EFFORTFULNESS AND FLEXIBILITY OF DISPOSITIONAL JUDGMENT PROCESSES

Two experiments investigated how situational information is used to id entify behavior (assimilative identification) and to adjust dispositio nal inferences from the identified behavior (inferential adjustment). Participants heard an ambiguous or unambiguous evaluation of a job can didate by an evaluator who was under situational pressure to present e ither a positive or negative evaluation. In Experiment I participants were under low or high cognitive load. In Experiment 2 the situational information was either validated or invalidated. Results showed that cognitive load and invalidation eliminated the use of situational info rmation for inferential adjustment. Behavior ambiguity determined the use of situational information for assimilative identification. The re sults suggest that the use of situational information for assimilative identification is resource independent but inflexible, whereas infere ntial adjustment is flexible but resource dependent.