Parents' disclosure of their own concerns to their adolescent children

This study examines middle-aged parents' disclosure about their own lives and current concerns, with their late-adolescent children. Three hundred seventy-two parents of college freshmen, averaging 47 years of age, participated by filling out an anonymous questionnaire that asked about 28 topics, varying in intimacy, of concern to adults. The subjects indicated whether they had discussed each topic with their child, and, if they had, the motivations that prompted them to do so. The data revealed that mothers disclosed more than did fathers, and they were more likely to cite “venting,”“asking advice,” and “seeking emotional support” as reasons for disclosure; fathers were more likely to cite “trying to change his/her behavior” as a rationale for disclosure. Child's gender did not affect disclosure rates, but sons and daughters were disclosed to for different reasons. Divorced parents disclosed more than did parents from continuously intact families, and they cited somewhat different reasons for disclosure.     

Group guidance on sex education

High school students participated in a group which was structured to emphasize the changes and problems associated with adolescence. The group was given the opportunity as a whole—as well as in segregated sections of boys and girls—to discuss various aspects of human sexuality. Among the major themes were sexual arousal in boys and girls, masturbation, development of sexual roles, and responsibility in sexual behavior. Individuals clarified their own values, feelings, and self-concepts through interaction with peers in a counseling atmosphere.     

Bridging the High School—College Gap for Early Admitted Students

Trends toward early admissions require that counselors give increasing attention to the special needs and expectations of students who enter college environments at younger ages.     

TOWARD A MULTIDIMENSIONAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF SELF-DISCLOSURE

In an effort to develop a multidimensional theory of self-disclosure, the present research considered two dimensions of disclosure content—degree of personalness (intimacy) and valence (positiveness or negativeness)—as well as gender of the discloser, timing of disclosure in relationship development, and the recipient of disclosure. In Study I, the variables of personalness and valence were manipulated through the use of prototypical disclosure statements with subjects blocked by sex. Subjects were asked to use a scale indicating phases of relationship development to rate when they would likely disclose statements. The analysis revealed significant main effects for all three factors: personal-ness, valence, and gender, as well as a significant interaction between personalness and valence. In Study II, personalness and valence were again manipulated, along with blocking for sex. The variable of disclosure recipient (target) was manipulated by asking subjects to separately indicate whether or not they would disclose each statement to five targets: stranger, acquaintance, parent, friend, and spouse. The analysis revealed significant main effects for three factors: personalness, valence, and target. All possible interactions of these variables were also significant. Due to the many consistencies between the findings of these two studies and the many highly significant interactions, it was concluded that a multidimensional approach to the study of self-disclosure is both justified and required.     

MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION,DIFFERENTIAL POWER,AND PHASING OF CONCESSIONS: NEGOTIATING SUCCESS AND ATTRIBUTIONS TO THE OPPONENT1

The effect of three variables thought to be important to the negotiation process was investigated via an attributional analysis. Three different communication modes (audio, audio/video, face-to-face), three levels of power (high, equal, low), and three prior concession-phasing strategies (alternating, increasingly cooperative, decreasingly cooperative) were combined in a factorial design to determine their effect on negotiation outcomes and negotiator attributions. The data indicated that the communication and power variables were the most potent, with the face-to-face communication mode producing the best joint outcomes, followed by the audio/video and audio-only conditions. The various “prior” concession strategies had little effect on subsequent negotiation outcomes. Several significant internal/external attributions of locus of causality were found, as were significantly different impression ratings according to conditions.     

Social Perceptions as Mediators of the Effect of Speech Rate

Research on the relationship between speech rate and persuasion has provided inconsistent results. Recently, it was proposed that speech rate similarity affects compliance by increasing social attractiveness, which is more important to compliance than speaker credibility. Further, it was speculated that social attractiveness produces obligations to aid the speaker. This experiment tested these claims by predicting that if obligations mediated compliance, social attractiveness would only improve compliance when the speaker benefited from that compliance. In a 5 (Speaker Speech Rate) × 2 (Benefit to Speaker) design, 257 listeners, pretested on their speech rate, were exposed to 1 of 10 requests soliciting volunteers for a bogus research project. As expected, speech rate similarity enhanced social attractiveness, and faster speech rates increased speaker competence and dominance. Social attractiveness had a main effect on compliance, suggesting a direct effect on attraction. Higher sociability/character assessments and lower dominance increased compliance when the speaker benefited more, providing only limited support for the mediating role of obligations. Increased dominance and status also augmented compliance, especially when the speaker benefited less from compliance. Thus speech rate and other nonverbal behaviors may effect compliance by increasing the speaker's social attractiveness, creating obligations to comply, or exerting persuasive force through higher status and power.     

Effects of Academic Achievement and Gender on Academic and Social Self-Concept: A Replication Study

Female and male eighth-grade students representing very high, moderately high, and average levels of achievement were compared on measures of academic and social self-concept. Most of the differences were in academic self-concept, which was positively related to level of academic achievement. There also was an interaction of gender and academic achievement on academic self-concept. Average achieving girls had lower academic self-concept scores than all other groups of students. In addition, boys scored higher than girls on measures of academic self-concept and job competence. There were no significant differences on any of the social self-concept measures. The counseling implications of these findings for gifted students and girls of average achievement are discussed.     

The Non-conceptual Content of Perceptual Experience: Situation Dependence and Fineness of Grain

I begin by examining a recent debate between John McDowell and Christopher Peacocke over whether the content of perceptual experience is non-conceptual. Although I am sympathetic to Peacocke's claim that perceptual content is non-conceptual, I suggest a number of ways in which his arguments fail to make that case. This failure stems from an over-emphasis on the "fine-grainedness" of perceptual content -a feature that is relatively unimportant to its non-conceptual structure. I go on to describe two other features of perceptual experience that are more likely to be relevant to the claim that perceptual content is non-conceptual. These features are 1) the dependence of a perceived object on the perceptual context in which it is perceived and 2) the dependence of a perceived property on the object it is perceived to be a property of.