The structure of attitudes toward the exceptional was investigated using hierarchical factor analysis for responses of 32 men and 132 women college students to a 78-item social distance questionnaire (six interpersonal situations and 13 categories of exceptionality-nonexceptionality). (Author/MC)

The state of a higher education evaluation project aimed at improving efficiency and increasing the capacity for self-renewal in higher education at the beginning of 1978 is described. The working methods of the project include: building up a knowledge base from literature and from foreign and Swedish universities and colleges; examining problems…

The relationship between levels of academic achievement of first-year university students and various attitudinal, situational and mental health factors was examined. (Editor)

Separate factor analyses of four large samples of respondents to Rotter's Interpersonal Trust Scale produced three orthogonal factors that cross-validated over all samples. Results indicate there may be relatively independent dimensions of trust and factor scores may yield greater prediction than the general scale in many research applications.…

Outlined is a model for transformation of one factor matrix to congruence with a second or target matrix in which the correlations among the transformed factors are constrained to certain pre-specified values. Procedures are developed for implementing the model, and are illustrated with example factor solutions. (Author/RC)

Results support the state-trait distinction in anxiety research. For two different samples, three separate A-State factors emerged, each associated with different occasions of measurement that were associated with differing amounts of situational stress. (Author/BJG)

A scale was prepared for measuring the effects of indirect suggestion upon perception. Three categories were included: 1) distorting the interpretation of presented stimuli, 2) inducing sense-impressions in the absence of adequate stimuli, and 3) producing insensitivity to stimuli that are objectively present. (Author/RC)

Research supported by the Scottish Council for Research in Education.

Research supported in part by grants from the Ford Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (MH-08542).

A mastery test is frequently described as follows: an examinee responds to n dichotomously scored test items. Depending upon the examinee's observed (number correct) score, a mastery decision is made and the examinee is advanced to the next level of instruction. Otherwise, a nonmastery decision is made and the examinee is given remedial work. This…

Before empirically based theories of loneliness can be formulated, it may be necessary to probe people's feelings, explanations, and reactions in a relatively unstructured way. Toward this end, three multiple response items relating to these issues were included in an 84-item questionnaire, published in the Spring of 1978 in several northeastern…

Whenever one uses ordinary least squares regression, one is making an implicit assumption that all of the independent variables have been measured without error. Such an assumption is obviously unrealistic for most social data. One approach for estimating such regression models is to measure implied coefficients between latent variables for which…

Factor analysis can be a valuable tool for assessing validity; however, the reliabilities of identified factors must be attended to. This study examined the impacts of item variance on factor stability and structure. The attempt was to determine empirically whether unnumbered graphic scales scored using a larger number of scale steps produce more…