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A quasi‐paranoid feature of Students' extreme attitudes against colonialism
Author(s) -
Alker Henry A.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 0005-7940
DOI - 10.1002/bs.3830160304
Subject(s) - psychology , social psychology , style (visual arts) , politics , political science , law , history , archaeology
Three alternative explanations concerning an apparent paranoid quality of extreme political attitudes were tested: (1) Such attitudes reflect exceptional, if embarrassing, perceptiveness by their proponents; (2) such attitudes reflect a cognitive style similar to that of paranoids without any attendant defensiveness, and (3) such attitudes represent paranoid defensiveness. Results on a selected total sample of 96 “left,” “middle” and “right” college students supported only hypothesis (3) and, furthermore, suggested that paranoid‐like functioning was most prevalent in those on the extreme “left.” Paranoid defensiveness was indicated through an interaction with manipulated suspicion‐arousal during assessment.