Task, setting, and personality variables affecting the desire to work.

120 undergraduates rated their desire to work in (verbally described) situations varying in setting and task variables. Desire to work was significantly greater for (a) easier tasks, (b) less arousing settings, (c) more pleasant tasks, and (d) more pleasant settings. Predicted interaction effects showed that easier tasks and more pleasant settings also allowed more tolerance for arousal from the settings. Results support a proposed expansion of R. M. Yerkes and J. D. Dodson's 1908 law (that performance is an inverted-U shaped function of arousal) in which pleasure and task difficulty affect the optimum arousal level for performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)