Although graduate programs hope that their students will be committed to research in their careers, most students express ambivalence towards research. Identifying the variables that predict involvement in research thus seems crucial. In this study 136 doctoral students from a wide range of disciplines completed the Research Self-Efficacy Scale…

Inadequate samples, methodological deficiencies, and inadequate measures of delinquency and family structure have contributed to the confusion regarding the relationship between the broken home and delinquency. This investigation, seeking to overcome many of the deficiencies of earlier research, used a large, geographically diverse sample, a…

This paper describes a procedure for smoothing the proportions of a double-entry expectancy table which might be used in higher education admissions advising or other functions. The product of the smoothing procedure is a nomograph, a medium for displaying expectancies which provides pairs of individual values for two predictor variables rather…

The Precursors Study, initiated in 1946, has focused on searching for links between psychological patterns and future disease and death. Gathering a broad spectrum of psychobiological characteristics from a large group of medical students, this study has continued year after year. This study examined the role of psychological factors on mortality,…

If they are to develop more effective social intervention strategies, social scientists must pay attention to social causality in their research. This will lead to more credibility for the social sciences and more support for research funds. Social causality is defined as a social process that produces a change in some dependent variable. It…

Research results concerning determinants of organizational effectiveness of colleges are presented, and concerns pertaining to this type of research are addressed. A major research question is whether the study of institutional effectiveness can identify indicators of long-term organizational viability. In 1980, organizational effectiveness was…

The overidentification of structural equation models with latent variables is discussed. The use of two- and three-indicator models is not recommended since such models do not allow a testing of the crucial assumption of unidimensionality among indicators in most cases. Models with four or more indicators may be more sensitive to departures from…

The proper framework for studying different methods of problem-solving is to recognize that there are different approaches to the analysis of reality. Three approaches--science, systems analysis, and futurism--are considered within the framework of the "theory of knowledge." (Author/IRT)

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale was administered to 30 male criminally insane patients and 15 violent convicts. The latter had similar subtest score configurations and the mean similarities ratio score for the violent group was significantly lower than that of the nonviolent group. (Author/SE)

This paper compares the 1972 Norms Edition of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Form LM, and the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children, Revised (1974) from a practitioner's viewpoint. The instruments are compared in relation to (a) standardization data given in the manuals, (b) ease of administration and interpretation, (c) age-range…

This article describes an investigation of consultant services rendered by school psychologists to teachers. Results indicated that consultants lacking in skills failed to identify consultee problems and never reached the stage of plan development and implementation. Consultants successful in identifying problems were able to solve those problems.…

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the contribution of factors such as: (1) high school science background; (2) interest in geology; (3) teacher characteristics; and (4) geology course background to performance on a measure of geology achievement. (Author)

The purpose of this study was to replicate an earlier finding that two process variables would predict whether callers to a suicide and crisis service would show for appointments for face-to-face counseling. Caller motivation ("referral responsiveness") predicted referral outcome but volunteer concreteness did not. (Author)

Investigates the possible use of grade point average as a criterion of educational performance. Results show that the current system of grades could be considered singular for most predictive purposes. (Author/DEP)

The objectives of the study were to ascertain the effectiveness of seventh grade performance on a standardized achievement test and of selected items of life history information as predictors of the cumulative senior high school grade point average. (Author/KM)