The fear of speaking before a group affects a high percentage of American adults. The effectiveness of an audiotape desensitization program was compared to conventional therapist-led group desensitization and no treatment for the modification of speech and communication anxiety behaviors. All desensitization treated subjects demonstrated…

This paper presents some data on the relationship between the psychological maturity of adolescent women and their sexual behavior and contraceptive use. The information was collected under the coordination of the American Public Health Association in the Spring of 1975 from 269 16-, 17-, and 18-year old females. The relationship between status,…

Causal attributions were obtained from male and female subjects of two racial groups, black and white, following achievement performance in a "natural" setting. Although women expected lower grades than men, no significant differences in attributional ratings as function of gender were observed, nor were any race by gender interactions seen in the…

This study attempts to identify the specific demographic and sociological characteristics related to improvement for 48 male alcoholic patients who participated in two contrasting one-month inpatient treatment programs. Of the 48 subjects, 27 participated in a broad spectrum behavior therapy program (experimental group). The remaining 21 subjects…

Aggression is examined in this paper in conjunction with other social motivational behaviors (e.g., Altruism, cooperation/competition). Its purpose is to illustrate the usefulness of an integrative approach to aggression research. Such an approach appears to be reasonable and potentially productive, since many of the same independent variables…

Sources of faculty discontent with university administration are discussed as background for a brief report of a case study. Evidence is raised against the usual arguments of university observers. A sample of faculty members at one institution were surveyed and appeared divided approximately in half regarding contentment and discontentment. Group…

This study considers some aspects of "prisonization," or the process by which inmates adapt to confinement. Specifically, it further examines two ideas suggested by earlier studies. One is the belief that the structural characteristics of many prisons promote rather than inhibit assimilation into an inmate normative system that is opposed to the…

The effects of prompting by peers on the rate of completing assignments and on the correspondence of noon-time plans with the amount of actual studying exhibited the same evening was observed with 15 undergraduate university students. Subjects were provisionally accepted students enrolled in a one credit pass/fail course. Students initially earned…

Fifth-graders read lessons dealing with a geometry rule. Half of the subjects also received pre-instruction on the concepts related in the rule prior to studying the rule itself. The pre-instruction presented the concepts in either a logical order with relationships among the concepts stressed (integrative lesson) or a random order with no mention…

This report analyzes data resulting from a survey of school participants in six St. Louis area districts. It attempts to discover what motivates people to participate in the public schools, and what effect such participation has on them. Findings include: (1) the more people participate, the greater the impact of that participation will be on…

This issue of the bi-yearly publication contains 11 articles grouped under three headings: Developmental Cognitive/ Perceptual Studies, Development of Assessment Tools Studies, and Effective Learning Studies. The research was carried out at the Lida Lee Tall Learning Resources Center on the campus of Towson (Md.) State University. This is a…

This analysis of the relationship between receipt of an employee pension and happiness among retired men and women suggests that the relationship is the result of the effect of pension receipt on total income, as well as other variables which impact on or are related in a noncasual way to pension receipt. It appears that there is nothing intrinsic…

This document contains the abstract of each presentation (approximately 50) of the Agricultural Division, American Vocational Association Convention (1976). Topics covered include agricultural education research, teaching and administration of agricultural education, and teacher education in agriculture. The following are sample paper topics:…

Seventy-nine members of several types of groups responded to questionnaires which detailed their goals and self-perceptions, and their expectations and perceptions of group leadership, norms, methods, and atmosphere. The questionnaires were administered near the beginning and again at the end (posttest N=69) of the group experience. The groups…

This paper discusses a developmental-descriptive approach to the study of children, adolescent, and adult understanding of interpersonal relationships. A study is reported which compares the level of interpersonal reasoning of children with clinically identified peer relation problems with the reasoning level of a case-control sample of better…