Interviews with 68 Chinese-American undergraduates show that immigrant parents have high expectations for children, but middle- and working-class parents have different resources and pursue different strategies in investing in children's education. Both immigrant optimism and pessimism were apparent. (Contains 70 references.) (SK)

Analysis of 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data for school-to-work participation found that it does not appear to influence behavior associated with college attendance. It does appear to increase subjective probabilities of obtaining a high school diploma and perceived likelihood of future labor market activity. (Contains 15…

Contemporary educational goals place increasing emphasis on conferring recognition and building self-esteem for people deemed to be marginalised and vulnerable. Such goals coalesce with the language, symbols and practices of therapy inscribed within a broader therapeutic ethos. The paper relates these trends to broader cultural demoralisation…

Identification of objects in a scene may be influenced by functional relations among those objects. In this study, observers indicated whether a target object matched a label. Each target was presented with a distractor object, and these were sometimes arranged to interact (as if being used together) and sometimes not to interact. When the…

In studies of probability discounting, the reduction in the value of an outcome as a result of its degree of uncertainty is calculated. Decision making studies suggest two issues with probability that may play a role in data obtained in probability discounting studies. The first issue involves the reduction of risk aversion via subdivision of…

Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) is a complex and extensively researched theory of career choice and performance. Relationships among several key variables of SCCT, including self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and perceived barriers, and their relationships to career choice were investigated. Contrary to prediction, outcome expectations for…

The current study explored the contribution of personal goals to retirement decisions. A SMARTER methodology (to assess multiattribute utility) and taxonomy of human goals were used to investigate the relationship between older workers' personal goals and their retirement intentions. Two hundred and fifty-one employees of a large university,…

Following the diagnosis of a child's disability parents can find that their expectations are shattered. As they adjust to their new situation they will begin to develop new ideas of what the future will hold. Supporting families is a key theme in current government policy, hence the development of the Early Support Programme. In this paper Fran…

The capsule histories of physics that students learn in their physics courses stem basically, I believe, from a linear view of history--that physicists in making fundamental discoveries follow a Royal Road to them, as Hermann von Helmholtz put it in 1892. The actual routes they follow, however, are generally nonlinear, and when historians display…

How do scores from different tests relate to each other? Three types of score linkage are discussed: equating, concordance, and prediction of expected scores. Statistical indices, in conjunction with rational considerations, are needed to determine whether the highest level of linkage attainable between scores from two "tests" is the…

The study investigates a social-pragmatic expectation that may motivate children to search their environment when asked for the referent of a novel label. In one experimental phase, the experimenter presented 40 two-year-olds a bucket containing a novel object and another visible object--either familiar or novel. The experimenter either asked…

In this study we identify factors that influence farmers' expectations to sell some or all of their farming operation in areas where the increase in the conversion of agricultural land has been relatively rapid. Findings indicate that the following factors increase farmers' propensity to sell some or all of the agricultural operation for…

The employee-employer relationship is impacted not only by issues relating to the needs and desires of these two entities, but also by government and unions and their agendas. The complicated interaction of these four separate parties often creates conflict, as each party has its own idea of "how things should be done." This article examines the…

The Latino community has been characterized by low high school graduation rates, low college completion rates and substandard schooling conditions. As schools and policymakers seek to improve the educational conditions of Latinos, parental influence in the form of school involvement is assumed to play some role in shaping students' educational…

A case study approach was used to examine the perspectives of three high school department chairs and their work at providing instructional supervision to the teachers in their departments: math, science, and social studies. We sought to discover the beliefs and practices of three department chairs in one high school, located in a southeastern…