Gerald Halpin

Teacher Stress as Related to Locus of Control, Sex, and Age

AbstractThis study was designed to test the hypothesis that a feeling of being in control will make potentially stressful environmental events less so. Subjects were practicing teachers about whom little was known regarding the relationship between locus of control and stress. They responded to the Teacher Locus of Control Scale and the Teacher Occupational Stress Factor Questionnaire. Multivariate and bivariate analyses of their responses showed that locus of control was related to teacher stress. As hypothesized, teachers who felt that they were in control reported less stress in their world of work than did those who did not feel influential in their educational environment. Neither sex nor age moderated this relationship.

Relationships Between Creative Thinking Abilities and a Measure of the Creative Personality

Persons with creative abilities might be expected to have creative personality characteristics. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the relationships between a creative personality measure, What Kind of Person Are You? Test, and three verbal and four figural creative ability measures derived from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. The subjects were 65 males and 164 female undergraduates enrolled in the introductory course in educational psychology at the University of Georgia. For the males, multiple coefficients of correlation were .57 for all seven creative ability measures, .42 for the three verbal measures, and .51 for the four figural measures (all significant at the .01 level). For the females, multiple coefficients of correlation were .33 for all seven measures, .22 for the three verbal measures, and .30 for the four figural measures (all significant at or beyond the .05 level).

Personality Characteristics and Self-Concept of Preservice Teachers Related to Their Pupil Control Orientation.

The personality characteristics and self-concept of teachers-in-training related to their pupil control orientation were investigated. The humanistically oriented educators tended to be emotionally stable, expedient, happy-go-lucky, imaginative, venture-some, outgoing, relaxed, self-assured, and have a high self-concept. The authoritarian educators were more affected by feelings, conscientious, sober, practical, shy, reserved, tense, apprehensive, and had a low self-concept.

Relative Effectiveness of the California Achievement Tests in Comparison With the Act Assessment, College Board Scholastic Aptitude Test, and High School Grade Point Average in Predicting College Grade Point Average

Studied was the relative effectiveness of the. California Achievement Tests (CAT), the ACT Assessment (Academic Tests) of the American College Testing Program (ACT), the College Board Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), and high school grade point average (GPA) in predicting college freshman GPA. The incremental and differential incremental effectiveness of the CAT, ACT, and SAT in addition to high school GPA were also studied. Although high school GPA was the best single predictor, the CAT was as effective a predictor as was the ACT or the SAT. Use of either the ACT, SAT, or CAT resulted in an 18.47% increase in predictive etBciency over that obtained by using high school GPA alone. As the increase in predictive efficiency was very nearly the same (within rounding error) for the three tests (ACT, SAT, and CAT), they failed to demonstrate differential incremental validity.

Special Paper for Beginning Handwriting: An Unjustified Practice?.

AbstractA comparison was made of the handwriting of kindergarten children who used four different kinds of paper for handwriting lessons. Results indicated that the width of the writing space lone inch or Vi inch) had no differential effect on the quality of beginning handwriting. Furthermore, paper with writing spaces with closed ends did not improve the placement of letters in the writing space. This study gives no justification for requiring beginners in handwriting to use paper which is different from the kind they will use as adults.

Locus of Control and Self-Esteem among American Indians and Whites: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Compared in this study were the locus of control and self-esteem of American Indians (n = 97) and whites (n = 128). Contrary to previous research and theory, the two groups did not differ in locus of control as measured by the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire. However, they did differ in self-esteem as measured by the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory. The whites reported a significantly more positive view of the self than did the Indians.

Biographical Correlates of the Creative Personality: Gifted Adolescents.

actual children the results were less clearcut. For child I, the labels produced no significant differences in the ratings of the child. When subjects observed child 2, those who were told the child was gifted rated him significantly more positively than those who were told the child was normal on attitudes toward the task. Those subjects who were told that child 2 was retarded rated him significantly less positively than those told the child was normal on verbalizations. The results of the ratings for child 3 were quite complex, with two significant interactions between curriculum of subjects and labels. The results of both main effects and simple main effects indicated that the child labeled gifted was rated more positively than the child labeled normal on three categories: attitudes toward task, attitudes toward own performance, and verbalizations. When child 3 .was labeled retarded, his performance was rated less positively than when he was labeled normal on motor reactions. Undergraduate subjects preparing to become teachers attended to and comprehended the experimentally induced stereotypes of gifted, normal, and retarded as indicated by the results of the stereotype ratings. However, when faced with the performance of normal children, they s~lectively retained portions of the stereotype, discarding some components of the label in light of conflicting perceptions. Labels had a selective rather than pervasive effect. A childs rating on all subtests was not consistently affected by either a positive or a negative stereotype. Rather, some combination of label and subtest produced one type of an effect for one child but an altogether different effect for another child. Some labels were more believable for one child than for another. In the face of conflicting behavior, the crucial requirement of retaining the expectancy was not consistently met by the subjects.

Agreement between Parents and Teachers in Using the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist to Identify Deviant Behavior in Children.

Parent and teacher ratings of 141 middle school children were collected using the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist. Pearson correlation coefficients indicated a low degree of relationship between parent and teacher ratings. Ratings were then recorded as 1 (normal), 2 (mildly deviant), or 3 (highly deviant). There was a general lack of agreement between parents and teachers in identifying children who were either mildy deviant or highly deviant.

A Factor Analysis of the Pupil Control Ideology Scale

AbstractThe Pupil Control Ideology (PCI) scale was designed to measure a respondent’s pupil control orientation on a humanistic-custodial continuum. The PCI has been widely used as both a measure of school climate and teacher ideology. In the present study, 362 students majoring in education were administered the PCI, and their responses were examined via a series of factor analyses. An exploratory factor analysis was first conducted in order to determine the factor structure of the PCI. Next, confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the models developed in the exploratory analyses. The results support the theoretical hypothesis that the PCI is unidimensional. However, a reduced 10-item, one-factor scale provided the best description of the actual correlation matrix.

DRUG EDUCATION: SOLUTION OR PROBLEM?

Relationships between drug knowledge and use of 7 different drugs—alcohol, amphetamines, barbiturates, heroin, LSD, marihuana, and tobacco—by a random sample of 300 12th-grade students from large, intermediate, and small high schools were studied. Drug knowledge was significantly related to use of alcohol, amphetamines, barbiturates, LSD, and marihuana. Over-all, rs were small to moderate. Such results seem to indicate that drug education might be a problem instead of a solution, but more definitive research is needed before calling for an end to such programs.