The goal of this article is to frame some new directions to social comparison research in organizational settings. Four themes are developed. First, we examine the role of organizational variables in shaping the basic sub processes in social comparison, such as the selection of referents. The second theme focuses on the meaning of level of…

Community, demographic, familial, and personal risk factors of childhood depressive symptoms were examined from an ecological theoretical approach using hierarchical linear modeling. Individual-level data were collected from an ethnically diverse (73% African-American) community sample of 197 children and their parents; community-level data were…

In recent years, the study of the self has been concentrated in the areas of self-esteem, individual differences in self-relevant cognition, and the processes of self-relevant cognition. To validate understanding of the individual difference dimensions of public and private self-consciousness and self-esteem, college students (N=101) completed the…

College students participated in a study to test competing hypotheses derived from Bem's gender schema theory and Spence's gender identity theory. In two samples, sex, self-concept, and spatial activities made significant direct contributions to the prediction of spatial performance, supporting Spence's theory. (RH)

Psychological researchers continue to debate the relative contribution of ability and effort to feelings of self-worth. To investigate student preferences for ability or effort and their relationship to self-worth, and to assess the relative contribution of ability and effort to affective experience, two separate studies were undertaken. In the…

A 2-year study of 25 learning-disabled children (ages 8-14) found that intelligence quotient had no relationship to learning ability in a remedial program. Self-concept predicted patterns of successful achievement in spelling, arithmetic, and written language but not in visual word recognition. (Author/JDD)

The relation of moral reasoning to moral behavior has been the subject of a substantial number of empirical studies; it may be more productive to employ a configuration of characteristics to predict moral behavior. To investigate the relation of moral reasoning and personality variables to moral behavior, 74 undergraduates, 30 males and 44…

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…

Evaluation of career self-efficacy perceptions of 286 ninth- and eleventh-grade students (about 40% in classes for gifted students) found that the overall influence of gender on career self-efficacy was small, with achievement a more powerful predictor than gender. Gender did not account for variance in interest in particular occupations. (DB)

This study tested a conceptual framework of child physical abuse based on three major determinants of abuse: exposure to aggression, exposure to stressors, and access to resources. The study of 81 physically abusive and 148 nonabusive mothers found that being abused by one's own mother and exposure to domestic violence as an adult were the best…

Torrance's longitudinal study predicting adult creative achievement was reexamined employing a multiple regression analysis. Application to 211 cases found that 4 predictors explained 49% of the total variance in adult creative achievement. They were creativity test score, childhood future career image, intelligence test score, and the existence…

Configural analyses of teacher- , peer- , and self-assessments of students' interpersonal competence were evaluated with 948 students (including 107 students with mild disabilities) in 59 elementary classrooms. The study found 54% of boys and 64% of girls with mild disabilities were in configurations suggesting adjustment problems or poor outcomes…

This paper examines the conceptual and empirical relationships differentially associated with antisocial behavior and undercontrol, two concepts that frequently are confused. The personality characteristics conceptually associated with antisocial behavior were specified by seven psychologists using the California Child Q-sort (CCQ) to describe…

This study investigated the relationship of several affective variables as predictors of academic performance in mathematics. The predictor variables studied were: (1) attitude toward success in mathematics; (2) confidence in learning mathematics; (3) perceptions of teacher attitude; (4) mathematics anxiety; and (5) locus of control. The sample of…

This study investigated the relationships between maternal employment during three periods in the child's life, the child's self-concept, and family orientation. Variables statistically controlled were intactness of the family, father's employment status, the child's sex, the child's race, and the family's socioeconomic status. It was hypothesized…