Abstract:
The purposes of this research were to study the effects of freedom restriction and private self-consciousness on psychological reactance. Participants were 160 Chulalongkorn University undergraduate students, 80 high private self-consciousness students (HP), 40 males and 40 females, and 80 low private self-consciousness students (LP), 40 males and 40 females. The design was 2 private self-consciousness (HP vs. LP) x 5 reasons for freedom restriction [2 personal reasons: oppose (PR-NO) and support (PR-YS), 2 situational reasons: oppose (ST-NO) and support (ST-YS) and no freedom restriction or control (CT)], with 16 students in each cell. All students participated in the notebook ratings twice. After finishing the first rating session, all were told to return for a second rating session and would be allowed to choose one notebook as a compliment. Two days later, before the second rating session, each group received different reasons for freedom elimination, except the control group. They then responded on the scale measuring attitude toward the experimenter. The psychological reactance was measured by comparing the difference between the first and the second ratings of notebooks. The results are as follow: 1. Students in HP-PR condition have higher reactance than students in LP-PR condition. 2. Students reactance scores in HP-PR condition do not differ from students in LP-ST condition. 3. Students reactance scores in HP-ST condition do not differ from students in LP-PR and LP-ST condition. 4. Students reactance scores in HP-PR condition do not differ from students in HP-ST and HP-CT condition. 5. Students in LP-PR condition have higher reactance than students in LP-ST. 6. Students reactance scores in LP-PR condition do not differ from students in LP-CT. 7. Students reactance scores in HP-PR-NO condition do not differ from students in HP-PR-YS condition. 8. Students in LP-PR-NO condition have higher reactance than students in LP-PR-YS condition. 9. Students in HP-CT condition and LP-CT condition do not rate the second and the third ranked notebook differently between the first and the second ratings