Checklist agreement among observers of children

This study compared parents,' teachers,' and counselors' Behavior Problem Checklist ratings of 57 elementary and middle school children in counseling. Although a larger sample might have produced more significant results, analysis of variance revealed only one difference among the raters. School counselors perceived more personality problems in the children than the teachers did. Otherwise, parents, teachers, and counselors did not differ in their perceptions. Correlations were low to moderate, with mother-father agreements being higher than those of parent-teacher, and teacher-counselor observations.     

LIFE AND DEATH AS PUBLIC POLICY: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND ABORTION IN AMERICAN POLITICAL OPINION

Recent decisions of the US Supreme Court, in returning to theissues of capital punishment and abortion, have simultaneouslyexpanded the potential for public opinion on these issues tohave an impact on public policy. This article considers thedistribution of the available combinations of attitudes towardissues of the institutionalized taking (or preservation) ofhuman life, both in the general American public and in subgroupswhich combine these opinions in distinctive fashion. These patternsare then compared to attitudes among partisan political activists,suggesting a further set of recurring, élite-mass tensions.Finally, the resulting tensions and cross-pressures are examinedfor their relationship to the presidential vote in 1984 and1980.     

Family Interaction Patterns,Career Planning Attitudes,and Vocational Identity of High School Adolescents

The purpose of the current study was to examine how perceptions of family interaction patterns as defined along three dimensions of family environment (quality of family relationships, family goal-orientations, and degree of organization and control within the family system) predict vocational identity and career planning attitudes among male and female adolescents living at home. One hundred twenty three high school students completed measures of family environment, vocational identity, and career planning attitudes. Analyses revealed that the quality of family relationships (i.e., degree to which family members are encouraged to express feelings and problems) played a small, yet significant role in predicting career planning attitudes of adolescents.     

Predictability of observed mother-child interaction from preschool to middle childhood in a high-risk sample

This study examined predictability of observed parent-child interaction from preschool to middle childhood in 283 mother-child dyads. Participants were welfare recipients enrolled in the Observational Study of the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program. Structured observational sessions were conducted both at preschool age and middle childhood, and were coded for maternal social behavior, child social behavior, and dyadic interaction. Analyses explored direct relations between the assessments; relations between the assessments with possible third-variable influences, such as maternal literacy, covaried out; and moderated relations. Results indicated that observed mother-child interaction in middle childhood could be significantly predicted from observed interaction 4 years earlier. Risk status moderated the relations such that those families with greater risk factors tended to show more stability, although this stability was, at times, through maintaining suboptimal functioning.     

Attitudes toward science and science knowledge of intellectually gifted and average students in third,seventh, and eleventh grades

A questionnaire regarding attitudes toward science and scientific knowledge (Yager & Yager, 1985b) was administered to 143 intellectually gifted (IQ > 130) and intellectually average third-, seventh-, and eleventh-grade students. Measures of internal reliability on four attitude subscales and a content knowledge subscale are reported. Three-way ANOVAs comparing grade, sex, and ability revealed significant differences between average and gifted students in attitudes toward being a scientist, usefulness of science, and, as might be expected, in knowledge of science. Similarly, there were significant differences between grades on attitudes toward teachers and toward science classes, with the most favorable attitudes expressed in third grade, next most favorable in eleventh grade, and clearly more negative attitudes expressed by students in seventh grade. There also was a significant interaction between grade level and ability regarding attitudes toward science classes. In contrast to what might be expected from reported differences between males and females in attitudes toward science, gender as a separate variable did not have a significant main effect in any of the comparisons.     

Latent habituation of the orienting response in the preweanling rat

The effect of inhibiting the orienting response on information processing was examined in four experiments. A nonsignal auditory stimulus was presented four times to preweanhng rats either 30 sec or 15 min after they had been placed in an unfamiliar environment (Experiments 1A and 2), shocked (Experiment 1B)5 or experienced a shift in environmental context (Experiment 1C). Both an autonomic (heart rate) and a behavioral componentx of the orienting response to the novel stimulus were recorded. In the 15-min condition, the auditory stimulus elicited a consistent orienting response on the first trial that habituated rapidly with successive trials. In contrast, the auditory stimulus did not elicit a detectable orienting response in the 30-sec condition on any of the four trials. However, when the auditory stimulus was re-presented after a brief retention interval, a comparable level of habituation was seen in both groups. These results demonstrate that animals in the 30-sec condition detected, attended to, and encoded the auditory stimulus even though they did not orient, either autonomically or behaviorally, to that stimulus when it was first presented. This process of response-independent habituation is best described as latent habituation. Like latent learning, latent habituation took place in the absence of any observable change in behavior. The implications of this effect for current theories of habituation and of the orienting response are discussed.     

Central processing energetic factors mediate impaired motor control in ADHD combined subtype but not in ADHD inattentive subtype

Participants with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are often impaired in visuomotor tasks. However, little is known about the contribution of modal impairment in motor function relative to central processing deficits or whether different processes underlie the impairment in ADHD combined (ADHD-C) versus ADHD inattentive (ADHD-I) subtype. The present study analyzes performance on the Visual Motor Integration Test relative to less effortful motor tests as well as on measures of energetics. Both ADHD groups showed evidence of impaired motor function on both visual-motor integration (VMI) and the less effortful motor tests. The ADHD-C group performed below the ADHD-I group on VMI, but their performance correlated highly with the measures of the energetic pools of arousal and effort. Different mechanisms may underlie impaired fine motor skills in ADHD. Central processing deficits contribute significantly to the deficit of ADHD-C but do not explain the motor impairment in ADHD-I.     

Interdisciplinary Synergy: A Partnership Between Business and Library Faculty and Its Effects on Students’ Information Literacy

In today's information-rich environment, business faculty are challenged to teach students how to conduct effective business research and evaluate information critically. We describe collaboration between business professors and reference librarians in an introductory business course. Students were surveyed before and after completion of a Business Discovery Project requiring use of print and electronic sources in writing a research paper on a publicly traded company. Student perceptions indicated increased abilities in communication skills, research skills, use of business information sources, and composition skills; paired t tests showed these increases to be significant.