Character education specialists seem to know it when they see it, but what it means to call something a character education program remains unclear. One possible source for this uncertainty is the manner in which character education has been defined. By identifying certain features as necessary, existing definitions fail to encompass the universe…

Outlines and contrasts themes and methods of philosophical inquiry into personal identity with other approaches to identity development. Describes a study of identity development in adolescence in philosophical context which provides new information about the psychology of identity. (Author/RWB)

Over 600 White females between 10.5 and 18.5 years of age were studied to test construct comparability across adolescence. Assessed were emotional functioning, eating problems, self-reflection, self-image, and mastery/adjustment to examine meaning equivalence in self-concepts and developmental psychopathology. Results suggest that the five factors…

Self-Knowledge Development Theory (SKDT) by Weinstein and A. Alschuler (1985) is a structural developmental theory positing four stages in the development of self-knowledge. The Experience Recall Test-2 (ERT2) is described, which is the most recent instrument developed for assessing the SKDT. Self-knowledge is defined as the ability to describe…

Reviews the major transitional object (TO) theories in terms of origin, development, and psychological meaning. Examines the validity of TO (intense, persistent attachments young children develop for blankets, soft toys, and bits of cloth) theory in light of current empirical knowledge of TO behavior. (HOD)

Shostrom (1971) has identified a type of marriage in which self-actualizing couples do not simply accept their socially defined roles, but instead develop personality traits and values that are consistent with their own psychological health and that of the couple relationship. Antill (1983) found evidence for the importance of high scores in…

Much has been written on the self during the latter half of the twentieth century, a period when citizens of the free world have embraced self-esteem and the pursuit of self-interest as fundamental entitlements. This widespread interest in the self has produced a large amount of information and misinformation. This book aims to summarize the…

A sample of 467 college freshmen attending a comprehensive, medium size, public institution on the mid-Atlantic coast was studied to examine the relationship between the development of identity and the development of cognition in traditional college freshmen. The sample was predominantly white (88.3%) and of the total number, 51 percent were male…

Although gifted children have been the subject of investigation for 60 years, little information is available on gifted adults, particularly in regard to life satisfaction. To investigate life satisfaction in adults who as children were labeled as gifted, 298 adults, with a mean age of 27, completed a Likert-type instrument measuring degree of…

Three studies examined three-, five-, and seven-year-old children's understandng of verbal terms ("easy" and "hard") concerning personal competence. Studies focused on developmental change in understanding the terms and were designed to provide information about the order in which understanding of the terms was acquired. (HOD)

The past decade has seen a surge in both popular and scholarly work on the issues that affect women's lives. To discover events perceived to have been turning points in the identity formation of Hispanic women, 25 Mexican-American women and 25 Puerto Rican women living in Chicago were interviewed by two female Hispanic interviewers. In addition to…

In a longitudinal study of socialization processes, 182 Finnish students were asked--at ages 15 and 18--about the importance of schooling. At both ages 164 subjects considered schooling had terminal/instrumental value. By age 18 differences in other variables formed a consistent pattern, suggestive of two different life orientations toward…

To determine how college students would rate themselves on a 5-point continuum from homosexual to heterosexual and then to see how those classified individuals perceived themselves and their parents, 1,783 single college students (741 males, 1,032 females), between the ages of 18 and 23, completed two self-report questionnaires. The first assessed…

Study examined how environmental and physical characteristics contribute to the emergence of adolescent girls' dating behavior. Subjects were girls who attend dance schools and girls who do not.

Identifies imagoes as idealized and personified self-concepts that we form in early or mid-adulthood. These characters dominate life stories and personal myths. Discusses a class exercise where students review the imagoes most frequently used in journal entries concerning individual myths and major life events. (MJP)