Studying 40 branch offices of a large brokerage firm, the investigator attempted to develop a framework for theoretically and operationally defining the concept of interdependence in organizations. After defining task, position-role, social, and skill interdependence, the author explores the consequences of differentiation in terms of the…

The purpose of this essay is to propose a different explanation of collective behavior and also to hypothesize how communication functions in this process. Using the experimental finding known as the "risky shift," this essay (1) summarizes the history of the risky shift, (2) presents two different theories which have been proposed to…

The teacher interns participating in the Pittsburgh Teacher Corps Pre-Service Program are divided into groups for training. This questionnaire was designed to elicit responses from their trainers regarding group atmosphere, relationships, interactions, activities, and progress during each separate session attended by each group. Trainers also…

Two experiments to study the development of the meaning of laughter in children are reported. A pilot study presented recorded audio tapes with both humorous and nonhumorous episodes, some with accompanying canned laughter, to 24 boys between the ages of 4 and 6 years. Observers recorded durations of laughter and smiling. Results showed that both…

The purpose of this study was to determine if an effective conservation training procedure would be one in which a child was confronted with opposing points of view. Subjects were 108 children with a mean age of 6.7 years. In two experiments, a group of three children (generally one nonconserver and two conservers) was required to respond with one…

This report is a consolidation of the knowledge and skills imparted during the 1973-74 Information Management Training Institute sponsored by Tennessee State University, Meharry Medical College, and the Institute for Services to Education, Inc. Section one of the report includes the proceedings from the sessions conducted on data collection,…

Group members tend to like other members of their own group more than members of groups to which they do not belong. This paper focuses on some of the initial determinants of this own-group preference and on the isolation of factors which increase or decrease it. The major finding appears to be that the mere anticipation of cooperation or…

This paper is an analysis of some of the literature concerning group mediated risk taking. Jhangiani explores Brown's V-theory, which states that members of a society try to realize its cultural ideals in their behavior; Nordhoy's theory of cultural values, which states that "In the group, the impact of values which are commonly accepted in the…

The project investigated aspects of group dynamics and group behavior with mentally retarded adolescents, aged 18 to 25 years with a mental age ranging from 3 to 7 years, who worked in citriculture in Israel. The report began with an examination of the peer group principle, its relationship to childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, and its…

All human development is social-situational--that is, it is the result of continued interaction between personal maturation and socialization into group life. For most Americans, it is families and schools under whose direct influence a large proportion of preadult life is spent. Within these communities are subgroups based on age, sex,…

Georg Simmel's influence in the area of general theoretical orientations and with respect to research traditions on the stranger and social distance is reviewed. (Author/DE)

(Available from Subscription Section, APA, 1200 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20036; $30.00 annually)

The impact of community leadership and attitudes indicated in news coverage on the subject of school integration is discussed as it relates to the flight of white families to the suburbs. (JD)

Examines the rhetoric of "popular" atheists in the U.S. and argues that their rhetoric possesses distinctive features that are the natural results of existential failure. (MH)