MOTIVATION HUMAI!.~E

EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATION ON ACHIEVEMENT

BY

K. S. Sonm

(Freie Universit~t, Berlin)

361

The effects of communication on t'.. ~' receiver have been very intensively investigated in social psychological research. Very little attention, however, has boon given to an equally important aspect of the problem of social communication, namely to its effect on the communicator himself. Some ree~nt studies of the problem of "self-consistency" are pertinent to this problem. Results indicate that any assertion made in a social situation tends to exert some pressure on the communicator to behave in a manner consistent with his assertion.

In order to investigate the effect of his communication on the achievement of the communicator the method generally used in the investigation of the level of aspiration was employed. In such experiments, as we know, the subject is required to iniorm the experimenter from trial to trial what score he intends to achieve in some simple learning activity. Since the investigators were not primarily concerned wi~ the social psychological aspects involved in the problem the study of the, effects of the communication of the subject on his achievement was completely neglected. Perhaps it was implicitly ~ u m e d that requiring the subject to communicate his goals did not signi- ficantly affect the relevant psychological processes involved in the learning situation. Social psychological considerations, however, made us suspect that the act of communication may very well be capable of significantly altering the total situation and that this change may express itself in the objec- tive achievements of the subject. We also suspected that goal-setting on the part of the subject is not always a spontaneous act but perhaps an artefact of the peculiar experimental situation.

In order to investigate our problem two groups of university students were used. -Each group consisted of 27 students. With one group the le, vel of aspiration experiments were carried in the usual way. In the other group the subjects were not required to communicate about their goals. In all other respects, however, the experimental conditions were identical.

The subjects had to react by pressing corresponding levers to 27 series of optical and acoustical stimuli which were presented to them automatically. Each ~erios consisted of 20 stimuli. The speed of presentation was so regulated that considerable latitude remained for %arning.

The results of this investigation are summarized in the following cm've.

362 THEME 14

R will be seen that the average scores of the communicating group were higher ia twenty-five trials and lower in only one trial than that of the non-cox~mmnicating group. In one trial they were equal.

Interviewing the subjects of the non-communicating group after the experiments revealed that they seldom set themselves definite goals, although they admitted to having experienced a vague desire to have better scores from trial to tr;al.

The results of this experiment leave the question unanswered as to whether the superior scores of the communicating group were due to the social act of communication or due to the setting of definite goals. Experiments are being conducted to clarify this point.

Note: These experiments were kindly carried out at my request by my stud~:~t Dr. R. Bochow.

THE MULTI-MOTIVE APPROACH TO THE PREDICTIOlq OF

BEHAVIOR

BY

DEE G. APPLEZWEIG, MORTIMER H. APPLEZWEIG and GEORGE MOELI~

(Connecticut College, New London, Conn.)

It is suggested that psychology deal more with complex meaningful phenomena, and not continue to refer to its youth in explaining away its failure to grapple with such phenomena. Although it seems self apparent, it is perhaps important to point out anew that organisms exist and function in an environment, and an understanding of their behavior must take into account organismic and environmental variables in complex relationships.

Some studies at Connecticut College are presented wherein a multi- motive approach to behavior has been attempted. The four motives dealt with are: escape from present pain or fear, avoidance of future pain or discomfort; social approval or belongingness; and self realization. A distinc- tion is drawn between motivation and the particular mode of behavior chosen to satisfy a motive. Behavior modes are defined as observable ways of behaving, such as achieving, affiliating, etc. which serve as avenues of ex- pression for the more general motives or needs. The distinction is important because a single mode of behavior, e.g. achievement behavior, may serve