Psychometric research was conducted on the TEMAS (meaning "themes" in Spanish) Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). Personality functioning is rated in terms of constructs such as delay of gratification, achievement motivation, reality testing, and self-concept. The TEMAS test was administered to 140 public and 140 private school students…

The paper reports findings of a study describing and analyzing the creative and social behavior of four highly original children in the context of 1 year's preschool experience. Videotape, interview, participant observation, and artifact data were collected to construct the descriptions. The study attempted to answer the following questions: (1)…

A study was made of how Australian mothers feel about having their children in day care, with particular emphasis on mothers' feelings about separation from their children. A total of 10 mothers and 1 father participated in the pilot study. All but 1 parent had a child in day care at least 3 days per week. The children, who were between 4 and 22…

Studies of the effects of parental occupation on offspring's vocational aspiration or choice have shown that family variables contribute to the development of occupational personality types. To investigate the congruence between parent and offspring Holland occupational personality type codes, and to assess the variations of this congruence across…

As data on the reliability and validity of ratings of infant temperament have accumulated, researchers have begun to ask what caregiver ratings really measure. An argument has been made that ratings of social behavior are less a reflection of enduring individual differences than a measure of rater characteristics and error variance. This study…

The relationship between characteristics of academic disciplines and intellectual traits of undergraduates was studied. Subject matter areas were structurally reflected in the university as department or major field groupings. A total of 2,278 students, graduating in either 1969-1970 or 1979-1980, were administered the 14 scales of the Omnibus…

A theoretical framework for incorporating item response theory into the measurement of attitude and other personality processes is presented. The person by item model is introduced by considering the conceptual usefulness of such a model in understanding item responding, outlining the form of the model, briefly discussing methods for examining the…

A new interactive model of attention, perception, memory, and arousal is introduced; and its use in assessing characteristics of the perceptual process is demonstrated. The principal concern is not the presentation of new data; rather it is placement of existing psychological data within a new context. Topics discussed include: attention as an…

The relative influence of selected life history experiences on the development of three vocational types (investigative, social, and enterprising) proposed by J. L. Holland is studied using causal modeling procedures. The lack of explicitness in the developmental postulates of Holland's theory is seen as a major deficiency. Among the principal…

Implemented in an urban community college's child development teacher training program, this practicum project addressed the problem of discrepancies between training and work environments. General goals of the practicum were: (1) to design a learning styles training format for preschool teachers; (2) to provide teachers with factual information…

A study was designed to identify and clarify relationships between naturally observed, task-measured, and elicited instances of kindergarten children's role-taking, prosocial behavior and sharing behavior. An additional goal of the study was to illuminate possible relationships between prosocial behavior and children's temperamental…

Attitude measurement through Likert-type surveys usually provides no opportunity to assess the importance of the statements of the subjects. This study, involving 479 graduate and undergraduate students, examines the question of whether importance and agreement measures have different underlying dimensions, and examines the question of whether the…

Addressing the question, "What can be done to promote school achievement?", this paper summarizes the literature on motivation relating to classroom achievement and school effectiveness. Particular attention is given to how values, ideology, and various cultural patterns impinge on classroom performance and serve to enhance motivation to achieve.…

Based on the idea that laughter and humor are basic components of a healthy childhood, this practicum paper emphasizes the concern that preschool programs have become too academic and are creating stress for children. Similarly, adults in preschool settings, pressured by parents and public school academic expectations, have become too serious in…

Because the factors which influence parent functioning have not been extensively researched, a study was conducted to determine the relationships among marital adjustment, child temperament, locus of control, and parent satisfaction. Participants included 93 volunteer couples who had at least one child at home. Parents averaged 35 years old and…