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The purpose of this article is to study the effectiveness of the three techniques commonly employed for collecting data to be used in evaluating personality adjustment. The interview technique portrays the personality appraisement approach resorted to by most specialists as psychologists, clinicians, and counselors. This technique endeavors to diagnose personality characteristics on the basis of verbal responses, appearance, individual testing, personal contact, and the like. The interview technique as used in this study consisted of a personalized administration of each test during which time ample opportunity was given the student to discuss his understanding of the test situations and the nature of responses made to them. People frequently question the effectiveness of many of the personality evaluating techniques utilized in guidance programs. Since guidance practice generally relies upon the use of one personality evaluating technique, it is essential to know which technique provides the most effective diagnosis of student adjustment not only in the school situation but in other environments as well.

Ordinarily an anniversary occasions the reification of an artificial period. In this case however, there is a certain juncture in the history of the point of view which makes of the past quarter-century something worthy of consideration for symbolic interactionism as well as for our celebration of the founding of the Midwest Sociological Society. The year 1937 lies virtually in the middle of a four-year period which saw the publication of Mind, Self, and Society, Movements of Thought in the Nineteenth Century, and The Philosophy of the Act. It would represent the greatest naiveté to suggest that thus the year 1937 represented the introduction of symbolic interactionism. We are all aware of the long development: from James, Baldwin, and Cooley to Thomas, Faris, Dewey, Blumer, and Young. Even the Tardean imitation and suggestion which underlay Ross's Social Psychology contributed a good deal ordinarily not credited to him in the development of interaction theory. Nor is it the fact that Mead represents the fullest development of the orientation that makes so significant the posthumous publication of his works (for which we may conveniently take 1937 as an anchoring point). Mead's ideas had been known for a very long time. He had taught University of Chicago students from 1893 to 1931. His notions were bruited about in classes and seminars wherever there were professors conducting them who had studied at the University of Chicago—not least in the great heartland included in the Mid-west of our Society. Some of Mead's students had published their versions of his ideas or quotations from some of his philosophical papers—Kimbali Young's Source Book in Social Psychology of a decade earlier contained a paper by Mead, and his Social Psychology bore the strong imprint of Meadian interactionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theory is formulated with which to analyze transactions in social relationships. Economic types of exchange characterized by calculation and self-interest on the part of the actors are contrasted with more "social" forms of transaction such as occur in the cases of role relationships with interlocking rights and obligations and persons strongly attached to one another. The social factors and conditions determining the types of transaction likely to occur between actors are examined in the paper. The key idea in this respect is that the structural and temporal context of interaction, including the past and anticipated character of their relationship, affects actors' orientations toward one another, their preferences, decisions and interaction patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an exploration of the relationship between members' role performance and the benefits they receive from their organizations. The general relationship is interpreted in the context of a "social exchange model" for voluntary associations. Data for the analysis pertain to members of four voluntary farm organizations: Farm Bureau, Farmers Union, National Farmers Organization, and Grange. The data were obtained in a state-wide survey of Wisconsin farm operators in 1965. In general, the data show a moderate relationship, in a positive direction, between benefits and role performance. The benefits tend to differ in the magnitude and, in some instances, in the direction of their relationships to such performance. The findings indicate the importance of taking into account magnitude and direction of relationship, as well as interaction among the benefits and among costs, in order to devise a viable social exchange model of cost benefit relations for voluntary associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symbolic interaction theory as derived mainly from the work of George Herbert Mead views the self-concept as a structure of attitudes which arises in social experience and organizes the individual's perception of his social milieu. Recently, tests based upon this symbolic interaction orientation have been developed for the elicitation of self attitudes. One such test frequently used is the Twenty Statements Test (TST) constructed by Manford Kuhn and Thomas McPartland. The TST attempts to ascertain the specific statements respondents use to identify themselves to themselves. The applicability of the TST to problems of self theory is indicated by the rather wide use which has been made of the instrument. Investigations using the TST have focused upon the following: self-concept and social position; a self-concept and behavior; and the self-concept and attitudes toward other social objects. While TST results have been of substantive interest, little attention has been given to the methodological issues involved in the instrument and its use. For example, little is known concerning the validity and reliability of the test and its scoring procedures. If substantive assertions based upon TST results are to be considered as sound, judicious concern should be directed toward basic methodological issues. It is the purpose of this paper to consider empirically one methodological aspect of the TST. The focus is upon the test format itself. The question is posed: Do variations in the TST format produce variations in individuals' response patterns? Specifically, does the length of the test influence the number and the nature of statements made by respondents? This paper is directed toward answering this question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses various issues related to certain problems of social psychology. The article presents a study in this regard. These problems fall into two groups: those dealing with questions of methodology, and those dealing directly with the psychology of social attitudes. The inter-correlations of the attitudes towards various social issues of approximately 1,500 subjects, drawn from various classes, countries, and organizations were studied by means of factorial analysis. Certain conclusions were arrived at with regard to: the statistical methods used; the general factors underlying the attitudes of the subjects; and a number of miscellaneous points. The results of the analyses reported in this paper indicate strongly a connection between general social attitudes and individual temperamental factors. The organization or structure of attitudes was seen to play a greater part in the differentiation of groups and organizations than that played by the average preference of the various groups for the propositions, the attitudes towards which were being investigated. This result suggests that more attention might usefully be paid by research workers to the question of organization, structure, or "gestalt"-qualities among attitudes.

This paper develops a formal model for exchange within a system of action. The system of action is defined by actors, events, control of actors over events, and interests of actors in the outcomes of events. The system is designed to deal with divisible events (best exemplified by private goods) or indivisible events (such as a bill on which a vote is taken), and events with or without externalities, This paper considers mostly divisible events, but some steps are taken toward analysis of indivisible events on which there are opposing interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the social psychology of physical activity and sports. Physical activity refers to vigorous activities which encompass competitive sports competition to simpler modes of human movement, such as calisthenics. Physical activity and sports are two methods by which man socializes with his fellow beings, thus the necessity of understanding social behavior while involved in the said interaction. The variables affecting physical activity and sports are attitudes, personality and culture.

The purpose of this paper was to demonstrate the applicability of perceived similarity and social favorability scales to the assessment of reference group valences in opiate addicts. Parallel sets of questionnaire items were constructed to elicit favorable and unfavorable self-presentations and group assessments on three status dimensions where in each dimension one pole represented a specified membership group presumed to be a positive reference group, while the other pole symbolized a contrasting, and presumably negative reference group. An item by item scoring of congruent responses to pairs cif items describing self and designated subgroups yielded measures of addict identification or psychological closeness of addicts with reference groups. Configurally scored scales were not superior to single response scales in differentiating the valence levels of reference groups. Greater favorability was ascribed to membership groups. Subjects tended to attribute unfavorable qualities (and in some cases tended to neutralize their responses) to nonmembership groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the conceptualization of two personality orientations and sociometric choice. The purpose of the paper presented in this article is to bring more sharply into focus the relationship between two selected personality dimensions--called "dependency" and "personalness"--and a structural variable, sociometric choice. The core of this theory is that groups which meet over time in a relatively unstructured environment have to resolve two major issues, issues which represent invariant interpersonal tensions. The first of these is the area of group members' orientations toward authority, or more generally toward the handling and distribution of power in the group. The second is the area of members' orientations toward one another, in terms of closeness and intimacy. The personal aspect consists of the member's characteristic patterns with respect to interpersonal intimacy. The article authors hypothesize that members' orientation toward authority and intimacy contribute toward subgroup formation within the group.

Theories of symbolic interaction and ethnomethodology, assume that everyone undertakes a complex process of construction of reality, including self-identity, in interaction with significant others. Utilizing insights into variations in identity reformulation in marriage obtained from a study of American metropolitan women, this paper concentrates on variations of identity reformulation among widows. The major hypothesis guiding the discussion is that the higher the education of the woman, as measured by formal schooling, the more she is likely to experience and undertake identity reformulation in marriage and in widowhood. The less education a woman has, the less she will be consciously affected in her identity formulation by these events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we attempt to do the following with respect to the symbolic interactionist approach to social psychological phenomena: (1) to add to its relatively meager empirical base; (2) to develop a neglected aspect of the position, namely, the time dimension; and (3) to contribute to both the replication and the extension of the limited systematic research which has used this particular framework to focus on the key concept of self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manford Kuhn in his review of twenty-five years of symbolic interaction theory noted that the "oral tradition" had sustained the theory during the years preceding the "age of inquiry." And, as Kuhn has accurately noted, this "age of inquiry" has utilized different subtheories and there was little consensus or "formalization" which preceded the empirical studies. This is true for Kuhn's own theory as well as for the other subtheories of the orientation. It is the purpose of this paper to correct this condition for Kuhn's theory. In doing this I have brought together, in a systematic manner, the ideas, definitions, assumptions, and propositions of the work of Kuhn and his students. With this foundation, I discuss several methodological problems of the theory which have not been previously investigated. It is hoped that this effort will contribute to the "age of inquiry" in Symbolic Interaction Theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the role perspective and compares the activities of two major sociological theorists-Herbert Blumer and Robert K. Merton. As sociologists, they are widely recognized as leading exponents of symbolic interactionism and structural functionalism, respectively. Using role categories formulated by Florian Znaniecki, their performances as men of knowledge and as social scientists are compared. Blumer has presented the symbolic interactionist perspective as a framework or set of postulates necessary to the search for social understanding. As a fighter for truth, he has been more concerned with sustaining a point of view than with the accumulation of supporting data. It is, perhaps, for this reason that he has been accused of a lack of interest in refined techniques, as well as a disbelief in their utility. Yet, his persistent efforts to sustain the symbolic interactionist perspective through a period of positivist dominance have made him a major force in the field of sociology. Blumer's actions as educating teacher and fighter for truth are described, as are Merton's actions as systematizer and inductive theorist. The congruence of their sociological theories to these roles is also considered.

The article presents a paper on the learning of congruent and noncongruent social structures. The task of learning a social structure requires the subjects to learn the interpersonal relations existing between a set of people using a type of paired-associates paradigm. In the present experiment, subjects were assigned the task of learning the existing relation or either "influences" or "likes" in a group of four people whose transitive structures had either the mathematical properties of asymmetry and completeness or symmetry and incomplete transitivity. Through findings, it appears that the learning of social structures is a function of expectations or social schemas learned through prior social interaction. Further, it appears that when the cues provided by the formal organization of a group are in keeping with the informal or existing structure of the groups as reflected in the interaction between members, then the learning of the social structure and the process of adjusting one's role expectations and role behaviors should he relatively easy.

Shifts in the structure of sentiments, taking place in two stages, underlie the emergence of existential sociology to its present significance, A challenge to Parsonian structuralfunctionalism initiated the first shift which was in turn followed by a period containing the development of the basis for a possible synthesis of existential sociology. This position is developed as are some of the characteristic features of an existential perspective on social life. Research based upon existential view and employing the concepts sentiments, body, self, situation, structure, massification and levelling, is presented. Some of the implications of these ideas are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of books on social psychology. "Collected Papers in Psychology," by E. C. Tolman. "General Theory of Neuroses," by R. Brun. "Theoretical Foundations of Psychology," edited by H. Helson. "Comments and Cases on Human Relations," by F. K. Berrien. "Behavior Pathology," by N. Cameron and A. Margaret. "Psychological Analysis of Economic Behavior," by G. Katona. "Thematic Test Analysis," by E. S. Schneidman and others. "Chamorros and Carolinians of Saipan," by A. Joseph and V. F. Murray. "Cerebral Mechanisms in Behavior," edited by L. A.. Jeffress.

The article discusses problems related to drawing of valid inferences from the data of various social psychology research. Traditionally the problem of experimental contamination was given much attention by the textbooks and journals, warning the researcher of subtle and difficult problems and suggesting stringent solutions. A new set of problems and considerations for the researcher were underscored by recent developments in the social psychological area of experimentation. Concern now is directed to the nature of the interaction between experimenter and subject and to how subject performance may be affected by unintentional experimenter influence. Contamination, unintended or deliberately contrived, occur throughout the literature. Such illustrations can serve as instructive warnings to the prospective researcher of the fatal dangers if contamination problems are not considered and reasonable controls devised. The primary sources of social contamination take three broad forms prior manipulation, experimenter influence and the attitudes of the subject.

The dramaturgical and the ethnomethodological positions on the definition of the situation is discussed, after a brief history of the concept. The ethnomethodologists claim to take their cues from Wittgenstein and Schutz, whereas the dramaturgists take theirs from G. H. Mead; these positions are examined in terms of their relative power to explain the problem of the definition of the situation, concluding that the Meadian position is the more powerful one. It is then argued that the essential sociological ontology&dmash; that given expression by Weber and Durkheim—is best realized by adopting some form of the dramaturgical argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt is made to provide a theoretical framework by which one can understand variations in the procedures used in organizational decision-making. Two types are presented; a procedure of confrontation, where the use of voting is emphasized and preliminary discussions are missing, and a sounding out procedure, where voting is avoided and values and beliefs are synthesized indirectly or implicitly through social interaction. The analytical framework is a model of rational choice taking into consideration costs and benefits related to (a) the substantive goods at stake, (b) the effects upon the organization and the wider social system of which it is a part, and (c) the participants' use of time and energy (treating time as a scarce resource). Some specific hypotheses are offered concerning the conditions under which each choice-procedures will be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the question of the importance of the religious speech community to the strengthening of the individual's belief. It is a problem, which belongs in social psychology, the social psychology of religion. Occasionally the speech community is given an enormous extent. Not only does it assume tremendous dimensions on earth, in space and time, it extends into the supra-mundane sphere. As for the extension of the speech community to comprise the past, this does not merely imply that the great figures, apostles, saints, etc., are included in it. Occasionally one is reminded of a frequently occurring type of "prestige argument" where the preacher refers to our forefathers' profound trust in God. In modem group dynamics certain theories have been advanced and investigations have been performed which concern themselves with the dissonance between the individual's beliefs and the reduction of this "cognitive dissonance." Particularly it is Leon Festinger who has tackled this problem complex. In this connection he has also noted the role of social support.

This prototype verbal interaction recording technique is for studying individuals in small groups and is represented by a circle with equal cells corresponding to the number in a group. The observer marks symbols on numbered arcs to record who performed the action, toward whom, the category of the act, and time of its occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty pairs of female Ss were administered a questionnaire consisting of 40 factual items. Each S had the option of either answering each question independently or seeking help from her partner. The Ss' performances on the questionnaire yielded two independent variables which were used to predict and account for help-seeking and help-giving behavior in a task-oriented dyadic interaction involving identification of objects on Holtzman inkblots. The dependent variables consisted of explicit or direct requests for help, indirect requests for help, acquiescent responses, rejections of offered help, and unsolicited help-giving. The results indicated that significant portions of the dyadic interactions on the Holtzman task were predictable from the nature of the Ss' help-seeking behavior on the questionnaire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty-four groups of four high school students each solved four concept- attainment problems in one of three randomly assigned conditions of interaction format: cooperation, competitive pairs, or competitive individuals. On the basic measure of problem solving product (number of card choices to solution) performance decreased linearly with degree of competition, but only the difference between total cooperation and total competition was significant. For one measure of problem solving process (untenable hypothesis ratio) the cooperative format resulted in a lower untenable hypothesis ratio than competitive- pair or competitive-individual formats which did not differ significantly. On the other measure of problem solving process (focusing strategy) competing individuals employed significantly less focusing than either competitive pairs or four competitive individuals which did not differ significantly. Results were interpreted as extending previous findings on the facilitating effects of discussion and cooperation in dyads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An agreement index was devised in order to serve as an arbiter in resolving competing hypotheses from the intergroup relations literature concerning consensus in characterizing ingroups and outgroups. The extent to which parallel role-players in an Inter-Nation Simulation agreed on their choice of adjectives used to describe their own nation, its allies, and its enemies was assessed. The mean of agreement indices for describing one's own nation was significantly higher (more consensus) than the means for both ally and enemy nations. This effect generalized across both the role and the nation of the rater. Role-playing data did not replicate the results obtained from the Inter-Nation Simulation. Several methodological problems, relevant to studies on intergroup stereotyping, were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty male and 30 female subjects participated in a Prisoner's Dilemma game experiment. Lake-sexed dyads were randomly assigned to one of three matrices. The matrices differed in terms of the values assigned to three indices believed to be related to cooperative behavior," and "average payoff per trial." Large monetary rewards were used in the experiment with each subject having the opportunity to win $10.00. The results were in the direction predicted by the index of "average payoff per trial" and were in the opposite direction from the predictions made by the "index of competitive advantage" and the "average advantage of competition." It was concluded that the latter indices are successful in predicting behavior only when small or imaginary rewards are at stake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Out of a total of 10,000 psychiatric clinic cases, 88 white native-born males with unique first names are compared to a matched group with popular names. The major finding in the statistical analysis of various clinical and social history factors is a significantly higher frequency of psychosis in the peculiar name group. No significant differences are found between the two groups in other diagnostic classifications or in comparisons of data on type of offense, work record, marital history, and arrests. The findings are discussed in terms of pathogenic influences in social interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study to measure social interaction between Negro and White children in a housing community. The study to be reported here is one aspect of an integrated research of an interracial housing project from its inception through almost the entire first year of its existence. A janitor and a tenant who were students acted as participant observers, unbeknown to the other tenants, and collected social behavior data in regard to interracial practices and attitudes. The study design permitted the placement of varying ratios of Negro and white families on different floors of the project buildings. The specific concern of this report is the social interaction of Negro and white children as it was observed at the project and its contiguous sites. Ten per cent of the tenants in the project, 14 families in all, were Negro. Since observations were made for almost a year, four times a week, the investigators were also able to test many speculations as to the relation between weather and behavior, including the relation of such indices as barometric pressure, wet and dries bulb temperature, humidity, to children's behavior.

The article presents the significance of the study of courage as a concept in social psychology. The study of courage as a concept should yield considerable information about group pressures and about differences between those who succumb to them and those who do not. There is sometimes a reluctance to evaluate the relationship of social forces to personality, as though social organization, except in its most narrow institutional form, acts only as an unrelated extraneous variable that can tarnish one's scientific armor. In general, there would be an inverse correlation between conformity and independence, while this relationship would not necessarily obtain between conformity and courage. In periods of high conformity, both acts of courage and acts of independence will probably decline, but courage should be most likely to be expressed in conflict and crisis situations, because, while independence can remain cerebral, courage is frequently, but not always, an emotional, quickly-triggered stimulus response sequence. Apart from these generalizations it must be recognized that factors such as punishment potential are subjectively estimated and that objectively similar consequences are going to be differentially fear-provoking for different people.

Although most of the work on the relationship between ethnic tolerance and personality has been based on a comparison between the extremely tolerant and extremely intolerant, there is previous evidence that some of the relationships are not linear. To investigate this relationship further a study was made of 100 subjects, made up of persons judged to be tolerant, intolerant, or intermediate on a social distance scale. A comparison of the Rosenzweig and Bern reuter test results of these three groups suggests that the in- tolerant resembles the tolerant group in most respects by contrast with the intermediate group. The conclude that there are at least three different personality patterns associated with the ethnic tolerance-intolerance continuum. These are: (a) Intolerant subjects. These perceived themselves as well adjusted on the Bernreuter, but the Rosenzweig results suggest that they are not. They are pessimistic and are more concerned with the obstacles that cause frustration than they are with the solution of the problems. They are ego-defensive and extrapunitive rather than impunitive. (b) Tolerant subjects. These resemble the above group in many ways. They perceive themselves as well adjusted, but unlike the intolerant subjects they consider themselves to be self-sufficient and unsociable. Their Rosenzweig results also suggest that they are not as well adjusted as they make out in their inventory responses. They are aggressive towards others and they expect them to provide the solution to problems, but they do not dwell on the frustrating obstacles. They are as ego-defensive as the intolerant group, but more forgiving. (c) Intermediate subjects. These probably have the best adjusted personalities although they describe themselves as somewhat emotional and sub- missive. They are goal-directed rather than ego-defensive in a frustrating situation, and they are impunitive rather than extrapunitive. They play down frustrating situations or expect to solve them through their own efforts. This group seems to be less aggressive and more balanced than the others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses some considerations which are essential to the treatment of certain aspects of social psychology on a quantitative basis. In recent years there has been one new and significant development in social psychology, which has not as yet received sufficient attention. This is the field of diffusion theory and research. Diffusion theory deals mathematically with one of the basic problems of social psychology, namely, how does new behavior, once it has arisen, diffuse through a given population, particularly when its chief means of spread is on a person-to-person basis. By new behavior researchers mean a response or activity which has never appeared before and which may be expressed in any sensory modality. Such behavior may originate in one individual or simultaneously in a group of individuals, although new behavior is generally assumed to arise uniquely in one individual. Such behavior diffuses under various types of social constraint, social selectivity, cycles of sociality which describe the variation in any single individual's day-to-day contacts with friends, errors of social judgment, and dozens of similar considerations.

Although the concept of stereotypes is frequently encountered in the cur- rent literature of social psychology, there is insufficient clarity concerning either the essential and non-essential characteristics of stereotypes, or the role of stereotyping in human behavior. 1. On the basis of an examination of previous studies and of evidence taken from daily life it was hypothesized that stereotyping and stereotypes are essentially characterized by their being: (a) "inferior judgmental processes" (Gleichformierungen) in that they by-pass that capacity for making objec- tive and analytic judgments which man does possess. Nevertheless, stereo- typing and stereotypes, phenomenologically considered, clothe themselves in the garb of rational, intelligent, inductive-through-deductive reactions. (b) "Group relatednesses," both with respect to what they signify concerning their user's relations with the formulating or stereotyping group and with the referent or stereotyped group. Although individual variants in stereotypic content and readiness exist, these are constantly subject to the centripetal and centrifugal forces of existing or changing group allegiances and commitments. These commitments supply the motivational dynamics for social stereotyping. 2. On the other hand, it was hypothesized that neither the condition of "information contrary to fact" nor that of "attitudinal rigidity" is a necessary attribute of stereotypes or stereotyping, although these conditions may, at times, also be encountered in social stereotyping. All research is concerned with differentiating variants from invariants and with completely specifying the latter. The views presented here suggested that the appropriate invariants for research in social stereotypes are those mentioned in the preceding paragraph, rather than "information contrary to fact" or "rigidity." 3. Some attempts were made to relate recent formulations in language and communication theory to certain problems concerning the nature of stereotypes and the process of stereotyping. "Verbal atmosphere effect," "recoding," "amount of information" were examined with this purpose in mind. 4. The content of stereotypes has too little been examined from the point of view of determining why a particular stereotypic pattern Z is assigned to a particular group B by another particular group A. It was hypothesized that stereotypic content now reflects, or once reflected: (a) the characteristics, values, and personality clusters predominant within the stereotyped group, (b) the characteristics, values, and personality clusters predominant within the stereotyping group, and (c) the unique relationships arising out of the interaction of the two groups. 5. Certain similarities between the content of stereotypes and the content of various types of folklore were hypothesized, especially with respect to the problem of initial formulation and subsequent popularization. 6. It was hypothesized that programs of action designed to change stereotypic behavior by channeling it along more desirable lines might proceed by: (a) altering Group A members' perceptions of the nature of the group memberships of individuals from Group B through arranging for their mutual interaction in a new domain while within the setting X and by (b) altering Group A members' perceptions of their own group memberships, through orienting them on the new domain in the setting X, and by (c) accomplishing similar changes with respect to Group B and its orientation toward Group A in the new domain within the setting X. 7. The need for experimental verification and sharpening of the foregoing hypotheses was emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores social interaction in creative and critical performance particularly in some of the fine arts. It centers upon impromptu spontaneous constructive work performed in chainlike manner by a group within brief periods of time. Of interest here is social interaction between an artist and other artists, between a critic and other critics, between artists and critics, and between an audience and an artist. A new method, the method of serial production, was developed in these studies. Methodologically viewed, it is an extension or transformation of the method of serial reproduction. The method of serial production throws light on group influence on individual performance on a creative level. In development of a sequence by the method of serial production, the first person's product overshadows the later work. Rapidity of performance stimulates those who are competent and cooperative but is detrimental to those who are not. There are elements common to long-distance and social memory, to perception, to rumor, and to creativeness and criticalness. Productiveness varies from static, rigid, and cold operations to more dynamic, flexible, and enthusiastic operations.

A number of general propositions are proposed concerning the manner in which reference-others and ethnic attitudes influence intergroup behavior. In a laboratory setting, it is shown that the influence of individual reference-others upon behavior is partially determined by certain structural properties of these others which are labeled importance, visibility, centrality, legitimacy, and control. Among other findings, it is also shown that the relative influence of the two predictor variables depends upon the type of activity considered. An explanation for these results is framed in terms of the reference-other properties mentioned above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A social movement is a dynamic phenomenon that necessitates an appropriate theoretical perspective for adequate analysis. An interactionist perspective provides a useful dynamic mode of analysis. Following a historical resumé of the LSD movement led by Timothy Leary, the genesis of the movement, the development of its ideology and program, and motivational factors involved in the recruitment of adherents are analyzed from an interactionist perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship of interviewer characteristics to the responses of their interviewees in a survey in a relatively sensitive area—drinking practices. Generally, respondents seem to have reacted to easily ascertainable characteristics of the interviewers, such as sex, status (as measured by education, occupation, and clothing), and religion. The attitudes of the interviewer toward his interviewing were also related to respondents' reported drinking. It is concluded that interviewing is a social relationship of brief duration in which the respondent's performance reflects norms that tend to emerge based on the information each of the participants is able to learn about the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method of analyzing social interaction is proposed which: (a) delimits the number of categories by reference to previous work supporting a two-dimensional model of interpersonal relations, (b) uses a molar rather than molecular definition of the unit act, and (c) classifies each act on both dimensions. Data from husband-wife pairs are analyzed using this system. Patterns of both intra- and interpersonal action tendencies are noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study of some factors conditioning the social distance between the sexes. The value the child places on each sex at any time is a result of the direct and indirect teaching he has received, the details of his experience with each sex, both in and out of the home, as well as in relation to other values he cherishes, among which, if the principle of identification is correct, should be placed characteristics he realizes in himself. The tendency to appreciate and protect the self is strong enough so that some value-spread to that with which the self is identified is inevitable. If this hypothesis is valid and strong countering influences are not operative, it should be no surprise to discover that children who have achieved a sex identification tend to prefer members of their own sex. Because of greater similarity in physiological make-up, children of a given sex may feel more comfortable with each other. Because, among other things, the boundaries of the self are narrower in younger than in older children and the self is less differentiated, the relatively greater appreciation of the individual for members of his own sex, it would seem, should be more conspicuous in the early school years than after adolescence, when such identifications and associations, as with a mate or a prospective one, tend to occur, probably because of both biological and social pressures.

The article analyzes the social psychology evident during the civilian war effort in May 1943-May 1944. There seemed to be a falling off in discussions of morale as the organization for war became more complete in the U.S. This trend has continued and there are relatively few recent articles exhorting psychologists to bestir themselves and telling them how to make themselves useful. J.H. Masserman urges psychoanalysts to adopt a program of civilian activities; to accept appointments to local and national defense posts, in order to obtain contacts and opportunities for patriotic and effective service. G.A. Lundberg takes the position that even in wartime, the scientist should as far as possible devote himself to the advancement of science, and to developing and securing recognition of its authority. Out of K. Lewin's theories of democratic as opposed to autocratic organization and individualistic freedom, has developed a program of research in the training of democratic leaders. A corresponding study of the level of aspiration in college leaders and non-leaders shows that the leaders tend to have more self-confidence, are more willing to take responsibilities; are more at ease working in the presence of others, and tend to set higher levels of aspiration for themselves.

This article discusses various issues related to the sociometric interpretation of the relationships between the stage, the play, and the audience, with specific reference to stage thrillers. Sociometry of today is the continuation of those old attempts of direct quantitative observations of the social activities of people with the intent of immediately remedying the frictions among the members of the group with the minimum of effort. If one keeps in mind that all physical analogies as atom, saturation point, solution, attraction and repulsion must, if applied to the social world, be understood with the implication that the part is not isolated, that it participates in the whole: and the whole culture, then the principle of direct sociometric approach will become more and more valuable. In taking up the problem of the stage in its relationship to the audience, the basic traditions of modern sociometry are being followed in the article. In doing so, the article author first deals with the cultural "conserves," then briefly follows the development of the play, and tries to get at the basic differences between the dramatic play and the stage thriller, and finally turns to the atoms, to characteristic attitudes of the audience, the idea being that if the impact from the stage changes the spontaneous action.

The article presents information on the social psychology background for civilian morale. The way people have pursued the objectives of the war effort has been determined up to now by a wide variety of viewpoints and material facilities. People will no doubt, continue to draw quite diversely upon the protean American genius, but there is heartening evidence that a more unified design is emerging from the kaleidoscopic array of new agencies, new personnel, new ideas, and new necessities. Consider gas rationing when it started. The willing but inexperienced volunteers who served the program in countless school buildings, and the administrators who directed it from Washington, were unwittingly throwing confusion and even resentment into the minds of their fellow citizens.

This article focuses on three fundamental methods of human thought. These are applied to problems of social psychology, have gotten significant results in the solution of those problems and thus in the understanding of human conduct and in the basic overcoming of human conflict. In the methods of thought, which the social scientists have reviewed, they believe to be valid, but here in conclusion the scientists focus upon methods of thought, or ones which will aid the methods which they had established, to do their work more efficiently. The spiral method of thought can be shown to exist wherever the dialectic method does, provided that the full realities with which the dialectic method has dealt are handed over to the spiralist for reanalysis. It is possible to use many methods at the same time because all consciousness of reality is infinitely pliant because it contains matter as well as rigid form. As valuable as are the methods of thought that the scientists have reviewed in aiding one in arriving at knowledge of the truth, they do not have definite, yet a priori and independent validity.

This article focuses on one of the methodologies of social psychology. This methodology is the attempt to resolve the conflict of human theories, and so human conflict itself, is the aspect method of organization, which searches out and organizes all elements or aspects of elements in the reality under consideration, which are consistent with the aspect itself, leaving to other aspects the other elements and their aspects. In this respect an aspect may be compared to a specifically sensitized magnet when approaching a field of steel particles and causing those of similar wavelength to arrange themselves so as to be consistent with the magnet, while leaving the other particles to be organized by other magnets. The relation of cross-section of aspects to their aspects is that of angles. When brought to the point of affirming such crude contradictions as are implied by angles, people back away from the point of contradiction to relieve the tension of their thought, but do so to various degrees, and so actually express different thoughts--each as valid as the others but no more so.

This article focuses on the methodology of social psychology. It follows from the foregoing description of the etiology and solution of social conflict that the essential service which psychology can perform in resolving such conflict is--the discovery of the causes of the actions of persons; the formulation of those causes into general laws of conduct; and then the reiteration of those laws until they become generally accepted by the public. In proportion as one person understands another his wrath against the other cools. The former person even approaches the conviction that under similar conditions he himself would have done as the other has. And in confidence of a fair hearing from the now understood person, the former person will frankly present the reasons for his own actions, and so make himself understood by the latter. The final result of this process of explanation is mutual understanding and so the elimination of conflict. It has been important to explain the value of social psychology per se in settling social conflicts because a belief is now current that the only social psychology of value to that end is a psychology of classes.

The article presents information about fifth annual meeting of The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, of Pennsylvania State College, held in September 1940. The elections committee reports the election of the following officers: F. H. Allport, Chairman, for the year1940-41; Members of the Council, includes Gordon Allport, Leonard Doob, E. R. Hilgard, and Gardner Murphy. The first exhibit of this Society at the New York World's Fair, 1939, closed on October 31, 1939. In the months following, plans were made for re-opening the exhibit at the 1940 World's Fair in revised form, with an attempt to present a more elementary and unified picture of the concepts of contemporary social psychology. The Committee's budgetary expenses for this fiscal year consisted solely of expressage costs involved in dismantling the exhibit and returning materials to contributors. The Society remains the legal owner of a salvaged made-to-order table and a small modern chair at present in the bands of this Committee's chairman. The following proposals are suggested to the incoming Committee for consideration: Psychological problems related to sterilization, the uses and abuses of mental tests, human nature and the status quo.

The article focuses on the question of atypical opinion and confidence in relation to social psychology of an individual. This question was raised by the social psychologists F.H. Allport and D.A. Hartman in 1925. They obtained opinions on controversial topics and also the amount of confidence in these opinions. They attribute the extremist's excess of confidence to compensation for a feeling of insecurity in his position. It states that this question is still a special one and the interpretation of Allport and Hartman should be checked by the more sophisticated techniques which are available today. The article informs that for knowing the answers, attitude scales should be selected in which opinion is expressed in the form of a judgment in two categories. When more than two categories are used, unnecessary confusion is introduced by the relation of confidence to the width of the categories, the definition of the category threshold, etc. Confidence in a small subgroup will depend in part on differences between the distribution of opinion in the larger group and in the subgroup. If the subgroup is to the left of the larger 'group, then the leftists in the subgroup will be more confident. If the subgroup is 1.0 the right of the larger group, the rightists will be more confident.

1. In a first experiment, Lippitt compared one group of five 10-year-old children, under autocratic leadership, with a comparable group under democratic leadership. In a second experiment, Lippitt and White studied four comparable clubs of 10-year-old boys, each of which passed successively through three club periods in such a way that there were altogether five democratic periods, five autocratic periods, and two "laissez-faire" periods. 2. In the second experiment, the factor of personality differences in the boys was controlled by having each group pass through autocracy and then democracy, or vice versa. The factor of leader's personality was controlled by having each of four leaders play the role of autocrat and the rôle of democratic leader at least once. 3. Records on each club meeting include stenographic records of conversation, quantitative symbolic records of group structure, quantitative symbolic records of all social interactions, and a continuous interpretive running account. Parents and teachers were interviewed; each boy was given the Rorschach ink blots, a Moreno-type questionnaire, and was interviewed three times. Analysis of causal relationships between these various types of data is still far from complete. As a preliminary report we are giving here a part of the data bearing upon one specific problem, that of aggression. 4. In the first experiment, hostility was 30 times as frequent in the autocratic as in the democratic group. Aggression (including both "hostility" and "joking hostility" ) was 8 times as frequent. Much of this aggression was directed toward two successive scapegoats within the group; none of it was directed toward the autocrat. 5. In the second experiment, one of the five autocracies showed the same aggressive reaction as was found in the first experiment. In the other four autocracies, the boys showed an extremely non-aggressive, "apathetic" pattern of behavior. 6. Four types of evidence indicate that this lack of aggression was probably not caused by lack of frustration, but by the representive influence of the autocrat: (a) outburst of aggression on the days of transition of a freer atmospheres; (b) a sharp rise of aggression when the autocrat left the room; (c) other indications of generalized apathy, such as an absence of smiling and joking; and (d) the fact that 19 out of 20 boys liked their democratic leader better than their autocratic leader, and 7 out of 10 also liked their "laissez-faire" leader better. 7. There were two wars." more or less playful, and without bodily damage, between clubs meeting in the same room at the same time. The first of these began gradually, the second suddenly. Three factors, present in both cases, seemed conducive to group conflict: (a) irritation and tension produced by a hostile stranger, (b) absence of a respected adult, and (c) lack of any absorbing alternative activity. 8. There were two striking instances of aggression against impersonal objects. 9. A general interpretation of the above data on aggression can be made in terms of four underlying factors: tension, restricted space of free movement, rigidity of group structure, and style of living (culture). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the influence of interest is one the source of which lies within the personality; the influence of both the environmental factors and specific techniques have their sources outside the personality. While the method of psychoanalysis seems to be necessary when working with the factor of interest, an external approach to the problem of social maladjustment can be made through the other two influences--environmental factors and specific techniques. Emphasis in this research is placed on these two. Determination of the extent of social relationships in an average college group, a random sample of college students living in the usual college dormitory, was first undertaken. Study of the extent of social relationships in another "equivalent" college group, where the "average college environment" was complicated by one additional environmental factor, might show, when compared with the results obtained in the first case, the effect of the one atypical environmental factor on the social contacts made.

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The article discusses the question "Are collective behaviors and, more precisely, social movements only the expression of the dysfunctions, crises, and disorganization of a social system or do they represent also - and above all - the struggles that are o