In this investigation deviation and conformity in a women's college with approximately 700 students has been studied. The criterion used was variation in attitude towards equality between the sexes (feminism), the subjects' perception of the group norm, of themselves in relation to this norm, and some of their consciously expressed personality predispositions were made the focus of the inquiry. Responses were obtained from 312 subjects in an attitude questionnaire, in which they were asked to indicate their attitude and that of the majority of students in the college. Forty-six subjects were given, in addition, certain personality tests from which a composite measure, labelled Self Determination, was obtained. The results indicated that there exist significant differences between people in different categories of deviation and conformity as to their perception of the group's norm. It is found that deviants are not most inaccurate. There exist also significant differences among the categories in the degree to which the subjects consider themselves like the group, and this does not seem to be related to actual degree of deviation, nor to self determination. Finally, it was found that deviants in this group tend to score higher in Self Determination than conformists, regardless of the direction of their deviation. Some of the implications of these findings are discussed and possible lines of further research are outlined.

<p> Clinical theories converge in hypothesizing that depression is linked to reduced interpersonal agency, which often manifests in an increase in submissive behavior. There is mounting support for this hypothesis from studies using dispositional measures of interpersonal style. However, numerous questions remain about how depression influences actual interpersonal behavior both within and across real-life situations. In particular, relatively little is known about how situational context influences depressed individuals' interpersonal behavior.</p><p> The current studies used a &ldquo;multi-tiered&rdquo; approach to address this gap in the literature, combining dispositional, cross-situation (i.e., ambulatory assessment), and within-situation (i.e., observational) measures of interpersonal behavior. The interpersonal dimensions of agency (i.e., dominance&ndash;submissiveness) and communion (i.e., affiliation&ndash;separation) were examined across all tiers in a large sample of clinical and community participants.</p><p> Analyses revealed a more nuanced picture of depressed interpersonal behavior than a simple reduction in agency. When dispositional measures were examined, most depressed participants did endorse one of two submissive styles (i.e., submissive affiliation or submissive separation). However, a non-trivial proportion of depressed participants (e.g., those with &ldquo;Cluster B&rdquo; or dramatic/erratic personality traits) endorsed more dominant interpersonal styles. Thus, depression is often, but not always, linked to submissive dispositional traits.</p><p> Mean differences between depressed and non-depressed participants were also subtle when cross-situation and within-situation measures were examined. Depression was associated with more negative affect during interactions and more bias when interpreting romantic partners' behavior in terms of agency. However, significant effects of depression on participants' overall agency and communion were not found. Rather, depressed participants were subject to most of the same interpersonal processes as non-depressed participants and differed only subtly in terms of perceptions and reactivity.</p><p> Depressed or not, participants tended to match with their interaction partners on communion and mismatch on agency. They found their interaction partners' separative behavior to be unpleasant and tended to respond to partners' negative affect with separative behavior. These results underscore the importance of understanding depressed behavior within its broader interpersonal and affective contexts. Depression may be related to a general decrease in interpersonal agency, but different situations can easily draw out different behaviors. </p><p>

The first part of this thesis comprises a review of some of the extensive literatures on locus-of-control and task motivation. The exercise reveals that, while the locus-of-control construct has received considerable support, no satisfactory explanation of its functional characteristics as a motivational variable is available. This appears to be because locus-of-control is not a unitary construct. Previous analyses have depended almost entirely on existing measurement scales, notably Rotter's I-E Scale. In this thesis, the theoretical component is a conceptual analysis of the locus-of-control construct, and the empirical component consists of the construction and testing of a set of interlocking scales, which assess the relative importance for common events of six loci of control. The task is specially defined as a unit of behaviour which is further analysed in terms of preparatory, decisional and operating phases. Locus-of-control is construed as the subjective relationship between effort input and performance output in a task, and this relationship is further differentiated into effort-effectiveness, task competence and range of uncertainty components. These parameters are considered in conjunction with the arousal value of the relationship between performance and satisfaction, and the inhibitory effect of effort, in a model of task behaviour which unites locus-of-control, decision-making and motivation theory. Differences between Africans and Europeans are predicted for the structure of control beliefs, and a cross-cultural study is described which used the I-E Scale and the author's "A-C Scales". The results indicate acceptable levels of reliability and independence for the A-C Scales, and reveal cross-cultural variation in the meaning of external control. The theoretical implications are outlined. Both the model and the design of the instrument appears to make a significant impact on the theoretical and methodological problems in the area. Various practical applications are discussed.

The Occupational preferences of a sample of undergraduate science students from two Colleges in London were explored by means of an Occupational Preferences Questionnaire. The study was intended to explore the relation of the preference for Research or Non-Research Occupations to other dimensions of Psychological relevance: Intelligence, Personality Factors, Values,Orientations to work satisfaction and Conformity. A classification of occupations in Science, according to the Research - Non-Research criterion was obtained by means of a Principal Components Analysis. Persons who preferred the Research Occupations tended to be more reserved, detached, critical and cool, rather than easy-going persons; to like things or words rather than dealing with people, to enjoy working alone but at the same time liking intellectual companionship and to be self-sufficient rather than group-dependent and accustomed to making their own decisions. The mean personality profile (l6 P.F.) for those who preferred the Research Occupations was found to be very similar to the "Typical Profile" of the research scientists. However, no very strong differences in personality factors were found between those who preferred research occupations and those who preferred other occupations. The main difference between these groups was on their conformity scores as measured by a conformity test developed by the researcher. Thus, those who preferred research occupations scored significantly lower inconformity than those who liked teaching, administration, sales, etc. Refinement of the Conformity Test is suggested as it may be a useful instrument in selection procedures. The general pattern of occupational values expressed by this sample was found to be similar to those reported for College Students in previous literature. Persons who preferred Research Occupations valued the interest of the work most highly while those who had other occupational preferences placed a higher value on meeting or working with people.

The primary object of the present investigation was to test the inverted 'U' model developed by investigators of 'arousal' in the west and of the 'strength of the excitatory process' in the Soviet Union to explain the relationship between a variety of factors and measures of behavioural, subjective and physiological response. In the present project adult human subjects took part in four experiments. The following factors were investigated in one or more of them: introversion, neuroticism, 'strength of the excitatory process', stimulus intensity, stimulus duration, signal frequency, signal probability, accessory stimulation, time on task, task repetition and time of cay. Measures of psychoticism were also taken. The response indices included: gustatory measures, reaction time, signal detection theory measures, vigilance scores, autonomic indices and measures of subjective state. Support for the model emerged most strongly in the form of certain lower order interactions between the factors, for example between introversion and neuroticism for simple auditory reaction time, and between neuroticism and time of day for the speed of response to signals in a vigilance task. Support from higher order interactions was less forthcoming. Compared to low N subjects, high N subjects scored relatively low on the 'strength of the excitatory process' as measured by Nebylitsyn's index of the slope of the simple visual reaction time / stimulus intensity function. It was suggested, furthermore, that previously discrepant findings with respect-to introversion using this measure nay have been due to response bias effects, though experimental test of this idea yielded non-significant results. Though only partial support for the model was obtained it was considered to remain a useful conceptual tool, and possible practical implications were discussed.

<p> Rumination is defined as thinking about a provoking event. Previous studies had participants ruminate by themselves (i.e., engage in individual rumination), however, individuals can also experience rumination if they communally relive a provocation with others. We have termed this phenomenon &ldquo;collective rumination. Participants (<i>n</i> = 175) first completed the Revenge Planning subscale of the Displaced Aggression Questionnaire. They were then provoked, randomly assigned to either the collective rumination, individual rumination, or distraction condition, and given the opportunity to aggress. Results indicated that collective rumination produced significantly higher amounts of aggression relative to both individual rumination and distraction. This effect, however, was moderated by revenge planning. Specifically, collective rumination increased aggression for participants with low and mean levels of revenge planning but did not impact aggression for those high in revenge planning. Furthermore, there was a strong positive correlation between group cohesion and aggression for participants who collectively ruminate.</p><p>

<p> It was not known if and to what extent there was a relationship exists between an affirmative presence of insomnia and less need for sleep to cognitive impairments in bipolar disorder type 1 patient population. Lacanian topology and memory consolidation theory provides a comprehensive theoretical foundation for this quantitative correlational study design to determine whether a correlation exists between impaired sleep and cognitive impairments in BP-1 patients. This study included a convenience sample of 286 BP-1 patients collected from the Genetics of Bipolar Disorder in Latino population study. The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia Change in Symptomology was used to measure presence of insomnia and decrease need for sleep, and the South Texas Assessment of Neurocognition was used to measure cognitive functioning related to verbal memory, spatial memory, attention, executive function, speed of processing and inhibition. Spearman&rsquo;s rank order correlation analysis was conducted to answer the first and second research questions, and multiple regression to answer the third research question. The results of the study showed significant inverse correlations between insomnia, speed of processing (<i>rs</i> = -.129; <i>p</i> = .029), executive functioning (<i>r_s</i> = -.116; <i>p</i> = .05), decreased need for sleep and speed of processing (<i>r_s</i> = -.118; <i>p</i> = .046). Moreover, it revealed that insomnia and decreased need for sleep as a set were significant predictors for the speed of processing, <i>F</i> (2, 283) = 3.08, <i> p</i> = .048. The findings of this study added to the literature on how sleep disturbances effects cognitive functioning in BP-1 patients and resulted in several implications for clinicians and researchers.</p><p>

This study examined whether males (N = 66) who play a violent video game (24: The Game) are more likely to form aggressive thoughts than males who play a nonviolent game (Tetris), and furthermore, whether this tendency to form aggressive thoughts is moderated by trait aggression, such that those with high levels of this personality trait would reliably report more aggressive thoughts. Players’ style of video game play (very aggressive versus less aggressive) was considered as well. Results indicated that, as predicted, participants who played the violent video game produced more aggressive thoughts than those who played the nonviolent game; however, contrary to our hypothesis, trait aggression did not moderate this relationship; i.e., the effects on playing the violent video game on aggressive cognitions were not statistically larger (or smaller) for those participants who scored high on the trait aggression index than for those who scored low. Using data obtained by measuring participants’ playing style during while playing 24: The Game, the results reveal that individuals do, indeed, tend to play video games, at least violent video games, in relatively different ways; in fact, the number of in-game violent acts committed by players varied substantially (from a low of 57 acts to a high of 255 acts). Subsequent analyses indicated that participants' level of trait aggression did not influence the style of video game play used (more aggressive versus less aggressive). However, results also indicated that a more aggressive playing style did, in fact, predict aggressive thoughts. Drawing on the theories of neo-associationism and GAM, this study offers an innovative approach to gaming research by considering one's in-game aggressive playing style as well as individual difference variables (i.e. trait aggressiveness) in investigating the aggressive outcomes of violent video game play.

Substance abuse is a multidimensional problem that incorporates dispositional, behavioral, and physiological determinants. Yet, more systematic approaches to developing multidimensional models of drug use and typologies of drug abusers, using combinations of these determinants, are needed that can predict frequency of substance use and relapse rates. The model tested here is a combination of dispositional and behavioral variants. It was proposed that: (1) Drug users maintained on methadone can be classified into different addict profiles or typologies based on personality, coping skills, and motivation; (2) Different addict profiles are significantly related to different levels of drug use; and (3) The multidimensional model is superior to any one determinant; that is, personality, coping skills, and motivation make independent, significant contributions to the prediction of drug use. Ninety-four male and female IV drug users, who were enrolled in a methadone maintenance program and had at least three months of treatment completed, participated in the study. Subjects were assigned to sessions during which they completed a series of questionnaires. Results indicated that five different addict profiles could be identified, two of which were very distinct. One profile was characterized by a healthy personality structure, adaptive coping skills, and high motivation, the other profile displayed an opposite pattern. Addict profiles were significantly related to various self-reported drug use measures, including frequency of drug use, number of drug use temptations and slips, effort to resist temptation, and frequency of giving in to temptation. No significant gender differences were found across addict profiles. Furthermore, the multidimensional model was superior to any one determinant; personality, coping, and motivation each significantly predicted drug use. Additional results are presented on the influence of methadone beliefs on motivation and drug use, and the relationship among stress-coping skills, temptation-coping strategies, and drug use. These findings are discussed with regards to implications for theory development and treatment strategies for substance abuse.

<p> Psychological ownership has come to light as an important state with strong implications on employee attitudes and behaviors. However, relatively little attention has been paid towards the process by which employees come to develop feelings of psychological ownership towards their work, particularly regarding the role played by individual traits in this process. Ownership theorists claim that personality and disposition should matter (Mayhew, Ashkanasy, Bramble, &amp; Gardner, 2007; Pierce &amp; Jussila, 2011), yet these claims remain largely untested. The purpose of the current investigation is to address these gaps by exploring how employee disposition and job design contribute to the development of job-based psychological ownership. Employing a cross-sectional approach, data were collected using an online survey where participants were asked to complete measures of trait positive affectivity (PA), job characteristics, work experiences, and job-based psychological ownership. Because the study focused on job-related phenomenon, participants were required to work full-time in a location other than their home to be considered for this study. The final 426 participants (60.4% male, 39.6% female) had an average tenure of 5.04 years (SD = 5.03) and represented a wide range of industries and job levels (23.7% entry-level, 31.0% individual contributor, 17.8% supervisory, 10.8% mid-level manager, 2.8% senior manager, 13.8% technical or professional). Hypotheses were tested using bootstrapped regression analyses and structural equation modeling. Results indicated that job autonomy has a positive effect on job-based psychological ownership (B = 0.501, CI 0.415 to 0.594) through three mediated paths: investment of ideas, effort, and self into one&rsquo;s work (B = 0.252, CI 0.178 to 0.349), experienced control and influence over one&rsquo;s work (B = 0.214, CI 0.137 to 0.293), and intimate knowledge and understanding of one&rsquo;s job (B = 0.036, CI 0.003 to 0.082). Employee PA significantly moderated the mediated path from autonomy to ownership through experienced control (Index of ModMed = 0.017, CI 0.000 to 0.045), such that control mattered more for high-PA employees. Exploratory analyses suggest that PA may play a dual role &ndash; as a moderator of autonomy&rsquo;s effects on control (B = 0.052, CI 0.009 to 0.100), and as an indirect effect on ownership itself. For example, high-PA employees reported greater investment of self in their work, which in turn predicted job-based psychological ownership (B = 0.255, CI 0.177 to 0.361). Ultimately, job autonomy stood out as having a particularly strong and consistent positive effect on job-based psychological ownership. Results suggest that all employees, from the most enthusiastic to the most apathetic can experience this positive psychological state. That is, as long as they are afforded a high level of autonomy in deciding how to plan and carry out their work.</p>