STUDIES ON CHOICE BEHAVIOR AND INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION: IV

PERCEPTION OF MUTUAL RELATIONS

Abstract

In the previous investigations we analyzed the relationships between three R's (relations) included in the triad (the social situation composed of three person: the chooser p, the chosen o and the third person q). As a consequence, it was suggested that our initial hypothesis derived from F. Heider's hypothesis should be corrected to adjust itself better to the results. This is the first report of the research designed to inquire more deeply into the consistent discrepancy between Heider's hypothesis and our findings. Presumably there are two possible roots to cause such discrepancy. One of them is inadequacy of his hypothesis, some evidence for which has recently been presented by J. P. Runkel. The other is the peculiarity of the method of collecting and analyzing data employed in our investigations. This latter problem is to be discussed in the succeeding paper. In the present investigation we examine Heider's hypothesis once more from the viewpoint of perception of mutual relations.
Up to the last investigation we dealt with only three R's, as does Heider: p's attitude toward q (R₁), p's attitude toward o (R₂) and p's perception of q's attitude toward o (R₃). In the triad, however, there exist three more R's which are inverse of R₁, R₂ and R₃ respectively. Heider does not mention them, for, we guess, he assumes implicitly that two mutually inverse R's have the identical sign. This implicit assumption is reasonable enough from Heider's standpoint, but our past findings cast a doubt upon the absolute validity of it. In the present investigation, then, we analyze the relationship between R₃ and its inverse: p's perception of o's attitude toward q (R₄).
Subjects of the investigation were some two hundred pupils of sixth grade in an elementary school. They were given nearsociometric tests and four kinds of relation perception test concerning their homo-sexual classmates. The major findings are as follows:
In the first place, a remarkable tendency was found that the signs of R₃ and R₄ become identical. This means that Heider's assumption is valid in general. The strength of the tendency, however, was never uniform: it was found that it varied with two conditions.
First, it depends on the very signs of R₃ and R₄: they tend to converge into [0] less remarkably than into [+] or [-]. This might mean that [0] is less powerful than other two signs in affecting the state of the configuration.
Another condition which influences the strength of the tendency is whether the signs of R₁ and R₂ are identical or not: the tendency is stronger when they are identical than when they are different. This means that the signs of R₃ and R₄ depend not only on each other but also on the signs of R₁ and R₂. Moreover, the fuller analysis showed that the way of dependence of the former on the latter is consitent with the results obtained in our past investigation. It may be concluded, then, that the present investigation gave an additional evidence for the inadequacy of Heider's hypothesis within the limits of such procedures as we employed.