Considers claims from sex-comparative research that sex-related differences are small, unusually unstable across studies, very often artifactual, and inconsistent with the content of gender stereotypes. The article contends that feminism created a political climate that has led to research that inaccurately minimizes psychological gender…

Presents findings of a study involving 34 undergraduates, examining how exposure to different belief structures might change an individual's belief structure. Suggests that, when the individual is high in public self-conscious, their belief structures will change after encountering different belief structures. Implies that public posturing can…

Explores how research in learning styles can benefit from findings in cognitive psychology. Discusses difficulties of research on learning styles and two relevant findings in cognitive research: the influence of prior knowledge on learning and the potential value to learners of metacognitive awareness. Urges rigorous conceptual and empirical…

Reviews domestic "ethnic" psychological literature. Draws attention to recurring problems that impede progress in research. Claims that many problems arise from the use of labels that lack meaningful definition and validity. Offers guidelines in conducting research in which ethnicity is a variable. (RJM/Author)

Reports on a set of three studies that compared responses to commonly used attitude and personality questionnaires administered by computer with those administered in written form. Subjects' affective reactions to the two modes of administration were also examined. Overall the differences between the two conditions were negligible. (25 references)…

Explores the implications of schema theory and research from cognitive psychology for improving social studies education. Identifies some specific techniques for improving instruction. Suggests conceptualizing differences between children of different ages according to their cognitive processes and structures. Describes some anticipated…

Summarizes a study comparing U.S., Philippine, and Turkish students for relation of depression and suicidal thoughts to an external locus of control. Concludes that higher external locus of control scores were positively though weakly associated with depression and history of suicidal preoccupation among all subjects. (DK)

Interviews 46 British children, ages 8 to 11, to test their understanding of showing off. Confirms prediction that younger childrens' understanding of motivation for showing off is based on psychological determinants and that 11-year-olds' understanding focuses on interpersonal determinants. Also discusses children's understanding of emotional…

Investigates relationships among attributional style, life events, and depression in 143 Japanese undergraduates. Results indicate that negative experiences and depressogenic attributional styles increase the likelihood of depression, while positive experiences and enhancing attributional styles decrease the likelihood of depression. Suggests…

Reviews research into the possible effects of field dependence/independence on achievement at school. Finds that field-independent subjects perform better than field-dependent subjects, whether in a specific discipline or across all subjects. Discusses possible explanations for this difference in performance. Includes a chart summarizing the…

Compares teaching observational research using a lecture format to using a software program called Courseware for Observational Research (COR). Finds that the COR-instructed class obtained a mean score of 78% on the examination, earned higher grades on the research reports, and rated the usefulness of conducting research more highly than the…

Reveals that federal funding has deflected university psychological departments from the traditional social purpose of education and research toward a narrow value for grant-supported laboratory basic research. It argues that these departments should embrace quality applied scholarship to a greater extent, broaden the audience for their research…

Examines forces motivating reform in mental health services, suggesting that mental health practitioners and researchers have relied on traditional and apparently unsuccessful methods (with little or no scientific support) to ensure service quality and effectiveness; debunking six myths about mental health services; and suggesting that…

A central theme of research on human development and psychopathology is whether a therapeutic intervention or a turning-point event, such as a family break-up, alters the trajectory of the behavior under study. This paper lays out and applies a method for using observational longitudinal data to make more confident causal inferences about the…

The Experience Sampling Method (ESM; Larson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1983) is a means to investigate the subjective experiences of individuals as they go about their daily lives. Students from 2 Adolescent Psychology courses used the ESM in a required "beeper project." Student research teams investigated a typical week in the life of an adolescent by…