This study examines the relationship between locus of control and subsequent unemployment experience for a national probability sample of teenagers. Using multiple regression analysis to control for a variety of individual differences, the influence of "internal-external" attitudes held as a teenager on subsequent unemployment experience in the…

The goals of this study were to replicate the findings produced in a previous conversation simulation study, to examine the conditions whereby persons attribute blame, and to extend the methodology employed in simulation game study. Conversations were simulated by a two-person game in which subjects (46 undergraduate students) were provided a deck…

In the conceptual scheme for this research study, urban environments were viewed as related to personal well-being by control-seeking and support-seeking behaviors and the psychological consequences of obtaining these goals. Measures of predispositions to these behaviors were found to be related to observed behavior variables. Predispositions to…

This study investigates variations in the amount, source, and kind of support available to adolescent mothers with differing needs (those in both a comprehensive program for teenage mothers and in high school, those in high school only, and high school dropouts), and the effectiveness of this support. The total sample was composed of 64 black…

An experiment was performed to obtain judgments of 324 college students about a list of 18 causal explanations for good or poor performance on an examination. These stimulus causes were judged with respect to a description of two hypothetical situations in which a student either did well or did poorly on the examination. Half the sample judged the…

This study examined four causal attributions (ability, effort, task difficulty and luck) for success and failure in achievement and affiliation contexts across five countries (U.S., South Africa, Japan, India, and Yugoslavia) in three subject majors: teacher training, social science, and science. Each 5x2x3x2 analysis of variance assessed the…

Abramson, Seligman and Teasdale's reformulated model of learned helplessness hypothesized that an attribution of causality intervenes between the perception of noncontingency and the future expectation of future noncontingency. To test this model, relationships between attribution and performance under failure, success, and control conditions were…

Past research has suggested that supervisors, when evaluating the poor performance of a subordinate, are influenced by the outcome of the performance. Nurses (N=55) in advanced training assumed the role of a supervisor of a nurse described as having performed poorly. Half of the subjects read an incident without an outcome and half read an…

Current research suggests that a lack of involvement and a sense of powerlessness pervades many aspects of life for the inner city poor, including childrearing. In the late 1960's, as the movement to involve parents in their children's schools grew, an assumption took root that such participation would help alleviate parents' feelings of…

This study assesses the effects of three kinds of verbal plans, temptation-inhibiting plans, reward-oriented plans, and task-facilitating plans, on children's resistance to temptation. Each plan was studied in an elaborated and an unelaborated form. Subjects were 70 four-year olds, 35 boys and 35 girls. The major piece of apparatus employed was a…

The paper describes a study of the relationship of personality and family variables to the capacity of 42 families to care for their handicapped infants. The predictor variables included two distinct measures of commitment as well as measures of consensus, resources, boundary permeability and locus of control. Outcome measures were the child's…

Subjects were four groups of 12 college women, high or low in motive to avoid success (MAS) and locus of control (LC), were reinforced for response A on a fixed partial reinforcement schedule on three concept learning tasks, one task consisting of combined reward and punishment, another of reward only, and one of punishment only. Response B was…

In this paper differing theories on behavioral psychology are examined as they relate to individual reactions to anxiety producing situations. The focus is on athletes and how personality traits and stress situations influence their behavior and performance. The basic question asked is "How do persons and situations interact in promoting or…

Numerous studies involving suicide attempters and those who commit suicide suggest that the suicidal individual perceives limited control over the environment, the occurrence of stressful life events and a diminished probability of future success. Results of the present study indicate a relationship between the frequency of suicidal thoughts among…

In this study, locus of control and IQ were compared to assess the power of each as a predictor of performance on academic and non-academic tasks. Four locus of control scales: the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Scale, the Academic Achievement Accountability Questionnaire, the Rotter I-E scale, the Origin-Pawn measure and the Iowa Tests…