Examines idea of psychological skills training. Raises questions concerning the conceptual validity and generalizability of programs that attempt psychological skills training as a means of "giving psychology away." Draws specific references and illustrations from recent research in applied psychology and literature in counseling and…

Determining how best to identify gifted and talented children can be a major obstacle to establishing successful programs. This article enumerates eight major problems or issues related to the identification of these children. Future research and theoretical development must be directed toward a resolution of these issues. (MT)

In 1896, Sigmund Freud stated that early childhood seduction caused hysteria in his female patients. He later recanted his original finding and claimed that the reports of abuse he heard from his patients were not descriptions of real events, but his patients' expressions of unconscious childhood wishes. The theory of the Oedipal complex gave…

Evidence that opinion in favor of working women was actively solicited in the 1940s and intentionally discouraged in the 1970s illustrates the argument that polls and surveys are used to shape, as well as measure, public opinion. Respondents should be given adequate alternatives through which to express their opinions. (Author/GC)

Describes how exclusive reliance on traditional achievement measures as indices of intellectual potential, and the ensuing competition among nursing schools for the most academically able students, has created a caste system that has left the task of educating the "less able" to Black collegiate institutions. (Author/GC)

Currently used standardized measures for testing competency do not predict classroom performance. Unique qualities that ethnic minorities bring to classrooms, such as language and cultural knowledge, should be viewed as assets. More realistic criteria are necessary in order to solve the shortage of minority teachers. (Author/GC)

Examines the negative outcomes of the mandatory external primary school-leaving certificate examination administered to Irish sixth-graders, 1943-67. Concludes that the Irish experience should warn American educators of the possible dangers of using minimum competency tests as the sole or primary determinant of decisions concerning grade-to-grade…

Legal issues of minimum competency testing derive from federal and state constitutional, statutory, and regulatory provisions, and from common law. Constitutional provisions for equal protection, due process, and freedom of belief and privacy, are primarily federal; education provisions are state mandated. Only four court cases have directly…