Evidence for construct validity of this multi-dimensional concept of self esteem includes the relative congruence of the factor structure with the theoretical construct, the stability of the structure when subjected to a series of empirical tests, increasingly positive self-referent responses with increasing age, willingness to become more…

Four widely used instruments in the affective domain which measure self-esteem, locus of control, achievement motivation and moral development were administered to 885 middle school students in an effort to "map" the affective domain. Sex and age effects varied considerably from trait to trait. Females evidenced greater stability in affective…

Grades which professors gave their students were related with ratings those students gave their professors. Students' grades were found to influence their ratings of faculty, accounting for approximately 9 percent of the total variance. (MV)

Results showed support for the use of academic productivity, but gave only minimal support to choice as an effective reinforcer. There was evidence, however, that if choice served as a reinforcer it could do so best when activities made available to the child were of at least moderate interest. (Author/MV)

Under individual reward conditions, sociometric groups were found more likely than random groups to function outside the classroom, whereas under shared reward conditions both types of groups were equally viable. Working in groups did not affect subsequent individual test performance; however, on a joint project, teamwork resulted in better…

When college students were required to remember a sequence of numbers before reading a sentence displayed at a constant rate and the syntactic structure was known beforehand, their recall of the number sequence was superior. When subjects were timed while reading individual sentences and syntactic structure was known beforehand, reading times…

Growth is estimated most accurately by procedures involving the pretest-posttest difference, and for practical purposes all estimates involving this difference have approximately equal accuracy. In particular, the simple difference between pretest and posttest scores seems about as accurate as any other estimate, easier to compute, and meaningful…

Findings suggest that class openness may have some effects independent of the initial entering characteristics of the child and that, at least with regard to some outcomes, the child's characteristics may help to determine the type of class from which he would derive the greatest benefit. (Author/MV)

Organizational form significantly affected learning and retention in this name-attribute organizational study. Learning condition affected criterion performance, memory and error rates. An analysis of critical words (names, attributes, values) recalled indicated that hierarchical position influenced word memorability. (Author/MV)

Teachers' beliefs were found to influence classroom activities, children's behaviors, and children's perceptions of school. Certain combinations of identified ideologies produced classroom environments which children found anxiety arousing. Findings indicate that clarity of teacher demands may be an important feature of supportive first-grade…

A 2,217-word news article was reduced 10 percent, 30 percent, and 50 percent by one of three reduction methods: word frequency, grammatical, and subjective. Reduction method had no effect on comprehension at the 10 percent and 30 percent reduction levels, but at the 50 percent level the subjective method produced better reading performance than…

Psycholinguistic literature discounts the role of three social learning variables: feedback or reinforcement, modeling or imitation, and contextual constraints on language. Social learning, function, and context in language acquisition have been underrepresented in favor of cognitive and structural factors, which are limited because they…

As an example, two aspects of children's conservation are explained: decalages and the shift from perceptual to quantitative cues. This approach, relative to structuralist formulation, involves cognitive factors such as prior learning, as well as impinging social experience. It is compatible with Piaget's theory, yet simpler and more flexible. (CP)

The author clarifies common misunderstanding about the theory that social learning is concerned with shaping of children's moral behavior through differential reinforcement, which portrays children as mere mimics of socialization agents. Social learning is defined in relation to the cognitive developmental approach to moral development and its…

Beilin examines the previous three papers. In explaining cognitive development, social learning theory fails to account for rule invariance in the face of capricious and informationally impoverished experience, does not explain the acquisition of abstract rule systems, and offers less flexibility than Piaget's explanations based on operations and…