This paper explores the role of empathic arousal in mediating helping behavior. Undergraduates listened to a recording of a radio newscast that described the situation of a young woman whose parents had been killed in an automobile accident. Subjects were instructed either to imagine how the woman felt about her situation (imagine condition), or…

This final report attempts to summarize the major findings of three and one-half years of research in the area of understanding and accurately judging others. The author's research on person perception focuses on the use of sound motion pictures of interviews as the primary stimulus and vehicle for the research. Subjects used for these studies…

Subjects judged the behavior of a target person who had helped or not helped a person in distress while the target person was either alone or with confederates who also had helped or not helped. In addition, subjects were told that either (1) 80 percent of all persons tested had helped, (2) 20 percent had helped, or (3) nothing about the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of being imitated on behaviors of preschool children. Each of 24 subjects was given a choice of three responses in a marble-dropping task and was required to make one choice, after which an experimenter either imitated or did not imitate a subject's behavior. The results indicated that when a…

Response latency was studied as a measure of associative strength or degree of learning and possible basis for instructional decision making in computer-assisted instruction. Latency was investigated in a paired-associate task as a function of training procedure and information transmission requirements during acquisition and overlearning. The…

An exploration of the clinical usefulness of the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Scale was made. A specific pediatric problem was studied, i.e., a baby born to a heroin-addicted mother taking methadone. The control sample was a population of 41 babies who were part of a larger study. Both methadone and control infants were tested between 48 and 72…

Depressed and nondepressed college students were frustrated in an incentive task utilizing a nonreward technique. Matched controls undertook a similar task in which the frustration condition was absent. Subjects were 127 undergraduate psychology students. Pre- and post-test measures of hostility and depression were obtained. The Beck Depression…

The study makes use of Rotter's (1966) hypothesis that there are consistent individual differences between people who believe in the internal control of reinforcement and those who believe in the external control of reinforcement. Students who are "internals" will believe that their behavior controls academic successes and failures and may,…

Data collected form studies conducted in preservice teacher workshops present a strong case that it is possible to train preservice teachers to increase their level of teacher enthusiasm. (JD)

Investigates changes in personal satisfaction over the whole life course by means of life graphs and their determinants, administered within a four-year interval to 371 individuals (age 45-70). Events play a different role at different stages of life and seem to be measured against an implicit schedule, traumatic or acceptable. (Author)

Selected vocal and gestural imitation items were presented to twenty-four 8-, 14- and 20-month-old boys and girls in an elicited task situation. Both vocal and gestural imitation increased with age, although for each age group there was significantly more gestural than vocal imitation. (BD)

Male (N=67) and female (N=83) students filled out the Do-It-Yourself Death Certificate (DIYDC), Handal and Templer death concern scales, and a Death Personification Exercise (DPE). Males and females who saw death as being sexless showed less anxiety about death. (Author)