*This approval and acceptance is contingent'on the candidate's adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the final oral examination. The inclusion of this sheet bound into the library copy of the dissertation is evidence of satisfactory performance at the final examination. STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in The University Library to be made available to borrovers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduc tion of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in their judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author.
Thirty high and 29 low creative Ss, tested for the effects of “brainstorming” upon idea production, responded positively to “brainstorming” instructions. It is suggested that this finding points to true underlying differences in creative ability between the groups.
In an attempt to extend the laws dealing with the control of behavior, the present research utilizes social reinforcement in the form of communications from high status psychologists in order to manipulate the productivity of low status psychologists. The communications differ in their amount of reinforcement value with all subjects on a variable ratio schedule. The results indicate that principles of social control are applicable in the domain of scientific activity; the acquisition curves are a direct function of the amount of reinforcement value. A unique finding is that no extinction of productivity occurred. It was hypothesized that the difficulty in obtaining extinction is attributable to the presence of uncontrollable behavioral supports. The implications of these findings are discussed.
RisumiDans line tentative d'elargir le champ duplication des lois concernant le controle du comportement, il est fais usage du renforcement social, sous la forme de communications provenant de psychologues de statut ileve, pour manipiiler la productivity de psychologues de statut moins elevi. La quantite de renforcement produite par ces communications differe chez tous les sujets suiyant des proportions variables determiners. Les resultats indiquent que les principes du controle social peuvent s'appliquer au domaine de 1'activity scientifiqiie; 1'eVolution des courbes est directement proportionnelle h la quantite de renforcement. II est remarquable qu'il ne se produise aucune extinction de productivity. On fait I'hypothese que la difficult^ d'arriver a l'extinction est due a l'action exercee sur le comportement par des facteurs incontrolables de support.
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