Achievement motivation in college women revisited: Implications for women,men, and the gathering of coconuts

An attempt was made to replicate the findings of French and Lesser (1964) within one university on the effects of value-appropriate arousal conditions on achievement motivation scores and motivation performance relationships in women. The findings of this study do not uphold those previously reported. There were no significant differences on either achievement motivation scores or task performance under value-appropriate versus -inappropriate arousal conditions. In the present study there were two innovations — performance criteria were extended to include academic performance, and scoring procedures were developed to give equal weight to achievement imagery in areas defined as traditionally feminine. The principle findings concern the importance of the scoring procedures. Intellectual (classic) N Ach does not relate to value orientation, task performance, or grade point average. Women's Role N Ach, however, is significantly related to task performance and to grade point average. This motivation-performance relationship exists despite differences in value orientation among women. It is suggested that when scoring procedures allow subjects, male or female, to express achievement strivings in areas of value to them, then performance may be morc sensitive to motivational variables.This article is based on research supported by Grant 1 RO1 HD-02403-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health to Lynette K. Friedrich and John S. Harding and by funds from the College Committee on Research, New York State College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, to Lynette K. Friedrich. The author is deeply indebted to Dr. John Harding for faculty support in securing the grant and for his invaluable participation as consultant. Dr. Doris B. Rosen and Dr. Elizabeth Anisfeld made significant contributions to the study. In addition, the assistance of Serena Weaver, Helen Grebow, Bruce Ambler, and Jansis Smithels is gratefully acknowledged. Further acknowledgment is made to Dr. Elizabeth G. French for her advice and generous cooperation.     

Tethered insect flight: A system for automated data processing of behavioral events

Flight mills to which flying insects are tethered, and which allow measurement of locomotion in a circular path, are used to measure flight capability in terms of frequency, duration, velocity, and distance. Also, they are adaptable to measurement of physiological processes such as respiration and energy consumption. We describe a flight-mill system with floating magnets and Teflon® bearings in its rotor that minimize frictional drag. Rotation (of the mill rotor) is transduced by interruption of a light beam to a phototransistor, which produces a signal monitored by a specially constructed event recorder. The event recorder temporarily stores the data from each mill and then transmits them in proper format for permanent storage on seven-track magnetic tape. The system allows simultaneous data collection from 18 individual insects and provides a computerized interpretation of their performance. The result is an analysis of all the significant parameters of flight that can be derived by measuring duration, velocity, distance, and frequency.     

Families-at-risk and home-based intervention: A therapist training model

Home-based family therapy programs are designed to provide intensive family intervention for at-risk children and adolescents. However, examination of the literature reveals limited publications about training therapists for this difficult task. The purpose of this paper is to describe a therapist training model based upon a family-as-context approach to crisis intervention. Specific units covered during the course include: family-as-a-system, structural family therapy, family crisis intervention, family assessment and simulation. It is concluded that the effective prevention of placement for at-risk children and adolescents requires both a home-based family treatment program and a specific therapist training model for family intervention.John J. Zarski, PhD, is a professor in the marriage and family therapy training program at the University of Akron. Carol A. Pastore is program coordinator for the T.I.E.S. program in Canton, OH. A. Lynette Way and Richard N. Shepler are home-based therapists with T.I.E.S. The authors would like to express their appreciation to Professor John West for his helpful comments on drafts of this article.     

Assessment as Intervention: A Pilot Study of Short-Term Dyadic Treatment

Assessment, as an intervention, is a hallmark of infant mental health that has not been evaluated for treatment effectiveness. A comprehensive assessment framework was standardized as a short-term intervention model and evaluated for treatment effects based on dynamic systems theory of change. The transdisciplinary interaction-based assessment model embeds nondidactic developmental guidance interpretations in the context of eliciting child functional capacities while engaging the caregiver in direct co-observation and reflection to challenge inflexibility in parents’ representations. The findings of this pilot project, with a community sample of Spanish- and English-speaking families, suggest this assessment as intervention model has the potential to promote an active process of change in parents’ representations toward a “disorderly,” or unstable state, possibly both in perceptions of self as caregiver and in representations of the child. Clinically, this disorderly state would be seen as an opportunity that could perpetuate the change process, recognizing disorderliness of representation as an opening, as emerging permeability of representations. Results indicate that this caregiver-clinician collaborative process is associated with caregiver reports of decreased distress, increased empathy for child’s difficulties, and changes in caregiver representations. A subset of families, caregivers who hold immutable views of their children, are less responsive to the developmental guidance approach and may require different or more long-term treatment.     

Power and Action in Critical Theory Across Disciplines: Implications for Critical Community Psychology

Although critical scholarship and community psychology share similar aspirations, the links between them remain unexplored and under-theorized. In this article we explore the implications of critical scholarship in various specialties for the field of community psychology. To understand the contributions of critical scholarship to a theory of power and action for social change, we conducted a systematic analysis of a ten-year period of publications in seven journals associated with the critical scholarship tradition. We created precise criteria for the concepts of power and action and applied them to the publications. Results indicate an interesting paradox at play. Whereas community psychology is more action oriented than critical scholarship, its actions fall short of challenging institutionalized power structures and the status quo; and whereas critical scholarship is more challenging of the status quo than community psychology in theory, it has failed to produce viable actions that challenge the status quo. We discuss the implications of this state of affairs for the development of a more critical community psychology.     

Intercultural Rhetoric and Reading Comprehension in a Second Language

Intercultural rhetoric has been studied in the context of second language writing for many decades. This article looks at the topic from a new perspective and offers an experimental study of the effects of intercultural rhetoric on reading comprehension. The experiment was set in Hong Kong, China, and assessed the reading comprehension (using a rational cloze design and quantitative and qualitative recall protocols) of 490 school students who were presented with four rhetorically different texts. Results suggest that the rhetoric of the students’ first language (Chinese) had clear effects on reading comprehension.     

Visual acuity improvement following fading and feedback training—I. Comparison of myopic and emmetropic volunteers

18 myopes and 18 emmetropes were randomly assigned in pairs to either Fading and Feedback training or a no-treatment control condition. The emmetropes were fitted with plus lenses equivalent to the spherical correction of the paired myope to simulate myopic visual acuity. Extensive visual acuity measures were obtained pre- and post-training. Data analyses indicated significant increases in recognition visual acuity for trained subjects, compared to no-treatment controls. The myopia/emmetropia variable did not interact with training even though there were noticably greater increases in visual acuity for trained myopes compared to the other conditions. Resolution visual acuity did not change as a function of training. These data are discussed in terms of their implications for better understanding the mechanisms responsible for visual acuity increases following behavioural training.