UBC Theses and Dissertations

UBC Theses Logo

UBC Theses and Dissertations

Value consensus, self-evaluation and interpersonal attraction Archibald, W. Peter

Abstract

In a previous study (Deutsch and Solomon, 1959) it had been hypothesized that if another evaluated an actor in a manner consistent with or similar to that actor's evaluation of himself, the other -would be positively attractive'; if the other's, evaluation were inconsistent with or dissimilar to the actor's evaluation of himself, the other would be negatively attractive. It was found, however, that equally consistent and inconsistent others were not equally positively and negatively attractive. This study attempted to provide an explanation for these results. It was suggested that the principal source of attraction toward the other in the previous study was not in the other's evaluation of the actor per se, but rather in the perception of the other's desire or lack of desire for group success, the experimental situation having been such that actor and other were interdependent for the success of their team in competition with another team. A similar experiment was conducted where it was found that males who regarded group success as being important were positively attracted toward others who desired group success and negatively attracted toward others who did not desire group success, regardless of whether or not the evaluations these others made of the subjects' performances were consistent with the subjects' own evaluations of their performances. While females with positive evaluations of their own performances were positively or negatively attracted toward others who did or did not desire group success, respectively, females with negative evaluations of their own performances were positively attracted toward those others whose evaluations of them were positive or supportive and negatively attracted toward those others whose evaluations of them were negative or non-supportive. Consistent with other findings in the field is the interpretation that females place much more importance upon supportive than upon competitive aspects of situations, and that the supportive rather than the competitive aspects are the issues which determine the attractiveness of others.

Item Media

Item Citations and Data

Rights

For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.