This research reports the development of a semantic differential for rating nonverbal style of expressiveness in a population of expectant mothers. Mothers' nonverbal features (facial expression, gestures, voice quality) were emphasized as uniquely valid indices of emotional attitudes towards parenthood and as the principal forms of interpersonal…

Whether a change in dental students' attitudes toward three preselected concepts would occur as a result of a traditionally difficult dental education course as measured by the semantic differential method is determined. This study attempted to determine the predictive value of a student's attitudes in determining his/her final grade. The sample…

As part of the continuing search for the environmental antecedents of competence in young children, this study investigated several parameters of a population of disadvantaged Mexican-American children. The factors of child competence on which this study focused were behavioral adjustment and linguistic ability. The antecedents of competence were…

The problem of measuring attitudes in preschool children is discussed. The general rationale employed is closely related to that of the semantic differential (SD). Research employing the SD with older children and adults has demonstrated that the primary dimension of affective meaning is that of evaluation. It has also been shown that evaluation…

Describes a study in which semantic differential scaling was used to quantify students' perceptions of courses in five Colleges of Education in England. Factor analysis reveals four main dimensions in semantic space: value of the course; intellectual breadth and depth; lively approach to teaching; and organization of the course. (AM)

Evidence is presented for the existence of two types of factors when semantic differential data are factor analyzed by treating each concept-scale combination as a variable: (1) factors defined by scales within given concepts; and (2) factors defined by scales across concepts. (Author/MH)

This exploratory study examined the effectiveness of College Fairs in the school-to-college articulation process. The results indicated a favorable response by particular publics to the major functions of College Fairs, although only one Fair, in Washington, D. C., was examined. (Author)

Latent semantic analysis (LSA) is an automated, statistical technique for comparing the semantic similarity of words or documents. In this article, I examine the application of LSA to automated essay scoring. I compare LSA methods to earlier statistical methods for assessing essay quality, and critically review contemporary essay-scoring systems…

The primary purpose of this study was to develop and validate a measure of counselor empathy. A pilot study was conducted with 72 undergraduate students and 12 graduate students in order to develop the Empathic Differential (ED)D. Twenty-one bi-polar objectives were yielded significant through intercorrelation analysis. The validation study…

A role analysis study of the Margaret I. King Library reference department focused on organization of role activities, their evaluation by reference staff, and patron satisfaction. Observation, interview, and questionnaire techniques were employed to (1) obtain staff job history and academic training; (2) inventory activities from which a list of…

A study was designed to examine an underlying assumption regarding the use of the semantic differential in measuring the credibility and homophily of a communicator, namely, that responses to an ideal source position themselves at one extreme end of the scale, reflecting the monotonic function of the instrument such that the highest response…

TO REPLICATE PREVIOUS STUDIES OF SELF-CONCEPT AND TEACHING ATTITUDES IN STUDENT TEACHERS, 2 GROUPS OF WOMEN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION STUDENTS WERE TESTED ON A SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL SCALE BEFORE AND AFTER TUTORING AND PRACTICE TEACHING EXPERIENCE. ONE GROUP DID PRACTICE TEACHING IN MIDDLE-TO UPPER-MIDDLE CLASS SUBURBAN SCHOOLS. ALTHOUGH THIS SAMPLE…

This monograph reports the development of a semantic differential designed to measure professional self perception in student teachers. Seven scales were identified by factor analysis of the responses of 396 student teachers to 56 adjectival pairs used to rate the concepts "Myself,""Myself as I would like to be,""Myself as…

A reading program's effectiveness can be assessed by investigating skills improvement together with attitude improvement. Frequently, teachers make questionable assumptions about student reading attitudes. To provide educators with a more accurate picture of students' expressed feelings, students' attitudes toward reading should be measured with…

This experiment in attitude modification was undertaken at a community college to: (1) develop a systematic procedure for assessing student attitudes, (2) determine if human relations courses had any effect on student attitudes, and (3) determine if the semantic differential was an effective tool for measuring student attitudes. Full-time students…