Interpersonal reinforcers: Classification, interrelationship, and some differential properties.

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Abstract
Tested a proposed order among 6 classes of interpersonal reinforcers or resources (love, status, information, money, goods, and services), plotted on the 2 coordinates of particularism and concreteness. 3 interrelated studies were conducted with undergraduates (n = 317), dealing respectively, with perceived similarity of reinforcers, their exchange, and their structural invariance. Results support the order by showing that (a) reinforcers proximal in the order were perceived as similar and substituted for 1 another more than the distal ones; (b) for each resource given there was 1 most frequently chosen for exchange; and (c) the intercorrelation pattern of resources was invariant across exchange situations. Implications of the findings for interpersonal reinforcement, social exchange theory, and experimental games studies are suggested. Some differential properties of the resources, related to their order, are discussed in reference to problems of behavior in the city. (33 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

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