributions to medical psychology. Psychological Stress: Psychoanalytic and Behavioral Studies of . Psychological stress: psychoanalytic and behavioral studies of surgical patients. Front Cover. Irving Lester Janis. Wiley, 1958 Medical 439 pages. Psychological Stress Psychoanalytic and Behavioral Studies of . Psychological Stress: Psychoanalytic and Behavioral Studies of Surgical Patients [Irving L. Janis] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Psychological Stress 1st Edition Elsevier Predictors of quality of life in patients at one year after heart transplantation. Psychological stress: Psychoanalytic and behavioral studies of surgical patients. Impact of preoperative patient education on prevention of . Operating Room: Psychological Care of Patient Important to . Bethlehem University Library::Psychological stress : psychoanalytic . Download Citation on ResearchGate Psychological Stress: Psychoanalytic and Behavioral Studies of Surgical Patients. Citations: 228 Only within the past Psychological stress psychoanalytic and behavioral studies of . Pastoral Visits to Presurgical Patients Mar 1, 1998 . Psychological Stress: Psychoanalytic and Behavioral Studies of Surgical care for adult surgical patients: A meta-analysis of 191 studies. Psychological stress: psychoanalytic and behavioral studies of . Irving Janis, in his study of the psychological stress involved in surgery, uses . Janis, Irving L. Psychological Stress: Psychoanalytic and Behavioral Studies o.l. Psychological Stress: Psychoanalytic and Behavioral Studies of . Psychological stress psychoanalytic and behavioral studies of surgical patients. Book. A Study to Assess Whether Planned Pre . Semantic Scholar Aug 26, 2013 . In line with the growing number of surgical procedures being

Emergency Decision Making: A Theoretical Analysis of Responses to Disaster Warnings

This article presents a theoretical model of emergency decision making that focuses on the decision makers answers to basic questions evoked by warnings or signs of danger. Effective emergency decisions are most likely to be made, according to the theory, when a vigilant coping pattern is dominant, which requires that the following four mediating conditions are met: 1) awareness of serious risks if no protective action is taken; 2) awareness of serious risks if any of the salient protective actions is taken; 3) moderate or high degree of hope that a search for information and advice will lead to a better (i.e., less risky) solution; and 4) belief that there is sufficient time to search and deliberate before any serious threat will materialize. When one or another of these conditions is not met, a defective coping pattern, such as defensive avoidance or hypervigilance, will be dominant, which generally leads to maladaptive actions. In addition to suggesting new interventions for facilitating adaptive behavior in emergencies, the theoretical model provides a basis for integrating disparate findings from psychological research on the effects of warnings and confrontations with danger.

Decisional conflicts: a theoretical analysis

This paper will present a set of theoretical constructs developed for the purpose of analyzing the psychological causes and consequences of decisional conflicts. Although the analysis is in terms of intrapersonal conflicts, it has many potential applications to politically relevant actions on the part of the leaders and representatives of organized groups and therefore may prove to be useful as a framework for studying certain aspects of intergroup conflicts. At various points throughout this paper I shall attempt to indicate how the constructs might be taken into account by social scientists engaged in research on factors affecting the success or failure of peace treaties, non-violence pacts, and other conciliatory agreements between hostile governments or rival organized groups. The historical examples to be cited come from biographical studies of men who were national leaders

Why does eating while reading facilitate opinion change?—An experimental inquiry

Abstract The purpose of this experiment was to follow up on previous findings of a gain in opinion change produced by eating-while-reading ( Razran, 1940 ; Janis, Kaye, and Kirschner, 1965 ) by testing predictions from a “conditioning” theory and from an alternative explanation in terms of greater receptivity to any communication endorsed by E, the donor of the food. A factorial design was used to determine the extent to which the opinion changes induced by two persuasive communications were influenced by (1) Es giving food contiguously with exposure to the communications vs. giving the food beforehand, and (2) Es positive vs. negative endorsement of the conclusions advocated by the communication. An analysis of variance of the opinion-change scores showed that neither variable had a significant main effect but there was a significant interaction effect: Positive endorsement of the communications by E was highly influential when he gave food contiguously with the communications but not when he gave food beforehand. The following “momentary compliance” hypothesis was inferred from the findings: The consumption of proferred food induces a momentary mood of compliance toward the donor that is strongest at the time the food is being consumed and that decreases in strength rapidly after the food has been consumed.

Stress Inoculation in Health Care

Stress inoculation involves giving people realistic warnings, reommendations, and reassurances to prepare them to cope with impending dangers or losses. At present, stress inoculation procedures range in intensiveness from a single 10-minute preparatory communication to an elaborate training program with graded exposure to danger stimuli accompanied by guided practice in coping skills, which might require 15 hours or more of training. Any preparatory communication is said to function as stress inoculation if it enables a person to increase his or her tolerance for subsequent threatening events, as manifested by behavior that is relatively efficient and stable rather than disorganized by anxiety or inappropriate as a result of denial of real dangers. Preparatory communications and related training procedures can be administered before or shortly after a person makes a commitment to carry out a stressful decision, such as undergoing surgery or a painful series of medical treatments. When successful, the process is called stress inoculation because it may be analogous to what happens when people are inoculated to produce antibodies that will prevent a disease.

Personality Differences in Decision Making under Stress

When we examine the personal decision making of large numbers of people, we can discern two major types of dilemma that they frequently encounter, both of which generate anxiety, shame, and guilt. One major type of stressful dilemma occurs when people have already decided what is the best thing to do but feel too weak to exercise the self-control necessary to carry out their intentions. This type of dilemma impelis many people to go to clinics that offer help for those who want to quit smoking or to lose weight, where they sometimes benefit from supportive guidance for executing and sticking with a difficult decision. Another type of personal dilemma arises when a man or woman is facing a vital choice concerning marriage, career, health, or life style and is in so much conflict that he or she cannot decide what to do. People wanting help in such a crisis have much more difficulty finding an appropriate professional to consult. There is, however, an emerging development of decision counseling to help people make the fullest use of their own resources to resolve the realistic conflicts that arise from a choice dilemma by becoming aware of neglected alternatives and making the best decision in terms of their own value systems (see Janis & Mann, 1978).

Decision Counseling: Theory, Research, and Perspectives for a New Professional Role

“Here I am,” says the proverbial middle-aged man, “stuck with a miserable career chosen for me by an uninformed 19-year-old boy.” Why do so many young people make poor choices they live to regret? Why do so many middle-aged men and women fail to correct their erroneous decisions of the past and continue to make poor choices? Similar questions can be raised about the ill-conceived decisions made by business executives, public service administrators, and national policy makers. “How could I have been so stupid?” President John F. Kennedy asked after he and his top-level advisors suffered the humiliations resulting from their decision to authorize the CIA’s plan for the Bay of Pigs invasion. In recent years research investigators in social psychology, cognitive processes, and organizational behavior have been trying to answer such questions, to explain why people so often make decisions in public or private life that give rise to their personal Bays of Pigs. Some of the theoretical concepts and findings that have emerged point to ways of preventing gross miscalculations and improving the quality of decision making.

Investigating sources of error in the management of crises: theoretical assumptions and a methodological approach

It is generally recognized that the methods used to collect and evaluate data on major human events, such as policy fiascos and disasters, are heavily influenced by the investigator’s theoretical assumptions about what causal sequences are likely to account for such events. Accordingly, I begin this paper with my main theoretical assumptions about sources of error in decision making and then turn to methodological questions pertaining to empirical research on failures of information systems.