The issue of whether or not early adolescence is a transitional or stable period of development may be dependent on our ability to describe ways in which early adolescents are quantitatively and qualitatively different from when they were children and how these early adolescent characteristics are forerunners to the more elaborate constructs of…

A model for viewing adolescent psychosocial development is outlined and used as a framework for reviewing literature. The model assumes that basic changes in adolescents' biological, cognitive, and social capacities reciprocally interact with the social settings of the family, peer group, and school/work to influence transformations in six areas…

Discusses the American view of the role of education in developing Americans. Focuses on Massachusetts, the heart of early American industrialization, which gave prime importance to publicly supported education as a vehicle of social conditioning. (JOW)

Four main topics are addressed (sample findings in parentheses): generalization (LD adolescents have trouble generalizing across settings); motivation (goal setting and self-control can be effective); social skills (LD subjects can readily learn social skills); and young adulthood (LD young adults face difficulties coping with daily living and…

Studied how children (N=60) understand social interaction portrayed on television, and how their understanding changes with age. Results showed younger viewers structured televised content in terms of overt descriptive features, action, and literal repetition of dialogue; older children considered inferential aspects of social interaction and…

Points out that advances in research include field experiments and panel studies permitting the use of nonexperimental causal-inference techniques. Notes that the scope of recent research has expanded to include cognitive processing of televised information and other types of effects (e.g., children's concepts of social reality). Suggests…

The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Inventory and the Rheingold and Cook Checklist were respectively used to assess the home environments of children whose mothers were married/working, married/nonworking, or divorced/working. (Author/MP)

Group contingencies with different criteria resulted in high performance averages for 12 elementary-aged learning disabled students. Two of the group contingencies produced significantly more frequent positive social interaction among subjects than that observed during baseline. (CL)

The need for citizens to develop personal qualities to work and live in modern society and the role of education in attaining them are discussed, including leadership, civic responsibility, a sense of one's role in society, and understanding of society's structures. (Author/MSE)

Examined frequency of verbal attention-seeking responses (VASRs) as an indication of level of social confidence. Veteran drug addicts received communication skills and assertiveness training. Comparison of VASRs indicated communication training was effective in improving social confidence. (RC)

A study of 165 West German preschool children participating in a motor program which included swimming as an important activity showed that early motor stimulation affected the children's motor, social, and individual development. (CJ)

Investigated construct validity of the Social Interest Index (SII) with 140 male alcoholics. Hypothesized that the SII would relate positively with measures of mental health, intelligence, education, and internal locus of control and would relate negatively with measures of MMPI "pathology" scales. The hypotheses generally were…

Sessions of and presentations given at a memorial conference, held in honor of Jean Piaget, are reported. The conference was sponsored by the Developmental Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, on November 14, 1980. Sixteen scholars from the fields of psychology, philosophy, and education participated. (CJ)

Research on prisonization has traditionally analyzed cross-sectional data testing either the importation or deprivation model. This investigation incorporates a longitudinal research design to analyze patterns of change in prisonization. Variables including individual status factors, prisoner status factors, factors specific to present…

Identifies fears which can beset children on their first days of school, discusses reasons for a wide variety of specific fears (separation anxiety, transition from a familiar to a strange environment), and suggests ways for parents to help their young children overcome fears of school. (DB)