Evolution and validation of a behavioral decision theory measurement approach to achievement, power, and affiliation.

Extended the present author's (see record 1981-23696-001) research on a behavioral decision theory approach to the measurement of need for Affiliation (nAff), need for Power (nPow), and need for Achievement (nAch). In a decision-making exercise, S made decisions concerning the attractiveness of 24 hypothetical jobs that were described in terms of Aff, Pow, and Ach. Extensive psychometric data gathered from 1,741 Ss (partners in an accounting firm, military officers and cadets, high school students, undergraduates, and graduate students) were also reported. The modified measure was reliable and free of social desirability bias. The Aff, Pow, and Ach scores were significantly correlated with several objective behaviors and an alternative measure of the motives. Group difference tests among the 7 samples also supported the validity of the measurement approach. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A behavioral theory of timing.

We base a theory of timing on the observation that signals of reinforcement elicit adjunctive behaviors. The transitions between these behaviors are well described as a Poisson process, with a rate constant proportional to the rate of reinforcement in the experimental context. These behaviors may come to serve as the basis for conditional discriminations of the passage of time. Varying the rate of reinforcement will generate distributions of behavior whose mean and standard deviation vary proportionately. Holding the rate of reinforcement constant while manipulating the intervals to be judged will generate different functional relations between the mean and standard deviation, and these will lead to bisection at or slightly above the geometric mean, depending on the measure of bisection employed. The correlation between the rate of the Poisson process and the rate of reinforcement implies that psychometric functions should be affected by the rate of reinforcement. This prediction is confirmed. We extend the models derived from this theory to other phenomena, such as temporal generalization and discrimination, subjective shortening, and paired comparisons of intervals. Current models of choice between delayed reinforcers are consistent with our theory of timing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Plea bargaining by prosecutors and defense attorneys: A decision theory approach.

Tested the impact of severity of sentence and probability of conviction on plea bargaining decisions made by 32 prosecutors and 39 defense attorneys. Hypothetical scenarios involving criminal cases were mailed to 2 prosecutors and 2 defense attorneys in each of 47 states. Information was manipulated such that probability of conviction was either 20, 50 or 80%, and the severity of the sentence if the case went to trial was either 2 or 5 yrs. Prosecutors had to decide whether to offer a 1-yr plea-bargain sentence whereas defense attorneys had to decide whether to accept such a sentence. Results show that as the severity of sentence and probability of conviction increased, prosecutors became less willing to plea bargain whereas defense attorneys became more willing. Also evident in the data was a prosecutor bias in favor of plea bargaining and a defense attorney bias in favor of trials. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An adaptive approach to human decision making: Learning theory, decision theory, and human performance.

Describes a general model of decision rule learning, the rule competition model, composed of 2 parts: an adaptive network model that describes how individuals learn to predict the payoffs produced by applying each decision rule for any given situation and a hill-climbing model that describes how individuals learn to fine tune each rule by adjusting its parameters. The model was tested and compared with other models in 3 experiments on probabilistic categorization. The 1st experiment was designed to test the adaptive network model using a probability learning task, the 2nd was designed to test the parameter search process using a criterion learning task, and the 3rd was designed to test both parts of the model simultaneously by using a task that required learning both category and cutoff criteria. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A behavioral approach to college teaching.

Describes a program of research on teaching methods and their results, comparing these techniques with other instructional procedures. The research was conducted from the philosophical and methodological perspective of an empirical approach to instructional procedures in higher education. The techniques included using skilled students to teach other students, precise specification of curricula, continuous recording and graphing of performance data, individualized definition of performance criteria, and frequent assessment integrated with teaching. The roles of a number of variables critical to the success of such teaching activities are discussed. (25 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A behavioral approach to Tourette's syndrome.

Notes that Tourette's syndrome, which includes the compulsive vocalization of obscene words, has been attributed to both organic and psychological factors. Although no conclusions about the etiology of the behavior could be drawn, the operant nature of the symptoms was demonstrated in a case study of a 12-yr-old boy with normal intelligence in the manipulation of responses by varying contingencies of reinforcement. Implications for management and therapy with such children are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Decision field theory: A dynamic-cognitive approach to decision making in an uncertain environment.

Decision field theory provides for a mathematical foundation leading to a dynamic, stochastic theory of decision behavior in an uncertain environment. This theory is used to explain (1) violations of stochastic dominance, (2) violations of strong stochastic transitivity, (3) violations of independence between alternatives, (4) serial position effects on preference, (5) speed–accuracy trade-off effects in decision making, (6) the inverse relation between choice probability and decision time, (7) changes in the direction of preference under time pressure, (8) slower decision times for avoidance as compared with approach conflicts, and (9) preference reversals between choice and selling price measures of preference. The proposed theory is compared with 4 other theories of decision making under uncertainty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multialternative decision field theory: A dynamic connectionst model of decision making.

The authors interpret decision field theory (J. R. Busemeyer & J. T. Townsend, 1993) as a connectionist network and extend it to accommodate multialternative preferential choice situations. This article shows that the classic weighted additive utility model (see R. L. Keeney & H. Raiffa, 1976) and the classic Thurstone preferential choice model (see L. L. Thurstone, 1959) are special cases of this new multialternative decision field theory (MDFT), which also can emulate the search process of the popular elimination by aspects (EBA) model (see A. Tversky. 1969). The new theory is unique in its ability to explain several central empirical results found in the multialternative preference literature with a common set of principles. These empirical results include the similarity effect, the attraction effect, and the compromise effect, and the complex interactions among these three effects. The dynamic nature of the model also implies strong testable predictions concerning the moderating effect of time pressure on these three effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

McClelland's Statement on the Quality of Students in Psychology.

Author briefly addresses the comment made by David McClelland (The Recruitment of Scientific Psychologists) in the American Psychologist (December, 1954), deploring the lack of top quality students in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a general theory for the behavioral sciences.

Since 1949 specialists in various social and biological sciences including "… history, anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, social psychology, psychology, psychiatry, medicine, physiology, and mathematical biology" have met in the attempt to develop a theory "… embracing all aspects of behavior." A number of terms useful in the consideration of theory including "system," "boundary," "subsystems," and "coding" are discussed. Formal models of behavior and homologies with electronic systems are considered. The paper is concerned with specifying and elaborating 19 propositions "… each empirically testable at the levels of cell, organ, individual, small group, and society… ." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond expected utility: Rethinking behavioral decision research.

Much research in psychology has evaluated the quality of people's decisions by comparisons with subjective expected utility (SEU) theory. This article suggests that typical arguments made for the status of utility theory as normative do not justify its use by psychologists as a standard by which to evaluate decision quality. It is argued that to evaluate decision quality, researchers need to identify those decision processes that tend to lead to desirable outcomes. It is contended that a good decision-making process must be concerned with how (and whether) decision makers evaluate potential consequences of decisions, the extent to which they accurately identify all relevant consequences, and the way in which they make final choices. Research that bears on these issues is reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cognitive–behavioral approach to the treatment of psychopathy.

This paper reviews research on the learning abilities and physiological responsiveness of psychopaths and incorporates its conclusions into a cognitive–behavioral treatment approach to psychopathy. Unlike other treatment strategies, the present approach utilizes an appeal to the self-interests of the psychopath to motivate him to change. It was designed to modify irrational means–ends thinking, to teach self-control, and to encourage prosocial behaviors. Assumptions made about the nature of irrational beliefs, problem-solving skills, and self-interests of psychopaths are offered as testable hypotheses for further research. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A dissonance theory approach to defensive projection.

It was hypothesized that cognitive dissonance involving the self-concept leads to the use of projection to reduce the dissonance. Ss were given personality tests, and instead of true results received falisified data indicating favorable or unfavorable personality traits—thereby raising or lowering their self-esteem. In the presence of another S, Ss were shown pictures of men and were told this would be an indicator of their latent homosexuality; GSRs were supported to reflect their degree of anxiety. Ss were asked to estimate the reaction of the other S; Ss with high self-esteem tended to attribute a greater degree of responsiveness of the other S to the pictures. The relationship of psychoanalytic and dissonance theory is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A taxonomic approach to Perls's Gestalt theory.

Applied content analysis and cluster analysis to the ideas of F. Perls to develop a taxonomy of Gestalt processes and goals. L. L. McQuitty's classification by multiple linkages method generated 3 goal clusters and 2 process clusters. The goal clusters were titled (a) the organism and environment, (b) self-awareness, and (c) maturation and autonomy. The process clusters were (a) skillful frustration of the client, and (b) the here-and-now. Summaries of the typal groups or clusters are presented, and the implications of taxonomic research in counseling are discussed. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specious reward: A behavioral theory of impulsiveness and impulse control.

In a choice among assured, familiar outcomes of behavior, impulsiveness is the choice of less rewarding over more rewarding alternatives. Discussions of impulsiveness in the literature of economics, sociology, social psychology, dynamic psychology and psychiatry, behavioral psychology, and "behavior therapy" are reviewed. Impulsiveness seems to be best accounted for by the hyperbolic curves that have been found to describe the decline in effectiveness of rewards as the rewards are delayed from the time of choice. Such curves predict a reliable change of choice between some alternative rewards as a function of time. This change of choice provides a rationale for the known kinds of impulse control and relates them to several hitherto perplexing phenomena: behavioral rigidity, time-out from positive reinforcement, willpower, self-reward, compulsive traits, projection, boredom, and the capacity of punishing stimuli to attract attention. (31/2 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of behavior theory in behavioral medicine.

Behavioral medicine is a multidisciplinary field that combines research methods and findings from behavioral and biomedical sciences. Many investigators in the field have tended to emphasize the contribution of the biomedical more than the behavioral sciences. This is evident in the emphasis on biological rather than behavioral outcomes and on the reductionist approach within the field to reduce mechanisms responsible for behavioral effects and disease to biological influences. There has been a similar shift in psychology toward mechanistic, bottom-up approaches to understanding mechanisms responsible for integrated and dynamic behavior. These shifts in emphasis have stimulated investigators to examine the use of biomedical methods and findings as causes and explanations for behavior, rather than to utilize newer findings in behavioral sciences. New advances in basic research on learning are used to illustrate that findings from behavioral science have implications for the field of contemporary behavioral medicine. Finally, the importance of developing new technologies for measuring behavior is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictive validity of six neurodiagnostic tests: A decision theory analysis.

Investigated different aspects of predictive validity for EEG, skull X ray, brain scan, arteriogram, pneumoencephalogram and the Block Rotation Test. The validation sample was based on cases referred to a Neuropsychology Service from 1964-1968. The criterion distribution, brain disease (B) and no brain disease (F), and the test signs, positive (+) and negative -, were both dichotomized for analysis. The overall hit rate, percentage of valid positives, and strength of predictive association were extremely low for several of the tests. However, the predictive utility reversed appreciably for some of the tests when base-rate information (inverse probabilities) and types-of-error risk (cost efficiency) were computed. Implications for diagnosis in neurology and psychology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A resource exchange theory approach to interpersonal interactions: A test of Foa's theory.

Employed U. G. Foa and E. B. Foa's (1974) resource exchange theory to examine the types and patterns of exchanges involved in 57 college students' interpersonal interactions. Two judgment tasks were used to test both the functional and structural aspects of this theory. The dimensions of particularism and concreteness were hypothesized to underlie the 6 resource categories of love, status, information, money, goods, and services. In addition, resources perceived to be in the same category were expected to be exchanged with a higher probability than resources in different categories. Support for both the structural and the functional relations among the resource categories was consistent not with the initial classification of the behaviors used to represent the 6 resource categories but with the meaning associated with the behaviors. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A learning theory approach to research in schizophrenia.

"An attempt has been made to view schizophrenia as a problem in learning theory. The research in conditioning, learning, and generalization in schizophrenia has been reviewed in these terms. It was found that this research supported such an interpretation. An explication of the causes of an acute schizophrenic break and the transition to chronicity was attempted." 79 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)