Occupational attainment as a function of abilities and interests: a longitudinal analysis using project TALENT data

Ability, interest, gender, and family socioeconomic status of 13,248 tenth-grade participants in Project TALENT were studied as they relate to occupational attainment by using discriminant analysis. Individuals were classified into 12 broad categories reported 11 years after graduation. Accuracy analyses indicated correct classifications significantly above chance for all except the Technical and Sales categories. Within-category classification percentages were higher for all groups except Construction. Five canonical discriminant functions that jointly accounted for 96.8% of the between-groups variance were interpreted. The first 2 accounted for 81.9% of the variance. Function 1 was a general ability function; Function 2 differentiated the categories on the basis of mathematics ability and gender. Functions 3 through 5 accounted for 14.9% of the between-groups variance. Some implications of these findings are discussed.     

Parent-child conversation of more-liked and less-liked children

Four more-liked boys and four less-liked boys (M age = 58.13 months) were videotaped as they interacted separately in semi-structured activities with their own mother and father, the mother and father of a more-liked boy, and the mother and father of a less-liked boy. Parents of less-liked boys had more intensive interactions that were more controlling, directive, and intrusive than parents of more-liked boys. Parents of more-liked boys had extensive interactive patterns that made them better able to extend praise and encouragement to children not their own. Similarly, more-liked children seemed more sensitive than less-liked children to situational factors that occurred during interactions with parents not their own and were therefore better able to adjust their behavior to the expectations of the situation.     

Analysis of adult-neonate synchrony during speech and nonspeech

Five neonates and two adult female interactants were video-taped and categorized as to their interactionally synchronous movements during speech and nonspeech. Although synchrony occurred during speech as well as nonspeech, it was significantly more likely to occur during periods of speech. Duration of adults' movement were significantly shorter during speech and longer during nonspeech. These findings corroborate previous suggestions that interactional synchrony between adults and infants occurs on a micro-level.     

Factors within the 1969 SVIB for women and relationships to Holland's theory

The Basic Interest Scales (BIS) and the Occupational Scales (O-S) of the revised Strong Vocational Interest Blank for Women (TW 398) were assigned Holland codes, and component scores for the BIS and O-S were separately developed, intercorrelated, and evaluated along with standardized composite scores representing each of the 11 O-S Groups on the profile. The dimensionality of the BIS and O-S was similar, and similar in number to Holland's theory, but the components were only partially congruent. Some profile Groups provided relatively good representations of BIS and/or Occupational scale components, and the grouping of the O-S provided important information not otherwise readily available. Holland's dimensions are not uniformly represented in either the BIS or O-S, and despite some similarities, fundamental problems of compatibility appeared to exist in relating the structure of this instrument to Holland's formulations. Women's interests are in need of independent study.     

Gender and developmental differences in children's conversations

Extending work on childhood gender differences by J. Block (“Assimilation, Accommodation and the Dynamics of Personality Development,” Child Development, 1982, 53, 281–295) and J. H. Block (“Differential Premises Arising from Differential Socialization of the Sexes: Some Conjunctures,” Child Development, 1983, 54, 1335–1354), the present research investigated assimilative and accommodative discourse devices in the speech of 24 preschool children (12 boys and 12 girls) and 24 middle-childhood youngsters (12 boys and 12 girls) in each of grades 3 and 6. Boys' discourse, regardless of age, contained more accommodative devices. Girls' discourse, regardless of age, contained more assimilative devices. Age effects were apparent; older children, regardless of gender, used more discourse devices of both kinds than younger children.     

Internal standards revisited: Effects of social comparisons and expectancies on judgments of fairness and satisfaction

Two studies examined the effect of two comparison processes on perceptions of fairness and satisfaction. Rewards relative to others (social comparison) and relative to expectancies (expectancy comparison) were orthogonally varied while absolute level of reward was held constant. Both studies showed, contrary to previous theory, that only social comparisons are related to perceived fairness, yet both comparisons are significantly related to satisfaction in an additive manner. Social comparisons explained more variation in satisfaction and dominated responses to more specific measures of affect. Partial support for specific predictions derived from equity theory and expectancy theory are reported. The overall results are interpreted as demonstrating the importance of the salience of frames of reference in reward evaluation.Estabilished practices create expectations, and since men have traditionally received greater rewards than women for the same services, they expect disproportionate rewards and tend to be disappointed if they do not get them. But these expectations have nothing to do with investments, and neither are they rooted in a conception of justice. (Blau, 1964, p. 195)     

Is Humility a Virtue in the Context of Sport?

I define humility as a virtue that includes both proper self‐assessment and a self‐lowering other‐centeredness. I then argue that humility, so understood, is a virtue in the context of sport, for several reasons. Humility is a component of sportspersonship, deters egoism in sport, fuels athletic aspiration and risk‐taking, fosters athletic forms of self‐knowledge, decreases the likelihood of an athlete seeking to strongly humiliate her opponents or be weakly humiliated by them, and can motivate an athlete to achieve greater levels of excellence in her sport. In the context of team sports, humility can contribute to an athlete being a better teammate, foster unity amidst diversity within a team, and contribute to the overall moral and athletic excellence of a team. I also argue that an individual who is truly the world's greatest athlete can know and communicate this truth, while remaining humble.     

Medical Manichaeism

Medical discourse in the contemporary United States is rife with military metaphors. These metaphors have come under vigorous criticism over the last few decades but to no avail; the militaristic tendency has proven tenacious. This essay suggests that its tenacity stems, at least in part, from a dualistic understanding of medicine unaddressed by prior criticisms. For an alternative, this essay turns to Augustine of Hippo, balancing close readings of works that deal explicitly with medical themes—The Catholic Way of Life and the Manichean Way of Life (De moribus) and The Nature of the Good (De natura boni)—with a constructive approach. By adapting Augustine's privative account of evil, we can understand disease as a condition of loss and treatment as a task of restoration. This reconfiguration shifts the focus of our interpretive discourses from malicious invaders to a fuller affirmation of the lived experiences of those who are ill.