Higher Levels Of Mastery Research Articles

The acquisition and maintenance of emergency evacuation skills with mildly to moderately retarded adults in a community living arrangement

This study investigated the effects of behavioral training on the acquisition, maintenance, and transfer of fire evacuation skills with mentally retarded adult subjects. Four subjects residing in a moderately supervised community living setting were taught to evacuate their apartments in the event of fire emergencies. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used to evaluate the impact of training on subjects' performance. Training components included instructions, modeling, behavioral rehearsal, feedback, and reinforcement. To facilitate maintenance of responding, all subjects received behavioral programming. Additional training was provided to facilitate responding during actual nighttime fire drills. To enhance the likelihood of generalization, all subjects were trained in their own apartments with actual and simulated fire cues. Assessment was carried out during daytime and nighttime hours. Day and night assessment of responding after treatment termination was also conducted. The results indicated a high level of mastery by all subjects across acquisition and response maintenance training, although only moderate levels of responding were noted during the nighttime period. Implications for future research efforts in the area of emergency responding in community settings are discussed.

MATERNAL SELF-ESTEEM AND MASTERY IN RELATION TO INFANT BIRTHWEIGHT

Follow-up studies of very low birthweight (VLBW) infants have demonstrated that psychosocial as well as medical factors place infants at high risk for poor developmental outcome. Psychological resources of 40 new mothers were studied in a population of low-income Mexican-American women who delivered at Medical Center Hospital in San Antonio. Twenty subjects were mothers of VLBW infants (≤1250 grams) and 20 were mothers of normal birthweight (NBW) infants. Groups were matched on year of infant's birth, birth order, sex ratio, ethnicity, years of education, and marital status. Prior to the infant's hospital discharge mothers completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem and Pearlin Mastery Scales. Alpha reliability coefficients for the Self-Esteem Scale were .86 for the VLBW group and .65 for the NBW group (z=n.s.). For the Mastery Scale they were .78 and .34 (z=.04). Seventy percent of all mothers were found to have high levels of self-esteem and self-esteem was not related to birthweight group. Only 45% of VLBW mothers were found to have high levels of mastery and mastery scores were significantly related to self-esteem scores (r=.67) in the VLBW group. Contrary to expectations regarding the psychological resources of a low-income, minority population, mothers were found to regard themselves very positively, regardless of the infant's birthweight.

Individualizing French Through the Credit/No Credit, Open‐Ended Approach

ABSTRACT An individualized approach to language teaching may be used not only to motivate students through self‐pacing; more importantly, individualization should be used to impose a high level of mastery and avoid grade bargaining. The key is to vary the time needed by students to achieve mastery, rather than to fix the performance time to a variable level of mastery. Language teachers may use the structure of an individualized course rather than personal pressure and influence to stim late students. The same course structure be of service in training language majors teaching assistants and in reducing the section cost of instruction. Thus individualization may become a multi‐purpose technique, (service to the language teacher in a time) shrinking enrollments and increased demand for performance on the part of the profession.

Sex-Role Identification and Humor Among Preschool Children

Summary The importance of mastery in children's humor has been emphasized by many researchers and theorists. The present study tested the hypothesis that a high level of mastery over S's sex-role identity enhances the funniness of humor based on sex inappropriate behavior. Seventeen three- to five-year-old boys were tested on the It Scale and were shown drawings of children engaged in sex appropriate or inappropriate behavior whose outcome was either positive or negative. While inappropriate and negative outcomes were consistently seen as funnier than appropriate and positive ones, when inappropriate positive outcomes were pitted against appropriate negative ones, boys choosing the former as funnier than the latter had significantly higher sexrole identity scores. Support was claimed for the general role of mastery in children's humor.

The History of Entrance Examinations

To meet the entrance requirements of the colo nial colleges, according to Brubacher and Rudy (3: 12-13), students had to rely on private tutor ing from their hometown ministers. Sometimes boys roomed and boarded with educated ministers in order to receive regular instruction until the ministers considered the boys ready for admission. There were few organized schools in the colonial period which offered satisfactory college prepara tory training. Only the splendid Latin grammar schools of New England offered such training on an organized basis. The admissions examinations of colonial colleges were predominantly oral tests, although some colleges, including Harvard, re quired the writing of an essay in Latin. The ex aminations, however conducted, were designed to test the candidates' knowledge of Latin and Greek. Although the colonial colleges had requirements which covered a very narrow field, the classical languages, the colleges did expect and demand an extremely high level of mastery of these subjects. The requirements of Harvard College in 1650, quoted from the original college laws of Harvard College by Brubacher and Rudy (3:12), are typical of the admission requirements on which the oral entry examinations of the colonial colleges were based :