Mechanisms abetting the maintenance of social inadequacy
Digital Document
Document
Handle |
Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/11134/20002:860715366
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Persons |
Persons
Creator (cre): Greengrass, Martin Joseph
Major Advisor (mja): Farina, Amerigo
Associate Advisor (asa): Schwarz, J. Conrad
Associate Advisor (asa): Karmel, Bernard
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Title |
Title
Title
Mechanisms abetting the maintenance of social inadequacy
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Origin Information |
Origin Information
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Parent Item |
Parent Item
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Resource Type |
Resource Type
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Digital Origin |
Digital Origin
reformatted digital
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Description |
Description
This study presented two hypotheses to explain why people who are deficient in social skills fail to improve despite adequate exposure to appropriate models. The hypotheses presented are: 1) that individuals with poor social skills fail to improve because they do not recognize the important components of socially adequate behavior; and 2) that these individuals fail to improve because they avoid interpersonal situations which might test their social competence. In order to test these hypotheses, 32 low skilled (LS) women and 31 high skilled (HS) women selected by the Greengrass-Jain Scale (1975) participated in two experiments. In the first experiment, each woman viewed one of two videotapes of an interview, in which an actress portrayed either a highly skilled or a poorly skilled job applicant. Each woman was asked to rate the job applicant in the videotape on variables related to social competence. Immediately thereafter, each subject participated in the second experiment, during which she completed a questionnaire. She was informed that following the completion of the questionnaire, if time allowed, she would participate in an additional experiment. Subjects in the manipulation condition were told that the new experiment would consist of an involving interpersonal task with a peer; in the control condition, subjects were told that the forthcoming experiment would be the completion of a self-disclosing questionnaire. All women were made aware that the subsequent task could be avoided by tarrying on the current questionnaire. Dependent measures consisted of time taken to complete the questionnaire and plethysmographic responses to being informed of the manipulation or control condition. In addition, scores were obtained for all women on the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (Watson and Friend, 1969), Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (Watson and Friend, 1969) and a revised version of the Process-Reactive Scale (Ullmann and Giovannoni, 1964). The experiments failed to confirm the hypotheses. However, both HS and LS subjects who had previously viewed the videotape of the highly competent woman displayed greater anxiety as measured by the plethysmographic readings in the manipulation condition than they did after viewing the videotape of the inadequate woman. Self-report measures suggested that the LS woman was more fearful of, avoidant of and less experienced in social situations. It was concluded that all women engaged in a comparison process based on available cues as to the adequacy or inadequacy of the other person involved, which comparison determined their responses to an upcoming social encounter. Because of the LS woman's relative inexperience and her self-image, she more often compares herself unfavorably with a person with whom she might have to interact, and thus there are more social situations which she finds intimidating and may therefore tend to avoid.
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Genre
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Organizations |
Organizations
Degree granting institution (dgg): University of Connecticut
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Extent |
Extent
[2], ix, 129 leaves illustrations, tables
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Use and Reproduction |
Use and Reproduction
These Materials are provided for educational and research purposes only.
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Degree Name |
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
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Degree Level |
Degree Level
Doctoral
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Degree Discipline |
Degree Discipline
Psychology
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Local Identifier |
Local Identifier
39153012681484
02637183
ASC Thesis 1961
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