The packet includes a manual describing the Michigan Life Role Competencies (MLRC), a set of appropriate expectations for high school graduates, and an adapted version of those competencies for special education students. MLRC addresses four major areas in functional adult living: (1) employability and occupational skills; (2) personal and family…

The maternal affective environment to which children are exposed, conceptualized by (1) percentage of total emotional displays (happy, sad, angry, tense, or tender) and (2) global indices of current maternal psychosocial functioning, is likely to be related to children's expression of emotions and overall social-emotional competence. Thus,…

A variety of methods are presented for developing skills for critical thinking, which is described as reflecting on assumptions underlying actions and considering new ways of looking at and living in the world. Critical thinking is viewed as not just an academic exercise, but a productive process enabling people to be more effective and innovative…

Little research has focused on the particular characteristics necessary to gain and retain social support. To examine whether individuals' differing social support level could be differentiated on social skill level and physical appearance, and if these differences apply equally to males and females, 168 college students (84 males, 84 females)…

An extension of a project that examined the associations between parental responses to children's emotional upset and children's competence in preschool, this study focuses on gender differences in the socialization of competence. Parents' warmth and responsiveness, firmness and control, and responses to their children's emotional upset were…

This paper reviews critical issues in the assessment and modification of children's social competence and reports on preliminary data collected in a longitudinal study of children's social behavior. A number of unanswered applied research questions concerning assessment and modification of social competence are noted: (1) Specific behaviors of…

This manual presents a pre-marital counseling program based on the premise that marital conflict can result from incomplete or inaccurate communication about basic attitudes and expectations. Problems and limitations of studies on pre-marital counseling are reviewed,and a six-session course designed for use in a small group setting or with…

The argument has been advanced that in intimate self-disclosure sex differences occur with males being less intimately disclosive than females--especially to other males. The argument posits that males who have homophobia (a fear of sexual contact with members of the same sex) might view intimate self-disclosure as a homosexual act and thus avoid…

The author presents a rationale for incorporating a career/life adjustment curriculum into the learning disabled student's program from school entry to exit, and gives suggestions and objectives for each educational level. Suggested for kindergarten are teaching social competence and appropriate work behaviors, inviting visitors such as firemen,…

The report summarizes recent and ongoing research on processes involved in the development of antisocial behavior disorders in children and adolescents. Studies address both the applied problem of preventing aggressive behavior and the overall relation of cognition to social behavior. A social information processing model of social competence is…

This study advises teacher educators to focus on the micropolitics of teaching to help prospective teachers become more artistically effective in the classroom and more confident of their ability to successfully influence others with whom they interact every day. Being successfully nonconformist requires individual faculty members to find original…

An attempt was made to identify aspects of the family environment that predict social competence in the school environment. A total of 69 second graders were administered a revised verion of Furman and Buhrmester's (1985) Network of Relationships Inventory. Social competence was assessed sociometrically and with seven behavioral nominations.…

Since teams perform a majority of mission-critical Navy tasks, a significant applied research problem is how to compose maximally effective task teams. Two problems have traditionally hindered the attainment of this goal: how to compose teams on bases other than ability or technical skill and how to classify team tasks, so that predictions can be…

Past research has shown that those in a subordinate (learner) role are more sensitive to how their leaders (teachers) feel about them than are leaders sensitive to their followers. This study was conducted to further investigate this phenomenon by assigning subjects to be either a boss or an employee. Subjects (N=120) interacted in pairs.…

It has been suggested that a lack of assertiveness may be an important component of the psychological make-up of bulimic women, and that bulimic women may experience particular difficulties in asserting themselves in interactions with men. In this study, 23 women reporting the symptoms of bulimia by high scores on the Bulimia Test (BULIT) and 21…