The risky-shift phenomenon was examined among 170 Catholic senior high school boys and girls for their cognitive and affective ratings about the concepts of “sex” and “faith and reason.” Girls' scores on the Cloze test dealing with the cognitive dimension of the concepts increased significantly while the boys' scores were less exact and more varied following small group discussion. Factor scores on the evaluative, potency, and activity dimensions of the semantic differential measuring the two concepts supported the hypothesis that the sex of the Catholic student and type of concept influence shifts toward a riskier or divergent attitude following small group discussion.
References
1.
BormuthJ.Comparable Cloze and multiple choice comprehension test scores. Journal of Reading, 1967, 2, 291–299.
2.
KingstonA. J.WhiteW. F.The relationship of reader's self concept and personality components to semantic meanings perceived in the protagonist of a reading selection. Reading Research Quarterly, 1967, 2, 107–116.
3.
KoganN.WallachM. A.Risky shift phenomenon in small decision-making groups: A test of the information exchange hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1967, 3, 75–84.
4.
OsgoodC. E.SuciG. J.TannenbaumP. H.The measurement of meaning. Urbana: Univer. of Illinois Press, 1957.
5.
RentzR. R.FearsE.WhiteW. F.Personality correlates of group structure: A canonical correlation analysis. Journal of Psychology, 1968, 70, 163–170.
6.
WallachM. A.KoganN.BemD. J.Diffusion of responsibility and level of risk taking in groups. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1964, 68, 263–274.
7.
WeaverW. W.WhiteW. F.KingstonA. J.Affective correlates of reading comprehension. Journal of Psychology, 1968, 68, 87–95.
8.
WhiteW. F.AndersonH. E.A study of scaled dimensions of teacher behavior as petceived by students. Journal of Psychology, 1967, 65, 223–232.
9.
WhiteW. F.ButlerJ. H.Classifying meaning in contemporary music. Journal of Psychology, 1968, 70, 261–266.
10.
WhiteW. F.KingstonA. J.WeaverW. W.Affective dimensions in connotative meaning in reading. Journal of Psychology, 1967, 67, 227–234.
