The alumni relations profession has undergone profound changes in the past century. Alumni officers have responded to opportunities and threats presented by advancing technologies, shifting cultural norms, and unstable world economies. Innovations such as Facebook and smartphones have changed everything, and in a flat world, alumni relations…

The purpose of the authors' study was to understand the reasons why students comply with requests instructors make and compare these reasons with instructors' perceptions of why students comply. Students and faculty at two universities completed the Interpersonal Power Inventory to assess reasons for compliance. Students were more likely to comply…

Research has associated high levels of private self-consciousness (PSC) with accurate self-knowledge and with behavior consistent with one's attitudes. A study by Buss and Scheier reported that privately self-conscious persons are more susceptible to attribution bias, the self-focus of such persons leading them to attribute their positive and…

Factor analyzed combined items from Rotter's Internal-External Scale and Levenson's Multidimensional Internal External Locus of Control scales revealing factors similar to Difficult World, Just World, Predictable World, and Politically Responsive World, and additional factor, Friendly World. Most factors were correlated with masculinity; only…

Measured the effectiveness of rational self-counseling in relation to college students' loci of control as an approach to the primary prevention of mental health problems. Administered pre- and posttest of Rotter's I-E scale to treatment and control groups. Findings suggest college students can learn to be more internally oriented. (Author/RC)

In separate research studies, students who were given a choice of learning materials or who had control over aversive noise, demonstrated higher motivation and better task performance. To investigate the additive effects of choice and control on perception of control, 80 male and female college students participated in a 2 (choice vs. no-choice) X…

This study was undertaken to determine whether external locus of control orientation was significantly negatively correlated with levels of creativity. Subjects were 13 male and 13 female undergraduate students enrolled in psychology classes at a southwestern university. Mean age of the subjects was 28.6. Instruments used were Levenson's (1972) I…

Research has suggested the utility of studying individual differences in the regulation of negative mood states. Generalized response expectancies for negative mood regulation were defined as expectancies that some overt behavior or cognition would alleviate negative mood states as they occur across situations. The Generalized Expectancy for…

Classified 96 undergraduates by locus of control and assigned them to either situational control, perceived control, or no control conditions. Measures of stress reactions during and after exposure to noxious noise revealed no significant interactions between dispositional and situational or perceived control, not supporting congruency hypothesis.…

Administered items from three locus of control (LOC) tests and the Beck Hopelessness Scale to 197 undergraduates. Factor analyses produced multiple factors for each LOC test; Beck proved to be unidimensional. Each LOC test contained salient dimension describing belief in luck, chance, or fate. Other common themes were internal control and…

Examined interaction between Type A behavior and perceived controllability of stressors on overt exhibition of Type A behavior and task performance. Results from 122 undergraduate business students indicated that Type A behavior had strongest effect on overt exhibition of Type A behavior when subjects perceived their environment as moderately…

Compared the effects of assertiveness training, power-base training, and a discussion-control group on manifest and latent power dimensions in college women (N=39). Results suggest that direct behavioral training in assertive or power-based responses does not increase the latent power of women, but does increase manifest power. (Author/JAC)

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…

This study examined the connection between persistence behavior and beliefs about one's own likely or potential performance. Undergraduates (N=114) in teacher education were asked to write test items for weekly topics in a one-semester educational psychology course, based on information conveyed in lectures and text. Subjects could write as many…

Examined life ownership orientation (extent to which one believes that God, individual, or society has power over one's life) among 117 college students who completed Life Ownership Orientation Questionnaire (LOOQ). Found LOOQ scores demonstrated higher predictive validity with regard to attitudes toward abortion, suicide, doctor-assisted suicide,…