Comics and graphic novels have made a greater impact on popular culture in recent years and can be used for enhancing the learning experience of psychology students. One of the best known and respected comic book writers of the last 30 years is Alan Moore, who has included a number of detailed references to psychological studies and experiments in…

When humans plan to execute a tool-use action, they can only specify the bodily movement parameters by taking into account the external target or goal of the tool-use action and the target-movement mapping implemented by the tool. In this study, the authors used the movement precuing method to investigate how people prepare for actions made with…

Article investigated the cognitive and motivational mechanisms that may underlie the persuasion inhibiting effects of forewarning. (Editor/RK)

Sixty males received either one, 5, or 9 electric shocks of varying magnitude from a confederate during a 10-trial probability estimation task. Following initial trials, subject and confederate reversed roles, and subjects were permitted equal opportunity to counter-aggress against the confederate. One-half the subjects had been forewarned of role…

The aim of the present study was to reestablish more firmly the position stated by Bem and McConnell (1970), to the effect that the dissonance and self-prediction theories do not generate unequivocally conflicting predictions. (Author/RK)

This study examined whether dissonance is, phenomenologically, an aversive state. Experimental subjects were induced to write counterattitudinal essays under a high-choice condition. Evaluates subjects' reactions toward taking pills designed to bring about dissonance. (Editor/RK)

The present study used videotaped horse races to test Kelley's attribution theory of the way people perceive the causes of behavior. (Editor)

The relationship between group cohesiveness and performance was investigated using data from a field setting. (Editor)

Subjects discussed or studied situations involving conflicts between universalistic and particularistic obligations, or they discussed items dealing with physical education. A shift toward greater universalism was obtained only in the condition where subjects discussed the conflicts. (RB)

The purpose of the present study is to test an explanation for the actor-observer phenomenon which is derived from a focus of attention-causal attribution notion. (Author)

Discusses the question of appropriate research methodologies for social psychology research, casting "involved participation" and role enactment as contrasting methodologies, with deception used in either case where necessary. Involved participation is considered to be more flexible and more suited for the testing of hypotheses whereas role…

This study was designed to test the effects of both interaction distance and the quality of the interaction upon attraction. The implications of this research for studies concerning crowding is discussed, as are possible explanatory mechanisms. (Editor/RK)

Several studies, developed by the authors, indicate that persuasive-arguments theory by itself is an adequate explanation of polarization. Sanders and Baron (AA 526 863) criticize this research. Here the authors answer their critique. Relevant portions of the standard literature are reviewed to demonstrate that social comparison is neither a…

A theoretical analysis and a review of the uses of role playing and deception methods indicates that role playing methods are based on a more comprehensive and inclusive conceptualization of human behavior than are deception methods, and that role playing assumptions are better able to account for the empirical findings in research on the behavior…

Discusses the original and new methods of personnel recruitment and selection utilized by the Peace Corps, stressing the need for a body of rigorous experimental studies supporting scientific procedures in this area; and reports a study of Peace Corpsmen in the South Pacific. (JM)