This study uses multilevel modeling to examine, after taking student-level predictors of enrollment into account, the effects of state public policies on the type of institution high school graduates attend. Four types of state policies (direct appropriations, tuition, financial aid, and K-12 academic preparation) influence the type of college…

To ascertain changes in cognitive correlates of learning as students advance through hierarchical instruction, 24 individual difference measures were obtained from 166 Navy trainees who had completed a computer-managed course in electricity and electronics. Principal component analysis and varimax rotation were computed for cognitive…

Addressing two issues of Dweck and Leggett's (1988) social cognitive theory of personality, this short-term longitudinal field study investigated the relationship between implicit theories about the self and school anxiety among adolescents making the transition to junior high school. It was hypothesized that students who believed that their…

A model of internal principle for integrating past research findings on adult altruism postulates that although individuals' shared beliefs result in significant group effects, there remains a significant portion of variation due to a subject's "factor" or unique internal rule. To examine the influence of both the level (degree or amount) and the…

With the proliferation of suicide prevention centers in the United States, the task of rapidly and effectively assessing an individual caller's suicide potential has become an important research problem. However, the social science researcher is often confronted with an ethical problem when the results of his predictive equations can be used to…

This paper describes the self-evaluation maintenance model (SEM) which suggests that much social behavior can be understood by assuming that persons are motivated to maintain a positive self-evaluation. The two processes by which one's social circumstances may affect self-evaluation, i.e., reflection and comparison, are described. The relationship…

This report reviews five studies dealing with drug abuse and adolescence and presents an overview of the social changes which have contributed to the increased use of marijuana and other illicit drugs. The importance of the longitudinal study as a research tool is emphasized in describing the research projects that deal with the epidemiology of…

The Children's Personality Questionnaire (CPQ) was administered to 23 academically handicapped children (mean IQ, 79) and 35 academically gifted students (mean IQ, 147). The CPQ measures 14 distinct personality factors; data on these variables were analyzed using a 2 x 2 (academic ability x sex) analysis of variance design. A stepwise discriminant…

The Rasch item analysis model is supposed to yield norm-free estimates of ability and easiness values, but there are several possible interpretations of the nature and extent of such norm-freeness. One such interpretation was that to involve the scores of one single experimental group of testees which were embedded in four differently skewed…

Criteria and methods for developing a taxonomy for different situational categories are presented. (CK)

This study examined the degree to which certain religious/spiritual constructs simply reflect personality variables and to what extent they describe unique components of individual differences. It assessed the incremental validity of several recent or widely used religious measures over personality dimensions in predicting quality of life, racism,…

Examines various language learning background variables in relationship to rate of learning progress through an intensive English program. Findings reveal that entry proficiency variables were most effective when predicting high and low success category, but language learning background variables were most effective when predicting medium success.…

Discussion of regulation of learning, mind orientation, and distraction focuses on two studies of 12- to 14-year-old students with weak concentration abilities from a special education secondary school who were asked to solve arithmetic word problems. These studies explored individual differences in self-regulation processes, and the effect of…

Examined the association between early caregiving and children's cognitive competence at school age. Mother-child interactions were measured when children were 6, 13, and 24 months and 6 years of age. Children's cognitive competence was assessed at 6 and 8 years of age. Mothers' nonrestrictiveness and verbal stimulation were significant predictors…

Examined the impact of 2 environmental factors--social class and family risk levels--and 2 biological factors--intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and medical risk--on the cognitive and motor development of 175 preterm infants. Family risk, early medical risk, and the interaction of family risk and IVH were found to be significant predictors of…