Patricia Gaynor

Analysis of cognitive abilities for learning disabled children

The study investigated WISC-R subtest pattern scores of 58 learning disabled children (42 boys and 16 girls) ranging in age from 6 years to 15 years, 10 months. The variation in subtest scores was analyzed by a 1 X 10 analysis of variance with repeated measures on the single factor. Differences between individual subtest means were analyzed by the Newman-Keuls test for simple effects. The evidence indicates that the low subtest scores on Arithmetic, Coding and Information were characteristic of this group. The study did not support the verbal-Performance discrepancies as useful in the diagnosis of learning disabilities.

The rational behavior theory of voting participation: Evidence from the 1970 and 1982 elections

In recent years a substantial literature on the determinants of voting participation has been developed. In many of these studies voting is assumed to be an expression of rational behavior. That is, people vote when they expect that the benefits will exceed the related costs. Voting is largely an act of consumption based upon the widely held belief that one should vote to fulfill a civic duty or upon some combination of personal characteristics which is sufficiently vague to make precise measurement impossible. The rational behavior theory, however, holds that voting is influenced at the margin by personal and environmental factors which incrementally affect expected benefits and costs, making the act of voting more or less rational. Those factors which increase expected benefits will, ceteris paribus, enhance the probability that one will vote. Those factors which increase expected costs will, of course, have the opposite effect. This study is presented as a primarily empirical contribution to the literature which assumes that, since voting is an expression of rational behavior, it can be modeled and tested using standard economic analysis and methodology.The study is designed to fulfill several purposes. First, we update previous empirical work using data from the 1980 census and from the 1982 congressional elections. The results of our regressions strongly support the rational behavior theory. In addition, we test to determine whether it is less rational for southern blacks to vote as compared to their white counterparts. Our results suggest that the answer is affirmative. Tests of parameter equivalency between the 1970 and 1982 congressional elections are performed with some interesting results. Finally, tests for specification error provide evidence that the rational behavior model and congressional district data generate statistically valid estimates of the determinants of voting participation.

Relationship of locus of control to life style habits.

This study contrasted the life style habits of college students who were high and low on different dimensions of locus of control. The Levenson Locus of Control Scale was used to assess three locus of control dimensions (Internality, Powerful Others, and Chance); the Tennessee Self-Description Form (TSDF) assessed four areas of life-style (Work, Social, Health, and Leisure). High and low groups were formed for each locus of control dimension by taking the top 20% and bottom 20% of the distribution (total N = 162). For all three locus of control variables, a significant interaction was obtained between the high-low group variable and the four areas of life style. The High Internals, Low Powerful Others, and Low Chance groups obtained significantly higher Work and Health scores than did their counterparts.

Measuring the extent of earnings discrimination: an update

Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and data from the March 1990 Current Population Survey are used to estimate yearly earnings averages for white males, white females, black males and black females. In order to test for the possible existence or gender and/or race discrimination, earnings estimates are decomposed, using the tradional Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder (1973) methodology. In comparing these results with those from Carlson and Swartz (1988, using 1979 data), we find that overall and unexplained residual differences have declined quite substantially, but that they still favour white males. We then incorporate an extension of the traditional methodology (Jackson and Lindley, 1989) which allows for testing for the significance of enexplained residuals, and for jointly testing for the significance of residual effect components, the constant and coefficient effects. These results call into question the unambiguous conclusion that earnings differentials uniformly favour white males. Strong support is...

Relative changes in gender and race-based earnings costs, 1970-1995

The major purpose of this paper is to determine absolute and relative changes in gender and race based, inflation-adjusted earnings costs over the period 1970–1995. Yearly estimated earnings comparisons of white males with white females, African-American males and females suggest that total earnings gaps have narrowed considerably. For African-American males, remaining costs are mostly associated with labour market and other measurable differences. For white and African-American females, however, the unexplained, possibly discriminatory portion of the earnings gap has increased in absolute (as compared to white males) and relative terms (as compared to African-American males).