An intrinsically motivated behavior is one undertaken and enjoyed for its own sake, apart from external controls or ends. Expectancies are competence cues which focus on an individual's ability without providing objective information for ongoing comparison and competence development. This study focused on the role of affect in mediating the…

The role of the spouse in both the etiology and the maintenance of alcoholism has been focussed on by theoreticians of various persuasions, including psychoanalytic, behavioral, sociological and family systems. These models, focussing on individual and interactional components of alcoholism, have generated a variety of treatment interventions…

Although research has examined the content of alcohol-outcome expectancies and also the role of alcohol use in aggressive and sexual behaviors, few studies have linked the two lines of inquiry. To examine the efficacy of outcome expectancies for predicting actual behavior, 64 male social drinkers, aged 21 to 25 years, completed questionnaires and,…

Expectancies of reinforcement from alcohol have been investigated from a variety of research perspectives. Although results vary with methodology, subject characteristics, and amount of alcohol consumed, research seems to indicate that the expectation of receiving alcohol influences, and at times outweighs, the actual pharmacological properties of…

The relationship between perceived freedom and the attribution of attitudes was investigated. Observers were asked to infer an attitude from an actor's behavior when the actor's behavioral freedom was ambiguous. Attributions of attitude corresponded less to the behavior when it was unexpected and when the actor's potential lack of freedom was made…

Affective and physiological responses, interpersonal interaction, and alcohol consumption have been significantly correlated with cognitive factors in defining the behavioral effects of alcohol. To investigate alcohol reinforcement expectancies at the abusive end of the drinking continuum, 305 male and female adult alcoholics enrolled in alcohol…

Experimental studies indicate that the primary determinant of changes in sexual and aggressive behavior following alcohol consumption is expectancy. Multiple regression analyses were performed on the responses of 100 college students to an alcohol-expectancy questionnaire to determine how expectations for sexual and aggressive behavior following…

Self-efficacy theory maintains that self-efficacy expectancy, a belief about one's ability to perform a behavior successfully, is independent of outcome expectancy, a belief about the likelihood of the behavior leading to a specific outcome. To examine this hypothesis, subjects (N=95) read communications that differed in descriptions of the…

Previous research indicates that social beliefs can act in a self-fulfilling manner, affecting responses to individuals and thereby constraining these individuals to behave in ways that spuriously confirm attitudes about them. The possible role of self-perception, i.e., whether targets of such self-fulfilling prophecies not only alter their…

This study was designed to identify the goal approach behaviors which distinguish first-graders with a successful achievement orientation from equally competent first-graders with an unsuccessful orientation. Based on scores of test anxiety and expectancy for success, 100 boys were designated either success-oriented or failure-threatened and then…

People daydream, plan, and anticipate. They think frequently about their own actual or potential behaviors, and create behavioral scenarios (or scripts) in which they are the main character. To investigate the relationship between thinking about a behavior and one's expectancies or intentions to perform that behavior, subjects (N=93) in Experiment…

The influence of expectations and hypothesis testing on subjects' use of particular types of evidence to estimate covariations was investigated. Results of the first study indicated that all subjects relied most on positive confirming evidence and did not over-utilize evidence that was consistent with expectations. Results of the second study…

Experimental research has firmly established the role of expectancies in determining the behavioral consequences of alcohol consumption. To ascertain whether these alcohol expectancies derive from direct pharmacological experience with alcohol or from nonpharmacological, social-learning factors, an adolescent expectancy questionnaire was…

The evaluation of rewards and costs incurred in the context of interaction is central to equity and exchange theories of interpersonal behavior; however, the question of how this assessment is affected by the anticipation of future interaction has not been directly investigated. If the maintenance of equity in relationships is important, then the…

Most research on teenage parenthood is concerned with illegitimacy and its determinants such as attitudes toward sex, contraceptive knowledge and practice, family relationships, and cultural factors. Empirical studies on the consequences of illegitimacy are generally limited to problems of recidivism, school dropouts, and welfare dependency.…