The Type A behavior pattern, which has been linked to a high incidence of heart attack among adult males, has been the subject of much research by both medical and psychological professionals. There have been very few attempts to modify this damaging behavior pattern in individuals who have not shown any symptoms of heart disease. This research is concerned with the student population most likely to contain a high production of Type A's, the academically superior.;Thirty honor roll students from each of three junior high schools were identified as Type A using the student form of the Jenkins Activity Survey. After random assignment, the students in the six treatment groups participated in five weeks of Stress innoculation Training consisting of deep muscle relaxation, the symptoms/identification of stress and the modification of self-statements. Each group was conducted by a counselor in the students' home school who had been trained in SI. The course of the treatment followed a detailed outline to optimize consistency.;Post-treatment measures included the Timed-Arithmetic Task to measure achievement striving, the Adjective Check List to measure need for achievement, the Writing Speed Task and the Time Estimate Task to measure Time Urgency, and the end of treatment grade point averages to measure achievement.;Using a 3 x 3 factorial design it was predicted that there would be no differences between treatment groups or between the several schools on any of the measures. In addition, it was predicted that there would be no interaction effect between the schools and treatments.;The two way analysis of variance conducted on the post treatment measures indicated that there were no significant differences on achievement levels, achievement striving or need for achievement. Although some significant school effects were noted on the reduction of Time Urgency, post hoc measures failed to yield any consistent pattern of variance. It was thus concluded that the treatment was not effective in reducing the Type A pattern in the subject population.

This study was designed to determine if training in rational emotive therapy and study skills would be more effective in improving academic competence than training in study skills.;The subject population consisted of 141 students who were on academic probation at a community college. Students were recruited to participate in a one credit, graded seminar designed to increase the possibility of succeeding in college. Forty-two students were placed in one of four seminars. In addition, twenty-one students who initially expressed an interest in the seminar but later decided not to participate comprised the control group.;Treatment groups were offered both day and evening, and consisted of one, ninety minute session per week for eight weeks. The criterion measures were grade point average, the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (Brown and Holtzman, 1966), and student retention.;The research hypothesis predicted that the RET study skills group would be more effective than the non-RET study skills group which in turn would be more effective than the control group on all criterion measures.;The control group had significantly higher GPA and study attitude scale scores on the SSHA at the onset of the study. Analysis of covariance procedures, using pre-test scores as covariates, were employed on post-test GPA and SSHA data to control for pre-test differences.;No significant differences existed between the treatment groups at the completion of the study. A significant difference between treatment and control groups did exist on the post-treatment teacher approval scale of the SSHA. Both treatment groups reported substantially larger increases on each SSHA scale than the control group. No differences existed among groups on retention rates, nor was time of participation a significant factor.;The data were analyzed on the basis of the amount of effort that students expended in the seminar. Final grade received in the seminar and number of seminar classes attended comprised the operational definitions of student effort. Significant differences were obtained on GPA and on each subscale of the SSHA, distinguishing students who applied themselves in the seminars from those who did not. One can conclude that a program to increase academic competence among students on academic probation can be successful, but only if the student makes a commitment to change previously ineffective study patterns.

No description available.

No description available.

Stereotyping of jobs by sex has a restricting effect on both sexes, but it has had a disproportionately negative impact on women. The need for methods to counteract occupational stereotyping is widely recognized (Steiger and Schlesinger, 1979; Monthly Labor Review, 1976). Since role modeling has been found in many settings to be a forceful factor in modifying behavior, Bandura's (1971) observational learning through role modeling formed the rationale for the study. This study proposes to answer the question, "Will using female role models in nontraditional careers for women affect the choice of high school girls in selecting nontraditional occupations for themselves?".;Forty high school girls enrolled in a Career Decision Making course were randomly placed in two groups. Group 1 consisted of twenty girls who received information about specific nontraditional occupations for women from women role models who worked in those occupations. Group 1 was referred to as the experimental group, while Group 2 which consisted of twenty girls who received the same occupational information from the classroom teacher, was referred to as the control group.;After treatment which covered eight sessions of thirty minutes each, the two groups were administered the following measurements: an occupational selection list, a display of brochures, a Career and Educational Planning Card, the California Occupational Preference System interest inventory, and an Attitude Assessment Scale. Data were analyzed using a Chi square test of significance.;Results were as follows: (1) Subjects in Group 1 chose more nontraditional occupations than those in Group 2 to a significant (p. = .0002) degree on the occupational selection list and approached significance (p. = .06) on the Career and Educational Planning Card. Group 1 chose more nontraditional occupations on all measurements although not to a significant degree on all measurements. (2) The Attitude Assessment Scale indicated a highly favorable attitude toward all role models. The influence of the classroom teacher as a model was recognized. (3) Role modeling was found to be effective as a technique in counteracting occupational stereotyping in high school girls.;Recommendations for further research in this area are included.

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No description available.

The purpose of this study was to provide a group experience to a high risk population which addressed the problems of chemical use. The study attempted to evaluate the impact of a developmentally focused prevention program on the range of developmental skills in a population of high risk youth.;The subjects for this study were drawn from a population of young adolescent boys who had been committed to the State Department of Corrections and placed at Barrett Learning Center. Subjects were randomly selected from those youth who entered the institutional population between November 1, 1981 and February 1, 1982.;Twenty-four subjects were randomly selected from the population and randomly assigned to one of three groups, two treatment groups and a control group. The subjects in the treatment groups participated in the developmental skills program, the eight subjects in the control group received no treatment other than participation in the regular program of the institution.;It was hypothesized that the subjects who had completed the developmentally oriented prevention program would show a greater knowledge of alcohol and drugs, would show greater gains in self concept, would exhibit a greater frequency of appropriated interpersonal behaviors as selected in ratings by the institutional counselors using the Adaptive Behavior Scale and selected scales of the Adjective Checklist, and would show greater improvements in overall adjustment to institutionalization than those subjects in the control group.;It was concluded that the subjects who participated in the developmental skills program demonstrated a greater understanding of basic information on the effects of alcohol and other drugs than those subjects in the control group. A significant difference was found in ratings by counselors of the subjects on Domain 15- Mannerisms of the Adaptive Behavior Scale. The data did not support the other hypothesis conclusively.;Further study is recommended to evaluate the relative effectiveness of this model of prevention in comparison with other selected prevention models. Evaluation of the long term effects of the program, the application of this proram to other high risk populations of youth, and additional suggestions for further research are proposed.

No description available.

The primary purpose of this investigation was to assess the differential effects of a structured group experience in television production on the group interaction and leadership behaviors, peer ratings, and teacher evaluations of a select group of gifted elementary school students. The secondary purpose was to assess the differential display of group interaction and leadership behaviors and differences in teacher evaluations of gifted children who had been designated as high or low independent on the basis of their scores on the Children's Personality Questionnaire.;The research sample for the primary phase consisted of 20 gifted children from the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades in the Williamsburg-James City County public schools. The subjects (12 males and 8 females) were self-selected into two groups; one which served as the treatment condition and one as the control condition. The treatment condition involved the children's participation in a Television Production Workshop; a workshop in Logic and Problem Solving served as the control condition.;A Non-equivalent Control Group Design was used for this phase of the study. During the third week of treatment and during the next to the last week of treatment, videotapes were made of all subjects working in groups; these interactions were analyzed using the Interaction Process Analysis (IPA, Bales, 1950). Teachers and peers rated the subjects during the final week of treatment using the Barclay Classroom Climate Inventory (BCCI, Barclay, 1978).;The Mann-Whitney U Test was used for analyzing all the data to determine if significant differences existed between the experimental and control groups in the areas of the number of group interaction behaviors displayed, the number of leadership behaviors displayed, the ratings of peers, and the ratings of teachers. All hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance.;Major findings included the following: (1) A statistically significant difference was observed between the experimental group and the control group on three scales of the IPA. The treatment group showed more gain in the number of opinion-give behaviors displayed, but less in the number of orientation-giving and orientation-seeking behaviors displayed. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UMI.