Lawrence J. Breen

Hopelessness, internal-external locus of control, and depression

This research examined the relationship between hopelessness, defined as a system of negative expectancies about the future, and two theoretically relevant constructs: internal-external locus of control, and depression. Two samples of 67 and 44 undergraduates were administered the Beck, et al. Hopelessness Scale, the Rotter Internal-External Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory. The data of both samples supported the predictions that hopelessness would be positively related to external locus of control and to depression.

Locus of Control, Study Habits and Attitudes, and College Academic Performance.

This research examined the relationship between locus of control and two academic-related variables: study habits and attitudes, and college academic performance. Subjects were administered (a) the...

Section Selection in Multi-Section Courses: Implications for the Validation and Use of Teacher Rating Forms.

Researchers know little about determiners of section selection in multi-section college courses. Studies on teacher evaluation and on the validity of teacher rating forms have often assumed section to section equivalence of students assigned by customary registration procedures. To investigate the section selection process, a questionnaire containing items on personal history, reasons for section selection, and sources of information about the instructor was administered to 1,188 undergraduate students in multi-section first year and advanced psychology courses. Major findings were: (1) students significantly differed across sections on biographical variables and on section selection reasons, (2) time at which class was scheduled (classtime) and teachers reputation were the primary reasons for section choice, (3) teachers reputation was less important than classtime for first year students, but comparable to classtime for advanced students, and (4) reports from other students and published ratings were, respectively, the first and second most frequent source of instructor reputation information.

Internal-External Control, Test Anxiety and Academic Achievement: Additional Data.

This study examined the relationships between the internal-external control and test anxiety constructs, and academic achievement. 87 college students were administered the I-E scale, Achievement Anxiety Test and the Academic Internal-External Control Scale, the latter developed for this research. Analyses of variance indicated that Ss experiencing facilitating test anxiety had significantly higher grade-point averages than those experiencing debilitating test anxiety. The hypothesis that internals would be more successful academically than externals, was not supported.

Learned Helplessness, Immunization and Importance of Task in Humans

Prevention of laboratory induced learned helplessness in college students was demonstrated. Three groups of 20 subjects received failure, success, or success followed by failure (immunization) on blocks taken from the WISC and WAIS block design tests. Half of the subjects in each condition were informed that the task was valid in predicting IQ and college success (high task importance) while the other half was simply told that the task involved concept-formation learning (low importance). Following pretreatment all subjects were tested on a series of 20 patterned anagrams. High task importance—failure subjects had longer latencies on the anagrams relative to the high task importance—immunization subjects. The superior performance of the immunization condition relative to the failure condition indicates that learned helplessness in humans, as in infra-humans, can be prevented by prior success on a similar task. High task importance was generally associated with poorer anagram performance thereby supporting Roth and Kubals (1975) findings which relate helplessness to the impact of “no control.”

Assumption Violations and Rates of Type I Error for the Tukey Multiple Comparison Test

While numerous investigations have examined the effects of assumption violations on the empirical probability of a Type I error for Tukey’s multiple comparison test, no study to date has numerically quantified and systematically varied the degree of total variation resulting from combining unequal variances with unequal sample sizes. The present investigation employed a coefficient of variance variation to index the degree of heterogeneity and compared the effects of varying degrees of heterogeneity on the harmonic mean, Kramer (11) and Miller (14) unequal group forms of the Tukey test. The discrepancies between the empirical and nominal significance rates of Type I error were related to a bias ratio provided by Box (1) and were found to markedly vary as a function of the magnitude of this ratio. The Kramer unequal group form of the Tukey test is recommended, as it consistently resulted in empirical Type I rates of error deviating less from the nominal significance level than either of the other two unequ...

The prevalence of psychosomatic disorders among a sample of police officers

SummaryThe present study examined the prevalence of psychosomatic disorders among a sample of 571 police officers. Psychosomatic disorders for the purposes of this study included the following symptoms (headaches, indigestion, constipation, nervous stomach, stomach aches, and diarrhea) and conditions (high blood pressure, asthma, ulcers, and colitis). Police officers reported a greater frequency of psychosomatic symptoms and conditions than previously tested general population samples. The high prevalence rates for psychosomatic symptoms and conditions found in this sample suggest that the occupational stress of police work could be a contributory factor in these elevated rates.

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING AND SEX ROLES IN LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

College students (both male and female) were exposed to insoluble, soluble, no discrimination problems and an observational learning condition. Following pretreatment the subjects were given 20 soluble anagrams. Subsequent to this they were asked to make attributional ratings for their success or failure. It was hypothesized that (a) subjects not given a helplessness pretreatment but merely viewing a similar other receiving insoluble problems would exhibit learned helplessness more than corresponding subjects given soluble problems or no pretreatment and (b) females exposed to the helplessness pretreatment would make internal attributions for failure more than males. The first hypothesis was supported, but not the second hypothesis. The present study did yield data which suggest value in pursuing the issue of sex differences in learned helplessness.

Duration of failure, causal attributions for failure, and subsequent reactions

Abstract Subjects were given a preliminary problem solving task of either short or long duration, and were told that they could shorten the duration of aversive noise bursts by correctly solving the problems. They were then given false feedback that they had done either well or poorly on the problems. Two groups of failing subjects were given information designed to lead them to attribute failure to either lack of ability or a difficult task. Two additional groups received “success” or “failure” feedback without any attributional cues. Failure-induced stress was reported to be greater under short duration conditions than under long duration conditions, and increased to the extent that subjects were led to believe they were personally responsible for failure. Following the preliminary failure period, task performance in the same situation and task performance and persistence in a different situation were assessed. In each case, performance and persistence decreased (a) following short-duration failure when subjects were led to attribute failure to a difficult task, and (b) following long-duration failure when subjects were led to attribute failure to lack of ability. These results are discussed within a framework that emphasizes the role of casual attributions in mediating the effects of failure.

Internal-external locus of control and guilt.

This study examined the relationship between internal-external locus of control and guilt. Ss were 65 male and 137 college undergraduates who completed the Rotter I-E scale and the Mosher Hostility and Morality-Conscience Guilt Scales. Results demonstrated that internals reported a higher degree of hostility guilt than externals. Also, females expressed greater hostility and morality-conscience guilt than males.