Jerome E. Singer’s research while affiliated with Pennsylvania State University and other places

Data from five previously published noise experiments were reanalyzed to test implications of Seligman’s safety-signal hypothesis. Spontaneous fluctuation (SF) of skin resistance, an index of emotional arousal, was measured during intervals between high-intensity noise trials. Two types of conditions were compared: Those where noise bursts occurred on an aperiodic schedule and those where they occurred periodically. The aperiodic group showed significantly more SFs than the periodic group, indicating that arousal was greater during exposure to an unpredictable stressor. However, there was no relationship between the magnitude of postnoise performance deficits and number of SFs, even though the deficits were uniformly greater following aperiodic noise than periodic noise. The discrepancy between the two sets of data was explained in terms of a cognitive process involving perception of lack of environmental control and decreased task motivation.

Two experiments varied importance, confirmation, and solution to test whether or not disconfirmation of expectancies is unpleasant. In Experiment 1, two pleasant solutions were tasted. For one solution, disconfirmation was unpleasant in the importance condition, pleasant in the unimportance condition. In Experiment 2, two unpleasant solutions were tasted; no significant differences were demonstrated. Interpretations are given for sensory, dissonance, and need for variety factors. Reasons for solution differences are discussed.

This paper presents an overview of the literature on stress and the environment using a basic attitude change paradigm. The stress literature is organized around characteristics of source, transmission, and audience variables. Prominent models of stress are reviewed, along with classifications of stressors themselves. The appraisal of stressors is considered as a transmission variable, affected by such factors as attitudes towards the stressor, perception of risk and danger, and perceived control. Research on dispositional variables is also reviewed and the stress response is discussed.

A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate behavioral consequences of exposure to high-intensity predictable and unpredictable noise, under conditions where subjects believed or did not believe they had control over noise termination. Subjects were a group of men and women, averaging 50 years of age, who had lived in an urban environment for most of their lives. Results showed that the work of adapting to uncontrollable, in contrast to controllable noise, produced greater performance impairments following termination of the noise. Predictable noise had minimal effects on postadaptive performance, even though subjects could not control its offset. Comparisons of these data with previous findings reported by the authors indicated that people living in urban settings for long periods of time show essentially the same negative consequences of noise adaptation as those living in cities for shorter durations.

Aggression, but not dominance, is typically used as a criterion for the assessment of Type A behavior. This study proposed and demonstrated that nonaggressive dominance, defined as interpersonal resistance or persistence in efforts to control a competitive situation, is associated with Type A behavior for both males and females. Forty males and 35 females typed with the Jenkins Activity Survey participated in a revised version of the classic Deutsch and Krauss (1960) competition paradigm. Both A males and females were more dominant than their respective Type B counterparts. Type A males were not different from Type A females in persistence, nor were Type B males different from Type B females. Female Type A's were more resistant to their competitor's efforts at controlling the situation than were their Type B counterparts. Male Type A's did not differ from their Type B counterparts in resistance. The implications of these results in further elucidating the mechanisms underlying the relationship between Type A and pathophysiologic health hazards are discussed.

The effects of morning, rush hour commuting were examined in a quasi-experimental field study involving government-employed commuters (single and carpool drivers). Commuting stress was measured as a response to variations in how difficult it was for commuters to move from home to work. The mediation of these effects by two sources of control in the commuting situation also were assessed. Control was operationalized as control over the internal environment of the car (single versus carpool driver) and choice over routes taken to get to work. Among commuters with a high impedance route, driving to work was associated with significant increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and decreases in behavioral performance. The stress of commuting under high impedance conditions was reduced for single drivers relative to carpoolers. Under similar conditions of high impedance, however, having the option to select more than one route to get to work seemed to be more stressful than having only one route. The practical implications of these results are discussed.

Previous research indicates that individuals employ various cognitive heuristics and decision modes in making decisions and judgmental tasks that do not follow an expected value model. It further indicates that several cognitive faculties are affected by stress. The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to examine whether individual differences exist in the use of cognitive heuristics and risk-assessment decision modes; second, to examine whether stress would affect the use of these cognitive strategies. Three versions of a questionnaire measuring the representativeness and availability heuristics, and risk-seeking and risk-aversion decision modes were administered to three different groups of subjects. Consistent individual differences were only observed in the subscales measuring risk-seeking and risk-aversion modes, but not in the use of the heuristics. In a different group of subjects, exposure to noise and task overload stress increased the use of the representativeness heuristic, but did not alter the use of risk-seeking and risk-aversion decision modes. These results indicate that the existence of individual differences in cognitive strategies may determine, in part, whether stress will modify judgmental processes.