Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

Perceiver's use of thought suppression to maintain a consistent attitude toward another person ironically leads to nonlinear changes in their evaluations over time. In this study of interpersonal evaluation, 157 participants across three conditions (high-level mindset, low-level mindset, and control) observe the same person in seven counter-balanced videotaped social interactions depicting helpful, rude, and ambiguous behaviors. The high-level prime instructed participants to focus on the target's goals and intentions ; low-level participants focused on the target's specific concrete behaviors. High-level participants better resisted the influence of conflicting information by surpressing thoughts inconsistent with their initial evaluation of the target. From the dynamical systems perspective, such suppressed information over time becomes organized as an alternative attractor, nonconsciously influencing the perceiver's cognitive system, leading to change away from an initial attitude, as measured by the Mouse Paradigm procedure.

Extent

ix, 90 p. : ill. (some col.)

Comments

by Steven S. Parkin.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012.|Includes bibliography.|Mode of access: World Wide Web.|System requirements: Adobe Reader.|by Steven S. Parkin.

Identifier

FADT3355871

Format

pdf

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