Finds communication apprehension to be significantly negatively related to both middle-school students' attitudes toward school and final grades. Indicates that communication apprehension influences the choice of desired others made by students and their teachers in a classroom communication network. (JMF)

Points out three difficulties with the Munz-Smouse test anxiety classification scheme. Describes an alternative procedure and illustrates its advantages over the Munz-Smouse procedure. (RL)

This essay attempts to describe how age relations are important to the social behavior of preschool children. Major behaviors examined are sociability, friendship, aggression, and dominance. Imitation, cognitive development, social cognition, nurturance, and prosocial behavior are also briefly considered. (Author/SJL)

Asserting that educators need to be aware, when they are judging student behaviors, of the behavior norms of different ethnic groups, the author proposes a research framework which would impart greater cultural sensitivity to the schools' processes of socialization and modification of deviant behaviors. (SJL)

This study examined subject variable effects for, and interrelationships among six measures of racial awareness. Task reliabilities and validities were also assessed. Subjects were 85 children ranging from 3 to 7 years of age. Ratios of males to females and blacks to whites were comparable across age levels. (MS)

This study investigates differences in psychological sex, present and past adjustment, and parental influences among homosexual cross-dressers, homosexual non-cross-dressers, applicants for sex change surgery, and heterosexuals. Homosexual non-cross-dressers and heterosexual groups had the most masculine gender role, with the sex change group…

The critique of Rational-Emotive Therapy aims criticism at Ellis' concept of irrationality, analysis of human behavior and therapeutic techniques. Ellis suggests that his critic's claims lack the support of experimental evidence. He further suggests that an "existential" bias pervades which differs from his own brand of…

This paper is designed to provide an observational system for classroom behavior. The validity of the typology remains to be established in replicative studies; however, paper does provide insight into the range and type of behavior commonly exhibited by school children, and describes the purposes this information can serve. (RW)

Discusses methodology and results of a study of participatory educational planning. Objectives were to (1) understand the social and attitudinal forces that drive people to join educational policy-making groups, and (2) assess effect of organizational factors pertinent to the particular policy-level activity upon the intensity and quality of…

This paper briefly reviews the research in social and behavioral interventions with autism in the past 30 years. Progress in the areas of decreased placement in highly restrictive environments, parent training, effective treatments, functional behavioral analysis, and emphasis on improved quality of life is noted. Research needs in the area of…

Notes that many researchers have asserted maternal "sensitivity" as the key feature of interactions promoting "secure" attachment relationships. Reviews literature addressing the construct of sensitivity, highlighting the problem of definition and identifying the range of behaviors typically used as indicators of sensitivity.…

Argues for the scientific and practical value of participatory action research (PAR) and urges that this methodology be used in the social sciences. Defines PAR and places it in the context of traditional research. Illustrates the PAR process using two case studies. Claims that PAR can contribute to the advancement of social theory. (KO)

Reports a study that examined the influence of authoritarianism on the formation of behavioral intentions by female college students. High authoritarians took subjective norms less into account relative to low authoritarians, providing support for the theory that personal and subjective norms can be distinguished empirically. (LS)

Following inconclusive functional analyses of problem behaviors in 3 children (ages 3-4) with severe disabilities, interventions based on environmental enrichment were implemented. For all subjects, environmental enrichment decreased aberrant behavior if preferred stimuli were used. Explicit reinforcement of appropriate play behavior was required…

Investigated the universality of children's use of their mothers as a secure base. Found that, on average, children in all seven of the countries and contexts studied were characterized as using their mothers as a secure base, but that they differed across cultures in the degree to which their behavior conformed to the definition of a securely…