The purposes of this paper are to focus on the property of group cohesiveness as a positive force affecting students' cognitive and personal growth, and to draw some implications from the research on cohesiveness for teachers who employ open classroom techniques. A bibliography is included. (Author/MLF)

The control orientation of educators may predispose them to resist compromising in conflict for fear of appearing ineffective to their colleagues. Students' and community groups' nonnegotiable demands may also induce this fear and resistance to compromising. Subjects who believed their group member evaluated them on resisting intimidation,…

A study investigated the relationship between children's communication competence and perceptions of communication abilities, academic performance, and social status. Subjects were 36 children in fifth and sixth grades. The subjects completed a 30-item questionnaire on perceptions of themselves and their classmates along 3 factors: academic…

This study examined how parental advice-giving directly and indirectly influences children's quality of friendship with peers. Participating were 66 third graders, their classroom teachers, 66 mothers and 57 fathers, and 66 friends. All but one dyad of the target children and friend were the same gender. Teachers rated target children on peer…

A case study analyzed the function of language (how language was being used and for what purposes) in a composition classroom from a systemic linguistic perspective. The subject was a young woman of Iranian-Macedonian descent and the researcher was the subject's composition teacher. The study focused on the subject's use of metaphor in relation to…

The paper reports on studies involving children having the rare chronic skin diseases of hemangiomas and epidermolysis bullosa (characterized by easy blistering). One study compared the self-concept and psychosocial development of young (mean age 46 months) children (N=19) with hemangiomas with 19 children without hemangiomas. Findings indicated…

This paper reports on a year-long study of two preschool children's patterns of social adjustment and peer response. The theoretical orientation of the paper is interactionist. Patterns of adjustment and group response are described as social constructions which stigmatized the two children studied. The 24 children in the group came from…

The efficacy of a contextualist training model for increasing the peer acceptance of learning-disabled students through skills training and systematic opportunities for interactions with peers and teachers is evaluated. Ten peer-rejected learning-disabled subjects (seven males and three females) in grades 3 to 6 were selected to participate in the…

Residential programming has become an important treatment modality for adolescents with psychiatric disturbances. The importance of peer relations in treatment settings suggests a need for an objective assessment of these relations. Sociometric procedures were used to study the peer relationships of adolescents in a 15-bed residential treatment…

Research in the areas of friendship selection, interracial acceptance, interracial contact, and interracial dating was reviewed to determine the nature of intergroup relations for White, Hispanic, and Black adolescents. The findings indicate that Black, White and Hispanic adolescents prefer same-race friends. When cross-race friendships occur in…

This study investigated: (1) differences in disciplinary styles of full-time, part-time, and nonemployed mothers of older and younger children; and (2) interactive effects of maternal employment status and disciplinary styles on children's peer status. Participants were 144 mothers of 59 first graders and 85 fourth graders who responded to 6…

A study was conducted to investigate the peer concepts held by 16 second-grade, 17 fourth-grade, and 17 sixth-grade students. A paired comparisons sociometric procedure was used to obtain children's descriptions of their classmates in the areas of reading, mathematics, drawing, and an athletic skill (running). In addition, the procedure measured…

Interviews, record reviews, student follow-up, achievement tests, survey instruments, and observation were used to gather data for the 1986/87 evaluation of the Topeka (Kansas) Educable Mentally Handicapped (EMH) Program. Strengths of the program were identified and included: a dedicated, well-trained staff; a good special education/regular…

Because people are separate individuals, interpersonal conflict is inevitable. Social psychologists have studied this area by examining styles of conflict resolution such as negotiation/bargaining. Counseling psychologists have attempted to address these concerns through assertiveness and aspects of parenting training. However, no specific model…

Social psychologists have studied interpersonal conflict by examining styles of conflict resolution such as negotiation/bargaining. Counseling psychologists have attempted to address these concerns through assertiveness and aspects of parenting training. In a previous study, a three-component confrontation model--specified behavior, emotional…