Perception of work reinforcer systems: Factor structure

The factor structure of 109 Occupational Reinforcer Patterns approximating the distribution of the employed labor force of the United States was investigated. These work-reinforcer systems, as perceived by almost 6000 raters, were found to be represented best by a three-factor solution. The factors were identified as a Self Reinforcement factor, an Environmental/Organizational reinforcement factor, and a Reinforcement via-Altruism factor. The factors were found to correspond to, respectively, the Achievement-Autonomy, Safety-Comfort, and Al-truism need factors of the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire. For these two measures utilized in the assessment of individual-environment correspondence, commensurate measurement—as required by person-environment fit theories—is possible.     

A note on the dynamics of work adjustment

The process of work adjustment, as derived from the Theory of Work Adjustment, is presented in a systems-type model. The model integrates the original propositions of the theory with the more recent work on personality-style dimensions. The mechanisms of adjustment to work are discussed to emphasize the dynamic nature of the complete work-adjustment process. The constructs of Work Behavior and Organizational Behavior are introduced as intervening variables in the adjustment process. It is also shown that the forecasting of work adjustment requires the addition of the constructs of Abilities and Ability Requirements.     

Experimental validation of two MIQ scales

Two Minnesota Importance Questionnaire (MIQ) scales, Creativity and Independence were validated by experiment. Subjects were exposed to four task conditions representing joint combinations of high or low levels of Creativity and Independence. As a behavioral criterion of preference, subjects were then required to work for 12 sessions, each session under any (of the four) task condition of their choice. The behavioral results were consistent with the subjects' MIQ score levels on the two scales, thereby validating the scales.     

A multivariate investigation of the reinforcer structure of occupations

Earlier research based on 81 Occupational Reinforcer Patterns (ORPs) suggested a nine-category classification of occupations. The present research, based on 148 ORPs, investigated the ability of that classificatory system to assimilate new information. Cluster analysis of the 148 ORPs yielded an eight-category classification of occupations in which five of the original occupational clusters appeared virtually unchanged; the other four original clusters were combined into two occupational clusters. One new cluster was identified. Principal factors analysis was employed to study the factor structure of the occupational reinforcers and to highlight the essential nature of the classificatory system. Five reinforcer factors were identified.     

Nonverbal cues to sex-role attitudes

This study explored the relationship between self-reported attitudes toward “masculinity-femininity” and nonverbal behavior as judged by peers. Subjects (Ss) were preselected using an Mf questionnaire into: high-“feminine” males (N = 16) and females (N = 15) and low-feminine males (N = 16) and females (N = 15). The 62 Ss were videotaped in a 5-min standardized interview. Peer-age judges (Js) then viewed the videotapes without sound and asked to check which of the 170 adjectives describe Ss. Some Js were asked to rate average college male and female. A large number of adjectives discriminated the sexes (91 out of 170). Women were more often seen as warm, affable, oversocialized, emotional, and unstable. Men were seen as forceful, dominant, and detached. Sixty-two adjectives discriminated high- and low-feminine women. Feminine women were seen as warm, affable, oversocialized, and submissive, while low-feminine women were seen as dominant. High-feminine men were described as impulsive, dominant, and socially uneasy, while low-feminine men were seen as oversocialized and conventional.     

Supervisor estimation of abilities required in jobs

The Minnesota Job Requirements Questionnaire (MJRQ) was developed and administered to supervisors of 11 selected jobs who rated the ability requirements of the job they supervised. The MJRQ represented each of nine GATB aptitudes by five items in a Likert-type format. MJRQ ratings were compared with expert ratings in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and Occupational Ability Patterns (OAPs) derived from administration of the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB). Reliability of MJRQ ratings was shown by high Hoyt reliability coefficients. Comparison of mean ratings and variabilities of ratings by supervisors in a job showed construct validity for the MJRQ approach, as did intercorrelations of MJRQ ratings. OAPs derived from the MJRQ compared favorably with those derived from the GATB and DOT, showing promise for the parsimonious MJRQ approach to the development of OAPs.     

Summation of food and shock based responding

In a multiphase experiment, dogs first received discriminative, discretetrial, barrier-jumping training with two tones (S^D, S^Δ) in a shuttle box reinforced by either shock avoidance (Group I) or by food (Group II). Then the dogs were trained on free-operant barrier-jumping reinforced by the qualitatively opposite reinforcer—food in Group I and shock avoidance in Group II. Finally, test presentations of the tone stimuli were superimposed on the free-operant behavior. The tone S^Ds markedly facilitated responding in all animals. This experiment demonstrates a summation of responding maintained by shock avoidance and food reinforcement and casts doubt on explanations of conditioned suppression outcomes that appeal solely to incompatible motivational states within the organism.     

Actors,observers, and the attribution process: Toward a reconceptualization

Jones and Nisbett hypothesize that actors attribute their actions to situational requirements whereas observers attribute the same actions to personal dispositions. This hypothesis is critically examined and a reconceptualization is proposed. Our conceptual analysis focuses on the attributional consequences of differences between actors and observers in: (a) availability of information about the contemporary and historical determinants of the actor's behavior, and (b) susceptibility to possible motivational distortions and cognitive biases. The relationship between this formulation and Jones and Nisbett's analysis of differences between self-perception and interpersonal perception is discussed.     

Anticipation of reward omission as a cue for choice behavior

A within-subject partial reinforcement extinction effect was obtained in a conditional discriminative choice task. In choice acquisition, one group had learned a task in which one choice alternative was continuously reinforced (CRF) and the other alternative was partially reinforced (PRF). Most errors in the acquisition phase were the choosing of the CRF lever when the conditional stimulus signaled the PRF lever; in extinction this pattern of choice errors reversed. In extinction, most errors were choosing of the PRF lever when the conditional stimulus signaled the CRF lever. The predictions of frustration theory and sequential theory were compared with the choice data. The results were interpreted as consistent with the anticipatory frustration construct within an associative mediational theory.     

A thematic coding system for the intimacy motive

A new thematic (TAT) measure of intimacy motivation was developed and cross-validated in four separate arousal studies using three different college populations. A brief sketch of the derived thematic scoring system for intimacy motivation was presented. The goal state of the intimacy motive was defined as experiencing a warm, close, and communicative exchange with another person. In a college sample, subjects scoring high on the intimacy motive were rated by friends and acquaintances as significantly more “warm,” “natural,” “sincere,” “loving,” and “appreciative” and less “dominant,” “outspoken,” and “self-centered” than subjects scoring lower. The results were discussed in terms of the theories of Sullivan on the need for interpersonal intimacy, Maslow on growth motivation and “B-love,” Bakan on communion, and Buber on the I-Thou relation. Differences between the new coding system and the need for Affiliation (n Aff) system for scoring imaginative productions were also suggested.     

Congruency,consistency, and differentiation as predictors of job satisfaction within the nursing occupation

Holland's (Making vocational choices: A theory of careers, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973) congruency, consistency, and differentiation terms were used as independent variables to predict job satisfaction (JS) within the scope of a single occupation, rather than on the comparison between occupations. Based on the responses of 126 registered nurses on the specially designed List of Courses in Nursing (LCN) Inventory the congruence hypothesis was confirmed, while the consistency and differentiation hypotheses were only partially supported. The hypothesis on the additive relationship among congruence, consistency, and differentiation with JS was confirmed. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The moderating effect of need type on the prediction of overall job satisfaction

Recent investigations concerned with the analysis of work motivation and job satisfaction constructs have combined the logic of subgrouping with an emphasis on the importance of individual differences. The present study is based on a need-fulfillment model, which places a major emphasis on individual differences in needs. A hierarchical clustering method was used to subgroup a sample of 570 managers on their need profiles. Need type was tested as a moderator of the relationship between specific dimensions of job satisfaction and overall job satisfaction. The findings showed that need type moderated the relative contributions of specific dimensions of satisfaction in the prediction of overall job satisfaction, and in addition the prediction level was found to be greater for the need types than for the total sample.     

Environments as reinforcer systems in the study of job satisfaction

This paper examined differences in the degree to which fifteen specific sources of job satisfaction were related to and predictive of the overall satisfaction of department chairmen in the six model environments proposed by Holland (1973). The fifteen specific sources of job satisfaction were regressed on overall satisfaction, separately for chairmen in each environment, through the use of incremental stepwise multiple regression procedures. The results indicated that the overall satisfaction of chairmen in these six environments was differentially related to unique weightings and combinations of the fifteen predictor variables. It was concluded that environments, composed of essentially similar groups of people in different organizations, serve as job satisfaction reinforcer systems in a manner similar to organizations as illustrated by Dawis.     

Pavlovian conditioned stimulus effects upon instrumental choice behavior are reinforcer specific

In a transfer-of-control experiment with rats, Pavlovian CSs were tested for the specificity of their effects. The instrumental behavior consisted of a discriminative, conditional two-lever choice task in which qualitatively different appetitive reinforcers were contingent upon the two correct choices. In a Pavlovian phase, subjects experienced conditioning to establish either a CS⁺ or CS^? for one reinforcer or a CS⁺ or CS^? for the other reinforcer. Finally, in a test, these CSs were presented when there was the opportunity to make choice responses. The CS⁺s evoked choices of the lever which had eventuated in the reinforcer that had served as the Pavlovian US, while the CS^?s showed only a slight tendency to evoke the other choice responses. When the CSs were compounded with the original S^Ds, the CS⁺s had little effect upon the vigor of responding while the CS^?s reduced the vigor of responding to the S^D for the reinforcer that was the same as the US used in establishing the CS^?. The results are discussed in terms of associative mediational theory and the reinforcer specificity of Pavlovian conditioned excitation and inhibition.     

Dimensions of threshold work experience for high school graduates and dropouts: A factor analysis

Data on 19 threshold work experience variables were obtained by interview from 183 high school graduates and 90 dropouts $\text{1}\text{1}\text{2}$ years after leaving school. Factor analyses of these data showed strikingly similar factor structures for both groups. Seven variables were found to represent the factor dimensions adequately: Number of Jobs Held; Average Tenure in Weeks, Past Jobs; Average Number of Weeks to Find Jobs; Average Hours Worked Weekly; Average Weekly Pay, Past Jobs; Supervisor Rating, Present Level of Performance; and Employment Status. These variables, representing “objective success” were found to correlate only slightly with job satisfaction variables (Average Job Satisfaction, Past Jobs; Job Satisfaction, Present Job), thereby supporting the conceptualization of job satisfactoriness and job satisfaction as relatively independent sets of variables.     

An algorithm for clustering relational data with applications to social network analysis and comparison with multidimensional scaling

A method of hierarchical clustering for relational data is presented, which begins by forming a new square matrix of product-moment correlations between the columns (or rows) of the original data (represented as an n × m matrix). Iterative application of this simple procedure will in general converge to a matrix that may be permuted into the blocked form [_?1¹₁^?1]. This convergence property may be used as the basis of an algorithm (CONCOR) for hierarchical clustering. The CONCOR procedure is applied to several illustrative sets of social network data and is found to give results that are highly compatible with analyses and interpretations of the same data using the blockmodel approach of White (White, Boorman & Breiger, 1976). The results using CONCOR are then compared with results obtained using alternative methods of clustering and scaling (MDSCAL, INDSCAL, HICLUS, ADCLUS) on the same data sets.