A season-long team-building intervention: examining the effect of team goal setting on cohesion

The purpose of the current study was to determine whether the implementation of a season-long team-building intervention program using team goal setting increased perceptions of cohesion. The participants were 86 female high school basketball players from 8 teams. The teams were randomly assigned to either an experimental team goal-setting or control condition. Each participant completed the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ; Carron, Brawley, & Widmeyer, 2002; Carron, Widmeyer, & Brawley, 1985), which assessed cohesion at both the beginning and end of the season. Overall, the results revealed a significant multivariate effect, Pillai's trace F(12, 438) = 2.68, p = .002. Post hoc analyses showed that at the beginning of the season, athletes from both conditions did not differ in their perceptions of cohesion. However, at the end of the season, athletes in the team goal-setting condition held higher perceptions of cohesion than athletes in the control condition. Overall, the results indicated that team goal setting was an effective team-building tool for influencing cohesiveness in sport teams.     

The influence of anxiety on visual attention in climbing

The object of the current study was to investigate anxiety-induced changes in movement and gaze behavior in novices on a climbing wall. Identical traverses were situated at high and low levels on a climbing wall to manipulate anxiety. In line with earlier studies, climbing times and movement times increased under anxiety. These changes were accompanied by similar changes in total and average fixation duration and the number of fixations, which were primarily aimed at the holds used for climbing. In combination with these findings, a decrease in search rate provided evidence for a decrease in processing efficiency as anxiety increased.     

Adolescent personality and school and college performance: A follow-up study

This study reports correlations between the High School Personality Questionnaire and various indices of school achievement and compares the validities with prior studies. Three achievement scores are utilized: a self-report of high-school grades, a parental report of high-school grades several years after the testing, and actual college grades several years after the testing. In all cases, the results were similar and substantial, and consonant with typical values from earlier, nonlongitudinal studies.     

Incorporating a vocational component into a school psychological evaluation: A case example

Vocational assessment services increasingly are being provided to handicapped secondary school students as a result of recent federal legislation. This article describes the need for such services and describes a vocationally oriented psychological evaluation completed on a handicapped adolescent by a school psychologist. The relevance of traditionally derived school psychological assessment data in vocational programming, the value of expanding assessment batteries to include vocationally specific assessment techniques, and the writing of vocationally oriented psychological reports are discussed.     

Teacher-student verbal communication patterns in regular and special classrooms

Patterns of verbal communications between a teacher and student can influence the classroom environment, quality of the instructional program, and student management in the classroom. This study examined teacher-student communication patterns in both regular and special education classes for behaviorally and emotionally handicapped students. It was expected that special class communication patterns would differ substantially from those used in regular classes. Those communications would result in more effective student management and more time on-task for learning. Webster's (1984, 1986) Process Interaction Model was used to analyze the communication patterns. Expected differences between how regular and special class teachers interact with students were not found. Implications of findings are discussed in relationship to teacher training, teacher effectiveness, and classroom management.