In order to prepare for the future, at least some people might spend time imagining how a target person's future behavior could impede the achievement of their goals. These
imaginings represent no truly new information about the target person, as they are self-generated. However, if people misattribute the increased cognitive accessibility of the target's
negative behavior to a meaningful source of information, the imaginings could still have the power to impact impressions of the target. Across 3 studies, I tested the hypothesis that
imagining a future scenario in which a target had the potential to behave badly would negatively impact participants' impressions of the target, an effect that would be moderated by the
imaginer's locus of control orientation and that might grow stronger after enough time elapsed for source confusion to take place. Specifically, I tested the prediction that
externally-oriented people would increase the negativity of their target judgments after such imaginings, but internally-oriented people would experience either no change or a positive
change in their target judgments. In Study 1, as predicted, imagining a hypothetical future scenario had a negative impact on target judgments that was moderated by locus of control. In
Study 2, as predicted, anticipating a real future interaction with a disagreeable confederate had a negative impact on confederate judgments that was moderated by locus of control, even
after the real situation was resolved favorably. In both studies, effects persisted one week later in a small follow-up sample but did not grow stronger. Study 3 included an additional
control condition to test the hypothesis that future imaginings would produce an impact above and beyond merely recruiting memories of somebody's real past bad behaviors. However, Study 3
failed to replicate the findings from Studies 1 and 2. Implications of these mixed results are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2015. / November 9, 2015. / imagination inflation, locus of control, social judgment / Includes bibliographical references. / Elizabeth A. Plant, Professor Directing Dissertation; Pamela L. Perrewe, University Representative; James K. McNulty, Committee Member; Colleen M.
Kelley, Committee Member; Walter R. Boot, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_291280 |
| Contributors | Ward, Erin Sparks (authoraut), Plant, Ashby (professor directing dissertation), Perrewé, Pamela L. (university representative), McNulty, James (committee member), Kelley, Colleen M. (committee member), Boot, Walter Richard (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Psychology (degree granting department) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (104 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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