The relationship between goals,performance, success,self-image,and involvement under different organization climates

This is an attempt to test the following causal chain of relationships: →support←goals→performance→success→self-image→involvement→future goals as hypothesized in Hall's (Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1971, 6, 50–76) model of the development of work involvement. It was further hypothesized that there would be more evidence for the existence of this “success cycle” in an organization with a climate of high support and feedback than in an organization with lower levels of support and feedback. Data were collected near the beginning and end of the school year in two primary schools and analyzed with correlations and path analysis. The hypotheses received moderate support. As expected, more evidence for the success cycle was found in the high-support school. In the high-support organization, the person's own goals correlated with success, while in the lower-support school, the person's self-image was the main correlate of success.     

REMEDIATION OF MUTUALLY AVERSIVE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN A PROBLEM STUDENT AND FOUR TEACHERS BY TRAINING THE STUDENT IN REINFORCEMENT TECHNIQUES

This study tested the effect of a social reinforcement training procedure for a problem student on the verbal and nonverbal approval and disapproval of four of the student's teachers. A design incorporating aspects of a multiple baseline within an extended reversal design (ABABA) was employed. Data were taken on the four teachers' approval and disapproval of a student regarded as a major discipline problem and the target student's approval and disapproval of the four teachers during baseline 1, experimental condition 1, baseline 2, experimental condition 2, and a postcheck or baseline 3 condition six weeks after experimental condition 2. Results showed that increased student approval and decreased disapproval were attributable to training procedures. The increased student approval increased three of the four teachers' approval and decreased the disapproval of all four teachers. Six weeks after experimental condition 2, both approval and disapproval by three of the four teachers and the student and disapproval by all four teachers and the student remained changed over baseline conditions. Student and teacher approval and disapproval were highly correlated at statistically significant levels.     

The duration and generalization of attraction

Tested in the present study were the propositions that attraction toward others is lasting and that liked and disliked individuals serve as a basis for liking others. On the first day, subjects received interpersonal evaluations (e.g., judging the intelligence of others) which supposedly had originated with an anonymous person. Following a delay of 1 to 3 days, the attraction of some of the subjects toward the anonymous person was assessed while the attraction of other subjects toward a second anonymous person, who presumably had also evaluated the subjects, was also assessed. These latter subjects were never exposed to the alleged evaluation by the second person. Attraction toward the first person tended to endure and to generalize to the second person.     

Sexual harassment: Organizational context and diffuse status

Data from a large survey of federal employees is utilized to compare three broad competing perspectives that suggest effects on sexual harassment within organizations. Three different viewpoints stress power differentials, minority status, and diffuse master status characteristics. Results of the study indicate that intraorganizational theories emphasizing either power inequalities or work group compositional heterogeneities are unable to account for the reported sexual harassment without considering diffuse master status characteristics developed and maintained outside the organization.Dair Gillespie at the University of Utah was instrumental in obtaining the data for this study and commenting on the original analysis. Theda Skocpol at the University of Chicago provided support at the Center for the Study of Industrial Societies during the completion of this research. Comments of Joe Conaty, William Wilson, John Comaroff, and many others were supportive and helpful. Finally, we wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.     

Human Impulsivity and Choice: A Challenge to Traditional Operant Methodology

“Impulsivity” refers to the choice of an immediate, small reinforcer over a delayed, large reinforcer. Traditional operant methods (single-subject designs, free-operant choice procedures) have frequently been used to study impulsivity in nonhuman subjects but, curiously, have not been applied to humans. Data are reported replicating and extending previous results obtained with an alternative paradigm using a group-statistical design and discrete-trials choice procedure. Adults chose between schedules differing in delay and/or amount of reinforcement, the reinforcer being slides of entertainment and sports personalities. Delay was defined as the interval between a choice response and onset of a slide, amount as the duration of viewing time. Some participants exhibited impulsivity even though such behavior reduced total viewing time. All participants exhibited impulsivity when this behavior increased total viewing time and was thus adaptive. Traditional operant methods may be ineffective in producing the maladaptive form of impulsivity.

     

Estimating the standard errors of rotated factor loadings by jackknifing

The jackknife by groups and modifications of the jackknife by groups are used to estimate standard errors of rotated factor loadings for selected populations in common factor model maximum likelihood factor analysis. Simulations are performed in whicht-statistics based upon these jackknife estimates of the standard errors are computed. The validity of thet-statistics and their associated confidence intervals is assessed. Methods are given through which the computational efficiency of the jackknife may be greatly enhanced in the factor analysis model.Computing assistance was obtained from the Health Sciences Computing Facility, UCLA, sponsored by NIH Special Research Resources Grant RR-3.The author wishes to thank his doctoral committee co-chairmen, Drs James W. Frane and Robert I. Jennrich, UCLA, for their contributions to this research.     

On the distinction between physical and psychological stressors

The distinction between physical and psychological stressors is reviewed, including some implications for anxiety research. The relationships among anxiety states, anxiety traits, and type of stressor are complex and can be influenced by such factors as the preciseness by which the stressor is identified, how it is measured, and the coping mechanisms available to deal with the stress. The choice of appropriate state and trait anxiety measures is crucial when assessing the differential impact of physical and psychological stressors.     

Physiological response and task performance in like- and cross-sex competition

The relationship between a subject's sex and his or her behavior in a competitive situation was examined. Male and female subjects completed three tasks, first by themselves and then against either a male or female competitor. A 2×2 design (sex of the subject × sex of the competitor) was thereby created. The dependent measures were the subject's performance and his or her heart rate during each task. Since the relationship between a subject's sex and competitive behavior was expected to be situationally specific, three different kinds of tasks were used: anagram, perceptual-motor, and arithmetical. Results were not consistent with predictions based on Horner's fear of success model (1968). Competition with either sex was found to increase performance level in both sexes on all three tasks. The only sex-related effect found to be consistent across tasks was that both male and female subjects had a greater increase in heart rate when competing against a male than when competing against a female. This heart rate increase was interpreted as an indicator of increased anxiety or arousal.This research was supported by a University of Pittsburgh, Faculty of Arts and Sciences research grant to the second author. The assistance of H. DeGood, L. Paul, and T. Rusiewicz in collection of the data presented here is gratefully acknowledged.