This Digest examines violence in team sports and how manifestations of violence reflect the attitudes and behavior of players, coaches, and fans. Three theoretical explanations of sports violence are discussed--the biological theory, the psychological theory, and the social learning theory. The pressures of competitive sports on children are…

Compliance with many health-promoting regimens is often poor, even among individuals with known chronic disease. Lifestyle changes recommended by cardiac rehabilitation educators are often not adopted or not maintained by clients having suffered myocardial infarction and/or coronary graft bypass surgery. Subjects were graduates (N=117) of a Phase…

Mentally retarded adults (N=180) were asked 30 yes/no questions, to determine if their acquiescence is explained by indiscriminant yea-saying in response to the yes/no question format or due to subjects submitting to the influence of the interviewer. After selected questions, the interviewer either nodded his head "yes" or shook his head…

Beginning in 1983, a national poll has been conducted annually to assess the extent to which the American public engaged in a core of 21 recommended health seeking behaviors. For the third consecutive year a national sample of approximately 1250 adults were interviewed concerning their self-reported compliance with a basic core of 21 health…

In order to assess differences in social behavior patterns among ethnic groups, videotapes were produced of eight brief social episodes that occur commonly in elementary schools, each taped once with Black actors and once with Mexican-American actors. These were shown to 127 Black and Mexican-American boys and girls from third and sixth grade…

Recognizing that experienced writers often develop elaborate patterns for carrying out the various stages of their work, a study questioned a variety of student and professional writers about their writing rituals with the purpose of identifying pedagogical strategies that will facilitate student writing. Subjects, 109 developmental writing…

Psychologists and laymen alike often use the terms "shame" and "guilt" interchangeably. Guilt is an affective state most often associated with a focus on some past behaviors which the subject finds inconsistent with a set of internalized standards which are often, but not necessarily moral in nature. Shame involves less of a…

A pair of 9-year-old boys with socioemotional and interpersonal difficulties was observed unobtrusively in 35 weekly hour-long therapy sessions over the course of 2 school years. A transcript/narrative analysis technique was used to identify all interpersonal negotiation strategies each child used within each session. Strategies were classified…

This paper discusses strategies for the evaluation of severely handicapped students. The shortcomings of standardized assessment techniques are reviewed, and the appropriateness of normative comparison and the developmental model with this population is discussed. The role of the school psychologist in student assessment is described, and the need…

Stereotypic behavior was examined in a group of five multiply handicapped children (4-10 years old) over a 2-year span. Observational data were collected at 6-month intervals in the form of 2-minute running descriptions of the child's behavior and the general setting, or condition, of the behavior (e.g., unattended, or stressed). Results revealed…

Life goals and commitment are integral to developmental processes and satisfactions in adulthood and aging. Yet the maintenance and pursuit of appropriate goals and commitments during the aging years may pose particular challenges for the individual within the social context of normal aging. This study examined goals, activity participation, and…

A case study examined the student-teacher relationship in writing conferences to determine how both teachers and students can better negotiate teaching-learning situations. Students enrolled in a six-week tutorial writing course at the University of Michigan were used as subjects. Tape-recorded conversations in the weekly half-hour conferences…

This study explores the influence of personal values in problem-solving processes used by elementary school principals responding to the introduction of computers to their schools. Hodgkinson's values hierarchy was used to define actions that more rational frameworks might dismiss or explain inadequately. The hierarchy included three types of…

WISC (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) and WRAT (Wide Range Achievement Test) data from the first sample of 60 children with uncomplicated meningomyelocele (a neurological condition) were examined to determine their deviation from test norms. A second sample of 46 children was tested with the WISC-R, WRAT, VMI (Visual Motor Integration)…

The degree to which vocal accommodation occurred in the interaction of mothers with 27 infants 3- to 5-months old equally divided among three diagnostic groups (heart disease, Down Syndrome, and no known abnormalities) was investigated. Videotapes were made of the infants during 3 minutes of face-to-face play with their mothers. Tapes were coded…