23 results
Contributors
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- By Mitchell Aboulafia, Frederick Adams, Marilyn McCord Adams, Robert M. Adams, Laird Addis, James W. Allard, David Allison, William P. Alston, Karl Ameriks, C. Anthony Anderson, David Leech Anderson, Lanier Anderson, Roger Ariew, David Armstrong, Denis G. Arnold, E. J. Ashworth, Margaret Atherton, Robin Attfield, Bruce Aune, Edward Wilson Averill, Jody Azzouni, Kent Bach, Andrew Bailey, Lynne Rudder Baker, Thomas R. Baldwin, Jon Barwise, George Bealer, William Bechtel, Lawrence C. Becker, Mark A. Bedau, Ernst Behler, José A. Benardete, Ermanno Bencivenga, Jan Berg, Michael Bergmann, Robert L. Bernasconi, Sven Bernecker, Bernard Berofsky, Rod Bertolet, Charles J. Beyer, Christian Beyer, Joseph Bien, Joseph Bien, Peg Birmingham, Ivan Boh, James Bohman, Daniel Bonevac, Laurence BonJour, William J. Bouwsma, Raymond D. Bradley, Myles Brand, Richard B. Brandt, Michael E. Bratman, Stephen E. Braude, Daniel Breazeale, Angela Breitenbach, Jason Bridges, David O. Brink, Gordon G. Brittan, Justin Broackes, Dan W. Brock, Aaron Bronfman, Jeffrey E. Brower, Bartosz Brozek, Anthony Brueckner, Jeffrey Bub, Lara Buchak, Otavio Bueno, Ann E. Bumpus, Robert W. Burch, John Burgess, Arthur W. Burks, Panayot Butchvarov, Robert E. Butts, Marina Bykova, Patrick Byrne, David Carr, Noël Carroll, Edward S. Casey, Victor Caston, Victor Caston, Albert Casullo, Robert L. Causey, Alan K. L. Chan, Ruth Chang, Deen K. Chatterjee, Andrew Chignell, Roderick M. Chisholm, Kelly J. Clark, E. J. Coffman, Robin Collins, Brian P. Copenhaver, John Corcoran, John Cottingham, Roger Crisp, Frederick J. Crosson, Antonio S. Cua, Phillip D. Cummins, Martin Curd, Adam Cureton, Andrew Cutrofello, Stephen Darwall, Paul Sheldon Davies, Wayne A. Davis, Timothy Joseph Day, Claudio de Almeida, Mario De Caro, Mario De Caro, John Deigh, C. F. Delaney, Daniel C. Dennett, Michael R. DePaul, Michael Detlefsen, Daniel Trent Devereux, Philip E. Devine, John M. Dillon, Martin C. Dillon, Robert DiSalle, Mary Domski, Alan Donagan, Paul Draper, Fred Dretske, Mircea Dumitru, Wilhelm Dupré, Gerald Dworkin, John Earman, Ellery Eells, Catherine Z. Elgin, Berent Enç, Ronald P. Endicott, Edward Erwin, John Etchemendy, C. Stephen Evans, Susan L. Feagin, Solomon Feferman, Richard Feldman, Arthur Fine, Maurice A. Finocchiaro, William FitzPatrick, Richard E. Flathman, Gvozden Flego, Richard Foley, Graeme Forbes, Rainer Forst, Malcolm R. Forster, Daniel Fouke, Patrick Francken, Samuel Freeman, Elizabeth Fricker, Miranda Fricker, Michael Friedman, Michael Fuerstein, Richard A. Fumerton, Alan Gabbey, Pieranna Garavaso, Daniel Garber, Jorge L. A. Garcia, Robert K. Garcia, Don Garrett, Philip Gasper, Gerald Gaus, Berys Gaut, Bernard Gert, Roger F. Gibson, Cody Gilmore, Carl Ginet, Alan H. Goldman, Alvin I. Goldman, Alfonso Gömez-Lobo, Lenn E. Goodman, Robert M. Gordon, Stefan Gosepath, Jorge J. E. Gracia, Daniel W. Graham, George A. Graham, Peter J. Graham, Richard E. Grandy, I. Grattan-Guinness, John Greco, Philip T. Grier, Nicholas Griffin, Nicholas Griffin, David A. Griffiths, Paul J. Griffiths, Stephen R. Grimm, Charles L. Griswold, Charles B. Guignon, Pete A. Y. Gunter, Dimitri Gutas, Gary Gutting, Paul Guyer, Kwame Gyekye, Oscar A. Haac, Raul Hakli, Raul Hakli, Michael Hallett, Edward C. Halper, Jean Hampton, R. James Hankinson, K. R. Hanley, Russell Hardin, Robert M. Harnish, William Harper, David Harrah, Kevin Hart, Ali Hasan, William Hasker, John Haugeland, Roger Hausheer, William Heald, Peter Heath, Richard Heck, John F. Heil, Vincent F. Hendricks, Stephen Hetherington, Francis Heylighen, Kathleen Marie Higgins, Risto Hilpinen, Harold T. Hodes, Joshua Hoffman, Alan Holland, Robert L. Holmes, Richard Holton, Brad W. Hooker, Terence E. Horgan, Tamara Horowitz, Paul Horwich, Vittorio Hösle, Paul Hoβfeld, Daniel Howard-Snyder, Frances Howard-Snyder, Anne Hudson, Deal W. Hudson, Carl A. Huffman, David L. Hull, Patricia Huntington, Thomas Hurka, Paul Hurley, Rosalind Hursthouse, Guillermo Hurtado, Ronald E. Hustwit, Sarah Hutton, Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa, Harry A. Ide, David Ingram, Philip J. Ivanhoe, Alfred L. Ivry, Frank Jackson, Dale Jacquette, Joseph Jedwab, Richard Jeffrey, David Alan Johnson, Edward Johnson, Mark D. Jordan, Richard Joyce, Hwa Yol Jung, Robert Hillary Kane, Tomis Kapitan, Jacquelyn Ann K. Kegley, James A. Keller, Ralph Kennedy, Sergei Khoruzhii, Jaegwon Kim, Yersu Kim, Nathan L. King, Patricia Kitcher, Peter D. Klein, E. D. Klemke, Virginia Klenk, George L. Kline, Christian Klotz, Simo Knuuttila, Joseph J. Kockelmans, Konstantin Kolenda, Sebastian Tomasz Kołodziejczyk, Isaac Kramnick, Richard Kraut, Fred Kroon, Manfred Kuehn, Steven T. Kuhn, Henry E. Kyburg, John Lachs, Jennifer Lackey, Stephen E. Lahey, Andrea Lavazza, Thomas H. Leahey, Joo Heung Lee, Keith Lehrer, Dorothy Leland, Noah M. Lemos, Ernest LePore, Sarah-Jane Leslie, Isaac Levi, Andrew Levine, Alan E. Lewis, Daniel E. Little, Shu-hsien Liu, Shu-hsien Liu, Alan K. L. Chan, Brian Loar, Lawrence B. Lombard, John Longeway, Dominic McIver Lopes, Michael J. Loux, E. J. Lowe, Steven Luper, Eugene C. Luschei, William G. Lycan, David Lyons, David Macarthur, Danielle Macbeth, Scott MacDonald, Jacob L. Mackey, Louis H. Mackey, Penelope Mackie, Edward H. Madden, Penelope Maddy, G. B. Madison, Bernd Magnus, Pekka Mäkelä, Rudolf A. Makkreel, David Manley, William E. Mann (W.E.M.), Vladimir Marchenkov, Peter Markie, Jean-Pierre Marquis, Ausonio Marras, Mike W. Martin, A. P. Martinich, William L. McBride, David McCabe, Storrs McCall, Hugh J. McCann, Robert N. McCauley, John J. McDermott, Sarah McGrath, Ralph McInerny, Daniel J. McKaughan, Thomas McKay, Michael McKinsey, Brian P. McLaughlin, Ernan McMullin, Anthonie Meijers, Jack W. Meiland, William Jason Melanson, Alfred R. Mele, Joseph R. Mendola, Christopher Menzel, Michael J. Meyer, Christian B. Miller, David W. Miller, Peter Millican, Robert N. Minor, Phillip Mitsis, James A. Montmarquet, Michael S. Moore, Tim Moore, Benjamin Morison, Donald R. Morrison, Stephen J. Morse, Paul K. Moser, Alexander P. D. Mourelatos, Ian Mueller, James Bernard Murphy, Mark C. Murphy, Steven Nadler, Jan Narveson, Alan Nelson, Jerome Neu, Samuel Newlands, Kai Nielsen, Ilkka Niiniluoto, Carlos G. Noreña, Calvin G. Normore, David Fate Norton, Nikolaj Nottelmann, Donald Nute, David S. Oderberg, Steve Odin, Michael O’Rourke, Willard G. Oxtoby, Heinz Paetzold, George S. Pappas, Anthony J. Parel, Lydia Patton, R. P. Peerenboom, Francis Jeffry Pelletier, Adriaan T. Peperzak, Derk Pereboom, Jaroslav Peregrin, Glen Pettigrove, Philip Pettit, Edmund L. Pincoffs, Andrew Pinsent, Robert B. Pippin, Alvin Plantinga, Louis P. Pojman, Richard H. Popkin, John F. Post, Carl J. Posy, William J. Prior, Richard Purtill, Michael Quante, Philip L. Quinn, Philip L. Quinn, Elizabeth S. Radcliffe, Diana Raffman, Gerard Raulet, Stephen L. Read, Andrews Reath, Andrew Reisner, Nicholas Rescher, Henry S. Richardson, Robert C. Richardson, Thomas Ricketts, Wayne D. Riggs, Mark Roberts, Robert C. Roberts, Luke Robinson, Alexander Rosenberg, Gary Rosenkranz, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, Adina L. Roskies, William L. Rowe, T. M. Rudavsky, Michael Ruse, Bruce Russell, Lilly-Marlene Russow, Dan Ryder, R. M. Sainsbury, Joseph Salerno, Nathan Salmon, Wesley C. Salmon, Constantine Sandis, David H. Sanford, Marco Santambrogio, David Sapire, Ruth A. Saunders, Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, Charles Sayward, James P. Scanlan, Richard Schacht, Tamar Schapiro, Frederick F. Schmitt, Jerome B. Schneewind, Calvin O. Schrag, Alan D. Schrift, George F. Schumm, Jean-Loup Seban, David N. Sedley, Kenneth Seeskin, Krister Segerberg, Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Dennis M. Senchuk, James F. Sennett, William Lad Sessions, Stewart Shapiro, Tommie Shelby, Donald W. Sherburne, Christopher Shields, Roger A. Shiner, Sydney Shoemaker, Robert K. Shope, Kwong-loi Shun, Wilfried Sieg, A. John Simmons, Robert L. Simon, Marcus G. Singer, Georgette Sinkler, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Matti T. Sintonen, Lawrence Sklar, Brian Skyrms, Robert C. Sleigh, Michael Anthony Slote, Hans Sluga, Barry Smith, Michael Smith, Robin Smith, Robert Sokolowski, Robert C. Solomon, Marta Soniewicka, Philip Soper, Ernest Sosa, Nicholas Southwood, Paul Vincent Spade, T. L. S. Sprigge, Eric O. Springsted, George J. Stack, Rebecca Stangl, Jason Stanley, Florian Steinberger, Sören Stenlund, Christopher Stephens, James P. Sterba, Josef Stern, Matthias Steup, M. A. Stewart, Leopold Stubenberg, Edith Dudley Sulla, Frederick Suppe, Jere Paul Surber, David George Sussman, Sigrún Svavarsdóttir, Zeno G. Swijtink, Richard Swinburne, Charles C. Taliaferro, Robert B. Talisse, John Tasioulas, Paul Teller, Larry S. Temkin, Mark Textor, H. S. Thayer, Peter Thielke, Alan Thomas, Amie L. Thomasson, Katherine Thomson-Jones, Joshua C. Thurow, Vzalerie Tiberius, Terrence N. Tice, Paul Tidman, Mark C. Timmons, William Tolhurst, James E. Tomberlin, Rosemarie Tong, Lawrence Torcello, Kelly Trogdon, J. D. Trout, Robert E. Tully, Raimo Tuomela, John Turri, Martin M. Tweedale, Thomas Uebel, Jennifer Uleman, James Van Cleve, Harry van der Linden, Peter van Inwagen, Bryan W. Van Norden, René van Woudenberg, Donald Phillip Verene, Samantha Vice, Thomas Vinci, Donald Wayne Viney, Barbara Von Eckardt, Peter B. M. Vranas, Steven J. Wagner, William J. Wainwright, Paul E. Walker, Robert E. Wall, Craig Walton, Douglas Walton, Eric Watkins, Richard A. Watson, Michael V. Wedin, Rudolph H. Weingartner, Paul Weirich, Paul J. Weithman, Carl Wellman, Howard Wettstein, Samuel C. Wheeler, Stephen A. White, Jennifer Whiting, Edward R. Wierenga, Michael Williams, Fred Wilson, W. Kent Wilson, Kenneth P. Winkler, John F. Wippel, Jan Woleński, Allan B. Wolter, Nicholas P. Wolterstorff, Rega Wood, W. Jay Wood, Paul Woodruff, Alison Wylie, Gideon Yaffe, Takashi Yagisawa, Yutaka Yamamoto, Keith E. Yandell, Xiaomei Yang, Dean Zimmerman, Günter Zoller, Catherine Zuckert, Michael Zuckert, Jack A. Zupko (J.A.Z.)
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Contributors
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- By Graham Allan, Donna M. Allen, Irwin Altman, Arthur Aron, Donald H. Baucom, Steven R. H. Beach, Ellen Berscheid, Rosemary Blieszner, Jeffrey Boase, Tyfany M. J. Boettcher, Barbara B. Brown, Abraham P. Buunk, Lorne Campbell, Daniel J. Canary, Rodney Cate, John P. Caughlin, Mahnaz Charania, Jennie Y. Chen, F. Scott Christopher, Jennifer A. Clarke, Marilyn Coleman, W. Andrew Collins, Michael K. Coolsen, Nathan R. Cottle, Carolyn E. Cutrona, Marianne Dainton, Valerian J. Derlega, Lisa M. Diamond, Pieternel Dijkstra, Steve Duck, Pearl A. Dykstra, Norman B. Epstein, Beverley Fehr, Frank D. Fincham, Helen E. Fisher, Julie Fitness, Garth J. O. Fletcher, Myron D. Friesen, Lawrence Ganong, Kelli A. Gardner, Jenny de Jong Gierveld, Robin Goodwin, Christine R. Gray, Kathryn Greene, David W. Harris, Willard W. Hartup, John H. Harvey, Kathi L. Heffner, Ted L. Huston, William J. Ickes, Emily A. Impett, Michael P. Johnson, Deborah J. Jones, Deborah A. Kashy, Janice K. Kiecolt‐Glaser, Jeffrey L. Kirchner, Brighid M. Kleinman, Galena H. Kline, Mark L. Knapp, Ascan Koerner, Jean‐Philippe Laurenceau, Kim Leon, Timothy J. Loving, Stephanie D. Madsen, Howard J. Markman, Alicia Mathews, Mario Mikulincer, Patricia Noller, Nickola C. Overall, Letitia Anne Peplau, Daniel Perlman, Sally Planalp, Urmila Pillay, Nicole D. Pleasant, Caryl E. Rusbult, Barbara R. Sarason, Irwin G. Sarason, Phillip R. Shaver, Alan L. Sillars, Jeffry A. Simpson, Susan Sprecher, Susan Stanton, Greg Strong, Catherine A. Surra, Anita L. Vangelisti, C. Arthur VanLear, Theo van Tilburg, Barry Wellman, Amy Wenzel, Carol M. Werner, Adam R. West, Sarah W. Whitton, Heike A. Winterheld
- Edited by Anita L. Vangelisti, University of Texas, Austin, Daniel Perlman, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
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10 - Environmental setting
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- Social Situations
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- 09 April 1981, pp 267-292
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Summary
Introduction
The feature of situations that has been most thoroughly investigated is the physical environment. We suggest that the physical features of situations can be looked at in terms of four concepts.
Boundaries (the physical enclosures within which behaviour takes place).
Props (the furnishings, decorations and objects contained in that boundary).
Modifiers (the quality and quantity of conditioners in the boundary).
Spaces (the use and meaning attached to spaces between people and objects within the boundary).
The scientific analysis of the structure and function of the physical environment is a comparatively recent development for psychology. In 1966 Craik defined environmental psychology as ‘the psychological study of behaviour as it relates to the everyday physical environment’, and which addresses itself to three related questions:
What does the everyday physical environment do to people?
How do people comprehend their physical environment?
What do people do to the everyday physical environment?
The relationship between social and environmental psychology is close theoretically and methodologically, as social psychology's traditional focus on perception and behaviour has been broadened to include contextual orientation in which the transaction between people and their sociophysical settings is emphasised. Altman (1976) has suggested that both the two subdisciplines might benefit from looking at people × place units, as the new social unit of enquiry.
Subject index
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- Social Situations
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- 09 April 1981, pp 451-453
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References
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- 09 April 1981, pp 401-440
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2 - The analysis of social situations
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- Social Situations
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- 09 April 1981, pp 12-40
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Summary
Introduction
Perhaps one of the most confused, ambiguous and least researched branches of modern psychology is the social and physical context in which behaviour occurs, and its effects on behaviour. The sterility and unrepresentativeness of the psychology laboratory for research into social behaviour has been well documented (Rosenthal, 1966; Rosenthal and Rosnow, 1969), and the necessity of field work emphasised. Many psychological processes have been studied in situations so far removed from the natural situations in which these behaviours occur that different psychological processes altogether may be operating – hence the poor laboratory studies. Experiments like the Prisoners' Dilemma Game exclude verbal and non verbal communication; there are no obvious rules or other features of the situation and there is no established relationship between the interactors (Argyle, 1969). It has been demonstrated that laboratory experiments can obtain misleading results: Argyle and McHenry (1971) found that wearing spectacles added to perceived IQ only if the person in question did not speak. Psychologists have selected and manipulated one or two elements in the social setting they are studying, and which they expect to influence certain aspects of behaviour (the dependent variable), while attempting to ‘control’ all other relevant variables (Fraisse, 1968). These ‘situational’ variables have ranged from task conditions and mood states to confederator interaction and furniture arrangement, yet the subjects have rarely been consulted afterwards as to how they perceived the ‘situation’ as defined by the experimenter, or to see whether they perceived it in the same way as he did.
5 - Rules
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- Social Situations
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- 09 April 1981, pp 126-163
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Summary
Introduction
We propose to use the concept of rules as a central explanatory device in the analysis of situations. People come together in social situations so that certain goals can be attained; rules develop to coordinate the behaviour of interactors so that these goals can be met. But what exactly is meant by a ‘rule’? By a rule we mean ‘behaviour which members of a group believe should, or should not, or may be, performed in some situation, or range of situations’. This is based on the notion of appropriateness; when a person breaks a rule he has made a mistake (Winch, 1958).
Rules in this sense can be distinguished from ‘norms’, which are often used by social psychologists to refer to modal behaviour, i.e. what most people do; sometimes most people break the rules. Rules can also be distinguished from ‘conventions’, which refer to arbitrary customs such as fashion in clothes. It is a rule in cricket that the batsman should use a bat (rather than, say, a tennis racquet), but a convention that he shall wear white trousers. Conventions are elements of shared culture which can vary without affecting task performance or attainment of goals. This distinction is investigated empirically in experiment 5.2. Some rules emerge during the life of a particular group, such as a family or a research group.
Social Situations
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- 09 April 1981
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This book not only documents the authors' own studies of real life social situations, but also provides an extensive review of other literature in this field. Michael Argyle and his colleagues are particularly concerned with the practical applications of situational analysis - to social skills training, mental health and deviance, intergroup behaviour, personnel selection and consumer research. In addition, by concentrating on situational variables, the volume makes an important contribution to the study of personality, since personality-situational interaction is at least as important in determining behaviour as are general personality traits. During recent years there has been extensive criticism of the conduct of research in social psychology. Social Situations points the way forward to a resolution of the crisis in the discipline. It marks an important advance in our understanding of social behaviour which will interest social and clinical psychologists and sociologists.
12 - Stressful situations
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- 09 April 1981, pp 319-357
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Summary
Introduction
Everyone finds some situations difficult or a source of anxiety. Most research relevant to stressful situations has been concerned with anxiety, for example in the form of fear of pain, of social embarrassment or other kinds of subjective distress. On the other hand it may be difficult to deal effectively with certain situations without necessarily experiencing high levels of anxiety. Marshall, Staian and Andrews (1977) found that social skills training improved social competence as rated by observers more than systematic desensitisation did, while systematic desensitisation had more effect on self-reports of anxiety. We shall see below that women report more social anxiety than men but fewer women complain of being socially inadequate. Social inadequacy has sometimes been equated with lack of assertiveness, but we have argued elsewhere that this is only one form of inadequacy (Argyle, 1980b).
Anxiety has been an active area of psychological research since the beginning of the century and has been studied by experimenters of various theoretical persuasions. Some have considered anxiety to be a stable, chronic state measurable in terms of a personality dimension (Cattell, 1950) while others have viewed it as a special reaction to situations in which a person has previously encountered pain (Miller and Dollard, 1945). Still others have viewed anxiety as a state of the person which varies across time and situations (Spielberger, 1966; Endler and Hunt, 1968).
8 - Sequences of interaction
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- 09 April 1981, pp 208-231
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Summary
Introduction
Social psychologists have long been trying to understand the principles underlying sequences of interaction. It has often been assumed that there will be some universal principles, or ‘grammar’, common to all situations, although very little progress has been made so far in finding them. It is fairly obvious that interaction sequences take different forms in different situations, and this is what we shall explore in this chapter. But are they fundamentally different, or are there universal principles underlying these different kinds of sequence, in the way that the same grammar underlies different kinds of conversation? We saw in the last chapter that the repertoire of social acts varies with the situation, and that the repertoire for a situation is functional – it consists of the steps needed to attain the situational goals. A related hypothesis is that the repertoire elements, the steps to the goals, must be used in a special order. It is fairly obvious that the moves made by one person to perform a task must often be in a certain order, though this is not always so: it is true for climbing mountains, or building a house, less true for getting dressed or cooking a meal. What we are saying is that the alternating sequence of moves made by two or more people is similarly ordered.
The most widely used method of studying behaviour sequences is the analysis of transitional probabilities, as developed in ethology.
6 - Role-systems
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- 09 April 1981, pp 164-179
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Summary
Introduction
The system of roles is an important feature of most situations. Examples are salesman–customer, teacher–pupil and chairman–committee member. By a role is meant the pattern of behaviour associated with, or expected of, the occupants of a position. If we define roles in terms of expectations, a role is defined by the rules that apply to an occupant of a position. Positions include age, sex, class, and job or rank in organisations (e.g. doctor, nurse, patient). There is a problem in that there may be disagreement between the occupant and others, or between different groups of others, over how the occupant should behave; this creates role-conflict.
Some situations have very clear role-systems, for example court-rooms, churches and hospital wards. But we want to extend the concept of role to include informal roles in small groups, where there are no pre-existing patterns. Examples are task leader, socio-emotional leader and leader of the opposition. These roles are the distinctive patterns of behaviour which commonly occur in certain kinds of group or situation. In the case of formal roles, occupation of a position exposes the occupant to pressures to adopt the role; in the case of informal roles, adopting the role behaviour (e.g. engaging in a great deal of task activity) makes him the occupant of a kind of informal position.
Names index
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- 09 April 1981, pp 441-450
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Contents
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- 09 April 1981, pp iii-vi
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13 - Applications of situational analysis
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- Social Situations
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- 09 April 1981, pp 358-391
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Summary
What use is the analysis of social situations? Many social problems, such as various kinds of law-breaking and mental disorder, have nearly always been tackled by attempts to modify the behaviour of individuals. We now know that situations and P × S interaction are at least as important as personality in explaining behaviour; it follows that we ought to be trying to modify situations as well as persons, or to match persons to situations better. With our new understanding of situations we are in a position to modify existing situations, and even to invent new ones. We are also in a better position to select people who are going to enter a situation (e.g. a job), and to train them to cope effectively in it.
Law-breaking
One of the earliest studies of the effect of the situation on behaviour, by Harteshorne and May (1928), showed that there was great situational variability and little individual consistency in twenty-four tests of cheating and stealing, in laboratory settings. There was, however, a minority of individuals who were unusually honest and another group who were exceptionally dishonest; for members of these two groups there was some consistency across situations. A later analysis of their data by Burton (1963) showed that a weak general factor was present. Nelsen, Grinder and Mutterer (1969), in a later study of honesty in temptation situations, found considerable person variance as well as situational variability.
14 - Conclusions
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- Social Situations
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- 09 April 1981, pp 392-400
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Summary
We shall not attempt to summarise the results of research carried out by ourselves and others into situations, but rather we shall address ourselves to a number of general issues.
The classification and analysis of situations
Although we initially expressed some scepticism about the value of dimensional analysis of situations, two of the dimensions that have arisen from these studies have appeared in the form of main divisions in our cluster analyses, based on various features. These are task–social, and casual–intimate or involved. When we have analysed situations into types, using cluster analysis, only a limited number of basic types have appeared. Some of these are as follows, though the list could be extended further:
formal social events
intimate encounters with close friends or relations
casual encounters with acquaintances
formal encounters in shops and offices
asymmetrical social-skills occasions (e.g. teaching, interviewing, supervision)
negotiation and conflict
group discussion
Are the features which we initially proposed sufficient, and are they all necessary? There is one more feature which might be added to some situations, and this is emotional atmosphere, for we have found that emotional expression is part of the rules in situations such as weddings and parties. When using our set of features in situational social-skills training we have found that certain features are most useful: goal structure, rules, skills to overcome difficulties.
Frontmatter
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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3 - The effect of the situation on behaviour
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- 09 April 1981, pp 41-67
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Summary
Introduction
Social psychological research and theorising has investigated a wide range of behavioural processes, such as anxiety, aggression and altruism, in terms of the personality structure and dynamics of the individual or within the confines of limited experimental paradigms. Historically there seem to have been phases where either the traitist or the situationalist viewpoint and method has been more popular. Also, within certain research areas one has seen the predominance of one or other approach at different times (Hollander, 1978).
It seems, however, that despite the situationalist approach, which is often very behaviouristic in its definition of, and experimentation with, situational variables, the concept of the social situation has been neglected in social psychology. This has led to two anomalies. Firstly, some areas of social psychological research, such as conformity or anxiety research, have consistently paid attention to social situational variables and often the process has been conceived of in interactional terms, while other areas, such as impression formation, have often ignored situational variables. This means that the study of some psychological processes has taken cognizance of the role of the social situation in that process, while in the study of others it has been completely ignored. There are many reasons for this – theoretical, experimental and historical. Further, it is possible to conceive of the processes as being on a continuum, much the same as the environmentgenetic continuum, from purely situationally determined to purely personality determined; hence the patterns of emphasis and the neglect of situational variables.
1 - Introduction
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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Summary
A number of recent studies by Milgram, Zimbardo and others have demonstrated the extraordinary extent to which behaviour is affected by situations. If we want to explain and understand social behaviour we must explain how situations influence it.
The experiment by Milgram (1974) showed that normal members of the public would give what they thought were near-fatal electric shocks to another person in 65 per cent of cases, if ordered to do so by the experimenter. In the experiment by Zimbardo (1973) normal university students, who were asked to play the role of prison guards, did so in such a tyrannical way that others, students ordered to be convicts, became emotionally distressed, and the experiment had to be terminated. Studies of religious sects show that people who are quite normal on week-days can speak with tongues, handle snakes and have near-psychotic experiences on Sundays (Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi, 1975).
An account of experimental studies of the effects of situations on behaviour is given in Chapter 3.
Why we need to analyse situations
There are several reasons why it would be useful to understand situations better. In our work on social-skills training we frequently came across people who could not cope with particular social situations – for example, parties, committee meetings, ‘dates’ (Trower, Bryant and Argyle, 1978).
4 - Drives and goals
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- Book:
- Social Situations
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- 01 June 2011
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- 09 April 1981, pp 68-125
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Summary
Introduction
Our central hypothesis is that situations enable people to attain goals, which in turn satisfy drives; all the other features of situations can be explained functionally in terms of their contribution to the attainment of goals and the satisfaction of drives. Our main theoretical antecedent is Lewin, and we shall use ideas from Murray, from the McClelland–Atkinson group and from exchange theory. However we shall be concerned with drives and goals as properties of situations rather than of individuals.
Animals and people have biological needs, for food and water etc., which energise and direct behaviour and whose satisfaction is necessary for survival. There are a number of other motivational systems which can be regarded as drives; like needs they direct and energise behaviour, but they are not based on any biological deficit and the survival of the individual does not depend immediately on their satisfaction, though the survival of group and species may do. Drive-related behaviour results in satiation of the drive in some cases, but not in all.
In groups of monkeys it can be seen how each drive contributes to the survival of the individual or group. Sexual and maternal drives need no explanation; aggression enables groups to defend themselves and their territory; dominance produces a stable leadership hierarchy, which makes it possible to keep order internally and to defend the group in an organised way (DeVore, 1965).
9 - Concepts and cognitive structures
- Michael Argyle, Adrian Furnham, Jean Ann Graham
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- Book:
- Social Situations
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- 01 June 2011
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- 09 April 1981, pp 232-266
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Summary
Introduction
In order to behave effectively in any situation people need to possess appropriate concepts. It would not be possible to play cricket without knowing the meaning of ‘out’, ‘over’, etc., or to play chess without knowing what a queen is, and what ‘check’ means.
We can see how concepts are related to the goals of behaviour, in terms of the motor-skills model of social behaviour (Argyle and Kendon, 1967), as shown in Fig. 8.1. In the first place an interactor needs to perceive and interpret the behaviour of others, in a relevant way. A motorist needs to perceive the traffic signals and signposts rather than the contents of shops, and to watch the speedometer reading rather than the state of the car's carpet. And he needs to know what the traffic signals and the speedometer reading mean. In a social situation an interactor needs categories in order to classify:
Persons: e.g. a teacher needs to distinguish between pupils of different intelligence and motivation, since they would need to be handled differently.
Social structure, i. e. the relations between those present, in terms of status, role, friendship, etc.
Elements of interaction: e.g. between friendly and hostile, and further categories in particular situations (discussed in Chapter 7).
Relevant objects of attention: e.g. parts of the physical environment and task-related objects, such as the pieces at chess.