The structure of vocational interests in Filipino adolescents

The structure of vocational interests was investigated in Filipino high school students (N = 503), who rated their interest in 303 culture-relevant occupational titles and 93 major fields of study. Item-level principal components analyses identified general interest, prestige, and sex-type dimensions, rather than Prediger's (1982) People/Things and Data/Ideas dimensions. Additional factor analyses were conducted to derive scales that measure more specific interests, including Unskilled/Semiskilled Labor, Male-dominated, Engineering/Technology, Science, Medical, Arts, Commerce, Government/Law, and Education. The interest scales showed some resemblance or overlap with Holland's types, and gender differences on the scales conformed to expectations. However, the relationships among the scales and occupations were better accounted for by prestige and sex-type than by People/Things and Data/Ideas dimensions or by Holland's circular model. Developmental, cultural, educational, and economic factors that might account for Filipino students' focus on prestige and sex-type were discussed.     

Personality and Creativity in Art and Writing: Innovation Motivation,Psychoticism, and (Mal)Adjustment

Undergraduates (N = 68) completed inventories measuring innovation motivation (need to be different and innovation expectancy), psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism, and symptomatic distress, as well as a sentence completion measure of adjustment. They also wrote lyric poems using an associative procedure and completed house–tree–person drawings. Poems were scored for originality and arousal potential and independently judged for quality by two college writing instructors. Drawings were scored for original features and independently judged for quality by two art therapists. The need to be different and current adjustment problems correlated significantly with both originality scores and judged creativity on both tasks, often interacting to explain much of the variance in creativity. Innovation expectancy and psychoticism displayed significant correlations with some creativity measures. Originality scoring and expert judgment correlated well on both tasks. Originality and judged creativity correlated significantly across creative domains, supporting a domain-general view of creativity.     

Factor Structure of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale in Hong Kong Adolescents

E. A. Southwell &; M. Merbaum (Eds.). Personality: Readings in Theory and Research. (2nd ed.) Belmont, Calif.: Brooks/Cole, 1971, 422 pages. Reviewed by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi     

DEVELOPING STRATEGIC READERS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

The goal of this paper is to examine the effect of strategic reading instruction in conditions not previously studied. The reading behavior of two third-grade classes of Navajo learners was tested over the course of a year. One class received instruction designed to foster the use of reading strategies; the second class did not. The results from the data collected suggest that strategy instruction positively affected the behavior of the students in the first class. This finding is of interest in that this form of instruction has not previously been utilized with the participants, Navajo learners, or in the small-scale context investigated here.     

Differential Attention as a Mechanism of Change in Parent–Child Interaction Therapy: Support from Time-Series Analysis

Although many interventions address children’s externalizing behavior problems, negative treatment outcomes remain common. Reasons for success or failure are frequently unclear, due in part to a lack of research identifying treatment change mechanisms. The current study evaluated differential attention as a mechanism of change in Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), a treatment for children with externalizing problems. Using sequential coding and time-series analysis, we examined parent–child interactions across treatment for three families. Contrary to hypotheses, child prosocial behaviors and parent skill use held steady or decreased across coaching periods, with the exception of one family, where the parent’s skill use increased during coaching. Partial support was found for the hypothesis that parent differential attention would predict child prosocial behavior in the next minute. These results provide support for differential attention as a mechanism of change, but also demonstrate that this factor is not the only such mechanism.     

Neuropsychological Functioning in Children with Medium Chain Acyl Coenzyme A Dehydrogenase Deficiency (MCADD): The Impact of Early Diagnosis and Screening on Outcome

Children with medium chain acyl coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency (MCADD) have been reported to be at high risk for neurocognitive deficits. However this has not been systematically studied and little is known about the exact nature of neuropsychological sequelae or of the impact of early diagnosis and screening on outcome. We examined cognitive and adaptive outcome in children with MCADD (N?=?38, age range: 2 years, 2 months – 10 years, 3 months) diagnosed either through a newborn screening program (tandem mass spectrometry/MSMS) or upon clinical presentation. There was no evidence of overall intellectual impairment in either groups but there was some suggestion of poorer verbal and specific executive functioning (i.e., planning) abilities in the unscreened cohorts. Adaptive functioning was relatively intact with the exception of reduced Daily Living Skills in both our screened and unscreened groups. Early diagnosis and greater number of hospitalizations were related to higher verbal, communication, and socialization skills. Overall, our results highlight the importance of early diagnosis and management for children with MCADD.     

First Impressions: Exploring the Structure of Titles for Nonformal Public Interpretive Programs

ABSTRACT

Visitors considering attending an interpretive program open to the public at a zoo, historic site, park, or museum may have no more information available to them than the title of the program and its location and date. This research investigated how the structure of a program title helped or hindered people from inferring the topic of the program, whether it is for adults or children, level of formality, and interestingness. Ninety-six college students at 2 universities rated 18 titles for interpretive programs on 4 dimensions. Interestingness of the program topic was related to reported intention to attend the program. Being able to infer whether the program was for adults or children and whether it was formal or informal was related to interestingness. Program titles should be strategically constructed as potential program participants make inferences about the program from the title.     

Interpersonal constructs and communicative ability in a police environment: A preliminary investigation

Abstract

This study investigates the relation between indexes of the development of interpersonal construct systems and the qualities of messages generated in response to persuasive tasks within the context of an urban police force. Hypotheses assuming that length of service as a line officer would predict less developed construct systems, and that more developed construct systems would predict message strategies that acknowledge the unique qualities of receivers found general support. In addition, the possibility of further relations between length of service and message variables was explored, but no substantial evidence was found for such effects. These results show the importance of environmental influences on construct development, and suggest that interpersonal perception and message behavior functionally adapt to the needs of organizational participation.     

Visual agnosia and prosopagnosia in childhood: a prospective case study.

Selective impairments in visual processing are well documented in adults but rarely reported in children. The few childhood cases reported are mostly retrospective accounts with little attention paid to developmental, assessment or management issues. We report a prospective case study of a boy with prosopagnosia and visual processing deficits of presumed developmental origin. At the age of 4 years, AL presented with a range of cognitive and visual recognition deficits. Subsequent assessments revealed an evolving pattern in visual recognition and dissociations between developing skills. At the age of 7 AL has impairments in early perceptual analysis, visual organisation and in complex visual processing. Although he can identify facial features and match faces he is unable to recognise familiar faces. His reading and spelling are developing normally. The nature of his deficits and his progress are discussed within a cognitive neuropsychological framework.