Thesis (M.A.)--University of Delaware, 2007. / Principal faculty advisor: Carroll E. Izard, Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references.

The problem is to determine to what extent there is a relationship between a child's personality and his intelligence. As a basis for such a comparison, a study was made of sixty-two sixth-grade pupils in the Benjamin Franklin School in Wichita Falls, Texas.

This study, the relation of certain environmental factors to the personality development of the third-grade child, has been made in an effort to determine the part played by the various environmental conditions found within the homes as causative factors in personality adjustment or maladjustment.

It is the purpose of this study to contribute some scientific data toward the construction of a more valid rating scale for use in the classroom situation.

No description available.

This study has two goals. One is to begin to explicate the educational theories and practices of Charlotte Mason and the other is to determine whether or not her educational theories and practices are still useful in a 21st Century American School. The first goal is addressed in six essays that discuss major educational tenets of Mason’ s educational philosophy. The second goal is studied through a case study on The Children’s Community School. The six essays based on major tenets of Mason’s educational theories and practices begin with the principle, "children are born persons," which permeates all of her beliefs about teaching and learning. "Children are born persons" means that children change from within and not from without and, therefore, are discoverers of knowledge not vessels to be filled. Rousseau believed that children come with a good nature, but Mason contended that they come with a nature that is both good and evil, as all humans. Therefore children need to be educated to attenuate the evil nature. That is the second tenet. The third tenet is a discussion of authority and docility. If children have a good and evil nature then authority is necessary. However, since children are persons, they have a right to an education and they have a right to self-authority. The fourth essay discusses Mason’s beliefs about the sacredness of a child’s personality. In the fifth essay on pedagogy the discussion is concentrated on Mason’ s use of narration as an instructional tool. The last essay is on curriculum and includes a discussion of Mason’s views on curriculum and the use of the narrative in the curriculum. All of the essays bring to the discussion the thinking of other educational thinkers both past and present. At the end of each essay is the story of the implementation of Mason’s educational theories and practices at The Children’s Community School. The data collection for this case study is defined by Mason’s educational principles discussed in each essay. Data were collected on site at the school through observations, interviews and documents. All interviews were transcribed. Data from transcriptions, observations, and documents were then coded by the six major tenets discussed in the essays. Connections were examined between the theory of Mason and the practice in The Children’s Community School. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study is to determine to what extent the homemaking responsibilities some fourth-grade children assume affect the way in which they perform their school responsibilities.

Although numerous studies examining variables related to child abuse have been done in recent years, little is known about how abusing parents perceive their abused children's attitudes and behaviors. The present study attempted to examine parental perceptions of personality characteristics of children as a function of whether the parent abused the child. The Personality Inventory for Children (PIC) was utilized to obtain parental perceptions of their children's attitudes and behaviors. Twenty parents consisting of 10 abusers and 10 nonabusers were contacted through social agencies. Parents and children were matched for age, sex, and race. Of the 16 personality variables studied, only one significantly differentiated the two groups. Abused children were perceived as significantly more withdrawn than the nonabused matched sample. Results of this study suggest that various personality types are involved in the abusive cycle. Further research is needed to explore this promising area.

This study investigated the role of specialist provisions for pupils with social, emotional and behaviour difficulties (SEBD) in fostering resilience. The role schools play in resilience development was considered by measuring the association between the length of time a student had been in school with the strength of their resilience measured by a standardised test of resilience. Furthermore, possible ways in which resilience might develop in school were explored by looking at the possible mediating variables of having a sense of connection to school and having a significant peer relationship in school. The role of trait emotional intelligence (TEI) was also explored in this model by adding individual TEI as a moderating factor. Thirty-eight pupils from two SEBD schools took part in completing self-report questionnaires with the researcher. The length of time pupils spent in specialist schools was found to be predictive of both resilience resources and vulnerability, however none of the proposed variables explained this association. Exploratory analysis found TEI alone to be the most significant predictor of resilience outcomes. The theoretical implications are considered. The difficulties in measuring resilience as a construct are discussed, as well as the importance of completing research with this population, despite the challenges.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Psychology