Digital Commons Network^™

Attorney And Judicial Perceptions Of The Credibility Of Expert Witnesses In Child Custody Cases, Michael T. Foot

Theses and Dissertations

Attorney and judicial attitudes towards expert witnesses in child custody cases were investigated by a cross-sectional research design. Subjects consisted of a sample of 381 of all attorneys and judges in the Commonwealth of Virginia who wished to be certified as guardians ad litem. Subjects were asked to fill out a six page questionnaire immediately prior to a daylong certification training session. The sample was primarily white (85.2%) and male (57.7%). Information was gathered on the subjects' demographic characteristics, experience with and attitudes toward expert witnesses in custody cases, opinions on traditional court and family structures, and knowledge of developmental …

Role Of Perceived Competence In The Behavior Of Socially Anxious Persons In Problem-Solving Groups, Scott D. Bradshaw

Theses and Dissertations

Research finds high-shy persons participate minimally in interactions, withhold ideas from their groups, and negatively evaluate their performance. While commonly true, high-shy persons do not always interact less and it has been suggested (Efran & Korn, 1969) that high-shy persons may dominate a discussion if they can find a "safe" topic. The current study examined whether perceptions of perceived competence can produce this effect and increase the performance level of high-shy persons in a problem-solving group above the performance level of low-shy persons.

One hundred and four women, ages 18 to 24, at Virginia Commonwealth University participated. Subjects completed a …

Attachment, Social Support, And Violence In Adolescent Delinquents, James R. Craft

Theses and Dissertations

Attachment relationships between children and their primary caretakers have been hypothesized to contribute to internal working models of subsequent relationships with others. Poor attachment might lead to internal working models which devalue later relationships, making the perpetration of violence against others more likely. One focus of this study was to propose a model which combined parental bonding, adolescent attachment, and perceived family support to predict the severity of violence used against others by adolescent delinquents. A second focus was to test the proposed model in predicting the total number of violent offenses committed by adolescent delinquents. One hundred and forty-five …