The influence of a career group experience on the vocational maturity of college students

The effects of a career group experience on the vocational maturity of theoretically grouped college freshmen and sophomores were investigated using Super's Career Development Inventory as the dependent measure. The dimensions of consistency/inconsistency and differentiation/nondifferentiation, as identified utilizing Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory, were investigated along with the dimensions of treatment/nontreatment and interaction effects. Predictions related to change in vocational maturity as a result of treatment were made for each dimension. The analysis sample was a group of 68 volunteer freshman and sophomore college students. Results indicated that students did significantly increase their vocational maturity as a result of the group experience. Furthermore, it was found, as predicted, that within experimental groups inconsistent and nondifferentiated students improved significantly more on some vocational maturity measures than consistent or differentiated students. Students who were both inconsistent and nondifferentiated showed consistently greater increases on virtually all vocational maturity measures than all other theoretical groups.     

Levels of processing, encoding strategies, and memory development.

In three experiments, memory for intentionally encoded words was compared with memory for encodings induced by asking semantic, phonemic, or surface questions. Subjects were second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade, and junior and senior high school students. Semantic encodings were more often recalled and recognized than were phonemic and surface (which did not differ). Intentional encodings were as likely to be recalled as semantic but were no more likely than phonemic and surface to be recognized, and this was true whether intentional learning was in anticipation of a recall test or a recognition test. Age trends occurred for recall, for intentional learning, and for induced processing which required subjects to generate word attributes. Age trends were attenuated for recognition and for induced processing which required subjects to verify whether a give attribute applied to the target word.     

Memory scanning of shapes,colors, and compounds: A comparison of retarded and nonretarded adults

Three experiments were performed to assess memory scanning of shapes, colors, and shape-color compounds by retarded and nonretarded people. Attributes comprising compounds provided either redundant or nonredundant information. Large retarded-nonretarded differences in reaction time were obtained. In contrast to previous reports of slow scanning of digits and nonsense shapes by retarded people, scan rates for shapes and colors did not differ between groups. Retarded subjects were not characterized by a deficient scan rate. Although compound stimuli required twice as many attributes in their repersentation as did simple stimuli, they were not scanned more slowly, indicating that per item scan rate is not determined by the number of attributes required to define each item. Both groups were able to exploit redundant relevant information to achieve faster processing than in simple conditions. Decision rules for rejecting compound stimuli comprised one, two, or more binary tests. Groups did not differ in speed of performing elementary binary test(s).     

A research note on occupational changes for Louisiana urban females, 1960–1970

Occupational distributions for sex and race comparisons for areas of Louisiana are examined through an index of dissimilarity, D, a measure of the percentage of workers who must change occupational categories for the two compared percentage occupational distributions to be the same. In 1960 the more urban the area, the lower the index; indices are higher for blacks for male-female comparisons and higher for females than for males in cross-race comparisons. These patterns hold for 1970, but D decreased for all comparisons, indicating a trend toward similarity in compared occupational distributions, but the ultimate limit is unknown.     

The Ringelmann effect: Studies of group size and group performance

Ringelmann's classic finding—that the addition of co-workers in a rope-pulling task leads to a linear decrement in the individual group member's average performance—was reexamined experimentally. Study I attempted to replicate the effect, using groups of subjects ranging in size from 1 to 6. Performance dropped significantly as group size was increased from one individual to two or to three, but the addition of a fourth, fifth, or sixth member produced insignificant additional decrements; thus, the effect was not linear but curvilinear. Study II was designed to examine possible sources of performance loss, separating the factors of “coordination” and “motivation” loss (Steiner, 1972). The possibility of intermember incoordination was eliminated, while motivation loss remained free to vary: Each experimental subject pulled alone, and in “groups” where he believed there were from one to five other members. Once again, individual performance declined significantly with the addition of the first and second perceived co-worker, but then leveled off for perceived group sizes three to six. Some implications are discussed.     

Prenominal adjective order and visual discrimination in children

Preschool and third-grade children heard prenominal adjective phrases describing an object. Each phrase contained an article, two adjectives and a head noun. The phrases were constructed with either normal or inverted adjective order. Either after a one second delay or immediately following phrase presentation, Subjects were shown pictures of two objects. One of the objects (target) depicted the object described in the noun phrase. The other object differed from the target along the dimensions of color, size, or both color and size. The Subject's task was to select the target object. It was predicted that adjective order would influence perceptual strategies used by the Subjects in the visual discrimination task. Analysis of response time scores showed that adjective order interacted with the relevant discriminative stimuli in the discrimination task. These results were interpreted as support for hypotheses that suggest that linguistic organization can constrain conceptual processing involving nonlinguistic information. The effects of the delay condition provided additional evidence for these hypotheses plus support for an arousal hypothesis.     

Comments on Daniel E. Flage’s “Berkeley’s Contingent Necessities”

According to Daniel Flage, Berkeley thinks that all necessary truths are founded on acts of will that assign meanings to words. After briefly commenting on the air of paradox contained in the title of Flage’s paper, and on the historical accuracy of Berkeley’s understanding of the abstractionist tradition, I make some remarks on two points made by Flage. Firstly, I discuss Flage’s distinction between the ontological ground of a necessary truth and our knowledge of a necessary truth. Secondly, I discuss Flage’s attempt to show that, according to Berkeley, the resemblance relation does not constitute a necessary connection.

The Theory and Practice of Foreign Policy Decision Making

Central to Alex George's work was a concern with the psychology of presidential decision making. Our analysis focuses on George's work at the intersection of leadership psychology and the psychology of judgment in the making of consequential foreign policy decisions, specifically those dealing with issues of war and peace. We begin with a review of the fundamental dilemmas of political decision making, focusing on the various factors that present challenges to leaders seeking to make high-quality decisions. We then move to an analysis of the nature of judgment and the ways in which it both shapes and is shaped by cognitive dynamics and conclude by examining a number of steps designed to help leaders avoid the most damaging blind spots of their own psychologies and cognitive biases.     

ThePrepared and Spontaneous Remarks of Presidents Reagan and Bush: A Validity Comparison for At-a-Distance Measurements

This paper examines the spontaneous and prepared remarks of Presidents Reagan and Bush in the domain of U.S.-Soviet relations at the end of the Cold War. The findings suggest thatm researchers should be cautious when drawing their sample frames, because scores gleaned from prepared remarks may contain systematic differences large enough to affect the workings of models using at-a-distance measurements. However, if the leader is involved in the preparation of speeches he or she delivers, then these prepared speeches typically are as valid an indicator of the leader's psychological variables as are spontaneous remarks from interviews. Context effects may be present for both cognitive and personal variables in remarks from spontaneous and prepared statements. Impression management, therefore, may be a bigger problem than authorship in assessing leaders at a distance.     

Thomas Cromwell: a life

Abstract

This study shows how the rise of the English separatist movement in the latesixteenth century was characterized by a polemical struggle over the applicability of the epithet of ‘Donatism.’ A pejorative slur, the Donatist label was often utilized during the early-modern period against dissident movements which refused to recognize the legitimacy of the established church. It was a perfect polemical weapon, serving to connect such rogue congregations with all the dangerous implications, both theological and political, of the ancient schism. But what was ‘Donatism’ in the context of Elizabethan England? What were its characteristics and subversive doctrines? In this article, I will examine the portrait of the ancient sect as painted by both the opponents of separatism and the early separatist leaders themselves in order to assess what aspects of the Donatist label resonated with the polemical presuppositions of each side.