It's Bloody Revolting Research Paper
Journal Review: “It’s bloody revolting!” Inhibitory Control of Thoughts Better Left Unsaid
William Von Hippel and Karen Gonsalkorale
Introduction
The main purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between inhibitory abilities and social behaviour. More specifically, the question that begs an answer is whether inhibitory ability will assist people in refraining from displays socially inappropriate behaviour.
The experimenters were initially interested in the underlying reasons to people’s frequent display of positive interpersonal behaviour, despite their negative thoughts. They were aware that a good degree of social knowledge is important as well as the ability to apply these social knowledge in challenging situations, this
requires a certain amount of self-regulation. In this sense, self-regulation facilitates appropriate social behaviour and the individual differences in self-regulation also affect their social performance. This suggests that inhibitory abilities in individuals will also affect their social performance as it is an underlying process in self-regulation. The researcher’s hypothesized that inhibitory processes affects the production of negative social behaviour differently when a person’s inhibitory ability is affected by different factors such as social pressure and attention level.
The dependent variable in this experiment is the negativity of the participant’s social response. The independent variable is a person’s inhibitory process which is determined through the Stroop test. Social pressure was incorporated and manipulated by introducing the participants to a White or Chinese experimenter. Attention level was manipulated by assigning some participants an eight digit number to memorize. Both factors were introduced to examine how they affect the effect of inhibitory processes on negative social responses.
This experiment contributes to existing literature by providing insight into the effect of self-regulation on social behaviours by investigating one underlying mechanism of self-regulation.
Method
There were seventy-one White undergraduates at UNSW who participated in this experiment. The participants undertook the Stroop test in which their cognitive inhibitory abilities were measured. They were then separated into two groups one of which was given an eight digit number to memorize. Each group was then assigned to two different conditions. In condition one the participants were confronted by a Chinese experimenter who offered them a serving of chicken feet and informed them of its cultural value and that it is her favourite food. In condition two the participants were confronted by a white experimenter simply offered them the food with no further explanation. Each experimenter offered the food by placing a container near the participant and opening it to reveal a cooked chicken foot preserved in its original shape.
Results
There are several aspects of results which are of significance. Firstly, people were more likely to act socially inappropriately to a Chinese experimenter if their inhibitory ability was hindered by divided attention. In turn, people produced most socially appropriate responses when confronted by Chinese experimenters when they are not distracted. Furthermore, there was an increased negativity towards the Chinese experimenter in a distracted condition and increased negativity towards the white experimenter when participants had full attention. The results supported the hypothesis because when inhibitory responses are affected by attention level and social pressure, people exhibited differences their appropriateness of response
Greatest Theoretical Contribution
This experiment shows a strong correlation between the effect of inhibitory ability and social behaviour, which is a leap in the area of research into people’s social ability and underlying mechanisms of people’s social behaviour. This provides a basis for further research into other factors which influence self-regulation. For instance, the idea that our self-regulation is a limited cognitive resource may impact our social behaviour when our self-regulation capacities are reached.
Greatest Practical Contribution
The greatest practical contribution of this experiment is particularly relevant to everyday life. An individual would be able to utilize the idea that divided attention may cause the display of inappropriate social behaviour when one needs to suppress a negative response. For example, if you are at a party playing a Wii game and a person you dislike comes and attempts to start a conversation, you should stop playing the game in order to prevent yourself from making a socially inappropriate response like rejecting them.
Biggest Limitation
The greatest limitation in this experiment stems from the Stroop test. In the Stroop test, a person’s poor performance may be due to their high tendency to activate the meaning of the words as opposed to their poor ability to inhibit the meaning. Consequently, such a person would require a greater amount of inhibitory ability as opposed to others with a lesser tendency to activate the meaning. This limitation greatly affects the accuracy of the results because a person’s activation tendency may affect how they react to the experimenters. This may cause a person who tends to react more intensely to distasteful food to react more negatively towards the experimenter. Fortunately, this limitation was overcome by the researchers by adopting a social pressure component which allowed them to specifically identify whether the inhibitory component or the activation component was causing the negative response. If the activation component was affecting a person’s response, then their reaction will not differ between the two experimenters. However, if the inhibitory ability affected the response, then a person would only act negatively if the experimenter is Chinese as it is the only occasion where they will need to suppress their negative response.
William Von Hippel and Karen Gonsalkorale
Introduction
The main purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between inhibitory abilities and social behaviour. More specifically, the question that begs an answer is whether inhibitory ability will assist people in refraining from displays socially inappropriate behaviour.
The experimenters were initially interested in the underlying reasons to people’s frequent display of positive interpersonal behaviour, despite their negative thoughts. They were aware that a good degree of social knowledge is important as well as the ability to apply these social knowledge in challenging situations, this
requires a certain amount of self-regulation. In this sense, self-regulation facilitates appropriate social behaviour and the individual differences in self-regulation also affect their social performance. This suggests that inhibitory abilities in individuals will also affect their social performance as it is an underlying process in self-regulation. The researcher’s hypothesized that inhibitory processes affects the production of negative social behaviour differently when a person’s inhibitory ability is affected by different factors such as social pressure and attention level.
The dependent variable in this experiment is the negativity of the participant’s social response. The independent variable is a person’s inhibitory process which is determined through the Stroop test. Social pressure was incorporated and manipulated by introducing the participants to a White or Chinese experimenter. Attention level was manipulated by assigning some participants an eight digit number to memorize. Both factors were introduced to examine how they affect the effect of inhibitory processes on negative social responses.
This experiment contributes to existing literature by providing insight into the effect of self-regulation on social behaviours by investigating one underlying mechanism of self-regulation.
Method
There were seventy-one White undergraduates at UNSW who participated in this experiment. The participants undertook the Stroop test in which their cognitive inhibitory abilities were measured. They were then separated into two groups one of which was given an eight digit number to memorize. Each group was then assigned to two different conditions. In condition one the participants were confronted by a Chinese experimenter who offered them a serving of chicken feet and informed them of its cultural value and that it is her favourite food. In condition two the participants were confronted by a white experimenter simply offered them the food with no further explanation. Each experimenter offered the food by placing a container near the participant and opening it to reveal a cooked chicken foot preserved in its original shape.
Results
There are several aspects of results which are of significance. Firstly, people were more likely to act socially inappropriately to a Chinese experimenter if their inhibitory ability was hindered by divided attention. In turn, people produced most socially appropriate responses when confronted by Chinese experimenters when they are not distracted. Furthermore, there was an increased negativity towards the Chinese experimenter in a distracted condition and increased negativity towards the white experimenter when participants had full attention. The results supported the hypothesis because when inhibitory responses are affected by attention level and social pressure, people exhibited differences their appropriateness of response
Greatest Theoretical Contribution
This experiment shows a strong correlation between the effect of inhibitory ability and social behaviour, which is a leap in the area of research into people’s social ability and underlying mechanisms of people’s social behaviour. This provides a basis for further research into other factors which influence self-regulation. For instance, the idea that our self-regulation is a limited cognitive resource may impact our social behaviour when our self-regulation capacities are reached.
Greatest Practical Contribution
The greatest practical contribution of this experiment is particularly relevant to everyday life. An individual would be able to utilize the idea that divided attention may cause the display of inappropriate social behaviour when one needs to suppress a negative response. For example, if you are at a party playing a Wii game and a person you dislike comes and attempts to start a conversation, you should stop playing the game in order to prevent yourself from making a socially inappropriate response like rejecting them.
Biggest Limitation
The greatest limitation in this experiment stems from the Stroop test. In the Stroop test, a person’s poor performance may be due to their high tendency to activate the meaning of the words as opposed to their poor ability to inhibit the meaning. Consequently, such a person would require a greater amount of inhibitory ability as opposed to others with a lesser tendency to activate the meaning. This limitation greatly affects the accuracy of the results because a person’s activation tendency may affect how they react to the experimenters. This may cause a person who tends to react more intensely to distasteful food to react more negatively towards the experimenter. Fortunately, this limitation was overcome by the researchers by adopting a social pressure component which allowed them to specifically identify whether the inhibitory component or the activation component was causing the negative response. If the activation component was affecting a person’s response, then their reaction will not differ between the two experimenters. However, if the inhibitory ability affected the response, then a person would only act negatively if the experimenter is Chinese as it is the only occasion where they will need to suppress their negative response.