Personality, demographic characteristics, publication rate, and citations to published work were examined in a sample of male and female academic psychologists. Reputational rankings of their graduate schools and current institutions were significantly related to citations, as were components of achievement motivation. Mastery and work needs were positively related to citations, whereas competitiveness was negatively associated with the criterion. Large sex differences were found in citations, with men receiving significantly more recognition and producing at a higher rate. A model of attainment in psychology is proposed, and possible explanations for the differential attainment of the sexes are explored. The scientific reward system acknowledges that there are large differences in the number and importance of contributions made by scientists working in the same area within a discipline. Scientific attainment is clearly multiply determined by factors within the individual, such as ability and motivation, and by external factors, such as the quality of training and access to necessary resources. The joint contribution of internal and external factors to scientific achievement poses an intriguing topic for research.
A common hypothesis has considered apparent differences in the incidence of reading disability in Asian and Western languages to be related to orthographic factors. A reading test was constructed in English, Japanese, and Chinese to assess the validity of this proposal. Large samples of fifth-grade children in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States were given the test and a battery of 10 cognitive tasks. Strong evidence was found that reading disabilities exist among Chinese and Japanese as well as among American children. In discriminating between groups of poor and average readers by means of the cognitive tasks, the combined effects of general information and verbal memory proved to be the most powerful predictors in Japan and Taiwan. General information and coding emerged as the most effective predictors for American children. The results cast doubt upon the crucial significance of orthography as the major factor determining the incidence of reading disabilities across cultures.
This article describes a method for constructing a test of mathematics achievement for use in cross-national study. The mathematics curricula as presented in elementary school textbook series from Japan, Taiwan, and the United States were analyzed according to the grade level at which various concepts and skills were introduced. The Japanese curriculum contained more concepts and skills and also introduced these concepts and skills earlier than the curricula of Taiwan and the United States. The curriculum was somewhat more advanced in the United States than in Taiwan. Details of the procedure used in constructing the mathematics test are described. The test was administered to 240 first-grade and 240 fifth-grade children randomly selected from 40 classrooms in each of the three countries. Children from Japan and Taiwan consistently performed at a higher level than their American counterparts. Level of achievement in elementary school mathematics appears not to be closely related to the content of the curriculum.Students in the United States lag behind those of many other countries in their achievement in mathematics. Students in Japan, on the other hand, have consistently been among the top performers in crossnational studies of mathematics and science achievement (Comber & Keeves, 1973;Glaser, 1976;Husen, 1967). These crossnational studies have primarily involved junior and senior high school students, and This study was conducted in cooperation with professor Chen-
Chinese, Japanese, and American children at grades 1 and 5 were given a battery of 10 cognitive tasks and tests of achievement in reading and mathematics. Samples consisted of 240 children in each grade in each culture. 2 major purposes of the study were to determine possible differences in cognitive abilities of Japanese, Chinese, and American children and to investigate the possible differential relation of scores on cognitive tasks to reading by children of the 3 cultures. Similarity was found among children of the 3 cultures in level, variability, and structure of cognitive abilities. Chinese children surpassed Japanese and American children in reading scores; both Chinese and Japanese children obtained higher scores in mathematics than the American children. Prediction of achievement scores from the cognitive tasks showed few differential effects among children of the 3 cultures. The results suggest that the high achievement of Chinese and Japanese children cannot be attributed to higher intellectual abilities, but must be related to their experiences at home and at school.
A three component (Work orientation, Mastery needs, and Competitiveness) measure of achievement motivation was applied to a criterion from the Science Citation Index for a sample of 103 Ph.D. scientists, and engineers. Significant interactions between Work and Mastery and Work and Competitiveness were found. The relationship between this model of achievement motivation and scientific attainment is discussed.
Clinical observations and recent theorizing offer two opposing predictions about the relationship between Pattern A and the merit of one's work: (a) Pattern A helps; (b) Pattern A hinders. To test these two possibilities, male members of the Society of Experimental Social Psychologists completed a measure of Pattern A behavior, and citation scores were derived for each man from the Social Science Index 1973-1975. Assuming that citations are a rough measure of meritorious work, the results revealed that Type A behavior by men is associated with superior scientific work. Thus, it is unlikely that Pattern A hinders meritorious work. Rather, it may help.
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