Employment rejection and acceptance letters and their unintended consequences on image,self-concept,and intentions

This paper demonstrates that the positiveness and negativeness of letters of acceptance and rejection from companies have an impact on company image, self-concept of recipient, and reported future intentions of potential recruits. The implication for employers writing letters of acceptance and rejection is that they should communicate with prospective recruits in a positive manner no matter what the letter's message. Positive rejection letters can mitigate effects of rejection and negative acceptance letters can impair the positiveness of acceptance.This research was partially supported by Grant #82037 from the Purdue Agricultural Research Station. Reprints should be addressed to Dr. Richard Feinberg, Department of Consumer Sciences and Retailing, Purdue University, 1262 Matthews Hall, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1262.     

Comparison of simultaneous prompting with and without error correction in teaching science vocabulary words to high school students with mild disabilities

This study compared the effectiveness and efficiency of simultaneous prompting with and without error correction during daily probe sessions in teaching science vocabulary words. The teacher presented the vocabulary word definitions as instructive feedback during training sessions. Five 16–17 year old students with disabilities participated in an adapted alternating treatments design that evaluated the simultaneous prompting strategy, error correction and instructive feedback. Instruction occurred in a group format using choral responding. The results indicate that (a) all students learned to read the vocabulary words, (b) simultaneous prompting with error correction was slightly more efficient for three of the five subjects in learning the targeted words, and four of the five students made fewer errors in this condition, (c) all students preferred simultaneous prompting with error correction over simultaneous prompting without error correction, (d) words mastered in both conditions generalized equally, (e) there were minimal differences between the two conditions in the collected maintenance data, and (e) students experienced only minimal improvement in their ability to define vocabulary words (instructive feedback). Discussion focuses on issues for further research and implications for instructional practice with simultaneous prompting, error correction and instructive feedback.     

Spiritualists,Aliens and UFOs: Extraterrestrials as spirit guides

One of the most striking innovations within contemporary North American Spiritualism is the adoption of extraterrestrials as spirit guides by some contemporary Spiritualists. It is here that the New Age fascination with extraterrestrials and UFOs has taken on a uniquely Spiritualist form. Extraterrestrials have come to represent for many Spiritualists the successful achievement of the ultimate Spiritualist goal: the union between spirituality and science. Extraterrestrials are seen as spiritually superior to us because their science exceeds our own; their ‘science’ is perceived superior because it incorporates recognition of spiritual ‘truth’. Consequently, within the North American Spiritualist context, the adoption of extraterrestrials as spirit guides can be seen both as a ‘rationalisation’ of Spiritualist belief through a strong idealisation of ‘science’, and as a critique of orthodox science for ignoring the ‘spiritual’ realm. For several of the Spiritualists with whom I worked, extraterrestrials have consequently become excellent choices for spirit guides.     

Counseling and screening for cystic fibrosis in patients with congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens: Patient perceptions

Congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens (CBAVD) occurs in approximately 1.3% of infertile males and is thought to be, in most cases, a primarily genital form of cystic fibrosis (CF). Fourteen males with CBAVD considering microsurgical sperm aspiration from the epididymis (MESA) and in vitro fertilization were seen for genetic counseling and screening for CF. To retrospectively evaluate these patients' perceptions of the counseling and screening information, we conducted structured telephone interviews to assess their recall of information about CF and its impact on their health concerns and reproductive plans. We found that, as the health implications of CF are abstract and not as important to patients as the diagnosis of CBAVD itself, patients tend to view their CF status primarily in terms of their reproductive potential. Retrospective analysis afforded us an opportunity to identify the psychosocial issues of most concern to this unique patient population.     

Homicide by juvenile girls

We investigated offense characteristics for a national sample of 38,749 homicide arrestees identified in the FBI Supplemental Homicide Reports for 1984 and 1993. Analyses indicated little change from 1984 to 1993 in the circumstances of homicides committed by adolescent girls; however, there were consistent offense differences between girls and boys, and between girls and women. Homicides by adolescent girls were more likely than those committed by boys to involve interpersonal conflict rather than a criminal motive such as robbery. Girls were more likely than boys to use a knife rather than a firearm and their victims were more likely to be under the age of 13 years. Compared to women (18 years or older), girls were more likely to act with an accomplice and their victims were more likely to be female and between 13 and 20 years of age. Results were inconsistent with a stereotypic masculinization theory of the increase in female violence, but provide indirect support for the importance of domestic stress and relational conflict experienced by adolescent girls. Overall, this study supports the need for differentiated study of violence by juvenile girls, and for preventive interventions which target domestic and interpersonal stress.     

Mid-career change in academia: The decision to become an administrator

This study explored the reasons why professors would leave their teaching/ research occupations to begin new careers as administrators. Valence-Instrumentality-Expectancy theory of occupational preference and choice was used as a framework to examine mid-career change among professors and department chairmen at a major university. Data showed that professors' intentions to change careers and become administrators could be explained by the theory. Analyses of job characteristics demonstrated that professors who want a mid-career change are primarily attracted by the power and formal authority vested in the administrative position, while professors who prefer to remain in their career paths do so because of the autonomy it offers.     

Electromyographic indications of laryngeal-area activity during stuttering expectancy

Using surface electrodes, mean microvolt values of laryngeal-area muscle activity were determined for 13 male and 6 female stutterers during 10-sec periods in which single words were silently read and stuttering expectancy was indicated. No significant differences in levels of laryngeal-area muscle activity were found between periods of fluency expectancy and stuttering expectancy preceding both fluent and stuttered speech. The results were interpreted as being nonsupportive of the hypothesis that a breakdown in stutterers' laryngeal-area muscle activity occurs during moments of stuttering expectancy. In addition, the results suggest that the most common rationale for the utilization of laryngeal biofeedback procedures to enhance fluency should be questioned.     

Experiential and physiological responses associated with anger and aggression in women and men

In a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design, 48 male and female college students were either given a “sex-appropriate” provocation or were not provoked. Half of the subjects were then requested to give a “stream of consciousness” (SOC) report. Throughout the experiment, three physiological measures were monitored. Finally, all subjects delivered noxious sounds to their same-sex partner as part of a Buss-type learning task. No sex differences were found for subjects not giving the SOC report; provoked men and women were equally angry, hostile toward their partner, and displayed equal amounts of aggressive behavior. Provoked men reporting on their SOC, however, appeared to stimulate themselves to more aggression, whereas women seemed to adopt a nonhostile strategy for coping with their anger, thus reducing their inclination to behave aggressively. These patterns of results were closely paralleled by physiological changes. The relative validity of systolic and diastolic blood pressure as indicators of anger arousal was also discussed.     

Children’s use of phonological encoding when reading for meaning

The role of phonological recoding in children’s reading was investigated by means of a task requiring comprehension of sentence meaning: The child’s task was to decide whether a sequence of printed letter strings was a meaningful sentence or not. Meaningless sentences that are meaningful when phonologically recoded (e.g., “He ran threw the street”) produced more incorrect responses than did meaningless sentences that remain meaningless when phonologically recoded (e.g., “He ran sew the street”). The difference in error rates between the two sentence types diminished as a function of age. Control experiments showed that these results were not due to visual similarity effects, nor to imperfect ability to spell homophones. It was concluded that very young readers rely extensively on phonological recoding when reading for meaning; as they grow older, reliance on visual encoding becomes progressively more important.