Distinguishing among models of nonverbal exchange: social cognition, arousal-labeling, and discrepancy-arousal
| dc.contributor.author | O'Connor, Brian | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Gifford, Robert | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-06-20T00:16:13Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-06-20T00:16:13Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1987 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Psychology | |
| dc.description.abstract | Research has found that individuals will respond to an increase in nonverbal immediacy by either increasing or decreasing the immediacy of their own nonverbal behavior. As a result, a number of models have been put forward to account for these different responses. One approach (e. g., Anderson, 1985; Burgoon, 1983; Patterson, 1976) employs Schachter and Singer's (1962) arousal-labeling process as the mediating mechanism. A second approach, the discrepancy- arousal model (Capella & Greene, 1982), hypothesizes that the amount of arousal resulting from violated expectations determines the individual's behavioral response. A third approach (e.g., Ellsworth, 1978) suggests that simple social cognition may be the important mediating process instead of arousal- based mechanisms. An experiment was designed that would: 1) test the social cognition model; and 2) serve as a crucial test among the models. Individual male subjects discussed a moral dilemma with a male confederate at a seating distance of either 3 . 5 feet (control group) or 10 inches (two experimental groups). In an Intentional- Close experimental condition, the confederate was responsible for the close distance: he picked up a chair and moved it close. In a Forced-Close condition the confederate was forced to sit close due to the arrangement of the room and to instructions from the experimenter. Subjects in both of these close distance conditions displayed nonverbal compensation (compared to subjects in the control group). However, only those subjects in the Intentional-Close condition evaluated the confederate more negatively (compared to subjects in the control group). The confederate evaluation results indicate that social information processing determines whether the individual's reaction to an increase in immediacy will be positive or negative. Combined with the results of past research, this finding suggests that social cognition alone determines whether nonverbal compensation or nonverbal reciprocation will occur. Furthermore, the arousal- labeling and discrepancy-arousal models are seriously questioned by the present findings. | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/22413 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | |
| dc.title | Distinguishing among models of nonverbal exchange: social cognition, arousal-labeling, and discrepancy-arousal | |
| dc.type | Thesis |