Racial Environment, Cohesion Conformity and Stress

Abstract

The reactions of subjects to the planned and intrinsic events in a standard conformity experiment were obtained by measuring physiological arousal (plasma free fatty acid level). In a 2 X 2 X 2 design, Negroes and whites were compared under the following conditions: (1) subjects recruited either in groups of friends or strangers; (2) subjects did or did not have a group meeting prior to the experiment. The subjects having previous meetings were the least aroused at all points in the experiment. The Negroes, especially those who had no previous meeting failed to relax during a period of inactivity. High conformity rates among Negroes suggest that group ties protected subjects from the stress of specific events, but not from the stress of being in an experiment.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1967
Accession Number
AD0663156

Entities

People

  • Kurt W. Back
  • Morton D. Bogdonoff
  • Stephen R. Wilson
  • William G. Troyer

Organizations

  • Duke University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Autonomic Nervous System
  • Base Lines
  • Behavioral Sciences
  • Coefficients
  • Conformity
  • Environment
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Fatty Acids
  • Group Processes (Social Psychology)
  • Human Behavior
  • Nervous System
  • Peer Groups
  • Personality
  • Psychology
  • Regression Analysis
  • Social Psychology
  • Universities

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Educational Psychology
  • Theoretical Analysis.