THE EFFECTS OF SUCCESS VS. FAILURE AND LEADER'S LPC ON MEMBER REACTIONS

This study, a laboratory experiment, investigated the effects of leaders' LPC and success vs. failure on the responses of group members. The subjects were 86 girls in senior high school in Japan. Each experimental group had in principle one leader and three members. The leader of each group was identified by a sociometric questionnaire. The task of the subjects was to discuss some adolescent problem behavior cases. The condition of success vs. failure was manipulated by a false feedback from the experimenter. The main results were as follows: (1) The group members under high LPC leaders described their own group atmosphere as more favorable in the success condition than in the failure condition. A similar difference were not found for members under low LPC leaders. (2) The group members under high LPC leaders were more satisfied with the information given in the success condition than in the failure condition. This difference was not found for the members under low LPC leaders