The study reported here explored differences in environmental characteristics between classrooms for adolescents identified as behaviorally disordered and traditional secondary school classrooms. Using the Classroom Environmental Scale and a measure of school satisfaction, 38 classrooms in six special schools were compared to a normative sample of classrooms. Findings suggest that while some homogeneity exists among programs for behaviorally disordered youth, the perceptions of these students differ qualitatively from students in traditional school programs. In addition, students in special schools perceive order and organization lower and teacher control higher than did students in traditional school programs. Results suggest that student satisfaction with school was related to greater levels of perceived involvement, affiliation, and teacher support for the special students but not for students in the traditional school sample. The study has implications for further research on the assessment of classroom environments and the development of measures appropriate for special and traditional school populations.
This study assessed the validity of examining the influence of counselors' physical attractiveness via observation of videotape segments. The first section of the study involved a replication of the work of Cash, Begley, McCown, and Weise, using 3-minute videotaped excerpts of introductory presentations made by three male and three female graduate-student counselors. Two control conditions (audio-only and video-only observations) were used for comparisons. In the second section, the same six counselors each saw five clients over four sessions for an individually administered assertiveness-training program. Participants in all conditions provided standardized ratings of counselor attractiveness, technical skill, and social competence. Counselor ratings were highly influenced by modality of presentation, with in vivo contact yielding more positive impressions than those made after simply observing the counselor. Physical attractiveness also proved to be a less powerful predictor of counselor effectiveness than perceived technical skill.
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