Research Orientations and Attitudes Toward Teamwork

Data was collected by questionnaire on the motivations and attitudes of 88 research workers in a major state agricultural station. The data tend to support these hypotheses: 1) the basic scientist will be more ``deeply involved'' in his work than the applied scientist; 2) he will demonstrate a greater allegiance to the social system of science; and 3) he will tend to view teamwork as acceptable only when his co-workers help to increase his enjoyment of the research. Some cautions are given by the author about the dangers of generalizing from this limited study to all situations involving teamwork in research.