During problem-based learning sessions, undergraduate students were tasked with answering chemistry-related questions using clicker-handset technology in which the last response made by each handset would override any previous vote. The benefits, if any, of showing cohort responses from clicker questions during versus after polling were explored.…

Much of the sex role research published in the late seventies was concerned with measuring masculinity and femininity, based on stereotyped trait ratings using tests like the Bem Sex Role Inventory or the Personal Attributes Questionnaire. In response to the need for a wider variety of measures, the Activities Inventory (AI), a checklist of…

Compared leisure behavior patterns after retirement with those of preretirement. Examined data within the context of the spillover and compensatory hypotheses, with retirement representing a nonwork sphere. Findings revealed a spillover effect, characterized by a high degree of passive, solitary leisure behavior both before and after retirement.…

Attempts to replicate research on the activity theory of aging. Behaviorally based activity scales were drawn from daily activity inventories of residents of three retirement communities. Findings support the activity theory. Informal activities had the most positive affect on respondents' life satisfaction. (Author/JAC)

Explored whether children's experiences in child care programs related to individual (ethnicity, age, gender) and classroom (environmental quality) characteristics. Identified six patterns in how children spent their time: creative, language arts, didactic, gross motor, high-level adult involvement, and individualized adult interactions. Found…

SIX BASIC CONCEPTS ARE FUNDAMENTAL TO UNDERSTANDING LIFE STYLES. THEY ARE--(1) THE WIDE VARIATION AMONG THE MEMBERS OF OUR SOCIETY, READILY APPARENT BY VIEWING THE WIDE DIFFERENCES IN EDUCATION, SKILLS, VALUES, AND PHILOSOPHICAL BELIEFS OF THOSE MEMBERS, (2) CONSISTENCY WITHIN OUR SOCIETY, SUBSTANTIATED BY COMPARING BELIEFS AND…

The object of this study was to determine the extent to which children displayed predictable, recurring patterns of behavior when engaged in self-selected activities. Subjects were four girls and three boys, 4 years of age, all from middle class urban families. The classroom's free play space was divided into four equal areas. Toys were divided…

Twenty-five adolescents reported 753 random daily activities and the quality of their experiences during a normal week, in response to an electronic paging device. These adolescents spent most of their time either conversing with peers or watching television. Television viewing was associated with deviant behavior and antisocial personality.…

This study investigated during a 2-year period how middle school students spend their time when not in school. Nearly 75 middle school students participated in the study. The subjects' out-of-school activities were first investigated in April of 1997 when subjects were in the fifth grade. The same students were studied again in April 1998 when…

The Contact Action Space (CAS) of an individual, or group of individuals, has a significant impact on the location of activities and the organization of the use of space. Beginning with the most basic components of a CAS, the individual behavior pattern element is developed, and operational variations affecting alignment and configuration are…

Argues that the way people organize their roles and identities is an empirical issue, not an established fact. Found that people who maintain more balance across their entire systems of roles and activities will score lower on measures of role strain and depression and higher on measures of well-being. (RJM)

Investigation of activity patterns of four residents of a Community Residential Unit in Victoria, Australia, found that personal/domestic activities engaged 35-47 percent of residents' time, followed by sedentary activities (18-25 percent). Social interaction and indoor recreation occupied less than 9 percent of time and outdoor and social…

This paper, focusing on young children's need for privacy, describes a study conducted to determine the manner in which children in day care centers resolve the problem of reduced space and time for privacy. A pilot study revealed that children displayed three privacy seeking behaviors: (1) verbal and nonverbal territorial behavior (use or defense…

This book suggests a variety of ways parents can develop a greater awareness of themselves and of their children. Topics covered include: (1) individual and small group sensitivity exercises for adults; (2) examples and uses of time sample and anecdotal observation records; (3) the importance of encouraging self-expression in children through…

A self-report inventory was compared with a situational test as a predictor of the verbal behavior of individual members of small interpersonal skills training groups. As hypothesized, the situational test was a better predictor than was the self-report inventory. A powerful social conformity effect may have operated in both the situational test…