W. Ray Crozier

Dyslexia and difficulties with study skills in higher education

This article presents findings from a questionnaire survey of 136 male students, 62 with dyslexia and 74 without dyslexia, from 17 British higher education institutions. The students with dyslexia reported difficulties with a wide range of skills and academic tasks, notably note taking, organization of essays and expressing ideas in writing. They reported that their difficulties were long‐standing and had been experienced in primary and secondary school, although the pattern of these difficulties changed over time. They reported making use of resources available to them, including additional time for examinations, access to dyslexia tutors and support with information technology. However, there are indications of unmet needs in several areas, notably support for specific subjects and with organizing coursework, learning in lectures, and academic writing skills. The implications of these findings for provision for students with dyslexia are discussed.

Shyness and embarrassment : perspectives from social psychology

Acknowledgements Introduction W. Ray Crozier Part I. Theoretical Issues in the Study of Shyness and Embarrassment: 1. Social psychological perspectives on shyness,embarrassment and shame W. Ray Crozier 2. Shyness and embarrassment in psychological theory and ordinary language Peter R. Harris 3. The expression of shyness and embarrassment Jens Asendorff 4. The impact of focus of attention and affect on social behaviour Frederick X. Gibbons 5. The evolution and manifestation of social anxiety Paul Gilbert and Peter Trower Part II. An Emphasis Upon Embarrassment: 6. Embarrassment: a conceptual analysis Rom Harre 7. Embarrassment and blushing: a component-process model, some initial descriptive and cross-cultural data Robert J. Edelmann 8. Blushing as a discourse: was Darwin wrong? Cristiano Castelfranchi and Isabella Poggi Part III. An Emphasis Upon Shyness: 9. A definition of shyness and its implications for clinical practice Henk T. Van Der Molen 10. Shyness and self-presentation James A. Shepperd and Robert M. Arkin 11. Shyness as a personality trait Jonathan M. Cheek and Stephen R. Briggs 12. Social anxiety, personality, and the self: clinical research and practice Lorne M. Hartman and Patricia A. Cleland Name index Subject index.

The influence of shyness on children's test performance

BACKGROUND Research has shown that shy children differ from their peers not only in their use of language in routine social encounters but also in formal assessments of their language development, including psychometric tests of vocabulary. There has been little examination of factors contributing to these individual differences. AIMS To investigate cognitive-competence and social anxiety interpretations of differences in childrens performance on tests of vocabulary. To examine the performance of shy and less shy children under different conditions of test administration, individually with an examiner or among their peers within the familiar classroom setting. SAMPLE The sample consisted of 240 Year 5 pupils (122 male, 118 female) from 24 primary schools. METHOD Shy and less shy children, identified by teacher nomination and checklist ratings, completed vocabulary and mental arithmetic tests in one of three conditions, in a between-subjects design. The conditions varied individual and group administration, and oral and written responses. RESULTS The conditions of test administration influenced the vocabulary test performance of shy children. They performed significantly more poorly than their peers in the two face-to-face conditions but not in the group test condition. A comparable trend for the arithmetic test was not statistically significant. Across the sample as a whole, shyness correlated significantly with test scores. CONCLUSIONS Shyness does influence childrens cognitive test performance and its impact is larger when children are tested face-to-face rather than in a more anonymous group setting. The results are of significance for theories of shyness and have implications for the assessment of schoolchildren.

Name‐calling and nicknames in a sample of primary school children

BACKGROUND Name-calling, unkind nicknames and other forms of verbal harassment represent some of the most prevalent forms of bullying in school but they have been little studied. Name-calling and nicknames in particular are ambiguous social events that can serve positive as well as negative goals, and their adverse consequences can be difficult to identify. AIMS (i) To assess the incidence of nicknames and name calling as reported by a sample of primary school children; (ii) to examine the kinds of names reported by children, and to relate these to names reported in other social contexts; (iii) to explore the impact that name-calling and nicknames have on children. SAMPLE Pupils (N = 60) from the top two classes in a British primary school completed a questionnaire; 20 of the children were subsequently interviewed. METHOD Pupils completed a questionnaire that was constructed for this study. Pupils were asked to provide examples of nicknames and to report on the types and incidence of several forms of verbal harassment. The interview included questions which aimed to explore the childrens reactions to harassment. RESULTS Being called disliked nicknames, called names, teased, and other forms of verbal harassment were reported by most of the sample, with more than 20% of children experiencing nasty comments and unkind nicknames on a daily basis. Girls reported more disliked nicknames than boys. The most common nicknames referred to the childs appearance, whereas nasty comments and untrue stories contained a preponderance of sexual references. In the interview, nearly all children reported that being called names and nicknames were negative experiences that caused distress. CONCLUSIONS Name-calling and the assignment of unkind nicknames are prevalent and hurtful++ features of school life. The kinds of names are similar to those reported in other studies of children, adolescents, and adults. It is proposed that these names are hurtful because they threaten the childs identity.

Shyness as a Factor when Assessing Children

Differences between shy and non-shy children were found on measures of speech in an assessment situation even when variation in vocabulary scores was statistically controlled. The findings have implications for understanding shyness and for practice in assessing shy children.

Phobic anxiety in 11 nations. Part I: Dimensional constancy of the five-factor model

The Fear Survey Schedule-III (FSS-III) was administered to a total of 5491 students in Australia, East Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, and Venezuela, and submitted to the multiple group method of confirmatory analysis (MGM) in order to determine the cross-national dimensional constancy of the five-factor model of self-assessed fears originally established in Dutch, British, and Canadian samples. The model comprises fears of bodily injury-illness-death, agoraphobic fears, social fears, fears of sexual and aggressive scenes, and harmless animals fears. Close correspondence between the factors was demonstrated across national samples. In each country, the corresponding scales were internally consistent, were intercorrelated at magnitudes comparable to those yielded in the original samples, and yielded (in 93% of the total number of 55 comparisons) sex differences in line with the usual finding (higher scores for females). In each country, the relatively largest sex differences were obtained on harmless animals fears. The organization of self-assessed fears is sufficiently similar across nations to warrant the use of the same weight matrix (scoring key) for the FSS-III in the different countries and to make cross-national comparisons feasible. This opens the way to further studies that attempt to predict (on an a priori basis) cross-national variations in fear levels with dimensions of national cultures.

The meanings of colour : preferences among hues

Colour preferences have both scientific significance and relevance to manufacturers. Despite claims that these preferences are unsystematic and that saturation and brightness exert more influence on judgements than hue, a substantial body of research suggests that the rank order of preference for hues ‐ blue, red, green, violet, orange, yellow ‐ emerges with some degree of consistency and, in particular, blue is regularly preferred to other hues. Five explanations of this trend are considered: preferences are simply conventional; blue is more neutral and less susceptible to extremes of judgement than other hues; preference for blue is a by‐product of more general principles; blue has largely positive associations; blue has an evolutionary significance. It is proposed that further investigation of the connotations of hues will provide insight into the pattern of colour preferences.

Dispositional and situational learning goals and children's self-regulation

BACKGROUND Little research has examined interactions between self-reported dispositional and experimentally manipulated situational group orientations in their effect on self-regulation. AIMS The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of dispositional and situational learning goal orientation on childrens self-efficacy and engagement and persistence at a puzzle task. SAMPLE A self-report learning goal orientation scale was completed by 110 children, aged 9-11 years. Fifty-three children (24 girls) selected to be high and low on the scale participated in the experiment. METHODS Half of the children were given instructions designed to evoke learning goals, while the remainder received performance goal instructions. Children attempted a difficult puzzle task on two occasions, when measures were made of self-regulatory behaviours. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Children assigned to the learning goal instruction were more likely to persist at the task until the end of the allotted time, displayed more on-task behaviour and engaged in more autonomous help-seeking. These effects were more pronounced following the first task, which all children had been unable to complete. Dispositional task orientation did not predict individual differences on these measures. The findings are interpreted in terms of learned helplessness and self-worth theory.

Blushing and the Exposed Self: Darwin Revisited

Blushing is widely regarded as an expression of embarrassment, and many psychologists argue that it serves to communicate appeasement or an apology. However, embarrassment does not invariably give rise to a blush, which can also accompany shyness, shame or modesty. In addition, people blush when they are not at fault and have little to apologise for. These observations raise the question why some social predicaments elicit a blush whereas others do not. The paper seeks to identify conditions that will produce blushing and it proposes that a blush is contingent on the exposure of some topic that ought to remain hidden. The connection between a properly hidden topic and a visible reaction can create a predicament or convey information about the blusher, but it is argued that these are not the primary functions of the blush, The proposal is compared with alternative accounts and its implications are examined by means of scruting of descriptions of blushing taken largely from literary sources.

Differentiating Shame from Embarrassment

Questions about the relation between shame and embarrassment are often posed in discussion of emotion but have rarely been examined at length. In this study I assemble and examine distinctions that have been proposed in the literature with the aim of identifying the criteria that have been used to differentiate shame and embarrassment. Relevant empirical studies are also reviewed. Despite the attention paid to the question of the difference between shame and embarrassment consensus on differentiating criteria has not been reached nor has there been consideration of what kind of question is being posed. Three positions that have been adopted are identified and critically evaluated.