Motivational Foundations of Behavioral Confirmation

这项研究关注的是一个人对另一个人的先入为主的信念和期望影响他们之间社会互动的动态和结果的过程。先前的研究已经证明，一个人(在这样的研究中通常被称为“感知者”)，在最初对另一个人(被称为“目标”)采取了错误的信念后，将以导致目标的行为来确认感知者的初始信念的方式对这些信念采取行动。这种现象被称为“行为确认”过程。行为确认过程是社会科学家和行为科学家关注的问题，因为它们提供了一个机会，在持续的社会互动和人际关系的背景下，解开思维和动机过程的相互交织。本研究将探索行为确认现象的心理和动机基础。这项研究将以对行为确认序列中感知者和目标的活动可能起到的社会和心理功能的理论分析为指导。这一理论分析主要关注与获取社会知识相关的动机和与调节社会互动相关的动机。我们将使用专门为该研究项目设计的程序进行实证调查，以测试这一理论对明确社交活动中何时以及为什么会发生行为确认的影响。这些理论和实证调查的含义，不仅对于理解行为确认的本质，而且对于理解社会互动和人际关系本身的本质，都将被探索。首席调查员是这一专题工作的主要贡献者。他的范式已经被其他研究人员采用。

This research is concerned with the processes by which one individuals's preconceived beliefs and expectations about another person influence the dynamics and outcomes of social interaction between them. Previous research has demonstrated that an individual (typically referred to in such research as the "perceiver"), having adopted initially erroneous beliefs about another person (referred to as the "target"), will act on these beliefs in ways that cause the behavior of the target to confirm the perceiver's initial beliefs. Such phenomena are known as "behavioral confirmation" processes. Behavioral confirmation processes are of concern to social and behavioral scientists because they provide an opportunity to unravel the intertwining of processes of thought and motivation in the context of ongoing social interaction and interpersonal relationships. This research will explore the psychological and motivational foundations of behavioral confirmation phenomena. The research will be guided by a theoretical analysis of the social and psychological functions that may be served by the activities of perceivers and targets in behavioral confirmation sequences. This theoretical analysis focuses primarily on motivations associated with acquiring social knowledge and those associated with regulating social interactions. Empirical investigations, using procedures specifically designed for this program of research, will be conducted to test the implications of this theory for specifying when and why behavioral confirmation will or will not occur in social interaction. Implications of these theoretical and empirical inquiries, not only for understanding the nature of behavioral confirmation but also for understanding the very nature of social interaction and interpersonal relationships themselves, will be explored. The Principal Investigator is a major contributor to work on this topic. His paradigms have been adopted by other researchers.