Abstract
A central assumption behind the expectation that the desegregation program in Riverside would improve the academic performance of minority children was that contact with the majority Anglo children in the desegregated classroom would strengthen certain motives and values believed to be important mediators of academic achievement. Both the Coleman report (1966) itself and reanalyses of its data (e.g., Mosteller &Moynihan, 1972) have strongly suggested as much. This chapter examines personality factors that might mediate the child’s adjustment to the desegregation experience. It has been shown, for example, that anxiety partially mediates performance on intellectual tasks (Katz, 1964; Spence, 1963). Likewise, numerous other personality traits might also be expected to predict the child’s response to desegregation, and to the extent that such traits mediate adjustment, they are of particular interest to us.
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© 1975 Plenum Press, New York
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Green, D., Miller, N., Gerard, D.S. (1975). Personality Traits and Adjustment. In: School Desegregation. Perspectives in Social Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-4310-3_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-4310-3_9
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