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Alcohol Consumption As A Function Of Applied Labels And Conception Of Alcoholism, Thomas Mitchell Boyd

Psychology ETDs

Much speculation but little experimental research has been directed toward the influence of the label "alcoholic" on drinking patterns. If, as has been theorized, attribution of behavior to a stable as opposed to an unstable determinant leads to maintenance of that behavior, then labeling drinking behavior as alcoholic, particularly among persons conceiving of alcoholism as a disease, may have a stabilizing influence on drinking behavior. Thirty-one subjects were first divided according to whether they regarded alcoholism as a "disease" or as a "bad habit." They were then randomly labeled as either "alcoholic or pre-alcoholic" or "social drinker," purportedly on the …

Differential Effects Of Praise Types, Ronald M. Kennedy

Student Work

Sixty-two male Caucasian undergraduate Psychology students were randomly divided into four treatment groups wherein they all performed an identical task under the direction of a "supervisor." The supervisor dispensed either non-evaluative verbal feedback, Structured Praise, Considerate Praise, or a combination of Structured and Considerate Praise to subjects in treatment conditions one through four respectively. Considerate praise is characterized as aperiodic, unlinked (to the giving of a formal performance appraisal), informal (not required by the "system"), spontaneous, generally unwritten, "from the heart" type praise while structured praise is essentially just the opposite.

The dependent variables of task quantity, task quality, task …

Developmental Changes In Cognition: An Evaluation Of A Philosophy For Children Program, Leendert Baggerman

Student Work

The formal operational stage seems to differ considerably from earlier Piagetian stages. The first three Piagetian cognitive stages seem to develop fully in all individuals, unless there is a major cultural difference or a major psychopathology (Bruner, 1966). In contrast, there is disagreement in the literature as to whether formal operational reasoning fully develops in all normal individuals. Both Dulit (1972) and Tomlinson-Keasey (1972) found evidence that some normal individuals never attain formal operational reasoning. Others however (Jackson, 1965; Lovell, 1961) agree with Piaget (Inhelder and Piaget, 1958) that the emergence of formal operational reasoning occurs invariably between 11 and …

The Application Of Behavior Modification Techniques To Two Geriatric Patients, Beth A. Schneider

Student Dissertations & Theses

Behavior modification techniques were applied to the behavioral problems of two geriatric nursing home residents. For the first subject, providing reinforcement for a competing activity effectively reduced both disruptive behavior defined as requests for cigarettes, attacking a fellow resident or unauthorized removal of charts, and time spent in the hallway. Similarly, for the second subject, offering reinforcement for out-of-bed behavior had the desired effect of increasing time spent out of bed. However, positive changes in behavior failed to generalize beyond the experimental situation, possibly due to an inability to exercise adequate control over the environment. Suggestions for establishing a totally …

A Study Of Stimulus Control Functions Following Discrimination Training Using A Drl Schedule Of Reinforcement, Kathleen M. Krafft

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Conditioned Reinforcement: An Attempt To Use Zimmerman Technique With Children, Priscila R. Derdyk

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Training And Generalization Of Restauranting Skills: Programming Primary Reinforcement For Community Travel, Richard Aart Van Den Pol

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Emotion And Cognitive Perceptions In Response To Cinematographic And Non-Cinematographic Media, Stefani Nervig

Psychology ETDs

While the controversy continues over the extent to which responsibility for increases in social violence and aggression can be attributed to television and motion pictures, the accumulated evidence leaves little doubt that these media have come to have a tremendous influence on individual and social behavior. Both survey and experimental evidence have shown the film media to be capable of changing attitudes and values and of stimulating imitation and the observational learning of social behavior (Liebert, 1972; Robinson, 1972). These effects are most prominent, it would appear, in children and adolescents, but they are found also in older age groups.

Some Effects Of Variable Duration Conditioned Stimuli In A Conditioned Suppression Procedure, Harvey E. Jacobs

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Behavioral Systems Analysis Of Job Performance In A Food Co-Operative, Harry M. Kent

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Death Anxiety And Religious Orientation, Dennis Wagner

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A sample of the general population from a small mid-South town was divided according to orthodoxy, devotionalism, denomination and denominational upbringing. Degree of death anxiety was assessed by the Templer Death Anxiety Scale. A multiple regression analysis of the data indicated that non-orthodox individuals or individuals having no religious affiliation had significantly lower death anxiety than their heterodox or religiously affiliated counterparts. Devotionalism, denomination and denominational upbringing were not significantly related to death anxiety. Several covariates were found to be related to death anxiety: death of a family member or friend (within one year), education, and father living or dead. …

Leniency Error As A Function Of The Rater's Need For Social Approval, Danny Bean

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The effects of the rater's need for social approval (N-SA) on leniency error in ratings was investigated. Each of 19 supervisors rated the performance of a common set of 12 workers. Using an ANOVA procedure (Guilford, 1954) leniency error was identified. The effects of N-SA as measured by the Personal Reactions Inventory (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960) and the Least Preferred Coworker (Fiedler, 1967) were partialed out of the ratings. When the ANOVA was repeated on the partialed ratings, it was hypothesized that reduced leniency error would result. Contrary to expectations, there was virtually no reduction in leniency error. The low …

A Comparison Of Attitudes Toward Community Colleges With Attitudes Toward Four-Year Colleges, Robert L. Gillespie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of this research was to determine if the attitudes of high school seniors toward community colleges and four-year colleges were significantly different according to socio-economic measures, and to see how they compared with their teachers'attitudes. (Abstract shortened.)

The Cardiovascular Effects Of Human Contact With Coronary Artery Disease Patients In The Coronary Care Unit, Margaret A. Palmour

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Ten coronary artery disease patients were selected using purposive method of sampling and observed for six hours. It was postulated that 1) Human contact with coronary artery disease patients in the coronary intensive care unit would be associated with significant (p = 0.05) changes in the electrocardiogram such as: (a) increased heart rate more than 10 per cent, (b) changed atrio-ventricular conduction more than 10 per cent, (c) changed ST segment one millimeter or more and (d) increased frequency of ectopic beats more than 10 per cent. 2) The degree of stress and cardiac response was related to a number …

Proximity Of Reinforcement & The Protestant Ethic Effect, Sharon Miller

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Twelve food-deprived male rats were trained to barpress for food pellets in one of three operant chambers. The chambers were of standard size, double in length, or triple in length. After training, cod cup full of pellets was placed in the corner opposite the operant bar, and the eating behavior of the rats in this choice situation was observed. The dependent measure was the percentage of the total amount of food consumed that had been obtained by barpressing. Individual comparisons between the mean percentage of food earned over the four test sessions revealed that those rats in the longest chamber …

Peer Facilitators: An Exploratory Study, Jeffrey Haskins

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Seventh grade males were trained as peer facilitators ;or a group of sixth grade males (peers) as part of an experimental guidance program. Training of peer facilitators was implemented through a modified short term human relations development model. Measures of personal, social, and overall adjustment, as assessed by the California Test of Personality, were obtained for the facilitators and group members before and after the peer facilitator program. No significant pre- and post-test differences were obtained on the select personality variables for either group. A method for assessing facilitative responsiveness was developed using written peer stimulus statements. In comparison to …

The Effect Of Withdrawal From The Negative Cue On Learning A Simultaneous Discrimination, Carl Merle Johnson

Masters Theses

Three groups of rats learned a black-white discrimination in a Grice box. All subjects were reinforced with food pellets for correct choices. No-Retrace subjects were confined in the negative goal box after errors. Retrace subjects were allowed to withdraw after errors from the negative goal box to the choice point or start box. Take-Out subjects were manually removed from the goal box during errors immediately after inspecting the empty food dish. All subjects were trained to a criterion and then reversal training was instituted. Retrace subjects learned the original discrimination significantly slower than either No-Retrace or Take-Out subjects, which did …

An Analysis Of Overcorrection Movements: Topographic Relation And Re-Educative Function, Pamela Roberts

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Prior Learning And Direct Reinforcement In Observational Learning And Vicarious Reinforcement, Larry D. Olsen

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Involuntarily And Voluntarily Committed Persons Compared Using Factor And Discriminant Function Analysis, Cheryl Marie Marrow

Dissertations and Theses

A comparison of the voluntary and involuntary patients at Dammasch State Hospital, Wilsonville, Oregon. A representative sample of cases over time, were chosen for the year 1976, 72 voluntary and 72 involuntary patients. One-hundred and twelve variables were coded onto sheets for each patient. The variables concerned marital status, job history, history of violent acts, present living situations and relationships, as well as drug history and diagnosis and treatment in the hospital. The data were coded onto cards and a computer analysis was done using Factor and Discriminant Function Analysis. It was hypothesized the populations of persons voluntarily admitted and …

Attitude Change Exhibited By Longwood College Students When Exposed To A Program Stimulus, Timothy Carter Brown

Theses & Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Measurement Of Ambiguity Tolerance (Mat-50): Further Construct Validation, Burl Mostul

Dissertations and Theses

An historical introduction is made tying authoritarianism with ambiguity tolerance. Ambiguity tolerance is a personality variable in its own right, often associated with authoritarianism yet remaining separate from it.

Ambiguity intolerance is defined as the tendency to perceive and interpret information that is marked by vague, fragmented, incomplete, inconsistent, contradictory, or unclear meaning as actual or potential sources of psychological threat. Ambiguity tolerance is defined as the tendency to perceive ambiguous situations as challenging and desirable.

Efforts to measure ambiguity tolerance have met with varied success, however, it was not until Norton (197S) developed the Measurement of Ambiguity Tolerance (MAT-50) …

Effectiveness Of Three Differential Reinforcement Techniques As A Function Of Past Reinforcement History And Present Schedule Of Reinforcement, La Rue Chappell

Student Work

The effectiveness of three differential reinforcement techniques, extinction of the old response with reinforcement for the new response versus extinction of the old response with double reinforcement for the new response versus continuation of reinforcement for the old response with double reinforcement for the new response, in reducing lever-pressing behavior, was studied, as a function of past reinforcement history and present schedule of reinforcement. Thirty children, with a mean age of 5 years 10 months, were reinforced for tapping the assigned key on either a differential reinforcement of low rates (drl 10"') or a differential reinforcement of high rates (VR …

The Effect Of Explanation On The Art Preferences Of Liberals And Conservatives, Joseph Fay

Master's Theses

One hundred thirteen subjects at the University of Richmond were shown twenty-four slides of paintings from four categories of art: simple representational, simple abstract, complex representational, complex abstract. Half of the paintings in each category were accompanied by a one-paragraph explanation. Based on their scores on the Conservatism Scale (Wilson & Patterson, 1968), subjects were divided into two groups: liberals and conservatives. Using Wilson’s (1973) theory of conservatism as the theoretical base, it was hypothesized that, for the unexplained paintings, conservatives would prefer simple art while liberals would prefer complex art.

Effects Of Individual Differences In Cognitive Flexibility And Motor Variability On Learning Processes, Merith Anne Cosden

Psychology ETDs

No abstract provided.

Efficacy, Contrast Effect And Differential Effectiveness Of Two Time-Out Durations In The Treatment Of Two Autistic Children, Susan Adell Blankenbaker

Master's Theses

A single subject simultaneous treatment design, within a multiple baseline framework, was used to test the efficacy, contrast effect and differential effectiveness of two durations of time-out (TO). With two children on the autistic ward of a residential mental hospital serving as subjects, the TO procedure was demonstrated to be effective in reducing target behavior. No statistically significant difference was found between the 2 minute and 5 minute TOs and limited support for the existence of a contrast effect was revealed. It was concluded that strategies for the facilitation of the use of the shortest TO interval possible should be …

Deviations From Matching As A Measure Of Preference For Alternatives In Pigeons, Sam M. Leigland

Psychology ETDs

A growing body of literature indicates that animals and children tend to prefer situations which provide for a greater number of choice alternatives. In the present work, the problem was approached through the investigation of preference for larger or smaller response classes in a free-operant choice procedure. The method of assessing preference in the choice situation was afforded through the well-documented matching law of concurrent reinforcement schedules, which generally states that the ratio of responses or time allocated to each of two independent and concurrently-available schedules will equal the ratio of the reinforcements obtained on those schedules. A systematic and …

The Image And The Unconscious, Nancy C. Panagiotou, Anees A. Sheikh

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Verbal language has long been the most widely used source of data for clinical inference; recently, however, an increasing number of therapists have turned to images for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. This paper focusses upon the use of mental imagery in analytically oriented therapies. The first segment presents a brief discussion of some important psycholinguistic questions that bear upon the use of images in psychotherapy. The second part discusses the observations of spontaneous images by analytical therapists and shows the relation of these images to linguistic-rational cognition and to unconscious organization. The third section brings out the unique function …

Developmental Aspects Of Nonsolution In Adults, Elliot Jay Rapoport

Psychology ETDs

The relationship between the complete learning concept task and Piagetian tasks used to evaluate the presence and extent of formal operations was investigated with adult college students. The results of this study demonstrate that both solving and nonsolving in concept tasks are a subject related parameter and are stable over twenty-four to thirty-six hour intervals. The generality of formal operations in adult college students was found to be significantly less than that predicted by Piaget. The relationship between the concept task and the Piagetian formal operations tasks was assessed using correlations and was found to be significant. In addition, the …

Effect Of Interpolated Stimulus Training On Generalization To A Reinstated Stimulus: Reciprocal Generalization, Ward Arthur Rodriguez

Psychology ETDs

Reciprocal and higher order reciprocal transfer or generalization effects are said to occur when performance in the presence of an interpolated stimulus influences performance to the reinstated original stimulus conditions. The present studies examined reciprocal and higher order reciprocal effects in the CER, free operant, and instrumental runway situations. In addition, first order reciprocal effects were examined when interpolated training was correlated with a less potent reinforcer.

Results showed that in the CER paradigm, first order reciprocal effects enhanced the disruption of the appetitive baseline behavior. In contrast, there were no first order reciprocal effects in either the operant or …