MOTIVATING STAFF PERFORMANCE IN AN OPERANT LEARNING PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN

Staff performance in a residential child-treatment facility was measured by counting the number of jobs completed and number of new procedures implemented within one week of their assignment. Public notices were posted listing each staff member's duties and new procedures to be implemented during the week. The notices produced an immediate increase in performance levels, which quickly tapered off. Staff members were then given tokens worth $1.00 each for performing jobs and implementing procedures within one week of assignment. The tokens regained and sustained high levels of performance when used in conjunction with the public notices. The use of public notices alone and tokens alone maintained better performance than baseline levels, but neither was as effective in starting and maintaining high-performance levels as was the combined use of the two.     

Sex-role socialization and employment realities: Implications for vocational interest measures

Methods for reporting vocational interests which do and do not reflect sex-role stereotypes are examined. Interest inventory validation procedures based on the prediction of occupational preference and group membership are shown to favor inventories providing scores that reflect past sex-role stereotypes and current employment inequities. Reporting and validation procedures minimizing these shortcomings are suggested. These procedures, which are supported by past practice and recent research, result in similar interest score distributions for men and women. Finally, career counseling problems arising from the confounding of reports of human interests with current employment realities are discussed.     

Behavioral Indicators of Interpersonal Attraction1

The laboratory study of attraction is based almost exclusively on verbal measures of the dependent variable. Various findings suggest that the physical distance separating two individuals indicates the degree of attraction between them. In two experiments, attitude similarity between a subject and two stooges was manipulated. Females were more attracted to and sat more closely beside a similar than a dissimilar stranger (p < .01); males were more attracted to and sat directly across from a similar rather than a dissimilar stranger (p < .02).