The experimental production of interpersonal affect.

Abstract

f I "teE liking or dislike of one person for I another can be considered a linear di-•*• mension of feeling, ranging from an extreme negative pole through a neutral point to an extreme positive pole. In diis paper, the term "affect," defined by Murphy as "any specific kind of feeling or emotion, especially when it is attached to a particular object" (6, p. 979), will be narrowed in scope to include only this one dimension.If there are, as die literature suggests (8, 9, 10), circumstances in group therapy that lead to positive interpersonal affect, then it seems reasonable to presume that these conditions could be reproduced for experimental groups of normal subjects.Using two techniques of group leadership which differ only with respect to a few welldefined variables, it should be possible to determine which of these independent variables is related to the production of such positive feeling. THE PROBLEMThis study is concerned with the effects of two contrasting group-leadership techniques -group-centered, akin to the activity-group therapy of Slavson (9), and leader-centered, patterned after traditional college classroom procedure-on interpersonal affect in the small face-to-face group. The major procedural difference between these two techniques is that member-to-member verbal interaction is fostered in group-centered and severely curtailed in leader-centered process. The differential effects of these two techniques on perception of an objective stimulus have been discussed previously (2).

Clinical insight as a function of group process.

“…It appears difficult to account for the difference in verbal communication of feeling obtained solely in terms of the major pro-cedural variable, the difference in amount of member-to-member verbal interaction. It has been shown previously (4), however, that a high degree of member-to-member verbal interaction in the small face-to-face group, such as was obtained in the group-centered unit of the present experiment, tends to result in a high level of interpersonal affect among group members. Affect as here used refers only to the liking or disliking of group members for one another, as measured on an npoint rating scale (4) with minus five for extreme dislike, zero for neutrality and plus five for extreme liking.…”

Research on college teaching: The historical background.

“…Whereas scores on objective final examinations seem to be little affected by teaching method, there are, in addition to the positive changes in adjustment reported by Asch (1951), Faw (1949), Moore and Popham (1959), Slomowitz (1955), and Zeleny (1940), other indications that student behavior outside the usual testing situation may be influenced. Bovard (1951a, 1951b) and McKeachie (1954) found that student-centered classes showed greater insight (as rated by clinical psychologists) into problems of the young women depicted in the film “The Feeling of Rejection.” As in the studies of class size and lecture versus discussion, we find that the favorable effects of student-centered teaching methods emerge in the more subtle, “higher level” outcomes rather than in factual knowledge. These results parallel those found by Giaconia and Hedges (1982) in their meta-analysis of research on open education.…”

Space, behavior, and environmental perception in open-plan offices: A prospective study

“…This stream is essentially based on the research work that suggests that higher interaction among persons produces better interpersonal attraction (e.g., Bovard, 1951;Gullahorn, 1952). Bovard, for example, shows higher positive effects in groups with higher member-to-member interactions.…”