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)     

Two determinants of conformity: Age of independence training and n achievement.

36 undergraduates at the University of North Carolina took part in the experiment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology: Janet Taylor Spence.

The 2004 Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology is awarded to Janet Taylor Spence. She is recognized for her outstanding scientific contributions that have had a profound theoretical and empirical impact on two areas of inquiry: Her early seminal research on the motivational properties of trait anxiety led the way to the study of the influence of other personality traits on learning and performance. From the 1970s forward, her innovative theoretical work was instrumental in launching the new field of sex roles and gender. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A factorial study of dogmatism and related concepts.

Using scales of 10 personality variables, 3 hypotheses were tested: (1) dogmatism is factorially discriminable from authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, and rigidity; (2) dogmatism, paranoia, and self-rejection are factorially similar; and (3) dogmatism, paranoia, and self-rejection would emerge, together with anxiety, on a single factor. Ss were 207 New York college students. The data permit the conclusion that these 3 hypotheses are confirmed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achievement themes and directionality of autokinetic movement.

"In three samples of college students, it was found that subjects with a low score on achievement orientation (from a brief TAT) indicated more often initial autokinetic movement to the right than subjects with high need for achievement. A tentative explanation was offered concerning the manner in which differences in achievement motivation might be translated into differences in the autokinetic measure." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HJ64F. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

To Dispel Fantasies About Fantasy-Based Measures of Achievement Motivation.

This article reviews the literature on reliability of fantasy-based achievement motivation measures. Homogeneity estimates for such measures are suggested, and some illustrative applications to data are presented. Analysis of both published and unpublished data suggests that homogeneity reliability of these measures rarely exceeds .30 to .40. The use of achievement motive measures to predict school achievement is questioned on grounds of low reliability of the measures. Previous findings in this area are interpretable in terms of failure to control on IQ and/or productivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of information source status and dogmatism upon conformity behavior.

This study explored the relationship between degree of authoritarianism, as measured by Rokeach's (1960) Dogmatism Scale, and susceptibility to influence by individuals of high and low social status. College Ss were placed in the autokinetic problem (see 10: 1332); a confederate of E, introduced as either a research scientist or a high school senior, gave his responses to the situation prior to S. The confederate's judgments were contrived so as to disagree with S's. Ss high in authoritarianism tended to agree with (conform to) the responses of the "scientist"; Ss low in authoritarianism, with the "high school student." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interrelationships among measures of field dependence, ability, and personality traits.

This study was devised to test the validity of findings of previous research with regard to the personality correlates of performance on Witkin's (1954) measures of field dependence (FD). The results (with a sample of college Ss) suggest that the Embedded Figure Test (EFT) and the Rod-and-Frame Test (RFT) do not necessarily measure the same cognitive or personality factors. Previous findings were not, to a considerable extent, duplicated; some personality correlates were not found to be related to either EFT or RFT. FD people were characterized by a tendency to react with affective disruption and intellectual deficit to an external situation that lacks clear structure. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HA27E. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achievement motivation and learning.

The hypothesis was offered that Ss with high n Achievement would learn more in directed and incidental learning situations than those with low n Achievement. Using extreme groups on a n Achievement continuum, the 12 highest and 14 lowest high school freshmen, it was found that the expected superiority of high n Achievement Ss in a directed learning situation did not obtain, although they did demonstrate more efficient incidental learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Judgment of personal characteristics and emotions from nonverbal properties of speech.

A person's changing emotional state and relatively stable personal characteristics may be judged from nonverbal properties of his voice. These properties include such elements as timbre, inflection, and stress, which accompany the actual words spoken but are not a direct part of them. Many studies have used inadequate measures as the dependent criterion for the traits being judged, and no method of eliminating the verbal content has been wholly successful. The evidence does show, however, that some validity of judgment is possible. Acoustic analysis has been little used; it could increase the objectivity of studies. Individual differences among listeners and the relationship of voice to psychopathology have been particularly neglected areas in research. (96 ref.) (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)     

Conformity and character.

In 1953 "… one hundred men visited the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research… to participate in an intensive three-day assessment of those qualities related to superior functioning in their profession." Conformity is discussed with regard to individual differences, relations to personality variables, conformity behavior in different populations, psychological processes involved in expressions of conformity to group pressure, and the reinforcement of conformity behavior. The author suggests that "… we have what appears to be a powerful new research technique, enabling the study of conformity behavior within a setting which effectively stimulates genuine group interaction, yet preserves the essential requirements of objective measurement." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achievement goals and achievement emotions: Testing a model of their joint relations with academic performance.

The authors propose a theoretical model linking achievement goals and achievement emotions to academic performance. This model was tested in a prospective study with undergraduates (N = 213), using exam-specific assessments of both goals and emotions as predictors of exam performance in an introductory-level psychology course. The findings were consistent with the authors' hypotheses and supported all aspects of the proposed model. In multiple regression analysis, achievement goals (mastery, performance approach, and performance avoidance) were shown to predict discrete achievement emotions (enjoyment, boredom, anger, hope, pride, anxiety, hopelessness, and shame), achievement emotions were shown to predict performance attainment, and 7 of the 8 focal emotions were documented as mediators of the relations between achievement goals and performance attainment. All of these findings were shown to be robust when controlling for gender, social desirability, positive and negative trait affectivity, and scholastic ability. The results are discussed with regard to the underdeveloped literature on discrete achievement emotions and the need to integrate conceptual and applied work on achievement goals and achievement emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communality of manic-depressive and "mild" cyclothymic characteristics.

This study examined the assumption that similar personality and genetic attributes are associated with varying severities of cyclothymic tendency. Several mood measures were used for identifying college Ss with cyclothymic tendencies. The personality variables investigated are related to a complaint dependent, value achievement orientation. Relative incidence of blood type and blood factors D, E, MN, and Kell for cyclothymics and noncyclothymics was determined. Mood measure intercorrelations were insignificant. Correlations between mood indices derived from a daily self-rating scale and the personality variables afforded moderate support for the personality aspect of the continuity assumption. Analysis of the blood types and factors did not support the genetic aspect of the assumption. (37 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preferences for ancient and modern art museums: Visitor experiences and personality characteristics.

This research has two main purposes. The first is to replicate and possibly to extend the results obtained in a previous study, where the authors found that visitors to the ancient art museum conducted their visit with the primary aim of acquiring understanding and knowledge, while modern art museum visitors conducted their visit with an approach that was primarily emotional and pleasure-seeking. The second purpose relates to studies showing that people who prefer abstract art present higher levels on personality traits like “Openness to Experience” and “Sensation Seeking,” compared to people who prefer realistic art. This study investigates these two personality traits for people who favor visiting museums of ancient rather than modern art. Results confirmed previous findings that emotional aspects related to the visit were relevant for modern art museum visitors, while a more cognitive approach based on learning characterized ancient art museum visitors. Concerning personality traits, no difference was found between the two museum groups on the “Openness to Experience” dimension; differences were found on the “Sensation Seeking” trait; modern art museum visitors attained higher scores as compared to ancient art museum visitors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A note on projection.

Projection if defined as "unwittingly attributing one's own traits to others" may be either defensive or predictive. It still needs much research effort. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality correlates of social conformity.

A group of 89 female social welfare case workers were administered the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey and a social conformity scale developed by the author. The latter comprised 37 items utilizing the direction of perception technique of attitude measurement. For the selected sample, the relationship between the two scales appeared to be limited to a correlation of -.47 between the social conformity scale and the Objectivity scale of the GZ. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achievement goals as predictors of achiement-relevant processes prior to task engagement.

This research comprised 3 studies (2 prospective and 1 short-term longitudinal) designed to investigate mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals as predictors of achievement-relevant processes prior to the undergraduate examination experience. Results from across the 3 studies were supportive of the authors' hypotheses and revealed a differential predictive pattern for each of the achievement goals. Mastery goals were linked to numerous positive processes (e.g., challenge appraisals, absorption during preparation), performance-approach goals were linked to a more limited set of positive processes (e.g., challenge appraisals, grade aspirations), and performance-avoidance goals were linked to numerous negative processes (e.g., threat appraisals, anticipatory test anxiety). Implications for the trichotomous achievement goal model and educators are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achievement motivation in fantasy and behavior.

"This study investigates the relationship of achievement fantasy to behavioral indices of achievement motivation. Conflicting views of this relationship have been presented… (which) have assumed that fantasy is a direct index of a generally expressed motive state… (and which have) conceptualized fantasy as an alternative, substitute channel for the expression of achievement motivation when behavioral channels are blocked." Analysis of achievement derived from life history data supported the 2nd formulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

EPPS n Achievement and verbal paired-associates learning.

"In the present study, performance on two lists of verbal paired-associates learning materials is used to examine the role of n Achievement as a possible drive variable… . Ss high in EPPS n Achievement demonstrated significant superiority over low n Achievers in… verbal learning situations." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)