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open access

Academic Achievement: Effects of Congruency, Consistency, Differentiation, and Modal Personality Types

Description: This investigation explored relationships between four determinants of first-semester undergraduate academic achievement derived from Holland's (1973) theory of vocational development. Groups of 438 male and 468 female students completed the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and were categorized in terms of congruency, consistency, differentiation, and modal personality type. Undergraduates with congruent college-major choices enjoyed greater academic success than students with incongruent cho… more
Date: August 1977
Creator: Reuterfors, David Lawrence
open access

Comparison of Group and Individual Methods of Presenting Baldwin's Social Expectations Scale

Description: Forty Ss from introductory psychology classes participated in a study to determine whether or not the investigator's group Social Expectations Scale (SES) was a useful research instrument and to determine whether or not intelligence was a factor determining the fit of a particular cognitive model, the BSE, to the social expectations of Ss as measured by the SES.
Date: May 1971
Creator: Pitts, Emily C.
open access

The Effect of Hypothalamic Stimulation on the Phagocytic Activity of the Reticuloendothelial System

Description: Although research has linked the central nervous system with changes in immunoresponsivity, research on the possible role of the central nervous system in altering reticuloendothelial activity is lacking. This study investigated the possible relationship between hypothalamic structures and changes in responsivity of the reticuloendothelial system. Eight male albino rats received bilateral electrode implants in the ventromedial area of the hypothalamus and, following brain stimulation, reticulo… more
Date: December 1979
Creator: Lambert, Paul Louis
open access

The Effect of Monetary Reward and Knowledge of Results on Complex-Choice Reaction Times

Description: This investigation was designed to determine relative effects of monetary reward and knowledge of results on complex-choice reaction time tasks. Subjects were twenty-five male and thirty-two female undergraduate students. Apparatus consisted of nine stimulus lights and eight response keys. Subjects were required to add the number of lights presented, subtract the sum from a constant, and press the correctly numbered response key. Reward subjects received twenty-five cents for responses faster t… more
Date: May 1975
Creator: Davies, Terry Barnett
open access

Hedonic Versus Predictive Inhibition of Avoidance Responding in Rats

Description: Traditional two-process theory predicts that a conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with shock offset on Pavlovian trials will inhibit operant avoidance responding. Two explanations of the inhibitory mechanism involved were compared: contemporaneous pairing of CS with a hedonic relief reaction versus the predictive, discriminative relationship of CS to the non-shock interval. The pattern of avoidance inhibition associated with cessation CSs paired with electric shocks of constant duration was expe… more
Date: December 1976
Creator: Lipscomb, Robert Scrivener
open access

The Influence of Transcendental Meditation on Anxiety

Description: This study was concerned with the degree to which the practice of transcendental meditation (TM) aids in the long-term reduction of anxiety. The Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS), short form, was given to 16 Ss about to learn the technique of TM and to 16 control Ss. Eighteen weeks later, the TMAS was again administered to both groups. A significant difference was found in TMAS score reduction between the two groups, with the meditation group showing the greater reduction. These findings len… more
Date: December 1974
Creator: Floyd, William T., III
open access

Intersensory Transfer of a Learned Shape Discrimination

Description: Intersensory transfer of training was systematically investigated for visual to tactual and tactual to visual situations. College students were trained in one modality on a successive-shape-discrimination task, then transferred to the opposite modality to perform a related-shape-discrimination task. The investigation showed successful transfer in both directions, Transfer from vision to touch was specific to the situation wherein all discriminata were exactly the same In the two tasks. In contr… more
Date: August 1974
Creator: Taylor, Ronald D.
open access

Learned Helplessness: The Result of the Uncontrollability of Reinforcement or the Result of the Uncontrollability of Aversive Stimuli?

Description: This research demonstrates that experience with uncontrollable reinforcement, here defined as continuous non-contingent positive feedback to solution attempts of insoluble problems, fails to produce the proactive interference phenomenon, learned helplessness, while uncontrollable aversive events, here defined as negative feedback to solution attempts of insoluble problems, produces that phenomenon. These results partially support the "learned helplessness" hypothesis of Seligman (1975) which pr… more
Date: August 1975
Creator: Benson, James S.
open access

Passive and Active Avoidance Learning in Depressives

Description: In order to aid in the understanding of the personality components that contribute to the symptoms of depression, the learning process of persons labeled as depressed was examined. Twenty female subjects who were either receiving or being evaluated for psychotherapy participated in this study. Based on MMPI and DACL scores, 10 depressed and 10 nondepressed subjects were placed in avoidance learning situations. An active avoidance situation required making the correct button press to avoid a sou… more
Date: December 1979
Creator: Weeks, Randall E.
open access

Provocative Versus Neutral Role-Playing Prompts and Assertive Behavior

Description: The behavior role-playing task (BRPT) has become a popular method of assessing assertive behavior. However, current research suggests that situational factors can affect the outcome of such assessments, independently of the subject's level of assertiveness. The present study investigated the effects of one such factor: the type of prompt delivered during the BRPT. It was hypothesized that subjects would respond more assertively to provocatively prompted scenes than to neutral scenes. Twenty nur… more
Date: December 1979
Creator: General, Dale A.
open access

Skills Acquisition and Cognitive Restructuring Operations in Training Assertive Behaviors

Description: Behavioral and cognitive skills training for increasing assertive behavior in college students were compared to an equally credible expectancy-control. One significant multivariate function successfully discriminated between the behavioral and control groups, and between the cognitive and control groups. This function was interpreted as showing enhanced behavioral/cognitive construction competencies in the behavioral and cognitive groups. A second function, though not significant, suggested tha… more
Date: May 1979
Creator: Lefebvre, R. Craig
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