Date of Award

6-1980

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Carl I. Greenberg

Second Advisor

Dennis Dosset

Third Advisor

Donald J. Grandgenett

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to examine the relationships among dogmatism, perceived fairness, and subjects’ affective responses and performance effectiveness. One hundred and twenty male and female university students were divided into three equity treatment groups: equity, and inequity with ability or without ability to control their inputs. Each inequity group was informed that greater inputs were demanded of them than were demanded of the other groups in exchange for the same rewards. Subjects were also blocked on three levels of dogmatism. Each dependent variable was subjected to analysis of variance in a 3 X 3 factorial design. Inequity with input-control subjects reduced performance, while those experiencing inequity without control reduced affect, in order to restore equity. Dogmatism appeared to moderate the relationship between equity and affect. Dogmatism was inversely related to perceived equity and to affect. However, dogmatism was independent of performance effectiveness. Equity was the single factor affecting performance. Evidently, dogmatism, as an index of an individual's value system, relates to behavior in a manner that supports previous research in Social Exchange, Protestant Ethic, and Equity theories.

Comments

A Thesis Presented to the Department of Psychology and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS