The impact of consultant,consultee, and organizational variables on teacher attitudes toward consultation services

The current study investigated relationships between consultant, consultee, and organizational characteristics and teacher preferences for school-based consultation versus traditional referral services. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that principal initiating structure, number of years of teaching experience, and number of years teaching at the current school each made statistically significant, although weak, contributions to predicting teacher attitudes toward consultation. Initiating structure and number of years of teaching experience were negatively related to consultee preference for consultation, while years of teaching at the current school correlated positively.     

The effects of an interpersonally based problem-solving process on consultation outcomes

The relationship was examined between the extent to which school psychologists incorporated an interpersonally based problem-solving process (IBPSP) in their consultation and several defined outcomes of consultation. The study also investigated the degree to which utilizing and IBPSP correlated with other variables that have been either empirically or theoretically identified in the literature as having an impact on the outcomes of consultation.

A highly significant positive relationship exists between the IBPS Scale and each of the four criterion variables: general behavior change, teacher satisfaction, problem-in-resolution and professional growth. Moreover, the IBPS Scale correlates more highly with each of the dependent variables than do the other predictor variables.     

The effects of gender and response style on depressed mood

Research has shown that gender differences in the rate of depression may be accounted for by different response styles. To examine whether response style affects mood, depressed mood was induced in 31 females and 33 males (all Caucasian) who were then randomly assigned to either a ruminating or a distracting response task. The findings supported the response style theory as the ruminating group remained depressed after the response task, while the distracting group became less depressed. Gender was not a factor in this experiment as both men and women reacted similarly to the mood induction and the experimental tasks. Although clinical implication cannot be determined from a study involving nondepressed subjects, it can be concluded that ruminating about one's depressed mood is not an effective method for overcoming depression.     

The effects of limited and intensive school psychologist-teacher consultation

Effects of two modes of school psychological consultation were examined against four main outcomes: (1) changes in teacher understanding of the child, (2) the direction of the changes in teacher understanding of the child, (3) teacher satisfaction with consultation, and (4) teacher follow-through on psychologist's recommendations. The two consultative modes were differentiated by the amount of time and by the length and elaboration of the psychological report. Eight school psychologists alternated in acting out the different consultative modes, plus a control condition, with a total of 120 teachers who had referred children. Data were obtained through paper and pencil questionnaires completed pre- and postconsultation by teacher and psychologist. The results strongly supported the intensive over the limited consultation, and any consultation over no consultation.     

The effects of cognitive style and training on performance ratings' validity

This study investigated how personal cognitive style and training effect rating validity with two different rating tasks. Male undergraduate volunteers (n = 53) served as raters and rated videotaped lecturers. Using the Embedded Figures Test to measure cognitive style, two groups of raters were formed: those who tend to structure information presented (articulated) and those who do not (global). Half of each cognitive style received observational training designed to be congruent with the behavioral rating task. All raters completed two rating tasks: one requiring an evaluative judgment and one requiring a judgment of behavior frequency. It was hypothesized that with the evaluative rating task, cognitive style would be and training would not be a significant predictor of validity, because the training was not relevant to the task. It was also hypothesized that with the observational task training would improve rating validity (overcoming cognitive style), because the training was relevant to the rating task. Both hypotheses were supported.I wish to thank Dr. Kevin Murphy for the use of the videotapes.     

The effects of adult attachment style on post‐transgression response

Two studies examined the relation between adult attachment styles and post‐transgression responses. Secure participants were predicted to be forgiving, preoccupied participants to be grudge oriented, fearful participants to be avoidant, and dismissing participants to be vengeful. Study 1 was nonexperimental, using a community sample of adults (N = 565). Participants wrote about a moderately severe past transgression. Results supported the predictions. In Study 2, undergraduates' (N = 134) attachment styles were manipulated by varying working models of self and other. Model of self was manipulated with false performance feedback. Model of other was manipulated by altering a confederate's availability and responsiveness during a bonding exercise. Response trends replicated Study 1 with the exception of avoidance. Dismissing individuals were the most avoidant.     

The effects of the sex composition of groups on style of social interaction

Bales's revised interaction category analyses (1970) were done from audio tapes of 77 four-person discussion groups: 46 mixed-sex groups, 15 female groups, and 16 male groups. Each group discussed three cases for a total of 35 minutes. The hypothesis tested was that females in mixed-sex groups would suppress their level of “task” contribution and engage in higher levels of “socioemotional” contributions when compared to the performance of women in one-sex groups. Males were also predicted to become more sex-role stereotyped in mixed-sex groups, showing the opposite effect. Results showed large sex differences, regardless of group composition, in the direction of traditional sex roles. The effect of group composition, however, was opposite to that predicted. An effect of an experimental intervention during the second discussion topic on subsequent sex-role performance was also found. Implications for education are discussed.     

The effects of base frequency and affix productivity in Spanish

In this study we present the results of a lexical decision experiment where the variables manipulated are Base frequency and Affix productivity. The results show significant main effects for both variables for the first time in Spanish, as well as for the interaction between the two. However, pair analysis shows that the Base Frequency effect is not significant when the Affix Productivity is low, while the Affix Productivity effect is produced regardless of the Base Frequency. The results for the main effects show a morphological representation in the lexicon, whilst the results of pair comparisons suggest a different representation of stems and affixes in the lexicon. These results support the idea that complex words incorporating unproductive affixes are processed differently from words incorporating productive affixes. The results are finally explained in terms of a hierarchical model of morphological processing.