| Abstrakt: |
The present study was designed to test the following hypothesis: When an individual is in a situation where successful adaptation is contingent on both accurate observation of another's competence and adjustment of his own behavior by effective utilization (imitation or opposition) of the modeled behavior, the more a person focuses on the model's ability, the better his adaptation. An imitation-learning experiment was designed to test this hypothesis. The effect of focusing on a model's ability was studied by having 79 males make a series of binary choices with prior knowledge of the model-choice for each item. Half the subjects had a competent model, the other half an incompetent model. Within each condition, half the subjects periodically evaluated the model's ability (interpersonal focusing), while the remaining subjects evaluated their own ability (self-focusing). The hypothesis was partially confirmed: model-focusing subjects did adapt better, but only when the model was incompetent, not when the model was competent. A secondary hypothesis was that interpersonal focusing Ss would choose more often than self-focusing Ss to receive additional modeling cues, regardless of the model's competence. This was not confirmed, although it was found that Ss with a competent model sought modeling cues more than those with an incompetent model. The meaning of these results has been discussed in terms of cognitive components of interpersonal influence processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
