The consequences of noncooperation for the target of third party instigated aggression

Consequences for a new target as a function of noncooperation was investigated in the instigative aggression paradigm. Subjects instigated partners to aggress against an opponent by suggesting what shock intensity to deliver. The partner was either cooperative (i.e., complied with the suggestion) or noncooperative (i.e., refused to set high shocks). Subsequently, subjects were given the opportunity to be directly aggressive by actually setting the shocks themselves. During this phase a new target who was nonprovocative was introduced. Subjects aggressed alone, in the presence of their partner, or in the presence of a new person. Results revealed that noncooperation reduced the level of instigative aggression and carried over to the second phase of the experiment. Subjects who had had cooperative partners were more aggressive toward the new target than were subjects who had had noncooperative partners. The presence or absence of the partner was not significant.     

Third party instigated aggression as a function of attack pattern and a nonaggressive response option

In the present study, subjects suggested what shock intensity a confederate should set for her opponent in a reaction time competition. Opponents displayed one of three attack patterns: increasing, decreasing, or minimal provocation. Also, for half the subjects a “no shock” option was available. A control group who had the nonaggressive option and for whom the opponent was nonaggressive (always chose “no shock”) was included. Results revealed that subjects' responses were governed by the norm of reciprocity; also the option reduced instigative aggression for subjects encountering increasing and decreasing provocation, while elevating aggressive response when the opponent was minimally provocative. Results are discussed in terms of attribution and locus of control.     

Sex differences in instigative aggression

The instigative aggression paradigm, in which male and female subjects instructed a female confederate which shock to set for an opponent in a competitive reaction time task, was employed. It was observed that males instigated more aggression than females and that both passive and assertive noncooperation effectively reduced instigative aggression, the assertive form of noncooperation being only slightly less effective. Questionnaire data suggested that females found the passive noncooperator most desirable while males found her least so. Results were discussed in terms of violation of task role and sex role expectations.     

Third party instigation of aggression as a function of noncooperation and veto power

The purpose of the present study was to test the validity of three hypotheses previously offered to explain the attenuating effects of pacifistic noncooperation on instigative aggression. During part one of the experiment all subjects served as instigators; in the second part they actually set shocks for the target. Subjects instigated either a cooperative or noncooperative confederate, and either did or did not have veto power over the confederate's shock selections. Results of the study indicated that all hypotheses, norm-conformity, compliance, and maintenance of power, were viable for subgroups of subjects. Results were discussed in terms of individual differences and the temporarily inhibiting effects of passive resistance.     

Encoding and incidental memory in children

First, third, and fifth graders (7.1, 8.8, 11.1 years old) performed semantic, acoustic, and orthographic orienting activities to different words in a list. Without forewarning, their free recall of the words was tested after the orienting activity. The semantic task yielded better recall than the acoustic or orthographic tasks, but the latter two did not differ. Age differences in recall were absent, and the effect of the three orienting tasks did not vary as a function of the child's age. The results support a direct extension of levels of processing theory (Craik, F. I. M., & Lockhart, R. S. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1972, 11, 671–684) to children's memory. An obligatory-optional encoding distinction was suggested as a developmentally relevant addition to the levels of processing framework.     

Click location in sentences: A test of the linguistic competence of seven-year-old fluent and disfluent males

Ten fluent and ten disfluent 7-yr-old males were presented simple and complex fully grammatical, anomalous and scrambled sentences. A click (35-msec 1-kHz tone burst) had been superimposed within three positions to the right or left of the major syntactic boundary in each sentence. The subjects heard the sentence, repeated the sentence, and marked on a preprinted version of the sentence where they heard the click. It was expected that children with greater language facility would more probably locate the click veridically. By the same reasoning, less complex syntactic structures should be expected to influence click placement less than more complex utterances. The following results were obtained: (a) the disfluent group gave a greater number of correct responses than the fluent group; (b) more correct responses were observed for simple sentences than for complex sentences for both groups; and (c) fewer correct responses were observed for both simple and complex grammatical sentences than for anomalous and scrambled sentence types.     

Effects of stimulus ear presentation on the voice reaction time of adult stutterers and nonstutterers

The initial and optimum voice reaction times (VRT) to auditory stimuli presented separately to the left and right ears of ten adult stutterers and ten nonstutterers was investigated. Subjects initiated the neutral vowel sound /Λ/ in response to one hundred 4000 Hz tones of 2.5 sec in duration. The silent intervals between the tones varied randomly. The stimulus cues were divided into five equal response sets of 20 tones each with 10 tones in each set being presented to the right ear and 10 tones to the left ear alternating back and forth. No significant differences were reported between the VRTs for cues presented to the left or right ears for either group. However, the stutterers exhibited voice reaction times which were significantly longer and more variable than those of the nonstutterers. The between- group differences were observed for what appeared to be the “optimum” level of voice initiation for the experimental task. These results lend to the speculative hypothesis that the observed difficulty for adult stutterers to promptly and consistently initiate vocalization may in part be attributable to inherent rather than learned factors.     

Voice reaction time of stuttering and nonstuttering children and adults

The voice reaction time (VRT) of 5-yr old, 9-yr old, and adult stutterers and nonstutterers was investigated. Subjects initiated the sound / Λ / in response to fifty-five 1000-Hz tones of 1 sec duration. The tones were presented in five equal sets of 11 tones each with the silent intervals between the tones randomly selected to be 3, 4, 5, or 6 sec. Data analysis was based on responses 2–11 for each set. The VRTs for both the stutterers and the nonstutterers decreased significantly as an inverse function of age, with the largest decrease in reaction time occuring between 5 and 9 yr. The VRTs for the stutterers, however, were significantly slower than those of the nonstutterers at each of the three age levels. The results suggest that observed disruption in the laryngeal behavior for at least some stutterers may not result from the development of stuttering with age, but may contribute to early difficulty in the child's ability to produce fluent speech. Consideration of central factors are discussed.     

A case study approach to delivering and evaluating services by a school psychologist

Two interrelated problems in delivering school psychological services by one school psychologist acted as a motivating force behind this study: the problem of how to plan and render services to a school system where the ratio of students to school psychologists is high, and the problem of how to determine the degree of effectiveness of these services. This study describes an approach which consisted of three distinct services rendered by a school psychologist. Evaluative measurements of the services were made in two areas: the effect of the services on the ongoing operations of the system, and the evaluation of the services by school personnel exposed to the services directly or indirectly. The relative merits and the limitations of such an approach are discussed.     

Reciprocity counseling: A rapid learning-based procedure for marital counseling

Existing marital counseling procedures have not been experimentally evaluated or generally have not been based on an experimentally derived theory. The present study formulated a model of marital discord based on reinforcement theory, developed a marital counseling procedure based on that theory and experimentally evaluated its effectiveness. The model viewed marital discord as the resultant of non-reciprocated reinforcement. The counseling procedures attempted to establish general marital reciprocity of reinforcement by teaching reciprocity in several specific areas of marital unhappiness. The reciprocity procedure was conducted for about 3–4 weeks with 12 couples, after first conducting a catharsis-type counseling as a control procedure. The results showed that the reciprocity procedure increased reported marital happiness, whereas the control procedure did not. Once reciprocity was achieved in a specific problem area, the benefits generalized somewhat to other yet-to-be counseled areas. The increase in marital happiness occurred for each of the specific areas of marital interaction, for 96 per cent of the clients, and was maintained and increased during the available follow-up period. These results indicate that the procedure is an effective, rapid and enduring method of producing marital happiness.     

The generality of overselectivity in developmentally disabled children

A growing body of research suggests that low Mental Age (MA) autistic and retarded children show a unique stimulus control deficit, one that may cause many or most of their behavioral deficiencies. This problem, stimulus overselectivity, is evidenced when a child responds only to a restricted portion of the stimulus environment when compared with normal children. The purpose of this study was to assess whether this overselectivity is general across situations or whether it is restricted to certain stimulus/task conditions. Eight autistic children, who evidenced overselectivity on a preassessment task, and 8 normal children with similar MA levels participated. All children were trained on 3 tasks to determine if overselectivity varied as a function of different stimulus conditions. Each of the 3 tasks involved training a child to respond to (i.e., touch) a card containing a circle (S +) and to avoid a blank (S ?) card. In each case, the circle comprised a series of dots. The difference between the 3 circles (tasks) was the distance between the successive dots making up each circle. Also, in the minimal separation condition the dots were smaller in size and greater in number than in the larger separation conditions. Of concern was whether autistic children learned about the gestalt (i.e., the circle), which required attention to multiple cues, or whether children would overselect and respond to the dots. The results showed that (1) stimulus overselectivity was found not to be a generalized deficit in autistic subjects; instead, it varied as a function of the stimulus variables; and (2) the stimulus variables manipulated in this study similarly influenced the responding of both normal and autistic children. The implications of these data for a theory of overselectivity are discussed.     

The effects of verbal and behavioral noncompliance on third party instigation of aggression

Females, assigned to one of four conditions defined in terms of a confederate's behavior, suggested which shock intensity the confederate ought to set for an opponent during a reaction time competition, should the opponent lose the trial (had slower reaction time). Confederates either verbally complied or disagreed with suggestions to set high shock, while either actually setting the intensity suggested or setting a lower intensity. Over trials, the opponent became increasingly provocative. Results revealed the main effects and interaction of confederate's verbal and actual behaviors, as well as provocativeness of the opponent, significantly influenced the level of shock subjects suggested. Subjects with verbally and behaviorally compliant confederates suggested more intense shock than subjects who encountered any noncompliance.