Previous studies of bystander intervention in emergencies have found that an individual is more likely to intervene if he witnesses the emergency alone than as a member of a group. The present study qualifies this general finding in the framework of group communication processes. Pairs of subjects working on a task overheard a loud crash in an adjoining room. Some pairs of subjects were seated in a pattern that facilitated the visual communication exchanges that naturally occur when a noisy event takes place and others were seated so as to block these communications. When the emergency occurred, groups which could exchange reactions were not reliably less likely to respond than were a third group of subjects who faced the emergency alone. The blocked communications groups tended not to respond and responded significantly less than the other two conditions. These results were interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that a group of people who witness an ambiguous event interact to arrive at a definition or interpretation of it, which then guides each member's reactions to the event.
In recent mvestigations with the mtemal-extemal control (I-E) construct, several hypotheses have been tested as to the eflEect of specific task expectancies upon persons mamtainmg generalized expectancies of mtemal (I) or extemal (E) control of reinforcement The generahzed expectancy of I-E has most frequently been measured by the I-E scale (Rotter, 1966) which samples general attitudes regardmg the causahty of events Specific task expectancies have been pnmanly created through directions given m different tasks Most commonly, the same task has been described as requuing skill or as bemg largely chance-determmed, with the task bemg of such a nature that either mterpretation would be plausible. Another variant of specific task expectancy structurmg has been created through providing more and less autonomous conditions which create the illusion of a varymg degree of possible controlIn several studies concemmg I-E and the response to autonomy or self-rehance conditions, I subjects have been found to improve with more opportumty for self-detenmnation, while E subjects have exhibited the reverse preference Cromwell, Rosenthal, Shakow, and Zahn (1961) found that subjects charactenzed as E persons performed most poorly m a reaction-time study when granted some autonomy m completmg the task I subjects, on the other hand, perfonned at theu-best under autonomous conditions Julian and Katz (1968), however, have recently re-1 This report is based parbally on a master's thesis submitted by the second author to the Graduate School, University of Waterloo
This paper describes a cross-level experiment at the levels of the individual person and group. Using a microcomputer to interact with subjects, this experiment tested James Crier Miller's hypothesis that decision time will vary as a function of the degree of difference in a command array. The results tended to support the hypothesis at both the organism and group level.
Locus of control measures were correlated with attitudes concerning military service. Results, using Rotter's (1961;) standard I-E scale, indicated that the more internal an S: ( a ) the more favorable his attitude is toward an all-volunteer army; and (b) the more likely he is to perceive that avoiding service in the armed forces is a maner of chance. Using a subset of Rotter's items, which presumably best measure personal control, only the latter relationship was reliable.The present study sought to determine the relationship between internalexternal control of reinforcement (cf. Rotter, 1966) and attitudes toward rhe establishment of an all-volunteer army. Following Lichtman and Julian (1964), who demonstrated that internals tended to prefer high, as compared to low, personal control situations, it m-as hypothesized that the more internal an S, the more favorable his attitude toward an all-volunteer army. This hypothesis follows from the assumption that a system, such as an all-volunteer army, is a more controllable situation than is the present, draft-lottery system for those individuals faced with the prospect of serving in the military. The additional assumption, implicit in this hypothesis, that internals are more likely to perceive that avoiding military service is more a matter of chance than ability, given the present draftlottery, was also tested.Twelve 19-yr.-old, male summer students at Rider College from largely middle-class backgrounds served as Ss the week before their lottery number assignment. Ss firsc completed Rotrer's ( 1966) locus of concrol scale. Next they indicated the extent of their agreement with the proposition thac "in the near f u m e the U.S. should move toward an all-volunteer army" (on a six-point scale with endpoints labeled "strongly agree," scored 1, and "strongly disagree," scored 6 ) . Finally, Ss answered the following question: "All things considered, is avoiding service in the armed forces primarily a matter of chance (thac is, luck) or primarily a matter of skill (that is, ability or ingenuity)?" (on a six-point scale with endpoints labeled "alm~st all luck," scored 1, and "almost all ability," scored 6 ) .
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