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The top of the analysis form has an experiencer pop-up menu for selecting the person whose experiences are to be analyzed. Below that is a panel listing events for that person.
You cause an event to occur by clicking on it in the events panel. You have to click earlier events in sequence before clicking later events.
Clicking the first event causes the following changes.
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Panels show emotions that the experiencer expects of interactants during the event. Faces show graphic renditions of the emotions. |
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Panels show actions that the experiencer thinks are appropriate for the interactants. |
Entries that are closer to theoretical predictions are listed first in each panel, and those further from theoretical predictions are listed last. Scroll the lists to see entries that appear lower in them.
After the results of the first event have been displayed, you can click on the second event to see what effects it generates. Results of subsequent events depend on who is actor and who is object, on the behavior performed, and on impressions of people that were created in prior events.
You can click an event that already has occurred, and the results will be displayed again, the same as the first time.
The panel labeled Actor Emotions shows emotions that the experiencer expects the actor to feel during the current event, with the most likely emotions listed first. The panel labeled Object Person Emotions shows emotions that the experiencer expects the object person to feel during the event.
Interact converts its predictions of theoretically ideal emotions into facial expressions. The face that appears upper left represents the actor. The face that appears lower right represents the object person. Clicking on an emotion in one of the word lists causes the corresponding face to be redrawn so as to represent the selected emotion rather than the ideal emotion.
Expert Issue: Facial expressions are derived from emotion EPAs by the following principles:
open eyes with positive A; arch up brow with positive E; raise brow with negative P, lower brow with positive P; move mouth higher with positive P, and move upper lip higher with positive P; drop lower lip and narrow mouth with positive A; curve lips up with positive E, down with negative E.
The behaviors in the Actor's Optimal Act panel are actor behaviors that best confirm the experiencer's definition of the situation, given prior events, including the current event. Click on one of the behaviors in the list to create a next event in which the actor performs the selected behavior on the current object. The new event is added in the events panel after the current event.
The behaviors in the Object Person's Optimal Response are object-person behaviors that would best confirm the experiencer's definition of the situation, given prior events including the current event. Click on a behavior in the list to create a new event in which the current object person performs the action on the current actor. The new event is added in the events panel after the current event.
The effects of clicking on an event differ if the event does not include a behavior - for example:
Person 1[_,man],_,Person 2[_,woman]
The Actor's Optimal Behavior panel will fill with a list of behaviors. The behaviors define how the experiencer expects that actor to behave in encounters with that object person, behaviors thaat are most likely listed first.
Click on one of the listed behaviors, and it will be substituted for the empty behavior in the original event.
In advanced mode Interact reports additional information about emotions and behaviors, and also possible effects of each occurring event on attributions and labelings.
In advanced mode, Interact's computed EPA profiles are presented in boxes below the lists of words. The profile beneath a list is the ideal theoretical profile that was used to retrieve the words in the list. A number appears in front of each word showing the distance between that word's EPA profile and Interact's ideal profile.
Only words closer than 1.0 are listed (though you can change the cut-off on the Find concepts form). If no words are within a distance of 1.0, "No words in range" is printed, preceded by the missing-data number, 99.99.
Entering an EPA profile in the number box below an emotion list causes the corresponding face to be recomposed into the emotion implied by the EPA profile that you entered. Entering numbers in the other number boxes has no effect.
In advanced mode, a pop-up menu appears above the box showing the actor's optimal acts. The initial selection is "Next", meaning that the box displays the actor's optimal behaviors toward the object person after all prior events, including the current event. Selecting one of the behaviors creates a new event after the current event, with the same actor performing the selected behavior on the same object person.
The other choice in the pop-up menu is "Now." Selecting "Now" displays the actor's optimal behaviors toward the object person after all prior events, NOT including the current event. Clicking on one of the behaviors in the list substitutes that behavior in the current event.
Boxes presenting EPA profiles for optimal acts also present another number, in brackets. This measures the extent to which the interactant's situational identity is stressed. The interactant with the highest identity stress is likely to be the next actor, in order to create an event to reduce the stress.
The adjectives in the Actor Attributes panel are traits and conditions that help explain the actor's current behavior, given the experiencer's definition of the situation. Click on one of the characteristics in the list to add that characteristic to the actor's identity. (The new characteristic is substituted for the existing modifier, if a characteristic already is specified.)
The characteristics in the Object Attributes panel are traits and conditions that would justify the current treatment of the object person, given the experiencer's definition of the situation. Click on one of the characteristics in the list to add that characteristic to the object person's identity. (The new characteristic is substituted for the existing modifier, if a characteristic already is specified.)
The roles in the Actor Labels panel are social identities that could account for the actor's current behavior, given the experiencer's definition of the behavior and the object person. Click on one of the identities in the list to substitute that identity for the actor's current identity.
The roles in the Object Labels panel are social identities that could account for the object person getting involved in happenings like the current event, given the experiencer's definition of the actor and the behavior. Click on one of the identities to substitute that identity for the object person's current identity.
"Deflection" is a measure of how much an event deflects impressions of people and actions away from their fundamental meanings. The greater the deflection, the more unlikely the event seems. The deflection produced by the current event is printed above a chart at the bottom of the form.
The chart graphs the current deflection along with deflections for prior implemented events. The graph is color-coded to indicate likelihood. If an event's deflection is in the green-tinted area, the event seems familiar. Events in the yellow-tinted area are remarkable. Events in the orange-tinted area are extraordinary. Events in the red-tinted area are incredible.
Each Interact repository of concepts - Identities, Behaviors, Modifiers, and Settings - has qualitative codes attached to every entry. These qualitative codes are used to gate the concepts that are retrieved and listed in Interact's output.
When operating in advanced mode, you can click the Concept gates button on the Analyze events screen to see concept gates that were used with the event that was just analyzed. A pop-up window appears above the Analyze events screen showing all possible concept gate categories, with the implemented gates marked in checkboxes. Any changes you make in the selections will take effect when the event is recomputed after you leave the concept gates window.
For modifiers, a single classification system consists of Emotion, Trait, Status, Feature. When the emotions gate is open, only words classified as Emotion are retrieved. The traits gate is used to retrieve possible attributions.
Two groups of qualitative codes apply to every identity, behavior, and setting. The first group splits the entries into two groups - Male and Female for identities, Overt and Surmised for behaviors, and Places and Times for settings. Interact uses the gender gates to obtain labels appropriate to an interactant's sex. The program selects only Overt behaviors as possible future actions, unless you change this on the Define events form. The places/times division is not implemented in Interact currently.
The second group of gates relates to the alignment of the identity, behavior, or setting with social institutions or "worlds" of activity: Lay, Business, Law, Politics, Academe, Medicine, Religion, Family, or Sexuality. An institutional code for behaviors is checked if the identities of both the actor and object persons are in that institution. Lay behaviors are selected if the actor and object identities do not share an institutional affiliation.
When new identities (i.e., labels) are being retriieved gates are used as follows. Male identities are selected if the interactant was defined as male on the Define interactats form. Female identities are reported if the interactant was defined as Female. An identity with a particular institutional code is selected if that institution is associated with both of the interactants' original identities.
Behaviors have a third group of gates. The Monadic classification indictes whether the behavior is appropriate for self-directed events in which actor and object are identical; the Asemblage classification indicates whether the behavior entails more than two people; and a behavior is Corporal if it entails bodily contact. All institutional codes are ignored in self-directed behavior, and just the Monadic gate is used to select behaviors. The assemblage and corporal gates are unused unless you choose them.