Social motives among Anglo American and Mexican American children: Experimental and projective measures

The measurement approaches to social motives, cooperation-competition games and projective tests, have revealed apparently similar findings: Anglo American children are more competitive and higher in n Achievement compared to Mexican American children, who are more cooperative and higher in n Affiliation. The present experiment tested the extent to which (1) competitiveness is related to n Achievement, (2) cooperativeness is related to n Affiliation, and (3) the cultural differences in cooperation-competition are related to those in n Affiliation and n Achievement. Results indicate that social motives inferred from a cooperation-competition game have a meaningful relation to those inferred from a projective test, but that the cultural differences in cooperation-competition are larger and are not explained by cultural differences in n Affiliation and n Achievement. Social motives inferred from each measurement methodology, while somewhat related, are distinct.     

Social interest,extreme response style,and implications for adjustment

As part of a series of studies examining Adler's proposition that social interest, or interest and concern for others, is a major factor facilitating personal adjustment, the research investigated the relation between social interest and Extreme Response Style (ERS). ERS was chosen as an indirect measure of maladjustment since research has confirmed Adler's contention that it is especially prevalent among neurotic individuals. In three studies involving a total of 221 subjects, inverse relations were found between a measure of social interest and ERS scores derived from four questionnaires concerning attitudes toward self, others, and a wide variety of attitudinal issues. The data also indicated that the results were not due to either apathy or repression being associated with social interest. The results provided further evidence that positive relations between social interest and adjustment are not limited to self-reports of the latter.     

Group aversion by imaginal, vicarious and shared recipient-observer shocks

Sixty college students completed waiting control or alternative group aversion conditions, matched for severity and chronicity of nail-biting. Treatments spanned four sessions. Imaginai aversion (covert sensitization) clients visualized shocks to themselves. Vicarious aversion clients observed shocks to a trained model. A ‘hotseat’ format randomized a few actual shocks to each client with observing peers shocked on remaining trials. The predominant pattern of outcome and subjective impact results was as follows: Hotseat consistently best; vicarious typically second; imaginal usually third; controls worst. Clinical and conceptual issues are raised.     

Perception of causal relations in humans: Factors affecting judgments of response-outcome contingencies under free-operant procedures

In three experiments, college studients responded to and rated a range of positive, random, and negative response-outcome contingencies presented in free-operant formats. These experiments sought a paradigm that would yield sensitive and unbiased judgments of response-outcome relations and explored the role of time in the judgment of response-outcome covariation. In Experiment 1, the effects of making continuous and discrete responses on subjects' contingency judgments were compared. In Experiment 2, the effects of changing the temporal definition of discrete responses were examined as were the effects of the amount of exposure to contingency problems. In Experiment 3, the effects of temporal regularity in defining response occurrence and nonoccurrence were investigated. In all three experiments, subjects' judgments were strong linear functions of the programmed contingencies between telegraph key operation and the illumination of a brief light. This result shows free-operant scheduling of response-outcome contingencies to be a highly sensitive and unbiased method of investigating causal perception. Additionally, judgment accuracy was found to be higher for males than for females and to improve as the probability of the subject's making a recorded response rose from .00 toward .50. Finally, a correlational analysis of several possible judgment rules supported the conclusion that subjects rated response-outcome relations on the basis of the difference in the probability of an outcome given their having recently made or not made a response.     

Response-outcome contingency: Behavioral and judgmental effects of appetitive and aversive outcomes with college students

In two experiments, positive, negative, and zero response-outcome contingencies were responded to and rated by college students under a free-operant procedure. In Experiment 1, outcomes were either neutral or were associated with point gain. In Experiment 2, subjects were administered different outcome treatments: neutral outcomes, outcomes associated with money gain, or outcomes associated with money loss. In both experiments, subjects' judgments of response-outcome contingency and their operant responses were each strong linear functions of ΔP, the difference between the probability of an outcome given a response and the probability of an outcome given no response. Appetitive and aversive outcomes produced opposite and symmetrical response patterns. In Experiment 1, no differences in ratings occurred with neutral or appetitive outcomes; however, in Experiment 2, more potent appetitve outcomes led to somewhat more extreme ratings than either neutral or aversive outcomes. Increasing outcome probability produced only a slight bias in ratings of noncontingent problems in Experiment 1 and no bias in Experiment 2. Contrary to predictions derived from an analysis of superstitious behavior, increasing outcome probability in noncontingent problems decreased operant responding when outcomes were appetitive and increased operant responding when outcomes were aversive. Trend analyses revealed that Δ P was superior to several other metrics in predicting subjects' estimates of contingency and the behavioral effects of contingency. Operant responding was in closer accord with matching predictions than with maximizing predictions.     

The effects of a response cost treatment tactic on hyperactive children

In a pilot study, a multielement design was used to assess the effectiveness of a response cost procedure on a 7-year-old child's hyperactive behavior and academic performance across days. The procedure was effective in reducing off-task behavior and in increasing academic assignment completion. In Experiment 2, three strategies were compared to a no-treatment baseline in treating an 8-year-old hyperactive child: drug (Ritalin) alone, response cost alone, and drug plus response cost. The cost program alone and the cost program combined with medication were effective in reducing off-task behavior and in increasing academic performance. In both studies, the procedure was viewed by the teachers as practical and effective for use in a classroom setting. The subjects liked the cost system and believed that they completed more academic work when it was operative.     

Deviation from hierarchical structure in recall: Is there an “optimal” structure?

Past research has suggested that proportionally more superordinate than sub-ordinate propositions are recalled from expository texts, following a hierarchical analysis of the text structure. Since free recall has typically followed this hierarchical pattern, several researchers have assumed that the related memory structures are isomorphic to the text structure. However, few of these studies have examined how individual differences and text structure interact to affect free recall. In two experiments, the assumption of hierarchical patterns of children's recall of expository text was tested. In Experiment 1, high- and average-ability fourth graders (9 years old) were asked to read and recall a passage. Experiment 2 was a replication and extension of Experiment 1. In this experiment, fourth and sixth graders (9 and 11 years old) read and recalled a different passage. The combined results of both experiments support the notion that there is probably no one optimal hierarchical structure for storage and retrieval of expository text.     

Verbal rehearsal and selective attention in children with learning disabilities: A developmental lag

To investigate the development of verbal rehearsal strategies and selective attention in learning disabled children, Hagen's Central-Incidental task was administered to younger learning disabled (M CA = 8.68 years) and normal (M CA = 8.62 years) boys in Experiment 1 and to intermediate (M CA = 10.18 years) and older (M CA = 13.48 years) learning disabled boys in Experiment 2. Also, in Experiment 2, an experimentally induced verbal rehearsal condition was included to determine its effects on serial recall and selective attention performance. In Experiment 1, the serial postion curve of the normals revealed both a primacy and a recency effect, whereas that of the learning disabled revealed a recency effect only. In Experiment 2, both the intermediate and the older learning disabled exhibited both primacy and recency effects under both standard and rehearsal conditions. A developmental analysis of central recall for the three learning disabled groups revealed constant age-related increases in overall central recall and in primacy recall. That the normals recalled more central, but not more incidental, information than the learning disabled in Experiment 1 suggests that the learning disabled are deficient in selective attention. Correlational findings suggest that the selective attention of the learning disabled improves with age. The results were interpreted as support for the hypothesis of a developmental lag in the learning disabled population.     

Reversal learning as a function of changed reward location or changed drive

In two experiments, rats were trained with food in one location (e.g., black alley) and water in another location (white alley) under hunger or thirst. Subsequently, either the locations of the rewards were reversed, or the drive was changed (from hunger to thirst or thirst to hunger). Reversal of instrumental responses took considerably longer when drive was changed and rewards remained in the same locations than when reward locations were reversed. These results were interpreted as indicating that the animal's internal representations of the rewards received in each location transfer when drive is changed. These internal-reward representations interfere with reversal learning by eliciting the responses which were conditioned to them in Phase 1. Because the values of food and water reverse when drive is changed from hunger to thirst or vice versa, it was suggested that the reward representations surviving the drive shift are cognitive representations of the specific events received (food or water), independent of the value of the rewards under either hunger or thirst.     

Achievement and affiliation motivation in career-oriented and homemaking-oriented college women

The purpose of this research was to investigate the possibility of an interaction between need for achievement and need for affiliation in career-oriented and homemaking-oriented college women. In the first study, scores on the appropriate scales (Achievement and Affiliation) of the Adjective Check List were obtained for 250 female college students, who were also classified as career or homemaking oriented on the basis of their responses to a questionnaire concerning postcollege plans. No significant differences were found between the career- and homemaking-oriented groups on Achievement and Affiliation; but, as predicted, a significant interaction occurred between the two variables. A second study, involving 257 college women and employing the same procedures and analysis, replicated the results of the original study: no main effects, but a significant interaction between Achievement and Affiliation. Implications of the findings for female career development and the counseling of women are discussed.     

Reductions in anxiety and improvements in teaching associated with cue-controlled relaxation training

This study examined the efficacy of cue-controlled relaxation, taught in three 2-hour workshops, in reducing the anxiety of two elementary school teachers. Anxiety was measured using direct observation of external behavior and self-report of internal states; and the effects of anxiety reduction on selected teaching behaviors were also examined. Following training, both teachers exhibited significant reductions in motoric manifestations of anxiety and in some self-reported internal states. Both teachers showed significant increases in rewarding behavior, and they reduced disapproving behavior to zero on most days. Even though results were not maintained following the treatment program, this study demonstrated that training in the self-management of stress and tension can significantly affect the anxiety and teaching behaviors of teachers.     

Transfer of compounds and components in the discriminative learning of retardates

The discriminative learning and transfer of compound and component problems were assessed in retarded subjects at two levels of intelligence. It was found that brighter subjects (MA = 10 years) found the component problems relatively easier than the compound problems to a greater extent than did the less developed subjects (MA = 5 years). The learning of compound solutions was shown to transfer positively to other compound problems and negatively to component problems. Component solutions were found to transfer positively to other component solutions and negatively to compound solutions. These dimensional transfer effects were interpreted to mean that both compound and component solutions were mediated and conceptual in nature. The developmental differences in relative usages of compound and component aspects of stimuli were viewed as the result of differences in direction of attention rather than of differences in complexity of processing.     

The effect of verbal reinforcement on career choice realism

Twenty-four male undergraduates viewed 102 slides containing occupational titles and stated whether or not each represented a realistic career choice. Each subject was given three trials, with the experimental subjects receiving positive verbal reinforcement on the second trial for realistic responses. (If the choice was congruous with the individual's occupational type, as determined by the Vocational Preference Inventory, it was scored as realistic.) The results of the research revealed a tendency for all subjects to increase in career choice realism as a function of participation in the experiment, with significantly (p < .05) more experimental subjects than control subjects demonstrating an operant pattern of responses. Implications of the findings for counselors were discussed.