There has been mixed research evidence for an hypothesized greater reinforcement value associated with democratically supervised work, although supervisory style, both autocratic and democratic, and its effects on group productivity have been the subjects of extensive investigations in industrial and social psychology. The effects of supervisory…

After acquiescing to a small initial request, people typically are more susceptible to a later call for assistance. This foot-in-the-door phenomenon was examined based on principles of social reinforcement. In Experiment 1, subjects induced to perform the same initial prosocial behaviors were found to be differentially susceptible to a later…

Present research explored whether crowding effects are caused by subjects or by those with whom they are crowded. In one experiment, 45 male, female, or mixed-sex pairs of subjects discussed a legal case, each pair seated first five feet apart and then almost touching. All subjects reacted more negatively when crowded with males than with females.…

Alcoholism researchers in the past 35 years have emphasized abstinence as the major criterion of treatment success. In recent years, however, this emphasis has been questioned and from the current debate over treatment goals and outcome measures at least two areas of controversy have emerged. The first, called the "abstention-moderation"…

This report presents research studies from the past 15 years which indicate that some alcoholics have been able to return to controlled, moderate drinking after behavioral treatment. Presented in this report are: (1) the techniques used to train alcohol abusers to moderate drinking; (2) the research methodologies used to measure the treatment…

The microeconomic theory relating to utility and cost is applied to the "risk," and the possible "payoff" relative to relationships with others. A good measure of utility is the need or want-satisfying power of an alternative. For the analysis of interpersonal relationships, the needs delineated by Maslow (i.e. food, shelter, belongingness, love,…

A review of the literature indicated a recognition that interview behavior was critical to job placement and successful employment. Previous research, however, has not specified either the structure of inverview training with the mildly retarded or the outcomes of those programs. In a recent study, 29 of 40 mentally retarded young adults filled…

The explanatory cornerstone of most currently viable social theories is a strict cost-gain assumption. The clearest formal explication of this view is contained in subjective expected utility models (SEU), in which individuals are assumed to scale their subjective likelihood estimates of decisional consequences and the personalistic worth or…

In examining "the thesis of complementarity for American communication studies," this paper refers to the idea that the dominating social science behaviorism of communication inquiry can be fruitfully complemented or supplemented with the science of interpretation (hermeneutics) as interpretation is regarded by the Frankfurt School of…

Although empirical research on the agenda-setting function of mass communication dates only from the 1968 presidential election, historically there has been long-standing concern over the control of communication because of its assumed influence. Early communication research shared this concern and assumption, focusing on the ability of the media…

Recent research on the behavioral assessment and treatment of social anxiety and inhibition is reviewed. Subjects for the studies were college men and women selected on the basis of heterosexual anxiety and inhibition. The first part of the paper is concerned with assessment. The behavioral assessment procedures developed include: (1) direct…

The behaving organism is described as a system with internal motivational and memory components which guide the actions of external input and output components. The organism actively shapes its environment by using its output to control its input from the environment. Output is a function of the psychological forces, topographic memory, and input…

This paper reports data from two studies on the behavioral assessment of social competence in college males which look at how well the male initiates interaction with a female in a "boy meets girl" situation. The goal is to determine the types of social behavior which will differentiate between a group of anxious, non-dating, or low…

The follow-up study described in this paper tried to accomplish three major objectives: (a) to investigate the preschool and newborn antecedents of intellectual functioning, (b) to determine if there were stabilities from two and a half to seven and a half in the tempo and style of free play--and here we were looking for both isomorphic and…

This report reviews "Sesame Street's" development of procedure and materials for the 1970-1971 season with emphasis on the social goals of cooperation, conflict resolution, and realization of differing perspectives. These goals mark a departure from the first year of programing which emphasized cognitive learning objectives. Research…