Selective Attention and Locus of Control in Learning Disabled and Normal Children

A growing body of literature clearly shows typical LD children have trouble directing their attention to the central features of an externally-provided task. Further, LD children perceive the consequences surrounding their behavior to be more externally-controlled than does the average learner. This inactive, externally-controlled learning style is well documented. Further research needs now to isolate the subgroups which may exist within the broader characterization and examine the effectiveness of remedial techniques with the various subgroups. - G.M.S.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68875/2/10.1177_002221947801100407.pd

Contact With Nature, Sense of Humor, and Psychological Well-Being

We administered a questionnaire measuring contact with nature, sense of humor, and psychological well-being. Factor analysis of the humor items yielded four factors: humor production, humor appreciation, coping humor, and humor tolerance. Factor analysis of 14 well-being measures yielded three factors: emotional well-being, personal development, and effective functioning. The best sense-of-humor predictor of the well-being measures and factors was humor appreciation. Regression models for each of the well-being factors as dependent variables with humor appreciation and contact with nature as independent variables showed that additive models with both predictors were appropriate for personal development and effective functioning and that a simple model with humor appreciation as the sole predictor was sufficient for emotional well being. Secondary analyses suggested that contact with nature was the better predictor of effective functioning, whereas sense of humor was the better predictor of personal development

A psycho-linguistic approach for studying adult playfulness: a replication and extension toward relations with humor

This study addresses the basic structure of playfulness in adults from a psy- cho-lexical approach and its relationship with the sense of humor. Using items derived from a corpus analysis of written accounts in the German language, five factors were derived (N = 195); that is, (a) cheerful-engaged; (b) whimsical; (c) creative-loving; (d) intellectual; and (e) impulsive. Their contents strongly overlap in comparison with an earlier study using this approach. However, the correlation of the intellectual component with two current measures of adult playfulness was low, and the impulsive component was not correlated with these measures. The question arises as to whether these aspects exist only as components in the implicit psychological and linguistic theories. The sense of humor was most strongly related with the cheerful-engaged factor while some “humor skills” were particularly related to other factors; for example, finding humor under stress with the intellectual component. This study helps toward a better understanding of the basic structure of playfulness in adults