UPDATING AND BROADENING THE USE OF SINGLE SUBJECT DESIGNS IN READING

Single subject designs, developed in clinical settings, are currently being used for diagnosis and instruction in schools. Three of these designs are useful in diagnosing student problems and in measuring the effectiveness of specific interventions. The designs can be used to graph individual or small group progress. Moreover, each is selected on the basis of the type of learning task that the teacher deems appropriate. If the rules of each design are followed, the teacher can obtain instructionally relevant information and keep precise records. These designs present substantial evidence that can be used in assessment, instruction, and evaluation of individual students, intervention strategies, and curricula.     

Follow Your Heart: Could Psychophysiology Be Associated with Political Discussion Network Homogeneity?

Most Americans are sorted into social networks that are largely politically homogeneous. A large body of political science research has explored the behavioral implications of being embedded in a politically homogeneous or heterogeneous network, but substantially less attention has been given to explaining why some people find themselves in politically homogeneous or heterogeneous social networks. In this article, we explore the psychological and physiological underpinnings of political network homogeneity. We use social network data from an original survey of 129 undergraduates paired with lab experimental evidence that measures individuals' physiological reactivity to an anticipated political discussion. Using our original survey and a separate nationally representative survey, we find suggestive evidence that individuals who are more socially anxious are more likely to share partisanship with their social network ties. Moreover, we find that individuals who experienced a greater increase in heart rate when anticipating a political discussion were more likely to be in homogeneous discussion networks, but we do not find a relationship between electrodermal activity and network homogeneity. Aversion to psychological and physiological discomfort induced by political discussions could contribute to social polarization in the American public.