AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSENSUS.
Abstract
The research objective was to identify experimentally the differential effects of selected forms of human interactions upon the formation of intellectual agreements. The experiments in this project combined field and experimental techniques in order to study systematically the relationships that actually operate in the situations selected. Phase I entailed the identification of these relationships by means of observational and other commonly accepted techniques. Phase II involved the identification of certain physiological and personality variables. The patterns of agreement formation shown by the paired subjects chosen on the basis of these previously identified variables were visually tested (autokinetic condition) in Phase III. In Phase IV, validation criteria were developed. Since realism is such a crucial ingredient in any research endeavor which investigates human behavior, this study, employing a classical psychophysiological task situation, was designed to overcome some of the deficiencies of artificiality so characteristic of much research in this area. To this end, pairs of subjects selected for their relationships in a normal setting, were visually tested in an appropriate place. The results not only tend to support the induction that the maintenance and/or resolution of cognitive dissensus in ambiguous stimulus situations is a function of the social relationships obtaining between the persons in the situation, but that the processes by which dissensus is maintained and/or resolved are also predictable and contingent upon the specific type of relationship operative. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 22, 1968
- Accession Number
- AD0667220
Entities
People
- Robin M. Williams Jr.
- Samuel F. Sampson
Organizations
- Cornell University