Lloyd H. Strickland

Teleconferencing and Leadership Emergence

An attempt was made to assess the role of medium of communication on leadership differentiation in discussion groups. Groups of undergraduates met on five different occasions to solve human relations problems, either in face-to-face discussion situations or over video conferencing networks. In face-to-face conditions development of leadership took almost a classic form, with sociometric measures systematically related to behavioral indexes; in the video (teleconference) conditions, role differentiation tendencies were sharply curtailed, and the relationship of sociometric indexes with indexes of verbal output were greatly diminished. Speculations about how mediated communication may affect differentiation processes are offered.

Conflict and Dominance in Television-Mediated Interactions

A simulation of a supervisor-worker conflict was performed with fourperson groups in either a face-to-face or a television-mediated communication setting. Face-to-face groups were more likely to reach solutions indicative of high intragroup conflict. Although mean values did not differ, there was more variability among face-to-face groups in discussion time and measures of supervisor dominance. These results were interpreted as suggesting that electronic mediation serves to weaken the forces of emergent leadership.

The effects of prenegotiation expectations on the distributive bargaining process

Abstract The level of aspiration and minimum necessary share values of negotiators were manipulated prior to bargaining sessions in a simulated bilateral monopoly. Derivations from the theory of Kelley, Beckman, and Fischer were generally supported for low level of aspiration negotiators: subjects with high minimum necessary share values had higher mean levels of demand and received more points in the settlements than subjects with low minimum necessary share values. For high level of aspiration negotiators the effects were in the opposite direction; a tentative interpretation of the latter results was presented. In general, negotiators with high levels of aspiration had higher initial demands, higher mean levels of demand and received more points in the settlements than negotiators with low levels of aspiration. These findings support Siegel and Fourakers model. However, on closer analysis the effects of level of aspiration were limited to negotiators with low minimum necessary share values.

What the shadow knows: Person perception in a surveillance situation.

Under one of three task conditions, male subjects observed a prescribed behavior sequence performed by a female confederate. Covert-surveillance subjects followed her in public, having been told that she was randomly chosen as a target and was unaware of the surveillance. Overt-surveillance subjects actively followed the target, but knew of her role as confederate. Inactive subjects viewed a videotape of the behavior sequence. It was hypothesized (a) that active participation in surveillance would lead to emotional arousal in the observer (b), that overt-surveillance subjects would find the task more aversive than would subjects in the other conditions, and (c) that impressions of the target would be related to the affective experience of the observers. Self-reports revealed that overt-surveillance subjects experienced the task as more aversive than did inactive subjects. Covert-surveillance subjects also reported aversion, but this was coupled with a high level of reported pleasurable excitement. Impressions of the target were more negative in the overt-surveillance condition that in the other conditions. Discussion centered on the possible causes for the diverse emotional experiences and the distinctiveness of surveillance as a form of social interaction.

OPTIONAL ANONYMITY AND POLITICAL BALLOTING

Data from a student political poll were analyzed to test the hypothesis that those voters casting a ballot for the unpopular candidate would be more likely to do so anonymously than would those voting for the popular candidate. The data tended to support the hypothesis, but were rendered less definitive by the fact that affiliates of the political party allegedly represented by the unpopular candidate tended to cast anonymous ballots regardless of their candidate preference. Implications of this and previous findings were discussed with respect to both the experimental vs survey approach to the anonymity problem and the relative wisdom of studies focusing on the anonymous response as opposed to the public response in voting contexts.

The Confidentiality of “Confidential” Lost Letters

Summary In a variant of the lost-letter technique, 400 unsealed envelopes containing important or unimportant messages were distributed in Ottawa, Ontario. Half of the envelopes had the word “CONFIDENTIAL” stamped on them while half had no such warning. Important messages were more likely to be returned; confidentiality had no effect on return rate per se, but “confidential” letters were returned more quickly and were less likely to have been opened by the finder. Over 83% of the returned letters had been opened. Results are discussed in terms of variables which might deter invasions of privacy.

Priorities and Paradigms

Occurrence of the conference, Research Paradigms and Priorities in Social Psychology, held at Carleton University in July 1974, was perhaps inevitable—it appears now to be a symposium whose time had come. A number of different agents and agencies were implicated in the event, but if it had been held elsewhere, under different auspices, it doubtless would have had a similar focus and many of the same participants. Through a variety of minor accidents, supplemented by several major efforts, it grew from a fantasy first shared in Anne Tajfel’s kitchen to a reality held in a relatively new university in the national capital of Canada. As will be seen, this was an appropriate locale for a number of reasons.

APPARENT BEHAVIOR REVISITED

Ss were asked to attribute characteristics to the geometrical objects in the film used by Heider and Simmel, using 3 clusters of adjectives taken from the activity, potency, and evaluative dimensions respectively of the semantic differential. The original, descriptive findings of Heider and Simmel received support from the results derived from the use of measurement “scales.” The implications of the use of movies of “interacting” physical stimuli in the study of social attribution processes were discussed, and hypotheses and methods for additional studies were ventured.

General Theory in Social Psychology

The following discussion is an edited version of events occurring at the Canada Council-NATO Conference on &dquo;Paradigms and Priorities in Social Psychology&dquo;, at Carleton University in Ottawa in July, 1974. This conference was attended by 60 social psychologists from Canada, the United States, Great Britain, and Europe; some participants were among the most prominent in their fields while others (including a number of graduate students) were relative new-comers. This heterogeneous group was distinguished by one commonality, a deep concern for the future of an allegedly wavering discipline, which had until the early 1970’s been directional, active and promising. This discussion, like others which were tape recorded, followed one of a number of addresses, invited to stimulate thoughtful interaction about social psychology’s &dquo;paradigms and priorities&dquo;; here, the stimulus was a paper by Elaine and William Walster, &dquo;The Year 2000: The Future of Small Group Research&dquo;; among other features of the paper, it

Social Psychology in the Soviet Union

Excerpts from an interview with the chairman of the first Soviet Department of Social Psychology are presented to demonstrate how rapidly the field has developed there in the last 15 years, how wide a scope the field seems to have, and the role planned for its future.