Degree Of Self-confidence Research Articles

Empowerment or Embellishment?: The Case of All-Women Police Stations in Madras, India

In a male dominated society women do not receive the same encouragement as men do in taking jobs traditionally identified as the male domain such as policing. Objectives of this study of women policing in India are to provide an insight into the organization and working of the all-women police stations to identify the strengths and weaknesses and to analyze whether they realistically empower women or are merely adopted as embellishments to project the myth of status and power. The women police originally institutionalized on the idea and the social conditions of sexual division of labor remains typically jobs: fewer in number very few in higher level concentration on the womens duties with proper training. On the other hand once entered the women achieve certain degree of self-confidence. Under the circumstance it is hard to conclude that women police promises a direction toward gender equality but it is the authors view that women police has some value in protecting well-being and in enhancing the image and role of women in the society and thus needs improvement. (authors)

A "Landscape" Approach to Teaching Poetry

In the course of teaching an Introduction to German Literature (the course focusses on drama and lyric; the students have usually had four to six quarters of German), I have gradually developed a model for dealing with certain kinds of lyric poetry based on landscape and can or cannot be found in the landscape described by a poem. The model came to my attention in part as a result of a larger project in which I have been examining the perception of space in literature, but I have found that once it is explained most of my students can use it to guide them in discovering on their own textual elements that can open up a first interpretation of a lyric poem. Particularly at the intermediate level, where students have their first chance to focus on a text strictly as a literary text, the model gives them a degree of self-confidence, since one of their most frequent complaints, especially in dealing with poetry, is that they do not know what to look for. The answer is a question: is the range of possibilities within the text itself? The model does not relieve the instructor of the responsibility of providing a fuller context (pertinent cultural information) and of teaching students that texts are always embedded in specific social-historical situations. On the contrary, by asking the right kinds of questions derived from the model, even these aspects of the text can be opened up.

Personality characteristics of students enrolled in an elective studies degree program

Personality characteristics of students choosing an elected studies degree option are compared with characteristics of conventional degree candidates on the Omnibus Personality Inventory (OPI). The current status of nontraditional degree programs is briefly reviewed. Results are discussed in terms of published findings for three other student groups: students in other nontraditional degree programs, students who withdraw voluntarily, and upperclass students. Elected studies students are found to have in common with all three groups the general characteristics of intellectual liberalism. The comparison with traditional students in this study shows differences between the two groups on 7 of 14 OPI scales, with the most outstanding differences being the degree of intellectual liberalism. A finding unique to this study appears to be the greater degree of self-confidence shown by the elected studies students. Several explanations are proposed for this result.

REMOTIVATION OF INSTITUTIONALIZED EPILEPTICS

The 12 sessions for the comparison group differed fundamentally from those of the experimental group in that the five-step Remotivation technique was not followed. Instead, the remotivator lectured regarding the day's topic, then permitted the patients to control the discussion. Also, patients were nor called by their names, and the remotivator did not express appreciation for their attendance at the close of the meetings. However, borh groups met in a mumally convenient location in their dormitory for 45-min. sessions during the same approximate time of day. Topics presented and utilization of visual aids did not differ. After each session 10 categories of each patient's behavior (interest, comprehension of subject matter, ability to respond appropriately to direct questions, frequency of volunteering information, relevancy of verbal expression, level of patient's self-awareness, attention to the proceedings, degree of cooperation, consideration of other patients, and the degree of self-confidence manifested) were rated on a six-point scale by the remotivator. During Sessions 4, 8, and 12 a staff psychologist made these ratings independently (interjudge r ranged from .90 to 97). The experimental group's Rorschach post-test means on R and T/first Rs were significantly higher than those of the comparison group (p = .05). Mean post-test scores on F+ and H for the two groups did not differ significantly. However, F+ mean scores for both groups were significantly higher on post-test than on pretest. When compared with their controls the Remotivation group received significantly higher ratings on the 10 behavioral categories for Sessions 2 through 12 (p < .05). Improved interpersonal relations seemed to be fostered through the five-step Remotivation technique. Followup smdies with large numbers of institutionalized epileptics are required before generalizations regarding the long-term effects of this technique may be justified.