Abstract

The present study was desinged to investigate the effects of the attentional focuses directed toward either the public or the private aspects of the self upon the choice of the reward allocation principles in dyads, and the effects of the situational norms (equity or equality), invdividual's task performance, and his/her choice of distribution principles (equity or equality) upon the bystander's cognition and evalution of perceived justice of the chosen distribution principles, self-interest of the contributor, and his/her assumed self-presentation toward the coworker and the supervisor(bystander)in a reward distribution situation. Exp. I and Exp. II were conducted under which the attentional focus of each subject was direted either(1) toward the private aspects of the self or(2) the public aspects of the self. In both of the two experiments 24 subjects were allocated in one of the four conditions where he/she is either a high or low performer and is performing either in the (1) equity norm situation or (2) in the equality norm situation. They were asked to choose one of the two allocation principles (equity or equality) for the dyad's reward distribution. The subjects of Exp. III were 176 female college students. After reading the description of one of the four reward distribution conditions, in which the situational norms and the performance of the contributors were controlled, the subjects were asked to answer the questions. The major results were as follows, In Exp. I subjects, whose attentional focus was directed toward the private aspects of the self, chose distribution principles according to the situational norm of the respective conditions. In Exp. II subjects, whose attentional focus was directed toward the public aspects of the self, chose the distribution principles according to the non-self serving, self presentational strategy despite the respective situational norm. The results of Exp. III showed that: the choices of the distribution principles which accord with the situational norms were evaluated as fairer than the unaccorded choices. The result also showed that the high performer's choice of equality principle and low performer's choice of equity principle were evaluated as fairer, less selfish, and higher in assumed self-presentation toward others than the other alternatives. The results were discussed in terms of the relationships among the factors manipulated in the present study.