This study concerns the sources of stress which music students perceive to be most debilitating to them as music students and prospective musicians. Students at three very different kinds of music schools in three geographical areas of the United States were surveyed. The questionnaire used in the survey listed 22 sources of stress which were identified through a review of the literature on the subject and a review of similar instruments. Fifty per cent of the students at the three institutions were randomly selected to receive mailed questionnaires and the 201 respondents represented 35 per cent of the original sample. The 22 identified stressors were rated for severity by the 201 students at the three schools. A rank order of stress sources for each school was derived. In addition to the general undifferen- tiated items labelled "stress" and "burnout" as major stressors, "music progress impatience" was identified as a particularly important source of stress. "Preperformance nervousness" was also ranked high by all groups. "Job insecurity" and "musical versus personal life conflicts" were also high, especially at specific schools. Ninety-six per cent of the students sought help with their music-related stresses. However, these sources of support were informal and not professional. Friends were most often the support net- work. Formal counselling was seen as a last resort. However, a majority indicated that they would seek the counsel of "specialised" counsellors with knowledge of the music profession and the ability to relate to the unique problems of music students. The question remains as to whether faculty and administrators of music education programmes will recognise and alter undue stressors created for students by the programmes themselves, especi- ally those related to conflicts between the programme and outside work and personal concerns.

The efficacy of laboratory training in group dynamics as a technique for modifying group processes in the direction of theoretically more effective practices was explored. Thirty groups trained in group dynamics were compared with 30 untrained groups with respect to their performance on the 12 Angry Men decision-making task. Within each of the trained and untrained samples three populations of decision-makers were studied (20 groups each of college, management, and neuropsychiatric subjects) in order to provide varying levels of substantive and procedural skills relative to the task. The groups within each population and trained/untrained conditions were evenly split between established entities and ad hoc assemblies. The data were analyzed according to both performance and process criteria. Trained groups consistently performed more effectively than untrained groups on measures of decision quality, utilization of superior resources, and creativity. No tradition effects were discernible, and only expected population differences were obtained. Several differences among covarying performance and process variables were identified for trained versus untrained groups.

The purpose of the study was to compare the decision-making performances of established and ad hoc groups under conditions of high and low substantive conflict. The results indicated that established groups were significantly superior to ad hoc groups in decision performance relative to several criteria. The group processes for handling conflict, as revealed in an analysis of emergent solution products, also seemed to differ in that ad hoc groups were likely to resolve, differences through compromise procedures whereas established groups responded with increased creativity. Moreover, the data indicated that ad hoc groups were systematically limited by the quality of their prediscussion member resources while established groups were not so limited. The importance of the group tradition variable in the search for principles of group functioning is stressed.

In his recent book, Charles E. Silberman underscores the role of the law as an educating institution. “Since means shape ends, the kinds of legal procedures the society develops shape the goals and values and indeed the whole character and ethos of the society” (Silberman, 1970: 42). He convincingly argues that the attempts in recent years to provide legal services to the poor have necessitated radical changes in the conception of the lawyer's role. “For one thing, he becomes an educator in a much more specific way, since the first (and perhaps most important) part of his job may be to educate the poor to what their rights are” (Silberman, 1970:43). Yet it is not only the poor who have difficulty when it comes to understanding the laws of society, and many people have been confronted with situations in which they have, after the fact, discovered that what they have done was illegal. The My Lai trials may be simply an extreme case in point. In the defense of Lt. Calley, the lawyers in the case were expected to argue that the defendant did not know the difference between a legal and illegal order and such an argument was used successfully in the similar Diener case. Yet the old adage has it that “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” In many lesser situations citizens are unsure as to what their legal responsibilities are or what others legally have the right to do or not do.

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