To determine short-run effects of experimentally imposed leadership roles, a sample of 221 Boy Scouts (aged 10 to 17) was formed into (usually) 4-man teams that competed in 3 skill games. One member of each team was randomly designated as captain, with power to administer and reward. Captains who were leaders in their troops responded to becoming captains with an increased sense of elan. Captains who were not leaders responded with decreased elan; in some cases, withdrew from relating to others; and were ineffective as captains. (These effects were unrelated to team success.) It was concluded that attempting to confer status on a low-status boy through outside intervention is, in the short run, potentially harmful and does not immediately increase achievement motivation. This report contains a literature review; discussions of the subjects, apparatus, procedures, games, use of the Thematic Apperception Test and of adjective checklists related to subjects' self-assessments of such variables as achievement and aggression, subjects' reactions to the experiment and its components, study variables, and statistical analyses; results of statistical analyses in terms of such factors as being a captain and correlates of leadership rank; and instructions given to team captains for playing the games. (Author/GC)