An experiment designed to study the relationship between moral behavior and level of moral development is described. Subjects in the experiment were faced with the choice of either remaining uninvolved observers or intervening to help another student. Their choice was affected by the presence of an authority figure which discouraged any…

The report describes the fourth and final study in a program of research into the relationships between the characteristics of human tasks and the abilities required for task performance. The goal was to generate principles for identification of ability requirements from knowledge of the characteristics of a task and of variations in the…

In order to identify appropriate behaviors of company commanders for behavioral change training, an extensive questionnaire was administered to company commanders and recruits. A profile of the average company commander resulted, giving demographic, attitudinal and behavior characteristics. An analysis was made of the relationship of attitudes and…

While considerable research has been reported on cognitive outcomes of Personalized Student Instruction (PSI) courses, little information about affective outcomes of the PSI is available. In this study three methods of instruction including an introductory psychology PSI with no formal classes, an educational psychology with some formal classes,…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a behavior modification method for remediation of reading skills with ten primary grade students enrolled in a sixteen week program. Ten elementary school teachers enrolled in a graduate diagnostic and remedial reading course received eight hours of instruction, including the collection…

This study relates Eric Berne's theory of Transactional Analysis to the effectiveness of advertising messages. A 30 item Personality Mode Test was constructed in order to assess subject agreement with statements reflecting Berne's three personality states: parent (social evaluative), adult (controlled rationality), and child (emotiveness). After…

This paper assesses the state of political communication as an emerging multidisciplinary effort and discusses two major varieties of political communication theory and research. The first section of the paper discusses the "effects" research tradition in mass and political communication, examines the impact of critiques of this…

This study investigated the effect of the sex of an oral interpreter and the sex of the dramatic character portrayed on audience evaluation of performer effectiveness and audience comprehension of the passage presented. Two interpreters, one male and one female, each performed six monologues, three of which were feminine and three of which were…

This study examined the effects of two different training techniques, with and without behavioral feedback, on the acquisition and use of four interviewer behaviors: head nods, minimal verbal stimuli, probes, and confrontations. Sixty subjects classified as field-independent or field-dependent were randomly assigned to one of five experimental…

The purpose of this essay is to examine some of the reasons for the low implementation potential of most social psychological research (both in psychology and communication) and to suggest some ways in which the speech communication discipline can increase the applicability of its knowledge to the solution of contemporary individual and social…

This paper assesses advertising effects on children and adolescents from a social learning theory perspective, emphasizing imitative performance of vicariously reinforced consumption stimuli. The basic elements of social psychologist Albert Bandura's modeling theory are outlined. Then specific derivations from the theory are applied to the problem…

One of several possible systems for delivering special education services, a consulting teacher approach seeks to manage and educate handicapped children in regular elementary classrooms. Vermont has adopted this approach for certain handicapped children because it is less costly and disruptive, avoids labeling and extensive testing, provides…

The Contact Action Space (CAS) of an individual, or group of individuals, has a significant impact on the location of activities and the organization of the use of space. Beginning with the most basic components of a CAS, the individual behavior pattern element is developed, and operational variations affecting alignment and configuration are…

This study tested opposing predictions made by Gamson's Minimum Resource Theory and equity theory concerning the type of coalitions that will be formed when members of a triad expect that rewards will be correlated with amounts of individual resources. Results supported equity theory in that subjects, whose work on a pretask was used as the basis…

There is a considerable body of research that involves covert antecedents and consequences of behavior, and how these factors tend to influence overt behavior. As is frequently the case in new areas of endeavor, overenthusiastic claims have been made for covert conditioning procedures, often based on poorly controlled experiments or clinical…