Attachment over time

Continuity in attachment classification from infancy to late adolescence was examined and related to autobiographical memories of childhood, divorce, and maladjustment. Eighty-four White middle-class children (48 girls) were seen in a modified Strange Situation at 12 months and given the Adult Attachment Interview at 18 years. In addition, data were collected on 13-year-olds' childhood recollections as well as adolescent, mother, and teacher ratings of maladjustment at 13 and 18 years of age. Divorce status of parents also was obtained. Results indicated no continuity in attachment classification from 1 to 18 years of age and no relation between infant attachment status and adolescent maladjustment. Divorce was related to 13-year-olds' childhood recollections as well as to insecure attachment status at 18 years. Eighteen-year-olds with insecure attachment classification were more likely to rate themselves as maladjusted. The results support the idea of attachment as an evolving representation dependent upon the nature of the family environment as indexed by divorce.     

The Works of Orrin Dunlap

Julien Caunter's How to Make Movie Magic in Amateur Films (Philadelphia: Chilton Books, 1971---price not known)

Stanley J. Solomon The Film Idea (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Javanovich, March 1972---$4.95 paper)

Jerry Lewis' The Total Filmmaker (New York: Random House, 1971---$6.95)

William Bayer's Breaking Through, Selling Out, Dropping Dead, and Other Notes on Film Making (New York: Macmillan, 1971---$5.95)

Alan Rosenthal (ed.) The New Documentary in Action: A Casebook in Film Making (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971---$11.95)     

Transformative Learning: First-Year MSW Students' Reactions to,and Experiences in,Gerontological Field Placements

We present findings from interviews with 17 first-year MSWs assigned to gerontological placements undertaken before beginning—and again as they neared completion—of practicum. All respondents, even those most positive and negative at beginning of placement, report a reduction in stereotypes, improved appreciation of older adults’ capacities and strengths, and increased skills in working with this population. All but one respondent reports increased likelihood of pursuing a position working with older adults as a result of exposure through field placement. Specific factors reported by students to influence their decision as well as implications for social work education are discussed.     

Pygmalion in the classroom

In 1965 the authors conducted an experiment in a public elementary school, telling teachers that certain children could be expected to be “growth spurters,” based on the students' results on the Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition. In point of fact, the test was nonexistent and those children designated as “spurters” were chosen at random. What Rosenthal and Jacobson hoped to determine by this experiment was the degree (if any) to which changes in teacher expectation produce changes in student achievement. Robert Rosenthal is professor of social psychology at Harvard University. Lenore Jacobson is an elementary school principal in the South San Francisco Unified School District.     

Pronouncing new words aloud during the silent reading of text enhances fifth graders?? memory for vocabulary words and their spellings

An experiment with random assignment examined the effectiveness of a strategy to learn unfamiliar English vocabulary words during text reading. Lower socioeconomic status, language minority fifth graders (M?=?10?years, 7?months; n?=?62) silently read eight passages each focused on an unknown multi-syllabic word that was underlined, embedded in a meaningful context, defined, depicted, and repeated three times. Students were grouped by word reading ability, matched into pairs, and randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the strategy condition, students orally pronounced the underlined words during silent reading. In the control condition, students penciled a check if they had seen the underlined words before but did not say the words aloud. Results of ANOVAs showed that the oral strategy enhanced vocabulary learning (ps?<?.01), with poorer readers showing bigger effect sizes than better readers in remembering pronunciation-meaning associations and spellings of the words. In a second experiment, 32 fifth graders from the same school described the strategies they use when encountering unfamiliar words in context. Better readers reported more word-level strategies whereas poorer readers reported more text-based strategies. Our explanation is that application of the word-level strategy of decoding new words aloud strengthened connections between spellings, pronunciations, and meanings in memory compared to silent reading of new words, particularly among poor readers who were less skilled and less likely to use this strategy unless instructed to do so.     

Bibliographic retrieval for the social and behavioral scientist

The library's role in helping the social or behavioral scientist find bibliographic material is explained, and methods for the retrieval of bibliographic information are given. A table giving titles of relevant abstracts and indexes also provides time spans covered, frequencies of publication, disciplines for which each is useful, and special features.     

On the consistency of calling for caution carelessly: Further notes on mythical experiments and phantom footnotes

Conclusion In an earlier paper by Grieger (1971), grave errors of scholarship occurred; these included the reporting of the experimental results from three samples that, although they did not exist, were miraculously tested for significance and were declared nonsignificant. In the present paper by Grieger and Saavedra there is reference to a phantom footnote, confusion over the nature of the unit normal distribution, confusion over the difference between power and effect size, and a number of errors of fact. The behavioral sciences may be well served by public controversies that involve the debating of subtle points. They are unlikely to be well served by papers failing to meet even the most rudimentary criteria of scholarship.This paper was written in response to the invitation of the editor. Its preparation was supported by a research grant from the Division of Social Sciences of the National Science Foundation.     

The role of the institutional researcher in a sex discrimination suit

This paper has three purposes, the first being a summary of what transpires when an institution of higher education is the defendant in a class action suit charging prejudicial treatment of some minority group. The second purpose is to demonstrate how easily the plaintiffs can use the institution's own data to establish aprima facie case for disparate treatment. The final goal is to display typical data and statistical exhibits that an institution might expect to see filed against them by the plaintiffs. Considerable attention is placed on discussing the role institutional researchers play in the defense phase, particularly with regard to strategies for defending against a multivariate regression model that the claimants' statistical expert has submitted in evidence of a classwide bias. The hoped for result of this exposition would be greater alertness to the vulnerability of any institution and an appreciation of the need for advance preparation that would ensure the availability of data and techniques required to make a strong defense against a class action suit that may be unwarranted.Presented at the Twenty-First Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Minneapolis, May 1981.