To account for how physical attractiveness or unattractiveness may have pervasive effects upon others' perceptions of an individual in a public speaking class, 26 male and 26 female speakers were rated by their classmates in terms of attractiveness and quality of speaking performance at the beginning and end of a ten-week quarter. In addition,…

The importance of understanding the manner in which the desire to buy arises in buyers has been neglected in the study of consumer psychology. This report identifies those few research projects which have studied the origins of consumer motivation and describes a phenomenologically-guided investigation which studied individuals' desires to…

The goals and strategies formulated by 30 learning disabled (LD) and 30 non-learning disabled (NLD) males at two age levels (8 to 9 and 11 to 12 years) were analyzed. Subjects were interviewed regarding their strategies and goals in four situations involving peer interactions. They were also videotaped during a role play assessment of social…

During a 5-month period, an attempt was made to describe the literacy concepts of 12 children 5 years of age who attended a prekindergarten program rich in oral language experiences. Assessments were made in the classroom of the children's concepts of print, phoneme awareness, logo recognition, reading, and writing, through use of (1) the…

The research reviewed in this paper concerns the visual perceptual processes occurring as people are engaged in the act of reading. The issues that are examined include the control of eye movements, perception during a fixation, and perception across successive fixations. Consideration also is given to problems related to obtaining information…

In the gerontological literature, the term kinkeeping appears frequently in reference to activities such as visiting, telephoning, letter writing and mutual aid. A survey of 464 adults in Ontario found that over half could name someone in their extended family, usually female, who worked at keeping family members in touch. Siblings were often…

A study was conducted to determine whether participation in self-evaluations as part of the accreditation process of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools produced a change in the role perceptions of participant teachers. An experimental group of 30 elementary teachers from Pleasant Valley school and a control group of 30…

The psychological process of segmenting sentences into meaningful units or "chunks" is believed to be an important aspect of text comprehension processes. The most characteristic type of parsing task elicits perceptions of text structure indirectly by asking individuals to make judgments about pause placement in sentences. In four…

Three methods of data collection (nomination technique, survey instruments, and interviews) were used in a study that examined the way power was perceived by men and women in an organization and how women acquired and manifested power in a male-dominated organization. A total of 86 teachers and administrators were interviewed with the following…

Researchers have called psychologists' attention to the role that client perception of the therapeutic relationship plays in therapy outcome. Past studies assessing the impact on clients of therapist age have used varied research strategies and raised several methodological issues. A study was undertaken which attempted to resolve some of these…

The quality of parenting in dual career families has been the subject of much debate. To determine whether employed and non-employed mothers, varying in psychological identity status (parental and occupational), differ in the maturity of their perspectives on children and the parent role, 37 married women with children were interviewed. The…

A conceptual framework for adult development is proposed, based on a synthesis of the literature on role theory and various age-related adult developmental theories. It is proposed that adult development may not be as linear, uniform, and age-related as has been suggested. An individual adult could be in varying developmental stages across the…

Shostrom (1971) has identified a type of marriage in which self-actualizing couples do not simply accept their socially defined roles, but instead develop personality traits and values that are consistent with their own psychological health and that of the couple relationship. Antill (1983) found evidence for the importance of high scores in…

Gerontological studies have found that satisfaction with life is greater among those who are still employed. To determine what contributes to a meaningful life when employment is no longer the person's dominant life theme, time-budget instrumentation was used with 130 residents of residential retirement centers in Indiana. Subjects completed…

Because understanding pictures is a significant aid to readers, this paper explores research on picture interpretation. The paper describes the complexity of the process and states that the ability to interpret pictures seems to proceed from the simple to the complex: from concrete experiences with pictures to the abstract interpretation of…