How can a person be induced to do something he might not ordinarily do? What constitutes a commitment on his part of some future action? Past research indicates that compliance with a small, relatively innocuous "foot-in-the-door" request serves to increase, relative to a control group, subsequent compliance with a larger request directed toward…

Three separate laboratory studies were conducted to determine the conditions under which a person reciprocates a past favor and retaliates a past harm. The first study utilized the framework of equity theory (Adams, 1965) and predicted that when faced with inequity due to the generosity or stinginess of another, one means of reducing the inequity…

An examination of the fear of success in black college women at four campuses indicates that the proportion of fear of success found in Thematic Apperception Test imagery of black women is consistently lower than has been found in studies of such imagery of white women. (Author)

The purpose of this study was to test instrumentality theory predictions of work effort. The amount of effort exerted on various tasks by a group of faculty members at a large university in the U.S. was examined. It was found that the modifications of the theory generally led to improved predictions of effort. (JB)

Recent studies have demonstrated that external rewards can affect intrinsic motivation to perform an activity. Money tends to decrease intrinsic motivation, whereas positive verbal reinforcements tend to increase intrinsic motivation. This paper presents evidence that negative feedback and threats of punishment also decrease intrinsic motivation.…

Critiques the frustration-aggression hypothesis, which was developed in 1939 concerning the interplay of cognitive and motivational processes in aggressive behavior. The hypothesis suggested that frustration leads to aggression. The author's experiments show that the aversive experiences, not necessarily frustration, lead to aggression. (Author/AV)

Much research in the field of moral behaviour is vitiated by the prevalence among researchers of a behaviouristic conception of motivation which ignores the importance of reasons in guiding behaviour. Its is argued that this neglect is dangerous and that researchers must take more account of them if their work is to have real relevance for moral…

This response to AA 514 433 argues that the antithesis between reason and cause is not as sharp among experimental psychologists as John Wilson supposes. (Editor)

Proposes that the member of a pair who is underrewarded or overrewarded by this partner is motivated to reciprocate and to restore equity, but one who is rewarded by chance is motivated only to restore equity. (MB)

A theory of the physiology of motivation is presented. The basic assumption is that the amount of motivated behavior is a direct function of the amount of activity in certain excitatory centers of the hypothalamus. Activities of these centers are determined by factors in four general classes. (SLD)

Female subjects were asked to evaluate either an attractive or unattractive male stimulus person under one of the three experimental conditions; while listening to avant-garde, rock music, or no music at all. Responding on the Interpersonal Judgement Scale (IJS: Byrne, 1971) and a seven-point physical attractiveness scale, subjects indicated more…

In a variable distance 10-trial ringtoss, it was found that success required that a subject exceed his expected score. Therefore, the probability of success was the probability of exceeding the expected score on the 10 throws (Ps10); and this is shown to be different from the probability of scoring a ringer in a single throw (Ps1) from the same…

This issue is the first of a series that will be made available to persons interested in the problems and potentialities of human motivation. Each issue will be devoted to a discussion of one aspect of motivation and will report practices, research, and theory development in this field. Features will include announcements of publications and…

In this study of the relationship between moral behavior, level of moral development, and motivation, moral behavior was assessed in an experimental situation in which it was necessary to violate the experimenter's authority to help someone; level of moral development was assessed by Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Scale, and motivation by a…