In this survey study of 430 undergraduates, elements of the social competencies and interpersonal processes model (B. Mallinckrodt, 2000) were tested. Two social competencies were hypothesized to mediate the direct effects of 2 independent variables, attachment anxiety and avoidance, on 2 outcomes, psychological distress and perceived social…

Researchers suggest that psycho-social mentoring may represent a way for instructors to provide emotional support and personal insight to students. Given the nationwide rise in academic stress among university students, the present study examines the kinds of negative emotions associated with failing an exam and how such emotions are linked to…

People recall taboo words better than neutral words in many experimental contexts. The present rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) experiments demonstrated this taboo-superiority effect for immediate recall of mixed lists containing taboo and neutral words matched for familiarity, length, and category coherence. Under binding theory (MacKay et…

Examination of a test's internal structure can be used to identify what domains or dimensions are being measured, identify relationships between the dimensions, provide evidence for hypothesized multidimensionality and test score interpretations, and identify construct-irrelevant variance. The purpose of this research is to provide a…

The high prevalence of dating violence and the severity of its aftermath warrant the collaboration between research and practice for the development of prevention and intervention programs. This study investigates young adolescents' perceptions of dating partner's behaviors in common dating situations and their behavioral reaction to these dating…

This study examined the impact of the September 11 terrorist attacks on graduate and undergraduate students and the role of optimism in posttraumatic distress. A sample of 457 students who attended courses at three schools of social work (Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Washington) participated in the study. A quarter of them had a known person as an…

Eight independent variables (differential item functioning [DIF] detection method, purification procedure, item response model, mean latent trait difference between groups, test length, DIF pattern, magnitude of DIF, and percentage of DIF items) were manipulated, and two dependent variables (Type I error and power) were assessed through…

The application of multidimensional item response theory (IRT) models to longitudinal educational surveys where students are repeatedly measured is discussed and exemplified. A marginal maximum likelihood (MML) method to estimate the parameters of a multidimensional generalized partial credit model for repeated measures is presented. It is shown…

In this investigation young adolescent students (N=181) engaged in an interactive computer reading task. The aim was to explore sequences of students' affective responses to expository texts by identifying their character, intensity and their relationship with further text processing. Affective responses were measured using probes consisting of…

This paper presents a cognitive social-psychological theoretical framework on emotions, derived from Richard Lazarus, to understand how teachers' identity can be affected in a context of reforms. The emphasis of this approach is on the cognitive-affective processes of individual teachers, enabling us to gain a detailed understanding of what…

Michael Hand's pithy and challenging essay (Hand, 2003) offers a neat, clear and powerful argument against "faith schools". I am in considerable sympathy with Hand's position. However, I think his argument can be strengthened, and weaknesses in it remedied or avoided. In this brief note, I offer some modest suggestions, which are intended as…

Adam Swift objects to private schools on the grounds of equal opportunity and efficiency, and to both private and selective public schools on the grounds of solidarity and improving the academic achievement of less advantaged students. I argue that private schools are not inefficient, and that a meritocratic ideal of equality of opportunity in…

Multirater feedback, often called 360-degree feedback, is a popular development and assessment tool, especially for organizational leaders. Raters from different organizational levels, including subordinates, boss, peers, and self, rate the leader's performance. However, there seldom is strong agreement across rater groups. This study used the…

This study examined whether high performers performed better (a) under individual and group incentive pay than under hourly pay and (b) under individual incentive pay than under group incentive pay. Participants were 11 college students. An ABCDC within-subject design was used in which A was hourly pay with individual feedback, B was individual…

American schools have debated the merits of a national canon since the inception of English as a subject a century ago. In earlier years, the mission of the language arts was much more elitist and hierarchical. English was a subject that taught the great works, so that aspiring students could be familiar with the standard pantheon of authors and…