THE EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL AND CONTEXTUAL ATTRIBUTES ON THE SIZES OF RECOMMENDED SALARY INCREASES

In a series of experiments, college students, line managers, and compensation managers allocated salary increases to hypothetical job holders who varied in the criticality of their positions for accomplishment of organizational goals, occupational marketability, job performance, personal need for money, and increase in capability since the last performance review. Results indicated that though performance had the largest impact, a number of nonperformance factors also influenced the recommendations. Salary recommendations were lower when constrained by a budget, and performance, growth in capabilities, marketability, and criticality were all significantly related to the magnitudes of suggested increases.     

Compliance with homework to employ self-instructions in controlling ice water pain: an analogue to counseling

40 women were taught to use self-statements to cope with pain caused by ice water. The trainer used four different strategies for reassigning a homework task of using self-statements to cope with pain produced by immersing one hand in ice water. The strategies were equally effective in eliciting compliance with the homework assignment.     

Psychotherapeutic possibilities in patients with definitive movement disorders

Since traumas leading to severe and permanent physical handicaps affect the whole personality, the psychological approach plays a major role in the rehabilitation of patients with locomotory handicaps owing to injury. The harmful effects become apparently more easily on account of the disturbed personality development of the cripple, and the consequent mental changes complicate his or her reintegration into society. Rehabilitation measures intended to restore, as far as possible, the physical functions can only yield satisfactory results if they prepare the whole personality of the cripple--as a combined psychological and somatic entity--for life of a different quality.     

The development of Lewis Henry Morgan's evolutionism

Lewis Henry Morgan never used the term evolution in any of his major sociological works. If he may be labeled an evolutionist, the specificity of his views must be taken into account. The main "evolutionist" issue that concerned him was that of the unity or diversity of the human species. This was an urgent political and theological issue in the America of his day, and it impinged also on research on the American Indians. Morgan's first major study was designed to demonstrate the unity of origin of the American aborigines and their "Asian" origins. His methods were derived from the tradition of Indo-European philology. It was virtually as an afterthought that he added a social evolutionary component to what he conceived of as an exercise in philology. Later he came under the direct influence of the English evolutionists, and this was crucial for the conception of Ancient Society.     

Temporal proximity and reinforcement sensitivity in multiple schedules

Distributions of reinforcers between two components of multiple variable-interval schedules were varied over a number of conditions. Sensitivity to reinforcement, measured by the exponent of the power function relating ratios of responses in the two components to ratios of reinforcers obtained in the components, did not differ between conditions with 15-s or 60-s component durations. The failure to demonstrate the “short-component effect,” where sensitivity is high for short components, was consistent with reanalysis of previous data. With 60-s components, sensitivity to reinforcement decreased systematically with time since component alternation, and was higher in the first 15-s subinterval of the 60-s component than for the component whose total duration was 15 s. Varying component duration and sampling behavior at different times since component transition may not be equivalent ways of examining the effects of average temporal distance between components.     

The effect of the divorce experience on spiritual growth

This essay presents the findings from a study of the effect of divorce on spiritual growth among Protestants. Looking at movement in the areas of love of God, self, and others, it shows that the divorce experience can have varying levels of impact which relate at least partially to the traumatic intensity of the experience itself.Excerpted from The Effect of Divorce on Spiritual Growth: A Study in Protestant Spirituality (unpublished thesis), (c) 1984 Jean M. Blomquist. All rights reserved.     

Induction of depressive affect after prolonged exposure to a mildly depressed individual

Scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were periodically obtained from the roommates of college students who exhibited a persistent mild depression over a 3-month period. For comparative purposes, BDI scores were also obtained from roommates of individuals who were transiently depressed and from subjects with nondepressed roommates. In comparison with control subjects, the roommates of persistently depressed persons displayed a progressive increase in BDI score over the course of the study.     

Interpersonal attraction,social identification and psychological group formation

Two perspectives on the nature of the social group and psychological group formation are discussed. The traditional social cohesion approach traces group formation to processes of interpersonal attraction, while the social identity approach defines the group in cognitive terms and considers identification, or self-categorization, to be the mechanism of psychological group formation. On the basis of an experiment by Turner, Sachdev and Hogg (1983) it is hypothesized that interpersonal attraction (positive or negative) is related to group formation only in so far as it enhances intergroup distinctiveness. This hypothesis is experimentally tested in a 2 × 3 (interpersonal liking/disliking per se versus no explicit categorization/random categorization/criterial categorization on the basis of affect) factorial design employing the ‘minimal group’ paradigm. People who like each other and were not explicitly categorized formed a group. This effect was enhanced by criterial categorization but disappeared when categorization was random. Although the results do not support the hypothesis, they are not explicable in social cohesion terms. A social identity explanation is furnished—attraction influences group formation by acting, under certain specifiable conditions, as a cognitive criterion for common category membership. This explanation is located in current theorizing and is proposed as part of a reconceptualization of the relationship between interpersonal attraction and group formation.     

Preference for decision structures in a social dilemma situation

Additional results from Rutte and Wilke's (1984) study are presented. In the context of a social dilemma situation two variables were manipulated: use and variance. Preference for various decision structures is the issue of the present paper. It appeared that a large majority structure and an unanimity structure were mast preferred. A small majority structure and a structure in which each decides for him/herself were intermediately preferred. Whereas a structure in which one person, a leader, decides for all was least preferred. Further analysis of these data suggested that only the latter two decision structures were influenced by the use and variance manipulations.