Social evaluation influence on cardiovascular response to a fixed behavioral challenge: effects across a range of difficulty levels.

Participants performed five memory tasks--ranging in difficulty from very low to very high--under public or private conditions. The publicity and difficulty variables interacted to determine systolic pressure and heart rate responses during performance. Where performance was public, responsiveness on the parameters increased with difficulty to a point and then dropped; where performance was private, responsiveness was relatively low at all difficulty levels. Diastolic pressure responses were configured similarly, although in that case the interaction was not reliable. Findings corroborate and extend results from a previous study, argue against some explanations of those results, and strengthen the case for a recent active coping analysis of cardiovascular audience effects. Findings also strengthen the case for a broader model of effort and cardiovascular response, which has potential for advancing our understanding of a range of phenomena and processes related to behavior and health.

Role of cognitive-emotional mediators and individual differences in the effects of media violence on aggression.

Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that observation of media violence elicits thoughts and emotional responses related to aggression. In Experiment 1, highly violent videotapes elicited more aggressive cognitions than did a less violent tape. This effect was moderated by the trait of stimulus screening. In Experiment 2, aggressive cognitions increased with the level of violence in the videotape, and physical assaultiveness influenced this effect. Hostility and systolic blood pressure were higher in response to the most violent video than in response to the other two. Hostility was influenced by emotional susceptibility and dissipation-rumination, and systolic blood pressure was influenced by emotional susceptibility and assaultiveness.

Optical bistability and switching in nonresonant GaAs:Cr self-electrooptic effect devices.

Using the thermal self-electrooptic effect, optical testability is observed in a hybrid etalon of semi-insulating GaAs:Cr material at the nonresonant wavelength of 1.06 microm. The nonlinearity is traced back to a temperature-dependent index of refraction, largely enhanced by the optoelectromeally induced electrical power arising from phutocurreut flow. The optical absorption is attributed to bandtailing effects due to the trapping centers. Optoelectronic AND gate operation between optical and electrical input signals is achieved.

Test anxiety and visual vigilance.

Twenty male and 20 female subjects, previously classified as high or low in test anxiety, participated in an experiment on visual vigilance under conditions designed either to enhance or minimize feelings of being tested. Detection rate declined across the 36 min of the task among subjects high in test anxiety who believed that they were being tested and in subjects low in test anxiety who did not. False detection rates revealed no significant differences among conditions. Analysis of sensitivity to signals according to statistical decision theory revealed low sensitivity in both the high-anxiety test and low-anxiety/no-test conditions than in the other two. Analysis of decisional criteria showed that subjects in the high-anxiety test condition were more conservative in setting a criterion than subjects in the other three conditions. No sex differences were found. The results are discussed in terms of an elaboration of Sarason's (1978) model of test anxiety.

Behavioral and physiological reactions to observed violence: effects of prior exposure to aggressive stimuli.

Eight male subjects first watched either a videotaped sequence that was violent and arousing in nature or one that was arousing but less violent. Subjects then observed either a second videotape or a sequence of aggressive acts or no videotape. Subjects who were shown the second videotape were told that the aggressive acts they saw were either justified or not justified by previous events. Other subjects were given no information regarding justification of the observed aggression. It was found that subjects who had first seen an arousing but less violent tape were subsequently more aggressive toward an antagonist if they had also observed justified violence than if they had seen nonjustified violence. Subjects who had first watched the violent videotape showed no differences in aggression as a function of the justification of the second set of aggressive acts. Analysis of blood pressure data showed that prior exposure to violence attenuated arousal in response to subsequently observed aggression, but that the context in which aggression was seen as justified or nonjustified did not influence arousal. The results are discussed in terms of differential sensitivity to cues that inhibit or disinhibit aggression as a result of previous exposure to violence.

Physical/verbal aggression: sex differences in style.

Two studies exploring the use of physical/verbal aggression are reported, the first using women and the second using men as subjects. Both studies allowed subjects to choose between and control the intensity of two response modes: verbal aggression (insults) and physical aggression (electric shock). Aggressive style was investigated over two levels of arousal, sex of experimenter, and sex of provocateur-victim. Results indicated that women aggressed discriminatively in the verbal mode as a function of their arousal, while men were capable of aggressing discriminatively in both the verbal and physical modes. Men who had been disagreed with and punished by a female victim-provocateur in the presence of a male experimenter or by a male victim in the presence of a male experimenter demonstrated high levels of physical aggression compared to the other groups.

Test anxiety, observation, and range of cue utilization.

Sixty females scoring high on the Sarason Test Anxiety Scale and 60 scoring low on the same scale served as subjects in an experiment on cue utilization. One-third of all subjects were given a simple learning task with relevant cues added, and one-third were given the task with irrelevant cues added. Half of all subjects in each cue condition were observed by the experimenter as they performed and half were not observed. Relative to subjects in the other conditions combining observation and anxiety, those subjects who were high in test anxiety and also were observed showed a narrower range of cue utilization. The results are discussed in terms of current research on social facilitation.

The facilitation of aggression by aggression: evidence against the catharsis hypothesis.

Nnety male subjects were either attacked or treated in a more neutral manner by a male confederate. On a subsequent maze-learning task, one third of the subjects shocked the confederate, one third observed as the experimenter shocked the confederate, and one third waited for a period of time during which the confederate was not shocked. Finally, all subjects shocked the confederate as part of a code-learning task. Subjects who had been attacked and had shocked the confederate during the maze task delivered shocks of greater intensity on the code task did subjects in the other two conditions, and the former subjects also experienced a greater reduction in diastolic blood pressure than did the latter. The results contradict the hypothesis of aggression catharsis and are discussed in terms of feelings of restraint against aggressing that a subject experiences after committing an aggressive act.