Anxiety and affiliation in children

Hypotheses about the relationship between anxiety and affiliation derived from the psychoanalytic, drive, and social comparison models were tested by exposing high anxious (HA) and low anxious (LA)Ss to stress and subsequently to conditions meant to fulfill either nurturance or information needs. Unstressed and non-need fulfilled control groups were included. (N=224 grade school children.) Stress significantly increased the strength of adult affiliating in HA Ss; nurturance reduced it. Peer affiliating was not influenced by stress or information, nor did the conditions affect the affiliation of LASs. Results supported the hypothesis that dependency motives mediate the anxiety-affiliation relationship.This study is based on a doctoral dissertation completed at Yale University. The author thanks Prof. Seymour Sarason, who directed the thesis, and the children, teachers, and school psychologists of Milford, Conn. whose cooperation made this study possible.     

Child- versus teacher-administered token programs in a psychiatric hospital school

The purpose of this study was to: (a) compare student-administered token programs with similar programs administered by professional teachers, (b) investigate the contribution of feedback to the success of token systems, (c) compare the effectiveness of peer and teacher feedback, and (d) test a sequence of withdrawal from token programs designed to increase generalization. Results indicated that (a) peers could do just as well as teachers in reducing disruptive behavior through a token program, (b) feedback is not solely responsible for the effectiveness of token reinforcement, (c) peer feedback may be more effective than teacher feedback, and (d) withdrawal from token reinforcement to feedback may be a successful method of retarding the increases in disruptive behavior usually found when backup reinforcers are eliminated.The project was supported by Grant OEG 0-71-2872 (607) from the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The opinions expressed herein, however, do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the U.S. Office of Education, and no official endorsement by that Office should be inferred. The author would like to thank Drs. L. Krasner, A. O. Ross, and K. Feldman for their assistance throughout the study, and Dr. K. D. O'Leary for his invaluable help. Also gratefully acknowledged is the help of R. Spitalnik, R. Kent, M. Hageman. S. Ransom, W. Kaler, S. Golembeski and E. Howard.     

A problem-solving model for teaching remedial arithmetic to handicapped young children

An operant problem-solving model was used to assist two handicapped young boys to learn the concept of number. During the initial baseline condition, with intermittent teacher-attention contingencies in a classroom setting, both boys were performing number concept tasks at about the 50% level of accuracy. The situation was changed to a one-to-one, tutor-pupil arrangement, with continuous reinforcement for correct responses. This alteration failed to increase the subjects' accuracy rates. Training was initiated in which the covert part of the response chain was made overt (e.g., attending and counting out loud) so that mediating responses could be monitored and reinforced. Once the subjects were performing at a high degree of accuracy, the reinforcers for the mediating responses were systematically eliminated and only final solution responses were reinforced. Accuracy of problem solutions remained high after training.This research was supported by the U.S. Office of Education, Division of Research, Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, Project No. 23–2030, Grant No. OEG-0-9-232030-0762(032). Linda S. Berner contributed to the execution of the study. Her assistance is greatly appreciated.     

A response to commentaries on positivity

In our response, we aim to further contribute to the ongoing discussion of the construct of positivity and of the related research. We believe that each of the three commentaries has something unique to offer to the literature. By this response we take the opportunity to discuss the ideas that they present, and to illustrate some additional thoughts about positivity and its relationships with germane psychological constructs.     

Phänomenologie und Realismus. Die Frage nach der Wirklichkeit im Streit zwischen Husserl und Ingarden

I deal with the relation between phenomenology and realism while examining Ingarden’s critique towards Husserl. I exhibit the empiricist nucleus of Husserl’s phenomenology, according to which the real is what can be sensuously experienced. On this basis, I argue that Husserl’s phenomenology is not idealistic, in opposition to the realistic phenomenology, according to which reality consists in entities which cannot be sensuously experienced and are thus ideal. Finally I attempt to show that the idealistic elements of Husserl’s thinking do not originate from the transcendental turn, but from a remainder of psychologism that contradicts his empiricism.     

The contribution of personality traits and self‐efficacy beliefs to academic achievement: A longitudinal study

Background. The personal determinants of academic achievement and success have captured the attention of many scholars for the last decades. Among other factors, personality traits and self‐efficacy beliefs have proved to be important predictors of academic achievement. Aims. The present study examines the unique contribution and the pathways through which traits (i.e., openness and conscientiousness) and academic self‐efficacy beliefs are conducive to academic achievement at the end of junior and senior high school. Sample. Participants were 412 Italian students, 196 boys and 216 girls, ranging in age from 13 to 19 years. Methods. The hypothesized relations among the variables were tested within the framework of structural equation model. Results and conclusions. Openness and academic self‐efficacy at the age of 13 contributed to junior high‐school grades, after controlling for socio‐economic status (SES). Junior high‐school grades contribute to academic self‐efficacy beliefs at the age of 16, which in turn contributed to high‐school grades, over and above the effects of SES and prior academic achievement. In accordance with the posited hypothesis, academic self‐efficacy beliefs partially mediated the contribution of traits to later academic achievement. In particular, conscientiousness at the age of 13 affected high‐school grades indirectly, through its effect on academic self‐efficacy beliefs at the age of 16. These findings have broad implications for interventions aimed to enhance children's academic pursuits. Whereas personality traits represent stable individual characteristics that mostly derive from individual genetic endowment, social cognitive theory provides guidelines for enhancing students’ efficacy to regulate their learning activities.     

Combinatorics and probability: six- to ten-year-olds reliably predict whether a relation will occur

Young children are able to judge which of two possibilities is more likely to occur when these possibilities are characterized by a simple property, like color (“Is it more likely to draw a red chip or a blue chip?”). Here we ask whether they can do so when the possibilities concern a relation between simple properties (“Is it more likely to draw two chips of the same color or two different colored chips?”). Three studies show that from the age of six children are able to predict the occurrence of a relation on the basis of its probability, and that from the age of nine their performance reaches adult levels. These results corroborate the theory of naive extensional reasoning, and are inconsistent with the hypothesis that children need the help of instruction to reason correctly about relations.     

Outcomes of training in supervision: Randomised controlled trial

There is little controlled research on the impact of supervisor training on supervision. The current study examined the effects of supervision training in a sample of 46 supervisor–supervisee pairs of mental health practitioners. It compared Immediate 2‐day workshop training of the pair, a wait‐list control in which workshop training was delayed 3 months, and a condition in which supervisors were trained 3 months before their partners (Split). Benefits of Immediate training were restricted to supervisors reporting fully specified agreements, and to reduction of some perceived problems. Self‐efficacy in providing effective supervision fell in the Split condition, relative to the other conditions. Across conditions in general there was a fall from baseline to post‐test assessment in the proportion of sessions where recommended supervision strategies were used, perhaps partly because the controlled trial extended across the summer vacation period. Results are consistent with other observations of the limited impact of workshop training on practice.