Interviewee disclosure as a function of interpersonal trust, task modeling, and interviewer self-disclosure.

Results of a study with 60 undergraduates show that 1/2 of the Ss in each sex group scored 3-15 points above the mean for their sex on the Rotter Interpersonal Trust Scale, and 1/2 of them scored 3-15 points below; these were classified as high- and low-trust Ss, respectively. No disclosure differences were found between high- and low-trust Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

GSR reactivity as a function of anxiety, instructions, and sex.

"GSR conditioning and extinction measures were obtained on 120 college Ss in a factorial experimental design in which 12 treatment groups were divided into 2 sex groups, 3 instruction groups, and high- and low-anxiety groups. The 3 instruction groups were given 3 different kinds of instruction designed to be: (a) apprehension arousing; (b) neutral; and (c) reassuring." Male Ss showed less conditioning when given reassuring instructions; female Ss showed the least conditioning with the apprehension-arousing instructions. Females showed greater GSR reactivity than males in all phases of the experiment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of task instructions and brief breaks on brainstorming.

Experiment 1 examined the effects of additional brainstorming rules for groups and looked at whether the presence of a facilitator who actively enforced the rules of brainstorming was beneficial. Experiments 2 and 3 examined whether the additional rules and brief breaks were beneficial to individual brainwriters and electronic brainstormers working alone. Clear benefits of the additional rules were found under a variety of conditions. The presence of a facilitator to enforce the rules enhanced the efficiency of idea generation (number of words used to express ideas) but not the number of ideas generated. There appears to be a small benefit to taking breaks in brainwriting sessions, but the benefit of breaks is reduced or eliminated in electronic brainstorming sessions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Power motive reliability as a function of retest instructions.

When 70 undergraduates were instructed to try to reinstate their original state of mind and write the same TAT stories, or when they were instructed not to worry about whether their stories were similar to or different from those written before, test–retest reliability of need for power was substantially higher than the levels usually found for TAT motive and approach levels found with objective personality tests. Under instructions to write different stories, Ss showed chance-level reliability. Results are discussed in terms of bringing implicit test instructions and self-instructions under experimental control. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internal-external control as a determinant of the effectiveness of modeling and instructions.

Explored the relationship between locus of control and the issue of modeling and instructional effectiveness. From 132 male and female undergraduates, 24 were designated internals and 21 externals according to scores on Rotter's Internal-External Control Scale which accorded with H. L. Mirels's (1970) factor of personal internality. Ss were randomly assigned to 1 of the following conditions: (a) instructional (Ss instructed to be highly concrete in talking about their school, social, and family life experiences); (b) modeling (Ss exposed to a model who discussed each of the above topics in a highly concrete fashion); and (c) control (Ss received only general instructions to talk on the same 3 topics). All Ss then participated in a brief monologue which was scored for concreteness. Results indicate that modeling was an effective procedure. Also, as predicted, internal-modeling Ss were more concrete than the internal-instructions Ss. Findings are discussed in relation to instructional efficacy and response class. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavior in groups as a function of self-interaction, and task orientation.

To further the theoretical expectation that orientation would be associated with leadership and related group behavior, the Bass Orientation Inventory was correlated with rated performance in sensitivity training groups of 32 male supervisors and 25 female secretaries, in groups of 48 candidates for supervisory positions undergoing 3 days of assessment, and in reformed groups homogeneous in orientation. Task oriented Ss, particularly among men, were judged most favorably and interaction oriented Ss least favorably both by peers and outside assessors. However, homogeneous groupings for sensitivity training were most satisfying to interaction oriented Ss, whose leaders were most highly interaction oriented. Task oriented group leaders were highly task oriented, but leaders of self-oriented groups were relatively low in self-orientation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling priorities as a function of survey instructions and sex of respondent.

I constructed two surveys that were identical in counseling needs assessed but different in whether students were asked to assess their own counseling needs or those of students in general. Both surveys were administered in counterbalanced order to 293 university students. There was a high positive correlation between the counseling priorities indicated by the two surveys (rs?=?.80, p?     

Motivation in a task situation as a function of ability and control over the task.

102 psychology students participated in the task of constructing and validating an "academic aptitude test." Training (level of ability) and amount of control over the task were manipulated in a 2 X 2 factorial design. For untrained Ss, performance was positively related to control. The performance of trained Ss was negatively related to control, contrary to prediction. This reversal was tentatively attributed to unintended "side effects" of the training manipulation. As predicted, expected success was positively related to training, perceived ability, and perceived control. A manipulation of success and failure in the task led to results consistent with predictions: Success produced incerases in satisfaction and perceived ability, while failure led to decreases in perceived ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of generic advance instructions on learning a classification task.

Investigated whether giving students generic advance instructions about how to learn a classification task would be effective in facilitating learning of a specific classification task. The effect of instructions was compared with the effects of adjunct postquestions, simply reading the materials (control group), and both instructions and adjunct postquestions. The experimental task involved learning to classify instances of several different categories. Ss were 72 US Navy enlisted personnel. It was hypothesized that advance instructions to Ss regarding how and what to learn would facilitate learning of classification material. Results show that the instruction group and adjunct questions group did equally well on classifying new and old instances of US Navy call signs. All groups did better than control groups. Results suggest that students can learn a general strategy for processing classification material and that providing students with generic information about how and what to learn is an effective instructional strategy. A text of the instructions used to teach Ss how to learn a classification task is appended. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of motivating instructions on reaction time in cerebral disease.

The purpose of the study was to determine the reaction time responsiveness of hospitalized, brain-injured patients to 3 types of motivating instructions and to compare their performances with those of a similar group of hospitalized medical patients without cerebral disease. Ss were 195 patients, 78 brain-injured, and 117 not. Marked initial differences in reaction time between the brain-damaged and control Ss were found, but these differences were not related to criterion scores within any of the 6 diagnosis-instructions combination. Within each diagnostic group the urging instructions were significantly superior to the other instructions in effecting improvements in performance. However, there was a suggestion that relaxing instructions might be more effective than standard instructions with brain-damaged Ss. 19 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of instructions and modeling on self-disclosure.

Examined the relative effectiveness of modeling and instructional procedures in training college students to self-disclose. 48 male undergraduates were randomly assigned to 1 of the following instructional conditions: specific instructions to discuss personal feelings within specified topic areas, general instructions to discuss personal feelings within the same topics, or no instructions. Half of the Ss also listened to a model discussing his feelings within identical topic areas, and half did not receive a model. All Ss then participated in a brief monologue, which was scored for self-disclosure. Instructions and modeling, alone and in combination, increased the occurrence of self-disclosure, but the performance of the combination condition was not significantly greater than the performance of modeling or instructions alone. A post hoc analysis showed the instructional effect was due to the difference between specific instructions and no instructions. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conformity as a function of birth order, payoff, and type of group pressure.

First-born and later-born adolescents were tested in an Asch situation. By introducing a small or a large "payoff" for each correct judgment the amount of yielding was reliably affected. A small payoff led to decreased yielding for both first-born and later-born Ss; whereas a large payoff led to increased yielding only for the later-born Ss. These findings were interpreted as confirming the hypothesis that first-born persons are more dependent on others for social support whereas later-born persons rely more on others for validation of their beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concept identification of schizophrenics as a function of social interaction, sex, and task complexity.

150 schizophrenics participated in a study including 2 sex groups, 3 levels of task complexity, and 3 conditions where Ss served individually or in pairs. In free interaction 2 Ss were free to communicate in reaching mutual decisions; in restricted interaction discussion between Ss was prohibited. The Ss' task was to solve concept-identification problems. Females performed poorest in interpersonal situations and best when alone, whereas male Ss performed as well alone as in free interaction. In free interaction no relationship was found between errors and verbal activity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dual-task performance as a function of adult age and task complexity.

A dual-task procedure was used to examine capacity demands of letter-matching in younger and older adults. Older subjects generally were slower on both tasks than were younger adults, but this difference was especially pronounced for the late stages of category matching, suggesting that retrieval and comparison of category information are particularly demanding for older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interviewer validity as a function of interview structure, biographical data, and interviewee order.

Investigated effects of degree of interview structure, presence or absence of interviewee biographical information, and interviewee order on interviewer validity. 54 undergraduates in personnel management and 36 social-worker supervisors serving as judges rated 6 currently employed social workers assuming the role of job applicants in videotaped interviews. Low validities, calculated using interview ratings and performance-measure criterion scores based on a job analysis of the social-worker position, were obtained in all treatment conditions. Analysis of variance revealed that only interviewee order had an appreciable effect on interviewer validity. Analysis of the interview ratings revealed the presence of halo error and low interrater reliability. Possible design limitations and future research suggestions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a theory of hynotic behavior: Effects on suggestibility of task motivating instructions and attitudes toward hypnosis.

Attitudes toward hypnosis were assessed in 75 college students. 3 weeks later the students were required to participate in an experiment in which they were tested individually on the Barber Suggestibility Scale. The scale was administered under 3 experimental treatments with 25 Ss, ? with positive attitudes toward hypnosis and ? with nonpositive attitudes, assigned randomly to each treatment. The treatments were: Task Motivating Instructions, Hypnotic Induction Procedure, Direct Suggestions (Control). The findings confirmed Hypotheses 1 and 2 which stated: (a) Ss given either brief task motivating instructions or a procedure of the type traditionally termed a hypnotic induction show greater response to suggestions than Ss given neither task motivating insructions nor a hypnotic induction; and (b) brief task motivating instructions and an extended hypnotic induction procedure both elicit high levels of suggestibility. (46 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)