Language characteristics of mexican-american children: Implications for assessment

We have described the language features that characterize the speech of the Mexican-American child and have examined them with respect to their deviations from acceptable standards in both Spanish and English—acceptability in terms of how well he functions in each of the two language settings in which he lives. We have pointed out the magnitude of the most critical of his problems, the loss of lexical and grammatical signals through underdeveloped perception of English phonology and have demonstrated how this faulty perception vitally affects, not only his lexical and grammatical failings, but also his ability to learn as fast or as efficiently as the monolingual English-speaking child in every area of learning. We have then suggested assessment considerations which might more accurately evaluate his actual language abilities and which might provide more specific bases for planning improved educational programs for these children. We recognize, at the same time, the existence of additional considerations, such as socioeconomic environment, educational level of the parents, child rearing practices, test-orientedness, etc., which may also influence the scores they receive, and that these factors should also be considered in interpreting test statistics and in planning and designing school programs.     

Job orientations and the transition from school to work: A longitudinal study

This paper is concerned with the factors that influence career choice, job stability and job satisfaction. It uses longitudinal data collected from 450 grammar and secondary-modern schoolboys interviewed at ages 14 and 25 years. Examining job expectations at age 14 and initial career choice, it finds that school plays a major role, its importance deriving from structural rather than idiosyncratic considerations. Home, personal and chance factors are less important, mattering more in the case of secondary-modern than grammar pupils: they make their maximum impact at critical choice points when the school's influence is relatively weak. In adult life, the occupational structure takes over the role of school, job stability and satisfaction being largely associated with the training and career opportunities offered by particular jobs. An attempt is made throughout to identify the crucial periods and critical choice points where good counselling might make maximum impact.     

The canonical relationship between the Differential Ability Scales Upper Preschool Verbal and Nonverbal clusters

The canonical relationship of the Verbal and Nonverbal clusters of the Differential Ability Scales Upper Preschool Level was studied. The two clusters share 45% of their variance. Independent interpretation of the Verbal and Nonverbal scales was supported.     

Linda

We tend to define pastoral care and medical intervention in very limiting terms. Too often we are more concerned with the delivery of the product than we are with the manner in which it is received. This paper looks at the experiences of a young woman with cancer and how she sought a certain personal component to the pastoral care she received and the medical treatments she was willing to accept. She fought to be treated as an individual, to be respected as a person with her own values, and to be given the right to make her own choices. This paper is presented from the patient's perspective.     

Sex role identity and self-esteem: A comparison of children and adolescents

While data from a sample of fourth-grade children indicate that both self-efficacy (masculinity) and relationality (femininity) are strongly associated with self-esteem for both girls and boys, results from a comparable sample of adolescents aged 14–18 and a subsample of the fourth graders when they were in twelfth grade indicate that only self-efficacy is generally associated with self-esteem. An association between relationality and self-esteem is found in adolescents only for a small, high-achieving, high-SES subset of androgynous males.We are grateful to the Center for the Study of Women in Society for support for the research reported in this article, to Jeanne McGee for providing access to part of the data used in this study, and to Robert O'Brien for statistical advice. Any opinions expressed in the article, however, are our own.     

Proofreading familiar text: Allocating resources to perceptual and conceptual processes

Levy (1983) demonstrated that more spelling errors were detected, within a limited time period, when familiar passages were proofread than when unfamiliar passages were proofread. In the present series, Experiment 1 eliminated a possible confound in the Levy (1983) studies and showed that errors were detected both faster and more accurately in familiar texts. Experiment 2 demonstrated higher order involvement in the proofreading transfer effect, suggesting that a strictly word-level account was insufficient. Experiment 3 explored the proofreader’s sensitivity to the semantic properties of the proofreading passage, showing that the familiarity effect resulted from more efficient processing, not from lack of either visual or semantic analyses. The results are more consistent with a resource-allocation explanation than with either a visual-scanning or a skilled-visual-processing account.     

Therapeutic strategies for Mexican-American families

This paper emphasizes the need for therapists to develop culturally attuned approaches to families. Family therapy strategies effective with families of Mexican descent are related to specific stages of the treatment process. Categories of problems presented by Mexican-American families are defined and corresponding therapist roles suggested. A specific class of interventions, labeledcultural strategies, makes use of culture in the service of therapy. Although the illustrations presented are of Mexican-American families, the concepts can be adapted to other ethnic families.     

Visual tracking in young infants: Evidence for object identity or object permanence?

Previous research has shown that 5-month-old infants visually anticipate a moving object's appearance after it disappears behind a screen. This experiment assesses the underlying basis for such anticipatory tracking. Three tracking tasks were presented to 5- and 9-month-old infants. In the Permanence task, the object's continuous existence was apparently violated while it was behind a screen. In the Feature and Trajectory tasks, the object's features or trajectory changed while behind the screen. Disruptions in the infant's smooth visual pursuit of the object were recorded. Five-mont-olds showed disruptions of visual tracking in the Feature and Trajectory tasks, but not in the Permanence task. The tracking of the 9-month-olds was disrupted in all three tasks. We conclude that both 5- and 9-month-olds possess rules specifying the identity of a moving object which is occluded. For 5-month-olds these rules are based upon the object's features and trajectory, but not upon a concept of object permanence. For 9-month-olds all three rules—feature, trajectory, and permanence—are utilized in visual tracking.     

Job burnout and job leaving in public school teachers: Implications for stress management

This study addressed the questions of whether selected teacher and organizational variables contributed to (a) significant amounts of variance in teachers' scores on three components of burnout, and (b) teachers' intentions to leave special education teaching. Study participants (N =490) included a sample of respondents to a survey of all of the 1096 special education teachers in Hawaii. Instruments used in this study included the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Porter Need Satisfaction Questionnaire, and the Special Education Teacher Survey. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that for the burnout components, Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization, relatively large and significant amounts of variance could be accounted for by a set of predictor variables. For the third burnout component, Personal Accomplishment, the variance accounted for by a set of predictor variables was significant but small. Stepwise discriminant function analysis was used to distinguish between teachers who stated they did or did not intend to leave special education teaching. Eight variables were identified as predictors of Intention to leave special education teaching, correctly classifying 73% of teachers into the appropriate Yes-Leaving and No-Leaving groups.This research was conducted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the Doctoral dissertation by the first author.     

Archetypes of the pandemic

This paper attempts to read the psychological and emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic through the archetypal images contained in patients’ dreams. In these dreams, symbols related to the power of nature and to extreme danger are paired with feelings of detachment that seem to point to a traumatic dissociation, due to the archetypal experience that erupts in familiar surroundings. Through the humanization of the ineffable experience, dissociation, which in the beginning of the pandemic showed in high levels of anxiety, panic attacks and depersonalization, can be transformed into the overview needed for the search for meaning. The container for this process of transformation is the analyst, the real, virtual or imagined one, and his or her ability to relate and feel.