Morris Aderman

Effect of relaxation training on personal adjustment and perceptions of organizational climate.

The chief aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of relaxation training on personal adjustment and perceptions of organizational climate. The Stern Activity Index and Organizational Climate Index along with the Bendig Manifest Anxiety Scale were administered to 71 volunteer Ss (28 males and 43 females) as pre- and post-test measures. The Ss were randomly assigned to three groups, seminar and relaxation training, seminar and a placebo condition, and no treatment. A one-way multivariate analysis showed a significant mean difference. Results obtained from t tests indicated a significant reduction in anxiety and an increase in personal adjustment. Changes in perceptions of organizational climate, although in the predicted direction, were not statistically significant.

The Effect of a Realistic Job Preview on Expectancy and VoluntaryversusInvoluntary Turnover

Summary This experiment was designed to investigate the relationships among pre-job expectations, turnover, and the realistic job preview (RJP). Subjects were 437 applicants for employment with a m...

Convergent and Discriminant Validity of Psychological and Objective Indices of Organizational Climate

This study investigated the interrelationships among psychological and objective indices of organizational climate, and five performance measures. Subjects were 251 brokers and salespeople from 32 real estate offices. The Organizational Climate and Practices Questionnaire, Agency Climate Questionnaire, and the Survey of Organizations were the perceptual measures used, constituting 17 scales in all. Objective measures were chosen to reflect similar content areas to the subjective scales. A multitrait-multimethod matrix showed convergent and discriminant validity for some of the perceptual measures. Contrary to common findings, however, a composite of measures that yielded such validity indicated negative relationships with some performance measures. A cluster analysis of perceptual measures resulted in six clusters, and scales from a particular instrument generally tended to cluster with scales from the same instrument before clustering with scales from another instrument. Perceptual and objective variable sets were also independently factor analyzed. Component scores of objective measures accounted for more performance variance than perceptual measures. A number of problems and new directions for climate research were delineated.

Sequenced reinforcement in a two-way runway situation

Capaldi’s (1963, 1964) sequential response hypothesis was tested with a within-Ss experimental design. A two-way runway situation made it possible for Ss to experience one sequence of reinforcements and nonreinforcements while running in one direction and another sequence while running in the opposite direction. The direction in which Ss ran alternated from trial to trial. The sequences Ss experienced in the two directions were an N-length of 3 (always 3 nonreinforced trials before a reinforced trial) or N-lengths of 1, 2, and 3 (either 1, 2, or 3 nonreinforcements before a reinforced trial). Greater resistance to extinction occurred in the direction that was associated with N-lengths of 1, 2, and 3.

Determinants of rate of extinction in successive acquisitions and extinctions

Rats were used in an investigation of the conditions that are necessary to obtain a decrease in resistance to extinction across extinctions in a successive acquisition and extinction paradigm. Long breaks (23.5 h) after extinction coupled with a short intertrial interval within extinction sessions (long N-R transition) resulted in a decrease in resistance to extinction across the successive extinctions. Long breaks after acquisition sessions (long R-N transition), or in the middle of acquisition sessions (long R-R transition), yielded an increase in resistance to extinction across the successive extinction sessions. When extinction sessions followed immediately after acquisition sessions (N-R), Ss decreased their running speeds within each of the successive extinctions. When acquisition sessions followed immediately after extinction sessions (R-N), Ss decreased their running speeds within the first few successive extinctions. The R-N Ss learned to increase their running speed within extinctions during the later successive extinctions.

Between-subjects vs within-subjects comparisons of resistance to extinction

Two studies were performed to assess the effects of within-Ss and between-Ss reinforcement parameters on resistance to extinction. A two-way runway situation enabled rats to experience one sequence of reinforcements and nonreinforcements while running in one direction and another while running in the other direction (within-Ss comparison). Groups of Ss experienced different overall sequences (between-Ss comparisons). The two directional sequences determined resistance to extinction when the nontransformed extinction data were examined. Manipulating the within-Ss reinforcement contingencies made it possible to obtain a “reverse” partial-reinforcement effect. Rate-corrected data (Anderson, 1963), however, were more sensitive to the overall sequence.

Differential extinction of a sand digging response in the rat

Abstract Eighty water-deprived rats were trained to dig through 20.42 kg of sand. After reaching a relatively high performance criterion S s, were divided into eight groups which differed in combinations of deprivation schedule and water placements in the apparatus. Satiated S s dug at a significantly lower rate than deprived S s, but within the deprivation treatment groups, S s with water in the start box dug significantly slower. Extinction behavior was consistent for the different groups over the 15 trials tested, and none of the animals showed complete extinction. Relevant behavioral observations were also noted and discussed.

The combination test as a quick screening device to differentiate levels of retardation.

This study attempted to determine whether a completion test could be used as a quick screening device to distinguish the retarded. The two-part combination test requires 7 min. for administration and consists of (a) incomplete figures, which were designed especially for the study and (b) a passage containing incomplete and missing words. Correlations of .93, .86, .80, and .72 were obtained between the two-part combination test and the Stanford-Binet, Ammons FRPV, Columbia, and Wechsler-Bellevue, respectively. All coefficients were significant (p < .001). The data indicate that the two-part combination test can be validly used in screening the retarded.

THREE EMPATHY MEASURES AS CORRELATES OF TEST AND RATING CRITERIA

In order to compare subjective, projective and objective measures of empathy both directly and as to relative power in predicting various group criteria, three empathy measures were obtained from 119 senior and 110 junior nursing students. Measures were ranks of a positive empathy-relevant item among other self values and of a negative empathy-relevant item among self faults, an Incomplete Sentence Test, and the Diplomacy Test of Empathic Ability. Criteria were achievement tests and ratings of individual performances in various areas. Preliminary research and the results suggest three conclusions. (1) As indicated by the generally low correlations among the empathy measures, the indices of empathy are not measuring the same thing. This may be explained by viewing empathy as consisting of several components, with each measure of empathy focusing more or less on one component. (2) Providing the empathy-relevant value and fault statements used in this study were opposites, the self-assessment of empathy within a framework of self values is not significantly related to the self-assessment of empathy when stated negatively and viewed within a framework of self faults. (3) Empathy as measured has limited value in predicting nursing criteria irrespective of whether the measures are used singly or in combination. Except for two of the nursing criteria, very little predictive accuracy is gained by using more than one empathy measure.

Extinction following the differential control of a conditioned positive reinforcer

Rats were given continuous reinforcement in a lever chamber with water as a primary reinforcer and a water-dipper click as a secondary reinforcer. They were then given extinction with no primary or secondary reinforcement. The lever was then removed. Ss were divided into five groups which experienced the following contingencies: placement in the chamber with out shock, dipper-click presentations, shock presentations, click and shock presentations that were not contingent on each other, and forward conditioning click-shock pairings. All groups were then given extinction with the click following each response. The groups aligned themselves in extinction in the order given above (the forward-conditioning click-shock group showed the least resistance to extinction). Significant differences in extinction were found between groups that experienced shock and groups that experienced no shock.