Content-parallel questionnaire items in which response schemes varied in one of two ways--scale alternatives were all defined or only endpoints were defined, and alternatives were numbered or lettered--were investigated on a large sample of college freshmen. (Author/JKS)

Data is reported from a survey of freshmen and seniors in an Illinois high school on their concepts of death, the affective states associated with it, the need for further discussion about the subject, and the identities of those with whom such discussions might be initiated. (Author/SJL)

Fourth-, eighth- and eleventh-grade children were exposed in groups of four to short-term conditions of high or moderate spatial density involving close physical proximity. Physiological responses were measured during this exposure, and afterwards subjects engaged in a cooperation-competition activity and provided self-reports related to their…

Children aged six and eight were required to recall transitive sentences, some with an animate actor and inanimate acted-upon element, and some with these reversed. It appeared that children prefer to put the animate noun first and this affects their choice of active or passive sentence voice. (Author/SJL)

The author analyzes the series form of television program, particularly the qualities and functions of the continuing characters and their relationship to the plot. He discusses the reassuring psychological effects of a TV series on the audience and the implications of a decline in this type of programing. (SJL)

Nine examples of research findings are listed with the suggestion that teachers should be responsible for interpreting these findings in light of their classroom experience. (PBS)

Reports a study of developmental differences among 4-, 6- and 8-year-old children in physiognomic sensitivity, the tendency of a perceiver to suffuse precepts with an emotional, affective, or expressive quality. (Author/GH)

Research from four subareas of prose learning (advance organizers, response modes, objectives, and inserted questions) is considered and weaknesses in the studies conducted are noted. Suggestions are advanced as to how researchers might profitably spend their energies in the future. (RC)

Effects of affective and behavioral interview styles on client environmental contingency, goal-related, action-step-related, self-reference affect, and time oriented statements were examined with 24 female subjects. Counselor interview styles differentially prepare clients to describe their behavior in specific behavioral terms and engage in goal…

Described is an in-class demonstration of mass reaction time which measures the speed of nerve impulses and the duration of various cognitive processes. A simpler version of the experiment for at-home use is described. (Author/DB)

Drug use, academic performance, and stress as indicated by changes in living patterns, are interrelated. (MB)

Negative attitudes, as expressed in humor, to aging, old age, and death were found by analysis of jokes in currently available jokebook anthologies. In particular, very negative attitudes to aging of women were found. Some ambivalence in attitude was discovered. (Author)

College students (N=308) were asked to function in a judgmental activity assumed to correspond to the diagnostic activity of categorizing a target person as "mentally ill." Analysis of scores shows subjects regard the target person as more negative and more "maladjusted" when the interviewer enacts expected appropriate professional interest.…

The psychological autopsy method was used to examine the effects of suicide on surviving family members. Structured interviews with subjects consecutively selected from coroner's records focused on the immediate impact of death; current understanding; and social, vocational, physical, and psychological effects seven months after the death. (Author)

It is apparent that the school counselor has a responsibility to intervene with children who lose a parent by death in the hope of preventing later emotional disabilities and to assist in the earlier accommodation of the loss. The emphasis in this article is on children who have lost their fathers. (Author)