In this article we present results from research on how education environments may influence the propensity of education participants to engage in corrupt practices. We approached this task with the help of a conceptual framework that draws on rational choice and routine activity theory, and on economic models of human behaviour. The framework…

College students (N=18) participating in personal growth groups completed questionnaires about consistency, consensus, and distinctivenesses of feedback received from the group. Findings argue that consensus is an important variable in determining whether feedback is accepted and in channeling attributions of reasons for why particular feedback is…

Compared smokers' (214) and nonsmokers' (220) explanations for cigarette smoking behavior to determine predictors of cigarette consumption. Results showed addiction and affective smoking were the most important motives predicting consumption. Presented at the meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Washington, DC, 1980. (WAS)

Within the area of attribution theory, an overjustification effect is inferred if, following reward for an intrinsically interesting activity, individuals subsequently show less interest in that activity than comparable individuals who receive no reward. In an attempt to isolate the overjustification effect, 60 college students (30 male, 30…

Psychologists and laymen alike often use the terms "shame" and "guilt" interchangeably. Guilt is an affective state most often associated with a focus on some past behaviors which the subject finds inconsistent with a set of internalized standards which are often, but not necessarily moral in nature. Shame involves less of a…

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…

Two enduring questions in psychology concern the effects on behavior of traits and of attitudes. One method of altering the relative influence of traits or attitudes is by manipulating the activity of those areas of the brain which attend more to the self or to the external environment. Two experiments were conducted to test whether manipulation…

Self-serving biases in attribution have been widely explored; however, the effects of motivational factors on observers' causal attributions have been neglected in attribution research. To investigate these effects, observers' liking and perceived similarity toward a target person were manipulated. Subjects were 80 college students. The observer…

Past research has shown significant treatment versus control differences using paradox, although the literature often does not detail how the paradoxical directive is given to the client. College students (N=105) were tested with the Procrastination Log and the 40 with the highest scores were selected in order to study the effectiveness of paradox…

Past research has produced conflicting results concerning the manner in which Type As and Bs make attributions following success and failure. Some studies find that Type As are more likely than Type Bs to blame themselves for all outcomes, particularly failure. Other research indicates that Type As are more self-serving in their post-performance…

Research examining alcohol consumption by using Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control Scale has reported conflicting results, possibly related to comparisons of clinical groups of alcoholics with nonclinical light drinkers or to an overuse of correlational statistics and a lack of appropriate controls. This study sampled a wide range of ages…

Investigated the implicational relations between dispositional levels and relevant categories of behavior. Findings were consistent with the idea that dispositional labels are used to represent a central tendency in a person's behavior. (Author)

Previous research has consistently demonstrated that variations in physical attractiveness elicit different evaluative and behavioral responses. To assess differences in affective responses to variations in physical attractiveness and the affect of sex on those responses, 76 college students (31 male and 45 female) viewed colored slides of an…

The relation of moral reasoning to moral behavior has been the subject of a substantial number of empirical studies; it may be more productive to employ a configuration of characteristics to predict moral behavior. To investigate the relation of moral reasoning and personality variables to moral behavior, 74 undergraduates, 30 males and 44…

Previous research has shown that college students often report problems with procrastination on academic tasks. A study was conducted to investigate factors related to academic procrastination. Subjects (N=379) completed the Procrastination Assessment Scale on measures of test anxiety, attributions, and self-control. A subset of subjects (N=125)…