This paper reviews the research and theories on ethnic identity development, and draws some implications from these ideas for improving curriculum design for, and instructional effectiveness with, ethnically different students, especially Black Americans. The paradigm of "the developmental stages of ethnic identity transformation"…

Institutional bonding was examined at a public, urban commuter college with exceptionally high attrition and visibly low morale. Changes in bonding and attrition were measured 6 years after a 2-year effort to develop school identity and student feelings of membership. It was found that a simple index of campus morale is provided by level of…

This paper explores the role of social rejection and peer identification in the development of deaf community, by analyzing interactions through which deaf people are alienated from hearing people and identify with other deaf people. Life history interviews were conducted with 25 graduates of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. The…

The construction of hypotheses concerning blacks in America requires an understanding of two enduring influences on collective black experience: (1) whites' treatment of blacks as slaves and (2) West African culture that helped to shape black adaptation to the conditions engendered by slavery. White racist attitudes and the psychological distance…

This study used behavioral measures of family interaction to examine four traditional explanatory models for the influence of parents on their children's self-esteem. The four models examined were: (1) identification/modeling, (2) directiveness, (3) reinforcement, and (4) warmth/involvement. A total of 98 fourth- and fifth-grade girls and boys…

This paper examined the social function of the elderly in various countries including Nigeria, Thailand, Ireland, Russia, Israel, Japan and the U.S.A. It was determined that the status enjoyed by the elderly of these cultures may have been related to the degree of dependency the younger population expressed toward the elderly. The dependency…

Information processing, beliefs, and motivations can be coupled with the principle of causal attributions to provide a framework for assessing the causes to which individuals attribute their own behavior. For example, an elderly man who forgets to buy something at the store presents himself with an identity based on cultural stereotypes--in this…

The influences of mentors on the career development of college faculty and academic administrators employed by the state university system of Florida was studied in 1980. Usable responses to a 55-item, self-report mail questionnaire were received from 287 faculty members and academic administrators. It was found that academics with mentors showed…

A questionnaire, responded to by 185 Florida State University student teachers, sought to determine the student teachers' needs and their perceptions of who can be of the most assistance during their field experience. Seventy percent of the responses to the first part of the questionnaire named the cooperating teacher as the most significant…

This study presents a rationale for working with the principles of transactional analysis (TA) in the bilingual/bicultural classroom, particularly to develop the child's self-concept. The two basic premises of TA are that all human beings have a fundamental worth that is neither increased nor decreased by anything they may do or refrain from…

The focus of this paper is on the social, cultural, and psychological problems women of East Indian origin share with other immigrant women in Canada. Also examined are problems that are unique to the East Indian woman and the ways in which she deals with the challenges, conflicting cultural values, and expectations that confront her. The…

The object of this module is to increase teachers' understanding of the function of role model play in their students' development and to aid teachers in identifying the types of role models that can open options for students. A four-step process is presented for teachers to use in facilitating their students' identification with nontraditional…

Racial preference and racial attitudes were assessed in a group of black preschoolers between 4 and 5.5 years of age using the Clark Doll Test and Preschool Racial Attitudes Measure (PRAM) II. Parents were classified as activists or nonactivists based on their history of civil rights activism as revealed by a questionnaire. Racial attitudes of the…

This paper reviews research on the subject of teacher-student interaction on the nonverbal, psychological, and subjective level. It is recognized that the teacher-learner process is more than what is consciously taught in the school curriculum. What each person takes into the situation, such matters as personality, attitudes, expectations,…

The first of two papers included in this document addresses two related problems: Problem one: The appropriateness of existing standardized tests of achievement for the assessment of academic function in minority and disadvantaged group member students. Problem two: The appropriateness of such instruments for the assessment of the impact of…