Discussed from a psychoanalytic perspective are areas of special difficulty in the phases of a three-year training observation of an infant and his family under the supervision of a 79-year-old child psychoanalyst and teacher. Specific attention is given to the child in relation to his family, the role of the observer in containing mother/infant…

Part of an ongoing longitudinal research project, a study was made to develop a method and a multilevel model for evaluating at its earliest stages the relationship between a mother and her child. The main hypothesis of the study was that the early mother-child relationship, consisting of maternal responses and a mother's images of her role in…

Human development has two different stories to tell. One describes the growth of the universal characteristics that are present in all human beings because humans possess a particular set of genes. Four examples of biologically prepared, universal characteristics in the psychological growth of children are the growth of memory, of moral sense and…

Summarized are implications of recent research on children's development and learning for the curriculum in early childhood programs. Contents focus on the development of language, dispositions, social competence, and intellect. Taken together, the research suggests that children attending preschool and kindergarten classes should frequently be…

Provided in this annual report, the 10th of a series, are the texts of four papers presented at a preconference workshop on new directions for infancy research. The papers focus on the middle European contribution to infancy research, main themes in European research on infant perception and cognition, an innovative therapeutic approach to…

Private school teachers were asked in a survey to rank the following eight goals for students in order according to their importance: (1) basic literacy skills (reading, math, writing, speaking); (2) academic excellence, or mastery of the subject matter of the course; (3) citizenship (understanding institutions and public values); (4) specific…

The Ball Aptitude Battery (BAB) is a multiple ability test battery of specific work skills for use in career counseling. This study reports on ability changes by gender, race, and socioeconomic status in a BAB retest of 112 young adults four years after their initial testing. The sample consisted of 68 females and 44 males; 15 Blacks, 21…

With the growing number of dual career families, research has focused on sex-roles and the relationship between career and family values. An assertion is made that the instrumental role (independence, self-reliance) has been associated with support of the family, while care of the home and family requires an expressive role (nurturance).This study…

This study sought to determine whether or not teacher training had a predictable impact upon the affective attributes of prospective teachers. Measures of anxiety, attitude, concerns, and confidence about teaching were administered to a sample of 153 prospective teachers before and after their student teaching experience. It was found that as…

This book addresses critical issues regarding the impact of chronic illness and disability on human development. It was written for health care professionals who help chronically ill and disabled persons deal with the psychological and social as well as the biological aspects of their illness or disability. An expanded version of Erik Erikson's…

Goals of this study were to: (1) assess mothers' perceptions of their role in fostering their preschooler's cognitive learning; (2) examine attributions used by mothers to explain why they experience ease or difficulty helping their preschooler learn; and (3) relate maternal perceived level of ease/difficulty to attributions for the reasons…

Findings of an evaluation of the first 5 years of a longitudinal program designed to enhance children's prosocial development are reported. The program was offered for children in three elmentary schools in a suburban, middle-class district near San Francisco. Three schools in the same district served as a comparison group. Enrollment ranged from…

The relative influence of selected life history experiences on the development of three vocational types (investigative, social, and enterprising) proposed by J. L. Holland is studied using causal modeling procedures. The lack of explicitness in the developmental postulates of Holland's theory is seen as a major deficiency. Among the principal…

This handbook provides information about the characteristics of students who are enrolled in senior high schools in Alberta and offers information useful in organizing and operating secondary schools to meet the needs of students. The first section of the handbook addresses the diverse characteristics and needs of senior high students, and…

In exploring myths surrounding the development of persons with Down syndrome, this paper discusses briefly the characteristics of Down syndrome, the origins of the myths, the status of the myths in light of current empirical research, and reasons why developmental psychology has clung to some essentially counter-developmental assumptions.…