Positive education, as a method for the positive development of students' personality, embodies the 24 character strengths that Peterson and Seligman developed in their studies and that are necessary for new professional profiles. This new social and work landscape inspired supranational institutions, such as the European Union, to develop…

Reviewers of the physical attractiveness literature have concluded that there is a strong general link between attractiveness and personality with most "good-looking" people having positive personalities and their less well-endowed compatriots possessing relative negative qualities. The attractiveness-personality covariation is often explained,…

Although there has been a variety of observations published about Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOAs) based upon clinical study, much of it has dealt with the adult child's possible predisposition to alcoholism rather than personality issues. Many children from alcoholic families seek treatment because they are experiencing difficulty in other…

Factors which aid an individual's progression from one stage of moral reasoning to another remain a mystery. Theorists suggest that intraception, defined as a predominance of feeling, fantasy, and aspirations (connoting a humanistic outlook and an ability to develop role-taking skills) as opposed to a down-to-earth, skeptical attitude, may be an…

Although parental effects on the personality development of children have been well examined, fathers' influence and effects on older children have received little attention. To investigate fathers' involvement in the attitude and personality development of college women, 333 women, ages 18 to 23, completed a three-part questionnaire gathering…

Compared the effect of a growth experience, systematic skills training, and a combination of the two on personality change in counselor trainees (N=89), measured by the Personal Orientation Index. Both the growth group and skills training experience had positive effects on personality but no significant correlation with counseling effectiveness.…

Presents research findings on the relationship of academic skill level, ethnic membership, and foreign birth to two personality traits, autonomy and theoretical orientation, in a sample of college undergraduates. Concludes that while sex, foreign birth, and ethnicity were not related to either trait, the experience of attending college has a…

Suggests curricular guidelines for fostering integrative thinking in environmental problem solving. The most effective method is to include an increasing number of carefully-graded, problem-solving exercises which progressively cut across specializations. Four thinking styles are discussed. (Author/WB)

Although psychologists often disagree over the definition, underlying process, and methodology associated with the study of moral development, they agree that differences disappear among individuals possessing a similar type of reasoning. To study individual personality differences among people identified as moral by the theories of Kohlberg,…

The relation of moral reasoning to moral behavior has been the subject of a substantial number of empirical studies; it may be more productive to employ a configuration of characteristics to predict moral behavior. To investigate the relation of moral reasoning and personality variables to moral behavior, 74 undergraduates, 30 males and 44…

This paper describes what education students observed while studying adolescent development in a sophomore college class. The students became particularly interested in how a person's identity development interfaced with his or her ideas about the future. By using the instrument "Teens and the Future," they were able to survey adolescents about…

A study examined the relationship between the personality constructs of self-concept and communication apprehension and the use of self-confrontation (self-viewing of videotaped speeches) as a potential self-concept enhancement strategy. The question of whether the constructs of self-concept and communication apprehension overlap was investigated…

Uses Social Learning Theory to compare 149 university students from Poland with 136 university students from the southern United States for belief-based personality constructs and personality correlates of paranormal beliefs. As hypothesized, Poles reported a more external locus of control and significantly greater endorsement of irrational…

Discusses several aspects of personality and the student teacher. Suggests that the personalities of student teachers can be affected by their experience in student teaching and by contact with the supervising teacher. Research indicates that the majority of personality changes were in a positive direction. (Author)

Reviews the career and contributions of George Combe, an Edinburgh lawyer who proselytized for the cause of using phrenology in education. Although dismissed today as pseudoscience, phrenology (attributing various character traits to specific locations in the brain) was taken seriously as a science during the early 19th century. (MJP)