This paper describes the development, utility, and validity of the Situational Self-statement and Affective State Inventory (SSASI), a research inventory designed to assess cognitions and affects across a variety of five hypothetical situations. Each situation describes a realistic incident involving interpersonal conflict, principally criticism…

This briefing by the Congressional Select Committee on Aging was designed to gather information on the physical and psychological abuse of the elderly. A number of witness reports are included, testifying to the seriousness and extent of the problem of elder abuse. It is pointed out that many victims refuse to admit abuse; public discussions of…

The first statement in this testimony points out the need for groups to define "violence" before taking any action against violent television programs, since violence means different things to different people. Many of the studies on violence use a narrow and simplistic definition of violence which does not take into account the effects of…

This newsletter, focusing on literature and research on cognitive behavior modification (CBM), reviews articles and research on CBM with children. Works on retarded children, deaf children and children with learning disabilities are presented, with critical analyses. A parallel section on CBM with adults follows. Problem areas of phobias, anxiety,…

Three-month-old infants learned to activate a crib mobile by means of operant footkicks. Retention of the conditioned response was assessed in the presence of the nonmoving mobile. Although forgetting is typically complete after an 8-day retention interval, infants who received a reactivation treatment, a brief exposure to the reinforcer 24 hours…

The purpose of this Child Development Associate (CDA) training module is to help the CDA intern develop the knowledge and skills necessary to encourage the open expression of feelings among children in the classroom. Objectives are stipulated, activities for achieving each objective are suggested, and an assessment checklist is provided. A study…

Differences between male and female medical students in attitude changes toward themselves and their environment were investigated. In general, women students appeared to have had a harder time, showing more negative developments in both attitudes toward the environment and in those toward themselves. Compared with men, women showed sharp declines…

THESE DOCUMENTS ARE SOME MATERIALS USED IN A GRADUATE TRAINING COURSE ON TEACHING THE DISADVANTAGED CHILD CONDUCTED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA. SOME OF THE DOCUMENTS ARE SAMPLES OF AN ATTITUDE QUESTIONNAIRE, A COURSE EVALUATION FORM, AND A BACKGROUND INFORMATION BLANK WHICH PARTICIPANTS FILLED OUT AS ONE OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE AGENCY WHICH…

IN AN ATTEMPT TO MODIFY OR SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCE UNDESIRABLE BEHAVIOR IN NURSERY SCHOOL CHILDREN, A TEACHING TECHNIQUE WAS INTRODUCED WHEREIN THE TEACHER WOULD ATTEND TO THE CHILD ONLY WHEN THE CHILD WAS MANIFESTING ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR AND WOULD IGNORE THE CHILD WHEN HE WAS MANIFESTING UNDESIRABLE BEHAVIOR. IT WOULD THEN BE POSSIBLE TO DETERMINE…

Young children prefer to match in terms of color rather than form, and between the ages of 4 and 7 years they shift to a preference for form. A current explanation posits that the shift is an adaptive response by the young child to classroom stimuli, which stresses attention to form. In order to test this hypothesis, 120 children (5- and…

Experimental modification of destructive and assaultive sibling interaction was carried out within the home environment. Two brothers (6 and 3 years old) were treated through token positive reinforcement techniques in an effort to improve their behavior towards each other. A "time out" from reinforcement procedures involved an isolation period for…

Even though response latency can vary greatly among subjects and from trial to trial for the same subject, latency as a measure of associate strength might be useful in connection with response frequency to measure degree of learning. The effects on latency and learning of two task variables--training procedure (anticipation vs. recall) and…

Six teachers were given instructions and materials with which to conduct a 20-minute teaching session. The sessions were filmed. The films will be scrutinized to obtain comparisons of teaching styles, tasks (the instructions and materials provided each teacher), and teacher-task interactions. The films have not been completely processed yet and so…

Subjects were 44 males and 44 females. They were presented with a photograph showing a female with either an attractive or an unattractive male and with background information concerning the status of the male, (medical student or sales clerk). After receiving the information, subjects evaluated the female. Results revealed strong effects for…

In this study, which investigates the association of parity and maternal attitudes during pregnancy, a 30-item questionnaire was completed by 17 primiparous and 33 multiparous mothers in their 8th month of pregnancy at the Obstetrics-Gynocology Clinic at a university medical center. Measures were obtained on five scales: quality of available…