The Case of the Unreturned Cafeteria Trays: An Investigation Based upon Theories of Motivation and Human Behavior.

This student manual is intended to help undergraduate political science students analyze human behavior. The manual poses the problem of why a group of high school students failed to take their cafeteria trays to the dirty dish room. It presents alternative solutions which students discuss as they explore various interpretations of human motivations which might have caused this behavior. The analysis presented is a prototype of thinking that can be applied to many of our social problems and can lead to a more humane society. The manual presents 30 different theories and viewpoints for analyzing the problem. Included among these are the following: ignorance of expectations and ignorance of consequences (cybernetic model); permissive upbringing, what's in it for me?, small group rewards (behavior reinforcement); sadism; masochism; attention seeking; preoccupation; sociopathic tendencies; rebellion against parental authority; depression (psychoanalytic model); loser; Peter Pan syndrome; game playing (dramaturgical/role model); lower need deprivation; Jonah complex (humanistic model); emotional contagion; Kohlberg moral development theory; depersonalization; and frustration/aggression (specialized theories). Questions and analysis topics are presented. A list of additional readings is also included. (Author/RM)