A study investigated the test study habits of college students in the context of Effort Management theory, which describes metacognitive and self-regulatory activities. The subjects, 20 upper-division education majors enrolled in a required Educational Psychology course, were interviewed to discover their study activities for the course final at…

Empirical findings have supported an inverse relationship between closeness to extended family and friends versus spouse. The three foregoing interpersonal relationships in terms of affective quality, direction and dominance were investigated, using an objective test as well as the TAT. Bellak (1986) considered that the strength of the TAT lies in…

This paper is intended to assist people who work with persons having mental retardation to better understand what life is like for these individuals. The recommended training program is based on a case study approach, with guided experiences in small study groups led by trained leaders. Principles of training for group leaders are identified,…

This paper presents four studies which illustrate the variety of deficits in executive function displayed by individuals with autism. The concept of executive function is used to encompass all the mental operations which are involved in self-reflective and goal-directed behavior. Four forms of executive control are addressed: mental disengagement,…

This study investigated during a 2-year period how middle school students spend their time when not in school. Nearly 75 middle school students participated in the study. The subjects' out-of-school activities were first investigated in April of 1997 when subjects were in the fifth grade. The same students were studied again in April 1998 when…

The Revised Children's Eating Behaviour Inventory, the Parenting Stress Index, and the Krug Autism Behavior Checklist were used to assess eating/mealtime problems and related variables in 33 young high functioning autistic children (mean age 5 years, 3 months), 295 normally developing children (mean age 5 years, 8 months) and 11 young boys (mean…

This report describes the dieting practices of 796 Nebraskans in grades 8 and 10. The results presented in this report are based on questions from the 1989 National Adolescent Health Survey administered to a total of 1,689 adolescents. These topics are covered: (1) incidence of dieting in adolescent males and females; (2) methods used by dieters…

This report presents information from a survey of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Nebraska adolescents (N=1,240) in grades 9-12 related to the Human-Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Schools were selected at random from each of the six classifications of Nebraska schools, and two or three…

Intervention programs which take a family perspective and treat families as a unit have a greater positive impact than programs which focus on the child alone. Yet, despite the emphasis on parental involvement, very little attention is given to parents' perceptions of their child's treatment. This study explored parents' ratings of treatment and…

Previous research has stressed the role of both expectancies and reinforcement in the decision making process. In order to determine if the measure of externality and internality correlates with an association between willingness to risk and external/internal locus of control, and to determine the role of social learning in students…

Bulimia, an eating disorder characterized by binge eating, may be increasing in frequency. In order to examine and assess: (1) the prevalence of bulimia in a non-clinical sample of college women; (2) the relationship of reports of binge eating to the fulfillment of operationalized Diagnostic and Statistical Manual III (DSM III) criteria for…

Self-efficacy is defined as the belief that one can successfully perform a behavior. Self-efficacy theory asserts that self-efficacy expectancies exert powerful influence on behavior and behavior change. The Self-efficacy Scale, which was developed to assess generalized self-efficacy expectations, consists of two subscales: general self-efficacy…

Forty-four family-oriented, prime time television program episodes (30 hours) aired in November and December 1982 were selected for content analysis from 12 commercial television series which met selection criteria for Neilsen Television rating, airing time, and theme. Family oriented programming was defined as any series with a primary theme that…

Research has shown that many behaviors previously thought to be purely psychological in origin do, in fact, have a physiological basis. To examine the relationship of smoking behavior to locus of control, and to attitudes toward, knowledge about, and behavior with respect to nutrition, 116 Canadian undergraduate students completed the Nutrition…

Interviews with executives, managers, and entry-level engineers and analysts in 15 large corporations from both technical and nontechnical fields yielded sociolinguistic information about some of the writing problems young professionals have. The first of the problems is the familiar case in which the writer uses overly elaborate syntax and…