Noting the diversity in the nature and format of individual events in debate tournaments, a study surveyed the reactions of individual events coaches and students to the events offered at tournaments, the descriptions, and the time limits. Thirty-one coaches and 71 students from colleges and universities in the eastern United States responded to a…

A study was conducted to (1) describe the male/female participation and success in regional and national forensic individual events tournament competition, and (2) identify areas of gender-based inequity from these data. Letters requesting 1984-85 tournament results were sent to 44 individual events tournament directors, of which 20 were…

Through an examination of the appearance of the front pages of separately owned, competitive newspapers in 10 cities in the United States, a study explored the extent to which these newspapers have become modern in their use of graphic devices. Specifically, the study investigated (1) the relationship between a market's newspaper circulation gap…

To better serve as a laboratory for argument, individual events competition should represent analogues of "real world" argumentation/communication situations. The individual events laboratory must fulfill a pedagogical function, and should also "create" knowledge about argumentation strategies, specific fields of argument, and…

The present study compares the attributions of young children 5 to 6.5 years of age with those of adult subjects 20 to 30 years of age, who were engaged in the same competitive situation. It was hypothesized that sex differences would occur in the sample of adults but not in the sample of children. Believing outcomes to be determined by either…

In a study of the social ecology of preschool peer interaction, independent measures of agonism and object conflict were employed to investigate relations between dominance, competition, and prior possession of object. In addition, independent measures of affiliation and object exchanges were employed to investigate further possible relations…

Forensic directors (n=102) affiliated with Phi Delta Kappa responded to a survey to determine perceptions regarding participation of host school students in their respective forensics tournaments. When asked whether they permitted host school students to compete in their respective tournaments, 56% indicated that they did, but 75% of those had…

Since few debate tournaments can be administered successfully without employing some hired-judge pool, one of the fundamental ethical concerns facing the tournament director is the balance between filling all judge responsibilities and securing competent judges. The responsibility of securing competent judges can be met through a more extensive…

The perennial success of Texas Tech University teams competing in the annual National American Advertising Federation Student Advertising Competition highlights three of the diverse roles an adviser to a competing team must fulfill. Although no one adviser posseses expertise in all fields, such as marketing, drama, or English, the adviser must be…

Framed by the heuristic device of "long waves" of capitalist development, journalism ideology is historically anchored to competitive media economics. (Long waves are 50-year economic cycles comprised of alternating 25-year periods of economic expansion followed by contraction periods.) With each long wave, a new institutional ecology…

In the public eye, three major investigations by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) into the dominance of the broadcast networks have appeared as battles between opposing forces with lively conflicts as the FCC combats monopolistic power in the name of public interest. In spite of the past investigations and the resulting regulations,…

Since the mid 1970s, studies measuring self-perceived sex roles of athletes and nonathletes have, in general, supported the notion of androgyny, and have found that female athletes who have engaged competitively in sports have not necessarily lost their perceived femininity. Subjects for this survey were 657 females older than 15 years who were…

Negative connotations of large scale intercollegiate athletic competition are analyzed and a case is presented in defense of such programs. Discussion is conducted on rewards for college athletes in terms of educational attainment, personal satisfaction, and possible upward social mobility. The consequences of large scale athletic programs to the…

Changes in pre-competition state anxiety of junior and senior high school football and basketball players were studied as a function of trait anxiety of these athletes and three experimental athletic environments characterized by stressful and non-stressful conditions. In response to the psychological stress associated with athletic competition,…

Theoretical and methodological aspects of competition research are discussed, with special regard for evaluative criteria, major approaches, experimentation, and measurement. (DS)