There is a developing trend in psychology to study the healthy personality. Investigations have been conducted which attempt to identify and study meaningful experiences as they occur in a person's life. These studies have focused on both the negative and positive experiences and the consequences of these experiences in the life and personality of persons. One of the researchers in this area, Norman Finkel (1974; 1975), investigated the incidence and pattern of three types of experiences in the lives of college students. The three types of experiences which he investigated were traumas (T), strengthening experiences (S), and traumas that were reconstrued as strengthening experiences )T-S). His results suggested a change in the occurrence of these experiences over the life span. The 103 participants, 28 males and 75 females, used in this study were drawn from: adult Sunday -school classes, graduate extension classes, a regional pastoral association, and a group of vocational counselors. The mean age of the sample was 36.5, with an age range of from 22 to 65 years of age. Data were collected through the use of a questionnaire which instructed the participant to recall traumatic and strengthening experiences. A chi square analysis was used to determine the level of significance among the frequencies of the types of experiences and the differences of the frequency of the age at which the different types of experiences occurred. The patterns of the experiences over the life spans were analyzed through graphic representation. The data indicated that there were no significant differences in the number or types of experiences recalled by males versus females or by persons of different ages. However, when the types of experiences were analyzed separately for each sex, females recalled a significantly greater number of T's than S's or T-S's. Significant interactions were found between types of experiences recalled and the age occurrence. Traumatic experiences were recalled as occurring during the earlier part of life, strengthening experiences as occurring during adolescence, and T-S experiences as occurring later in life. The most frequent consequence of the S experience was to change self perceptions. The T experience appeared to have a greater tendency to effect the perception of and the interpersonal relations with others. The majority of the T-S experiences resulted in a greater awareness, empathy, or appreciation, or in reconstruing the environment or one's behavior more realistically.

Previous research on the nature of the self-concept generally suggests that this particular construct is broad, stable, and not easily altered. Yet, current practice regarding the feedback of information concerning one's intelligence quotient remains restrictive and unresponsive to this evidence. Individuals are protected from the knowledge of their test results ostensibly to prevent harmful effects upon their self-images. The present study focused on the impact of learning one's assessed intelligence quotient upon needs taken from a measure of self-report. It was predicted that subjects who had received feedback accurately specifying their intelligence quotients and who had reported discrepancies between this score and the quotient they had expected to receive would score no differently from persons in control groups who had not been given their IQ scores. The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale was administered to twenty-seven college males and fifty college females, while the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule was administered to all of these subjects and to an additional control group of twenty-one. A Hotelling's T2 test was performed to assess differences between the mean raw scores of the experimental and control groups on ten EPPS scales. The results of this analysis did not indicate a significant alteration in self-concept following IQ feedback. This occurred even though the feedback was subjectively reported to be discrepant from the subject's own earlier estimates.

The California F Scale differentiated groups of low-, moderate-, and high-authoritarian undergraduate students who participated in a study of subject preference for either a directive or non-directive therapy. The subjects read specially prepared descriptions (directive) and Client-centered were asked their preference for of Rational Emotive Therapy Therapy (non-directive) and a therapy. their perceptions on and consideration for therapist behavior human motivation. therapy. A factor They also gave 14 dimensions of and style and therapy assumptions about All three groups chose client-centered analysis of the 14 perception scores yielded two factors: a hale "good-guy"-similarity - competent factor and a directive-evaluative factor. These two factors were not correlated for the high and moderate authoritarian groups. For the low-F group, the factors were negatively correlated. Additional analysis showed that the perception factors were unrelated to therapy preference for the high-F subjects. For the low- and moderate-F groups Factor I was significantly related to preference. Factor 2 contributed only a marginally small amount of variance to the low authoritarians. A factor analysis of the 14 consideration scores revealed two factors: therapist capability - similarity - attraction and therapy assumption - problem causation. There were no significant differences across the three groups in the consideration they gave these factors. The discussion focused on a comparison with Kraus' study, the implications for further research and the limitations of this investigation. The sole use of authoritarianism as a matching criterion was questioned.

Four versions of the structure rule and two levels of training were investigated in an attempt to eliminate structure rule coding errors in Vroom and Yetton's (1973) Normative model of leadership. One hundred and sixty volunteer general psychology students received either thirty or ninety minutes of training on the Normative model and then responded to fifteen hypothetical situational problems. A 2 X 4 analysis of variance failed to reveal any significant effects. Neither the training nor structure rule effect was found to be significant. There was also no interaction between training and structure rule. Therefore, the various formats of the structure rule were not effective in eliminating the incorrect coding of the rule and training did not improve subjects' coding accuracy. These findings are inconsistent with previous research. Several differences between the present study and previous research which may account for these inconsistent findings are mentioned, e.g., subjects, trainers, and training strategies. A number of implications for future research are also indicated, e.g., massed versus spaced and whole versus part training, motivation of subjects, and increased training time.

The theoretical proposition to be evaluated by the research may now be stated as follows: The greater the dissonance being experienced by a person the more actively he will 1) seek out new information which will provide cognition consonant with existing cognitive elements and 2) avoid those sources of new information which would be likely to increase the existing dissonance.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of gender and body size on ratings of physical performance and effort. Participants (N=250) viewed the videotaped performance of one of four actors (large man, small man, large woman, and small woman) lifting, moving, and stacking 25 pound bags of feed. However, instead of containing feed, the bags contained a light weight (three pound) packing material. Participants rated the actor's performance either immediately or one week after viewing the videotape. Although the actual performances were identical, a 2 (Gender) x 2 (Body Size) x 2 (Time of Rating) ANOVA revealed gender differences in performance ratings (F(7,192) = 10.75, p < .001). No differences were found between large and small individuals or between immediate and delay ratings. Implications of gender bias in performance ratings on physically demanding jobs are discussed.

An attempt was made to evaluate the institutional services provided by a community mental health center's geriatric program. Intervention by geriatric staff involved the use of gardening as a form of activity (remotivational) therapy. It was hypothesized that by involving personal care home client: in gardening, an increase in clients' morale and sociability would be observed. The Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale and Stockton Geriatric Rating Scale were used to assess changes in these areas. Croup 1 contained five clients who actively engaged in gardening. Group 2 contained 17 clients who, although not actively involved in the garden, were nonetheless exposed to it in more indirect ways. Statistically nonsignificant results for both groups indicated that gardening did not produce markedly positive changes in clients' morale and sociability. However, positive trends on Morale Scale scores and behavioral observations indicated that Gardening, as an intervention program for the institutionalized elderly, did improve the quality of their lives.

The present study addresses two competing leadership models, the Vertical Dyad Linkage (VDL) model and the Average Leadership Style (ALS) model. The VDL model states that supervisors treat subordinates differently depending on a variety of variables (e.g., the subordinates competency, skill, trustworthiness, etc.). The ALS model states that, on average, a supervisor treats all of his/her subordinates equally. This study raises two fundamental questions that pertain to both leadership models. First, does the VDL model or tile ALS model more accurately describe leadership behavior for the first line supervisor who is in charge of blue-collar subordinates? Second, is there a relationship between the VDL model and the perception of job characteristics (i. e., skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback)? In a field study, first-line supervisors completed questionnaires containing the Job Descriptive Survey (JDS) and the Leader Member Exchange (LMX) scale, while their subordinates completed a questionnaire containing the JDS, LMX, and two sub-scales of the Job Descriptive Index (JDI). As hypothesized, the VDL model predicted employee satisfaction after accounting for between group variance. However, the second hypothesis, that the VDL model would predict the perception of job characteristics, was only partially supported. The hypothesis that leader-member agreement in the perception of job characteristics would be related to LMX, received only weak support. These results contribute to the expansion of the VDL model's usefulness in terms of generalizeability across organizational levels as well as through the inclusion of the JDS as a dependent variable. Finally, the implications of this study for the workplace as well as for future research are discussed.

The California F Scale served to distinguish among high-, medium-, and low-authoritarian graduate students who participated in a study of client preference for psychotherapist. The subjects viewed the film series, Three anproaches to psychotherapy, and were asked their personal preference for a psychotherapist (Carl Rorers or Albert Ellis) and their perceptions on and consideration given to 12 dimensions of therapist style and behavior. Comparison of the high-, medium-, and low- authoritarian groups indicated that their choice of therapist was significantly different. Authoritarian subjects preferred the directive therapist (Ellis) whereas the nonauthoritarians chose the nondirective therapist (Rogers) at a rate significantly different from chance. Factor analysis of the percertion scores on the 12 dimensions of therapist behavior yielded two factors: a "good-guy"-competent-empathic factor and a directive-evaluative factor. These two factors were hi hly positively correlated for the high-F group and negatively correlated for the low-F group. Further analysis revealed that for all three groups, the global "good-guy" factor was most highly related to a subject's choice of therapist. Factor analysis of the consideration scores on the same 12 dimensions of therapist behavior yielded three factors: an affective-competence factor, a similarity-attraction factor, and a directive-evaluative factor. Further analysis indicated no significant differences across all three groups in the consideration they assigned to these factors. Discussion centers on why high- and low -authoritarian subjects differed in their choice of therapist and the possible implications of this in actual therapy settings. A case is made for matching client and therapist on the basis of the client's level of authoritarianism

The purpose of this study was to explore the predictive potential of the information gathered on the Big Brother/Big Sister volunteer application blank for the prediction of successful (matched 12 or more months) and unsuccessful (matched six months or less) volunteers. Two alternate application blank weighting procedures (England's 1971 weighting scheme and multiple regression analysis) were used and the results of these procedures were compared. It was hypothesized that both procedures would correlate significantly with a tenure criterion. This hypothesis was supported, although the England (1971) procedure failed to cross-validate. Additionally, it was hypothesized that the multiple regression procedure would yield a shrunken r which is higher than the cross-validation estimate obtained using England's (1971) method. This hypothesis was not supported. A discussion of these results and recommendations for the use of this study is provided.