The prediction of political evaluation and voting preference: A multidimensional analysis

Two separate studies, using college students in a political behavior class, tested the relationship between evaluation and voting preferences on the one hand and the dimensions emerging from a multidimensional scaling of similarity judgments for a set of nationally known political figures. Both studies found that political evaluation and voting preferences were highly predictable from three major dimensions underlying political perception. In Study I (n = 64), the subjects' self-ratings of liberal-conservatism yielded individual differences in the predictability of activity and potency from the political dimensions as well as differences in the relationships among evaluation, activity, and potency. In Study II (n = 51), the subjects' own authoritarianism indicated differences in the manner in which political figures were perceived in the multidimensional space.     

PROVIDING A MORE APPROPRIATE EDUCATION FOR SEVERELY HANDICAPPED PERSONS: INCREASING AND VALIDATING FUNCTIONAL CLASSROOM TASKS

We evaluated a teacher training and supervision program for increasing the involvement of severely handicapped adolescents and adults in functional educational tasks. The program, consisting of a brief in-service followed by supervisory prompts and feedback, was accompanied by large increases in functional tasks in three classrooms. In addition, generalized increases occurred during nontargeted times in the classroom and the changes during both the targeted and nontargeted times were maintained over a 44–45 week period. In two subsequent experiments, surveys provided social validation for the criteria for functional versus nonfunctional tasks in that: (a) relevant individuals reliably categorized functional tasks as representing typical living, work, social, and leisure situations and (b) experienced clinicians consistently rated tasks previously categorized as functional as being more useful for severely handicapped persons than tasks categorized as nonfunctional. Results are discussed in terms of the relationship of functional classroom tasks in the overall provision of appropriate educational services for severely handicapped students.     

Patterns of toy play: An analysis of sex differences

Kindergarten children were videotaped playing with female- and male-traditional toys as well as nonsex-typed toys. Coders calculated time spent by each child in behavioral categories (positive and negative comments, aggression, nurturance, movement, noise, and gadgetry) and rated children on scales (talkativeness, activity, familiarity, enjoyment, proximity, appropriateness, and gentleness). Sex differences were revealed on most dimensions. Boys were rated as familiar with, enjoying, and playing appropriately with two toys (male-traditional and nonsex-typed) and girls on the female-traditional toy. Girls paid more attention to details of the toys, while there were few differences on aggression and movement. Data suggest that children develop varying patterns of play with the same toy—based on their earlier experiences with play materials. Agents promoting these differences (parents, teachers, and peers) are discussed, as are implications of the findings for children's development of skills and cognitive abilities.Portions of this report were presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, August 1978. The author wishes to thank the San Bernardino Unified School District for help in conducting the research, and Lorraine Gorski and Dan Kelso for their work as coders.     

Integrating instructional procedures into traditional congregate care situations for people with severe disabilities

Many institutional and community residential agencies experience difficulties in providing habilitative services when direct care staff are working with groups of people with severe disabilities. We evaluated a means of assisting direct care personnel in integrating instructional strategies into traditional congregate care situations. In Experiment 1, integrated teaching strategies were operationalized for two direct care staff persons. The strategies were based on individualized client habilitative goals and the use of brief response prompting and contingent reinforcement paradigms. The staff members integrated the teaching procedures into their group routines with clients upon implementation of an integrated-teaching staff training and management program. The program involved two staff training sessions and ongoing performance feedback. In Experiment 2, four staff members in another living unit integrated the strategies into their group routines upon implementation of a simplified version of the program. Additionally, while the program was in effect, adaptive behaviors increased in frequency for 19 of 20 clients with profound multiple disabilities. Results of the experiments demonstrate a means through which residential agencies may enhance provision of continuous active treatment in accordance with clinical and governmental guidelines. Suggestions for future rescarch are provided, focusing on overcoming obstacles residential personnel face in providing treatment services in congregate situations.     

A Rose by any other name: Attitudes toward feminism as a function of its label

Male and female subjects were asked to rate one of the following labels on a variety of evaluative dimensions: equal rights for women (ERW), feminism (FEM), women's liberation (WLN) and women's lib (WLB). It was found that there were differences among the labels, with ERW being the most positively evaluated and WLN being the most negatively evaluated. Furthermore, there were sex differences on some of the dimensions wherein females made more favorable evaluations than males. Subjects' ratings were mixed, being favorable on some dimensions and unfavorable on others. Interpretations and implications of the results are discussed.     

INCREASING ONE ASPECT OF SELF‐DETERMINATION AMONG ADULTS WITH SEVERE MULTIPLE DISABILITIES IN SUPPORTED WORK

We attempted to increase one aspect of self‐determination among 3 supported workers with multiple disabilities. Following Baer's (1998) self‐determination conceptualization, the workers were exposed to two conditions that involved working more versus less independently based on availability of assistive devices. Next, their condition preferences were assessed and honored. All participants consistently chose the more independent condition. Results reflect how self‐determination may be enhanced by giving workers increased control over work situations.     

The intergenerational effects of trauma from terror: A real possibility

The goals of this article are to discuss the potential risk of children whose parents were traumatized by terror, to present literature on parenting in the context of terror, and to consider factors that may mediate the transmission of trauma‐effects from parents to children. Mediators considered are parents' traumatic distress, disturbed parent–child interactions, trauma‐related disturbances in parents' thinking, and effects of stress on children's neural functioning. Also discussed are genetic and environmental factors that may moderate the transmission of intergenerational effects and promote children's risk and resilience. Points raised during the discussion are illustrated with segments from interviews of women who were pregnant or gave birth some time after direct exposure to a terror attack. The authors conclude that empirical studies are needed to learn more about the intergenerational transmission of trauma‐effects and processes that underlie it. The authors join others in the call to improve evaluation, treatment, and support of trauma victims and their children to stymie the transmission of problems from one generation to the next.     

“It Makes Me a Man from the Beating I Took”: Gender and Aggression in Children’s Narratives About Conflict

Personal conflict narratives were written by 364 4th–6th graders from two urban schools in the U.S. mid-south that contrasted in levels of poverty and crime. Narratives were coded for severity of violence, type of aggression, explanations, characters’ mental and emotional states, and authors’ moral evaluations. Boys described more severe physical violence than girls, but provided fewer explanations, less moral evaluation, and showed less psychological mindedness in the moderate-stress neighborhood, but only when they wrote stories about boy aggressors and physical or psychological aggression. Boys describing girl or relational aggression were as psychologically and morally astute as girls were. Girls also neglected to explain and evaluate boys’ aggression. Findings supported a social constructivist model of how narrative discourse may gender aggression.