To investigate the effects of wording in attitude test items, a five-point Likert-type rating scale was administered to 173 undergraduate education majors. The test measured attitudes toward college and self, and contained 38 positively-worded items. Thirty-eight negatively-worded items were also written to parallel the positive statements.…

The National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 obtained data for 23,451 students, of whom 16,683 completed the base-year questionnaire; 21,350 completed the first follow-up; and 20,872 completed the second follow-up. This report describes the methodology for minimizing bias in the data which might be caused by nonresponse to such…

Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET) is predicated on a theory of causality. According to Ellis (1962), beliefs regarding an event, and not the event itself, cause emotional reactions. Mentally healthy persons practice this reational theory of causality. Neurotic persons accept an irrational theory of causality based on coincidental or correlational…

THE ADVANTAGES AND PROBLEMS OF EXPANDING THE BEHAVIOR LABORATORY FROM THE CLINIC TO THE CHILD'S HOME ARE DISCUSSED. RECENTLY, ATTEMPTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO DELINEATE THE EXACT OPERATIONS RESPONSIBLE FOR TREATMENT EFFECTS. TRADITIONALLY, THERAPY HAS BEEN CLINIC BASED. HOWEVER, HOME VISITS ARE IMPORTANT BECAUSE--(1) THE THERAPIST SHOULD OBSERVE PROBLEM…

THE AMBIGUITY AND AMBIVALENCE THAT CHARACTERIZE ALL DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS PERTAINING TO LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY ARE DERIVED FROM THE "DOUBLE NATURE" OF THE SUBJECT. TO COMPLICATE THE SITUATION FURTHER, THERE IS NO CERTAINTY THAT EITHER THE "CONDITIONED" OR "CONCEPTUAL" MODES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING REALLY COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER. THE…

Learned helplessness occurs when an organism learns that escape from aversive stimulation and/or the occurrence of reinforcement are independent of response (noncontingent). The learned helplessness model was applied to a classroom setting to examine its relationship to student performance. Response/outcome contingency conditions were combined…

Test anxiety is a variable cognitive, affective, or physiological response, or any combination thereof, occurring during evaluative, self-report examinations. Research suggests that the cognitive, affective, and physiological components of test anxiety are interrelated and that these components in addition to global test anxiety, are negatively…

Performance becomes degraded when the human processing system undergoes the stress of processing overload. Information processing models are often used to predict how performance will be affected. Single channel models hypothesize that information will either be lost in the queue or processed with delay. Single capacity models predict that for a…

Widowhood must be regarded as an expected stage in the life cycle of most women and some men. Widowed individuals endure much emotional and physical distress, often in conjunction with financial hardship and relative social isolation. Conceptual and practical guidelines for use by professionals in the fields of gerontology and mental health are…

Elementary teachers read vignettes depicting incidents involving (fictional) students who presented chronic behavior problems, and then told how they would respond if the incidents occurred in their classrooms. Responses were coded for attributions about the students and about the teacher's roles in causing and remediating the problem. Teachers…

The vocational education program needs of the nation's large cities were assessed by a mail survey of vocational educators in 106 major urban centers. Several procedural problems in generating appropriate instrument content and initial problems in obtaining data from respondents were encountered. Goal and objective statements generated through a…

EXERCISE AND SPORT SCIENCES REVIEWS is a journal, published once per year, in which reviews of research concerning biological, biomechanical, behavioral, and kinesiological aspects of human movement and performance are published. This book contains the following articles: (1) Organizational Processes in Motor Control, by A. M. Gentile and J.…

It is suggested that bias--when associated with a predictor, a test, or a statistical estimator--is not always bad, in spite of the immediate negative response evoked by the word, bias. Four settings are described to illustrate situations in which a procedure should not be summarily rejected due to bias: (1) educational researchers rejected the…

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a model of the psychological processes that take place when a persuader decides to use or not to use a given persuasive message. The assumption is made that if the perceived emotional impact of a message is more positive than an ethical threshold (which varies from person to person), the persuader will use…

The validity and reliability of essay scores were examined by comparing the mean scores assigned to good and poor quality essay responses of different lengths written by high school sophomores. In-service and pre-service social studies teachers graded essay responses to a test question requiring knowledge of the Constitutional provisions for…