Digital Commons Network^™

Three Ordered Sets Of Factors And Their Relationship To Act Scores, Thomas J. Russo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There has been in recent years a marked decline in college entrance examination test scores. Declines have been documented both on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Testing Program (ACT). In turn there has been an increasing interest concerning the test score declines as well as possible sources of influence on test scores. These sources or factors seem to be functions of three main "contexts." These contexts are: (a) school-related factors, (b) student-related factors and (c) family-structure related factors. It was of interest to attempt to explain the relative association of each variable to composite ACT scores …

Teacher Attention As A Controlling Influence Of Student Classroom Behavior, Lagrande E. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this thesis was to assess the influence of the teachers' classroom behavior on students' classroom behavior. Three hypotheses were made as the teacher systematically increases positive responses and decreases negative responses in the classroom, 1) the total time spent with the misbehaving student will decrease, 2) student non-attentive behavior will decrease and student attentive behavior will increase, and 3) there will be an inverse relationship between teacher negative responses and student attentive behavior.

Student subjects were selected randomly from a previously selected group of misbehaving students; teacher subjects were 12 volunteers from a Junior High School who …

The Effects Of Group Therapy On Values And Behavioral Adjustment Of Chronic Hospitalized Patients, Rahmatola Simnegar

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study investigated (a) the effects of group therapy ix on values and behavioral adjustment of hospitalized psychiatric patients, and (b) differential effects of directive versus non-directive group therapy in effecting desired therapy outcomes. Thirty subjects selected from among patients at Wyoming State Hospital were matched on age and sex and then randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group. Experimental group I received directive group therapy, experimental group II received non-directive group therapy and the control group participated in recreational activities. Both experimental groups and the control group participated in 12 weekly sessions, which were structured …

The Effect Of Electromyogram Training On Test Anxiety And Academic Achievement, Donald Maurice Whitley Ii

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The focus of this study was to explore the effects of training with Electromyogram (EMG) feedback relaxation on test anxiety and academic achievement.

Subjects were 60 students from an Introductory Psychology Class who scored highest on the Suinn Test Anxiety Behavior Scale (STABS).

Subjects were divided into three groups: (1) EMG training, (2) Attention, and (3) Control. Treatment was 12 sessions over a six-week period.

A pretest and posttest of the STABS was used as a measure of anxiety with the measure of academic achievement being the first and fourth tests in the Psychology class. Analysis of covariance was used …

The Development Of Inventory Items To Measure Response Differences Of Delinquent And Nondelinquent Youths, Lionn Dean Kirk

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to refine and validate a 160-item self-report instrument which drew its items from personality theories and from clinical practice related to delinquency. The aim was to estimate the usefulness of items descriptive of delinquent behavior by testing their reliability and discriminative power.

There were two objectives. First: to test a set of items for their power to discriminate delinquent from non-delinquent responses which referred to delinquent and nondelinquent behavior. Second, to validate the power of the selected set of items to discriminate delinquent from non-delinquent youths in a second mixed group. Both objectives were realized in …

The Development, Durability, And Generalizability Of Sharing In Preschool Children, Edward James Barton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate three different programs designed to increase verbal and physical sharing and to determine the generalizability and durability of the behaviors that were trained. Eight groups of four preschool children, balanced for sex, were observed for 16 minutes daily during a free play period in their preschool classroom. After eight days of baseline, 24 children received one of three types of training for eight sessions. Eight children were taught to verbally share, eight to physically share, and eight to both verbally and physically share. All of these children received a treatment package composed …

A Comparative Study Of Mmpi Variables And Their Relationship To Successful Alcoholic Rehabilitation, Verl G. Prestwich

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to determine whether the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory could successfully predict the outcome of rehabilitative treatment given 84 racially mixed male alcoholics having a mean age of 42.2 years who were admitted to the Wyoming State Hospital between September 1, 1965, and September 1, 1966. The subjects were given the MMPI before receiving 16 weeks of treatment consisting of education, group and individual psychotherapy, alcoholics anonymous, routine "ward treatment," disulfiram (antibuse), special ward unit, and special program without ward. After their release from hospital, the subjects were evaluated yearly for five years by relatives, employers, and …

The Self-Recording Of Weight And Bites In The Treatment Of Obesity, Cris Quayle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The effects of self-recording bites and weight on subsequent weight was assessed utilizing a single-subject design. Subjects were exposed to a similar sequence of conditions which included: (1) weekly weigh-ins, (2) self-recording daily weights, (3) a control for observation, (4) self-recording bites, and finally (5) a reversal condition in which subjects stopped recording bites but continued recording weights and meeting for weekly weigh-ins. No significant weight reductions occurred in conjunction with weekly weigh-ins, self-recording daily weights, or the control for observation. Five of the six subjects lost more than 2 pounds while recording bites along with monitoring daily weights and …

Transfer Of Stimulus Control By Temporal Fading, David Allan Steele

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study was designed to analyze the transfer of stimulus control in temporal fading procedures. Several aspects of temporal fading procedures were manipulated including sources of inhibitory stimulus control, delays of reinforcement, and rates of increase in the temporal parameter of a fading procedure. In Experiment I, previous research producing transfer of stimulus control in a temporal fading procedure was directly replicated and controls were implemented for the operation of inhibition. The results showed that inhibitory stimulus control is not necessary in order to produce a transfer as participants with neutral stimulus backgrounds also transferred from one dimension to …

Some Characteristics Of Female College Students Who Select Academic Majors In Fields Of Exact Science And Non-Exact Science: A Longitudinal Follow-Up, Paul David Warner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study, conducted in 1974, was a longitudinal follow-up of two groups of female subjects who had participated in an earlier study (Wright and Johnson, 1960) while the subjects were university students. One group of the subjects had majored in fields considered at that time to be traditionally feminine majors, i.e. social sciences, art, music, education, homemaking, etc. The other group had majored in fields of exact sciences, which at the time were considered more traditionally masculine. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether differences noted in the 1960 study will exist between these two groups …

The Use Of The Delphi Technique To Effect Decisions Concerning The College Level Examination Program By Higher Education Representatives, Terry Joseph Orme

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study investigated the use of the Delphi technique in educational decision making.

Utah State institutions of higher education employ the College Level Examination Program (CLEP) to award credit in lieu of course work. However, since no uniform policies existed among them, 145 persons were selected on a representative basis to recommend a norming group to use for performance comparisons, the standard by which to judge CLEP performance, and the levels for maximum and minimum credit.

The Delphi technique, which employs a round-by-round questionnaire with feedback procedure, was used for six rounds to obtain sufficient consensus on the three aforementioned …

The Effects Of Age And Socio-Economic Status On The Diagnosis And Educational Treatment Of Mildly Handicapping Conditions Of School Children, John W. Kelsey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Biasing effects in labeling and recommendations for educational services when factors of socio-economic status and age are manipulated were studied using 50 certified school psychologists in Utah. Subjects received case report information about IQ, behavior and achievement which described a school child in need of services within one of four conditions, Age 7 Socioeconomic status (SES) High, Age 7 SES Low, Age 13 SES High, and Age 13 SES Low. Other potentially biasing variables such as ethnic background, and sex were held constant. No evidence of bias could be found when dependent measures of labeling, recommendations for educational services, and …

Error Patterning And Hypothesis Behavior Of Children And Pigeons In Discrimination Learning, William Robert Jenson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Characteristic distributions of errors across fixed ratio schedules of reinforcement were studied for two types of discrimination paradigms. Two experiments studied error patterns as a function of hypothesis behavior in two species of animals, children and pigeons.

Three key zero-delay matching-to-sample and two key simultaneous discrimination were reinforced for both species of animals on fixed ratio schedules of reinforcement. Experiment 1 involved children on matching-to-sample and simultaneous discrimination, and Experiment 2 involved pigeons on matching-to-sample and simultaneous discrimination. Both species of subjects experienced experimental conditions in which shift or stay response hypotheses were selectively reinforced using a high speed digital …

The Effectiveness Of Training For Empathy In Pre-Service Teacher Education, John Bruce Jessen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The specific objective of this research was to determine the effectiveness of training on understanding empathy in the teacher training process.

Subjects were Utah State University students enrolled in Elementary Education during winter quarter 1976. The experimental group was composed of 34 subjects and the control group of 27 subjects.

Both groups were administered a pretest. The experimental group then received the treatment which consisted of a training program designed to help them to be able to (1) define, (2) recognize instances of, and (3) to emit empathic behavior. At the conclusion of the training program both the experimental and …

The Development Of A Composite Criminal Suicide Attempt Scale, Norman Salzberg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to understand and identify prison male inmates who had attempted suicide in their history prior to their incarceration. The objectives were (1) the comparison of inmates who had indicated that they had attempted suicide in their past, referred to as "suicide attempt inmates," with inmates who had not, referred to as "non-suicide attempt inmates," on 33 behavioral and personal variables; (2) The development of a suicide attempt scale by means of an item analysis on the responses of suicide attempt and non-suicide inmates to the items of the Bipolar Psychological Inventory (BPI). This scale was named …

Development Of Cooperation Between Children In The Minimal Social Situation, Janice V. Siegel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children can learn to cooperate in what has been described as the "minimal social situation." The research also compared the effectiveness of verbal instructions and a training task for teaching subjects the "win-stay, lose-change" rule. This rule has been used to explain the development of cooperation in the minimal social situation.

Subjects were 19 teams of first-, second-, and third-graders. Five teams were composed of two girls; six were girl-boy teams; and eight were boy-boy teams. Ten of the 19 teams learned to cooperate in the minimal social situation without treatment. …

Strengths Enhancement Training: Self-Concept And Self-Actualization, Tony J. Strelich

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The strengths enhancement training program was developed and evaluated in order to determine empirically if a group method designed specifically to assist subjects in the identification of personal strengths, resources, and potentials, would be effective in broadening their perceptions of themselves in a positive direction.

The strengths enhancement training program was based primarily on the work of Herbert A. Otto, using the Multiple Strengths Perception method as the central component of the training program. That method was pilot tested, and program modifications were made on two occasions.

A pretest-posttest control group design was used to assess the 80 Introductory Psychology …

Telephone Crisis Intervention: Empathy And Conceptual Level, Paul J. Seymour

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The telephone crisis intervention service at Utah State University (Help-Line) was evaluated in order to make the training program accountable and to produce recommendations for improvement in volunteer training.

Help-Line training teaches a "non-directive" counseling model and incorporates experiential sensitivity type exercises, didactic discussion, and role playing.

Help-Line volunteers were assessed by two methods. The first was a pretest-posttest control group design. Training was the independent variable and the discrimination of core conditions (as measured by the Crisis Center Discrimination Index) and the communication of empathy (as measured by the Crisis Center Communication Index) were the dependent variables. The Indexes …

Programmed Interpersonal Relations Training For High School Students, Leland J. Winger Jr.

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of the Basic Interpersonal Relations program as a facilitator of interpersonal relations for high school students.

Three intact classes of high school introductory psychology students were used to contrast the effectiveness of the Basic Interpersonal Relations program as shown by the experimental group with a treatment-control group receiving didactic instruction, and with a no-treatment control group. All subjects were pretested with the following instruments: Attitude Toward Others Scale (MMPI), Attitude Toward Self Scale (MMPI), Rotter's Internal- External Control Scale, and an achievement test based on the content of the Basic …

Effect Of Feeding Frequency And Caloric Intake On Weight Reduction In Obese Females, Richard Robert Weber

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Forty-five obese female volunteers were randomly assigned to one of six experimental groups required to consume their daily food intake according to the following feeding frequencies: (a) three isocaloric meals, (b) six isocaloric meals, (c) three isocaloric vii meals, (d) three meals in the proportion of 1/4:1/4:2/4, (e) six isocaloric meals, and (f) ad libitum (i.e., eight or more isocaloric meals). Members of the first two groups received dietary, nutritional, and exercise management information, while women in the remaining groups received instruction in behavioral control procedures in addition to the aforementioned educative treatment.

Experimental manipulations failed to produce a statistically …

Noninformative Conditioned Reinforcers In Observing Response Training, Arnold Wellman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The goal of this research was to ascertain if information per se is a necessary condition to establish a conditioned reinforcer. Five pigeons were given observing response training in a two key Skinner box using free choice and forced trials procedures and a chain VI FI reinforcement schedule. The percentage of free choice noninformative trials was the observing response measure. A time correction procedure equated actual and programmed reinforcement frequencies in informative trials and noninformative trials if a difference occurred. For one bird a discrimination reversal of the informative and noninformative stimulus presentations occurred in the last five sessions.

All …

The Development And Validation Of A Life-Change Checklist For Juvenile Delinquents, Paul G. Kulcsar

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A method generated by psychophysics has been used to develop a Checklist consisting of 58 life-events that require varying degrees of readjustment on the part of adolescents experiencing them.

A very high degree of concordance was found to exist among psychologists, social workers and probation officers with regard to the relative value of life-change required by those events.

Information about the occurrence of the amount of life-change was subsequently gathered from a sample of 334 juvenile delinquents and 104 nondelinquents by administering the Checklist. A measure of the degree of severity of delinquency was also obtained for each delinquent subject. …

Does The "Draw-A-Male-And-A-Female" Test Show Male-Female Relationship?, Paul Charles Hatch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study investigated the "Draw-A-Male-And-A-Female" test to find if this variation of the "Draw-A-Person" test was a valid measure of male-female relationship variables, i.e., compatibility, happiness, warmth, and interpersonal anxiety and conflict. Two groups varying with respect to relationship (married group vs divorced group) were tested. A high school group was also tested. Three psychologists rated the drawings into a positive or a negative relationship group. If the male and female figures in the drawing had the appearance of warmth or pleasantness between each other, seemed compatible, and looked free from interpersonal anxiety or conflict, the picture was placed …

The Development Of An Inexpensive, Anonymous And Portable Classroom Feedback Device With Data Recording Capability, John Peter Dworetzky

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

One way to approach the improvement of teacher behavior is through the application of feedback. An electronic device was developed to provide immediate anonymous feedback from students to teachers in the classroom situation. The newly developed system, unlike other systems available, has the advantages of being portable, inexpensive, easy to use, and able to provide continuous feedback. As the system relies on a sampling procedure, it may be used adequately with any size class. In addition, the system possesses full data recording capability.

Experiments were designed to utilize the device to investigate the effects of immediate anonymous feedback from students …

Interpersonal Relations And Drug Use And Abuse, Larry J. Carlson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to make comparisons among regular marijuana users, heroin addicts and nondrug users on interpersonal dimensions of personality. Two interpersonal oriented instruments, the Interpersonal Check List (ICL) and the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior (FIRO-B) were used to evaluate differences among these three groups.

The design of this study was a three group comparison. Each of these three groups contained between 28 and 30 subjects with age, education and socioeconomic level being controlled for in selection.

Three hypotheses were made directing investigation of the following three areas: One, discrepancy between the self and the ideal self …

The Relationship Between Self Concept And Children's Figure Drawings, Marta Lynn Severson Campbell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study investigated the relationship between self concept and children's figure drawings. The principle variable under consideration in each child's drawing were (a) size of drawing and (b) number of colors used. The Tennessee Self Concept Scale (Fitts, 1965) was administered to 80 students selected from the seventh grade at Logan Junior High School, Logan, Utah.

The subjects were then instructed to draw a picture of themselves. No further instructions were given regarding specific details of the requested picture. Ten colored pencils along with a regular pencil were made available to each student. No instructions were given as to …

An Analysis Of Oral And Written Quizzes As Teaching Techniques, K. Anthony Edwards

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was conducted to determine whether any differences existed between the effectiveness of oral and written quizzes as teaching techniques. In the first of two experiments, 130 students enrolled in two sections of an introductory psychology class and two sections of a psychology of adjustment class served as subjects. The course was taught using Michael's method of instruction, a contingency managed technique. In the first half of the term, one section from each course was taught by written quizzes while the other section was taught by oral quizzes. Following four weeks, teaching assignments were reversed. The dependent variables were …

Sex Role Preference, Sibling Status, And Bonding Behavior In Children, Mary Kay Biaggio

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The focus of this study was to explores some of the important variables in sex role development in children. The major hypotheses were concerned with differences between the independent variables child's grade level, sex, and sibling status (ordinal position and sex of sibling) on the dependent variables sex role preference and bonding behavior. Bonding, a concept which has not been examined in conjunction with sex role preference, was here defined as (1)the degree to which a child affiliates with members of his own sex and (2)the degree to which a child excludes opposite sex play-mates from his affiliative realm.

Subjects …

Religious Commitment And Meaning In Life, Merrill L. Barfield

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between meaning or purpose in life as measured by Crumbaugh's Purpose in Life Test, and the degree of religious commitment of college students, with particular interest in the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Religious commitment was measured by Hoge's Intrinsic Religious Motivation Scale (IRM).

Two hundred and fifty-five undergraduates, 122 males and 132 females, enrolled in introductory psychology and sociology classes at Utah State University during spring quarter, 1975, served as subjects.

A two-way analysis of variance calculated separately for the LDS and non-LDS …

The Effects Of Interpersonal Competition On The Performance Of Schizophrenics, Brent L. Andersen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The effects of interpersonal competition on schizophrenics were studied to determine if competition facilitates or impairs task performance of schizophrenics and to further determine if schizophrenics respond to interpersonal competition differently than nonschizophrenics. Forty-one hospitalized patients diagnosed as schizophrenics, 36 hospitalized patients diagnosed as personality disorders, and 36 employees of the Wyoming State Hospital were used as subjects. Each group of subjects was randomly divided into competitive and noncompetitive research groups, thus forming three competitive groups and three noncompetitive groups.

Each of the six groups of subjects was administered two equivalent forms of four standardized tests. Each group was tested …