Sex role stereotypes on children's TV in Asia a content analysis of gender role portrayals in children's cartoons in Hong Kong

This is a content analysis of 31 randomly‐selected children's television cartoons in Hong Kong, where all such programs are imported from foreign countries. No such programs are produced in Hong Kong. The study analyzes personality and appearance attributes of 277 cartoon characters. As expected, male characters outnumbered female characters by a ratio of 2:1; however, contrary to expectations, female characters enjoyed far greater representation in cartoons produced in Japan than they did in cartoons produced in the U.S. and Great Britain. On other measures, characters tended to conform to hypothesized gender‐related stereotypes, with males being more aggressive, rough, sloppy, and strong, and females being more beautiful and feminine.     

Telecommunications

Robert S. Magnant's Domestic Satellite: An FCC Giant Step– Toward Competitive Telecommunications Policy (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1977—$20.00)

Anthony G. Oettinger and Carol L. Weinhaus, National Stakes in the Communications Revolution: Jurisdictional Cost Separations (Program on Information Resources Policy, Harvard University, 200 Aiken, Cambridge, Mass. 02138—$10.90, paper—request Working Paper WP-79-2)

Clayton L. Hallmark's Lasers: The Light Fantastic (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: TAB Books, 1979—$9.95 with a paperback also available)

Fred B. Wood, et al. Videoconferencinq via Satellite: Opening Congress to the People (Program of Policy Studies in Science and Technology, George Washington University, Washington D.C. 20052—free on request, paper)

Audience Diversion Due to Cable Television: A Statistical Analysis of New Data by Rolla Edward Park (April 1979, R-2403-FCC—$5.00, paper)

Audience Diversion Due to Cable Television: Supporting Data by Rolla Edward Pack (April 1979, R-2403/1-FCC—$7.00, paper)

The Spartanburg Interactive Cable Experiments in Home Education by William A. Lucas (February 1979, R-2271-NSF—$7.00, paper)     

Differences in Social Values Between Athletes and Nonathletes

Abstract

The experiment was designed to (a) examine age-related differences in the control of aiming movements, and (b) determine the locus of slowing in movement execution of older adults. Fitts's (1954) index of difficulty (ID) was used to manipulate movement execution demands, and kinematics were used to examine the response characteristics. Twelve young and 12 older adults performed simple aiming movements 10 cm or 20 cm in amplitude to targets of 0.5 cm, 1.0 cm, or 2.0 cm in width, resulting in IDs ranging from 3.32 to 6.32. The results for both young and older subjects support the prediction that movement time (MT) increases as a function of ID and that older adults are significantly slower and more affected by increases in ID than the young adults. Velocity and acceleration profiles of the older adults' movements displayed very different response characteristics than those of the young adults. The results suggest that older adults emphasize accuracy of response and are concerned with the latter phase of the movement in order to contact a target accurately.     

The Effect of a Brief Training in Motivational Interviewing on Trainee Skill Development

Motivational interviewing (MI) is an empirically based practice that provides counselors with methods for working with resistant and ambivalent clients. Whereas previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of training current clinicians in this evidenced‐based practice, no research has investigated the efficacy of teaching MI to counselors‐in‐training who work with clients from the general population. The authors examined the effect of a student‐based training in MI for 43 graduate‐level counselor trainees using a quasi‐experimental controlled design. Statistical analyses based on pretest and posttest assessments revealed participants’ knowledge and skill in MI significantly improved in the treatment group. Implications for training future counselors and suggestions for additional research are explored.     

The Novice-Expert Continuum in Astronomy Knowledge

The nature of expertise in astronomy was investigated across a broad spectrum of ages and experience in China and New Zealand. Five hypotheses (capable of quantification and statistical analysis) were used to probe types of expertise identified by previous researchers: (a) domain-specific knowledge-skill in the use of scientific vocabulary and language and recognising relationships between concepts in linguistic and schematic forms; (b) higher-order theory in terms of conceptual structure and enriched scientific knowledge and reasoning; with an expectation of cultural similarity. There were 993 participants in all, age 3–80 years, including 68 junior school pupils; 68 pre-school pupils; 112 middle-school students; 109 high-school students; 79 physics undergraduates; 60 parents; 136 pre-service primary teachers; 131 pre-service secondary teachers; 72 primary teachers; 78 secondary teachers; 50 amateur astronomers and astronomy educators; and 30 astronomers and physicists; with approximately equal numbers of each group in both cultures; and of boys and girls in the case of children. For them, the methodology utilised Piagetian interviews with three media (verbal language, drawing, play-dough modelling), and for adults a questionnaire inviting responses in writing and drawing was used. The data from each group were categorised into ordinal scales and then analysed by means of Kolmogorov–Smirnov two-sample tests. The findings supported the hypotheses with evidence of all forms of expertise increasing with experience in both cultures (α level 0.05). The relative gains, overlaps and deficits in expertise across the novice-expert continuum are explored in detail.     

Cultural Mediation of Children’s Cosmologies: A longitudinal study of the astronomy concepts of Chinese and New Zealand children

These longitudinal studies investigated the cultural mediation of children’s thinking about the Earth using an interview technique designed to elicit responses from children from all “levels” of their conceptual organization (intuitive, cultural, and scientific). Close scrutiny of the research literature in this field reveals that some strategies used in the past to probe children’s ideas have been influenced by the background of the interviewer, either in the design of their questions or in the use made of concrete props (e.g., of the Earth’s shape). This has tended to obscure the degree of cultural influence in those interviewed. Central to the current research was the development of an interview method (“instrument attunement”) that was flexible, culturally adaptable, and could be tuned to the response level of the child. The participants included 129 boys and 113 girls from China, and 217 boys and 227 girls from New Zealand. The methodology utilizing observational astronomy led into discussion of the motion and shape of the Earth, Sun and Moon. Surprisingly, the development of children’s concepts was found to be remarkably similar within the three main ethnic groups (Han, New Zealand European and New Zealand Maori) in the two cultures (China and New Zealand). Cases of cultural mediation were detected using the new methodology but these could be assimilated into a common taxonomy of cosmological concepts for all participants.