Literature is an artistic expression which teaches human beings valuable lessons about life. Literature invites the reader to share decisions with the decisions of others--the characters seen in literature. Unlike science or philosophy or ethics, which make people say "I understand" and then "I see," literature, as an art,…

To explain the role of empathy in forms of prosocial behavior, two studies were conducted to examine the relationships among different dimensions of empathy, communication, and prosocial behavior. Study one tested three models hypothesized to explain this process, an altruistic model, an egoistic model, and a dual-process model combining aspects…

Although many modern occupations require employees to express particular types of emotions while doing their jobs, little empirical evidence exists about factors related to emotional behavior on the job. This study investigated the relationship between emotional displays (smiling, greeting, thanking, eye contact) of sales clerks and variables of…

It has been suggested that different forms of organizational commitment have different outcomes as well as different antecedents. To test the hypothesis that instrumental attachment to an organization is associated with members' investments in the organization, and that affective attachment to an organization is influenced primarily by the way the…

Although psychologists have been investigating locus of control for more than two decades, few studies have examined how locus of control interacts with affective variables. To investigate the function of locus of control on arousal patterns and expressions of anger, 120 college students (60 internals, 60 externals, as measured by Rotter's (1966)…

Two experiments examined nonverbal behavior patterns and relational communication perceptions associated with communication reticence. In the first experiment, pairs of friends and pairs of strangers engaged in nine-minute discussions. Subjects were rated by their interaction partners and by trained observers. Results showed that as their level of…

Although role or perspective taking has been considered important for the development of mature social thought and behavior, and training for perspective taking has been used to remediate deficient behavior, few studies with either normal or disturbed populations have examined naturally occurring behaviors expected to correlate with…

Most of the observational study of marriage has focused on relatively young and highly educated couples from professional backgrounds. Very little is known about the generality of this observational research to couples whose marital philosophies have been influenced by a different array of socioeconomic conditions and secular trends. Satisfied and…

Self-destructiveness can be viewed in two ways: as performing an act which one knows cognitively is not conducive to one's welfare but nonetheless leads to some pleasurable affect (e.g., overeating, smoking); or not performing an act one knows one should perform but which has some negative affective consequences (e.g., dental checkups, saving…

The influence of negative affect on the retrieval of information from memory during infancy was investigated in two studies through the use of an operant conditioning paradigm. The procedure used, known as "mobile conjugate reinforcement," involves a free operant task in which an infant is reinforced for footkicking by the movement of an…

Recent attempts to predict marital success or failure have explored the explanations couples offer for interpersonal events. To investigate whether positive and negative affect would lead to different causal attributions in a conflict-resolution conversation, 20 married couples were asked to observe a conflict-resolution and a control conversation…

The author examines (1) sport as a medium for attitude learning, (2) achievement as an attitude to be modified in girls, and (3) educational sport as a teaching model through which achievement attitudes in elementary school girls can be affected. Sport is seen as an ideal mechanism for attitude change since it has all the characteristics of a…

This paper presents a discussion of three problem areas that were delineated during the course of a field test designed to assess the effects of the "Heartsmart Adventures," an interpersonal skills curriculum developed from the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (FIRO) Theory as described by William C. Schutz. Students and…

The purpose of a study was to identify factors impacting on supportive behavior exhibited by pre-service home economics education teachers that relate to student-teacher interaction. Four types of positive affective actions were examined: verbal, physical contact, facial, and physical proximity. A pretest/posttest design used videotaped…

Cross-cultural communication cannot be achieved if students are only presented with cultural facts. Instruction must involve the affective and cognitive processes of the learner in interpreting these facts. Before students can understand the attitudes and values of a foreign culture, they must be aware of their own attitudes and values in…