The effects of an "anxiety-reducing" medication on group behavior under threat.

Three member teams worked on a group task under three experimental conditions: a threat condition in which Ss received an anxiety reducing medication, a threat condition with Ss receiving no medication, and a control nonthreat condition. Threat was imposed by structuring the sessions as evaluative tests whose results would become part of the Ss ROTC records. The Bales category system was used to obtain behavioral indices and the S's perception of their group and motivational state were obtained from an adjective check list. The results indicate that medication produces changes in the emotional and motivational state of the Ss along three dimensions, anxiety, elation, and assertion. "Medicated groups may be characterized as having an active, non-aggressive 'good time' with no especial concern for effective performance on the task." (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)     

The effects of threat and frustration on group cohesiveness.

A field experiment concerned with the effects of threat and frustration upon cohesiveness seemed to justify several conclusions. (a) A reduction in threat seems to increase cohesiveness. (b) A reduction in frustration does not increase cohesiveness. (c) A catharsis of hostility may increase the attractiveness of teams toward which hostility is directed. (d) Strong frustration may produce "a withdrawal symptom consisting of reduced interteam competition and increased intrateam cooperation." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality characteristics related to leadership behavior in two types of small group situational problems.

Using male United States Air Force Officer Candidate School Ss several hypotheses implied in the "great man" theory of small group leadership were focused on small group behavior and situational testing. "The results… personality traits associated with successful performance in two types of small group activity do not differ in relative importance." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of cooperation and competition upon small group behavior.

"From previous research on cooperation, competition, and studies of small groups, an attempt was made to formulate hypotheses that would integrate theoretical approaches to both areas of investigation… . The results of the experiment [presented] permit the following conclusions: 1. Cooperation may be considered a determinant of group cohesiveness… . 2. Cooperation may be considered a determinant of instrumental communications." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of personality and situational cautiousness on conceptual behavior.

An assessment of the degree to which cautiousness ("the tendency to behave in a manner designed to avoid potential failure or disapproval experiences… often at the expense of other satisfactions") affected responsiveness to TAT cards and MAPS. Degree of cautiousness was assessed by performance on the Rotter Level of Aspiration Board (see 19: 2261). Ss were then administered a test of social acceptability of attitudes and were either told that they scored low (failure experience), scored high (success experience), or were given no feedback (neutral). Comparisons of cautious (C) and noncautious (NC) Ss revealed that degree of cautiousness distinguished C and NC Ss in the neutral situation only. The finding supported the assumption that cautiousness, as a personality trait, could also be used to describe conceptual behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of the severity of threat on the devaluation of forbidden behavior.

If a person is induced to cease performing a desired action through the threat of punishment, he will experience dissonance. His cognition that he is not performing the action is dissonant with his cognition that the action is desirable. An effective way of reducing dissonance is by derogating the action. The greater the threat of punishment the less the dissonance—since a severe threat is consonant with ceasing to perform the action. Thus, the milder the threat, the greater will be a person's tendency to derogate the action. In a laboratory experiment 22 preschool children stopped playing with a desired toy in the face of either a mild or severe threat of punishment. The mild threat led to more derogation of the toy than the severe threat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of threat upon interpersonal bargaining.

The effect of threat on the process of bargaining was investigated experimentally by asking Ss to imagine proceeding across a certain route on a map and having various experiences. Threat was seen to affect bargaining detrimentally. In that regard, cooperative ventures were seen to be safer than competitive ones. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modification of behavior through verbal conditioning: Effects in group therapy.

An hypothesis that seems to be gaining acceptance on the basis of experimental (as opposed to heretofore face) validity, is that the interpersonal relationship in therapy is not only able to modify the patient's behavior, but in a predictable and desirable direction. This hypothesis was cross-validated by using a group of patients in a Veterans Administration hospital, all in group therapy. The experimental condition, the independent variable, involved exposing S to a TAT-like situation outside of therapy. E responded differentially to the emotionally-toned words used by S: (a) by nodding and saying "mm-hm," (b) by communicating to S via a machine that emitted a clicking sound and added on a counter, and (c) a "no reinforcement" group. Change in the patient's behavior, the dependent variable, was assessed by ratings on a scale to measure interpersonal relationships in group therapy. Significant improvement in the measure of interpersonal behavior in the group therapy was noted in Condition A only. From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3IG28U. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactive effects of situational judgment effectiveness and proactive personality on work perceptions and work outcomes.

This study was based on a sample of 139 employees. The results support the hypothesis that proactive personality (PAP) predicts work perceptions (procedural justice perception, perceived supervisor support, and social integration) and work outcomes (job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and job performance) positively among individuals with high situational judgment effectiveness (SJE) but negatively among those with low SJE. The findings on the disordinal SJE = PAP interaction effects show that high levels of PAP may be either adaptive or maladaptive, depending on the individual's level of SJE, and these findings caution against direct interpretations of bivariate associations between PAP and work-relevant criteria. Limitations and implications of the study as well as future research directions on the study of PAP and situational judgment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of shared threat and prejudice in racially mixed groups.

"The purpose of this experiment was to test the relationship between shared threat and the expression of prejudice hypothesized by Feshbach and Singer (1957). 48 Ss, varying with respect to anti-Negro prejudice, were placed under conditions of shared threat or nonthreat, in task oriented cooperative work groups. A Negro confederate was a member in each group. It was found, as hypothesized, that under conditions of shared threat a reduction in the expression of prejudice occurs in terms of direct evaluation of the Negro by other group members." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The silence of the library: Environment, situational norm, and social behavior.

On the basis of the idea that situational norms are mentally represented as associations between environments and normative behavior, it was proposed that an environment can automatically direct normative behavior. More specifically, when situational norms are well-established (e.g., when entering the library, one should be silent), an environment is capable of automatically activating mental representations of normative behavior and the behavior itself. In these experiments, participants were exposed to pictures of environments, and effects on accessibility of representations of normative behavior and on actual behavior were assessed. Results indicated that representations of behavior and actual behavior itself are activated automatically when (a) goals to visit the environment are active and (b) strong associations between environment and normative behavior are established. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of situational and interpersonal variables in projective testing.

Despite the methodological flaws existing in studies concerned with the effects of method of test administration, testing situation, examiner influence, and subject influence on responses made to projective tests, there is strong evidence to show that these variables are important determiners of subject responses. One of the more important variables is the degree to which the S senses that the experimental conditions are integral to the total testing situations, i.e., if there is a feeling of high correspondence then S will be influenced. The implications for the client-clinician relationship are explored. 105 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal knowledge and individual and group effectiveness.

"Measures of discrepancy between an objective group preference hierarchy structure of members and an individual estimate of this preference hierarchy structure were obtained for members of infantry rifle squads who had scored high and low on a criterion field problem." It was found that the appointed leaders, popular individuals, and members of effective groups were better able to estimate the preference hierarchy structure than were non-leaders, less popular individuals, and members of ineffective groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and situational determinants of conformity.

"This study investigated the relationships between dispositional tendencies to respond to interpersonal communications in terms of either (a) the source of the communication, or (b) the message or content of the communication, and yielding to group influence as a function of (a) the amount of discrepancy between group judgment and the individual's own judgment, and (b) the difficulty of the behavioral task in which the individual is engaged. A source-oriented group and a message-oriented group of S's were differentiated on the basis of their habitual manner of interpreting interpersonally communicated information by means of objective analysis of sentence completions." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The verbal threat information pathway to fear in children: The longitudinal effects on fear cognitions and the immediate effects on avoidance behavior.

Verbal information has long been assumed to be an indirect pathway to fear. Children (aged 6-8 or 12-13 years) were exposed to threat, positive, or no information about 3 novel animals to see the long-term impact on their fear cognitions and the immediate impact on avoidance behavior. Their directly (self-report) and indirectly (implicit association task) measured attitudes toward the animals changed congruent with the information provided, and the changes persisted up to 6 months later. Verbal threat information also induced behavioral avoidance of the animal. Younger children formed stronger animal- threat and animal-safe associations because of threat and positive verbal information than older children, but there were negligible age effects on self-reported fear beliefs and avoidance behaviors. These results support theories of fear acquisition that suppose that verbal information affects components of the fear emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of small group role behavior from personality variables.

"A sample of 819 Air Force officers was administered a test battery designed to predict the individual's role in small group situations. This battery was factor analyzed, yielding four factors: Assertiveness, Power Orientation, Rigidity, and Aggressive Nonconformity." Assertiveness correlated best with the predicted small group behavior. 24 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Situational differences in leader behavior.

Two types of leaders have been contrasted in the child study literature since the early 1930's, one group-oriented, the other, self-oriented. In the present research, systematic observations of boys of each type are made on the school playground, where these patterns have been observed in the past, and in the more intimate, less competitive situation of the back yard. Six group-oriented leaders and six self-oriented leaders were selected from the third grades of four New England public schools on the basis of a teacher's rating and ratings by two previous observers of the boys. During the winter and spring of 1954 these twelve nine-year-old boys were observed on the playground during a free play period and in the neighborhood, using the set of categories for interaction process analysis developed by Bales. The clinical judgments of teachers and social scientists are not entirely validated since boys of both leader types show the same amount of aggression on the school playground, although the self-oriented leader is more aggressive in the neighborhood. Other expected differences appear since the self-oriented leader gives fewer suggestions and shows more tension in both situations. The major finding of this research is that there are more differences between situations than between the two leader styles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)