Obedience as a function of experimenter competence

The purpose of this study was to investigate obedience to an E’s commands as a function of E competency. Based upon Orne’s (1962, 1969) discussion of the demand characteristics inherent in the typical aggression study, it was hypothesized that E incompetence would decrease S obedience. Competence was manipulated by: (1) presenting some Ss with a nervous and inexperienced E, and (2)“accidentally” killing the victim (a rat) midway through the experiment. Thirty-two undergraduate female Ss participated in the experiment—supposedly a study on the physiological effects of stress. Obedi6nce was operationalized as the difference, in simple reaction time, between trials on which Ss were told that their response might result in shock to the rat and trials on which they were told that their response might save the rat from shock. Significant differences in obedience were obtained between competent and incompetent E conditions, and a significant “kill” effect was found in the competent E conditidn. The results of this study suggested that the extreme acts of obedience observed in the laboratory (e.g., Milgram, 1963) occur only when E is perceived as competent. This finding imposes limits on the generalizability of laboratory studies of obedience.     

Frequency and duration of hierarchy item exposure in a systematic desensitization analogue

Little is known regarding the importance of stimulus presentation variables in desensitization. A repeated measures factorial research design was utilized to investigate the role of hierarchy item frequency and duration in a desensitization analogue. Two frequency levels (1 and 3) and three total duration levels (3,12 and 30 sec) were combined to form six treatment groups; an additional no-treatment control group was also used. Results in both overt behavioral and subjective fear response modes suggest that single exposures are preferable, but that this preference is localized primarily in the longer total duration range. Long single exposures to hierarchy items yielded the greatest and most persistent changes in both response modes. It is suggested that clinicians utilize item presentations of this sort to determine their efficacy in actual therapy conditions. Choice of technique for assessing change and the utility of analogue studies are also briefly discussed.     

Treatment of nocturnal headbanging by behavior modification techniques: a case report

The application of behavior modification techniques to the alleviation of maladaptive behavior occurring during the waking state is well documented (Bandura, 1969; Franks, 1969). Recently, several case studies have been reported which demonstrate the successful extension of behavior modification techniques such as the desensitization procedure to the modification of sleep state maladaptive behavior, e.g. recurrent nightmares (Cautela, 1968; Geer and Silverman 1966; Silverman and Geer, 1968) and sleep walking (Clement, 1969). The present case study illustrates that other sleep state maladaptive behavior, in this case nocturnal headbanging, is amenable to the same behavior modification techniques which are used to modify maladaptive behavior during the waking state. Case background     

The efficacy of “right” as a function of its relationship with reinforcement

The effects of the relationship between the presentation of a verbal stimulus (“right”) and an established reinforcer (M&Ms) on the reinforcement efficacy of the verbal stimulus was tested with three groups of retarded boys. Blocks of training and test trials alternated. During training of the Discriminative Group, “right” reliably preceded candy. For the Contiguous Group, “right” accompanied candy, and for the Random Group “right” and candy were programmed independently. “Right” promoted learning in the Discriminative Group but did not in the latter two groups. The results support Cairns' analysis of the often found failure of approval to be an effective reinforcer in laboratory tasks.     

On the determination of redundancies in sociometric chains

The use of a matrix to represent a relationship between the members of a group is well known in sociometry. If this matrix is raised to a certain power, the elements appearing give the total number of connecting paths between each pair of members. In general, some of these paths will be redundant. Methods of finding the number of such redundant paths have been developed for three- and four-step chains by Luce and Perry (3) and Katz (2), respectively. We have derived formulas for the number of redundant paths of five and six steps; and in addition, an algorithm for determining the number of redundant paths of any given length.The research leading to this paper was supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.