Holland environments as reinforcement systems

Holland's (1973, 1985) theory of vocational choice stipulates that model environments seek toreinforce the characteristic predispositions and attitudes of their corresponding personality types. The results of this longitudinal study of the self-perceptions of more than 2,000 graduates from eight types of colleges and universities (Carnegie Commission, 1971) generally support the validity of this premise. For example, graduates prepared in investigative environments have higher intellectual self-esteem scores and those prepared in artistic environments have higher artistic self-esteem scores, when pre- and postcollege measures are controlled. These general patterns are consistent for graduates from the eight institutional types. The implications of these findings are discussed for those who study the intra- and interinstitutional diversity of colleges and universities and their differential impact on student developmental patterns.     

Biglan's dimensions: Are the perceptions empirically based?

The clusters of disciplines originally developed by Biglan have been useful guides in classifying or categorizing academic departments. Questions remain, however, as to the validity of the Biglan clusters among a wide range of colleges and universities.This study provides evidence which supports the validity of the Biglan categories by showing how faculty salaries and instructional staffing patterns differ among departments along the dimensions described by Biglan.     

The work of Ambroise Tardieu: the first definitive description of child abuse

The first important monograph describing the battered child syndrome was written in 1860 by Ambroise Tardieu, a French forensic physician. Here is a translation of his article, published in the Annales d'hygiene publique et de medecine legale, with the title "Etude medico-legale sur les sevices et mauvais traitements exerces sur des enfants." The first part of his article is entirely translated. A brief summary of the 32 cases report described by Tardieu in the second part of his article is presented.     

The effects of strong irrelevant thirst on food-rewarded instrumental performance

In Experiment I, rats received one food rewarded trial per day in a runway. One group received all its trials under hunger (Group H); the second group received a random half of its trials under hunger and the other half of its trials under hunger plus thirst (Group H-HT). Group H-HT ultimately ran slower on HT trials than on H trials. In Experiment II, the effects of shifting from H to HT and vice versa were examined in a five-phase design. In general, rats run under H ran faster than rats run under HT, and shifts from H to HT produced rapid decreases in speed, while shifts from HT to H produced extremely slow increases in speed. The results of both experiments were interpreted as indicating that the reward value of food is greater under H than under HT and that the manipulation H vs. HT may be viewed as theoretically similar to manipulation of reward magnitude.