The study explored the effect of membership in nonpolitical voluntary associations upon the degree of political activity of members. In particular, the authors asked whether or not these effects were found in a relatively uniform pattern across different age groups. On the basis of the reported levels of political discussion in 14 types of…

Adaptation to college by first year university students (N=71), who were exposed to orientation programs which varied the amount of perceived competence and perceived control felt by the student in interpersonal problem situations, was investigated. Skills taught in the four treatment conditions were the basics of assertive behavior,…

"Language and Poverty," a volume published in 1970 that dealt with various topics concerning language and social class differences, argued that in educational programs for the children of the poor it is important not to confuse differences with deficits. It indicated that poor children had adequate language structures and skills for their…

A clarification of the identification process for emotionally disturbed children is presented. Traditional definitions of emotional disturbance (ED) are explored and four behavioral clusters within traditional definitions are presented. The four are withdrawal from social interaction (autism), unsatisfactory interpersonal relationships,…

A five-month ethnographic study of conversations in a Philadelphia nursing home revealed some of the rules governing situationally appropriate conversational behavior. The social communicational perspective of the study differed from both psychological and discourse analysis approaches. Analysis of the data indicated that sustained…

Data are presented from an exploratory study examining the influence of dental school building design on the quality and quantity of student information conversations. The purposes of the research were to determine--(1) what patterns of interaction exist commonly among dental students, and (2) how the architectural design of the building…

This paper describes a study which examined interactive relationships between a personality variable (need for approval) and a situational variable (incentive for achievement) as determinants of transgression in temptation situations. Hypotheses were formulated that need for approval would correlate differentially with transgression when…

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that specific in-class behaviors of classroom teachers could be modified by training. Focused on were these four behaviors: (a) positive reinforcement (PR), (b) negative reinforcement (NR), (c) amount of time the teacher talks as a percentage of all talk in class, and (d) encouragement of…

In this speech delivered to the annual meeting of the National Council on Family Relations, the author reviews five papers presented for discussion, and integrates them into treatment of the family, gender role and sexuality. She further indicates theoretical flaws and weaknesses, as well as problems in the fieldwork on data accumulation. (MML)

This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of commonly used measures of job effectiveness, concentrating on a recent development in the field, the Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS); and proposes a new approach, the Behavior Description Index (BDI), which the author contends reduces or avoids most of the shortcomings of other…

A study was conducted to determine the relationship between fourteen social process variables (relating to perinatal events, early language patterns, parental/home environment, and child behavior patterns) and the reading performance of retarded readers. The subjects were 180 children, aged seven through fifteen, randomly selected from among…

This study provides evidence of trends in Korean immigrants' communication patterns. Data were collected in a survey of 400 randomly selected Korean households in the Chicago area and were analyzed for interethnic communication (between immigrants and members of the host society), intraethnic communication (between immigrants and other members of…

This paper describes a method to extract, by computer, maximum amounts of sequential information on pattern frequencies underlying verbal interactions in the foreign language classroom. For this purpose, an observation instrument was developed which was expected to allow the study of the structure of the interaction process; it was hypothesized…

Papers and discussants' comments from a symposium on issues concerning infants' reactions to strangers are presented. Researchers agreed that there is a developmental shift in infant behavior at 7 to 9 months of age when the infant becomes more cautious in approaching strangers. However, investigators hypothesize that the presence of the mother,…

Evaluated were the effects of music therapy sessions on the behavior of approximately 300 moderately retarded, physically handicapped and multiply handicapped students. Data on attentive behavior and disruptive behavior were recorded by 37 special education teachers, 25 instructional aides and one principal who were trained to observe and record…