This paper describes an educator's decision to change careers from that of foreign service officer to teacher of English as a Second Language is traced to a December 1985 event in Korea in which the American Cultural Center in Kwangju was occupied by protesting Korean students. Analysis of this event and its effect on the educator focuses on the…

This paper describes the Imazighen of North Africa, known in the West as Berbers; threats to their language and culture from schooling and the dominant Arabo-Islamic culture; and recent effects of mass media. As the indigenous people of North Africa, the Imazighen have been invaded frequently during the last 3000 years, but only the Arabs…

In 1980 and 1989 the Greater Cincinnati Survey identified first- and second-generation urban Appalachians, finding that they comprised 20-25% of the population of Hamilton County (Ohio). As migration from Appalachia has slowed, this group has aged relative to the rest of the population. Compared to blacks and non-Appalachian whites, urban…

Recent studies of self-referent cognition have demonstrated that people process information about themselves more efficiently than other kinds of information. To investigate latency effects in self-referent decision-making, 60 college students participated in a three phase study. In phase one, each subject chose the trait within a pair that best…

Social learning theory maintains that parents incluence sex development by modeling and reinforcing masculinity and femininity. To further examine the effects of parental modeling and reinforcement antecedents on sex role development, 103 college students (52 female, 51 male) who had been previously categorized as masculine, feminine, or…

Because poetic writing as a method of discourse and as a tool for learning plays a significant role in many theoretical models of writing but is rarely used in practice, a study was conducted to examine the effects on 70 college students in an introductory psychology class of a mixture of poetic and transactional assignments on the subject of…

Investigated the general relationship between children's performance on social and physical measures of cognitive functioning, possible sex differences in performance on the two types of tasks, and the relationship between boys' and girls' performances on these tasks and age and IQ. (SDH)

This study used symbolic interaction theory to address the following question: what is the self-identity, or perceived "I am," held by adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) in the public school environment? According to symbolic interaction theory, experiencing the label and role of specific learning disability would reflect the…

Erikson's concept of identity has become a central focus for studying adolescent development. Identity is a psychosocial construct involving the creation of a sense of sameness and continuity, a unity of personality achieved through a process of crisis and commitment. Although culture is a factor in Erikson's theory, research on adolescent…

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…

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…

Analyses the history of the portraiture of blacks in the media, notes the effect of behavioral scientific findings as represented in the media, and argues that the media have functioned to reinforce cultural norms, create new forms, and influence the modes of conduct of blacks. (JM)

The author suggests that counselors and school psychologists examine their orientations toward the mental health of black children, especially if they, the counselors, are white. (Author)

This report presents a pilot study which collected preadolescents' retrospective reports of their preschool experiences with the television program, "Sesame Street." One-hundred-five fifth and sixth graders ranging from 9 to 12 years of age were asked to think back to when they viewed "Sesame Street" in their younger years and…

Identity development has been conceptualized as a process with four possible outcomes or identity statuses: Achievement, Moratorium, Foreclosure, and Diffusion. If males placed a high value on an identity crisis, women who identified with the male sex role would be expected to be in a crisis (Moratorium) or post-crisis (Achievement) status.…