Eugene L. Gaier

Correlates of Adolescent Life Satisfaction.

That adolescence has been viewed as a period of storm and stress reflecting dramatic physical and psychological changes typically accompanied with major feelings of anxiety has tended to eclipse the more subtle and specific feats that must be resolved as the individual approaches adulthood. Thus, the adolescent simultaneously must detach himself from his pre-Oedipal parents, achieve independence from his family, develop meaningful heterosexual relationships, learn to modify his impulse control, become skillful with his new, more developed cognitive abilities, work toward a new identity, as well as search for a career choice that will enable him to achieve in an adult world. While storm and stress has become so ritualized and conventlonalized-e-a rather grim view of adolescence-it might be more productive to distinguish among those adolescents who. indeed, experience this upheaval and those who experience a variety of satisfactions in their quest for autonomy and independence.

Teacher-Student Personality Similarities and Marks

proportions of skill, human qualities, and personality necessary for academic success vary, it is here suggested that the personality factor plays a decisive role. On the assumption that personality is involved in teacher-student relations and that communication is facilitated by understanding the other persons frame of reference, this article reports an exploratory investigation to determine whether the similarities in character orientation between teachers and students affect the marking of the students by the teachers.

Developmental level and children's understanding of the Gulf War

Groups of children at three differing cognitive developmental levels were interviewed in mid January, 1991 to assess their understanding of the Gulf War. The responses of children with one parent, two parents, and/or uncle or a brother deployed to this area were compared to answers given by children of the same age with no relative deployed. The recorded interviews were analyzed according to the cognitive developmental levels of the subjects, employing a Piagetian perspective. Children with direct family involvement in the war (via family deployment) displayed more knowledge about the geography of the region, details of deployment and military intervention, and were more likely to know the names of the military and political leaders and countries involved. Despite the overall tendency for children having experienced direct deployment to have more information about the war, childrens understanding of the war was most similar to those at the same level of cognitive development (or age) regardless of degree...

College Major and Career Choice: A Retest of Holland's Theory.

Abstract In an effort to examine whether the previously established relationship between vocational choice and self-ratings on Hollands personality stereotypes among college freshmen would be strengthened with a sample of male college seniors, 109 subjects, sampled on the basis of major field choice, completed a questionnaire to select career stereotypes which described them best. The relationship between self-ratings and academic major was also to be examined. Significant relationships were obtained for four stereotypes (realistic, conventional, enterprising, and artistic) on the basis of both major and vocational choice, although significant stereotypes were not identical in each. Three of these significant relationships based on vocational choice matched those obtained previously. An additional finding suggested that vocational choice was slightly more valid than major field as a basis for utilizing this technique. The more restricted class sample emphasized did not, however, produce a more substantial relationship between self-ratings and occupational choice as expected.

Supervised access: A judicial alternative to noncompliance with visitation arrangements following divorce

Abstract Visitation of children after divorce by noncustodial parents is a “natural” right, generally regarded to be in the best interest of children. Custodial parents frequently refuse to allow visitation, even when ordered to do so by the court. The purpose of this report is twofold: (a) to review issues and problems related to visitation; and (b) to describe a program, developed under family court sponsorship, which provides mediation to families in visitation disputes, and supervised visitation when more reasonable access is frustrated by noncompliant parents or when there is concern for the safety and well-being of visited children.

Selected Personality Characteristics and Academic Performance of Adult Evening College Students

AbstractThe research literature is rather replete with studies concerning the typical or average college undergraduate, but very little effort or attention has been directed toward his counterpart, the evening student. Therefore, in the present study an attempt was made to obtain a better understanding of the evening student, his motivations, values, anxieties, and aspirations. Specifically, the present study examined the relationship of anxiety, self-concept, values, and aspirations to academic achievement and career choice among students enrolled in an evening college.

Social control and social integration

SSUMPTIONS concerning the relationship between social control and social A integration have, until the present, been relatively simple: strong social control has been assumed to be a simple correlate of high integration. In 1897, in his classic study of suicide, Emil Durkheim(5) had already proposed that in societies where the social norms are not universally accepted and where social organization exerts no inhibiting power on its members, personal and social disintegration become prevalent. He further posited that the suicide-rate was higher in social systems with a relatively low degree of social control (viz. among the divorced, among Protestants as compared with Catholics, and in periods of rapid social change). Subsequent interpretations of Durkheim’s theory (9. 10) were concerned with the consequences of a low degree of social control as a cause of social disintegration.

Differential Patterns of Disclosure of Child Abuse among Boys and Girls: Implications for Practitioners.

An assessment of 56 reports generated directly following the presentation of 48 child abuse prevention programs to 1,920 children and faculty members over a 15 month period revealed that in contrast to the commonly accepted reports associated with hotline notification after incidents of sexual abuse, solicited reports following prevention programs reflect a smaller discrepancy between the incidence of reports concerning female and male victims. These data are discussed in terms of gender and cultural expectations with implications for the practitioner.

Developmental awareness and moral stage development in child Abuse 1

In an attempt to better understand why children who have been sexually assaulted commonly fail to reveal their victimization to parents or other adults, a study was undertaken in which the “engagement strategies” of 41 perpetrators were examined, exploring common rationalizations, threats, etc. aimed at insuring continued silence on the part of the victim. The “appeal” for silence offered by the perpetrator to the child was analyzed according to Kohlbergs stages of moral development. Results indicate that perpetrators appear to alter their engagement strategies to coincide with the developmental level of the child, thus further insuring silence by appealing to criteria for assessing “appropriate” or “inappropriate” behaviors (eg. sexual contact) which are developmentally consistent with the childs level of cognition and moral reasoning. 1 This paper is an expanded revision of a paper presented at the 4th National Conference on Sexual Victimization sponsored by Childrens Medical Center, Washington, D.C....

Book Review : Gray, Susan W., R. A. Klaus, J. O. Miller, and Bettye J. Forrester. BEFORE FIRST GRADE. The Early Training Project for Culturally Dis advantaged Children. New York: Teachers' College Press, 1966. viii + 120

In an age of pin button communication, a message of instant philosophy currently sported by members of the intellectual underground is &dquo;The poor shall inherit the earth; they are too weak to refuse.&dquo; What the poor also continue to be heir to is the least savory and most debilitating aspects of school curricula, educational experiences, and career promise and placement. In spite of the vast sums of money and good intentions of working with the poor/disadvantaged/deprived/ depressed/devalued/unloved/alienated results of this work are seldom in good odor with the public. This image-born of the handling of monies which can hardly be expected to please everyone-has invariably been a blend of profiteering, an excess of committeemanship, and isolated incidents too frequently receiving slanted press coverage. And the educational gains have been divorced both from the reality of the world of the disadvantaged person as well as not quite salving the conscience of the middle-class establishment.