Suchergebnisse

An aspect of the 2-person non-O-sum game was tested. In such a game, according to game theory, each player is tempted to doublecross the other in order to obtain an immediate large gain for himself or protect himself from possible treachery of the other (A. Rapoport, 'The Use and Misuse of Game Theory,' Scientific American, 1962, 207, 6, 108-118). At the same time each is inhibited from defection by the fear of retaliation or possibly guilt at doublecrossing a cooperative partner. Which force dominates in a game depends partly upon the characteristics of the payoff matrix. An experiment was undertaken with 5 2-person non-O-sum games varying in the magnitude of threat of loss to the unilateral cooperator (2) & temptation to defect (1 -r). The parameter t 2 was postulated to be complexly related to ego-deflation, while ti-r was assumed to represent the temptation to maximize one's own gains. A total/sum of 100 psychol students, divided into 25 M & 25 F pairs, were used as S's for the exp. Electric switches were employed for the players to communicate their choices. The payoff matrices were randomly assigned to each of 5 successive pairs of S's so that all 5 exp'al conditions were run one after the other. The trend of defections proved as predicted in the means of all 5 games on practically all measures of game strategy used. The total/sum N of defections is, however, influenced not only by the payoff matrix, but also by such other situational factors as the responses by the other player, the total/sum amount gained or lost to a particular trial, & the N of trials still remaining to be played. The outcome of the experiment suggests that the nature of the motivational variables in game behavior is complex. Some of the complexities involved are discussed in detail. The dominant influence seems to be in the threat parameter. However, findings indicate that the effects of t2 & ti-r are not additive & that S's respond more to one or the other depending primarily on personality factors, or that the games did not proceed long enough for diff's to be demonstrated. 1 Table. M. Maxfield.

An attempt is made to test the implications of a theory of soc ideology concerning reactions to internat'l crises. It was postulated that each individual, as a product of soc'ization, develops an ideological orientation towards others in which they are conceptualized as good, strong, & humanistic on one end of a continuum & bad, weak, & 'object' on the other end of the continuum. It was suggested that each conceptual pattern is influential in determining the values relative to the (a) punishmentreward system of society, (b) the power structure, & (c) interpersonal relationships. The purpose was to test the hyp's that (1) the more positive the conception of man, the greater the tendency to advocate negotiation in internat'l conflicts, to accept internat'l controls, & to support econ aid to other nations, & (2) the more positive the ideological orientation, the less the ethnocentricism & authoritarianism. S's from 6 major public & private U's in the US were admin'ed a battery of tests consisting of an Internat'l Scale, an Ethnocentric-Internat'listic Scale, the Traditional Fam Ideology Scale, & a Soc Orientation Scale designed to assess the ideological attributes. The Internat'l Scale consisted of items describing hyp'al & actual attacks by West or East-bloc nat'l's against the US & the citizens of the US. The attacks were either violent (overt physical attack) or nonviolent (eg econ) in nature. S's had to rate their degree of agreement with each of 4 diff modes of reacting to the crisis: negotiation, aggression, avoidance, & 'self-blame.' The results confirmed the above hyp's. AA.

The present study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between rate of motion of a blind observer and his ability to perceive obstacles. The subject was a totally blind boy of 11 years who was instructed to ride his bicycle over a course in which two movable obstacles had been placed. After 40 trials without a collision, the subject was instructed to ride as swiftly as he could. Forty additional trials were given. The results showed only four collisions, and one of those was during the higher speed trials. Thus, the results indicate that for this boy, higher speeds do not impair object perception.

A theory of collective protest is proposed in which distrust and the erosion of the legitimacy of authority are postulated to be a function of frustrations perceived as inequitably imposed and arbitrary. The present study tested the predictions that protest groups would have a significantly lower evaluation of authority, be more willing to participate in violence, and have a greater sense of competence than nonprotest groups. Two separate studies were conducted. The first study compared attitudes of an activist protest group, the Young Socialist Alliance, with two nonprotest groups, an active voter registration group and a nonactive student group at the University of Texas. The second study dealt with the attitudes of the campus activist Mexican-American Youth Organization (MAYO) and a Mexican-American non-MAYO group. The following instruments were administered individually and anonymously: a semantic differential to evaluate traditional and legitimate author ities; a participation questionnaire requesting willingness to participate in negotiation, protest, and violent confrontation with authority; a credibility-rating scale to measure the trustworthiness of information issued by authority, and a modified internal-external scale to provide an indirect assessment of competence. The results supported the hypotheses derived from the theory of collective protest.