ABSTRACT
Students of social behavior have become increasingly attuned to both the cognitive and social-situational forces that shape and constrain behavior in social interactions. The cognitive generalizations about people and about situations that an actor brings to a social interaction can shape that interaction (Jones, 1977; Rosenthal, 1974; Snyder & Swann, 1978; Snyder, Tanke, & Berscheid, 1977). Social norms for behavior in particular situations and social models in a situation can further constrain an actor's behavior in a social setting (Bandura, 1977b; Mischel, 1968, 1973; Rotter, 1954). Social behavior is determined in large part by an interaction between cognitive and dispositional characteristics of the person and social and situational characteristics of the environment (Magnusson & Endler, 1977a).
