Research shows that people comply more frequently to threats when the credibility of the source is high rather than low and that compliance is directly related to punishment magnitude. To examine the impact of an advisor on a target of threats, male college students (N=74) participated in an experiment that included high or low threatner…

According to the learned helplessness hypothesis, organisms exposed to uncontrollable events learn the independence between their responses and environmental outcomes. This learning is believed to interfere with subsequent behavior. To further examine the dimension of uncontrollability, 48 college students were given solvable, unsolvable, or…

The existence of extrasensory perception (ESP) among volunteer college students was investigated in numerous studies, under hypnotic and non-hypnotic conditions. Study results indicate that: (1) some types of suggestions administered in a hypnotic context appear to facilitate extrasensory perception; (2) strong ESP suggestions administered without…

Mentally retarded adults (N=180) were asked 30 yes/no questions, to determine if their acquiescence is explained by indiscriminant yea-saying in response to the yes/no question format or due to subjects submitting to the influence of the interviewer. After selected questions, the interviewer either nodded his head "yes" or shook his head…

Self-destructiveness can be viewed in two ways: as performing an act which one knows cognitively is not conducive to one's welfare but nonetheless leads to some pleasurable affect (e.g., overeating, smoking); or not performing an act one knows one should perform but which has some negative affective consequences (e.g., dental checkups, saving…

A study replicated Robert Sommer's classic work of library table seat choices, showing that people given defensive instructions chose end seats while people given offensive instructions chose middle seats. In a followup study, defensiveness was measured in college students who were asked where they typically sat at library tables. This study found…

Type A behavior is characterized by extremes of time-urgency, competitive achievement striving, impatience and hostility. Type A persons have distinct patterns of responding to opponents' strategies for lowering hostility. Since minimum retaliation allows the opponent control over one's behavior, the strategy should effectively lower Type A…

The relationship between attitudes and behavior has been a topic of considerable debate. Accordingly, this paper reports a meta-analysis of 83 attitude-behavior studies. The analysis suggests that attitudes significantly predict future behavior (combined p<<.000000000001); the average attitude-behavior correlation (ABC) is r=.38. Methodologically,…

Based on a modification of Berglas and Jones' (1978) design, conditions of contingent and noncontingent success and failure were manipulated to determine when and why individuals choose to adopt self-handicapping strategies. Male undergraduates (N=76) were informed that they were participating in a study investigating the effects of music on…

Previous research in suicidology has revealed that Caucasian males in their 80's pose the greatest suicide risk of any segment of the population. Only a few people have begun to investigate the interrelationships of this target population with the particular environments in which they reside. Realizing that the median age of Skilled Nursing…

The effects of physical attractiveness, warmth, and sex of an adult model on imitation behavior of adult males and females were investigated. Subjects were randomly paired with confederates of low or high facial attractiveness who interacted with the subject in a cold-unfriendly or warm-friendly manner. The imitation task involved the confederate…

Compulsivity and obsessiveness are vaguely defined terms which include a broad range of behaviors and cognitions that have been elusive to quantify. To introduce the 22-item Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (OCS) and to perform preliminary validation studies, 114 (46 male, 68 female) college students and 57 counseling clients completed the OCS on two…

Recent theoretical and empirical work suggests that precipitating and individual susceptibility factors are involved in the development of depression. This etiological issue was reexamined within a college population. A comprehensive assessment technique, the behavioral-analytic methodology, was used to collect over 1,000 written descriptions of…

Personality theorists have suggested the critical importance of parenting characteristics on the development of a child's personality. Missildine's (1963) classification of parenting characteristics and their effects on the adult personality were investigated using an experimental measure, the Inner Child Inventory (ICI), to assess perceived…

Although stressful life change events are thought to influence the development of alcoholism and to enhance the probability of relapse after treatment, the actual coping responses to specific events among alcoholics remain largely unexplored. Efforts were made to operationalize and classify coping responses and to explore their relationship to…