How interviewers' nonverbal behaviors can affect children's perceptions and suggestibility

We conducted two studies to examine how interviewers' nonverbal behaviors affect children's perceptions and suggestibility. In the first study, 42 8- to 10-year-olds watched video clips showing an interviewer displaying combinations of supportive and nonsupportive nonverbal behaviors and were asked to rate the interviewer on six attributes (e.g., friendliness, strictness). Smiling received high ratings on the positive attributes (i.e., friendly, helpful, and sincere), and fidgeting received high ratings on the negative attributes (i.e., strict, bored, and stressed). For the second study, 86 8- to 10-year-olds participated in a learning activity about the vocal chords. One week later, they were interviewed individually about the activity by an interviewer adopting either the supportive (i.e., smiling) or nonsupportive (i.e., fidgeting) behavior. Children questioned by the nonsupportive interviewer were less accurate and more likely to falsely report having been touched than were those questioned by the supportive interviewer. Children questioned by the supportive interviewer were also more likely to say that they did not know an answer than were children questioned by the nonsupportive interviewer. Participants in both conditions gave more correct answers to questions about central, as opposed to peripheral, details of the activity. Implications of these findings for the appropriate interviewing of child witnesses are discussed.     

Public Perceptions of Sexual Harassment: An Empirical Analysis in Israel from Consensus and Feminist Theoretical Perspectives

Sexual harassment (SH) includes men as harassers and women as victims. It is defined in many Western countries as a criminal offense. However, the social response to SH may be characterized by clear leniency toward harassers. The present study investigated the roots of such response. Respondents from a large, representative, random, Israeli sample (630) were asked to evaluate hypothetical short crime scenarios, constructed by the factorial-survey approach, representing cases of sexual harassment and other offenses. The study hypothesized that respondents’ perceptions of SH scenarios will be affected significantly by their gender-role attitudes to women. The findings indicate that such criminal acts are perceived as serious by the whole public, challenging the consensual basis of the lenient approach to harassers.     

Perceptions of parents as a function of their marital status and sex

This study examines participants’ perceptions of four different male and female parent groups (married, divorced, step and never‐married parents) and, as a comparison group, of men and women in general. Using an independent groups design, in which participants made estimations of the percentage of a single specified group possessing particular characteristics, it is found that perceptions of married parents tend to be more positive than perceptions of other groups. The never‐married tend to be viewed least positively. Overall, perceptions of mothers are typically more favourable than those of fathers. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

教师教学自主性问卷的编制与修订

研究提出了中小学教师教学自主性的结构构想,并编制了教学自主性问卷。通过387名教师的初测和1222名教师的正式测试,对该问卷进行分析和修订,结果表明该问卷具有良好的项目区分度、信度和效度。根据验证性因素分析确立了教学自主性的七因素结构,包括自发性、目的性、责任性、独立性、胜任性、自省性和自控性。     

Student Prejudice Against Gay Male and Lesbian Lecturers

Abstract

The authors examined whether gay men and lesbians are evaluated more negatively than individuals of unspecified sexual orientation when attributional ambiguity surrounds evaluations and whether they are evaluated similarly to unspecified others when no attributional ambiguity is present. One male and one female lecturer delivered either a strong or a weak lecture to students who either (a) believed that the lecturer was a gay man or a lesbian or (b) did not receive sexual orientation information. Contrary to predictions, the quality of the lecture did not influence the ratings of known gay male and lesbian lecturers, although lecture quality strongly influenced ratings of lecturers whose sexual orientation was unspecified. After strong lectures, participants rated known gay male and lesbian lecturers more negatively than they did lecturers whose sexual orientation was unspecified. After weak lectures, participants rated known gay male and lesbian lecturers more positively than they did the others. The authors discussed the possibility that students might moderate their ratings to avoid discriminating against gay and lesbian lecturers.     

Creating One’s Reality: The Interaction of Politics Perceptions and Enactment Behavior

ABSTRACT

The current study investigated the previously unexamined relationship between politics perceptions and employee enactment behavior. Consistent with previous job stress and sense-making research, we hypothesized that individuals reporting low levels of enactment behaviors would be more adversely affected by politics perceptions than those who engaged in high levels of enactment behavior. Results across two samples provided strong support for the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, employees who reported low levels of enactment behavior experienced less satisfaction, less person–environment fit, and reported lower levels of effort when faced with highly political environments. Conversely, levels of satisfaction and person–environment fit perceptions of individuals reporting high levels of enactment behaviors were largely unaffected by highly political contexts. Implications of these findings, strengths and limitations, and avenues for future research are provided.     

师生关系在青少年发展中的作用全国大城市抽样调查

1640中国青少年(平均年龄14.5岁)以及他们的父母和老师参加了一次全国城市青少年抽样调查.该调查的目的是为了研究师生和亲子关系对青少年发展的影响(如学生成绩,心理健康,利他行为和问题行为).结果发现师生关系与青少年发展有很高的相关,甚至超过亲子关系与青少年发展的相关.另外,师生关系等与青少年发展的相关程度不受性别及年龄的影响,此研究的发现指出教师在中国青少年发展中的重要作用,进一步加强了一个正在起步的研究领域--非父母成人(包括教师)在青少年发展中的作用.     

小学教师期望对学生人格的影响:学生知觉的中介作用

以1260名小学生为被试,采用问卷法探讨小学教师期望对人格的影响,以及学生知觉在教师期望对人格影响中的中介效应。结果表明:(1)教师期望各维度与人格的智能特征、认真自控、外倾性和亲社会性均有显著正相关,品行和纪律期望维度与人格的情绪稳定性相关不显著。(2)学业期望对人格的智能特征、外倾性和情绪稳定性预测作用最大,品行期望对认真自控预测作用最大,纪律期望对亲社会性预测作用最大。(3)小学生知觉在教师期望对人格智能特征、认真自控、外倾性、亲社会性影响中起部分中介作用,在教师期望对人格情绪稳定性影响中不存在中介效应。     

Knowing Versus Caring: The Role of Affect and Cognition in Political Perceptions

This paper examines the importance of political knowledge in shaping accurate perceptions of the political world—specifically, how levels of general political knowledge influence the accuracy of specific political judgments, how those judgments might also be shaped by "wishful thinking," and how political knowledge attenuates the impact of wishful thinking on political judgments. Predictions of who would win the U.S. presidential election in 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996, as surveyed in the National Election Studies conducted in those years, were used as a measure of the accuracy of political perceptions. Analysis of these data reveals that both political knowledge and wishful thinking are important determinants of the accuracy of people's perceptions; in addition, the impact of wishful thinking on perceptions is attenuated by political knowledge.     

Teacher perceptions of student behavior as a function of class size

In an attempt to describe class size effects on student behavior that might be predictable from one setting to the next, the author proposes a social psychology framework. He hypothesizes that social loafing, deindividuation, and social facilitation can explain patterns of student participation, off-task behavior, and in-class performance, respectively, as a function of the size of the class. Data from interviews with eight middle-school teachers suggest that these concepts are marginally applicable to the behaviors in question. At the same time, other class size effects on student behavior are described which may be inherent in class size and thus be reasonably predictable. Josh Englehart is a recent PhD receipient from Cleveland State University. He is currently a public school Physical Education teacher in Painesville, Ohio. His research to date has included class size effects on various outcome variables, teacher perceptions of student intelligence, and student motivation.