Comparative assessment of a coping model for school adolescents

Four brief, interpersonal coping courses were conducted in a junior high school setting for early adolescent students who volunteered for the experience. Two of the classes (N=24) consisted of students who regularly utilized school guidance personnel; the remaining two classes (N=19) consisted of adolescents from the general school population. Course objectives included higher self-esteem and increased ability to perceive, interpret, and express nonverbal communication and feeling. Session tape recordings provided verbal data for analysis by the Hill Interaction Matrix (HIM) procedure. Results showed that the intervention had significant impact on students' patterns of interaction: interactions were fewer, but longer; conventional interactions decreased, while speculative ones increased; and personal and relationship content increased. Generally, the two class types exhibited similar patterns and changes, although some specific differences were detected. Social class background, stressful life events, and the intensity of the problems experienced by the two types of student were postulated as the sources of this variability. When coupled with ancillary postcourse data, these results support the conclusion that students' interpersonal coping skills were improved by the experience.     

Selection of consultees in school mental health consultation

To further understanding regarding the selection of teacher consultees, 15 mental health consultants completed a questionnaire. Consultants ranked teachers in their school consultation placements on ability to meet academic and socioemotional needs of children, receptivity to change, and likability. Next, after indicating which teachers they would most and least like to work with, consultants rated the teachers on nine 5-point rating scales. In general, results indicate that most preferred consultees, in comparison to least preferred consultees, are perceived as less needy of assistance around issues concerning children and lessons, more responsive to consultation, and more likable. It appears that teachers most in need of assistance are not selected for consultation.     

School-related problems of Mexican-American adolescents

An attempt is made to explain certain selected aspects of the school problems of some Mexican-American adolescents by an analysis of major cultural themes. The data presented suggest that for some Mexican-American adolescents, school has at least the following four meanings: (1) a place where teachers are frequently perceived and treated as authority figures similar to their fathers and, therefore, are targets of rebellion; (2) a place lacking strict external prhibition of encounters with the opposite sex; (3) a public arena of activity where one can bring honor or shame to one's family: and (4) an institution which expects participating individuals to value individual competition and success. Finally, these problems are discussed with respect to problems that Mexican-American female adolescents have in direct expression of anger.     

Objective self awareness and self esteem

Based on a theory of objective self awareness three experiments were conducted with undergraduates to test the hypothesis that self-focused attention can alter self esteem levels. In Experiments I and II subjects were exposed either to the sound of their own voices or to the sound of another's voice, and while listening to the tape-recording they filled out a self esteem measure. Consistent with the theory, subjects whose attention was focused upon themselves by means of exposure to their own tape-recorded voices showed lower self esteem than subjects who heard another's voice. The impact of the self awareness manipulation on self esteem was greatest when it was first introduced. In Experiment III the variable of positive-negative feedback on a fictitious personality trait was added to the self-focused attention variable. An interaction resulted such that self-focused attention lowered self esteem given negative feedback, while there was a tendency toward the opposite result given positive feedback.     

The teacher-pupil interaction scale: An empirical method for analyzing the interactive effects of teacher and pupil behavior

The Teacher-Pupil Interaction Scale was developed for use by educational consultants to provide teachers with systematic data for analyzing and improving the learning of pupils. The scoring protocol provides for the simultaneous rating of sequential teacher-pupil interactions; a single mark is used to designate both teacher and pupil behavior at each five-second interval. Observations of a target pupil are alternated with other pupils in the classroom to serve as a point of comparison with the target pupil and to provide a general assessment of the classroom climate. Using the sequential record of their verbal and nonverbal interactions with students, teachers can pinpoint conditions serving both as antecedents and consequents of current student behavior. Armed with this information, teachers can effect changes in their instructional program to increase the rate of desired behaviors and eliminate or reduce unwanted responses.     

Contingency management in the classroom treatment of long-term elective mutism: A case report

An 11-year-old boy with a six-year history of elective mutism in school was successfully treated with operant reinforcement and contingency management techniques. The plan was carried out by the classroom teacher with a minimum amount of management consultation. Twelve-month follow-up reveals continued maintenance of the verbal interaction indistinguishable from that of other children at school which was set as the criterion for terminating the intervention. The plan was carried out in three stages-relationship-building to develop teacher-pupil interaction into a reinforcing event, audible-response eliciting, and generalization throughout the school building and grounds.     

Individualized learning environments: Intra- and interpersonal consequences

This study examines the effects of individual goal structures on the intra- and interpersonal behavior of 120 fourth-grade children. Each group of four children was introduced to one of two individualized learning programs: (a) workbook materials color-coded according to level of difficulty (allowing implicit comparisons among children as to progress), and (b) materials not coded according to difficulty (discouraging comparisons). In both learning programs, children worked individually (at story writing) and were rewarded for the work. Results indicate that boys, but not girls, who were rewarded equally for doing good work in an individualized setting but who start and end at a lower step than other more frequently took away a toy from those peers with whom they compared themselves than did boys who were rewarded equally for good work and where there were no comparisons. Boys as a group, regardles of condition, gave more prize tickets to themselves than to others and gave more prize tickets to themselves than girls gave either to themselves or others. Both boys and girls appear to adopt the evaluations of their work given by the experimenter and appear to be influenced thereby in later prized-giving to themselves and to others.     

The use of natural consequences and a make-up period to eliminate school phobic behavior: A case study

The school-phobic behavior of a seven-year-old male was modified through implementing a program characterized by maximum parental involvement, restructing of natural consequences, and the use of a make-up period. Full-time school attendance was achieved on the sixteenth day of the program. The advantages of using school personnel as monitors and not as disciplinarians of the school-phobic child's behavior are discussed.     

Evidence of a detrimental effect of extrinsic incentives on breaking a mental set

College students were either rewarded ($1.50) or not for solving a series of 10 water-jar problems. The first 9 of these were designed to establish a set for a relatively complicated, three-jar solution (B ? A ? 2C). The 10th problem was a set breaker which required that subjects discover a simple (A-C) solution. The mental activities needed to produce a solution to the two types of problems (Problems 1 to 9 and Problem 10) were, therefore, different and one interest was in seeing whether reward would be detrimental for performance on both types of problems. It was not. Poorer reward group performance was obtained only on Problem 10. This result was not due to between-group differences in mathematical ability, and explanations in terms of differences in time taken to check answers or concern over quality of performance were considered and discounted. Measures of intrinsic interest (subject evaluations of the task and a measure of willingness to volunteer for future research) failed to support the belief that interest differences account for performance differences.     

Changing roles for the school mental health professional

Draws on the experience of an innovative school mental health project, emphasizing early detection and prevention of school adjustment problems, to describe emergent, needed roles for school psychologists. The later include: systematic screening of primary graders and parent interviewing to further early detection; consultation with teachers and other school personnel; and recruitment, training, and supervision of nonprofessional help-agents. Such roles bring early effective services to many children, in ways that optimize their educational and personal development.     

Field dependence/independence and mental capacity: A developmental approach

In this study we tested a central theoretical assumption of J. Pascual-Leone's (1970, Acta Psychologica, 32, 301–345) model of cognitive development, that same-age field-dependent and field-independent children have the same developmental mental capacity. The study was conducted on a very heterogeneous population, regarding both social class and age, to allow for a large variance of performance scores. The theoretical assumption was strongly supported.     

“Consistency” and “contradiction” in the development of gender role characteristics

There is currently an increasing amount of theoretical and empirical work arguing that stereotyped sex role behavior is maladaptive in our culture and that “androgyny” or “sex role transcendence” is a preferred mode of being. The latter, however, seems to require individual inconsistency and self-contradiction in behaviors and attitudes (since the individual is both active and passive, both independent and dependent, etc.). Theories of cognitive consistency maintain that individuals avoid self-contradiction and inconsistency, and therefore that androgyny runs counter to important motivational principles. This article examines this issue in some detail, and concludes that theories of cognitive dissonance and consistency reflect particular socio-cultural conditions rather than universal motivation principles. There is nothing inherently uncomfortable or “inconsistent” about androgyny and sex role transcendence.     

Humphreys's attenuated test of Spearman's hypothesis

Humphreys's test of Spearman's hypothesis (viz., that the size of the standardized black-white differences on various psychometric tests is positively related to the tests' loadings on g, the general intelligence factor) is methodologically weak. It is based on comparison of a fairly representative sample of the black population of U.S. school children with a highly selected sample of the white school population, representing the lowest 15 to 20% of whites in socio-economic status (SES). A fair test of the hypothesis requires that the black and white samples should not be selected on any g-correlated variable, such as SES. Selection attenuates and distorts the relationship between tests' g loadings and the magnitude of the standardized mean black-white differences on the tests. Other unorthodox conditions in Humphreys's study, such as performing factor analysis on the test-score means of various arbitrary demographic groups instead of on individual test scores inflates tests' g loadings and biases the test of Spearman's hypothesis by restriction of reliable variance in g loadings. Humphreys's study cannot be considered a proper replication of Jensen's examination of Spearman's hypothesis in 11 different studies comprising 74 different tests, which consistently bears out Spearman's hypothesis.     

A critique of top-down independent levels models of speech production: Evidence from non-plan-internal speech errors

A number of speech errors are examined which are difficult to account for by top-down serial processing models of speech production which hove independent levels of processing. In particular, most of these errors are characterized by the presence of an interfering element which is external to the utterance under current construction. This paper has two main aims: to classify these errors, and to examine the constraints upon them. It is found that phonological similarity between the target and intrusion is a major determinant of error occurrence. The consequences for models of speech production are discussed in a framework consisting of the architecture and control structure of those models. A particular model to account for these data is proposed, consisting of a spreading activation lexical network.     

Helping contacts between nonprofessional child aides and young children experiencing school adjustment problems

The present studies examine several within-session measures of helping interactions involving nonprofessional child aides and young maladapting school children referred to a preventively oriented school mental health program. The studies' three main criterion measures were: (1) estimates of children's predominant mood state at the beginning, during, and end of a session; (2) judgments about a child's predominant within-session moded of expression; and (3) aides' ratings of session satisfaction. Both predominant mood and mode of expression differed for children with different initial referral problems. Both also related to differential aide judgements about session satisfaction. Aide satisfaction related to structural aspects of the session, including its length and whether it was thought to deal with significant problems.     

Mental strategies,mental capacity,and instruction: A neo-Piagetian investigation

Pascual-Leone's neo-Piagetian theory of development was used to predict the pre- and postinstruction distributions of scores on a subject-controlled digit placement task as a function of three parameters: (1) the mental strategy which subjects attempted to apply, (2) the demand which attempting to apply this strategy placed on their mental capacity, and (3) the maximum mental capacity which they were capable of mobilizing. The predicted and obtained distributions corresponded quite closely for each kind of strategy at each age level sampled (6, 8, and 10). The discussion focused on the methodological and analytic requirements which must be met if the same approach is to be applied to making successful predictions in more naturalistic paradigms.     

The use of structured learning therapy and transfer programming with disruptive adolescents in a school setting

In behavior change literature, little attention has been paid to the systematic study of variables affecting transfer of training. The present study employed a skill-training method known as Structured Learning Therapy (SLT) for the dual purpose of testing the effectiveness of this method and to identify variables that will promote transfer of training. Forty-three disruptive male adolescents were assigned to three experimental and two control conditions. One experimental group received SLT plus an additional transfer-enhancing procedure referred to as Transfer Programming (TP) which consisted of in vivo practice of treatment gains and peer reinforcement. Another group received only SLT, and a third group received only TP. One control group received only brief instructions pertaining to the nature of the skill, while the second group served as an attention control. Consistent with predictions, the results were that the two groups receiving the SLT performed significantly better than the three groups not receiving SLT on all dependent measures at posttest. These differences generally maintained at follow-up. Contrary to expectations, the implementation of TP did not prove to promote transfer of training beyond that found with SLT alone.     

A multitrait-multimethod examination of affect structure: hedonic level and emotional intensity

Past research on the personality structure of affect suggests that hedonic level and emotional intensity are two separate major dimensions. The present study employed a multitrait-multimethod approach to verify this finding. Seventy-four University of Illinois students completed daily mood reports and self-report questionnaires, and their parents completed a questionnaire about them. Both hedonic level and intensity measures were used. The convergent validities (monotrait-multimethod correlations) were all significant and tended to be highest for emotional intensity. The multitrait-monomethod coefficients were nonsignificant, as were the correlations based on different measures of different traits. The data were interpreted as supporting the distinction between hedonic level and affect intensity, as well as supporting the validity of the measures.