A study examined the effect of assigned social decision rule (whether a jury is required to give a unanimous or less than unanimous verdict) on the process and product of mock jury deliberations. Subjects, 360 students from an eastern university, were randomly assigned to six-member juries under three decision rule conditions: (1) unanimity, (2)…

The Adolescent-Significant Others' Relationship Questionnaire was administered to 4,822 Malaysian students who ranged in age from 13 to 19 years. Subjects were Form I, III, and V students selected from six states in peninsular Malaysia by cluster sampling. The sample consisted of approximately equal numbers of males and females; urban and rural;…

The similarities and differences in the responses student writers received from peer groups communicating face-to-face and by electronic mail were examined in this study. Subjects were 20 English/language arts teacher education students at the University of Virginia, who were divided into four groups with each group randomized to a treatment order…

The decisions President Richard Nixon and his closest advisors made in the Watergate coverup were products of what Irving Janis calls "groupthink." Groupthink, a type of decision-making emphasizing unanimity over objective evaluation, develops when the decision makers (1) form a group of marked cohesiveness, (2) insulate themselves from…

In this study, student liberalism is examined longitudinally to determine whether it changes as the result of being exposed to different educational environments. The effect of college on liberalism and the relative efficacy of different measures of the college environment are also addressed. The main focus is on the effect of student peers. Data…

This book presents sexual abstinence as a viable, positive choice for teenagers. In seven lessons focusing on the advantages of delaying sexual intercourse, this high school curriculum acknowledges the need for sexual expression by young people and provides activities that help them sort through the internal and external pressures that affect…

This guide for leaders of workshops on self-appraisal for university teachers presents a process that is being developed in Australia and the United Kingdom to help members of professional groups monitor their effectiveness in conjunction with their peers. The approach has been used in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan. The method…

During the 1960s and 1970s an enormous amount of research was conducted to better understand children's social and intellectual development, and hundreds of educational programs for children and parents were initiated in hopes of improving conditions surrounding many of America's young children. By the middle 1970s, however, it became apparent…

Textbook presentations of Asch's classical research were used as a case example to evaluate whether an anti-group bias exists in social psychology. Ninety-nine textbooks were analyzed to evaluate whether an overemphasis on conformity was presented by textbook descriptions of Asch, and whether independence and resistance to group pressure were…

This paper describes the Project ALERT program (Adolescent Learning Experiences in Resistance Training) which was established by the Rand Corporation to prevent smoking and drug use among seventh graders. The program is based on the social influence model of drug use initiation. Curriculum features are described including motivation to resist and…

The problems of drug and alcohol use among young people has caused concern for many years. A survey of students' attitudes concerning drugs and alcohol use was conducted by the classroom publication "Weekly Reader." Students in grades 4 through 12 responded to the poll, and a random sample of 101,000 responses was analyzed. The results…

Attribution of a disposition or trait to a person asserts information about the pattern of that person's behavior. Past research has suggested that a moral disposition implies only moral behavior, while an immoral disposition implies both moral and immoral behavior. The effect of these implicational schemata on attributions of morality was…

The benefits of including a neutral category in research on children's sex stereotypes were explored in this research on 236 third, fifth and eighth graders' stereotypes of peers and adults. Stories describing 26 stereotyped traits were given to students to judge as more characteristic of males than females, more characteristic of females than…

The problem of teenage pregnancy can be viewed as endemic, a part of American culture not easy to change. Although the number of girls under 15 who are becoming pregnant is not very large (13,000 in 1978), the cost of pregnancy to the girls themselves, their families, and society is very great. Results of data analyses from action research,…

Attitudes of members of Greek fraternities and sororities concerning hazing were studied at the University of North Dakota. A survey instrument was completed by 476 students. Activities considered to be hazing by a majority of respondents were those that are potentially injurious to the physical and/or mental health of the pledges or that could…