Unstable self-esteem is thought to reflect fragile and vulnerable feelings of self-worth that are affected by specific positive and negative events. Direct evidence for this contention is lacking, however. To redress this situation, we examined the extent to which level and stability of self-esteem predicted the impact that everyday positive and negative events had on individuals' feelings about themselves. Participants recorded the most positive and most negative event that occurred each day Monday through Thursday for a period of 2 weeks. They then indicated the extent to which each event made them feel better or worse about themselves. As anticipated, negative and positive events had a greater impact on the self-feelings of individuals with unstable as opposed to stable self-esteem (although the effect for positive events was marginal). Additional findings indicated that event qualities (i.e., self-esteem relevance and concerns about social acceptance/rejection) could account for the unstable self-esteem/greater reactivity link for negative events, but not for positive events. Negative, but not positive, events had a greater impact on the self-feelings of individuals with low as compared to high levels of self-esteem. Theoretical implications are discussed.

The authors examined whether stability and level of self-esteem interact with daily hassles in predicting severity of depressive symptoms. As predicted, Time 2 depression scores (with Time 1 scores controlled) were highest among individuals with unstable self-esteem who reported considerable daily hassles. By contrast, self-esteem level did not interact with daily hassles to predict Time 2 depressive symptoms. These findings held even after negative self-concept items were eliminated from the depressive symptom inventories. Additional analyses revealed that self-esteem stability accounted for variance independent of the tendency to over generalize following failure or negative event attributional style. These findings support the contention that unstable self-esteem reflects fragile feelings of self-worth that exacerbate depressive symptoms under certain circumstances.

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address issues associated with online courses, focusing on introductory psychology. Data from 2 studies compared student attrition, performance, and evaluation in classroom sections and online sections. In Study 1, students chose to enroll in online or classroom sections; in Study 2, students were assigned to a section. Data indicate that attrition was similar in the 2 instructional formats. In Study 1, online students scored nonsignificantly lower on course tests and the final exam. Online students were more likely to fail the course. However, online students evaluated the course similarly to the classroom students. In Study 2, performance and evaluation were not different for the online and the classroom sections.Higher education, like any field, is subject to occasional trends, breakthroughs, and even paradigm shifts. Consider the overhead projector and the enormous impact this simple technology had on classroom presentation. Currently there are two forces with the potential to revolutionize higher education. These trends are increased use of instructional technology and distance learning (Willis, 1994). Many administrators believe increased use of technology and distance learning will help institutions attract students and use faculty resources most effectively. Hence, increased use of instructional technology and distance learning are often institutional goals (Council for Higher Education Accreditation, 1999).Although instructional technology and distance learning can take different forms, they come together in the online course. In a fully online course, the entire course consists of Web pages that students visit regularly. These pages communicate course content, deliver assignments, serve as a forum for class discussions, and may even be the site of exams. The faculty and students may never meet face to face.There are numerous potential benefits of online instruction. First, online courses allow institutions to serve nontraditional students. Students may complete their coursework at their leisure, thus allowing students who cannot attend conventional classes to have access to higher education. Instructors may also find themselves freed of the requirement of teaching class at the same time every day. As a matter of fact, students and faculty need not be at the same campus or even the same institution. For example, I taught an online course for Athens Technical College (ATC) while teaching at the University of Innsbruck in Austria one summer.Although there is still little research on the issue, it appears that the addition of online courses can increase an institution's overall enrollment. Ridley, Bailey, Davies, Hash, and Varner (1997) found that the addition of wholly online

This study looked at gender and Black/White differences for a number of variables related to attitudes toward obesity in a sample of 650 college students. The overall stereotypes of overweight persons were both negative and unrelated to subjects' own degree of obesity, although individuals reported that their personal views were less negative than those of others. Women indicated greater concern with obesity than men in several ways, and the societal stereotype of an overweight woman was seen as more negative than that of an overweight man. Men were more concerned about a date's weight than women, and White women's weight (unlike that of other subgroups) was negatively related to their likelihood and frequency of dating. Although Blacks, particularly Black females, were heavier than Whites, they were more satisfied with their body shape. Black males were less likely than White males to have refused to date someone because of her weight, and Blacks personally considered overweight women to be more attractive, sexier, less ugly, and less sloppy than did Whites. The findings suggest that both gender and ethnicity should be considered when discussing people's attitudes towards obesity and the consequences of such attitudes.