Sibling dilution hypothesis: a regression surface analysis

This study examined relationships between sibship size (the number of children in a family), birth order, and measures of academic performance, academic self-concept, and educational aspirations at different levels of family educational resources. As part of a national longitudinal study of Australian secondary school students data were collected from 2,530 boys and 2,450 girls in Years 9 and 10. Regression surfaces were constructed from models that included terms to account for linear, interaction, and curvilinear associations among the variables. Analysis suggests the general propositions (a) family educational resources have significant associations with children's school-related outcomes at different levels of sibling variables, the relationships for girls being curvilinear, and (b) sibling variables continue to have small significant associations with affective and cognitive outcomes, after taking into account variations in family educational resources. That is, the investigation provides only partial support for the sibling dilution hypothesis.

Women's pursuit of personal goals in daily life with fibromyalgia: a value-expectancy analysis

Eighty-nine women with fibromyalgia completed the Life Orientation Test, identified health and social goals, and answered questions from the Goal Systems Assessment Battery (P. Karoly & L. Ruehlman, 1995) about their valuation of, and self-efficiency in attaining, each goal. For 30 days, they responded to palm-top computer interviews about their pain and fatigue and rated their goal effort, goal progress, and pain- and fatigue-related goal barriers. Goal barriers increased and goal efforts and progress decreased on days with greater pain and fatigue; goals valued more highly were pursued more effortfully and successfully; more optimistic individuals were less likely to perceive goal barriers and, on days that were more fatiguing than usual, were less likely to reduce their effort and to retreat from progress in achieving their health goal; and more pessimistic individuals perceived greater goal barriers on days that were less painful than usual.

Career-related correlates of self-discipline

An investigation was made of the relationship between scores on the Self-discipline Questionnaire and self-ratings on four career-related variables among a sample of 325 working adults. The Self-discipline Questionnaire was previously published in a trade book and is based on characteristics of self-disciplined people culled from the literature. Scores for self-discipline were significantly correlated with years of formal education, salary, and self-perceptions of career success and frequency of goal accomplishment.

Child survivors of the Holocaust: symptoms and coping after fifty years

Holocaust survivors who were children during WW II have now reached the age of 52 to 67. Until about 10 years ago their voices were barely heard in society. Their successful adaptation to life may have contributed to this invisibility. However, reaching this stage of life, which is associated with the need to review life and with the crises of retirement and renewed losses, has activated the survivors to deal with their childhood. The impossibility of avoiding traumatic memories and an urge to deal with them have also contributed to the societal process of the survivors organizing and speaking out. Very little is known about this group with regard to their mental health status and the way they cope with their childhood memories. The present controlled double-blind study uses a randomized nonclinical sample and focuses on the level of psychosocial and post-traumatic symptoms, on achievement motivation, and on the way child survivors perceive the surrounding world. The results indicate a slightly higher level of psychosocial symptoms in the child survivors group (CS) than in the control group, a high level of post-traumatic symptomatology, and achievement motivation based mainly on the fear of failure. Surprisingly, the child survivors group shows a pattern of more positive views of the world than does the control group. This can be understood as a greater need to compensate for the lack of security suffered in childhood by creating a meaningful world in a chaotic reality.

Parents' roles in shaping early adolescents' occupational aspirations

Relations among dimensions of parenting and adolescents' occupational aspirations were examined in two specific domains: academics and sports. The sample consisted of 444 seventh graders, with approximately equal numbers of African American and European American males and females, from two-parent nondivorced families. Multiple measures were used as indicators of parents' values and behaviors, youths' values and beliefs, positive identification with parents, and adolescents' occupational aspirations. In the academic domain, parents' values predicted youths' values directly rather than indirectly through their behaviors. In contrast, fathers' behaviors mediated the relation between parents' and youths' values in the sports domain. Positive identification was directly related to adolescents' values (especially about academics); however, positive identification did not moderate the transmission of values from parent to child in either domain. Parents' values predicted adolescents' occupational aspirations via both direct and indirect pathways. Similar results were obtained for African American and European American males and females. These findings highlight the potential role of parents as socializers of achievement-related values, and, ultimately, adolescents' occupational visions of themselves in the future.

Effects of future writing and optimism on health behaviors in HIV-infected women

Optimists (people who have positive expectations about the future) have been shown to perform more health-promoting behaviors than pessimists. This study attempts to alter individuals' levels of optimism, and thereby their health behaviors, by having them write about a positive future. HIV-infected women (N = 40) on combination therapies were randomly assigned to write about a positive future or assigned to a no-writing control group. Among participants who were low in optimism, the writing intervention led to increased optimism, a trend toward increased self-reported adherence to medications, and decreased distress from medication side effects, compared to controls who did not write. Participants who were high in optimism showed the opposite effects after writing about the future. Results suggest that a future-oriented writing intervention may be apromising technique to increase medication adherence and decrease symptom distress in pessimistic individuals.

Adolescent girls' life aspirations and reproductive health in Nepal

The study described in this paper takes a participatory and positive approach to improving adolescent reproductive health in a rural and urban community in Nepal. It shows that adolescent girls in these communities have dreams and aspirations for a better future and that adults acknowledge and support these ideals. However, social norms and institutions are restrictive, especially for girls, who are often unable to realise their hopes for continuing education, finding better-paid work or delaying marriage and childbearing, and this directly impacts reproductive outcomes. Insight into the broader context of adolescent girls' lives provides a valuable framework for designing positive programmatic actions which take as their entry point the disjuncture between girls' aspirations and realities. Interventions begun in these communities include youth clubs for safe social interaction and literacy classes; training of peer educators to teach life-skills, including for married adolescents; forums for parents, teachers and health service providers to discuss their own concerns and those of adolescents; and work with the community to design programmes that will contribute to greater financial independence and employment opportunities for adolescents.

Self-regulation of goal setting: turning free fantasies about the future into binding goals

Fantasy realization theory states that when people contrast their fantasies about a desired future with reflections on present reality, a necessity to act is induced that leads to the activation and use of relevant expectations. Strong goal commitment arises in light of favorable expectations, and weak goal commitment arises in light of unfavorable expectations. To the contrary, when people only fantasize about a desired future or only reflect on present reality, expectancy-independent moderate goal commitment emerges. Four experiments pertaining to various life domains supported these hypotheses. Strength of goal commitment was assessed in cognitive (e.g., making plans), affective (e.g., felt attachment), and behavioral terms (e.g., effort expenditure, quality of performance). Implications for theories on goal setting and goal striving are discussed.

Virtual reality in psychotherapy: the MYTHSEEKER software

This chapter outlines the use in psychotherapy and medical diagnosis of an intelligent software system that helps clients to explore Personal Myth within virtual reality environments. Patented MYTHSEEKER software will allow clients to work with mythic analogues of lifeshapes and aspirations. This can help to focus therapy directions, find ways to participate with the person's world, and allow a kind of personal expression not previously possible. The software phases of assessment, facilitation, and enaction are described by which the client is assisted to explore systems of mythology or spirituality (called Depth Systems) that are traditional, ancient or newly-arising. The client builds a Personal Depth System representing Personal Myth, based on experiencing other Depth Systems, which can itself be experienced in the virtual environment. This paper outlines our methodology and technology to realize these operations. Space limitations prevent further description in the present chapter of MYTHSEEKER software technology or psychotherapy scenarios of involvement.

The role of desires and anticipated emotions in goal-directed behaviours: broadening and deepening the theory of planned behaviour

Building on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), we develop a new model of purposive behaviour which suggests that desires are the proximal causes of intentions, and the traditional antecedents in the TPB work through desires. In addition, perceived consequences of goal achievement and goal failure are modelled as anticipated emotions, which also function as determinants of desires. The new model is tested in two studies: an investigation of bodyweight regulation by 108 Italians at the University of Rome and an investigation of effort expended in studying by 122 students at the University of Rome. Frequency and recency of past behaviour are controlled for in tests of hypotheses. The findings show that desires fully mediated the effects of attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and anticipated emotions on intentions. Significantly greater amounts of variance are explained in intentions and behaviour by the new model in comparison to the TPB and variants of the TPB that include either anticipated emotions and/or past behaviour.

Self-efficacy beliefs as shapers of children's aspirations and career trajectories

This prospective study tested with 272 children a structural model of the network of sociocognitive influences that shape children's career aspirations and trajectories. Familial socioeconomic status is linked to children's career trajectories only indirectly through its effects on parents' perceived efficacy and academic aspirations. The impact of parental self-efficacy and aspirations on their children's perceived career efficacy and choice is, in turn, entirely mediated through the children's perceived efficacy and academic aspirations. Children's perceived academic, social, and self-regulatory efficacy influence the types of occupational activities for which they judge themselves to be efficacious both directly and through their impact on academic aspirations. Perceived occupational self-efficacy gives direction to the kinds of career pursuits children seriously consider for their life's work and those they disfavor. Children's perceived efficacy rather than their actual academic achievement is the key determinant of their perceived occupational self-efficacy and preferred choice of worklife. Analyses of gender differences reveal that perceived occupational self-efficacy predicts traditionality of career choice.

The transition to high school for academically promising, urban, low-income African American youth

In nine urban Ohio school systems, low-income minority students identified as academically promising in sixth grade are eligible to participate in an intervention program. In the present study, twenty-two African American students in the program were asked to provide their perceptions of the transition to ninth grade. Specifically, the role of motivating factors, peers, school, teachers, parents, and neighborhood were examined. These students faced similar stressors, yet some were more able to achieve academic success. Results highlight the salience of mothers, the challenges of the ninth-grade curriculum, and adjustment to a bigger, more complex school environment for high and low performers. The implications for improving cooperation between school and family are discussed.

Ambition as a motivational basis of organizational and professional commitment: preliminary analysis of a proposed career advancement ambition scale

This study proposes that the ambition to advance in one's career may serve as a motivational basis of organizational and professional commitment. In support of this notion, preliminary evidence of the reliability and construct validity of a proposed Career Advancement Ambition Scale is presented, and exploratory analyses of a secondary data set show that the scale and original scales of organizational and professional commitment can predict turnover intentions. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

The effects of grades on course enjoyment: did you get the grade you wanted?

BACKGROUND

Students tend to rate university courses more positively if they do well. Greenwald and Gillmore (1997a) suggested that it is not students' absolute grades that are important but rather how these grades compare to their expectations. However, this hypothesis is difficult to evaluate because few studies have measured grade expectations at the beginning of courses.

AIM

By measuring students' grade expectations and enjoyment at several stages during a course, we hoped to evaluate the extent to which expectations modulate the impact of grades on course enjoyment.

SAMPLE

Participants were 242 students in a university course in psychology.

METHOD

Students were asked what grades they expected, and how much they were enjoying the course, at four stages. The effect of grades and grade expectations on enjoyment were analysed using restricted maximum likelihood (REML) and regression analyses.

RESULTS

The best predictor of course enjoyment varied somewhat at different stages, but in general it was the extent to which students' grades surpassed their expectations. Students' expectations at the beginning of the course proved particularly influential.

CONCLUSIONS

Grade expectations do influence how students react to course grades, but the prominent role of pre-course expectations suggests that it may be important to distinguish between grade aspirations and grade expectations. It appears to be students' aspirations--the grades they hope to achieve--that most strongly shape their emotional reactions, rather than the more realistic expectations they may form later in a course.

Patterns of family functioning and adolescent outcomes among urban African American and Mexican American families

The relations of patterns of family functioning, prosocial behaviors, and internalizing and externalizing symptoms over time were evaluated among a sample of economically disadvantaged inner-city African American and Mexican American male adolescents. Ethnic group differences for configurations of family functioning over time, levels of prosocial and problem behaviors, and relations of family functioning to risk were found. Among both ethnic groups, exceptionally functioning families provided a protective effect against risk. Overall, African American youth had stronger attitudes toward school and higher educational aspirations than Mexican American youth. Unlike previous investigations, once socioeconomic status was controlled, no differences were found for either internalizing or externalizing problems between the 2 groups. The importance of considering socioeconomic status and community context when evaluating minority parenting and family functioning is discussed.

The quality of experience in adolescents' daily lives: developmental perspectives

The authors analyzed the pattern of experience fluctuation in adolescents' daily activities. Italian high school students (N = 120; 16-20 years of age) were tested with the experience sampling method, a technique based on on-line sampling of daily life and experience. A total of 4,794 forms were gathered and analyzed by means of a model for the study of experience fluctuations. Among daily activities, studying at home, doing classwork, watching television, and having structured leisure were selected as the focus of analysis on the basis of their frequency and meaning in the adolescents' lives. Results showed that (a) daily activities have unique experiential profiles, (b) engagement may be used as an index of long-term commitment to a given activity, (c) studying at home and doing classwork share this basic component and can foster behavioral development, (d) structured leisure can play an edifying role at the short-term level for a socially integrated transition to adulthood, and (e) watching television is associated with lack of goals and engagement and is a source of apathy. The results (a) shed light on the role of daily life experience in shaping individual development and (b) provide suggestions for educational and psychosocial intervention in adolescence.

Of wealth and death: materialism, mortality salience, and consumption behavior

Theoretical work suggests that feelings of insecurity produce materialistic behavior, but most empirical evidence is correlational in nature. We therefore experimentally activated feelings of insecurity by having some subjects write short essays about death (mortality-salience condition). In Study 1, subjects in the mortality-salience condition, compared with subjects who wrote about a neutral topic, had higher financial expectations for themselves 15 years in the future, in terms of both their overall worth and the amount they would be spending on pleasurable items such as clothing and entertainment. Study 2 extended these findings by demonstrating that subjects exposed to death became more greedy and consumed more resources in a forest-management game. Results are discussed with regard to humanistic and terror-management theories of materialism.

The nature and development of student motivation

AIM

The aim of the present series of studies was to investigate what motivates undergraduate students and how their motivation changes during their degree course. The present research investigated both subject specific and generic motivators by asking students what knowledge areas, skills and experiences were important to them.

SAMPLE

Study 1: 336 prospective and current undergraduate psychology students at a university in southern England. Study 2: 57 year one psychology students from a university in the north of England. Study 3: 30 undergraduate psychology students from the university used in Study 1.

METHOD

The studies used a modified version of the Radford and Holdstock (1993) scale to assess students' objectives in taking a degree programme, by rating the importance of knowledge areas, skills development and experiences. Study 1 used a cross-sectional design comparing responses of student by year of study. Study 2 compared responses of students in year one in Study 1 to students at a second university. Study 3 used a longitudinal design to investigate changes in values by year of study.

RESULTS

The findings suggest that there are two types of students: those who are motivated by the discipline itself and those who are motivated by the acquisition of more general skills and experiences. The perceived importance of many aspects declines over the three years of the degree, and seems especially low in year two. However, some aspects, notably research methodology, and some skills and experiences show marked increases in the final year.

CONCLUSIONS

Current theories of educational motivation need to be extended to account for the difference between subject-related and generic motives.

Uncertainty about study choice and regulation

A regression model was tested to examine the relation between uncertainty about choice of study and regulation activities in three groups of freshmen (N = 566). Invariance of regression coefficients, intercept, and residual error terms over groups was found. The strongest explanatory variable of uncertainty about choice of study was lack of regulation.

Burnout in teachers: shattered dreams of impeccable professional performance

Burnout usually is conceptualized as a work-related syndrome stemming from the individual's perception of a significant gap between expectations of successful professional performance and an observed, far less satisfying reality. The article examines this perception as a discrepancy between expected and observed levels of the individual's professional self-efficacy. The teaching profession and its service providers--teachers--serve as a model to illustrate and support this examination. Self-reports of novice teachers' experiences in their first year of teaching are given, reflecting a world of shattered dreams of idealistic performance. Finally, a number of suggestions for programs and activities that have proven helpful in alleviating stress and burnout among teachers are described.

Clergy burnout: an integrative approach

Understanding how clergy, who begin their careers with high idealism, optimism, and compassion, burn out is difficult. One body of research suggests that clergy, among others, burn out because of the systems in which they work. From this perspective, burnout is the result of external systemic factors such as bureaucracy, poor administrative support, and difficult work conditions. The other body of research suggests that burnout is the result of intrapersonal factors such as high idealism, Type-A personality, narcissism, and perfectionism. It is our position that these two bodies of research are compatible, and that by integrating the Self psychology of Kohut with the general systems theory of Bowen, it becomes easier to understand burnout. Further, by integrating these two theories, principles for treatment become clearer.

What does it take to have a positive impact on minority students' college retention?

This paper describes the Young Scholars Program (YSP), which seeks to expand the pool of African American and other underrepresented minority youth who aspire to attend college, and to help them meet entrance requirements and successfully obtain a college degree. Quarter-by-quarter data for the first two groups of YSP students entering The Ohio State University were promising. Their retention rates approximated university averages, while comparison groups showed lower levels of retention. It was concluded that the many facets of the Young Scholars Program, as well as the students' positive reputation among family members, peers, and teachers, produced strong motivation, ability, and determination to succeed.