Volume I of this 4-volume report contains the research instruments used in an 18-month project which was designed to understand the rural poor in terms of their information-seeking and information-utilization behavior patterns. Randomly divided into 3 groups, 840 families from 7 target counties in northwestern Florida were studied by a group of…

This module on interviewing and influencing skills is one of a set of six developed to prepare human services workers for the changing mental health service delivery system. Focus is on concepts and skills basic to competency in interpersonal relationships involving information gathering, recording information in the context of appropriate…

Theories and research findings relating to the development, treatment, and effects of communication apprehension (CA) are presented in this paper. The first section, which traces the etiology and development of CA, posits a relationship between environment, personality constellations, and CA. A section on treatment of CA reviews and compares three…

In an examination of some relationships between culture, assertiveness, decisionmaking, and self image among Chinese Americans, this paper focuses on themes such as: (1) how cultural factors impinge on individual capability to be assertive; (2) specific ways in which cultural conditioning affects decisionmaking skills and other behavior patterns;…

An experiment was devised to apply role theory to the prediction of communication behavior by observing dominance behavior as a function of gender and attitudes toward sex role stereotypes. Task type was used as an exploratory variable. The hypothesized interaction of gender and sex role attitudes did not occur, and the hypothesis that men would…

The news gathering behaviors of 24 mass media science writers were examined at individual (occupational) and organizational levels through personal interviews, observation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and content analysis of the stories produced. Data indicated that organizational constraints…

Over the past eight years several combined behavioral and architectural investigations have been undertaken by Ewing Miller Associates. On the basis of data from almost 1,500 university students, an extended example of some of the results of these cooperative studies is presented. The work carried on relative to the college campus has dealt mainly…

A Head Start research report on ways to improve academic achievement of disadvantaged children describes five projects: (1) a study of sociolinguistic variables in school learning and problem solving when classes are taught in dialect versus standard English; (2) subcultural determinants of cooperative and competitive behavior in preschool…

Examining school board elections in Tucson, Arizona, the study focused on the extent to which voters preferred candidates of their own racial/ethnic background, the socio-political factors affecting the voters' preferences, and the degree of voter polarization among Chicano and Anglo voters. Data were derived from the Pima County Election Bureau,…

Questionnaires completed by 301 junior and senior high school students provided data for a study of family influences on the development of various consumer competencies, materialistic values, communication behaviors, and attitudes toward marketing stimuli. Family influences were studied in the context of two dimensions of communication…

The psychological, economic, and educational effects of sex stereotyping of children are the subjects of this resource book addressed, primarily, to teachers in elementary schools. Research has pointed out the fact that children of both sexes view maleness as more valued than femaleness. Some chapters in this book stress the importance of equal…

In order to develop a scientific theory of curriculum, a method for measuring the curriculum-related planning activity of teachers is proposed. This choice of focus is based on the assumption that a logical connection can be made between the level of teacher planning, the quality of the resulting actions, and the corresponding goal attainment by…

One hundred widows were interviewed to determine their patterns of coping with problems they encounter in widowhood. Utilizing McClusky's theory of margin, the self-identified problems encountered in widowhood were viewed as "load" factors, while the services and resources the widow used were considered "power" factors. A…

This booklet reviews several research studies in light of the possibility of identifying certain behavioral characteristics and the relationship of the characteristics to vehicle operator performance. Focus is on implications for driver education. A short introductory section describes the development of the Mann Inventory for categorizing…

The development of perceptual, cognitive, and affective perspective taking and empathy was investigated in 96 kindergarten through third-grade children. Cognitive perspective taking was found to increase between second and third grades. Affective perspective taking, in situations controlling for the likelihood of the subjects' projecting their own…