Do causal attributions mediate the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic interest?

Many investigators have demonstrated that task-contingent extrinsic incentives can reduce an individual's interest in some intrinsically rewarding task. Although it has been widely assumed that this “undermining effect” is mediated by the individual's causal attributions for engaging in the task, there has been little independent verification of this notion. In the present study subjects were asked to perform an inherently interesting problem-solving task. Half of the subjects were told that they could earn money by solving the task successfully (Money condition), whereas the other half were not (Control condition). Consistent with previous research, Money condition subjects expressed less liking for the task. In addition, Many condition participants attributed their task performance to less internal causes. Furthermore, across conditions, subjects who attributed their behavior to less internal causes were less apt to enjoy the task. The present data, therefore, more convincingly implicate the mediating role of causal attributions in the relationship between extrinsic rewards and intrinsic interest. Alternative explanations are discussed.     

Motivational Factors Affecting Fluctuations of Female Sexual Activity at Menstruation

The hypothesis was tested that pre-menstrual and post-menstrua I increases in sexual activity are due to anticipation of deprivation and rebound following deprivation (Ford & Beach, 1951). Thirty-five married women completed daily questionnaires about their sexual activity for at least two menstrual cycles. Evidence supported the hypothesis that the post-menstrual peak in intercourse is a rebound phenomenon. There was less evidence to support the hypothesis that a pre-menstrual rise represents anticipation of deprivation. In addition, there was a tendency to increase autosexual activity during periods of sexual abstention, which may represent a compensation phenomenon.     

On the relationship of data to theory: A reply to Ronis and Greenwald

Ronis and Greenwald (Dissonance theory revised again: Comment on the paper by Fazio, Zanna, and Cooper. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 15, 1979, 62–69) question our integrative formulation of dissonance and self-perception processes. We argue that our formulation provides an explanation of both the full range of results in the literature and our own experimental data, while neither dissonance nor self-perception theory can singly explain the existing data.     

Daydreaming: a measurable concept

Research has been reported which supports the psychometric properties of the Imaginal Processes Inventory. The purpose was to confirm and extend this research as well as investigate the interrelationships between daydreaming and depression, locus of control, and visual imagery. This inventory (7 scales), Beck Depression Inventory, Rotter Locus of Control Scale (I-E), and Gordon's Test of Visual Imagery Control were administered to 100 female undergraduates. A sample of 39 subjects were retested on the scales an average of 6.8 wk. after the first administration. Correlations with Imaginal Processes Inventory and test-retest data were consistent with Giambra's (1977) findings for males and support the reliability and generalizability of the scores. Other results include significant intercorrelations between the various scales of this inventory and the others. Implications for an understanding of the process of depression are discussed.     

Clinical Frequencies Recording System: Standardizing staff observations by event recording

Certain aspects of staff performance and resident behavior are less adequately assessed by standardized time sampling procedures than by complete recording of the incidence of specified events. An approach to gathering such data through systematizing the observations of clinical staff — the Clinical Frequencies Recording System — is described. Scores from the Clinical Frequencies System reflect the rate per opportunity with which individual behaviors are performed, with computer summarization providing higher-level behavioral indexes for research and evaluation purposes. Staff training and system implementation are discussed, and reliability and validity data from a system employed on two different treatment units over a period of several years are presented.The research reported in this article was supported, in part, by Public Health Service Grants MH-15553 and MH-25464 from the National Institute of Mental Health.Presented at the 87th Annual Meetings of the American Psychological Association, New York City, September 1979, as part of a symposium on New assessment systems for residential treatment, management, research, and evaluation.     

Effects of electrocutaneous ready—signal variation on visual reaction time

Two ready-signal variables (direction of change in electrocutaneous stimulation and method of presentation: “trace” or “delayed”) were combined in a 2 by 2 by Ss design. Neither variable produced a significant main effect but yielded a highly significant interaction. Results were interpreted in terms of arousal. intersensory. and conditioning explanations of ready-signal effects.     

Immediate correction and adaptation based on viewing a prismatically displaced scene

It was shown that when observers view a scene of a room through displacing prisms there is an immediate correction of the prismatic distortion. Objects appear to lie in a direction closer to their true direction than to that produced by the refraction of the prisms. It was also shown that a brief period of exposure to the prismatically viewed scene, without movement or sight of the body, results in substantial adaptation to the displacement.     

EVALUATING TREATMENT CHALLENGES WITH DIFFERENTIAL REINFORCEMENT OF ALTERNATIVE BEHAVIOR

In prior research, differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) has been implemented at optimal treatment values: Problem behavior is never reinforced, and alternative behavior is always reinforced. However, in application, DRA is unlikely to be conducted optimally. In this study, following a functional analysis phase and a differential reinforcement at full implementation phase, we challenged initially positive treatment effects for 3 participants by implementing DRA at less than optimal parameters. For example, some occurrences of problem behavior were reinforced, and some occurrences of alternative behavior were not reinforced. Results suggested that when exposed to DRA at full implementation, participants showed a bias toward appropriate behavior in subsequent conditions during which “mistakes” (treatment challenges) were intentionally introduced. In addition, the negative effects of treatment challenges were quickly reversible, in comparison to the positive effects of DRA, which were not quickly reversible in the face of treatment challenges.     

Optimism, pessimism, and false failure feedback: Effects on vigilance performance

Following the logic of a prior experiment (Seligman et al., 1990) with varsity collegiate swimmers, sixty student volunteers performed a brief, but highly stressful vigilance task. Half were then given false feedback indicating poor performance; the others experienced a non-evaluative display at that point. All were then asked to repeat the vigil. Half the observers were assessed as high optimists and half as high pessimists. The pessimists showed a steeper vigilance decrement than the optimists, consistent with a model (Scheier and Carver, 1987) that proposes that pessimists are more emotion-focused under stress than optimists, and hence would be less attentive to the vigilance display, regardless of feedback condition. The false negative feedback actually turned out to be ineffective; hence, based on Seligman's account of the swimmer study, which requires effective negative feedback, there should have been no vigilance performance difference between optimists and pessimists, either pre- or post-feedback.