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According to the theory of decision developed by Cartwright and Festinger (1, 2, 3), the presentation of two stimuli for a comparative judgment arouses within S tendencies to make each of the responses that are permitted. In a two-category situation, these might be, e.g., the tendencies to say "greater" and to say "less." The strength of these opposed tendencies and that of their algebraic sum, the resultant tendency, is supposed to vary randomly in a normal distribution with the passage of time. Opposed to this resultant is a certain restraint against making a decision. When in its fluctuation the strength of the resultant happens to be greater than the strength of the restraint, a decision takes place. The mean of the distribution of resultants depends upon the size and direction of the stimulus difference, but the determiners of the variability of this distribution have not been discussed by Cartwright and Festinger.

Progress on the development of a profile measuring one's approach to reality is described and research applications are noted.

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