Using a text semantic framework, a two-year study examined the process by which readers construct meanings from standardized reading comprehension tests used as texts. The text analytic system described "ideal reader" interpretations of texts, allowing comparisons with real reader interpretations. Specific analyses described the ideal…

Rogers' protection motivation theory that, in a fear-producing situation, stresses cognitive processes rather than emotional ones and emphasizes coping with or avoiding aversive events rather than reducing unpleasant emotional states and Bandura's theory of self-efficacy, i.e., all processes of psychological change operate through the alteration…

One of a series of pre-apprenticeship training modules, this self-paced student training module deals with the ways in which expectations of events and reactions to them either limit individuals or open up possibilities for them. Provided in the module are the following: cover sheet listing module title, goals, and performance indicators;…

Articles in a military wives' magazine have indicated that officers' wives are questioning their roles. If the wives' attitudes are different from those of the past with respect to the role they believe the military expects of them, these changes must be recognized. A 45-statement questionnaire, with each statement reflecting a particular…

Self-evaluation is thought to play a major role in personality and motivation. Preliminary experience with success or failure, levels of aspiration, attributions for performance, and locus of control may all be interrelated factors in human motivation. After receiving success, failure, or no feedback on a concept formation task, subjects (N=90)…

California state officials vary in their perceptions of the functions and uses of state Department of Education evaluations, according to state legislators, legislative staff members, department administrators, and outside evaluators whose opinions were gathered through interviews and at a 1981 symposium. Highlighted here are the legislators'…

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…

Two computer simulation models, arrived at by using System Dynamics (a systems analysis method for developing models of dynamic causal structures), have emerged from work on the dynamic differences between schools that are effective and ineffective for initially low-achieving children. One model focuses upon the differences between effective and…

Four student-rated qualities of affective meaning associated with getting a grade of "C" in selected college courses were analyzed for their relation to student academic self-esteem and their sensitivity to two course-related context factors: course content and its intended audience. A total of 106 students in two sections of an introductory…

One-hundred-seventy-six male and 116 female college freshmen took part in a questionnaire study of sex differences in attribution of achievemnt. Achievement was operationalized as grade point index, a performance measure of significance to the subjects, where success-failure feedback is contingent on one's own performance. The best predictor of…

The feasibility of using student cognitive attainment to determine the competence of student teachers is studied. Data on four influencs (common to all student teaching experiences) were gathered by investigating four research questions: (1) expectancies of learners held by student teachers; (2) prior solo teaching time and opportunity to learn…

This study investigated instructional methodology in relation to the effectiveness of different instructional feedback strategies that can be used in regular classroom situations. Experimental conditions were created to investigate whether, in addition to mastery learning strategies, either the student's ability to use stated criteria to judge his…

Performance differences and differences in expectancies of success between men and women were examined relative to the replication of preselected and constrained movements. No performance differences were found between the sexes, but preselected movements were reproduced more accurately than constrained movements. Persons who made preselected…

To identify motivations and expectations regarding experiential education programs, a study interviewed 143 individuals from five participant groups. High school students, program coordinators, secondary principals, employers/sponsors, and parents involved in eighteen experiential programs in four states (Ohio, California, Florida, and…

Utilizing a personal, conversational writing style, this self-intervention guide for school personnel is designed (1) to facilitate one's thinking about one's personal expectations and behaviors which might be influenced by sex role stereotyping, and (2) to change one's behaviors that might create barriers to students' career choice or…