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WHEN THE HELP IS DENIED: A STUDY OF ATTRIBUTION‐LINKED AFFECTIVE REACTIONS
Author(s) -
Dalal Ajit K.,
Tripathi Manjula
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1080/00207598708246764
Subject(s) - attribution , sympathy , psychology , affect (linguistics) , social psychology , anger , context (archaeology) , locus of control , communication , paleontology , biology
Two experiments were conducted to examine attribution‐affect linkages in situations where help is denied. In experiment 1, two helping scenarios, in social and in academic context, were presented. The causal explanations given for not helping were manipulated to see their effect on affective reactions of the person who was denied help. These explanations covered all eight combinations of locus (internal‐external), controllability (controllable‐uncontrollable), and stability (stable‐unstable) dimensions. For each explanation, undergraduate students of Allahabad University ( N = 75) predicted affective reactions, assuming themselves to be the person denied help. Findings confirmed that attribution‐affect linkages were stable and systematic. Furthermore, controllability dimension accounted for most of the linkages. Experiment 2 ( N = 45) tested the reversibility of the attribution‐affect linkages. In that, affective reactions were manipulated and subjects inferred the communicated explanations for not helping. The linkages reversible and consistent across two contexts were: sympathy‐uncontrollable, anger‐controllable, dislike‐controllable/ stable. Other emotions had either context‐specific linkages, or were attribution‐independent.