Changing unsubstantiated belief: Testing the ignorance hypothesis.

Measured undergraduates' belief in paranormal phenomena before and after they completed a 1-semester university course that emphasized basic methodological issues concerning good vs bad evidence and provided alternative explanations for the phenomena. It was hypothesized that a course that exposed students to natural explanations for supposedly paranormal phenomena while emphasizing the characteristics of sound evidence collection would reduce their willingness to express belief. 98 Ss completed the course, but only 83 Ss completed both pre- and posttest measures of the belief questionnaire. 90 Ss who completed the course were administered a follow-up study 1 yr later. 35 students enrolled in other courses served as controls. Findings reveal that reliable reductions in belief endured to some extent over a 1-yr period. The changes brought about by the course were interpreted as resulting from decreases in the Ss' ignorance of basic considerations concerning the nature of reliable evidence. (French abstract) (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Audit: teaching medical students in general practice

Audit is being seen as an increasingly important topic for medical students. Many departments of general practice in the UK now incorporate audit as part of their course work. It remains controversial as to whether this is perceived to be worthwhile by the students. Following an introductory seminar final-year medical students at the University of Glasgow were asked to perform a case-note review of 10 randomly chosen diabetic patients for a number of process and outcome measures during their practice attachments. Feedback was given in their final teaching session. 128/153 (84%) students completed an evaluation of the course on their knowledge and attitudes to audit. Unsurprisingly, 39% found the data collection boring or very boring; however, 60% found the feedback session very interesting or interesting. Both the data collection and the feedback were considered relevant by the majority of students (57% and 70% respectively). Students' self-reported knowledge also dramatically increased (P < 0.0001).     

In vitro activities of sulopenem, a new parenteral penem, against anaerobes

The purpose of this study was to examine college students' smoking behavior as well as their current smoking status and its effects on perceived levels of stress and coping styles. Students from four universities completed the Perceived Stress Scale, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations and a smoking questionnaire. Of the 1330 students who participated in the study, 19 percent were current smokers. On the Perceived Stress Scale, current smokers' mean score was significantly higher than that of the students who had never smoked. In addition, the current smokers' mean score for Emotion-oriented Coping was significantly higher than that of the students who had never smoked or formerly smoked. The former smokers' mean score on Avoidance-oriented Coping was significantly lower than the never and the current smokers. Ten percent of the students smoked their first cigarette after high school, while 11 percent started to smoke on a daily basis after high school. Based on the findings, programs that focus on smoking prevention and cessation for college students are recommended.     

A more accurate approach to measuring the prevalence of sexual harassment among high school students.

The present study surveyed the prevalence of sexual harassment among high school students. A total of 1,582 students from 18 schools completed a version of the American Association of University Women (1993) survey. Reported sexual harassment events were restricted to those that: a) had been experienced first-hand, b) had occurred within the preceding two weeks, and c) were reported by students who were notably upset by their experiences. Despite this stringent approach, sexual harassment was found to be a significant problem in high schools. Fifteen percent of students were both sexually harassed and very or somewhat upset by their harassment experiences. Nearly half of these upset students were recipients of physical forms of sexual harassment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Women's Health Curriculum by a problem-based learning method for medical students at the University of California, San Francisco

OBJECTIVES: Our objectives were to (1) expand and strengthen the women's health curriculum at the University of California, San Francisco, and (2) evaluate the responses of both medical students and faculty to this curriculum. STUDY DESIGN: A written evaluation of the curriculum in women's health was completed by both students and faculty. Variables studied included mean scores of cases, the overall course score, and the preferences of medical students for faculty specialty in teaching the small groups. RESULTS: The overall course evaluation score was 7.81 (range 1 to 10). For those students who had both faculty from internal medicine or family medicine and obstetrics and gynecology, there was a strong preference that obstetrician-gynecologists teach the majority of the cases. CONCLUSIONS: The new case-based curriculum in women's health was enthusiastically received by both medical students and faculty.     

Internalization of biopsychosocial values by medical students: A test of self-determination theory.

Two studies tested self-determination theory with 2nd-year medical students in an interviewing course. Study 1 revealed that (a) individuals with a more autonomous orientation on the General Causality Orientations Scale had higher psychosocial beliefs at the beginning of the course and reported more autonomous reasons for participating in the course, and (b) students who perceived their instructors as more autonomy-supportive became more autonomous in their learning during the 6-month course. Study 2, a 30-month longitudinal study, revealed that students who perceived their instructors as more autonomy-supportive became more autonomous in their learning, which in turn accounted for a significant increase in both perceived competence and psychosocial beliefs over the 20-week period of the course, more autonomy support when interviewing a simulated patient 6 months later, and stronger psychosocial beliefs 2 years later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Better revision in eight minutes? Prompting first-year college writers to revise globally.

Two experiments examined the relation between revision and task definition among college students in writing courses. In Experiment 1, students prompted to make global revisions to their drafts of college application letters improved their drafts more than students not prompted to make global revisions. Results of Experiment 1 extended results of D. L. Wallace and J. R. Hayes (1991), who found the same effect for students revising text they had not written. In Experiment 2, the treatment did not improve revisions by college students (identified as measured by low SAT verbal scores) who completed the same writing task. Together, results of these 2 experiments suggest that the prompt to revise globally may be effective in helping entry-level college writing students improve their texts (the prompt seems to have encouraged them to make better revisions) but that it is not effective in helping basic-level college writing students revise. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Helicobacter pylori: from bench to bedside

Within occupational therapy education, there has been increased attention to curricula and courses that emphasize problem solving, clinical reasoning, and synthesis of information across traditional discipline-specific boundaries. This article describes the development, implementation, and outcomes of a problem-based learning course entitled Selected Cases in Occupational Therapy. The course was designed to help students to integrate the various elements of a specific occupational therapy curriculum and to enhance their abilities to respond to an ever-changing health care environment. An evaluation of the course by the first 11 students who completed it revealed both strengths and weaknesses. Students responded that the course enhanced their professional behavior, including interpersonal communication skills, team work, and follow-through with professional responsibilities; helped them to integrate the various elements of the total occupational therapy academic program; enhanced their clinical reasoning skills by providing a structure for thinking through clinical issues; and provided personal gain or benefit (i.e., students perceived the course to be a valuable, realistic, and motivating experience). The students also identified several specific course elements that contributed to its integrating function, including content, class session format, and students' role. Identified course weaknesses included the methods of evaluating student performance and the format and content of specific cases.     

In search of the benefits of learning Latin.

The authors studied whether Latin or French as a foreign curricular language is a better preparation for learning Spanish. Fifty native German speakers who took a university Spanish course concluded their course with a translation test. English was the 1st foreign language for all students, whereas half of them had learned French and the other half had learned Latin as their 2nd foreign language at school. Participants who had learned French at school made markedly fewer grammar errors and slightly fewer vocabulary errors in the Spanish test than participants who had learned Latin. Knowledge of Latin is probably not an optimal preparation for modern language learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What do students find attractive about the practice of medicine? A pattern of stability over time

There is little consensus about the stability or instability of medical students career preferences during their time in college. These two studies found little change in their perception of the attractiveness of aspects of medical work which may be related to their final career choice. In the first study three successive cohorts of students in a London medical school completed questionnaires about the attractiveness of various medical job-attributes. Each cohort was tested twice such that the pattern of testing covered the entire course. Only data from students who were present at both test sessions were used for the longitudinal study. Comparisons with students in other London schools indicated that the study groups were representative of all London medical students. The second study was cross-sectional comparing final year data from 1983 and 1991 at three London medical schools. The first study results suggest that students enter medical school with values and opinions about their work which remain, on the whole, unchanged until they leave. There were significant decreases in the attractiveness of four attributes, but none became significantly more attractive. The second study revealed little change, five attributes were significantly less attractive 8 years later. In both studies most of the changes related to organisational rather than patient-related attributes. This may reflect greater realism about doctors' work. Comparison of final years students' data with published data from the mid-seventies confirms the overall stability of these values. It is suggested that specialists could use this information to highlight the desirable aspects of their work and so 'sell' their discipline to students and newly qualified doctors.     

Improving undergraduate nursing research education: the effectiveness of collecting and analyzing oral histories

Nine oral histories of retired RNs (age range from 60 to 77) were collected by trained senior nursing students in their nursing research class. Attitudes toward nursing research of the 18 undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students participating in the collection and analysis of oral histories were compared with 20 students who did not participate. Both groups of students completed a pretest and posttest Attitudes Toward Nursing Research Questionnaire. The participating students had significantly positive changes in their attitudes toward nursing research. The nonparticipating group did not. While reminiscing about their careers, the retired RNs related historical events that influenced their nursing practice. Three themes emerged: World War II, technology, and intensive care units. Through an open-ended, written questionnaire following the interview, the nurses expressed positive benefits of participation. The collection and analysis of oral histories was an effective experiential learning strategy with positive outcomes for the students and the retired nurses who were interviewed.     

A model of the relationships among measures of affect, aptitude, and performance in introductory statistics.

Investigated a number of variables believed to influence the achievement of first-year undergraduate university students enrolled in an introductory statistics course. 166 students completed a self-report inventory consisting of affective measures such as attitude toward learning statistics, motivational intensity, and anxiety experienced in their statistics course. In addition to measures of achievement in the course, the authors obtained measures of performance in previous mathematics and psychology university courses. Two structural equation models were tested relating achievement in the course to variables in the inventory. The general structure of the models was based on R. C. Gardner's socio-educational model of second-language learning (1985). Results support the hypotheses that both motivation and aptitude contribute to the prediction of achievement in statistics as suggested by R. N. Lalonde and R. C. Gardner (1993). Furthermore, support for a direct link between anxiety and achievement in statistics was found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of counselor self-talk and hypothesis formulation to performance level.

25 female and 15 male counselors across a range of skill levels (14 students in graduate-level counseling laboratory classes, 13 doctoral or advanced master's degree students who had completed at least 1 practicum experience, and 13 professional counselors working as therapists in community agencies) conducted 25-min counseling interviews with 1 of 4 female undergraduate clients and then completed instruments measuring the frequency of task-facilitative and task-distractive self-talk and the quality of clinical hypothesis formulation. It is hypothesized that these measures of counselor internal dialog would be predictive of counselor performance (clients' and trained raters' evaluations) once the effects of counselor gender, education level, and years of experience were accounted for. Cognitive variables were assessed, using standard multiple regression techniques, for their combined and unique contributions to the overall prediction equation. A positive relationship between higher quality clinical hypothesis formulation and higher levels of facilitative performance during counseling sessions was found. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information requests in the context of escalation.

Staw's (1981) theory of escalation, that decision makers who are responsible for a failure will be more retrospectively oriented than those who are not responsible for a failure, was tested by monitoring the information requests of subjects performing the Adams and Smith decision case (Staw, 1976). A total of 72 Master of Business Administration (MBA) students completed a computer-administered version of the case, in which they were permitted to request information files that had been preclassified as retrospective or prospective on the basis of the results of data collected from a different sample of MBA students. We found that 75% of the subjects who were responsible for a previous failure requested retrospective information, compared to about 25% of the subjects who were not responsible for a failure. This significant difference (i.e., p?     

Student evaluations of college professors: When gender matters.

Student evaluations completed over a 4-year period at a private liberal arts college were analyzed for the effects of teacher gender, student gender, and divisional affiliation. A significant multivariate interaction between teacher gender and student gender was found for each of the 4 semesters examined. Overall, the ratings of male professors appeared to be unaffected by student gender. In contract, female professors tended to receive their highest ratings from female students and their lowest ratings from male students. This interaction generally remained when possible confounding factors (such as teacher rank) were partialed out. The mean ratings received by female and male professors also varied as a function of the divisional affiliation of the course. Implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Program evaluation training: A collaborative university-CMHC venture.

Reports on graduate psychology students enrolled in a seminar on program and outcome evaluation research who were required to conduct clinical-care studies in collaboration with a local community mental health center (CMHC). Two students studied the dropout rate at the center while 3 students studied the characteristics and treatment course of clients who had received chemotherapy medication only. This venture had mutual and substantial benefits for both students as well as the CMHC. The CMHC was able to complete 2 mandated clinical care studies, and the students were given an opportunity to apply techniques learned in the seminar and to gain firsthand experience in the conduct of evaluation research. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family context variables and the development of self-regulation in college students

While researchers have begun to specify how features of students' immediate learning environments affect the development and use of self-regulation skills, relatively little attention has been paid to the role of the family context in fostering or impeding the development of these skills. This paper proposes a conceptual framework based on attachment theory (Ainsworth et al., 1978; Bowlby, 1982) and Baumrind's parenting styles typology (Baumrind, 1967, 1991) for examining the relationship between family context variables and the development of self-regulation skills. It also presents initial findings from a study of the parental practices and values associated with academic self-regulation in college students. A sample of 465 students completed the 104-item Student Attitudes and Perceptions Survey, which consists of 4 personal profile scales, 7 family background scales, 2 course characteristics scales, and 2 study habits scales. Perceptions of parents as authoritative and of family as emotionally close were found to be predictive of (1) general confidence and positive sense of self, (2) positive goal-orientation at school, (3) general concern about preparation for the future, and (4) positive adjustment to college. These family profiles were also predictive of (1) students' rating their introductory psychology course as interesting and supportive, (2) favorable ratings of their time and effort management and note-taking skills, and (3) strong agreement with a series of items reflecting components of self-regulated learning. Perceptions of parents as authoritarian and of family as nagging or enmeshed were also predictive of concern about preparation for the future. These family profiles were generally predictive of students' rating their introductory psychology course as difficult, and of time and effort management difficulties. The patterns linking family background profiles with course perceptions, study habits, and individual indices of self-regulated learning persisted even when students' sense of confidence was factored out, and were strong for students living with their parents as well as for those living on their own.     

IFN-tau suppresses both the autoreactive humoral and cellular immune responses and induces stable remission in mice with chronic experimental allergic encephalomyelitis

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare attitudes toward violence and weapon-carrying among seventh-grade students in three dissimilar U.S. communities. A second focus was to determine students' understanding of their parents' violence-related guidance and behavior. METHODS: Five hundred sixty-seven seventh-grade students (48% male, 46% white, 35% African-American, 13% Latino) completed a self-administered questionnaire in May or October 1991. RESULTS: Thirty-four percent of the students had fought at least once, and 7% more than four times during the previous month. Also, within that period, 5% had skipped school owing to fear of violence. Students whose parents used nonviolent disciplinary techniques fought less frequently than those whose parents relied on hitting and more violent disciplinary methods (p < 0.001). Fighting was significantly more common among students who believe their parents want them to fight if insulted (p = 0.001). Students who reported that they try to stay out of fights usually succeeded (p = 0.001). Those students who more frequently participated in and observed fighting were more likely to carry a weapon (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Fighting is a frequent occurrence in the lives of seventh-grade students. Students' understanding of their parents' attitudes and behavior correlate strongly with violent behavior. While many students feel that weapons confer safety, those students who actually carry weapons are much more likely to fight.     

Elementary Psychology for Eighth Graders: Four Years Later.

In September 1954, the author introduced a course in elementary psychology as an 8th grade elective in a junior high school in Buffalo, New York. This article reports a summary of results from responses to an information questionnaire distributed in May 1959 to seniors who took the original psychology class. Replies were split 50-50 as to whether or not students' interest in the subject had continued. When asked whether or not the course had wrought any changes in themselves, 19 (of 20) claimed that their attitudes and opinions had changed, 17 reported changes in personal relationships, and 10 affirmed their behavior patterns had changed. The unit remembered the most was the one on hypnotism, followed by the psychology of advertising, dreams, ESP, and personality development. It is noted that because of the numbers of students who elect this course, additional classes with larger class sizes have been opened. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)