Attribution,gender orientation,and adaptability: Reconceptualization,measurement, and research results

Within the framework of attribution theory, this study reconceptualized gender orientation and androgyny. The relationships among gender measurement, androgyny, and adaptability were examined with improved measurement procedures. Socially desirable response tendencies were found for self‐attribution of femininity and androgyny but not for adaptability, nor for gender attributions or androgyny of others. A new scoring procedure producing a single continuous androgyny variable was also developed and tested. Meaningful relationships between this androgyny measure, gender orientation, and adaptability were observed. The central hypothesis tested the relationship between perceptions of stable, dispositional factors and behavioral attributions. Findings were consistent with the predictions provided by attribution theory.     

Sibling Temperaments, Conflict, Warmth, and Role Asymmetry

The association between sibling temperament combinations (activity and adaptability) and qualitative aspects of the sibling relationship were examined, including in-home observations of sibling positivity/warmth, negativity/conflict, social engagement, and role asymmetry and older sibling perceptions of warmth/closeness, conflict, and status/power. The sample consisted of 67 same-gender, school-aged sibling pairs. Highest levels of negativity/conflict occurred when both siblings were high in activity and when the older sibling was rated as more active than the younger. Conflict was lowest when both siblings were low in activity. Warmth/positivity was greatest when both children were similar in activity level. Siblings were more socially engaged when the the older sibling was more adaptable than the younger. Perceived status/power was greatest when younger siblings were low in adaptability. When between-temperament-dimension relationships were examined, observed conflict was greatest when older siblings were high in activity and younger siblings were nonadaptable. Gender and age-related findings are also reported. Findings highlight the importance of identifying the complex ways in which varying dimensions of sibling temperaments combine to influence specific aspects of the sibling relationship.     

Gender,ethnicity, science achievement,and attitudes

Science achievement and attitudes were assessed for a series of students in Grades 3–12 representing the four major ethnic groups in Hawai'i (USA). It was found that more differences were accounted for by ethnicity and even grade than by gender; in addition, there was little interaction between ethnicity and gender. With respect to ethnicity, Caucasian and Japanese-American students outscored Hawaiians and Filipino Americans at all grade levels. Caucasians also expressed the most positive attitudes toward science and Japanese expressed the most positive perceptions of scientists; Hawaiians generally expressed the least positive perceptions. Younger students generally expressed more positive attitudes toward science but less positive perceptions of scientists compared to older students. Caucasians expressed the most positive perceptions of their own science ability and achievement. With respect to gender, there were no consistent differences in science achievement and very few in science attitudes and perceptions. The major differences were that males reported more experiences with physical science activities and also expressed a more male-stereotyped view of science than females, with some variation by ethnicity and grade. There were differences in enrollment in advanced science and mathematics classes in that females were more likely than males to enroll in many, but for both genders the major reason was college admission: Japanese students were most likely and Hawaiians least likely to indicate science interest as a reason. Findings are discussed within the context of cultural ecology and feminist social theory. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Convergent and Divergent Thinking,Test-Anxiety,and Curiosity

Interrelationships between two motivational variables, test-anxiety and curiosity, and two cognitive variables, convergent and divergent thinking were tested using the measures of convergent and divergent thinking of J. P. Guilford and two self-report true-false scales of test-anxiety and curiosity. Ss were 212 undergraduates, 175 female and thirty-seven male. Based on findings and implications from earlier research, negative relationships of convergent and divergent thinking with test-anxiety, and positive relationships with curiosity were predicted. All correlations for the total group were found to be significant at the .05 level, those with anxiety higher than those with curiosity. Thus, there was support for the view that test-anxiety is negatively related and curiosity positively related to both convergent and divergent thinking. The results were discussed in terms of previous research, and educational implications.     

Success,Personality, and Intelligence

Abstract

Sixty students were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups or to a control group. Both experimental groups were instructed with learning activity packages in French culture. These packages were designed to enhance listening comprehension, speaking proficiency, reading comprehension, and writing proficiency and to stimulate positive attitudes toward the French people, the language, and the course. The control group was instructed in a more traditional grammar-oriented program utilizing audiolingual learning activity packages. These packages stressed language skill proficiencies similar to those of the two experimental groups and, more importantly, emphasized mastery of designated principles of French grammar and structure. Students were pre- and posttested on their four language skill proficiencies and their attitudes. When compared with the control group, both experimental groups demonstrated greater growth in three of their language skills and in their development of positive attitudes toward French.     

Learning,Thinking, and Thorndike

Our research program studies the interaction between cognitive and motivational variables as they affect learning in college courses in biology, English, and psychology and as they are affected by these courses. Intrinsic motivation to learn correlates with self-reported use of elaborative and metacognitive strategies. The correlations of our self-reported motivation and learning strategies with grades were higher in biology than in English. Anxious students achieved better grades in classes that were relatively well organized and were rated high in teacher supportiveness, but interest in the subject matter increased most in less-structured classes.     

Learning problems, anger, perceived control, and misbehavior

Fifty-four students diagnosed as having learning disabilities (LD) and 73 students in regular education were administered the School Anger Inventory and the Perceived Control at School Scale. Teachers and parents rated student deportment and motivation. Predictably, those in the LD sample indicated higher school anger levels and were rated as exhibiting more negative behavior, less positive behavior, and lower motivation for on-task performance. The samples did not differ in their ratings of perceived control, which was moderate, and were given comparable positive teacher ratings for recall of relevant and interesting material. Significant correlations between school anger and behavior were found only in the LD sample, and there was no significant overall relationship between school anger, behavior, and perceived control within either sample. Overall, however, students who reported both a high level of anger and high perceived control were found to exhibit more negative behavior than those with high anger and low perceived control.     

Classroom Behavior,Intelligence, and Achievement

In general terms, the problem under investigation is that of determining whether selected teacher characteristics can be used as predictors for the commitment of teachers to a certain approach to the teaching of high school chemistry (Chemical Bond Approach). Teachers attending a summer institute were initially surveyed to determine these characteristics; included in this group were expectations of role related groups, innovativenes characteristics, and personal characteristics. At the completion of the institute, the participants were tested regarding their attitudes toward and their willingness to use the approach. Employing the stepwise regression technique of analysis, two characteristics (perceived disposition of reference group and innovativeness) were found as strong predictors. Pre-institute characteristics were also shown to account for a significant portion of the commitment of teachers to the approach.     

Educational Aims,Ideals, and Activities

Abstract

The effects on student performance and student attitudes of varying the instructional locus of control between students and teachers were investigated. A 2 X 2 factorial design was used that included either teacher regulation or student regulation of 1) the setting of weekly learning goals, and 2) the evaluation of weekly work. After a 4-week period, a mathematics achievement test and a student attitude survey were administered. Results indicated that although teachers set more individual learning goals for students, students who set their own learning goals attained more of them. Students tended to evaluate their work more favorably than teachers, and work evaluations from both teachers and students were higher for students who initially set their own learning goals. In addition, students who were given the opportunity to set their own learning goals reported better goal-setting ability than those for whom goals were externally imposed by the teacher. As predicted, the self-regulated goal setting and evaluation were found to be significantly related to attitudes, but not to mathematics achievement.     

Student and school SES,gender, strategy use,and achievement

A multilevel mediated regression model was fit to Programme for International Student Assessment achievement, strategy use, gender, and family‐ and school‐level socioeconomic status (SES). Two metacognitive strategies (i.e., understanding and summarizing) and one learning strategy (i.e., control strategies) were found to relate significantly and positively to achievement. These strategies were used more by females and students attending higher SES schools. In contrast, males and students attending lower SES schools tended to use a greater number of learning strategies that did not relate to achievement, including memorization and elaboration. In addition, the strategies that did not relate to achievement were used more frequently by students from higher SES families. The findings suggest that schools, as opposed to families, may be the primary vehicle for developing effective strategy use practices for students and thus, targeted interventions may be particularly useful for male students attending low SES schools.     

Do, Show, and Tell: Children's Event Memories Acquired through Direct Experience, Observation, and Stories

To investigate how source of event information influences children's event representations, 5- and 6-year-old children were exposed to a novel event through direct experience, observation, or a story. 2 of the 4 scenes comprising the event contained actions that were logically organized, and the remaining 2 scenes contained actions that were arbitrary in their organization. Children received either 1 or 3 exposures to the event. For children receiving multiple exposures, 2 scenes contained actions that varied across exposures. A few days following their last exposure, children were asked to verbally recall and reenact the event. Reports were generally more complete, organized, and accurate when the event was directly experienced compared to when it was observed or heard about through a story. However, the impact of information source interacted with interview (recall, reenactment) and number of event exposures. Furthermore, children's sensitivity to event structure was dependent on information source and exposure. These results highlight the importance of information source in the formation of children's event representations.     

Families,Schools, and Aspirations

The study examined relations between adolescents’ perceptions of school environments and their educational and occupational aspirations at different family environment levels. Data were collected from 16-year-old Australians from Anglo-Australian, Greek, and Southern Italian families. Regression surfaces were constructed from models that examined possible linear, interaction, and curvilinear relations among the variables. Generally, the findings indicate that while the school environment measure had moderate concurrent validities in relation to aspirations, it had either negligible or modest unique associations with aspirations after taking into account the family environment influences. The study did indicate, however, ethnic group differences in the relationships among the variables which suggests that results from investigations of family-school influences on children’s school outcomes should not necessarily be generalized across social groups.     

Student behaviors, teacher reinforcement, student ability, and learning

Ninety-eight children were observed for 6-min periods on each of 10 days during 50-min, small-group classes in either mathematics, science, geography, or language usage. Two student behaviors (on-task behavior and accuracy of responding to teacher-directed questions) and three types of teacher reinforcement (verbal reinforcement for on-task behavior and accurate responding and tangible reinforcers) were coded during each observation period. A post-test of achievement, directly related to the content of the lessons, was administered at the end of the 10 days of instruction. The causal effects of student behaviors, teacher reinforcement, and student ability (reading achievement and intelligence) on achievement were evaluated using path analysis. The strongest effects were from student ability measures, with accurate responding by students and teacher reinforcement of accurate responding exhibiting smaller, but significant effects. Findings are discussed to qualify the relationship between overt classroom behaviors and degree of learning and the mediating effects of student ability.     

Communities,families, and inclusion

Widespread interest in the concept of inclusion for young children with disabilities has been focused primarily on inclusion in day care and classroom settings. While these contexts provide important opportunities for inclusion, many other community contexts are also important. Interviews with families of children with and without disabilities were analyzed to identify factors that facilitated or served as barriers to children's inclusion in community settings. These factors are described in terms of their application to children with and without disabilities and the extent to which they were reflected in communities of varying size and various income levels. Results are interpreted with respect to an ecological model and are discussed in terms of their implications for intervention.     

A comparison of first-year,fifth-year,and former teachers on efficacy,ego development,and problem solving

Differences in first-year (N=50), fifth-year (N=49) and former (N=30) teachers on measures of efficacy, ego development, and problem solving were analyzed. The three groups were graduates from the same university who responded to a written survey. ANOVA was used for each variable across all groups, with an alpha level of.05, and the Scheffé multiple range test was used to determine significance between groups. On measures of efficacy and ego development, both first-year and fifth-year teachers scored significantly higher than former teachers, but did not differ from each other. There were no significant differences among the groups on the measure of problem solving.     

Media,mental imagery,and memory

Recent research indicates that the human information-processing system can gather and store a limited amount of information at any one time. An individual receives stimuli in many forms: auditory, verbal, visual and others, and combinations of these. Stimuli can be presented by single and multiple-channel media; in multichannel presentations interference affects processing and retention. Thirty-two students at the University of Oregon were tested to determine the effects of media on mental imagery and memory. The model incorporates a dual-coding hypothesis, and five single and multiple-channel treatments were used. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Concurrent and predictive validity of the WISC-R,McCarthy Scales,Woodcock-Johnson,and academic achievement

Twenty-six normal first-grade children (M = 7.0 years) were administered the WISC-R, the McCarthy Scales, and the Woodcock-Johnson Scales of Cognitive Ability. Two years later, their levels of academic achievement were determined by way of the WRAT and global teacher ratings of classroom performance. Pearson intercorrelations among the summary indices of the three intellectual measures were significant and uniformly high (rang. 77-.95). Correlations between first-grade ability scores and third-grade achievement measures also were significant (range .64-.90), suggesting strong predictive validity for each of the cognitive instruments. Though not significantly so, the correlations between the Woodcock-Johnson and achievement tended to be the highest. The results indicate that all three intellectual measures are appropriate for predicting later academic achievement in young school-aged children.     

Self-concepts,academic achievement,and teacher's rating

One hundred ninety-eight pupils from fourth, fifth, and sixth grades were studied to determine the relationship between children's self-concept, academic achievement, and teacher's rating of children's self-concept. The differences between grade levels, sex, and ethnic group membership were tested by analysis of variance. Significant correlations were found between child's self-concept and teacher's rating of child's self-concept, and between teacher's rating of child's self-concept and child's academic achievement. Significant ethnic group differences were found in self-concept, academic achievement, and teacher's rating of self-concept in this study, with interethnic groups showing the higher scores.     

Minority status,sex, and school psychological services

The sex and minority status of 355 students referred for psychological services from a random sample of schools in an urban school system were examined in relation to the frequency of referral, type of problem, and the nature of subsequent psychological services. A significantly higher percentage of both minority students and males were referred for psychological services; males were referred approximately twice as often as females. When referral problems were categorized as either academic or behavior problems, there were no differences between majority and minority students nor between males and females on percentage referred for each type of problem. Parent contacts were made significantly more often for majority students and for females, and recommendations to parents of majority students were more varied than those made to parents of minority students. Special Education resource services were recommended significantly more often for minority students. Possible reasons and implications of these findings are discussed.     

Teachers' attributions and beliefs about girls,boys, and mathematics

Thirty-eight first grade teachers were asked to identify their two most and least successful girls and boys in mathematics, to attribute causation of these students' successes and failures, and to describe their characteristics. Teachers' choices of most and least successful students were compared to mathematics test scores of their students. Teachers were most inaccurate when selecting most successful boys. Teachers tended to attribute causation of boys' successes and failures to ability and girls' successes and failures to effort. Teachers thought their best boy students when compared to their best girl students, were more competitive, more logical, more adventurous, volunteered answers more often to mathematics problems, enjoyed math more, and were more independent in mathematics.