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This study measured the anxiety, attitudes toward people with disabilities, and sex roles of a sample of undergraduate men attending a military college in the southeast (n = 58). Students who had voluntarily participated in the college's 'Buddy Program,' in which the students interact on a weekly basis with people with mental, physical, and emotional disabilities, were compared with peers who had had limited or no such contact. Data analysis showed no significant differences in androgyny and attitudes toward people with disabilities between the two groups. However, there was a significant difference in anxiety when interacting with persons with disabilities. Correlational analyses showed that scores indicating lower general anxiety and lower anxiety specific to interacting with persons with disabilities were significantly correlated with attitudes toward persons with disabilities. Implications for recruiting and training male volunteers to work with persons who have disabilities are discussed.

The present study investigated perceptions of men and women in the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets. For both stereotypes and evaluations of individual cadets enrolled in the training program, men more than women were believed to possess the motivation and leadership qualities necessary for effective military performance, whereas women were believed to possess more feminine attributes that impair effective military performance. Because men and women did not differ on objective measures of military performance, the sex-differentiated evaluations of cadets enrolled in training most plausibly reflect the influence of gender stereotypes rather than performance differences between the sexes. Furthermore, integration of women into the corps was associated with more favorable stereotypic judgments of women and did not reveal a backlash against women in this strongly male-dominated setting.

We compared the efficacy of the state form of the MAACL-R (Zuckerman & Lubin, 1985) in predicting success in Air Force basic training. Results of discriminant functions analyses showed that the Anxiety, Depression, Hostility, Positive Affect, and Sensation Seeking scales of the state MAACL-R efficiently predicted success in basic training. The need to incorporate state measures into studies of prediction is discussed.

The authors hypothesized that excessive reassurance-seeking would prospectively predict changes in depressive symptoms, even controlling for changes in anxious symptoms, and would not predict changes in anxious symptoms controlling for changes in depressive symptoms. This prediction was supported in a study of 1,005 air force cadets. Participants completed measures of excessive reassurance-seeking and depressive and anxious symptoms before basic training, and completed symptom measures again following basic training. This study, together with others, demonstrates that excessive reassurance-seeking is an important depression-related variable that deserves serious attention as a potential vulnerability factor.

This study contrasted different forms of group cohesiveness in a student military organization. A questionnaire assessing task cohesion, interpersonal cohesion, role uncertainty, and group performance processes was administered to members of nine large-scale cadet squadrons in the United States. Two behavioral outcomes, individual performance and absenteeism, were also assessed. Individual correlations adjusted for group-level effects indicated that task cohesiveness was more strongly associated with lower role uncertainty, higher individual performance, and lower absenteeism than was interpersonal cohesiveness. These analyses also showed equally strong associations between group performance processes and both forms of cohesion. Taken together, the data provide evidence for a multidimensional rather than a unitary perspective of group cohesiveness.

This is one of many recent studies showing that JROTC and ROTC students display significantly greater personal development than corresponding typical individuals. It suggests that carefully organized team membership tends to foster personal development in the individuals involved. An exaggeration of this personal development is demonstrated by comparing high school JROTC students with typical college students; as referred to in this study. Repeated studies show that the one million high school drop-out students presently in our prisons are seriously lacking in personal development. This suggests that JROTC is an excellent 'delinquency prevention' program., Repeated studies at both the high school and college levels demonstrate that JROTC at high school level and ROTC at college level generally display statistically significant higher personal development for [...]

The present study sought to make a meaningful comparisons between high school JROTC students in San Diego and upper division college students (juniors and seniors) in a large university in Tennessee. It sought to examine critical elements that serve as the basis for success of individuals in a democracy; as opposed to communism or socialism. The study shows that JROTC fosters 'democratic maturity' significantly better at the high school level for students than college programs do at the upper division college level., Groups Involved The first group included 154 high school Air Force JROTC cadets in a San Diego high school. They ranged in age from 14 to 20 years with a [...]

The US Coast Guard Academy provides a unique setting for predictive research using psychological tests. Not only is it a 'closed' setting, but all incoming students ('swabs') take a battery of tests in the summer before their first semester. Although the senior author and her colleagues had succeeded in isolating variables that differentiate cadets who successfully complete the program from those who drop out, the current study was an attempt to use the profile data to make specific predictions concerning completion vs attrition by use of a discriminant analysis. The relative ineffectiveness of personality scales, even after considerable refinement of the variables, to predict this specific outcome is an indication of the complexity of the decision making.

This article deals with values and value changes at three levels: (1) What values do cadets at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) hold at entrance, and do they hold the same values as other college students? (2) How do USMA cadet values change during their four years at West Point? (3) How consistent is the pattern of change from cohort to cohort? Using the Scott Values Inventory (SVI) and the Army Year of Values Survey (AYVS), cadets entering the United States Military Academy were found to have higher scores than students entering a nonmilitary four-year public university. Using the SVI, four cohorts of cadets at the Academy provided repeated measures of their values from entrance to graduation. The pattern of changes in values for all four classes was similar; the similarities of how each class changed were remarkable in view of changes in the curriculum and student body during the seventeen years of this study. Using the AYVS, two cohorts of cadets showed that values recognized as appropriate for Army leaders were high at entrance and remained so over their four years in higher education., Values are a central concern of military leadership doctrine,(1) as well as a classic concern of sociology,(2) yet have rarely been studied in college-level military education. General interest in assessing [...]

This article deals with values and value changes at three levels: (1) What values do cadets at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) hold at entrance, and do they hold the same values as other college students? (2) How do USMA cadet values change during their four years at West Point? (3) How consistent is the pattern of change from cohort to cohort? Using the Scott Values Inventory (SVI) and the Army Year of Values Survey (AYVS), cadets entering the United States Military Academy were found to have higher scores than students entering a nonmilitary four-year public university. Using the SVI, four cohorts of cadets at the Academy provided repeated measures of their values from entrance to graduation. The pattern of changes in values for all four classes was similar; the similarities of how each class changed were remarkable in view of changes in the curriculum and student body during the seventeen years of this study. Using the AYVS, two cohorts of cadets showed that values recognized as appropriate for Army leaders were high at entrance and remained so over their four years in higher education., Values are a central concern of military leadership doctrine,(1) as well as a classic concern of sociology,(2) yet have rarely been studied in college-level military education. General interest in assessing [...]