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The Development Of A Personalized Computer Assisted School Psychology (Casp) System, Patricia Lou Steinert

Dissertations

The purpose of this project was to develop a model computer system to assist school psychologists in managing and manipulating data accumulated in the course of accomplishing their professional responsibilities. School psychologists have traditionally generated large amounts of data, but rarely have they looked across these data to obtain information and/or feedback about their own functioning relative to their professional role. The system described is intended as a model from which an individual psychologist might construct a system to meet individual needs. Data across students were accumulated in four broad areas: (1) personal effectiveness/accountability, (2) diagnosis, (3) local test norms, …

An Analogue Of Science, Michael Albert Minervini

Dissertations

There is no science of human behavior, not even an incipient one. The popular conception of applied behavior analysis as a genuine principle-driven technology is mostly an illusion. Two sorts of evidence support this conclusion. The first is an ever widening split between the field's basic and applied realms. The second, thus far unacknowledged, is that when the concepts of operant and respondent conditioning are extended to human behavior, they are often rendered as no more than metaphors. These metaphors are not confined to casual discourse or even to interpretation. In fact, they are the prevailing form of extension in …

The Psychological Needs Of Sex Offenders Of Children As Measured By The Personality Research Form, Shirley Anne Miller

Dissertations

Major contributors in the field of child sexual abuse have agreed that sex offenders who sexually abuse children are not primarily motivated by sexual desire and have proposed that the simultaneous satisfaction of a number of psychological needs is the prominent motivation of sex offenders of children. Few attempts have been made to empirically validate the clinical and theoretical impressions regarding the psychological needs of this group using psychological measures designed to assess needs or motives.

The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent the assumptions about the psychological needs of sex offenders of children would be …

Self-Control In Mentally Retarded Adolescents: Choice As A Function Of Amount And Delay Of Reinforcement, Steven P. Ragotzy

Dissertations

Three severely mentally retarded adolescents were studied under discrete-trial procedures in which a choice was arranged between edible reinforcers that differed in magnitude and, in some conditions, delay. In the absence of delays, the larger reinforcer was consistently chosen. All subjects directed the majority of choice responses to the smaller reinforcer when the larger reinforcer was sufficiently delayed, although the value at which this occurred differed across subjects. Under conditions where the larger reinforcer initially was sufficiently delayed to result in preference for the smaller one, progressively increasing in 5-s increments the delay to both reinforcers increased percent trials with …

Effects Of Task Difficulty, Performance Consequence, And Social Interaction On Physiological Reactivity In Post-Coronary Patients, A. Janelle Maldonado

Dissertations

Three experiments were performed to determine the effects of three task variables and Type A behavior pattern on physiological reactivity to time-limited math and anagram tasks. In the first experiment, ten post-coronary patients performed time-limited computer tasks under two performance consequence conditions: Point Reward or presentation of an Auditory Blast combined with two task difficulty conditions (40% and 60% difficult). The findings of Experiment 1 indicated that while the tasks did produce levels of physiological reactivity comparable to those observed in the literature, there were no significant main effects for either variable for any of the five measures. A significant …

The Effectiveness Of Feedback Procedures On Machine Set-Up Time In A Manufacturing Setting, Connie J. Wittkopp

Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a treatment package designed to improve and maintain set-up time in the extrusion department of a rubber manufacturing company. Subjects were exposed to various behavioral techniques including training and a feedback system in the form of both written and verbal supervisory comments with an emphasis placed on improving performance through use of videotaping. An attempt was made to maintain treatment gains by teaching supervisors how to give information concerning set-up performance to their employees. Results indicate that average weekly set-up times for each machine were significantly below baseline …

Effects Of Terminal-Link Response Topography On Choice Behavior Under Concurrent-Chains Schedules, Stephen P. Starin

Dissertations

Previous research has indicated that both absolute response rate and choice behavior differs under concurrent chains requiring different terminal-link responses, even when the reinforcement schedules are nominally identical. To date, no studies have investigated responding under concurrent chains with unequal schedules and different topographies arranged in the terminal links. Moreover, although the delay-reduction hypothesis has been widely tested using concurrent chains in which the same response topography is required in all links, the generality of the delay-reduction hypothesis in describing performance when different terminal-link topographies are required has yet to be examined. The present study was designed to address both …

Stimulus Overselectivity: An Investigation Of Determinants, Margaret T. Mcglinchey

Dissertations

Stimulus overselectivity refers to a phenomenon in which, after discrimination training with a multiple component stimulus, behavior fails to come under the control of all of the components of the stimulus. After a screening process based on past research, a group of children with specific learning disabilities was categorized into one of two groups: overselective and non-overselective. Both groups were exposed to training and testing for generalization. All children in both groups evidenced "stimulus overselectivity" during these tests for generalization. Generalization training subsequently reduced stimulus overselectivity for all students. There were few differences between the two groups. The results suggest …

The Effects Of Spouse-Based Cognitive-Behavior Therapy On The Treatment Of Agoraphobia, Joan Woods

Dissertations

The purpose of this clinical research was to determine whether spouse-supported treatment of agoraphobia would result in greater improvement on measures of exposure and avoidance than would individual treatment or no treatment. It was hypothesized that Couples Treatment subjects would demonstrate a significantly greater change from pretest to posttest than would Individual Treatment subjects or No-Treatment Control subjects. The study further predicted that significant improvements would be demonstrated for both treated groups on the same outcome measures, pretest to posttest and from pretest to follow-up.

Total N was 10 subjects, all were agoraphobic, married, and female, with 4 in Couples …

Self-Control: Effects Of Ratio Size, Intra-Delay Reinforcers, And Response Requirement, Elbert Q. Blakely Jr.

Dissertations

This study tested the following hypotheses: (a) The preference reversal phenomenon will be found when the delays to reinforcement are defined by fixed-ratio schedules, (b) The preference reversal phenomenon will be observed when intra-delay reinforcers are programmed, and (c) Imposing response requirements during the delay to reinforcement will affect preference for a larger delayed reinforcer over a smaller more immediate reinforcer. In Experiment 1, pigeons chose between two schedules, each a sequence of two fixed-ratio schedules. The second schedule of one sequence offered a small reinforcer and the second schedule of the alternative offered a larger reinforcer. The latter sequence …

The Effects Of A Wilderness/Adventure Program On The Self-Concept, Locus Of Control Orientation, And Interpersonal Behavior Of Delinquent Adolescents, Timothy J. Zwart

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a 26-day therapeutic wilderness program for delinquent adolescent males on three conceptually distinct but closely related constructs: self-concept, locus of control orientation, and interpersonal behavior. Justification for the study was derived from the limitations of past wilderness/adventure research which suggested that there was a need for additional research on the effects of this type of alternative program for delinquent adolescents.

It was hypothesized that following participation in this program the youths would exhibit increased self-concept, more internal locus of control orientation, would express higher needs for inclusion and affection …

The Role Of Neuropsychological Deficits In The Comparative Inability Of Schizophrenics To Decode Facial Expressions Of Emotion, William George Mccown

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Sex, Age, And The Level Of Involvement In Work And Family Roles Of Pediatricians, Sarah E. Brotherton

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Attributional Style, Depression, And Their Relationship To Gender And Gender Role Orientation, Karen M. Latza

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Does Sex-Role Orientation Predict Psychological Health?, Jean Marie Bradt

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Acoustical Function Of The Lower Jaw Of The Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops Truncatus (Montagu), During Echolocation, Randall Louis Brill

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Relationships Between Gender, Length Of Stay, Host Country Culture And The Adjustment Experienced By Minor U.S. Sojourners, Timothy Lawler

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Psychological Distress Among Mexican American Women As A Reaction To The New Immigration Law, Rogelio Rodriguez

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Validity Of Credentialing Tests: An Application Of Content, Criterion-Related, And Construct Valitation Strategies To A Medical Laboratory Practitioner Certification Examination, James Robert Fidler

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Attributional Style, Depression, And Their Relationship To Gender And Gender Role Orientation, Karen M. Latza

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Cognitive Heuristics In College Choice, Kelly Smith

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Construct Validity Of The Slip: Measuring Moral Maturity Based On Jungian Typology, Holly O. Houston

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Profile Analysis Of The Scl-90-R For Aggressive And Nonaggressive Adolescents With Conduct Disorder : A Comparison Of Aggression And Nonaggression In Relationship To Psychoticism And Depression, Hostility And Anxiety, Janet M. Rice

Dissertations

Problem. Dissatisfaction with the DSM-III classification of conduct disorder has led the editors of the DSM-III-R to group the socialized and undersocialized, aggressive and the undersocialized, nonaggressive conduct-disorderd youth together in the same category (Solitary Aggressive Type). However, the symptoms and behavior of aggressive and nonaggressive youth are so diverse, they should be placed in totally separate categories. The implications of misdiagnosis are serious for rehabilitation and treatment.

Method. One hundred-thirty male adolescents labeled aggressive and nonaggressive conduct-disordered were administered the SCL-90-R. The Chi-square test determined what percentage in each group scored at the 70th percentile or above in the …