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The cross-situational stability of defensive style was investigated by administering the Defense Mechanisms Inventory to 52 undergraduate students. Analyses of variance were performed on each of the two defensive style variables and percentages of variance accounted for by persons, situations, items and their interactions were estimated from the mean squares. Persons and the person-situation interaction accounted for approximately equal percentages of variance in both defensive styles. Implications of the results for conceptualizing defensiveness and for the utility of defensiveness as a moderator variable are discussed.

The effects of situation, sex, and four cognitive abilities on the variability of behavior both within and across two social situations were examined. 12 male and 13 female undergraduate subjects interacted with a female accomplice in two interpersonal situations. Behavioral variability was derived from codings of videotapes of the subjects' behaviors. The person-situation interaction was central, and there were also important effects for sex; women tended to be less variable. Significant negative correlations were found for variability in behavior, both within and across the two situations, with divergent production of behavioral systems. Cognition of behavioral relations also showed significant correlation with variability within the more unusual of the two interpersonal situations. The other two cognitive ability variables did not show any significant relationships to behavioral variability. The results are discussed in terms of the integrative functions of systems and the relative differentiation of the experimental situations as opposed to naturally occurring situations.

Student volunteers from introductory psychology classes who received credit for participation were sampled near the beginning, middle, and end of the quarter. Half the subjects were given a hidden-figures task; half a visual-search task. All 174 subjects then rated several concepts using a semantic differential and completed a social desirability and an authoritarianism scale. A significant performance decrement was found for later samples on the visual-search task but not on the hidden-figures task. There was a significant decline in favorableness of self-evaluation over quarters for subjects given the visual-search task but not for those given the hidden-figures task. Females evaluated themselves more favorably when given the hidden-figures task; males did not. The hidden-figures task was rated more favorably, and females rated research more favorably. Results are discussed in terms of varying motivations in early vs late volunteers and in terms of the level of interest evoked by the tasks.

The present data suggest sex differences (27 men, 19 women; 18.5 and 17.8 yr. old on average) in the relationship between externality of locus of control and reported anxiety. A positive linear relationship was found between these variables in different situations for men and women and between externality and different expressions of anxiety for each sex. The data support an interaction of values and expectancy in anxiety.