On the relationship of hardiness to the Type A behavior pattern: Perception of life events versus coping with life events

A correlational study examined the relationship between perceptions of life events and psychological distress with regard to the moderating effects of personality. Subjects assessed for both hardiness (S. C. Kobasa, 1979, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1–11) and Type A behavior (M. Friedman & R. Rosenman, 1974, Type A Behavior and Your Heart, New York: Knopf) completed the Langner psychiatric symptom inventory, reported life events for the previous year, and rated each event for its desirability, controllability, and foreseeability. Results indicated that an accumulation of events perceived as undesirable was associated with distress for subjects low in hardiness. In contrast, events perceived as moderately controllable or uncontrollable, regardless of their desirability, were associated with increased distress for Type A's. The likelihood of experiencing any given event was not related to any personality type. However, hardy individuals differed from their low hardy counterparts in that, on average, they were more likely to perceive an event as desirable and controllable. No such perceptual biases were observed between Type A and B subjects. The discussion focuses on the combination of personality variables and the moderating effects of perceiving events versus coping with events in the stress-health relationship.     

A CPI comparison of engineers and managers

Seventy-one male employees of three high-technology content product industries in northern Utah were divided into three contrast groups: engineers, engineering-trained managers, and non-engineering-trained managers. The California Psychological Inventory was administered and multivariate analysis of variance performed on seven preselected CPI scales. Results revealed that nonengineering managers scored significantly higher than engineers on scales Dominance, Capacity for Status, Social Presence, and approached significance on Sociability. Engineering-managers also scored significantly higher than engineers on Dominance, and significantly higher than other managers on Psychological Mindedness. A multivariate main-effect significant p < .001 to predict group membership was found. Engineering-managers share with other managers a confident, persuasive, and aggressive self-presentation combined with a preference for leadership roles. Their elevation on Psychological Mindedness, however, suggests a more pragmatic analytical and less intuitive approach to management situations.     

A two-phase model account of aversive classical conditioning performance in humans and rabbits

A two-phase model was applied to classical conditioning performance in man and rabbits. During phase 1, response probability remained constant. During phase 2, response probability generally increased, although one operator was sufficient for a majority of Ss and two operators were required for a minority of Ss. The latter Ss exhibited increases in responding after a CR trial and decreases in responding after a non-CR trial. The pattern of parameters was similar for man and rabbits. In man, increases in UCS intensity resulted in a decrease in the duration of phase 1 and an increase in the limit of the operators for those Ss requiring more than a single operator to describe performance during phase 2. The value of employing a model to describe the data and understand the effects of independent variable manipulation was discussed.     

Differential acquisition of conditioned suppression in rats with increased and decreased luminance levels as CS + s

Using a conditioned suppression procedure, it was demonstrated that suppression of responding was substantially enhanced when the CS signaling the occurrence of shock was an increment in luminance level (bright CS), relative to an equivalent decrement in luminance level serving as a signal for shock (dim CS). The results of a pseudoconditioning control procedure illustrated that the differential effectiveness of the bright and dim CSs was dependent upon explicit CS-US pairings. The bright and dim stimuli were found to produce equivalent rates of conditioning when they were used to signal the availability of reinforcing stimuli in an appetitive discrimination procedure. The interpretation considered to be most consistent with the data is associative in nature; rats may be brought into the experimental setting prepared to associate bright light with danger and contraprepared to associate dim light with danger.     

Matching as a multivariate power law: Frequency of behavior versus frequency and magnitude of reinforcement

Two groups of food-deprived rats responded for access to liquid reinforcers on a wide range of concurrent variable-interval schedules. During the first part of the experiment, one group chose between two different sucrose solutions; for a second group, the choice involved a sucrose solution and a solution of condensed milk. In the latter part of the experiment, the two groups chose between identical sucrose solutions. A variety of multivariate equations were applied to data obtained from both conditions. The best-fitting equation proved to be a multivariate power function, which is an extension of Herrnstein's basic matching law.