Expectancy and Birth Order as Determinants of Affective Responses to Isolation

Abstract

This study examined the roles of expectancy and birth order in producing affective responses to isolation. 40 male Ss were exposed to an 8-hr. isolation experience. Ss used an affect adjective check list to describe their affects on arrival, after being shown the isolation room and told the conditions (expectancy), and after emerging from isolation. Most Ss anticipated high levels of negative affects which were predictive of what they subsequently reported in describing their actual isolation experiences. Ss who spent a prior day in the laboratory reported less anxiety on the isolation day than they had anticipated. Firstborns anticipated more anxiety and depression than later-borns but did not differ from later-borns in their actual affective reactions to isolation.