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Considerable interest has been shown in recent years in the development of techniques for the quantitative expression of personality traits not easily amenable to measurement by test methods. By the use of carefully defined categories of overt behavior, relatively short time samples, repeated observations, and systematic recording, the writer has attempted to accomplish the task of measurement through direct observation. 1 The adaptability of the general method to a variety of behavior traits has been illustrated by Goodenough. 2 The present investigation was initiated to test further the applicability of the method and to acquaint a class in the psychology of personality with its use.Whispering was chosen as the behavior to be observed. Wickman 3 has shown that whispering ranks first in frequency of occurrence among behavior problems in children, although teachers do not regard its occurrence in a child as a serious behavior disorder. A behavior problem is defined frequently as a discrepancy between the environmental demands made on an individual and his adjustment to them. Whispering, according to this definition, may or may not be a behavior problem in a particular classroom depending upon the requirements made with respect to it. The present report is concerned with an attempt to measure and describe whispering behavior in schoolroom situations quite apart from any judgment concerning its desirability or undesirability.

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The eighth joint meeting of the Council of Directors and Board of Editors was held on Sunday, Sept. 10, 1944 at which time reports on editorial and business policies were discussed.A report from Harold Schlosberg, who has been editing the Psychology News Letter for the Office of War Information, was presented at the joint meeting of Council and Editors. The report will be printed in the Psychology and the War section of an early issue of the Psychological Bulletin.The Council of Directors has prepared the following statement as a result of a discussion of channels of publication: The Council of Directors of the American Psychological Association calls the attention of psychologists to the importance of the media chosen for the publication of articles and studies of interest to the profession. Many university press publications and university series are distributed only to a few hundred libraries and seldom reach all professional psychologists, These publications often escape indexing and abstracting and are lost to the history of psychology. On the other hand, the Journals and Monographs of the Association place material directly in the hands of thousands of professional psychologists.The Board of Editors has elected H. S. Langfeld as Acting Chairman to serve in place of Walter S. Hunter, Chairman, who desired relief in order to devote his time to the Applied Psychology Panel of the Office of Scientific Research and Development.Walter S. Hunter was reelected as Editor of the Psychological Abstracts bj' the Electoral Board for the term beginning Jan. 1, 1946. Council on Feb. 8, 1944 voted an appropriation of $400.00 to cover railroad fare and pullman for attendance of the Board of Editors and Business Manager of Publications at a meeting at a time other than that of the Annual Meeting.