BEHAVIORAL SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY GOES OUTDOORS: THE EFFECT OF ORGANIZED GAMES ON PLAYGOUND AGGRESSION

This research focuses on the inappropriate, largely aggressive, behaviors of 344 K-2 children assigned to a playground prior to the beginning of the school day. Initially, a system for observing large numbers of children freely roaming over a large, open area was developed. This observational method was then used to determine the effectiveness of providing organized games for reducing potentially dangerous playground behaviors. Using a reversal (ABAB) design, it was found that the games, rope jumping, and foot racing, along with an infrequently used time-out procedure, significantly reduced the frequency of inappropriate incidents. It is suggested that when dealing with large groups, antecedent environmental manipulations may be more practical than providing consequences for the behaviors exhibited by identified individuals.     

Dramatic religious conversion and schizophrenic decompensation

The similarities between dramatic religious and psychotic experiences have long been observed and, just as long, have proved a source of confusion and misunderstanding. Recent surveys on decompensation to schizophrenic psychosis offer not only striking comparisons to the phenomenon of sudden and dramatic religious conversion but clues to the limits of continuity between these two mental processes. Using Docherty and his associates model of the stages of onset of schizophrenic psychosis and their own review of the literature of religious conversion, the authors suggest three principal similarities and the point of departure between the two phenomena.The authors are indebted to John P. Docherty, M. D., and Malcolm Bowers, M. D., for their comments on earlier versions of this article.     

Means,standard deviations and stability coefficients on the EPI for further education and college of education students

1294 Further Education students and 644 College of Education students were tested with the EPI and subsequently retested after 1 year. Females scored significantly higher than males for Neuroticism, but the converse applied for Extraversion. Stability coefficients for all groups were positive and substantial.     

Converting an electronic calculator into a combination stopwatch-calculator

A method for adding electronic stopwatch capabilities to a calculator is described. An integrated circuit (NE555) is used for a time base. The circuit drives an opto-isolator or light-emitting diode that operates a photocell. The opto-isolator or photocell substitutes for a switch closure to increment the calculator in .10-sec intervals.     

Tutor Attributions and Attitude As a Function of Tutee Performance1

In a single-session tutoring situation, a sixth-grade tutor taught a concept-formation task to a third-grade tutee. Over the series of trials, performance of the tutee was controlled to create differential patterns of success and failure on the task: success-success, failure-failure, success-failure, and failure-success. Results showed that sequence of performance exerted a strong impact on the tutor's attributions of ability and affective responses concerning the tutee. The tutee's initial performance had greater impact on the tutor's reactions than later performance, indicating a strong primacy effect. Differential performance by the tutee did not affect the tutor's evaluation of his own teaching ability.     

APCOL: A programming system for computer-controlled psychology laboratories

The development of on-line computer systems can be facilitated by higher-level programming languages that are more powerful and easier to learn than machine-level Assembly languages. In general, it is not possible to speak ofa programming language without also describing the operating system and functional problem domain of the small computer system for which it is intended. This is because of the great variety in the architecture and configuration of small computers. However, it is possible to state more general requirements and design criteria for on-line computer languages in psychology. APCOL is an example of an integrated programming system. One of the important distinguishing features of the system is that it is implemented both on the small-scale laboratory computer and on a large general-purpose computer linked to the smaller machine via a high-speed communications network. This arrangement permits firsthand access to interactive program construction with immediate test of program function by using the on-line implementation as well as access to the text-editing and mass storage facilities of the large-scale machine.