Focus on the Psychosocial Dimensions of Talent Development: An Important Potential Role for Consultee-Centered Consultants

The American Psychological Association's Center for Gifted Education Policy (CGEP) reviewed the literature on current talent development models and conducted research on music conservatory students, high IQ students, and science-talented students as sources for a new developmental model called scholarly productivity/artistry (SP/A).The third stage of the SP/A model, where psychosocial dimensions of talent development play the most prominent role, serves as the framework for adolescent summer programs offered by CGEP. The authors argue that the psychosocial dimensions of talent development make gifted children and adolescents a promising population for consulting psychology.     

Extending technologies among small-scale farmers in Meru,Kenya: Ingredients for success in farmer groups

Agricultural extension is evolving worldwide, and there is much emphasis today on community-based mechanisms of dissemination in order to bring sustainable change. The goal of this study was to examine the factors that make farmer groups successful in dissemination of information and technologies. A mixed-methods, multiple-stage approach was used to obtain data, using participant observation, documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews, social mapping, and structured questionnaires. Dairy-goat farmer groups (n = 46) and individual farmers (n = 88) were interviewed. Factors that were associated with group success in dissemination included member participation, degree of jealousy within the group, homogeneity of members, group capacity, number of linkages and type of group (project-supported versus non-supported). Some interventions that may increase the success of groups in dissemination include capacity-building, increasing linkages with other extension stakeholders, providing an enabling environment for groups to form, using established groups (as compared to forming new groups), and encouraging groups to form around common interests rather than for other reasons.     

Leisure Activities and Adolescent Sexual Behaviour

The shortage of previous research acknowledging the relevance and possible influences of social environments on adolescent sexual behaviour was addressed in this study. The influence of leisure time activities on sexual behaviour was investigated in a questionnaire survey of 212 UK adolescents. The majority of respondents were white, and aged between 11 and 19. Significant differences in leisure activities were found between boys and girls; girls read more books and magazines, and watched more television than boys, who spent more time participating in sport, in amusement arcades and around the streets. Analyses disclosed a decreased likelihood of participating in sexual and other risky behaviours if leisure time is spent with the family or going to church, irrespective of age. Other leisure environments, such as visiting alcohol-serving pubs, were predictive of having sex, although risk-taking behaviour in general and age were the predominant predictors of having had sex. The data therefore provide some support for the ecological model attributing sexual and other risk-taking behaviours to particular adolescent social environments in the population studied here.     

The effects of loneliness on relational maintenance behaviors: An attributional perspective

This study links the experience of loneliness to the use of relational maintenance behaviors. More precisely, an attributional perspective on loneliness is adopted, wherein chronic loneliness leads to attributions for the cause of loneliness to stable, internal, and uncontrollable factors; situational loneliness is more likely to be attributed to unstable, external, and controllable factors. Over 400 participants completed measures of chronic and situational loneliness, and relational maintenance strategies. Residts indicated that both forms of loneliness are negatively associated with maintenance strategies. As anticipated, chronically lonely people reported the least use of relational maintenance behaviors across relationship types.     

Film Screenwriting

Rolando Giustini, The Film Script: A Writer's Guide (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice- Hall, 1980 -- $6.95 paper).

Tom Stempel, Screenwriter: The Life and Times of Nunnally Johnson (San biego: A. S. Barnes, 1980 -- $12.00 hardcover).

Budd Schulberg, On the Waterfront (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1980 -- $12.50 hardcover).

David Lees and Stan Berkowitz, The Movie Business (New York: Vintage, 1981 -- $4.95).

Film & Literature

Gene D. Phillips, Hemingway and Film (New York: Ungar, 1981 $9.95/$4.95).

Jeffrey Egan Welch, Literature and Film: An Annotated Bibliography, 1909-1977 (New York: Garland, 1981 -- $40.00).     

“If They're Trying to Say Something About My Culture … I'm Confused”: Recognizing and Resisting Authenticity in Latino-Themed Television

The television landscape has expanded to include an ever-increasing crop of culturally themed programs aimed at the Latina/o audience. Assumptions about the audience have shaped this trend, resulting in questions about the effectiveness of niche programming to satisfy viewer taste. This project investigates LatiNation with specific focus on the differences in the reception process based on participants' connection to their ethnic identity. In-depth interviews were conducted with self-identified Latina/o students who were also given a survey with scaled items to measure their connection to their ethnic identity. In general, the findings indicate that audience members produce varied readings of the text showing the participants actively negotiate identity by using LatiNation as an opportunity to both embrace and critique Latinidad.     

Poison or panacea?: Sarah Moore Grimké's use of the public letter

Rhetors have long used the letter form to overcome difficult situations. This essay considers the difficulties inherent in the form when used by a female rhetor. During her career as an abolitionist, Sarah Grimke attempted to use the apostolic letter to appeal to divergent audiences yet discovered, that the form and its attendant persona limited her audience appeal. In her work as a woman's rights activist, she reformulated the private letter and developed a persona that allowed her to empower herself as well as her audience.     

A Review of “Nations of the World: A Political,Economic, and Business Handbook”

This case study presents the revision of an upper-division one-shot instruction session to include an online tutorial that introduces students to business information sources prior to the library session. In order to complete the assignment and prepare for the library session, students are prompted to find specific information using the given resource, and then consider questions regarding the information retrieved. Students in a 3000-level business writing class responded positively to the activity while providing a good amount of material to inform further iterations of the assignment.