The heroic motive: Some experimental demonstrations

The appearance of heroic motives in interpersonal relations is examined. Three experiments were conducted to test the general hypothesis that witnessing the victimization of a partner would impel young men to incur costs in order to confront the transgressor. In each experiment, either the individual, his partner, or an anonymous other was insulted. Experiments 1 and 2 revealed that individuals were most willing to confront the insulter when their female partners (Experiment 1) or their male teammates (Experiment 2) were victimized. That pattern occurred despite evidence indicating that the most negative affective reactions were experienced by individuals who had been directly insulted. Experiment 3 revealed that individuals were also more willing to perform a subsequent altruistic act in response to the victimization of their partners than when they or an anonymous other person had been victimized. Taken together, the results indicated that heroic motivations in response to the victimization of a partner were distinguishable from other more negatively oriented processes that were aroused in response to self-victimization by the insulter.     

Instructional ecology and academic responding time for students at three levels of teacher-perceived behavioral competence

Thirty third and fourth grade students, ages 8-10 years, were observed systematically over two entire school days to examine the nature of instruction and academic responding time for students at varying levels of teacher-perceived behavioral competence. Data were recorded on six categories in 10-sec intervals. While the amount of time spent in active academic responses (about 45 min in a typical school day) did not differ significantly between groups, it was found that students perceived to be lower in behavioral competence spent more time engaged in certain inappropriate behaviors and received more teacher disapproval. Yet, students grouped on the basis of teachers' perceptions of their behavioral competence did not differ on the majority of instructional or student responding variables. Findings related to the relationship between responding times and achievement also are presented. Implications of findings for understanding the classroom ecology for students exhibiting behavior problems are discussed.     

Stochastic PERT networks as models of cognition: Derivation of the mean,variance, and distribution of reaction time using Order-of-Processing (OP) diagrams

It is frequently assumed that the mental activity which leads to a given response is made up of separable components or processes. One or more of the processes are assumed to contribute to the time required to respond. Computation of the mean, variance, and distribution of the reaction time is relatively straightforward when all processes are arranged in series or parallel. However, such is not the case when the processes have complex arrangements. A solution to a useful special case of the above problem is proposed. Specifically, it is shown that simple computations yield closed form expressions for the mean, variance, and distribution of reaction time when the processes can be arranged in a stochastic PERT network and when the durations of individual processes are sums of mutually independent, exponentially distributed random variables. The method of solution relies on the construction of an Order-of-Processing (OP) diagram from the original PERT network representation of behavior.     

Self-monitoring in communicative interactions: Social cognitive consequences of goal-directed message modification

The hypothesis was examined that previously demonstrated message modification and its subsequent social cognitive effects would be more characteristic of high than low self-monitors. Subjects first read an essay describing a stimulus person and were then requested to communicate a referential message concerning him to a listener who supposedly either liked (positive audience condition) or disliked (negative audience condition) the stimulus person. Subjects were subsequently given, after both a brief and long delay interval, a reproduction, impression, and attitude measure. The results indicated that high self-monitors were more likely to modify their message in a manner that was evaluatively consistent with their listener's attitude. In addition, this message modification had the predicted social cognitive consequences in that it affected the high self-monitor's subsequent impressions of (but not necessarily attitude toward) the target person. The results suggested that the responses obtained from high self-monitors in many experimental contexts may themselves be the results of a self-monitoring strategy. The implications of these results for research examining the effects of “self-monitoring” are discussed.     

Life and job satisfaction: Is the job central?

The nature of the causal relationship between life and job satisfaction in a sample of males and females working in a variety of jobs was investigated. Results suggest that the life satisfaction causes job satisfaction hypothesis is more tenable than the reverse.     

The moderating effects of occupation,age, and urbanization on the relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction

A considerable body of research has accumulated concerning the strength of the relationship between job and life satisfaction. However, very few studies have examined the possible moderating effects of other variables. The present study, using a sample of 911 heads of households, examined the moderating effects of seven variables related to occupation, age, and urbanization. As hypothesized, education and income positively, and strongly, moderated the job satisfaction-life satisfaction relationship. Self-employment (vs non-self-employment) also had a significant impact; occupation, though, had only a modest effect. Age and job longevity exhibited strong, curvilinear effects. Urbanization did not attenuate the relationship. In view of national work force trends toward increased education, professionalization, income, and age, the relationship between job and life satisfaction will likely become stronger and more relevant over time.     

A multidisciplinary model of voluntary employee turnover

This paper proposes a model of employee turnover based upon the existing literature from psychological, sociological, and economic perspectives. Voluntary turnover is posited to have three major classes of determinants: characteristics of the individual employee, work-related factors, and the states of certain economic variables. The model proposes that economic factors serve to control the degree to which individual and work-related factors can explain variation in turnover. It is hypothesized that individual and work-related variables will be more predictive of turnover under prosperous economic conditions than when the economy is strained. The model also proposes four classes of consequences of turnover: individual, organizational-social, organizational-economic, and societal. Recommendations for future turnover research are discussed.     

Quota vs positional power in four-person apex games

In coalition formation experiments, which coalitions will form and how players in coalitions will allocate their jointly gained rewards are typically predicted as a function of the players' relative power. In this paper, we isolated two logically independent sources of a player's power: the player's contribution to the rewards obtainable by coalitions of which he may be a member (“quota power”), and the number of distinct coalitions which a player may join (“positional power”). The separation of the two types of power is clearly shown in apex games, where a single player (Apex) attempts to lure any of the other players (Base) from the coalition of all Bases. A series of four-person computer-controlled apex and nonapex characteristic function games, varying with respect to the relationship of quota power to positional power, were played by 15 quartets of male players. Quota power was strongly manifested in all outcome measures, while positional power appeared only as a bias toward equal allocations of reward when coalitions among players of equal positional power formed. Neither of two social psychological theories that are applicable, pivotal power and weighted probability theory, predicted coalition frequencies. In a test of five solution concepts, the competitive bargaining set predicted payoff allocations better than either of the two aforementioned theories, the kernel, or an equal-split model.     

Cerebral lateralization and reading dysfunction

The laterality preference patterns and types of oral reading errors were examined for 90 seventh-grade males. Specifically, scores on a self-report measure of lateral preference for 30 readers with adequate decoding skills but low comprehension and 30 readers who lacked decoding skills were compared with each other and with 30 good readers. As predicted, poor readers with grade appropriate word recognition scores were found to be generally more confused in their lateral preference than were good readers or poor readers who lacked decoding skills. Results of oral reading errors confirmed a visual integration problem for the more bilateral reader. Poor comprehenders with word recognition skills also reported significantly greater mixed lateral patterns for their fathers than did other readers. The results were interpreted as supporting the initial argument that difference-poor readers fail to comprehend because of problems in organizing visual input, which seems intimately tied to a bilateralization of functions.