The relative effects of imagerial covert rehearsal with attentional shifts and the use of an independent reinforcing agent in a covert reinforcement therapy were compared. A 17-year-old female student, requesting treatment for a snake phobia, served as the subject. The phobia was measured along four dimensions: behavioral approaches to a live…

Previous research indicates that social beliefs can act in a self-fulfilling manner, affecting responses to individuals and thereby constraining these individuals to behave in ways that spuriously confirm attitudes about them. The possible role of self-perception, i.e., whether targets of such self-fulfilling prophecies not only alter their…

Characterizations, given in the form of descriptive adjectives, of second- through fifth-grade elementary school children by their classroom teachers and by classroom observers were analyzed in this report and compared with each other. Females consistently received more favorable characterizations than males, especially as reflected in teacher…

This dissertation study of the interaction between black fathers and their kindergarten daughters was conducted in order to increase knowledge about the black father-daughter relationship in the early years. The study was concerned with the effect fathers' reported child-rearing attitudes had on their own and their kindergarten daughter's actual…

Attitudes toward crime were investigated among Pittsburgh residents. Respondents were asked their opinions regarding crime trends, fear of crime, residential problems and life styles, and local police performance. Results indicated that Pittsburgh residents believed that others ran a greater risk than they did and that other neighborhoods were…

The Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale was administered to 35 Caucasian, Protestant couples who were married an average of nine years, largely middle class, and lived in Knoxville, Tennessee. Significant correlates of marital adjustment were organized into groups of similar variables. Correlate groups that were the same for the husband and…

The paper describes the Coping Inventory, an observation instrument that provides an index of handicapped children's adaptive behavior by assessing the behaviors and skills they use to meet their own needs and adapt to the demands of their environment. Coping is defined as an active, adaptive process of using strategies to manage one's world.…

This 2-wave panel survey of young people was conducted to explore the relationship between attitudes and viewing over time, examining aggressiveness and viewing of programs portraying physical and verbal aggression. Questionnaires were administered to 227 children in the fourth, sixth, and eighth grades in 1976 and again one year later. The…

A simulated jury deliberation with experienced and inexperienced jurors sampled from the jury population of Hennepin County, Minnesota, was investigated. The purpose was to assess the impact of recent reforms in evidentiary rules pertaining to the admissibility of prior sexual history evidence in rape trials. Specific questions included: (1)…

The effects of 80 second- through fifth-grade boys and girls of three types of adult commentary (anti-aggressive, nonaggressive, neutral), presented during a violent TV show, were examined and compared to a nonviolent control film group. Subjects' latency in seeking responsible adult assistance when witnessing "real" aggression among…

As counterexamples to J. E. Grunig and J. B. Disbrow's probabilistic theory of communication behavior, which assumes that receivers have almost total control over communication behavior and that the only control possible for communicators is to limit communications to those publics most likely to be communicating with them, this paper cites…

Sex differences in aspirational and psychological variables related to achievement motivation were investigated among high school seniors. The sample consisted of 218 boys and 241 girls. Sex differences in fear of success imagery was not found. Results indicated when girls were compared to boys that girls: (1) have earlier plans for marriage; (2)…

At the George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tennessee, 50 male students responded to a questionnaire concerning their reactions to individuals having mental or physical disabilities, to persons of another race, and to gifted persons. The 20 questions (scale items) focused on association with 12 types of "disabled" persons (disability…

The objective of this project was to test the effect of the presence of a mother, compared with the presence of an adult female stranger, upon the apprehensiveness of children confronted with novel stimuli. Subjects were 10 children, 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 years old, who were individually placed in a room containing a toy cash register, a marble-race toy,…

This paper investigates the media attitudes and behaviors of black adults toward four types of print media: majority, black entertainment, black establishment, and black nonestablishment. The relationships of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, subjective orientations, and media attitudes and behaviors are empirically examined.…