Loneliness, one of our least satisfactorily conceptualized phenomena, has been relegated to philosophy and sociology, and when confronted in the therapy session, has been subsumed under depression and treated as if it were depression. However, loneliness is a separate entity with unique characteristics that need to be identified and treated…

Traditional Chinese personality characteristics such as inner harmony, concern for others, submissiveness to authority, and respect for learning so pervade Chinese biographies that they constitute cultural themes. In order to determine whether such themes are more evident in Chinese than in Western youth, a cross-cultural study of self-concept was…

This paper describes the Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model (SEM), developed by psychologists to learn more about stability and change in self-definition. An initial section discusses the situational-motivational processes assumed necessary for individuals to maintain a positive self-evaluation, i.e., a reflection process and a comparison process.…

Although several surveys of attitudes toward computers have been conducted, little is known about attitudes toward specific computer applications. College students (N=203) were surveyed about their attitudes toward computer applications. Results indicated that there are three clusters of computer applications about which respondents hold similar…

Symbolic self-completion theory suggests that people who are committed to a certain self-definitional goal, e.g., "psychologist,""parent,""dancer," are not willing to give up this goal when facing a shortcoming. Such individuals often engage in self-symbolizing or positive self-descriptions designed to coverup the…

Generally, role-taking research has focused on the development and correlates of role taking in children. To explore role taking in the relatively overlooked population of young adults, a sociometric instrument, the Peer Role-Taking Questionnaire (PRTQ), was developed and used to measure perceived role-taking behaviors. The results were compared…

A study investigated the effect of the psychological gender of the perceiver on evaluations of leadership performance of a male and a female manager engaging in either supportive or nonsupportive nonverbal communication with a male subordinate. Subjects were 139 male and 150 female undergraduates who had completed a personal attributes…

A survey questionnaire asked adult (aged 18 or older) respondents to list, in order of importance, the five most important characteristics of their best and worst teachers in school; to answer the question: "What didn't school teach you?"; and to grade schools locally and nationally on a scale from A through F (A through D and F for Fail). A…

Four symposium papers report the results of a longitudinal study of career development and life changes for a sample of 1,967 female college graduates in the Michigan Student Study who were studied in 1967, 1970 and 1981. The first of the papers, entitled "Where Are They Now? Career Outcomes for the Original Role-Innovators," by Sandra…

This paper reviews the literature concerning attitudes of fifth and sixth grade students to provide background information for instructional designers and scriptwriters from the Skills Essential to Learning Project, which develops television/film series and related print materials for different grade levels to enhance the teaching of thinking…

This paper discusses receiver apprehension, an information processing syndrome, in the context of counterattitudinal advocacy. Receiver apprehension was conceptualized as a trait anxiety associated with misinterpreting, inadequately processing, and/or being unable to adjust to incoming messages. This processing anxiety suggested cognitive rigidity…

The counseling profession has changed emphasis over the past 20 years reflecting a movement in the field from public school to community service to private business. Consequently there has also been a change in the profile of counselor trainees. Data from students (N=238) having attended the counselor training graduate programs at Indiana…

The main concern is a longstanding one in classroom instruction--the determinants of effective team performance. The paper explicitly examines the effect of teacher-controlled factors on the use and functioning of student teams. From a sample of 500 undergraduate students, data are obtained on aptitude, diversity, instability, motivation,…

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether there was a consistent relationship between various deviant personality patterns and the status of the home from which the child came. Subjects were 300 adolescents from a population of 834 Caucasian teenagers, aged 12 to 18, not mentally deficient or retarded, from across the U.S., who were…

In recent years, children's trade books have included a growing number of stories that negatively portray the well-known adults in a child's world--parents, teachers, and librarians. This paper examines children's and adults' reactions to such negative characterizations and defends their presence in children's literature. It then lists and…