The relationships between Piaget's theory and education are discussed. The accumulated data from studies based upon the theory are examined in terms of (1) shared assumptions which govern the interpretation of replication studies, (2) the extent to which a stage can be meaningfully defined, and (3) the nature of the developmental process proposed…

An analysis of the written compositions of a national sample of 520 British school children was carried out using two measures: (1) writing productivity as measured by the composition length in words and (2) the mean minimal terminable unit (T-unit) length in words, a measure of syntactic maturity. (Editor)

Examines the current position regarding the conceptualization and measurement of the achievement motive (nAch). Describes the concept, reviews various measures and evaluates their psychometric properties. (Author/RK)

Some contemporary trends in social and clinical psychology suggest that individual differences in imaging abilities may become increasingly important. Outlines some of the conceptual and methodological problems that must be clarified if productive research is to be undertaken and reports results of three studies designed to isolate tests which…

Four psychological theories of paranoid phenomena, termed the shame-humiliation, homosexual, hostility, and homeostatic theories, are compared for their explanatory power. Shame-humiliation theory is considered prefereable because of its greater explanatory range and its ability to include the others as special cases. (Editor)

Findings of this study indicate that the regular practice of Transcendental Meditation is effective in developing positive personality characteristics and in reducing negative characteristics. (RW)

Deals with the pervasive change which has occurred in recent decades in the conception of so-called neurosis and with the resulting modifications in corrective or "therapeutic" measures. (Author/RK)

Comments on different modeling techniques discussed in a symposium on changing supervisory behavior. (RK)

Words presented with regular acoustic onsets are not "perceptually" regular. The requirements for perceived regularity were investigated, and the "perceptual center" (P-center) of a word was defined as its psychological moment of occurrence. (Editor)

In this research subjects are asked to justify three common erroneous solutions and the correct solution, all of which purport to be the "correct solution". It was predicted that the subjects would give reasons supporting any given solution, and indicate a high degree of confidence in the correctness of their justifications. (Author/RK)

Investigates A. Richardson's (1969) research on the relationship between imagery and problem solving, i.e., that uncontrolled vivid imagery could impede problem solving by disrupting a profitable line of thought, but that imagery, particularly controlled vivid imagery, could aid problem solving by providing an alternate mode of thinking to verbal…

This study examined whether dissonance is, phenomenologically, an aversive state. Experimental subjects were induced to write counterattitudinal essays under a high-choice condition. Evaluates subjects' reactions toward taking pills designed to bring about dissonance. (Editor/RK)

Although partially specified goals are sometimes thought to result from the uncertainties of ill-structured problems, analysis of human problem solving shows that indefinite goals are used in solving problems that are otherwise well structured. The example studied is taken from plane geometry and involves proving that two triangles are congruent.…

It is pointed out that interpretation of learning set data will be easier and more informative if one uses a "first-order" problem, that is, one which can be solved on the first trial at the end of training. (Editor)

Examines the reactions of various New Yorkers to a twenty-three day phone service blackout in that state. Results indicate that the blackout affected their feelings of connectedness with and control over their environment. (MH)