Effects of prior group memberships on subsequent reconnaissance activities.

1,134 college freshmen completed an orientation questionnaire assessing their experiences in high school groups and expectations about college groups. 220 Ss were also interviewed later about their behavior toward campus groups at an activities fair. Ss whose experiences in high school groups were more positive tried harder to identify potentially desirable college groups, primarily because they believed that belonging to such groups would be useful for achieving personal goals. Ss with prior experience in relevant high school groups used that experience to evaluate similar college groups and thus made more realistic (less optimistic) evaluations of those groups than did Ss without prior experience. Among Ss who wanted to join a college group, those who had belonged to a relevant high school group behaved differently at the activities fair than did those who had not. Ss with prior experience were more likely to approach their chosen group at the activities fair and to avoid other groups there of a similar sort. (52 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Persistance at a liberal arts college: A replicated, five-year longitudinal study.

Analyzed data on 1,171 freshmen entering Macalester College in 1964 and 1965 to observe factors related to persistance at the college. Voluntary withdrawals (Ss who left the college in good academic standing) did not differ from the persisters (graduates of Macalester) on precollege ability and achievement measures (including the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the Omnibus Personality Inventory, and the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values). College GPAs for the withdrawal Ss, however, revealed that these Ss did not achieve as well as the persisters. The male failures (Ss having less than a C average at time of dropping from the College) had lower achievement in high school than the withdrawals, while the female failures did less well than the withdrawals on the precollege ability tests. No generalizable differences were apparent among the groups on personality and values inventories, home proximity to the college, or participation in an experimental advising program. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temperament measures in industrial selection.

The scores on the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey of 924 industrial Ss (338 college graduates, 128 with some college, 335 HS graduates, 105 grade school graduates), 94 college graduate vocational guidance clients, 56 HS graduate guidance clients, and 109 college students were compared to test the hypotheses that (1) Ss in the industrial situation will score higher than either guidance clients or students, and (2) the higher the educational level of Ss in the industrial situation, the greater will the faking be. Inter-group differences on most of the scales significant at the .01 level or better verified the hypotheses. "These extreme results apply mostly to… a college graduate population… wherein the need for… temperament evaluation is greatest." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of the field-dependent and field-independent cognitive styles in academic evolution: A longitudinal study.

To assess hypotheses derived from field-dependence theory about the role of cognitive styles in students' academic development, a group of 1,548 students was followed longitudinally from college entry into graduate/professional school. The Group Embedded Figures Test was administered at college entry. 1,422 Ss were followed through their college careers, and 831 Ss were identified as having applied to graduate or professional school and 550 as having enrolled. In their preliminary choices at college entry, final college majors and graduate/professional school specialties, relatively field-independent students favored impersonal domains requiring cognitive restructuring skills (e.g., sciences) and relatively field-dependent students favored interpersonal domains which do not emphasize such skills (e.g., elementary education). Ss whose college-entry choices were incongruent with their cognitive styles tended to shift to more compatible domains by college graduation or graduate school; Ss with congruent choices tended to remain with their choices. Some tendency was found for students to do better in domains compatible with their cognitive styles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phonetic symbolism in an artificial language.

An analysis of previous studies suggested that certain letters and letter combinations occur more often than would be expected by chance in affectively pleasant words, while others are overrepresented in unpleasant words. On the basis of data from these prior investigations, 14 pairs of artificial words were constructed and randomly paired with 7 good and 7 bad adjectives. College, deaf high school, and hearing high school Ss were presented with the task of matching each of the English adjectives with the correct member of the artificial word pair presented with it. The college and hearing high school Ss matched as predicted significantly more often than chance expectancy, which deaf Ss did not. The results are interpreted as supporting the existence of phonetic symbolism of word sounds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Academic control and action control in the achievement of college students: A longitudinal field study.

A contradiction to the typical pattern of academic success occurs when bright, enthusiastic high school students fail after entering university. Two measures, perceived academic control and action control (i.e., preoccupation with failure) were administered to 524 college students at the beginning of a 2-semester course. Achievement-related cognitions, emotions, motivation, and final grades were measured at the end of the course. High-academic-control students exerted more effort, reported less boredom and anxiety, were more motivated, used self-monitoring strategies more often, felt more in control of their course assignments and of life in general, believed they performed better, and obtained higher final grades. Failure-preoccupied students received higher final grades, which corroborated their self-reported performance. Of note, high-control, high-failure-preoccupied students outperformed the other 3 groups by 1 to 2 letter grades. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of prodding to increase mail-back returns.

The less accessible Ss in a survey sample often exhibit unusual characteristics which may be of particular interest to the researcher. When telephone and certified-mail techniques were used to obtain a 94% mail-back return from 1259 former college students, academic achievement variables were found to be related to the amount of prodding which was required to obtain a response. No significant relationship was found, however, between the amount of prodding and the veracity of the respondents' replies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social presence, facial feedback, and emotion.

To test whether facial expressions regulate the expressers' emotional experience, 59 high school and college students smelled pleasant and disgusting odors while reacting to them spontaneously, with a facial pose indicating that the odors were pleasant, or with a facial pose indicating that they were disgusting. In a result that supported the facial feedback hypothesis, Ss evaluated the odors consistently with their facial poses, but the odors themselves had a far greater impact on evaluations than did posing instructions. To test whether spontaneous and deceptive emotional expressions would be more effective as communication if the expresser were in the presence of another rather than alone, Ss smelled odors when they were alone or when seated next to another naive S who could not see them. Contrary to prediction, Ss were less successful facial communicators in the presence of another, as assessed by 7 undergraduate judges. In this condition they communicated their evaluations less when they were spontaneously reacting to the odors and leaked their evaluations more when they were trying to hide their expressions. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of sibling relationships on preschoolers' behavior at home and at school.

Observed the social behavior of 34 36–64 mo olds (17 males and 17 females) both in their homes and in their preschools to determine the patterning of interactions among siblings and the consistency in children's interactions with siblings and peers. Results show that at home, preschoolers with older siblings received more aggressive and prosocial behavior than did preschoolers without older siblings; they also played frequently with their older siblings. Preschoolers with younger siblings were more dominant in their interactions than were preschoolers without younger siblings, but they displayed certain types of verbal behavior less often, probably because their young siblings had limited language skills. Indicators of sibling status were not strongly related to behavior at school, but girls who did not have any brothers spent more time unoccupied or as onlookers. Few of the correlations between home and school behaviors were significant, but Ss who were more aggressive toward siblings and Ss who were more often onlookers or unoccupied at home showed similar behavior with peers. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal study of the Defining Issues Test of moral judgment: A strategy for analyzing developmental change.

After 2 yrs, 88 adolescents (16-20 yrs) were retested on the author's Defining Issues Test of moral judgment, the Comprehension of Social-Moral Concepts Test, and the Law and Order Attitude Test. Significant developmental change was found on all 3 measures. Both younger and older Ss showed significant increases in principled moral thinking, but the younger group also showed preconventional to conventional shifts. There was no evidence for step-by-step movement, and sex differences were negligible. Among high school graduates, those going away to college gained twice as much as noncollege Ss. 2-yr stability on the Defining Issues Test was r(49) = .68 for the younger group and r(37) = .54 for those graduating from high school. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of vocationally relevant information on the expressed and measured interests of freshman males.

46 undergraduate males from private and public school backgrounds who took the SVIB were classified as congruent or incongruent using a discrepancy method and administered a treatment consisting either of the Self-Directed Search (SDS) and relevant vocational information (treatment) or an irrelevant task (control). All Ss were retested 1 wk later using the SVIB, and examined for level of posttest congruence. Results suggest that private boarding school Ss were less congruent than private day or public school graduates. A secondary analysis revealed that Ss initially classified as low congruent significantly and nonartifactually increased in congruence from pretest to posttest. It was further found that increases in congruence could be attributed to changes in measured interests rather than to changes in expressed choice. Counseling implications are discussed. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral training of social skills in shy males.

31 college males who had reported themselves unable to interact with women in specific social situations were asked to record every interaction for 1 wk. Following this, a series of behavioral tests was given. When compared to a group of confident Ss, shy Ss interacted with fewer women, in fewer situations, and for less time outside of the laboratory. In laboratory test situations shy Ss rated themselves and were rated by Os as being more anxious. Pulse rate was monitored during the behavioral testing. Confident Ss had significantly less pulse rate change during the test situations. After pretesting, shy Ss were randomly assigned to either an assessment control group or an analogue treatment group, with treatment consisting of 3 sessions of behavior rehearsal, modeling, and coaching. On posttesting, Ss who had received treatment showed less physiological responsivity to the testing stimuli, reported less anxiety, and were rated as being more skillful in the test situations. Behavioral diaries revealed that following treatment Ss who received training changed more than control Ss on several measures of frequency and duration of interactions with women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptions of ability and related affects in task involvement and ego involvement.

Conducted 5 studies to determine if 207 high school and college students would employ different conceptions of ability in different achievement situations. Each experiment involved a 2 (task vs ego involvement) by 2 (low vs high effort) design. In self-referenced (task-involving) situations, Ss employed a less differentiated conception of ability: Judgments of greater competence and more positive affects were associated with higher effort when performance was controlled. In interpersonally competitive (ego-involving) testing situations, Ss employed a more differentiated conception of ability. Given a fixed level of performance, Ss judged their ability lower when they worked harder than others and higher when they worked less than others. They also expected to feel more guilty when they did not try hard, but more embarrassed when they did. It is concluded that effort is a double-edged sword in ego-involving conditions, but not in task-involving conditions. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial differences in job and work environment priorities among newly hired college graduates.

Conducted a study of 70 black and 179 white newly hired college graduates to assess racial differences in Ss' rated importance of various work and company characteristics. Responses to survey items asking the Ss to rate the importance of several job and company characteristics were factor analyzed. 2 factors emerged, the 1st reflecting a higher order future and growth orientation and the 2nd, a more hygienic job context factor. Results show that both black and white Ss rated the higher order growth characteristics as more important. However, black Ss rated each hygienic extrinsic item significantly higher than did white Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability of interests and the predictive and concurrent validity of the 1981 Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory for college majors.

116 of the 162 Occupational scales of the 1981 revision of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) were constructed with new criterion samples. This study (a) assessed the concurrent and predictive validity of the revised SCII and explored its usefulness for predicting college majors (Exp I) and (b) examined the differential effect of stable and unstable interests during college on the validity of the SCII (Exp II). Data were analyzed for 354 females and 261 males who completed the SCII as college freshmen; 81% were still enrolled in school at the time of this study. Results indicate that the revised SCII can be used to predict college majors, having concurrent and predictive validity comparable to previous forms of the SCII. It was slightly more predictive for females than for males. Findings also show that the majority of Ss had stable interests during their college careers. The revised SCII was significantly more predictive of college majors for Ss who were satisfied with their majors or who had stable interests than it was for those who were dissatisfied or had unstable interests. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A group assessment procedure as a predictor of on-the-job performance of teachers.

The predictive power of a streamlined group assessment (GA) procedure (derived from assessment center methodology) for evaluating candidates for a teacher education program was investigated. Results were compared with principals' evaluations of on-the-job teaching success and with college faculty evaluations. The study population included 231 graduates of a teacher's college, who had been assessed by the procedure at time of admission. Ss were reevaluated by college faculty 3 yrs later at graduation and again by principals 2–5 yrs after graduation. Of the original Ss, 122 were traced after graduation; 78 were employed. Results indicate that the GA procedure was significantly predictive of success on the job, as well as in the training program. The study demonstrated the meaningful, long-term predictive validity of the GA procedure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The life and career plans of young adult college women: A follow-up study.

Conducted a follow-up study of 391 women 6 yrs after they entered college. 41% of Ss were no longer pursuing the bachelor's degree, 63% were married, and 46% planned to combine work and family life. A total of 71% were employed; 45% were employed in their chosen careers, which were predominantly in social/medical services and clerical fields. Attitudes toward women's roles were liberal, and Ss were aware of sex discrimination. Since high school, Ss had considered an average of 9 occupations. Traditional choices (e.g., housewife, nurse, social worker, and teacher) continued to be popular, but more nontraditional choices (e.g., physicist and college professor) were becoming included. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role conflict and symptoms of psychological distress in college-educated women.

Studied sex role attitudes, need for achievement, and employment patterns of 136 women's college graduates out of college 10 yrs and 132 out of college 25 yrs in relation to symptoms of mental illness using a 3-wave mail questionnaire technique. Questionnaire returns totaled 71% of the selected sample and established validity of the Twenty-Two Item Screening Score in mail questionnaire studies. Neither employment status nor achievement motivation, assessed by stories written in response to verbal cues, were significantly related to symptom scores. However, Ss with contemporary sex role orientations, as indicated by the Revised Fand Inventory, exhibited significantly higher symptom scores. Also, the class out of college 10 yrs had significantly more members (a) with high need for achievement, (b) with contemporary sex role orientation, and (c) who had advanced degrees and were earning higher incomes. They also had significantly higher symptom scores. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Judging health status: Effects of perceived prevalence and personal relevance.

Investigated whether people's evaluations of the seriousness of a health disorder are influenced by the perceived prevalence and personal relevance of that disorder. As part of a study ostensibly concerned with college students' health characteristics, 60 undergraduates were tested for the presence of a fictitious enzyme deficiency. Ss discovered either that they had the deficiency (deficiency-present Ss) or that they did not have it (deficiency-absent Ss) and were led to believe either that 1 of the 5 people in the laboratory had the deficiency (low-prevalence Ss) or that 4 of them had it (high-prevalence Ss). As predicted, the low-prevalence Ss evaluated the deficiency as more serious than did the high-prevalence Ss. In addition, consistent with the view that personal relevance affects perceptions of health disorders, the deficiency-present Ss evaluated the deficiency as less serious than did the deficiency-absent Ss. The deficiency-present Ss also derogated the validity of the test ostensibly used to diagnose the deficiency compared with other Ss. The deficiency-present Ss requested more information about the deficiency than did the deficiency-absent Ss. (53 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensing humor: Latency and amplitude of response related to MMPI profiles.

48 male high school graduates responded to cartoons by (1) sorting 1 set into 4 equal piles ranging from most funny to least funny, and (2) reacting immediately to each cartoon of another set by manipulating a knob. The Ss were divided, according to their MMPI profiles, into PPd (highest score on the Psychopathic Deviate scale), and NPPd (highest score on some other scale). Consistent with expectations, PPd Ss preferred sexual (and hostile) humor more than NPPd Ss, preferred sexual and hostile humor more than nonsense humor, and responded to all cartoons more quickly than NPPd Ss. The immediate reaction measures of latency and amplitude appear to hold promise for future research on humor. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)