Joseph G. Phelan

Expectancies of Unemployable Males Regarding Source of Control of Reinforcement.

Three groups of 60 22- to 28-yr.-old males, matched for age, socio-economic status and scholastic aptitude and classified as hard core unemployables were tested on the Rotter I-E Scale. No significant differences in alienation scores were noted between Group A whites and white college students. Group B Black Ss were significantly more externally controlled with greater variability of scores. Group C Mexican-Americans showed an even greater tendency in the external direction and greater variability than the others. Blacks and Mexican-Americans did not differ significantly in expression of external control. Lack of feeling for any relation between individual effort and reward may account for the difficulty in equipping these groups with knowledge and skill to improve their lot.

BELIEFS IN INTERNAL-EXTERNAL CONTROL OF REINFORCEMENT AND PARTICIPATION IN GROUP AND INDIVIDUAL SPORTS

Three groups of 30 12- to 15-yr.-old males, students of California junior high schools, matched for age and IQ, were tested on the Rotter I-E Scale. Group A (school basketball players) were considered to be group sports participants, Group B (gymnasts) individual sportsmen, and Group C non-participants in any school activity. A significant difference in the direction of internal control for group sports participants was noted. Individual sports participants and non-participants were alike in being significantly higher in external control than group players. Further research on the relationship between internal control and self-esteem seems warranted for group sports participants.

Attitudes of Women in Management I. Job Satisfaction: A Study of Perceived Need Satisfaction as a Function of Job Level

This study concerned the relationship between job level and sex as each relates to perceptions of need satisfaction and importance of these needs on the job. A questionnaire was mailed to 1085 employees in eight companies in the greater Los Angeles area for a response ratio of 610~0. The questionnaire contained 17 questions which are classified into eight need categories with as many as four questions pertaining to a single category. Five of the eight need categories and their hierarchal arrangement are in general agreement with the classification system of Maslow. These needs are Security, Social, Esteem, Autonomy and Self-Actualisation (listed in order of prepotency).

Role of Stimulus Generalization in the Treatment of Alcoholism

7 avoidance and 6 escape Ss were conditioned to an alcoholic beverage and administered the Rotter internal vs external locus of control of reinforcement test. 23 Ss, all patients at the Sepulveda V.A. Hospital, were tested for generalized conditioned anxiety in reaction to other alcoholic beverages after acquisition and extinction procedures. Results (χ3) showed significant generalization for all experimental Ss combined in extinction who externalized their locus of control of reinforcement.

Relationship of Kinesthetic Figural Aftereffect to Masculinity-Femininity and Expectation for Internal versus External Control of Reinforcement

60 introductory psychology students (30 male, 30 female) were administered KFAE in ascending and descending trials, using both dominant and non-dominant hands, followed by an embedded-figures test and 145 items from personality tests (Masculinity-Femininity scale of Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey, Rotter I-E Scale, and the combined self-actualization scale of Shostroms Personal Orientation Inventory). Hand dominance but not sex affected KFAE. No stable relation appeared between the personality measures and spatial aftereffect from kinesthetic stimulation for men or women.

Transfer of Verbal Conditioning to Non-Verbal Behavior

In this study neutral syllables pre-rated on Osgoods semantic differential scale were presented as names of blocks. After negative meaning was associated with the syllable XEH Ss re-rated the syllables on three descriptive scales. This conditioning of meaning was established by using unpleasant, weak, and mixed weak-unpleasant evaluative words. These affects were shown to be conditionable to the syllable XEH, to be transferable to a wooden block named XEH, and to be able to modify Ss non-verbal behavior toward the labeled object, block XEH. The application of such words as negative reinforcers in psychotherapy was endorsed.

Use of Matching Method in Measuring Reliability of Individual Clinician's Diagnostic Judgment

This study aimed at exploring reliability differences in clinical diagnostic judgments. Twenty clinical psychologists volunteered for an examination of the consistency of their judgmental performance in matching test results and projective protocols against autobiographies. Psychologist-judges matched, at a better than chance level, Rorschach, TAT, and Sentence Completion Test protocols and objective, paper-and-pencil test data for 6 Ss against their complete autobiographies. Judges differed among themselves but individually were consistent. Judges who were superior in matching one kind of test against autobiography were superior in matching all other tests against autobiography. The matching test is a promising tool for measuring the reliability of diagnostic judgment of test analyzers and interpreters. Further research is needed in the use of matching methods in the study of clinical diagnosis.

Inhibiting effects of attempts to verbalize on attainment and use of complex conjunctive concepts.

For 90 college students, matched for SAT scores, there was differentiation of ability to identify correctly complex conjunctive concepts in a card-sorting task, as demonstrated by ability to learn the concepts to an errorless trial and to apply the newly formed concepts to other materials. Some Ss were able to learn the concepts to an errorless trial and to apply each concept to new sorts but were then unable to verbalize correctly those rules they had just employed. The same Ss who had previously learned an equivalent principle for sorting in one situation, then having tried unsuccessfully to verbalize the concept which they had just employed, were unable to apply the same principle in a new, equivalent situation.

Paranoia and masochism: stages on the road to despair.

THEODORE REIK(18) in Masochism and the Modern Man presented a new view of social masochism. Jule Nydes(13) complementing Reik’s conception, has explored some of the dynamics governing the relationship of the paranoid and the masochistic character structure. The discussion needs to be carried one step further. When the individual rapidly drops the paranoid stance and retreats to the masochistic, he is abandoning a manoeuvre upon which much of his personality depends. The regression is born of desperation, and when it fails, the alternatives are schizophrenia or suicide. Abandonment (even temporary) of the paranoid brings the neurotic one step further away from effective solution of his social problem.

Relationship of Induced Muscle Tension to Phenomenon of Brightness Constancy.

11 male and 11 female college students at California State College, Los Angeles were tested for brightness constancy perception while experiencing induced muscular tension (IMT). One-half Ss maximum grip on a standard hand dynomometer was used for induced muscular tension. IMT was expected to increase activation and attention, and facilitate veridicality of perception in the brightness constancy situation. A repeated measures design was used; each S ran through the constancy test twice, once with IMT, once without. A difference score was calculated for each S by substracting the scores obtained with IMT from those obtained without. The t test (p < .05; t = 2.23) was in the opposite direction from the predicted. IMT heightened activation, but the outcome was facilitation of brightness constancy, not veridicality.