The Contributions of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Reading Motivation to the Development of Reading Competence over Summer Vacation

This study addressed the role of reading motivation as a potential determinant of losses or gains in reading competence over six weeks of summer vacation (SV). Based on a sample of 223 third-grade elementary students, structural equation analyses showed that intrinsic reading motivation before SV contributed positively to both word and sentence comprehension after SV when controlling for comprehension performance before SV. These effects were mediated by reading amount. Extrinsic reading motivation did not show significant associations with end-of-summer comprehension scores. Taken together, the findings suggest that intrinsic reading motivation facilitates students’ development of reading comprehension over SV.     

An analysis of air-stepping in normal infant vervet monkeys

Limb movements during air-stepping were analyzed in three neonatal vervet monkeys over a three-week period. The movements had similar temporal organization both across animals and across time. For example, the duration of both the hind and the forelimb cycle equaled about 500 ms, with hind limb return strokes lasting much longer than the hind limb power strokes. Furthermore, there were clear indications of both intra- and interlimb coordination. Specifically, all the joints of a limb tended to flex and extend simultaneously, and contralateral and ipsilateral limb pairs had an average phase relationship of approximately 50% of cycle duration. Despite a qualitative similarity between limb movements during air-stepping in the neonates and overground locomotion in older animals, there were notable differences both in temporal relationships and joint displacement patterns. Finally, there appeared to be important similarities between air-stepping in these monkeys and stepping in newborn humans. Most notably, both tended to disappear after a limited period. The implications of these similarities, as well as the overall results, are discussed in relation to the understanding of the development of locomotor behavior in human and nonhuman primates, using approaches based both upon the hard-wired and dynamic models.     

Predicting career-entry pay expectations: The role of gender-based comparisons

This research investigated three sets of factors (career path factors, perceived job inputs, and reference group comparisons) as predictors of career-entry pay expectations for management students about to enter the workforce. As predicted, reference group comparisons accounted for a larger proportion of unique variance in students' pay expectations than either career path factors or perceived job inputs. In addition, same-sex comparisons were stronger predictors of career-entry pay expectations than opposite-sex comparisons. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Imaginal elaboration of illustrations to facilitate fact learning: Creating memories of Prince Edward Island

Canadian students in grades 5 and 6 studied facts about the 10 Canadian provinces (e. g. Many very good plays are put on in Prince Edward Island). At study, each fact was accompanied by a picture of a stereotypical setting in the province (e. g. a picture of the lush farmland in Prince Edward Island). Half the subjects were instructed to learn by imagining the fact as stated occurring in the depiction (e. g. very good plays being produced in the lush farmland setting); half were told only to try hard to remember that the fact occurred in the particular province. The imagery instruction was effective, but only when children had previously mastered associations between the provinces and the pictures of the provinces. Naturalistically occurring pictures can be used by grade-school children to create elaborative images that facilitate acquisition of confusing facts, but only if children first know what the illustrations represent.     

Civil commitment laws in nineteenth-century New York

The roots of nineteenth-century American civil commitment law lay in English common law, in particular poor law, with its mixed motives of helping lunatics and of protecting the community from them. As state institutions assumed an increasingly large share of the burden of restraint in the 1840s and 1850s, such confinement decisions became subject to greater public scrutiny. This can be seen particularly clearly in New York State, which in 1842 passed a law requiring that two physicians examine each alleged lunatic and report their findings to a judge who then made the final commitment decision. After the Civil War, a number of legal decisions limited the state's power to initiate civil commitments to cases of clear social danger, though families were not so confined. An 1874 statute further tightened procedural guidelines for civil commitments. A State Commissioner in Lunacy was appointed to oversee the internal workings of lunatic asylums. Yet such legal “reforms” failed to slow the increasing tendency of both families and communities to use such institutions as long-term holding places for the socially marginal or threatening.     

Situational approach to assessment of guilt: Development and validation of a self-report measure

The present research developed and evaluated a self-report measure of guilt that encompassed diverse, typical guilt experiences. Behavior-analytic procedures were employed to construct the Situational Guilt Scale (SGS), in which 22 items assessed anticipated guilt feelings for a wide range of naturally occurring specific situations. The SGS was administered to young-adult college students (mean age, 24 years), along with measures of guilt in traditional moral contexts, depressive tendencies, and socially desirable responding. A test-retest study of the SGS was separately conducted. Results indicated that SGS scores had statisfactory internal consistencies and considerable stability. Correlational findings and comparisons of SGS scores in a typology of depressive experience showed relationships of SGS guilt scores with dependent and self-critical tendencies and support the validity of the measure. The findings and utility of the SGS are discussed.Grant 13487 from the PSC-CUNY Research Award Program of the City University of New York provided support for this project. The Committee on Research Computing of the City University of New York funded the use of computer facilities.     

Two tests of Maslow's theory of need fulfillment

In a two-part test of Maslow's theory of human motivation, two relationships were explored: (1) the relationship between need importance and need deficiencies, and (2) the relationship between need deficiencies and life satisfaction. The subjects were groups of women college graduates in three types of occupations: professional-managerial, clerical-sales, and homemaking. In the first study, group differences in actual deficiencies did not support the hypothesis that need importance is negatively correlated with need deficiencies. Rankings of the deficiencies for the three groups, however, were consistent with the hypothesized relationship, as were the small but significant correlations that were obtained between need importance and deficiency values. In the second study, the findings gave partial support to Maslow's theory in that a significant relationship was found between need fulfillment and life satisfaction for two of the three occupational groups. The findings of both studies are discussed in relation to considerations in women's career development.     

Sex-role stereotypes and commitment of rape

Sociologists sometimes speculate that sexual offenses are related to the process of sex-role stereotyping of the female while simultaneously over-reacting in the form of “macho” behavior. In order to determine the validity of this proposed relationship, a series of paper and pencil attitude tests were administered to three populations of men. This sample included sex offenders, other offenders, and nonoffenders. A total of 119 subjects participated. The sample was selected from Lima State Hospital (Ohio), Lebanon Correctional Institution (Ohio), and nonincarcerated males working in the private sector of Dayton, Ohio. The testing instruments included the Attitude Toward Women Scale, Bem Sex-Role Inventory, the Macho Scale, and the Open Subordination of Women Scale. A multivariate analysis of variance did not establish statistical significance for either the factors of location, offense committed, or the victim orientation.     

The impact of expert testimony on trials of battered women who kill their husbands

Increased attention to family violence is reflected, in part, in the growing number of social scientists who have applied the results of their work in trials of battered women who have killed their husbands. Acting as expert witnesses, these individuals detail their knowledge and offer opinions in order to educate jurors about the social and psychological consequences of abuse within marital relationships. Little is known about the actual impact of expert testimony on jury deliberation in cases involving battered women. Those engaged in studying the interface of psychology and criminal justice have relied primarily on anecdotal evidence which suggests that expert testimony shapes jurors' attitudes and their ultimate decisions. (Ellison & Buckhout, 1981). This article summarizes psychological research on how individuals, including battered women, react to victimization and provides a preliminary theoretical formulation of this problem.