Studied the development of attitudes about locus of control in four gifted high school students, using essays, extracurricular activities, and interviews. Results suggested scales are inadequate to describe attitudes about control, self-descriptions are not necessarily substantiated by behavior, and the labels external and internal are imprecise…

"Self-Discovery" is an innovative health education curriculum for secondary schools that stresses development of cognitive/affective skills and practice in self-directed behavior. Methods used to evaluate the curriculum's effect on students' self-esteem and locus of control are discussed, and evaluation problems are pointed out. (PP)

A multistrategy approach (involving use of informants to select items, a multidimensional scaling method, factor analysis, and nomological validation) was applied to refine 24 of Collins's locus of control items for use among Hispanic and non-Hispanic subjects. Only the Difficult-Easy World factor was found to be clearly cross-culturally…

The conditions that lead teachers to be more controlling versus more autonomy-oriented with students were examined. When responsibility for their students' performance was impressed upon teachers, they became more controlling. They talked more, were more critical, gave more commands and allowed less choice and autonomy. (Author/CM)

Focuses on personality as a predispositional factor which is predictive of the direction of both persuasive argumentation by group members and, subsequently, decision shifting. Tends to validate the value theory of polarization by showing that persuasive argumentation can mediate the effect of personality on decisional shifting. (PD)

Research among students in New Castle County, Delaware indicated: (1) strong positive correlations between academic achievement and educational self-concept and future aspirations; (2) positive correlations between racial attitudes and achievement scores among Whites; and (3) greater influence of school academic climate at the elementary level…

A scale assessing teacher beliefs concerning the responsibility for student academic success was developed and validated. The results show a striking difference in male/female teacher responses. Female teachers consistently assumed greater responsibility for the learning outcomes of their students. (JN)

According to De Charms' model of Origins and Pawns, some people feel they direct their own lives, while other people feel their fates are controlled externally. Administrators can encourage teachers to accept responsibility and feel greater self-confidence by planning inservice activities that treat teachers as self-directed persons. (PGD)

Seventy-two Black and Hispanic fourth through sixth graders completed a variety of problem-solving tasks emphasizing skills of preparation, production, and judgment. With reading achievement controlled within the sample, results suggest that these three sets of skills involve evaluative activity and that locus of control and self-esteem are…

The causal attributions of 184 teachers from metropolitan school districts were found to vary with positive versus negative learning outcomes in terms of both internality/externality and stability of cause. Relations to overall efficacy, teaching experience, grade level taught, and teacher gender were explored; only grade level differences were…

Examined the relationship of self-rated decision style to vocational decision-making behaviors among school leavers (N=169) before leaving school, and to the implementation of their plans after leaving school. Support was found for the active-passive dimension in decision style and for the advantage of using an active logical style. (Author)

The notion that certain systems of reward may inhibit children's desire to participate in educational activities was investigated by reviewing recent research on intrinsic motivation. This research was critiqued from four theoretical perspectives: self-perception theory, personal causation, the overjustification hypothesis, and behavioral…

Relationships among prior achievement, academic anxiety, locus of control, and performance in the first year of medical school were examined. Academic anxiety was found to be significantly related to first-year performance and when combined with a measure of prior achievement, resulted in a significant increase in prediction. (Author/MLW)

Tested whether intrinsic motivation depends on matching cognitive level and task demands and assessed effects of rewards and praise on intrinsic motivation. Children preferred tasks just beyond their ability levels. Praise had mixed effects: rewards decreased intrinsic motivation among highly motivated children but did not influence intrinsic…

The importance of theory and experimental findings in giving direction, structure, and comprehensibility to research about self-concept is discussed. Analysis of the necessary affective variables to be included in the systematic experimentally-based development of effective educational programs in the affective domain is emphasized. (Author/AL)