No abstract

The effects of sex and race on a form of dominance behavior were investigated as a function of a challenger's sex and race. Dominance was defined as the number of verbal challenges against a subject's picture choice that a subject withstood. Dyads (N = 128) composed of a student and a confederate recorded individual preferences and joint decisions for the more attractive picture of 20 pairs of pictures. The number of challenges a student sustained each time a disagreement occurred regarding the more attractive picture of a pair was recorded. Results supported the theory of status characteristics when subjects participated with white confederates: Black females were more dominant than white females and black males (p < .OS), and white males were more dominant than black males (p < .05). With a black confederate, however, black males became significantly more dominant (p < .05), whereas the behavior of the other three groups did not change. All subjects withstood significantly fewer challenges from females than from males (p < .05). These results suggest that sex and race cannot be viewed solely as subject variables that create differences in behavior. Instead these variables interact, and one must examine the characteristics (in this case sex and race) of group members (situation variables) as well as the characteristics of a single person to obtain an accurate picture of mixed-sex or biracial interactions.

In the past, social psychological researchers have generally treated sex and race as independent status characteristics. The utility of this unidimensional model is questioned. Literature examining sex and race differences in status which then predict behavior (specifically resistance to influence) is reviewed to demonstrate the inadequacy of separating the effects of these characteristics. The importance of sex and race as both personal and contextual characteristics is then discussed.

To address the issue of plagiarism, students in two undergraduate Research Methods and Analysis courses conducted, analyzed, and wrote up original research on the topic of plagiarism. Students in an otherwise identical course completed the same assignments but examined a different research topic. At the start and end of the semester, all students (n ¼ 44) completed a homework assignment assessing plagiarism knowledge and paraphrasing skills. Students in the plagiarism-themed courses showed improvement in both knowledge and skills, and the strategies they suggested for avoiding plagiarism became more sophisticated as did the reasons for avoiding plagiarism. The control group did not show the same improvements. Results suggest repeated handson exposure to the topic of plagiarism improves plagiarism avoidance and understanding.

Moist people are aware of the existence of the child murderer from newspaper headlines; yet, little scientific study has been done on this category of offenders. Much previous research involves the study and diagnosis of children and their case histories and hypothesizes an element or elements common to all the cases in that particular study. Thus far, however, theorists have not agreed upon a single underlying cause or group of causes which could explain and be used to predict all instances of homicide committed by children.It .is not surprising that little attention has been given to the problem when one considers the small percentage of total crime that the very young commit. In 1925, there were .8% murderers per 100 male delinquents (Burt, 1965). A study done in the . Greater Cleveland area from 1947-1953 found only .9% of all people charged with felonious homicide were between 11-15 years of age. Only two other age groups (76 years and older and 66-70 years old) had lower rates (Bensing and Schrader, 1960).In a 1960-1963 study in Philadelphia, only 2, or 1.4%, of 145 offenses causing bodily harm were murder. The subjects were youths of the city ranging from 7-18 years of age (Sellin and Wolfgang, 1964).