A return to basic inductive research methods is recommended. Specifically, the scientific method of "strong inference" ought to be applied in attempts to prove hypotheses concerning the relationship that may exist between attitude variables and the learning of a second or foreign language. These hypotheses, drawn from the literature and discussed…

This study investigated systematic relationships among teacher personality types (Ambitious, Conscientious, and Indulgent), preservice educational beliefs, and intern classroom practices. The investigation traced the theoretical and empirical linkage from personality structure though educational ideology and finally to perceptions of teacher…

Reports a study of 208 migrant children, three to four years of age and mostly Black, assessing school achievement and seven affective characteristics, i.e., delay of gratification, relationship with achievement model, dependency, motor inhibition, self-control, self-concept, and risk-taking. Suggests that findings of sex differences for…

How can all students be provided with a first-class education with all the obstacles and challenges faced by today's schools? Based on his experiences growing up in the Mississippi Delta during the era of segregation, Clifton Taulbert shares time-honored principles that can transform the lives of the teachers, students, administrators, and staff…

Research has suggested that transfer students experience difficulty in many domains however limited research has examined the variables associated with transfer student success. The present study examined transfer student success using a sample of 163 first-year transfer students at a large mid-Atlantic university. The mean age of the participants…

Students exhibiting failure syndrome approach assignments with low expectations of success and tend to give up at early signs of difficulty. This Digest delineates the nature of failure syndrome, suggests strategies for coping with failure syndrome students, and discusses how teachers can help. Some students, especially in the early grades, show…

Describes the insecure, control-hungry personality often found in principals and the dependent personality often found in their faculties. Explains how these two personalities affect a school and its students, who can learn freedom and independence only from a free and independent teacher. (SB)

Contrasts the consistency, the self-concept, and the new look formulations of cognitive dissonance. The study demonstrates that dissonance occurs when a behavior and its consequences contradict an individual's self-concept. Findings both support and diverge from various aspects of the three formulations of dissonance phenomena. (LSR)

Investigated validity of juvenile offender treatment typology utilized within peer treatment programs of youth services agency with 60 male delinquents. Results suggest behavior typology described in peer treatment literature has basis in psychological theory and can provide information for treatment and community reintegration and program…

Comments on research problems raised in this special issue. Suggests that recent research highlights the nature of the multiple processes underlying variability in child and adolescent adjustment. Views variability as a function of covarying influences from multiple domains, operating on specific developmental outcomes across a background of time…

This paper uses two cases studies to analyse what has happened to young people and their life-stage transitions in those parts of the former communist bloc where all the main industries stopped when communism ended and remained shut-down over 10 years later. Our evidence is from two such places--Telavi in eastern Georgia and Vanadzor in…

Background: Differential responses in terms of gender and antisocial behaviour in emotional reactivity to affective pictures using the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) have been demonstrated in adult and adolescent samples. Moreover, a quadratic relationship between the arousal (intensity) and valence (degree of unpleasantness) has…

The importance of genetic factors in autism has prompted the development of mutant mouse models to advance our understanding of biological mechanisms underlying autistic behaviors. Mouse models of human neuropsychiatric diseases are designed to optimize (1) face validity, i.e., resemblance to the human symptoms; (2) construct validity, i.e.,…

Mattering is the belief that one makes a difference in the lives of others. We explore the effect of mattering on adolescent suicide ideation. The data source is the 2000 Youth At Risk Survey, composed of interviews with 2,004 youths, age 11-18 and screening interviews with their parents. Our analysis reveals that those who matter more are…

In only recent history, illicit use of methamphetamine, once isolated to urban areas on the West Coast, has spread into rural areas of the Midwest and southern United States. Although past and current methamphetamine legislation has increased penalties for methamphetamine manufacturers and tightened restrictions on sales of known precursors, the…