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Komazawa Report of Psychology, No.1, 1994
IF-THEN METHOD
- international version -
TAKASHI TERAOKA
Department of Psychology, Komazawa University
OUTLINE OF "lF-THEN METHOD"
The "IF-THEN method" which was initially proposed by Teraoka (1981) is, in short, a kind of Psycho-
logical test constructed to detect individual social motives regarding response tendencies evoked in
social interaction situations. This method was based upon the "model of social motive systems" and was
already standardized for administering analytical procedures (Teraoka, 1982). The original version was
revised later by Teraoka (1989). This method is fundamentally constructed on the basis of psychological
game theories.
The problem tasks given to a subject in this test consist of the 32 simple decision tasks presented
in a form of a series of "symmetrical two-person non-zero sum matrix games of the 2x2 type with 4
payoff levels" for each. As described later in detail, each matrix in the series is fundamentally
mutually different from any other, and, moreover, the concrete task for each matrix is represented
with a technical procedure called the "if-then form." The computer program written in FORTRAN for the
analysis of the responses obtained from real subjects has been already provided. The subject's res-
ponse tendency is essentially indicated with a set of the respective ratios for the nine "normative
social motive components concerning the social motivations which are usually described as "indivi-
dualism", "masochism", "altruism", "aggression", "cooperation", "sadomasochism", "competition", "martyr-
dom" and "equalitarianism" in psychological game research. Generally, the "IF-THEN method" has the
following characteristics.
1) This test, having a fairly different form than many standard Personality tests, is based on the
theory derived from psychological experimental game research.
2) In this test, a subject's response tendency is basically represented in the form of a set of nine
ratios corresponding to the respective normative social motive components which have logically
clear structures on the basis of the payoff matrices.
3) This test adopts a specific procedure, named the "if-then procedure", which realizes a certain
technical restriction in responding.
4) Each task consisting of problems given to a subject is structurally a simple decision task so
that the subject could respond easily.
5) The time needed for the performance of this test is quite short (basically, about 20 minutes,
except for the time needed to give the instructions).
6) In this test, the "consistency"(C) of responding (meaning the reliability concerning the repeti-
tion based on the "half-split method") could be measured.
7) Also the "uncertainty (U) concerning the distribution of social motive components in responding
to each problem task could be measured.
8) By changing only part of the instructions in the test performance a bit, the researcher could use
the "IF-THEN method" as one of the experimental methods used in social psychology.
9) The computer program in the new version can also calculate the respective averages of social
motive components for two groups (the upper and the lower groups) which are divided by the
indices of "consistency" assigned to each subject.
10) The property of a subject's data (or the group data) described the averages of the nine motive
components in a group gained under a situation could be represented as a vector located in a
logical space, which should be called a "social motive space" for the situation.
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The author would like to express his deep thanks to Prof.C.G. McClintock, Prof.D.M.Messick in the
University of California, Santa Barbara, Prof.D.M.Kuhlatan in the University of Delaware in the
United States, Prof.W.B.G.Liebrand in the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and Prof.
K. Chan in the Yengnam University in Korea, for giving their favors to the author in the perform-
ance of experiments. Moreover the author expresses his thanks to Dr. Taormina for showing his kind
valuable suggestions for writing this paper in English.
Komazawa University, Department of Psychology
1-23-1 Komazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 154, Japan
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