Appreciation of Pro-Attitudinal Versus Counter-Attitudinal Political Humor: A Cognitive Consistency Approach to the Study of Political Entertainment

This study highlights the explanatory principle of cognitive consistency as a foundation for political entertainment research. More specifically, appreciation for pro- versus counter-attitudinal political humor is analyzed via one statewide (N = 304) and two national surveys (N = 1008, N = 786, respectively). Analyses reveal a preference for pro-attitudinal over counter-attitudinal humor. In addition, an assessment of pro- versus counter-attitudinal political humor appreciation serving as potential mediators of one another relative to political party identification is offered. Pro-attitudinal political humor appreciation serves as the stronger mediator, but a full range of mediation-based processes are evident. Implications and potential future lines of research are detailed.     

Adolescent interest in human sexuality: the questions kids ask

This study demonstrates a method for obtaining data on developmental changes in adolescents' interest in human sexuality. A content analysis was done on a sample of 874 student-generated questions. Question boxes were placed in classrooms so students could anonymously submit questions. In deference to perceived community pressure, questions on abortion, homosexuality, and masturbation were not allowed. Students who wrote the questions are 7th, 8th, and 10th graders enrolled in 13 different public schools. The schools are located in several small communities and on an American Indian reservation in a rural area of northern California. All children who participated did so voluntarily and with parental permission. Of the total 874 questions. 7th and 8th graders provided 593, while sophomores accounted for 233. Gender information was available only for 7th and 8th graders. Boys asked 173 questions while girls asked 241. The data are broken down by gender and by grade (7th and 8th vs. 10th). Findings reveal that younger students show more interest in the meaning of slang terms, their reproductive physiology, and intercourse. Older students show greater interest in contraception and health risks. Males are interested in slang and intercourse while females are more concerned with health risks and communication. One unexpected finding indicates that among younger children, boys and girls are equally interested in birth control and pregnancy; in the lower grades then, may be the prime time to use sex education programs to strengthen the sense of dual responsibility for knowledge about contraception and pregnancy. Also, the relative absence of questions on disallowed issues (2.5%) makes it apparent that sex educators can effectively suppress inquiry into topics that are of great interest to youngsters; only about 1/3 of the students indicated that their parents had discussed these disllowed issues, yet 48% of the students expressed interest in knowing more about abortion.     

Technology,teachers, and the search for school reform

Educational technologists have increasingly moved away from direct involvement in the world of the classroom teacher in recent years. The assumptions that technologists and teachers make about educational technology and about teaching now diverge markedly. At the same time, new reform proposals have suggested ways to restructure schools that would enhance the role of teachers as instructional decision-makers and offer them more control over their professional work life. Elements of the reform agenda are characterized, and ways are described in which educational technologists might work together with teachers in pursuit of reform goals. These include: (1) preparation of models for teaching-with-technology; (2) design of intelligent software; (3) creation of technologically based tools to support teachers' professional work and development; and (4) improvement of research about technology in education. Note:An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, Dallas, Texas, February 4, 1989.     

Psychological Resources as Stress Buffers: Their Relationship to University Students' Anxiety and Depression

The association of protective resources, personality variables, life events, and gender with anxiety and depression was examined with university students. Building on regression analyses, a structural equation model was generated with good fit, indicating that with respect to both anxiety and depression, negative life events and coping resources were mediated by a common distress factor. Personality variables were associated with anxiety, which in turn had a direct relationship to depression.     

An incentive effect in thermally motivated behavior

Three shaved adult male albino rats were trained to press a lever to replace a hot air drive condition (50° C) with either a small reinforcer (32° C) or a large reinforcer (14° C). Following the 10-sec reinforcer, the drive condition was either reinstated immediately (no delay) or after a 15-sec exposure to the drive temperature, during which the bar was withdrawn (delay). Response rate during the no-delay procedure was faster for the small reinforcer than for the large. This relation reversed during the delay procedure. The former observation is similar to a satiation effect and the latter resembles an incentive effect.     

Integrators and decision support system success in higher education

The implementation of a Decision Support System (DSS) is, all too often, a technical success but an organizational failure. EDUCOM's Financial planning Model (EFPM) is a DSS used by many colleges and universities. This paper examines the perceived success of EFPM and the relationship between success and organizational services — the integrator functions — that support EFPM's use. The study finds that the integrator functions are significantly related to success. In addition, institutions that use EFPM have developed the integrator functions on their campuses, while institutions that no longer use EFPM did not do so. The paper suggests several theoretical and practical implications of the research.     

IMPLICATIONS OF CRITERION-REFERENCED MEASUREMENT1,2

During the past several years measurement and instructional specialists have distinguished between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced approaches to measurement. More traditional, a norm-referenced measure is used to identify an individual's performance in relation to the performance of others on the same measure. A criterion-referenced test is used to identify an individual's status with respect to an established standard of performance. This discussion examines the implications of these two approaches to measurement, particularly criterion-referenced measurement, with respect to variability, item construction, reliability, validity, item analysis, reporting, and interpretation.     

Causal Attributions and Reading Achievement: Individual Differences in Low-Income Families

In this study the development of causal attributions about reading within low-income families was examined. Specifically, relations between children's reading achievement and their causal attributions were investigated as well as relations between the children's attributions about themselves and their parents’ attributions about them. A total 513 students from Grades 3, 6, and 9, and one parent of each student, all from low-income families, participated. Students and parents independently rated the importance of seven causal variables (effort, intellectual ability, liking for reading, the teacher, help at home, difficulty of reading material, and luck) for the students’ good and poor reading outcomes. The major findings were that (a) at each grade, students’ attributions were reliably related to their reading achievement on the Gates–MacGinitie reading comprehension test, with attributions to ability, liking for reading, and help at home especially critical; (b) at each grade, parent attributions were reliably associated with student attributions; and (c) as students’ grade in school increased, they focused more on themselves and less on others as causal determinants of their reading performance. The implications of these findings for research and education are discussed.     

Toward Cultural/Ecological Perspectives on Schooling and Achievement in African- and Asian-American Children

The review acknowledges that research on the family and its contribution to achievement in ethnic minority children is important. Past research and theorizing suggest the need for new directions, however. For example, research in educational achievement predicts educational failure for African-American students and educational success for Asian-American students. Little differentiation is made either among African-Americans or among Asian-Americans of different cultural, language, immigration, and economic backgrounds. The theory and design of research on family and educational achievement have been influenced by prevailing societal stereotypes. Research and policy implications of this review include the need to move toward cultural/ecological theories of achievement socialization and development.