Joseph Lowman

What Should Graduate Teaching Assistants Know About Teaching

This article reports results of a content analysis of 18 teaching assistant (TA) manuals. Topics were divided into four major categories of tasks: professional socialization, intellectual, interpersonal, and organizational. Twenty-six of the 103 topics identified were included in more than 50% of the manuals. Among the common topics, more topics were included from the categories dealing with intellectual and interpersonal tasks than from the other two categories, highlighting the importance of these two dimensions of effective teaching, which is consistent with Lowmans (1984) theoretical model. The topic outline provided by our study could serve as a model for TA manuals.

The effect of state extraversion on four types of affect

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effect of state extraversion on different types of affect. Ninety six participants were instructed to be extraverted or introverted in a 10‐minute dyadic discussion. State extraversion had a strong effect on positive affect and smaller (but still strong) effects on pleasant and activated affect, with these latter two effects almost equal in magnitude. This pattern of findings appears to increase confidence that the effect of state extraversion is genuine rather than the result of construct overlap, in that extraversions effect on positive affect is not dominated by its effect on activated affect. No support for reward sensitivity as a potential explanatory mechanism was found. Copyright

Affect and Status Dimensions of Marital Adjustment.

administered measure of afftctive structure (inventory of Family Feelings) was also administered. Major findings are (1) adjusted couples communicated more affection and submission than did maladjusted ones, (2) all couples were more likely to show complementary sequencing patterns with some interesting differences between groups. Data from the self-report measure were quite consistent with the affective dimension of the behavioral coding system.

Grief intervention and sudden infant death syndrome.

A program utilizing nurses to deliver grief intervention to parents losing a baby to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is described. Because parents of SIDS victims experience profound feelings of guilt and especially servere crisis reactions, programs relieving guilt and providing additional support to them are felt to have significant preventive potential. Data are presented tentatively supporting the conclusion that the SIDS grief intervention program had a beneficial impact on the participants. Implications for crisis theory and preventive programming in general are also discussed.

The SuperShrink interview: Active versus passive questioning and student satisfaction

Abstract Many attempts have been made to simulate and study human behavior using computers. SuperShrink , an educational simulation of a clinical interview for undergraduate psychology students, is described and evaluated with special attention to the optimal balance of interview structure and realism created by how students question the simulated patient. An empirical study of three questioning methods is reported. Data from between-group and within-subjects comparisons indicate students prefer typing suggested questions to menu-driven or automatic methods, suggesting the make-believe aspects of a realistic simulation are more important to users than efficiency, once enough structure is provided to keep frustration within comfortable limits. Empirical analysis of student behavior in computer based educational settings is advocated to aid the development of these instructional aids and as convenient laboratories in which to study personality and cognitive topics of interests to psychologists.

Hard-Copy versus Computer Presentation of the SuperShrink Interview Simulation.

The effects of realism and perceived control on student satisfaction with the SuperShrink interview simulation were investigated via a 2 × 2 comparison of active/passive and computer/hard-copy conditions. Students rated the computer versions as more satisfying and as promoting a greater sense of realism than the printed materials. Students perceived having more control in the active than the passive conditions, but this perception was not accompanied by differences in satisfaction. These data suggest that computers are superior to hard-copy simulations of human interaction, perhaps because they enhance realism rather than control.

Failure of laboratory evaluation of CAI to generalize to classroom settings: TheSuperShrink interview simulation

Laboratory settings are often used to evaluate instructional innovations. This paper reports a comparison of laboratory and course evaluation ofSuperShrink, an educational computer simulation of two comprehensive clinical interviews designed to teach undergraduates personality and diagnostic formulation. Previous experimental comparison of the computer simulation with a booklet version ofSuperShrink in a laboratory setting, carried out with volunteers from the departmental subject pool, indicated that students found the computer version more involving, enjoyable, and realistic. The present experiment involved the comparison of computer and booklet versions of two complete cases in four courses in abnormal psychology. The results opposed those from the laboratory setting. The students strongly preferred the booklet version and cited its greater convenience as one reason for their preference. Our findings suggest that care must be taken to ensure that laboratory evaluations of CAI are ecologically valid and are replicated in classroom settings.

Lurking on the Internet: A Small-Group Assignment That Puts a Human Face on Psychopathology

Lurking on the Internet aims to put a human face on psychopathology for the abnormal psychology course. Student groups are assigned major diagnostic categories and instructed to search the Internet for discussion forums, individual blogs, or YouTube videos where affected individuals discuss their symptoms and lives. After discussing the ethics of passively observing public sites, students monitor relevant sites throughout the term and evaluate what they are learning in class from the perspective of affected individuals. At the end of the term, students submit individual papers based on their observations. Periodically, individual groups are given opportunities to share their findings and, depending on the size of the class, to make formal presentations.

Book Reviews : Joseph Gilbert. Interpreting Psychological Test Data (Volume I). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1978. Pp. vii +251.

models are used to study measurement error and Mendelian genetics. These chapters illustrate that statistical inference depends on choosing the appropriate (box) model. Finally, Part VIII contains four chapters on the principles of hypothesis testing and some common tests of significance. The tests include the oneand two-sample z-tests, onesample t-test, and chi-square tests for goodness of fit and two-by-two tables.