Mildly mentally retarded and nonretarded children's learned helplessness.

The relationship among four measures identified as operational definitions of learned helplessness was assessed in 44 mildly mentally retarded and 44 nonretarded children of equivalent mental age. Assessment of perseverance, response initiation, teacher perception of helplessness, and attributions for positive and negative achievement outcomes revealed an absence of corroboration in the two subgroups. The findings suggest that ability grouping and instrumentation are meaningful variables when evaluating learned helplessness in retarded and nonretarded students.

Demographic influences on perceptions of school psychological services.

This study examined the influence of demographic variables on the perceptions of 191 teachers, 90 administrators, and 51 school psychologists when establishing preference rankings in five areas of school psychological services: priority for referral, information-gathering techniques, utilization of the school psychologist, effectiveness with exceptional children, and strategies of remediation employed. A nonparametric analysis of rank indicated contradictory perceptions among the respondents. Age, sex, degree, experience, and level of assignment affected the subjects' perceptions variously. Explanations were proposed.

Moral judgment in retarded and nonretarded school age children.

The moral judgment of 135 normal, educable retarded, and trainable retarded boys and girls (ages 6-10, 11-13, and 14-16) was individually assessed to determine the significance of chronological age and IQ on moral development. The results indicated significant differences in mean normal judgment between the groups and each age level. The findings were interpreted as substantiating Piaget's stage theory of moral development and suggesting that within the retarded population, level of intellectual ability is also significantly related to moral judgment.