People in interaction with others organize their perceptions of a social situation in terms of plans even when the others' plans are poorly formulated. They use their models of others' plans in formulating their own. Much of what occurs in discourse centers on a continual communication about and reformulation of one's own plans and one's own…

This article assesses the affects of several factors; sex, age, occupation, size of residence, anomie, marital status, class, and world view, on attitudes towards death. The author's attitudes model is based upon the four-part basic Durkheimian typology, varying in degree and nature of an individual's integration in societal groups. Included in…

In Ann Arbor, Michigan, penalties for the possession of small amounts of marijuana were changed three times in four years. This provided an opportunity to assess the relationship between changes in the legal status of marijuana and the use of marijuana and five other classes of drugs. Data were collected by anonymous self-report questionnaires…

The authoritarian-aggression attitudes of graduate education students were studied. Authoritarian-aggression is defined as the tendency to look for, condemn, reject, and punish people who violate conventional behavior. It was hypothesized that no significant differences in authoritarian-aggression attitudes exist between graduate students who…

This report compares the first and second years of a 4-year study on changes in patterns of social behavior and conceptions of 8-12 year-old children following the introduction of television in their community. Three towns of similar composition were selected for their naturally occuring differences in quantity and duration of experience with…

Agoraphobia is the most pervasive and serious phobic response seen by clinicians, accounting for approximately 50 to 60% of all phobic problems. The symptoms of agoraphobia, a condition in which an individual fears entering public areas, include fears of leaving home, fainting, entering open and closed spaces, shopping, entering social situations,…

Personal dispositional variables conflicting with social pressure and the resulting behavior, which follows a cusp catastrophe, were investigated. Female undergraduates (N=200) completed a set of attitude questionnaires using a Crutchfield console. Results indicate that: (1) when social pressure is low, behavior is a smooth, monotonic function of…

Objective self-awareness theory and stimulus incongruity theory suggest that focusing one's attention on one's behavior in an unfamiliar situation will increase the drive to evaluate oneself, which may be manifested in social comparison. Videotapes of male undergraduates conversing with hand-held puppets were used to study direction of attention…

This paper is an abstract of the original manuscript, by Nancy Boulton, which examines the area of intersection between purely linguistic and social behavior to see if the latter is amenable to formal description. The paper examines psychoanalytic discourse and presents evidence for the following hypotheses: (1) since participants can recognize…

Language has the power to structure and change thought and behavior, where there exists a belief in this positive power of language. Magic is curative because the language of magic has a powerful suggestive effect on the human mind familiar with the context in which this language is used. In psychotherapy, the special terminology is a vital part…

This paper discusses the conceptualization of interpersonal power and offers a relational definition and measure of power. A distinction is made between "power attempts" (domineering message behavior) and "power" (transactional patterns of dominance). To test this distinction, 45 husband/wife dyads were randomly sampled from a…

This conference paper attempts to describe some of the ecological conditions under which children's social behavior can be, and perhaps is, organized. Thirteen preschool children between 2-1/2 and 5-1/2 years of age, participated in several experiments with confederates acting as peers and with novel as well as familiar toys. Four behavior…

A method for direct observation study of early peer-social and object directed behavior in humans was designed to articulate with techniques widely used in studies of social behavior of infra-human primates. Occurrence of behavior fitting the definitions of each of six categories of object behavior and nine categories of social behavior is noted…

An observational schedule to assess child behavior in natural settings was devised, using a system of precoding of types of behavior. The schedule was designed to discover the opportunities the adult has provided for the child and the personal setting the child has selected from those available. Two types of codes are used. The first-level coding…

This speech contains an analysis of school personnel absence, that seeks to develop a formula useful for understanding more clearly the nature of absence behavior. Since absence is an important aspect of productivity, it is important to understand better the dynamics of absence. Absence could be conceptualized as contractual relationships within a…