Monte M. Page

On Detecting Demand Awareness by Postexperimental Questionnaire

Summary The most serious error that can occur in assessing demand awareness by postexperimental questionnaire is to score an actually aware subject as unaware (false-negative problem). Compared to this the scoring of an actually unaware subject as aware (false-positive problem) is of minor importance. In this study 576 subjects were exposed to a deception experiment and then given one of three types of awareness questionnaire (indirect, direct, or funnel). Each questionnaire type either included or did not include an orienting paragraph and saliency-control questions. The funnel questionnaire was found to be the most accurate method of assessing awareness. It misclassified few subjects who were aware by an objective criterion, while not picking up too many false positives in the process. The belief that an extended-funnel questionnaire will “suggest” too much demand awareness after the fact is challenged; the data do not support this notion.

Cooperation with demand characteristics and the bimodal distribution of verbal conditioning data

A frequency distribution of verbal conditioning data was found to be quite bimodal. The upper mode was populated exclusively with Ss who claimed to have been aware of and cooperating with demand characteristics during the experiment. Contrary to expectations, S sophistication (time of semester) did not significantly increase verbal conditioning. Postexperimental estimates by aware and cooperating Ss as to the point at which they became aware correlated highly with the point at which they first showed a decided preference for reinforced pronouns.

Postexperimental Assessment of Awareness in Attitude Conditioning

versy (Cohen, 1964; Insko and Oakes, 1966; Page, 1969; Staats, 1969) regarding the interpretation of a well known laboratory experiment intended to classically condition attitudinal affect to previously neutral stimuli. The original authors (Staats and Staats, 1958) claimed they had demonstrated that attitudes are acquired through a process similar to classical conditioning, and that this occurred &dquo;without awareness-without cognition&dquo; on the part of the subjects. The critics of this interpretation have asserted that some subjects in this situation do become aware and that the experimental effect can be accounted for in terms of this awareness. In his recent

A multi-dimensional measure of Maslow's hierarchy of needs☆

Abstract A tool assessing position within Maslows hierarchy of needs is presented. The Maslowian Assessment Survey (MAS) taps the safety, belonging, and esteem levels of the hierarchy with the following subscales for each of the three levels: (a) need gratification, (b) need importance, (c) need salience, (d) self-concept (i.e., how much one is like a prototypical person at each level). Correlational data, gathered in a series of four studies, supported the reliability and validity of these subscales. Combining the four samples ( N = 612), the MAS exhibited a Cronbachs α (averaged across subscales) of .89. With a subsample of 88, the subscales exhibited an average 6-week test-retest correlation of .83. As to validity evidence, safety self-concept correlated positively with depression and neuroticism and negatively with self-esteem, dominance, and desirability. Belonging selfconcept was negatively related to self-esteem and autonomy, while being positively related to neuroticism, depression, social recognition, and affiliation. An esteem level self-concept was positively related to self-acceptance, autonomy, dominance, and (inconsistently across studies) desirability. Across all three levels of the hierarchy, degree of need gratification was found to be positively related to selfesteem and negatively related to neuroticism and depression.

Internal-External Control and Independence of Judgment in Course Evaluations Among College Students

Rotters 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.

The Deprivation-Satiation Effect in Attitude Conditioning Without Deprivation but with Demand Characteristics

Well fed subjects role-played either food-deprived or food-satiated participation in a classical conditioning of atti tudes study. Subjects who role-played deprivation and indicated awareness of the hypothesis that deprivation would lead to in creased liking for nonsense syllables paired with food words liked the syllables more than satiation-aware, unaware, and con trol subjects, who did not differ in their liking. The results were interpreted as supporting a demand characteristics explana tion of the deprivation-satiation effect found by Staats, Minke, Martin, and Higa (1972).

Correlation Between Student Estimated Grades and Actual Grades: A Reply to Blass

In response to questions raised by Blass (1976) regarding the interpretation of our data (Page & Roy, 1975), a partial reanalysis using actual grades rather than student estimated grades was undertaken. None of the new results seemed to support the arguments of Blass. The original interpretation of the data still I seems to be the most plausible one.

Effects of Demand Cues and Evalution Apprehension in an Attitude Change Experiment

Summary Demand cues (experiment title) and evaluation apprehension (a “personality” test) were manipulated in the context of a typical attitude change experiment. A significant effect for demand cues and an interaction between demand cues and evaluation apprehension were found. These results were interpreted as illustrating the basic flaw in the laboratory attitude change experiment; demand characteristics are confounded with the actual impact of the persuasive communication. Also, the concept of cooperation is downgraded as a variable in explaining demand characteristics effects in favor of the concept of evaluation apprehension. When subjects report cooperation on a postexperimental rating scale, they may be basing their report upon what they actually did in the experiment.