Threat and Self Predictability with Predictability of others Controlled: An Addendum
Landfield (1955) found less anticipation of one's own actions in connection with a threatening than with a nonthreatening acquaintance, indirectly confirming the movement interpretation of threat (Landfield, 1954, 1955; Kelly, 1955). According to this interpretation, discomfort with and avoidance of another person are intimately tied to perception of one's personal change. Meeting someone, and being reminded at some level of awareness, of oneself in the recent past, produces discomfort, avoidance and possibly a desire to change the other's behavior. Such a person is a "reminder" of the overcome past and hence is perceived as threatening, i.e., threatening to elicit regressive behavior in oneself. In this study, a derivative hypothesis is tested, that a person will feel more predictable (i.e., there is less possibility of regression) in the presence of a nonthreatening person ( N T ) than in the presence of a threatening person ( T ) . METHOD Thirty-seven undergraduate students (10 female, 27 male) served as Ss. Instructions were essentially those used in the previous study (Landfield, 1955) except that the extent to which S feels acquaintances are predictable was controlled. Predictability was controlled at two levels. First, S was asked to name T and N T acquaintances, some who were predictable, some unpredictable. T and N T pairs were matched on general estimate of predictability, and also on the basis of Ss' rating of acquaintance pairs as equally predictable in specific behavioral areas. Briefly, Ss were first asked to name four T and four N T acquaintances, two of the four to be unpredictable to him and two, predictable. For example: "A person you have known or worked with who appeared to dislike you and who is very predictable." "A person you have known with whom you usually feel very relaxed and who is very unpredictable." (The former is an example of a predictable T, the latter an unpredictable NT.) Ss were then asked to rate these names in more specific areas of behavior.