Diverse data challenge and undermine the central assumptions of the traditional trait approach to personality. The implications for conceptions of individual differences and situations in the study of personality are examined. (Author)

Article attempts to reduce some of the misunderstanding about contemporary humanism and behaviorism and intensively analyzes the psychology of the individual. (Author/RK)

Identifies social behaviors observed in (N=115) preschool children while manipulating various toys and materials in a preschool setting. Discusses the resulting data on toy/material use in terms of selecting physical stimuli in social behavior modification efforts for positive social interaction. (Author)

Results show teacher ratings and achievement score changes for all groups with the modulation group superior only in teacher ratings of Personal-Social behavior. Usefulness of this form of intervention in meeting the child's needs and in treating the concomitants of school failure are discussed. (Author)

Teenagers, classified according to Rotter's Locus of Control Scale, indicated whether or not and why they engaged in alcohol consumption or marijuana smoking. A higher proportion of externals drank but the groups did not generally differ in marijuana smoking behaviors. (Author/BEF)

Studies effects of behavior rehearsal and audiotaped vignettes added to an assertion training lecture series for third graders. While clear increases in assertion were found, no effect on neuroticism or trait anxiety was noted. It was recommended that school mental health programs include an assertiveness segment in their curriculum. (Author/BEF)

A survey of 137 older persons from the mailing list of a multipurpose senior center found that participants and nonparticipants in the center's activities did not differ in terms of their life satisfaction. Life satisfaction was predicted by the respondents' activity level, financial status, and health status. (Author)

Social exchange theory was employed to predict instigative helping behavior as a function of two types of resources available to the recipient for reciprocation (social and non-social). The possibility of influencing reciprocation of both types of resources produced significant increases in subjects' helping. (Author)

Discusses behavioral momentum and the general behavioral relation between the persistence of behavior and the rate of reinforcement obtained in a given situation. Strategies for establishing the generality of behavioral relations are reviewed, followed by a brief summary of evidence for the generality of behavioral momentum. (Author/CR)

One aspect of ethological methodology, behavioral categorization, is applied to the study of young children's social behavior in preschool classrooms. Studies are reviewed and recommendations for future use of ethological methods, with specific reference to categorizing children's play, are offered. (LB)

The study compared the classroom and playground behaviors of 95 Australian elementary students with mild disabilities and 95 matched students without disabilities. Although many similarities in behavior patterns were observed, children with disabilities interacted and played less with their peers, engaged in more solitary play, and initiated more…

This study examined the effects of one unfamiliar adult's warm, responsive interactions or cold, aloof, unresponsive interactions on child emotion and subsequent social initiatives to a second adult. Participants were 32 4 1/2- to 5 1/2-year-old preschool children. Nurturing, responsive caregiving and non-nurturing, unresponsive caregiving were…

Avoidance strategies involve the tactics and techniques people use when they don't wish to be influenced by others. To investigate the types of avoidance strategies men and women use to deal with an unwelcome persuasion attempt from an intimate partner, undergraduates wrote essays describing how they avoided such attempts. A 24-strategy coding…

Previously, analysis of repeated teacher ratings and time-sampling observations of selected social behaviors in young children had provided evidence of clearly delineated dimensionality in interpersonal orientations with substantial behavioral continuity and intra- and interindividual stability. The present investigation was designed to replicate…

Suggests that the concept of maturity, while having utility in many scientific and medical areas, has gradually become a major ingredient in the attempt of some people to neutralize certain personal life-style evolutions as well as some social and political movements. (Author/AM)