Peer-mediation in a school environment, when carried out correctly, can benefit not only the parties of the conflict, but also their environment, including the school, the team, the family and the mediator. A serious same has been designed and a prototype developed for the training of minors and young adults as mediators. The core of the game is a…

Although over 5,000 children and adolescents commit suicide annually, little is known about suicidal thinking of normal children. Due to ethical considerations, researchers must be sensitive to the possibility that they could introduce suicide as an option to a child. A methodology was developed to examine suicidal thinking through projected…

The roles that essentially contested concepts play in persuasive discourse are examined in this paper. The first section of the paper reviews W. B. Gallie's original explication of the nature of essentially contested concepts and the body of theoretical literature that has developed in response to it. It then notes three major areas of…

In two experiments (N=210) conservers, transitional conservers, and nonconservers were directed to lie or pretend to other children that their judgments and explanations of a series of conservation problems were the opposite of what they really were. Nonconservers and transitional subjects in both studies made large and significant gains in…

The purpose of this study was to identify conflict resolution strategies used by siblings when they chose television programs to watch and to examine differences in strategies associated with sex of child, the age interval between siblings, and their ordinal position. Children, 116 pairs of siblings in first through sixth grade, were interviewed…

Sequential relationships between Stroop color-word stimuli were explored in a random discrete-trials manual response design. Posttrial availability of an interfering response was indicated by a subsequent reduction of reaction time when that response became appropriate. Previous evidence for suppression of competing responses is probably…

This paper discusses some of the central issues involved in philosophizing about rhetoric by raising two primary questions within the context of three traditional branches of philosophy: ontology, axiology, and epistemology. The two questions raised are: What are dialectical tensions in a philosophy of rhetoric? and How does a person try to cope…

Because of a multiplicity of approaches to small group argument, research in this area often needs to be summarized, condensed, and redirected. Researchers have identified the rational, cognitive and interactive components of argumentation, and have demonstrated that arguments can take several forms and fulfill a variety of functions. The result…

The concept of complexity in decision-making can be found in several lines of conceptualization in the area of national and international decision-making. One derives from the classic works on authoritarianism and dogmatism (Adorno, et al., 1950; Rokeach, 1960). Another approach relies on the variables that pertain to group dynamics and to…

Families experiencing severe conflict are often unable to effectively implement applied behavioral procedures due to interfering emotional responses (anger, blaming, anxiety and depression) and behavioral responses (yelling, crying and physical fighting), which often reduce effective implementation of applied behavioral procedures. Specific…

How do more experienced school administrators think about and attend to problems in school administration? This paper presents findings of a study that compared how principals and aspiring principals cognitively processed and solved a problem scenario. A total of 30 practicing principals and 24 aspiring principals (referred to as the "novice…

Research on learning styles has shown that students learn better when teachers plan class learning activities to fit students' learning styles. This paper describes three "ways of knowing" and discusses the role they play in "knowing the culture" of a school. The first part relates ways of knowing to the usual three domains of learning--cognitive,…

A study tested a model of bargaining rite by examining procedural rituals, organized fantasies, and ritualistic language in teachers' negotiations. Specifically, it sought to identify the communicative forms that create shared consciousness, to describe shared fantasies, to illustrate the role of group fantasy in forming rhetorical visions, and to…

A study examined the effect of assigned social decision rule (whether a jury is required to give a unanimous or less than unanimous verdict) on the process and product of mock jury deliberations. Subjects, 360 students from an eastern university, were randomly assigned to six-member juries under three decision rule conditions: (1) unanimity, (2)…

A study continued a series of empirical investigations into the psychological criteria people use to determine whether or not to make particular arguments. Two hundred volunteers enrolled in a required public-speaking course (1) responded to several demographic questions, (2) described the persuasive choices they would make in the scenario…