Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Locus Of Control, Schedule Of Reinforcement, And The Attribution Of Freedom In The Reinforcing Agent, Mary Piechowski

Student Work

Attributions of freedom and the probability of ingratiating to another were assessed in terms of the unpredictability of the reinforcement schedule used by the other and the locus of control of the observer using videotapes. Internal subjects viewing.a situation involving either 0%, 10%, 50%, 90% or 100% reinforcement saw more freedom when less reinforcement occurred. In contrast, external subjects saw more freedom in the unpredictable situations (10%, 50%, 90%) but saw little difference between the 0% and; 100% situations. The effect of variations in reinforcement strategy was investigated in a broader context, as well, using sixteen bi-polar trait adjectives. Several …