The impact of sex-role conflict among females has been an issue of concern in both the sports arena and the field of alcoholism. This study explored the similarities in sex-role conflict between female athletes and alcoholic women. Subjects were 30 female inpatients of a chemical dependency treatment center; 30 undergraduate students; and 30…

Several points need to be addressed when selecting humorous books for children. First, people of all ages react to humor in different ways; therefore, what one child finds funny another may not. Care must therefore be taken in sharing books with and recommending books for children. Second, humor itself is difficult to define, but humor should…

The study reviews the impact of the freshman year and 4 years of undergraduate study on the formation of character and its progression from late adolescence to young adulthood. Much of the empirical data used is drawn from the Sierra Project, a study originating in the 1970s that addressed traditional obstacles in higher education in meeting its…

Becoming successful through positive thinking can make a person a winner throughout life. Winners are specific and positive, are prepared, and accept personal responsibility for their actions. By mentally imaging a goal, an individual can gain the confidence necessary to accomplish that goal. An individual's life can be made easier by thinking of…

Temperament type is a key to understanding the classroom behavior of social studies teachers. Current criticisms of strategies employed, dependence on the textbook, fact oriented testing, and the dearth of problem solving in lesson planning are grounded in professional decisions based on temperament preferences. Employing four types of temperament…

Most child abuse has a violent quality. A review of the research on child abusers reveals some interesting psychosocial and historical characteristics. Research has shown violence to be more likely in less stable populations, in persons with poor driving records and histories of severe accidents, and in those who are undereducated and unsuccessful…

Previous research provides support for two distinct models of expectation behavior in experimental games. The similarity pattern describes expectations that are similar to the actor's behavior regardless of whether the actor is cooperative or competitive. The triangularity pattern describes expectations that are both similar and dissimilar to…

Using findings on the unstability of previously stable physical activity levels of young children as a kind of case study to aid thought about the trait-dimensional approach to developmental continuity and discontinuity, this discussion explores the applicability of a dual theory of concept formation to the problem of personal stability and…

This paper reconsiders some of the ways in which black American psychology has been theorized and researched, and proposes some alternative models. Black personality is in part an adaptation to the political contours of racism, the cumulative representation of the effects of racism over four centuries. However, the only systematic statements of…

Locus of control is considered a primary factor in the difference between students' high and low achievement. This phenomenon is defined as a polar construct which refers to the degree to which individuals view their successes and failures as either contingent upon their own behaviors (internal locus of control) or independent of them (external…

This study examined the behavioral effects of prenatal and postnatal exposure to smoking, alcohol, and caffeinated beverages on 5-month-old infants. The sample consisted of 179 Caucasian infants and their mothers. All mothers were 19 years of age or older and had at least a tenth-grade education. Mental and motor portions of the Bayley Scales of…

School psychologists have traditionally experienced difficulty in assessing children referred for special services. In order to determine if the diagnosis of emotional disturbance in South Carolina schools follows the guidelines provided by the South Carolina Department of Education publication "Procedures for the Survey, Screening,…

The measurement of college impact on students has received much attention over the past two decades. To examine stability and change in personality, vocational orientation, study habits, and attitudes of college students from freshman to senior year, two samples of undergraduates (N=51) were tested as freshmen and as seniors. Students completed…

Many social policies rely on assessments of violence potential in their implementation. Decisions concerning such civil matters as involuntary institutionalization and level of institutional custody, and criminal matters such as type or length of sentence and the granting of bail often rely on estimates of the potential that an individual will be…

This symposium contains reports on two studies on the following topics: (1) ways of helping children manage stress, by Jayne G. Garside, (2) psychological stress and coping in adolescent victims of sexual abuse in Singapore, by Colleen Ward, and (3) an abstract of a study on estrangement, by Jaya Nagaraja. The article on stress management…