This paper presents a behavioristic view of how persons acquire knowledge of their psychological characteristics and examines counseling from his framework. Persons infer underlying motivational characteristics to account for actions they assign to personal causes. Assignment of cause is based on social comparison and counseling provides such…

Implicit motives generally sustain behavior over time because of the pleasure derived from the activities; self-attributed motives predict immediate responses because of social incentives in a structured situation. Implications of these distinctions are discussed. (SLD)

Sex differences in aspirational and psychological variables related to achievement motivation were investigated among high school seniors. The sample consisted of 218 boys and 241 girls. Sex differences in fear of success imagery was not found. Results indicated when girls were compared to boys that girls: (1) have earlier plans for marriage; (2)…

This book describes years of research on behavior motivation conducted to provide a deeper understanding of the personality of the Soviet adolescent. The studies experimentally explore the motive hierarchy, the relationships among motives that directly stimulate behavior, conscious goals, decisions and intentions. The system of stably dominant…

Empathy has been hypothesized as a mediator facilitating prosocial behaviors such as altruism. Definitions and measures of empathy disagree as to the extent to which the observer's response is affective and the necessity for the observer to understand the other's point of view. A conceptualization of empathy which includes these considerations has…

The study makes use of Rotter's (1966) hypothesis that there are consistent individual differences between people who believe in the internal control of reinforcement and those who believe in the external control of reinforcement. Students who are "internals" will believe that their behavior controls academic successes and failures and may,…

As predicted, approval dependent" persons were more likely to rationalize or excuse the failure" by blaming various experimental factors and/or their partners, but this was always done within the limits of a generalized tendency to seek social acceptance by expressing attitudes complimentary to other persons or situations. (Author)

Provides a conceptual framework for discussing the role of alcohol in a person's life and for planning appropriate interventions when abuse is evidenced. Discusses drive reduction and the dynamic of alcohol involvement through four involvement stages. (Author/RC)

Many physiological and psychological processes fluctuate throughout the day in fairly stable, rhythmic patterns. The relationship between individual differences in circadian activity rhythms and a sense of time urgency were explored as well as a number of achievement-related variables. Undergraduates (N=308), whose circadian activity rhythms were…

Identified college students' (N=139) self-reported reasons for using or not using marijuana. Compared these patterns with value frameworks from which drug decisions are made. Findings are varied and suggest that specificity is needed in drug education, with emphasis on diminishing the "Therapeutic Drug Ethic" values system. (Author/RC)

The effects of actor identity on achievement attributions for success and failure were investigated. Subjects filled out a locus of control scale either for themselves, a neutral other, a liked other, or a disliked other. Within each actor identity variation, the scale items were either (1) unchanged from the original version or specified as (2)…

THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO EXAMINE THE ROLE OF SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS IN THE JOB-SEEKING EXPERIENCES OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS. A SAMPLE OF MORE THAN 450 BLUE COLLAR WORKERS AND NEARLY 80 WHITE COLLAR WORKERS SELECTED FROM THE FILES OF THE STATE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE OF ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA, WAS INTERVIEWED. ONCE EMPLOYED, 62 PERCENT OF THE…

This study deals with attributional theory, a factor of special concern in achievement theory, which focuses on specific behavior as caused by the subject's attributions to the perceived causes of such behavior. This study investigated whether an individual's attributional biases were predictive of task selections he or she made. Furthermore, it…