Data from three representative national surveys were studied to determine to what extent profiles of television viewers of different levels of viewing frequency fit with expectations based on theory and earlier research. A group of 4,552 respondents were surveyed in 1975, 1976, and 1978 by personal interviews and were classified as to status as…

Features of everyday conceptions of a "wise person" were examined, based on a model of wisdom-related knowledge (Baltes & Smith, 1990). The goal was to examine whether the psychological theory underlying this model is consistent with lay conceptions of wisdom, and whether everyday conceptions contain additional features not contained…

The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to describe the distribution of a selected set of socio-demographic variables among a random sample of inmates of a relatively large southern state penitentiary, and (2) to correlate their drinking careers to patterns of deviant acts. The ensuing analysis emphasizes the racial composition of the sample and…

This document is the report of a study of the distinctiveness effect on social infraction. Distinctive characteristics are those aspects of a person that are statistically uncommon within a social or cultural context. Previous research shows that people tend to categorize and make judgments about others on the basis of their distinctive…

The paper reviews research on the relationship between learning disabilities (LD) and juvenile delinquency (JD) and reports preliminary results of a study to determine the importance of social class indicators to the LD/JD relationship. Studies investigating rationales of school failure, and susceptibility (of certain behaviors and personality…

In the late 1970's androgyny as a concept gained respectability, accompanied, however, by a backlash. Debate centered primarily on scientific grounds and both sides failed to define the concepts of masculinity, femininity and androgyny, including possible cultural relativity. Most empirical research on androgyny uses either the BSRI or the PAQ…

As college teachers and graduate assistants cope with the everyday demands of their profession, they may not feel like members of an elite group. As members of the academy, however, they occupy a space that is in many ways quite privileged. They work with ideas rather than tools; they critique social structures rather than simply living them; and…

The relationship between preschool children's level of gender understanding and their ability to identify gender-linked attributes was examined. Participants were 26 3-year-old and 30 4-year-old children who were administered a single-cue gender labelling task, Slaby and Frey's (1975) gender constancy test, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test.…

This study explored the efficacy of semantic behavior therapy in the management of chronic osteoarthritis pain in elderly patients as well as the relationships among pain, physical health, personality, and social characteristics in this population. The sample consisted of 8 elderly persons who had osteoarthritis of the knee, and 11 healthy elderly…

Academic Remedial Training (ART) is a program providing remedial instruction in reading and verbal and study skills to Naval recruits who have scored below the sixth grade reading level on a standardized reading test (Gates-MacGinitie, 1978) or who have encountered academic difficulty completing recruit training. To determine whether data…

A study, based on the assumption that communicative effectiveness can be learned, was conducted in order to specify the dimensions underlying interpersonal competence from a message-centered viewpoint and to develop an interpersonal competence instrument. Fifty-eight questionnaire items, 40 of which related to the components of interpersonal…

Modern society is an ever-changing pattern of pressure and counter pressure. A social movement in conflict with the dominant society is labeled with easily identifiable stereotypes--bearded long hairs, bra burners, terrorists, bleeding hearts, uneducated rednecks. Traditional criticism has failed to say anything meaningful about social movements…

In developing and transition countries, such as those of Eastern and Southern Africa, higher education plays a significant and growing role. The most economically efficient way for the country to benefit is to queue up persons of higher education entry age in order of their academic preparation or ability to benefit from higher education. Some of…

Described here are methods being worked out, inductively, to convert to quantifiable factors a set of 144 personal interaction variables observed during individual testing of a multi-cultural sample of 50 high school students referred for school problems. Factor analyses of subsets of variables and comparison of correlations among "factor…

Although the consistency of personality characteristics has been identified in groups of persons studied from infancy into young adulthood, few such studies have been able to include older adults. To investigate the stability of personality and social characteristics among young-old and old-old adults, 72 adults (51 female, 21 male) from the…