This study was a demonstration of effects consistent with Bern's self-perception theory. Role playing was used as the vehicle through which self-perception occurred. It was hypothesized that within a perceived-choice paradigm, role playing an "upset" reaction (role play ing-upset) to electric shocks would lead to subsequent decreases in pain and tolerance thresholds, whereas role playing a "calm" reaction (role playing-calm) would lead to subsequent increases. Forty-five subjects underwent three series of electric shocks designed to measure pain and tolerance thresholds. Following the first shock series (pretest) and prior to the third series (posttest), subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (a) role playing-upset; (6) role playingcalm; or (c) no role playing (control) during the second shock series. The dependent pretest-posttest change measures revealed significant group differences relative to controls for the role-playing groups in directions supporting the hypotheses. A physiological measure suggested that the findings were not due to attention to internal information. Additionally, several correlations consistently indicated that the degree of manipulation during the second series was significantly associated with the pretest-posttest changes. Results were discussed in terms of self-perception theory and clinical applications. 1 This study is based upon a master's thesis submitted by the first author to the Psychology Department at the University of Oregon. The second author was the advisor for the thesis. Thanks are due to the other thesis committee members: R. Dawes, E. Lichtenstein, and J. LoPiccolo. Thanks are also extended to James Aaron, who was the second experimenter, and to Tracey Hasslein and Vickie Saeto, who were the observers.2 Requests for reprints should be sent to Steven
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