Potential influence structures as sources of interpersonal conflict in groups and organizations

It is argued that conflict in organizations can be interpreted, in many cases, as conflict over who is to exert influence, and that this conflict, in turn, is caused by structural incongruencies in the distribution of potential influence in groups and organizations. Potential influence is described in terms of the structural relations defined by Structural Role Theory. At the psychological level, conflict is explained as a result of incompatible expectations among people about their relative influence, their desire to protect valued roles, and to maintain a sense of freedom. The implications of the present hypothesis for specifying the range of conflict situations, the type of conflict behavior, and conflict management are explored.     

Effects of long- and variable-duration signals for food on activity,instrumental responding,and eating

Incentive-motivation theories typically assume that the conditioning of appetitive motivation involves the same parameters as Pavlovian salivary conditioning. In contrast, the Soltysik-Konorski model asserts that drive is inhibited by stimuli closely associated with food (salivary CSs) and augmented by stimuli more loosely associated with food (long and variable CS-US interval). Experiment 1 examined this latter proposition. Sixty-four rats were given extensive exposure to each of four environmental CSs, two while hungry and two while satiated. Within each deprivation condition, food was given 30–300 sec after placement of the rats in one environment, and was not given in the other environment. Performance on three separate measures—activity, lever-pressing, and food consumption—was higher in the environments previously associated with food. Experiment 2 examined the effects of discrete stimuli presented in advance of eating; in accord with the results of Experiment 1, food consumption was greater after a stimulus (1- to 9-min duration) previously paired with food than after no stimulus or after a stimulus unpaired with food. The overall results indicate (a) that stimuli associated with food become capable of facilitating a variety of food-directed behaviors, possibly via the conditioning of a common appetitive system, and (b) that a close association between the stimuli and food is not essential for such conditing to occur.     

Social episodes and social structure in an academic setting: The social environment of an intact group

The social environment of an intact academic group, composed of faculty members, research students, and staff, was studied using a multidimensional scaling (MDS) procedure. The perceived group structure and the perception of social episodes were represented, and the relationship between these two aspects of the social environment was analyzed. Results indicated that (a) the perceived group structure could be adequately represented in three dimensions with group members differentiated along dimensions of sociability, creativity, and competence, (b) an individuals' perception of the group and his position within it were significantly related, (c) group members perceived the social episodes of the group in terms of attribute dimensions such as anxiety, involvement, evaluation, and socioemotional vs task orientation, and (d) an individual's formal status and perceived position within the group were significantly related to his perception of the group's episodes. The results are discussed in terms of the factors influencing episode perception, and the symbolic processes mediating between social position and perception. The utility of social episodes in describing a social environment is considered.     

Searching for a pre-specified target letter in briefly displayed words and unpronounceable non-words

Two experiments were designed in which subjects searched briefly displayed and masked arrays of letters for a single pre-specified target. The target was randomly located at one of twelve positions, its identity remained constant throughout, and it was embedded either in the context of words or in a context of unpronounceable strings of letters. In experiment 1 the letters were arranged in two six-item rows, and word and non-waord displays were mixed and presented to a single group of subjects. Accuracy of search was superior when the letters formed words, both for responses scored for correct position and for responses scored for correct row. In experiment 2 word and non-word displays were presented to different groups of subjects, and for both groups the twelve characters were either arranged as before in two rows or were positioned at loci representing the clock positions. Accuracy of search was again superior when the letters formed words and were arranged in rows, but there was no advantage for words when the letters formed a circle. These findings, firstly, indicated that the “word-superiority effect” obtained in experiment 1 was not a result of subjects adopting a word processing strategy for all stimuli, and secondly, they suggested that the word information could not be used to advantage in the absence of spatial cues delineating the words and/or when the letters were not positioned in the usual horizontal arrangement. It was concluded that the results of both studies were consistent with a perceptual account of the word superiority effect.     

Blocking acquisition of the rabbit's nictitating membrane response to serial conditioned stimuli

Three experiments demonstrated that prior training with one stimulus (CS1) would block acquisition of the rabbit's nictitating membrane response (NMR) to another stimulus (CS2) which was more contiguous to the US during serial compound training (CS1-CS2-US). Specifically, the CS1-US interval was 800 msec, which produces only a modest rate of CR acquisition, while the CS2-US interval was 400 msec, which is an optimal value for the NMR preparation. Experiment 1 demonstrated blocking when CS1 overlapped CS2, and Experiment 3 demonstrated blocking when CS1 and CS2 were presented in a strictly sequential fashion. Experiment 2 showed that the magnitude of blocking in the serial compound was comparable to that obtained in a simultaneous compound in which both the CS1-US and CS2-US intervals were 800 msec, thus making CS2 less contiguous with the US than in the serial compound. Moreover, the level of responding to CS2 in all serial compound groups (blocking and control) was lower than in the simultaneous compound groups. The present findings provide further evidence that the associative consequences of CS-US contiguity can be highly attenuated by processes of attention or competition for associative strength.     

Fluid and crystallized intelligence and primacy/recency components of short-term memory

Primacy and recency recall measures, obtained from both free and probed-recall tasks, were included in a battery of tests which also contained markers for fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, and cognitive speed factors. Our results confirmed previous findings that for subjects within the normal range of abilities, recency recall from probed-recall tasks is more closely linked to intelligence than is primacy recall. A new finding was also obtained: that primacy recall is correlated more with measures of cognitive speed than is recency recall. These results are discussed in terms of the concept of working memory and its relation to intelligence.     

The role of CS-US contiguity in classical conditioning of the rabbit's nictitating membrane response to serial stimuli

The rabbit's nictitating membrane response was classically conditioned to a serial tone-light compound (CS1-CS2), in which the CS1-CS2 and CS2-US intervals were each manipulated over the values of 200, 400, 800, and 1600 msec in a between-groups, factorial design. In addition, at each level of the CS2-US interval, there was a control group that received CS2 and the US. Within the serial compound, the CS2 was found to be highly efficacious in that the CS2-US interval determined the rate of CR acquisition to the compound as a whole and to CS2 in particular. Moreover, CR probability during CS2 largely overlapped the performance of the corresponding single-stimulus controls. Outside the context of the compound, CR frequency on CS2 test trials fell below control levels at the 200- and 400-msec CS2-US intervals. The results can be interpreted as indicating that a generalization decrement or information loss occurred in transferring from compound training to CS2 testing. In addition, the theories of Rescorla and Wagner (In A. Black & W. F. Prokasy, Eds., Classical conditioning II, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1972) and Mackintosh (Psychological Review, 1975, 82, 276–298) may be extended to account for the present results.     

Reinforcement contrast effects on the rewarding and aversive components of intracranial stimulation

Rats performing a free-operant locomotor response in a shuttlebox to initiate and then escape medial diencephalic stimulation were tested daily on a randomized sequence of three stimulation intensities. In spite of a 1-hr interval between stimulation intensity changes, substantial and graded reinforcement contrast effects were obtained. “Elation” effects were obtained both on the rewarding (latency to initiate) and the aversive (latency to escape) components of stimulation whereas “depression” effects were found only on the measure of reward.     

Correspondence and mediational properties of the Fishbein model: An application to adolescent alcohol use

The generalizability of the Fishbein model for behavior prediction was extended to a new field behavior, alcohol drinking by adolescents. The model's two components (i.e., attitudes and normative beliefs) varied in their predictive importance depending on the behavior's situational context. Following this field demonstration, two issues related to properties affecting the model's predictive effectiveness were investigated. First, it was found that the predictability of alcohol-drinking intentions (BI) declined when attitudes (A_act) and normative beliefs (NB) did not correspond with BI in terms of alcohol type (beer, liquor, or wine) and drinking situation (home, party, or pub). A second experiment tested the hypothesis that exogenous variables (those other than A_act and NB) would have a direct influence on BI. A comprehensive test was provided within the context of Jessor's multivariate predictive system for adolescent alcohol use. Present data indicate only a marginal increase in explained variance occurred when applying this system, thereby generally indicating the sufficiency of the Fishbein model's two components.     

Values,preferences, needs,work ethics,and orientations to work: Toward a conceptual and empirical integration

There have been comparatively few attempts on either the conceptual or empirical level to integrate values, preferences, needs, work ethics, and orientations to work. A rationale outlining the way these concepts can be related to each other, is presented. It is maintained that these concepts are categories of relations between humans and work. These categories are qualitatively similar and differ principally in the level of generality of the characteristics of work considered. Complete-link cluster analysis is suggested as a method of analysis compatible with the proffered rationale. Two studies are presented with data gathered during the development of two versions of Work Aspect Preference Scale (WAPS). The samples for the two studies both comprised senior high school students, controlled for sex and age, who were administered the WAPS. Study 1 had a sample of 532 while Study 2 had a sample size of 482. Both sets of data were cluster analyzed. Results indicated a very substantial amount of agreement between the two samples, particularly at the more general levels of clustering. The bipartite and tripartite groupings of vocational needs suggested by L. H. Lofquist and R. V. Dawis (Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1978, 12, 12–19) were confirmed as were the findings of J. Mortimer (Sociology of Work and Occupations, 1975, 2, 29–53). Other clusters were also identified with findings from previous research. It is concluded that the investigation of preferences at different levels of generality and the interrelation between these levels shows great promise for both the researcher and the counselor and therefore merits more research effort.     

Identifying the relevant aspects of a problem text

Forty-nine subjects judged the relevancy of sentence parts of a word problem (the Allsports problem). Patterns of subjects' judgments suggest three problem-solving heuristics: a SETS heuristic, a TIME heuristic, and a QUESTION heuristic. Presentation of the question before the problem tends to suppress SETS and TIME heuristics. A computer program (ATTEND) is presented to simulate subjects' behavior on the Allsports problem. The program is context-sensitive in that it can change a relevance judgment upon the acquisition of further information. Averaged subject judgments and ATTEND judgments agree for 87% of the items.     

An analysis of behavior in the hobbits-orcs problem

Young adults solved a problem in which hobbits and orcs had to be transported across a river. In Expt I, a Part-Whole group of subjects solved the problem starting at a different state in the middle and then were given the entire problem. Comparison with a Control group indicated that the initial practice of the Part-Whole group did not facilitate their later performance on the same problem segment, but did facilitate performance in a different portion of the problem. In Expt II, some subjects were given feedback halfway through the problem that they were on the right track. Results gave some support to the notion that a possible difficulty in the problem is the subject's belief that he must have entered a blind alley in the search space. However, other difficulties were also involved. Inferences from several different dependent performance variables, the transfer results, and subjects' comments consistently suggested that subjects solving this problem needed to undergo a number of cognitive changes (3–4) that was smaller than the minimum number of external moves required to solve the problem (11).     

The use of expectancy theory in the explanation of turnover in ROTC

A questionnaire was administered to 142 mate students who were enrolled in ROTC and 18 male students who had dropped out of ROTC. Several months later seven of the above 142 subjects dropped out of ROTC. A ratio expectancy theory model was developed from the questionnaire as an operational definition of motivation to remain in ROTC. The results indicated that the 25 dropouts had a significantly lower (p < .001) score on this motivational measure than the 135 subjects who were still enrolled in ROTC, and also that these latter subjects were as strongly attracted to a civilian job as they were to an Army job. The implications of these findings relative to the ability of the Army to attract career officers were discussed.     

The relationship between father absence and children's social problem solving competencies

Predictions of deficits in children's social problem-solving competencies due to early and continuing father absence were investigated. To test these predictions, equal numbers of father-present and father-absent third graders matched on a number of variables were assessed on measures of social problem-solving performance. In Phase 2 of the study, half of the children from the father-absent category received a 15 week intervention programme which was conducted by adult male trainers to provide structured practice in social problem solving. Results demonstrated that father-absent treatment subjects, compared to father-absent control subjects, improved their social problem-solving skills significantly. Despite improvement due to intervention, social problem-solving scores for father-absent treatment subjects were still below those for father-present control subjects. Educational and developmental implications of the findings were discussed.