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The article informs that self-report techniques have been utilized to measure personality attributes since R.S. Woodworth's "Personality Inventory." The traditional self-report methodology requires the S to respond to a series of statements by indicating whether they are true or false when applied to himself, and his responses are scored by a key developed after an item analysis of the responses given by variously defined criterion groups. The technique for assessing self descriptions with which this paper is concerned lies somewhere between the above two methods of self-report, and consists of having subjects complete three sentence stems by selecting adjectives to describe their feelings, their study or work habits, and their social reaction pattern.

Cyathura polita is a benthic, estuarine isopod found in restricted habitats, but normally tolerant of salinities between 0.5 and 32 ‰. Established populations of C. polita are not found in the oceanic habitat or in fresh water. Their absence from these two habitats may be the result of the failure of some stage in the life cycle to osmoregulate. Measurements of freezing point depressions of the body fluids of juvenile and adult C. polita which had been subjected to salinities of 0.0 to 40 ‰ (NaCl) for 3 hours were used to show that both stages in the life cycle osmoregulate. At low salinities the juveniles and adults were equally able to osmoregulate. At the highest salinity, higher than in normal habitats of C. polita, adults were better able to osmoregulate than juveniles. Part of the animals were subjected to 44,000 r of gamma irradiation from a Cs137 source and were then subjected to the various salinities. At low salinities the juveniles and adults of the irradiated group were equally able to regulate, and their ability was equal to that of the animals subjected to salinity changes alone. At the highest salinity, however, juveniles and adults that were irradiated had less ability to osmoregulate then the non-irradiated animals. Juveniles were more strongly affected by irradiation than adults. Irradiation, then, decreases the ability to osmoregulate only at the highest salinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares two statistical techniques-multiple re gression and con figural analysis-used in developing parole pre- diction tables, according to their ability to (1) differentiate between offenders who violate parole and those who do not, (2) predict violators from among a new group of parolees, and (3) assist administrators and researchers. First, experience tables had to be developed and tested for prediction ability. Once their accuracy in predicting had been demonstrated,, they could be used as base expectancies because they had the quality of being "expected." As such, they could be used as a yardstick to evaluate correctional program? ability to reduce these "expected" violation rates. The two methods were applied to the same body of data and the results were coin pared. The data consist of Wisconsin adult male offenders paroled in 1954-57 and in 1958-59. All were followed up for two years while they were on parole. The first group was used to develop, the experience tables; the second group was used to test prediction ability. The tables were compared for accuracy in predicting through use of the Dc index and for accuracy in differentiating by the J index, measures developed by H. Richard John using Daniel Glaser's data gathered for federal parolees. Both configural and regression methods worked about equally well in differentiating between violators and nonviolators and in estimating the proportion who will become violators in later groups. A combination, of approaches is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prison sentences set by a paroling authority vary, as expected, with characteristics of the offenders. Is part of the variation in sentences, however, associated not with the offenders but with the persons responsible for the decisions? Comparisons of sentences set by various parole board members may be misleading if differences in the types of offenders concerned are not taken into account. If an experimental study of the question with adequate controls for "types of offenders" is not feasible, statistical controls might be substituted. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate a method for comparing decisions by parole board members. Study of the sentences of 2,053 men paroled in one year, analyzed according to six parole board members who participated in the hearing, demonstrated the need for the study suggested. The groups of offenders were not directly comparable. When relevant characteristics of the offenders were taken into account, it was found that the decision-makers tended to make similar decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the request of leading national parole organizations, the National Parole Institutes undertook a study to determine whether a useful information system describing the results of parole can be developed as a joint effort of paroling authorities. A tentative model for uniform parole. statistics was devised by representatives of twenty-nine parole agencies. The model was tested by eight agencies, which contributed data monthly, and was examined further by sixteen agencies. The result is a workable data collection system, a common vocabulary, and procedures for feedback to participating agencies. The data collected during the study demonstrate that comparisons of agency effectiveness must take into account differences in the kinds of offenders paroled. The study shows that the tentative model ultimately can provide a firm basis for meaningful analyses of parole experience based on uniform reporting from all our diverse parole systems. A three-year study has been initiated to develop the Uniform Parole Reporting System. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]