Surveys attitudes towards and beliefs about dyslexia among Adult Basic Education (ABE) teachers and providers. Finds doubt, uncertainty and confusion about dyslexia and considerable misgiving. Discusses attribution theory and learned helplessness in the context of ABE. Argues that a diagnosis of dyslexia may be a maladaptive attribution and so…

A study involving 30 learning disabled and 30 normally achieving grade four girls suggested that helplessness effects may be stronger for learning disabled than for normally achieving children. Comparison to an earlier study with grade four boys suggested the possibility of sex differences regarding effectiveness of helplessness alleviation…

Using three studies, examined the relationship between attitudes toward guns and fear of crime. Findings indicate a connection between fear of crime and attitudes toward guns: people higher in fear of crime favored gun control. Results also established a relationship between stereotypical beliefs about gun victims and support for gun control. (RJM)

Suicidal youth tend to doubt the effectiveness of professional mental health treatment. This study examined whether exposure to films about suicidal and mentally disturbed persons supports this lack of belief. Exposure to three popular films featuring suicides or the mentally ill was compared to films that featured a heroic suicide unrelated to…

Two experiments show that performance impairment after failure can occur in different ways, depending on the goals, values, self-perception, sex, presence of an observer, and other attributional tendencies of the individual responding to that failure. (JAZ)

The motivational effects of failure were investigated. Students worked perceptual judgment problems, receiving varying levels of failure feedback on their work on unsolvable problems. Subjects assessed their success or failure at the task. Those who believed they had failed scored higher on a subsequent set of similar, but solvable, problems.…

In an historical examination of educational equity issues the authors examine why sex equity remains an unrealized goal, how teacher behavior affects equity, and why classrooms and campuses are not encouraging places for women. The lack of support for equity in the current political climate is also addressed. (SK)

Investigates the relationship between causal attributions and responses to social rejection across popularity levels, focusing on individual differences along each dimension. (Author/SS)

Investigated the possibility that some kindergartners exhibit patterns of affective reactions associated with helplessness. Results indicated that, after they were criticized by their teachers, some kindergartners showed affective reactions and made self-evaluations associated with motivational helplessness. Reactions were related to conceptions…

Examined whether the mastery-oriented and helpless motivational patterns would be identified in Korean American kindergartners, and whether these patterns would be associated with general beliefs about goodness/badness. Found that Korean American children revealed more vulnerabilities in the face of negative feedback and they had more global,…

This article presents an alternative to conceptualization for treating depression that focuses on manipulating context. Ten strategies based on this approach are described, including prescribing depression, creating an ordeal for relief, exaggerating helplessness, controlling the uncontrollable, making deliberate mistakes, buying it and throwing…

Explores the topic of learned helplessness in children. Discusses these counselor strategies for helping children with learned helplessness: develop realistic attributions, provide feedback, provide success experiences, provide microcomputer experiences, and set realistic goals and expectations. (ABL)

Tested the hypothesis that psychological adjustment to epilepsy would be a joint function of subjects' (N=50) perceived repertoire of self-control skills and the extent to which they were exposed to uncontrollable seizures. Results showed that high-resourceful epileptics exposed to lower frequencies of seizures coped better with their disability.…

Following an incentive (low, high) manipulation, college students received response-outcome contingency training. All students then observed a lecture. Postlecture results indicated that the high- compared to the low-expressive lecturer increased achievement and internal locus in contingent but not noncontingent students for low-incentive…

Personality and behavioral consequences of learned helplessness were monitored in children experiencing failure in school. The predictive quality of learned helplessness theory was compared with that of value expectancy theories. Low self-concept was predicted significantly by school failure, internal attributions for failure, and external…