The concept of behavior settings--the environments shaping individual behavior--was originated by Roger Barker in 1950 in connection with his community surveys in a small Kansas town, code-named Midwest. This book seeks to provide rural social scientists with an understanding of Barker's eco-behavioral approach and proposed adaptations of it to…

While a child's eligibility to enter kindergarten is usually based on chronological age, public schools are increasingly concerned about children who appear not ready for a regular kindergarten program. Alternative programs, often termed "developmental" kindergartens, have developed rapidly over the past few years, largely under local school…

Social events are constructed in two senses. First, each participant's understanding of the event is an active construction arising from his or her current level of understanding and from information provided in the environment. Second, events are social interactions that are negotiated between participants. Both of these senses of construction…

Socialization of the new principal is becoming an increasingly important issue calling for serious attention by practitioners, researchers, and educational policymakers. This paper attempts to contribute additional insight into the ways in which beginning school principals become socialized in their new school settings and the ways in which they…

Five-year-old children's activity choices were examined in an early childhood classroom setting designed to foster interactive microcomputer activities. It was hypothesized that engaging and sustaining the children's active involvement with interactive computer experiences would be very difficult, due to their limited academic skills. Further, it…

A controlled experiment was conducted to test the extent to which nonverbal behavior between a journalist and a politician in a televised interview influences the way in which they are perceived by a television audience. Nine test films were produced that showed different versions of an interview in which the participants exhibited aggressive or…

The convergent and discriminant validity of a wide range of cognitive and social competence measures were investigated with 400 students (7-11) stratified by race (white and black) and educational placement (regular and special education for mildly handicapped students). The majority of special education students were classified as learning…

The use and abuse of alcohol on college campuses is reviewed briefly and administrative responses are described. Campus initiatives include policy formation and enforcement, treatment programs, and prevention activities. Issues related to institutional liability are outlined, and important factors that bear on policy formation are detailed, such…

A consideration of readiness for kindergarten must take into account the kindergarten program and the teacher's expectations of the child. This digest first examines kindergarten teachers' expectations for children's social, behavioral, sensory-motor, cognitive, and language abilities upon entrance to kindergarten. The issue of kindergarten…

Communal character, the ratio of credibility between a person's capacity in society for influencing others and the susceptibility to domination, is developed through continuous social discourse, and reflects an individual's or group's rhetorical status (the range of influence available through symbols within particular social standings and…

A bibliography on politeness as it relates to second language learning and intercultural relationships contains 188 citations of books, papers, articles, and monographs. Several aspects of politeness are covered, including acquisition by children, gender and power differences in polite behavior, and its relationship to communicative functions such…

This manual presents, for educators, known facts about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), how it is transmitted, and how it can be prevented. Answers to common questions about AIDS are listed and a summary sheet is provided. A resource list is included that contains names, addresses, and phone numbers of organizations that produce or…

To test the cross-cultural validity of uncertainty reduction theory, a study was conducted using students from South Korea and the United States who were chosen to represent high- and low-context cultures respectively. Uncertainty reduction theory is based upon the assumption that the primary concern of strangers upon meeting is one of uncertainty…

Considerable effort has been devoted to investigating various aspects of love and affection, but there have been few studies about direct expressions of affection. Relationships between gender composition of a dyad and the affection/aggression expressed by the dyad were examined as was the possibility of increasing the amount of affectionate…

There has been little agreement regarding appropriate definitions of social anxiety. Many existing definitions are conceptually problematic and these problems have had serious methodological implications. Social anxiety may be defined as anxiety resulting from the prospect or presence of interpersonal evaluation in real or imagined social…