The integration of discrepant behavioral statements and the judgements of dispositions.

This study examined the integration of inconsistent behavioral descriptions. Three hundred and forty-one college students were asked to read the discrepant behavioral statements and to answer the questionnaires. In the integration condition, subjects were also asked to write freely the accounts which were supposed to exist between the discrepant statements. It was shown that when the sequence of the statements was extrovert-introvert, the subjects who succeeded in the integration explained that some negative events had happened to the stimulus person and changed his behavior. But when the sequence was introvert-extrovert, more than half the subjects who succeeded in the integration explained the discrepancy in more complicated ways, that is, negative events caused introvert behavior and then positive events caused extrovert bihavior. When the sequence was extrovert-introvert, the discrepancy was high, and subjects succeeded in the integration, the disposition of the stimulus person was judged to be extrovert. These results were explained in terms of schema and social norms for sociable behaviors