A measure of role-taking skill was administered individually to 12 male and 8 female preschoolers. In addition the children were observed during free play on 30 consecutive school days, and their behaviors were coded according to Parten's social participation categories. Significant negative relationships were found to exist between the…

In a recent article Jensen proposed the existence of what was termed the sex x race x ability interaction in which the differences in mental ability between the black sexes were larger than the corresponding differences among whites. Three large sources of data that were analyzed failed to reveal the interaction. Since Jensen's own work suggested…

The impact of children's reactions to punishment on subsequent adult disciplinary actions was assessed in a study in which adult women administered rewards and punishments contingent on the behavior of a child viewed on a television monitor. Following an aggressive act by the target child and punishment administered by the adult subject, the adult…

Comprehensive planning, defined as the work of those who engage in efforts, within a delimited geographic area, to identify and order the physical, social, and economic relationships of that area, is discussed in the four sections of this paper. Section I, Introduction, describes what "planning" and "comprehensive planning" are. In Section II, Why…

Several models for organizing methods of observing social interaction are presented in the form of dimensions along which researchers choose methods to fulfill particular research objectives. The setting dimension specifies whether the research will be done in the lab or in the field. The output dimension specifies the form which the data will…

Fifty volunteer undergraduate students majoring in speech pathology and audiology at the University of North Dakota tested the following hypotheses: (1) leaders exhibit significantly more nonverbal cues than do nonleaders in task-oriented and informal small groups; (2) members of task-oriented small groups exhibit significantly more nonverbal cues…

Children's use of humor in hospital settings and ways hospital personnel might encourage positive uses of humor are discussed in this paper. Three questions are raised: (1) How is humor viewed in hospitals treating children? (2) How can developmental psychology help us understand children's humor? (3) What implications does an understanding of…

A 12-category instrument was developed for describing verbal interaction among students working in small groups in the biology laboratory. Seventy-five student laboratory groups were tape recorded. Data were collected while the students worked on two different laboratory activities, and group laboratory reports were collected at the end of each…

The aim of this study was to develop an instructional model for use with Biological Sciences Curriculum Study single-topic films which included clear identification and use of the rationale and expected behavioral outcomes of these films. New guides were written for some of the films, and a procedure was developed for observing and recording…

A method of interaction analysis in which the individual student is the unit of analysis in classroom studies is needed to complement traditional studies treating the class as the unit. Such a method would add information concerning intra-class variation in teacher-pupil interaction patterns. Treatment of the studied are properly conceptualized as…

An attempt was made to ascertain what type of verbal interaction behavior manifested by a group given a problem in curriculum development affects the quality of the product. Thirty ad hoc groups, selected randomly, were given curriculum development tasks to solve. Curriculum Guide Form (CGF) and Bales' Interaction Process Analysis (IPA) were used…

The purpose of this research experiment was to investigate the effectiveness of one type of simulation (consisting of a series of anxiety-inducing motion picture vignettes, split-screen video tape recording, and a trained recall worker) in reducing anxiety and thereby increasing the subsequent classroom interaction of student teachers. A secondary…

This study tested Fiedler's contingency model of leadership effectiveness on 86 nursing students in a large midwestern hospital. Fourteen individuals representing the task oriented and relationship-oriented leadership styles and two levels of sociometric status were randomly designated as leaders for small groups. The groups worked on five…

The purpose of this document is to describe two process-oriented classroom observation scales and to report a research study which offers further support for the validity of these instruments. The two observation scales, developed by Harvey, et al., are (1) Teaching Rating Scale, devised specifically as a measure of classroom atmosphere, and (2)…

The purpose of the project was to develop and try out a model for the evaluation of vocational teacher education programs. An advisory council established an evaluation system utilizing four components: (1) existing situation, (2) resources available, (3) process evaluation, and (4) product evaluation. For the process evaluation component…