Success Strategies: Winning Through Cooperation or Competition

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Abstract
To test the hypothesis that cooperative and competitive behavior strategies affect attitudes toward success, 147 male and female adults (age range 16 to 51 years) wrote stories in response to a modification of Horner's (1972) success cue and completed a personality trait list for their cue figure. Subjects were given one of four cues that varied sex of cue figure (Anne vs. John) and behavioral strategy (cooperative vs. competitive). Both measures yielded differences as a function of the strategy variable, with significantly more positive stories written in response to the cooperative strategy cue than to the competitive strategy cue (p < .001), and significant differences between the strategy cues on 26 of 40 personality traits. Although sex differences were predicted, no differences were found as a function of sex of subject or sex of cue figure.