Replicated a New York City study of completed suicides by persons 19 years old or younger, in metropolitan districts of Ohio, Texas and California, following broadcast of four fictional television films on suicide. Found the impact of movies varied by metropolitan area. Analyzed geographic differences in suicide response, emphasizing that…

Presents an image of the person as a sentient being to illustrate several problem areas in moral psychology: the theory of social action, gender differences, the nature of moral knowledge, and behavioral consistency. Describes the sentient being relative to three "levels" of psychic activity: conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.…

Examined Type A behavior as measured by Matthews Youth Test for Health and hyperactivity scores as measured by Conners Teacher Rating Scale for 199 primary grade students. Found significant relationship between two scales, supporting relationship between Type A and hyperactivity scores in children. (Author/NB)

Few instruments exist for measuring community perceptions of local schools. The Social Style Profile Model, originally developed to describe individual behavior, adapts very well to organizations. Knowing a school's perceived social behavior style and its level of versatile behavior makes for improved school management and school-community…

The Autism Behavior Checklist was evaluated with 94 autistic and 63 nonautistic subjects. Although the two groups differed significantly in ratings of pathology both false positive and false negative diagnostic classifications occurred. The test appears to have merit as a screening instrument but should not be used alone to establish a diagnosis…

Describes five studies that developed and validated a self-report instrument for assessing affinity-seeking skills. Indicates that the Affinity-Seeking Instrument, which is comprised of two scales, (1) has internal consistency, a stable factor structure, and concurrent discriminant validity; and (2) measures social tendencies that are observable…

Indicates that (1) affinity, selectivity, and involvement predicted intentionality; (2) pass time motives, perceived realism, and reduced intentionality predicted nonselectivity; (3) pass time motives and reduced affinity predicted distractions; (4) information and nonentertainment motives, perceived realism, and intentionality predicted…

Argues that perceived understanding underlies two important dimensions of organizational effectiveness: consideration and initiation of structure. Describes the Perceived Understanding Instrument and explains how it can be used to identify specific verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors that influence organizational effectiveness. (JD)

Uses an analysis of children's interpretations of a complex episode of social interaction to illustrate three features that distinguish them from robot plans and that form a basis for a theory of the development of social action: human plans (1) are social, (2) operate on interpretations, and (3) are used, not just executed. (FL)

Data collected on 130 older and 104 younger students with educable mental retardation are presented on intellectual level, racial background, degree of integration into regular programs, placement history, social status, and presence of specific behavioral disorders. Findings suggest the need for comprehensive curricula and systematic training in…

Provides background information on Fred Piaget, and describes his three stages of day care director development: pre-managerial, concrete managerial, and formal managerial. (HOD)

Patterns of juvenile criminal activity were investigated with respect to differences in a range of demographic, family and individual variables. Discriminant function analyses were used to assess the discriminating power of the variables across crime categories, crime subcategories, number of prior referrals, and grade level. (Author/ABB)

An integration of the concepts of situational leadership with what is known about group development and functioning of work groups is discussed as a tool in helping managers, trainers, and group members understand group development and determine the appropriate leader behaviors to use in various situations to build unified, cohesive, and…

Examines relationship between popular computer games and their players to discern how games motivate their players and general outcomes of popular computer game play in terms of substantive learning. The computer game environment, game economics and software, player characteristics, and how new and familiar games are played are described. (MBR)

Compared sexual permissiveness attitudes and likely behaviors of father-absent vs. father-present Black, lower-socioeconomic female adolescents (N=100). Father-absent subjects were not found to be more sexually permissive, but had significantly greater inconsistency between behavioral and attitudinal scores in which the reported behavior was more…