The effects of information and aspiration level on bargaining behavior

This paper examines a crucial problem facing a bargainer in interpersonal negotiation; should he seek additional information about an opponent's reward structure. The “information is weakness” hypothesis and the “reality of aspiration” hypothesis give conflicting recommendations concerning this question. An “information-aspiration” model is presented as an explanation of why the findings which give support to both positions are not necessarily contradictory. This model is tested in a 2 × 2 factorial design where 80 buyers bargained having either complete or incomplete information and low or high aspiration levels, against 80 sellers with incomplete information. In general the model was supported in that bargainers with low aspirations tended to gain strength with additional information, while those with high aspirations tended to lose strength with additional information.     

An empirical evaluation of a scale to measure occupational aspiration level

Data from 34,118 American high school students are used to evaluate the Occupational Aspiration Scale (OAS). The OAS is successively reevaluated for each of 16 subsamples (cells) generated by cross-classifying respondents by grade in school (9–12), sex, and socioeconomic status (SES). In each cell the OAS is found to be essentially unifactorial, and that factor is identified as level of occupational aspiration (LOA). The reliability of the OAS is slightly lower among females ($\text{r}$_kk = .681) than among males ($\text{r}$_kk = .756); it does not vary appreciably by grade or SES. The mean scores are lower for youth from low SES families than for those from high SES families, in accord with previous research. Mean OAS differences due to sex and grade are small. No important differences by age, sex, or SES are found in the standard deviations of the test scores. This and previously published data from small, local samples indicate that the reliability and validity of the OAS are sufficient for research on high school youth of both sexes and from both higher and lower SES levels.