This paper focuses on behavioral dimensions of playfulness: (1) in a developmental framework; and (2) in a situational framework. As a result of theoretical model building, it was hypothesized that there may be a resurgency of playfulness, assumed to be a personality trait of the player, in adolescents. The most significant finding is the…

Reviews of research in the area of creativity have consistently emphasized the importance of the criterion problem while simultaneously documenting its neglect by contemporary investigators. The failure to explicitly place the criterion problem within an appropriate conceptual model is perhaps a major reason for the failure to confront directly…

A typology of incentives and the general effects of incentives for family planning are discussed in "Incentives in the Diffusion of Family Planning Innovations," the first of three studies in this monthly publication of The Population Council. A brief review of the history of incentives and their present status in the fields is given, together…

This paper is an analysis of some of the literature concerning group mediated risk taking. Jhangiani explores Brown's V-theory, which states that members of a society try to realize its cultural ideals in their behavior; Nordhoy's theory of cultural values, which states that "In the group, the impact of values which are commonly accepted in the…

Test anxiety is of particular significance in education in light of its debilitative effect on test scores and the implications and longranged effects of test results on the individual lives of the school children. This research is concerned with test anxiety of children under different test conditions. Subjects were 4th and 6th grade students who…

Recent theoretical analyses have implied that there may be age differences in children's tendency to exercise component selection, i.e., to attend selectively to a single component of stimulus objects in a learning situation. In the present study, 6 experiments were conducted, each designed to investigate developmental changes in component…

The development of the concept of seriation was studied for 415 children, ranging in age from 3 to 9 years. The subjects were required to learn to identify the larger or smaller object in a two stimulus series, the smallest or middle-sized object in a three stimulus series, and the largest or next to the smallest in a four stimulus series. The end…

A Behavior Modification Program was implemented in four classes of a normal public school. These four classes encompassed 93 children ranging in age from 7 to 14 years. Included in the project was a second grade, a third grade, a sixth grade, and a seventh grade. The primary focus of the program in the second, sixth, and seventh grades was upon…

The study of language has had a greater impact on speech pathology and speech education than any other scholarly discipline in recent years. Researchers in the field of speech pathology must now give attention--especially in caring for the growing numbers of children found to have language difficulties--to the study of psycholinguistics. Work in…

Of the many intellectual models available for conceptualizing the communication process, one of the most appropriate is cybernetics. The logical and empirical requirements of a cybernetic model of communication are presented. Based upon a review of relevant findings in the social science literature, these requirements are utilized to create a…

This research was intended to examine whether or not treatment, sex, grade level, environmental concern level, and the interactions of these variables were important factors in the assignment of importance to environmental concept statements. In addition, the study was intended to determine whether or not the pattern of responses of junior high…

A comparison was made of the effects of systematic desensitization, a "sensitization" treatment (designed to increase awareness of anxiety) and no-treatment on the reduction of beginning counselors' anxiety. Forty-one counseling graduate students, assigned to one of the three conditions, served as subjects. With treatments intervening, the…

People's incessant struggles to exercise self-control have been hindered by their misconceptions about its nature. Self-control is viewed here as a complex behavior--i.e., as a sequence of specific acts influenced by conditions both internal and external to the person. A person can exercise self-control when he has learned how to manage these…

The early development of wariness toward unfamiliar persons and novel objects is examined. Data are based upon the reactions of 32 infants who were repeatedly observed, over the age period 3 to 9 months, as they responded to the near approach of a stranger, and to a variety of new objects. Signs of wariness toward unfamiliar persons began to…

Each item in this questionnaire lists a pair of sets of payment (consisting of money, grade points, and opportunity to waive some required reports) for experimental participation in psychological research. The subject must choose the preferred act. (See TM 001 310.) (MS)