The effect of motivation arousal on humor preferences.

"The present experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that the arousal of different types of motivations would produce differences in humor preferences. It was predicted that in a hostility-arousing situation subjects would prefer humorous material of a hostile and aggressive nature, while subjects placed in a sexually arousing situation would prefer humor material with a sexual theme. This prediction was confirmed… [and] an explanation of the results was offered in terms of suppression." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's attitudes toward rational versus inhibitory parental authority.

"Starting with Fromm's (1941) distinction between rational and inhibitory authority, the study investigates children's attitudes towards their parents' restrictive norms and checking actions… . The results indicate that if parents' restrictive norms and checking actions are accompanied by authoritarian motivations (inhibiting authority), the children's positive attitudes towards these are negatively correlated with chronological age, verbal intelligence… and preference for altruistic alternatives to authoritarian ones… . If the… actions are accompanied by rational motivations (indicating rational parental authority), the attitudes have a tendency to correlate positively with these three independent variables." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4FG15P. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual versus group goal conflict.

"An experiment was performed in which a conflict was produced between individual and group goal attainment. An overt situation was compared to a covert situation, and a high individualistic… with a low individualistic motivation condition… . [The] finding that individuals… feel freer to change secret… than public decisions is discussed." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Test-anxiety and blame-assignment in grade school children.

"… an attempt was made to measure the relationship between test-anxiety in elementary school children and the propensity for self-blame assignment in regard to the experience of failure in a test situation… . The general hypothesis… was that in a failure situation, high test-anxious S's assign blame for a failure to themselves to a greater extent than do non-test-anxious S's… . The overall results… tend to support the hypothesis, but with qualifications that… change the perspective… of test-anxiety and blame assignment." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence and leadership as a function of group structure.

"In a group decision situation, influence and perceived leadership were studied as a function of an individual's position in the communication network of his group. The hypotheses were advanced that, regardless of the network he is in, a group member (a) will be influenced less as his group reaches a decision, and (b) will be perceived as the group leader more often when his position in the communication network is more central… . On an overall basis, both hypotheses were confirmed… . The hypothesis concerning influence was tenable only in the case of one kind of network." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of individually prominent behavior upon group effectiveness and member satisfaction.

"An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that in unstructured situations, behavior oriented toward individual prominence in the group is negatively correlated with group performance and positively correlated with member satisfaction… . Twenty-two four-person groups were observed… . Groups were required to solve five problems… . After completion of the problem, Ss rated their satisfaction with the group, the degree to which group members cooperated, and group performance… . It was concluded that in the undifferentiated situation behavior oriented toward individual prominence interferences with effective group action." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Four techniques of group decision making under uncertainty.

4 techniques of group decision-making—authoritarian, leader suggestion, census, and chairman—under risk and uncertainty were compared using a survival situation with 45 aircrews. "1. In a conflict situation, when a group discussion method… is involved, the members' reactions to the alternatives are relatively undifferentiated in contrast to the condition in which the leader alone makes the decision… . 2… . the groups appear to be least favorably disposed toward the authoritarian technique of decision-making… . 3. When the decision-making procedure is group centered the group reaches a decision involving greater personal risk to the members." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Antisemitism and the expression of fantasy aggression.

"In order to test a hypothesis derived from the scapegoat theory of prejudice [Dollard, et al, 1939], two groups… chosen on the basis of… high and… low scores on the Levinson Anti-Semitism Scale, [A-S] were subjected to an aggression arousing situation. Following aggression arousal a specially designed fantasy test was administered, which yielded measures of aggression expressed toward fantasy characters with Jewish or non-Jewish names. Control subjects, matched with Arousal group subjects on… A-S scores, took the fantasy test without prior aggression arousal. Aggression arousal produced significant differences in the fantasy aggression of High and Low A-S subjects… . [supporting] the hypothesis that persons high in anti-Semitism have a greater… tendency… to displace aggression selectively onto Jews." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GD54W. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social influence phenomena in a task-oriented group situation.

"The three variables tested were the size of the group, the duration of group participation, and the identifiability of the source of the response standard… . The three experimental hypotheses tested and the results reported for 182 subjects in test groups of 2, 4 and 6 members… . For the particular situation studied, neither group size nor duration of group participation had significant effects on social influence." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between coping and avoiding behavior and response to fear-arousing propaganda.

"Avoiders are unable to recognize tension-producing stimuli and relate them to themselves, while copers show the capacity to recognize such stimuli and relate them to themselves… . The results support the hypothesis that a strong fear appeal receives greater acceptance among copers than among avoiders… . The obtained pattern of acceptance is largely due to the marked differential effectiveness of the two appeals on the avoider group, and not as was originally predicted, to any differential acceptance by copers." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fakability of a forced-choice personality test under realistic high school employment conditions.

The Gordon Personal Profile was administered to junior and senior high school students for vocational guidance purposes. Three months later it was readministered as an employment test to students applying for jobs. Those not seeking jobs took the test again as a guidance test… .Individuals did not change their profile patterns substantially from a guidance situation to an employment situation, and mean increases for the group were found to be moderate." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Frequency and idiosyncracy of associative responses.

"Two studies were conducted to test five general hypotheses about the frequency and content of verbal associations elicited during a 30-sec. period." 20 Ss responded to 40 stimuli, and the effect of a failure-stress situation on response frequency and content was tested with 24 Ss. "Differences between Ss in frequency and idiosyncracy showed a wide range of values… . There were highly significant consistencies… within Ss across stimulus classes… . The results indicate the utility of 'controlled' associations as an individual difference variable." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived differences in task competence and asymmetry of dyadic influence.

A "task, in which perceptions of differential task competence were induced, was followed by the… task of judging the magnitudes of 100 stimuli… . [The] induction of perceptions of differential prior task competence failed to produce a significant degree of asymmetry of influence during the subsequent task… . [A] second experiment was designed and conducted. The prior task was replaced by one of greater similarity to the subsequent task, and instructions were rewritten in order to emphasize this similarity… . [This] yielded a highly significant degree of asymmetry of influence. It is concluded that perceived task competence is an important determinant of the amount and direction of social influence, but that its effectiveness depends… on perceived task similarity." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GE05C. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Central stimulation and other new approaches to motivation and reward.

"The focus of my paper will be on… determining how motivations and rewards produce their effects… . I believe we are at last developing new techniques for getting inside of the organism, manipulating and measuring some of the simpler, more basic things that are going on there, and thus are laying the foundations for fundamental advances in our understanding of the mechanisms of motivation and reward." Specific results of studies on the effects of brain lesion, of electrical stimulation, of drugs, and of biochemical stimulation are cited and discussed. Electrical recording of brain activity and some new and promising methods which "could easily turn up facts which would lead directly into problems of motivation and reward" are also discussed. 33 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of social power on aspiration setting and striving.

"Individual Ss were observed in a situation similar to the one used by Rotter (1942) for studying the level of aspiration, while they were to perceive themselves as members of a team which was not physically present. In two experimental conditions… the Ss were provided standards of individual performance, for a series of trials, said to originate in others members of their team. Events were so arranged that Ss… did not attain the performance levels put before them by the others… . Assumptions were made that: (a) scores are evaluated in terms of internal levels of aspiration; (b) referent social pressures more strongly influence… internal levels of aspiration than do coercive… and (c) a discrepancy between an internal level of aspiration and an obtained score generates forces to reduce this discrepancy." Results confirmed the hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognition, motivation, and time perception.

The present research tested 2 hypotheses generated from a previous but unpublished work by another researcher viz., "1. The force acting on a person in a barrier situation to reach a goal G is an increasing function of the person's need for G 'times' the relevance of his ideation with respect to G. 2. The greater the magnitude of the force to reach a goal acting on a person in a barrier situation… , the greater will be the estimation of the time spent in the barrier situation." A food testing experiment "in which deprivation of food, thinking about food, and the desire to eat corresponded to… need, relevance of ideation, and force," is presented. Both hypotheses were supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communication restraints, group flexibility, and group confidence.

"This study was designed to explore the relationship between selected group structure variables and the group's ability to adjust to the requirements of a new situation (group flexibility) and the group members' expressed confidence in the ability of the group to succeed in a problem-solving situation." About 1000 men in 96 aircrews did a group task (8-item intelligence exam). Leaders in flexible groups scored low on the F scale and high on conformity. Greater confidence was expressed by members of high attraction groups and groups whose leaders tended to conform to the group members' opinions. "… groups with more open communication systems (group with fewer communication restraints) are more flexible and more confident." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The expression and inhibition of hostility in imaginative and overt behavior.

"Half of a group of 40 white male college students, representing the extreme scores on the Segal Manifest Hostility Scale, were placed in a situation designed to arouse strong hostility, and half in a low arousal situation. Ss were then permitted to express hostility in fantasy (using TAT pictures selected for differences in cue properties relevant to hostility) and in overt behavior, in a situation in which Ss could actually hurt another person… . The results of this experiment were consistent with a goal gradient model in which high and low expressors were assumed to differ in strength of approach motivation (proximity to the goal)." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Einstellung effect and goal-setting behavior.

"Goal-setting behavior of rigid Ss was compared to that of nonrigid Ss… . The two groups were found to differ on six of the 11 measures derived from the level-of-aspiration situation. Four measured variability of goal-setting behavior and two described height of aspiration. The rigid group was more heterogeneous on all six measures; as a group they scored higher on the measures of variability and set lower aspiration levels." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)