People with Williams syndrome (WS) are said to have sociable and extremely trusting personalities, approaching strangers without hesitation. This study investigated whether people with WS are less likely than controls to attribute negative intent to others when interpreting a series of ambiguous pictures. This may, at least partially, explain…

The masculine image of scientists as elderly men wearing white coats and glasses, working alone in the laboratory has been documented since the 1950s. Because it is important that teacher candidates have a scientifically literate image of scientists due to the impact they have on their future students, this investigation is salient. This study…

Urban high-school students' low average level of academic achievement is a national problem. A lack of academic progress is a factor that contributes to students failing to graduate. In response to these urban high school student problems, a growing number of urban charter high schools have opened as an alternative to the traditional public high…

Twenty narrative interviews were conducted with German host parents between 2006 and 2007 about their experiences with a one-year stay of a guest student in their family. The study took place within the context of a student research project as part of the research-oriented MA course "Intercultural Communication-Intercultural Competence"…

Investigated the effects of differing counselor causal attribution frameworks (theoretical orientations). Shy subjects (N=36) participated in two structured 50-minute counseling sessions using two attribution treatments and a counseling control treatment. Outcome measures supported the hypothesis that the two causal treatments would not differ…

American and Pakistani college and high school students rated self and 15 significant others on a rating scale. Results demonstrated substantial cross-cultural generality of psychosocial characteristics attributed to self and others and significant cultural differences in self-esteem and esteem of others as well as other reported results.…

Educational research places emphasis on the fact that individuals who have experienced repeated failures may develop an attribution profile characterized by a bias towards primarily external causes. The aim of this study is to compare the attribution style of adolescents with Down's syndrome with that of normal children and adolescents matched for…

Causal attributions of shy students (N=36) were compared with those of a comparison group of students (N=36) in ten situations. Significant differences between the two groups emerged when explaining outcomes of situations considered to be problematic for shy individuals. Causal attributions may reflect realistic and situation-specific…

Tested and extended Deaux's expectancy model of sex-linked differences in attribution for success. Finding's indicated that female occupational subjects, relative to males, tended to attribute success more to unstable causes of effort and luck. Male subjects attributed success more to the stable causes of ability and task ease. (Author/RC)

A review of the literature reveals that several common characteristics are used to describe battered women, e.g., low self-esteem, passive, guilty, depressed, dependent. To test the accuracy of these descriptions, the 16 PF Personality Inventory was administered to 30 battered women. Analyses confirmed that abused women exhibited significantly…

A research review of ability and effort studies in the United States and Japan finds: (1) effort considered the primary determinant of achievement in Japan; (2) different concepts; and (3) the Japanese fostering task involvement through cooperation. Social structure may account for the attributional patterns of Japanese children. (SLD)

Discussed whether similarity affects the relationship between comparison and other-evaluation. Subjects read about an emergency, estimated their reaction, and evaluated a target who failed to help. Results showed increasing discrepancy between self and other's reactions led to more negative evaluations if self and target were the same sex.…

Investigated potential differences between nonreferred children with and without callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Found that children with conduct problems, irrespective of CU trait presence, tended to have significant problems in emotional and behavioral regulation. CU traits, irrespective of conduct problem presence, related to a lack of…

Knowledge of the influence of situational variables and the importance of interaction between person and situation requires a more complex view of illness than that held by many practitioners of psychosomatic medicine, who attribute causality solely to internal and isolated personality traits. Personality was studied, therefore, as a conditioner…

In order to better understand contributing factors of moral judgment development, gifted youth and college students were compared. Moral judgment development, ACT scores, attributional complexity, and descriptors of personality were assessed among 140 college students and 97 gifted youth. Important distinctions favoring the gifted sample were seen…