BALANCE AND THE GROUPING SCHEMA

STUDIED THE COGNITION OF INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS IN LARGE SOCIAL STRUCTURES BY MEANS OF A LEARNING EXPERIMENT. 4 BASIC STRUCTURES WERE USED, AND EACH WAS COMPOSED EITHER OF SENTIMENT RELATIONS (FRIENDS-ENEMIES) OR OF UNIT-FORMING RELATIONS (ACQUAINTED-UNACQUAINTED). SS WERE 142 COLLEGE STUDENTS. IT WAS FOUND THAT SIMPLE GROUPINGS, WITH POSITIVE RELATIONS WITHIN GROUPS AND NEGATIVE RELATIONS BETWEEN GROUPS, ARE LEARNED RELATIVELY WELL. SS HAD DIFFICULTY WITH STRUCTURES IN WHICH THE SIMPLE GROUPING WAS VIOLATED BY INCOMPLETENESS (SOME RELATIONS NOT STATED) OR BY REVERSED RELATIONS (NEGATIVE RELATIONS WITHIN A GROUP, POSITIVE RELATIONS BETWEEN GROUPS). IT WAS ALSO FOUND THAT UNBALANCED STRUCTURES (A SIMPLE GROUPING INTO 3 GROUPS OR A GROUPING INTO 2 GROUPS VIOLATED BY REVERSED RELATIONS) ARE HARDER TO LEARN WHEN THEY ARE MADE UP OF SENTIMENT RELATIONS THAN WHEN THEY ARE MADE UP OF UNIT-FORMING RELATIONS, FOR WHICH BALANCE TENDENCIES OPERATE WEAKLY IF AT ALL. (19 REF.)