"Presidentialese" is a curious dialect of higher education jargon. A humorous description of the language of higher education, as it pertains to college presidents and their ability to circumvent the truth, is presented. (MLW)

Reviews three prominent methods for evaluating suicidal risk in college students. Considers methods which focus on identifying personality characteristics of suicidal students; developing techniques to measure suicidal risk; and analyzing the behavior of suicidal college students. Stresses need for further educational efforts to increase awareness…

Assessed possible generational differences in student personality traits and values by analyzing four samples of college freshmen (N=317) who had completed the Omnibus Personality Inventory at intervals spanning 1969 through 1987. Found a linear increase in impulsivity during that period was the strongest of the observed shifts. (Author/ABL)

Ego identity was assessed for 30 mildly retarded adolescents, 30 nonretarded peers, and 30 nonretarded preadolescents. Results suggest that subjects' identity did not reflect a simple developmental lag but rather a unique profile. Subjects' ego identity was related to social adjustment and level of functioning, even after controlling for…

Compared low and high socioeconomic status (SES) drug-abusing adolescents. Found that the two groups did not differ significantly with respect to self-esteem, quality of family relationships, impulse control, moral development, and drug-taking behavior. High SES adolescents were more depressed and anxious than were low SES adolescents. Findings…

This study investigated whether occupational changers differed from nonchangers with respect to (1) personal and demographic variables; (2) experience of the life cycle transition periods; and (3) work values, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Changers preferred intrinsic rewards, saw their jobs as vehicles for growth, took risks,…

Examined occupational change by identifying, exploring, and describing the transition periods of the life cycle and the disengagement states of the occupational cycle to determine if they are interrelated, and to ascertain if changers and non-changers differ on variables used to assess these transitions. Subjects included 298 managers and 166…

Investigated temperament ratings among three groups of preterm infants, differing by degree of risk status, and a full-term group. Findings concerning internal consistencies demonstrated that preterm parents found the Rothbart Infant Behavior Questionnaire temperament dimensions to be coherent constructs, regardless of initial severity and…

A total 72 children of 3 1/2, 5 1/2, and 7 1/2 years were asked questions about their behaviors and internal states, and of a best friend and an acquaintance. Results indicated even young children have concepts of themselves and other persons that are not restricted to specific points in time and may form basis for later dispositional conceptions.…

Examined relative influence of selected life history experiences on development of three vocational types proposed by Holland. Data from employees classified as Investigative (n=490), Social (N=1,421), and Enterprising (N=707) support Holland's premise that vocational type development is function of complex series of events resulting from family…

Examined relationship between sensation seeking and field independence using three indices of field independence and combining the data in an Overall Index. The three field independence instruments and the Sensation Seeking Scale were administered to 103 college students. Positive relationship between sensation seeking and field independence was…

Responses from 195 staff nurses indicated that impact of leader's behavior was neutralized among low self-monitoring nurses, but intensified among high self-monitors. Correlations between staff nurses' job performance and their ratings of head nurses' leadership behaviors were not significant for low self-monitoring nurses but were significant for…

Investigated relationship between problem-solving appraisal and state-trait personality variables. Undergraduate students (N=73) completed Problem Solving Inventory of Heppner and Petersen and Spielberger's State-Trait Personality Inventory. Found significant relationships between problem-solving appraisal and state-trait factors of anxiety,…

Administered University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale, Freiburg Personality Inventory, and other questions to 247 West German college students. Loneliness was found to be correlated with several personality subscales (psychosomatic complaints, depression, and neuroticism; negative correlation with social skills, self-esteem,…

Examines the symbolic reality of unmarried mothers using Bormann's fantasy theme analysis and Q-methodology. Identifies three rhetorical visions with a dramatistic humanistic analysis produced by and about unmarried mothers: the Down and Out Vision, the Making the Best Vision, and the Yummie Vision. (MS)