28th International Congress of Psychology August 8 ... - U-netSURF

3122.1 Parents and teachers’ attributions and emotions for students’ academic performance in
real achievement situations, Georgia Stephanou, Technological Educational Institute of
Thessaloniki, Greece
Attributions and emotions constitute important aspects of one’s involvement in education either as
student, parent or teacher, since they influence one’s behavioral reactions to the other and students’
learning and development. This study investigated parents (n=100)’ and teachers (n=60)’
attributions and emotions for 11th grade students’ exam performance. The results showed that: (a)
parents and teachers attributed success mainly to students’ hard word, whereas parents and
teachers ascribed failure to situation and students’ poor effort, respectively, (b) both of them
experienced intense positive affects for success and -especially, parents- negative affects (mainly,
outcome) for failure, and (c) attributions influenced emotions.
3122.2 Predictors of student adaptation to college, David Manier, Carol Alt, Paicy Veras,
Lehman College, USA
We hypothesized that student adjustment to college (measured with the Student Adaptation to
College Questionnaire; Baker & Siryk, 1984) would be predicted by self-efficacy (measured with
the College Self-Efficacy Inventory; Solberg, OBrien, Villareal, Kennel, & Davis, 1993),
perceived stress (measured with the College Stress Inventory; Solberg, Hale, Villareal, &
Kavanaugh, 1993), and perceived social support (measured with the Social Provisions Scale;
Cutrona & Russell, 1987). Based on a standard method for analyzing mediator effects (cf. Baron
& Kenny, 1986), our results showed the positive effect of perceived social support on student
adjustment to be mediated through self-efficacy and perceived stress.
3122.3 Changes in Confucian heritage culture (CHC) students’ approaches to learning over time
in a new environment, Bobbie Matthews, Flinders University, Australia
This longitudinal study was undertaken to investigate whether CHC students’ approaches to
learning were retained or modified in a Western social, cultural, and educational environment. A
bilingual version of the Study Process Questionnaire was used to measure students’ approaches to
learning at five points over a time period of two years in Australia. The results showed that five of
six approaches to learning changed during the period, but not for all groups of students. There was
no significant change for the Surface Strategy approach over time, there were effects associated
with this approach and the characteristics of particular groups.
3122.4 Teaching children to visualise words: The use of mental imagery in improving reading,
writing and spelling abilities, Charles Stuart Potter, Gregg Ravenscroft, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
This paper reports the results of research involving use of mental imagery in improving the
English spelling, reading and writing abilities of children with specific learning disabilities. The
study has involved 40 children, and an evaluation design using aggregative case survey
methodology. Each child's English reading, writing and spelling abilities have been pre- and
post-tested utilising a battery of clinically popular instruments and their phonic skills analysed.
These results have been compared with those of children receiving more traditional forms of
remediation. Use of mental imagery in learning has been investigated through clinical teaching
strategies, supplemented by semi-structured interviews.
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