The aim of this study was to test a process model of students' learning in higher education, linking anxiety, course experience (positive and negative), self-worth protection (SWP) (self-handicapping, defensive expectations, reflectivity), student approach to learning (SAL) (deep/surface), and achievement. Path and bootstrap analyses of data from…

The original Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS; Robitschek, 1998) was unidimensional, despite theory identifying multiple components (e.g., cognition and behavior) of personal growth initiative (PGI). The present research developed a multidimensional measure of the complex process of PGI, while retaining the brief and psychometrically sound…

This study evaluated the validity of the Type A behavior pattern as measured by paper-and-pencil questionnaires. The Jenkins Activity Survey, Framingham Type A Scale, Thurstone Activity Scales, a new bipolar adjective Type A measure, and measures of achievement and nurturance needs were completed by 418 students. (Author/BS)

Examined the differential validity of biographical subgroups in terms of postcollege experience using Owens' Developmental-Integrative Model. College students (N=1,428) were statistically grouped into biodata subgroups. Seven years later, 484 subjects were assessed on postcollege behavior. Significant differences were found between the biodata…

Explored the validity of the College Self-Expression Scale (CSES) for 144 students in the context of three alternative models of behavior--personism, situationalism, and interactionalism. Results supported the concurrent validity of the CSES and the role of both person and situational, but not interactional, influences on assertion. (WAS)

Contrasted a new measure of self-control, the Retrospective Behavioral Self-Control scale (RBS), with the most widespread measure of this construct (H. Grasmick and others, 1993). Results show that the RBS measured the general factor of behavior across samples of 214 and 213 undergraduates and 76 employees, but the other scale, used with only one…

Type A behavior is an aggregate of behaviors associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease. Two self-administered questionnaires used to determine the presence of Type A behavior, the Jenkins Activity Survey and Framingham Type A Behavior Pattern Scale, were administered to 150 undergraduate students at a midwestern university, along…

Investigated the reliability and validity of Bem and Allen's cross-situational consistency measuring technique. Results showed low reliability for Bem and Allen's test-retest, high reliability for Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale, and significant correlation between self-reported academic behavior variability and actual grade variability. (WAS)

A longitudinal study was conducted to determine whether students' life history or biographical data could be used to predict their experiences in college. Significant relationships were found between the students' life history data and their subsequent college experiences. (Author)

Four studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between communication and predictive accuracy. Subjects, students enrolled in various college speech and communication classes, completed the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values, first in terms of their own values and then in terms of how they believed a specified target would respond.…

Psychologists and laymen alike often use the terms "shame" and "guilt" interchangeably. Guilt is an affective state most often associated with a focus on some past behaviors which the subject finds inconsistent with a set of internalized standards which are often, but not necessarily moral in nature. Shame involves less of a…

Two studies involving 98 prisoners and 92 undergraduates examined whether increased attention to interpersonal behaviors would improve assessments of the personality core underlying psychopathology. Twenty-one items were developed as the Interpersonal Measure of Psychopathology. Measurement of interpersonal behavior appears to improve prediction…

Discusses why agentic and idiographic approaches (in combination with more typical nomothetic, nonagentic studies) may enhance the predictive accuracy of psychological experiments. Presents study on exercise behavior of 42 college student subjects and analyzes it from 3 perspectives: nonagentic-nomothetic, nonagentic-idiographic, and…

Responses of 123 adults were used to develop a measure to assess expectations and stereotypes about adolescents. The developed scale was refined and tested with 361 college students and 112 parents of young adolescents. The measure's subscales demonstrate adequate internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity. (SLD)

Compulsivity and obsessiveness are vaguely defined terms which include a broad range of behaviors and cognitions that have been elusive to quantify. To introduce the 22-item Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (OCS) and to perform preliminary validation studies, 114 (46 male, 68 female) college students and 57 counseling clients completed the OCS on two…