Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2000

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

Previous research has concluded that individuals high in perspective taking respond less aggressively to provocation than do those low in perspective taking. Whether the perspective-taking effect is automatic or not and many other process-related questions remain largely unanswered. One hundred sixteen female college students participated in a competitive reaction-time task, received escalatory negative feedback purportedly from another participant. In addition to being categorized as either high or low perspective takers, participants also received either high or low levels of situational information about the other and high or low levels of cognitive busyness. Participants high in perspective taking who were under high cognitive load responded significantly less aggressively than did participants low in perspective taking. Results suggest that perspective taking is an automatic process. The findings are discussed in terms of attribution theory, complexity-extremity theory, and in terms of an arousal-dominant response model.

Extent

52 p.

Comments

FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Adviser: David F. Bjorklund.|Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2000.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Identifier

FADT12657

Format

pdf

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