Digital Commons Network^™

Searching For Birth Parents: Motive And Experiences Of A Selected Sample Of Adult Adoptees, Susan A. Jacoby

Student Work

This study documented the experiences adoptees encounter while searching for their birth parents, and how they were effected by searching. The study also assessed the adoptees support for reviewing laws governing adoption records. Twenty-six adult adoptees were interviewed, their responses recorded and analyzed. Adoptees reported learning of their adoption at an early age. Overall adoptees did not have negative feelings about being adopted and reported positive relationships with their adoptive parents. Adoptees reported a variety of reasons for searching for their birth parents and experienced a number of difficulties while searching. Some of the difficulties were: long distances, legal boundaries, …

Problem-Solving Versus Traditional Approaches To Assessment And Intervention, Julie K. Hass

Student Work

Trends in both regular and special education are moving towards changing current referral, test, and placement into special education practices. The changes are focused on implementing procedures that will decrease the number of students inappropriately placed in special education settings. The results and outcomes of implementing new progressive changes in referral, test, and placement practices are not fully known. The purpose of this research is to compare two approaches of service delivery utilized at Northern Trails Area Education Agency (NTAEA) located in north central Iowa. The two approaches being compared are the traditional approach used in NTAEA in 1990-1992, and …

Acceptability Of Refusal Skills Training Modalities: A Comparison Of Adolescents' Vs. Professionals' Perceptions, Mary M. Poler

Student Work

Fifty-three sexually active adolescents between 14 and 19 years of age were surveyed to identify general interest in refusal skills training for avoiding unwanted sexual activity. Subjects furnished information regarding preferences for three treatment modalities (pamphlet, behavioral rehearsal, and video modeling) used to deliver refusal skills training. Forty-one health care and school professionals (doctors, nurses, physician assistants, social workers, med tech/health educators, counselors, and psychologists) responded to a similar general interest survey and assessment of treatment modality preferences for provision of refusal skills training. Both adolescents and professionals demonstrated high general interest in refusal skills training as a viable and …

An Assessment Of Role Ambiguity, Role Conflict, Role Frustration, And Job Satisfaction Of Presidents At Selected Private Four-Year Colleges In The Southeastern United States, Gary W. Juhan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Current literature has suggested that the role of the college president has perhaps become too ambiguous, complex and demanding for an individual to perform for an extended period of time. The purpose of the study was to assess the relationship between perceived role ambiguity, role conflict, role frustration and job satisfaction of selected private college presidents in the Southeastern United States. The method of the study was correlational in design. Using a thirty-seven item questionnaire developed by the author, data were collected from 141 college presidents of institutions within the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The institutions were private …

Conceptualizing The Youthful Male Sex Offender: A Meta-Analytic Examination Of Offender Characteristics By Offense Type, Roger B. Graves

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A review of the literature demonstrates that, to date, no concerted effort has been made to conceptualize and develop typologies for youthful male sex offenders on the basis of offense type. Such typologies are deemed important to the understanding of possible developmental antecedents for sexual offending, as well as to the development of theory-driven, empirically based interventions and preventions. This study attempts to begin the conceptualization process through a meta-analytic examination of 140 research samples that provide data on over 16,000 individuals who have committed sexual offenses as youth. Three subtypes of offenders are identified on the basis of offense …

Organizational Culture: How Changes Impact Attitudes Toward Job Satisfaction, R. M. Browder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine how a shift in elements of organizational culture impacted attitudes toward job satisfaction in a medium-sized, consumer-owned electric utility over a period of 13 years. The unit of analysis was a municipal utility distributing electrical energy to approximately 27,000 customers. Data collection included the Science Research Associate Employee Inventory, a review of the organization's documents, and a subjective Job Satisfaction Questionnaire. A one-tailed z-test was performed to test whether or not the proportion of employees answering favorable in one survey was greater than the proportion answering favorable in the other survey. It …

Caregiver Stress And Well-Being As A Function Of Multiple Roles., Gwendolyn Miller Moore

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Predictors of caregiver psychological well-being, including depression, marital satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect were examined as a function of primary and secondary stress. Measures assessing these outcomes as well as role overload, inter-role conflict and care receiver impairment were administered to 77 female caregivers of dementia patients. A comparison group of 80 females was also included. Results demonstrated that noncaregivers experienced significantly higher positive affect than caregivers. In addition, differential mediating relationships were found between primary and secondary stressors contingent upon the type of outcome examined. More specifically, inter-role conflict mediated the relationship between work overload and both positive …

Subordinate Independence: A Boundary Condition On The Effectiveness Of Transformational Leadership?, Terry Michael Dockery

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The present study hypothesized that subordinate independence would act as a boundary condition on the effectiveness of transformation leadership; that is, that independence would moderate the relationship between transformational leadership and several dependent variables. More specifically, subordinates who responded favorably to transformational leaders were expected to be low in independence. The dependent variables employed in the study included subordinate reactions to the leader (satisfaction with the leader, perceived effectiveness of the leader, and willingness to exert extra effort due to the leader), individual subordinate performance, and discretionary subordinate organizational citizenship behavior. Study results did not support the hypotheses at the.05 …

Analysis Of A Multidimensional Model Of Body Image Disturbance Using Structural Modeling., David Hunter Gleaves

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Although there has been a wealth of recent research on the construct of body image disturbance, it is still a highly controversial and poorly understood phenomenon. Much of previous research has treated body image disturbance as if it were a unidimensional construct. Recently, a multidimensional model was proposed which incorporated the concepts of body size distortion, preference for thinness, body dissatisfaction, and fear of fatness. The purpose of the present investigation was to examine this multidimensional model in an attempt to establish its validity and resolve many of the current controversies regarding body image disturbance. The LISREL 7 program was …

Reliability And Validity Of The Teen Substance Abuse Rating Scale., Brett Elliott Hemstreet

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study used 57 adolescent substance abusers receiving treatment and 510 adolescent controls in a validation of the Teen Substance Abuse Rating Scale (TSARS; Hemstreet, 1991). The TSARS was originally designed as a relatively brief, easy to read self-report questionnaire to discriminate between adolescent substance abusers and nonabusers. The 92 items of the TSARS represent specific behaviors that are answered in a Yes/No format. The TSARS was examined to determine if it would meet validity criteria presented by Winters (1990) and Swadi (1990), as well as those presented in the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (APA, 1985). A principal …

Computer Training: The Role Of Computer Attitudes And Behavior Modeling In The Acquisition Of Declarative And Procedural Knowledge., Drew Benjamin Brock

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This research examined technology training (using computers as a specific instance of technology) in a framework that integrated concepts drawn from cognitive and social learning theory. Borrowing from cognitive learning theory, two types of knowledge were assessed: declarative knowledge (knowing what) and procedural knowledge (knowing how). Behavior modeling training, drawn from social learning theory, was used as the primary training methodology. It was proposed that the factors contributing to learning as a function of behavior modeling are the same factors that lead to procedural knowledge acquisition. I also examined the effects of two major attitudes toward computers in predicting computer …

A Criterion Validity Study Of The Schizophrenia Subscale Of The Pimra., Naomi Arffa Swiezy

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Sixty-five mildly to moderately mentally retarded adult patients from institutional and community placements in Louisiana and Texas and with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, depression, or no psychopathology were recruited. The primary goal of the study was to establish the validity of the schizophrenia subscale of the PIMRA for diagnosing schizophrenia among mentally retarded individuals. The same methods utilized to determine the validity of the schizophrenia subscale were also used to replicate the validation of the depression subscale of the PIMRA. In addition, the extent to which other PIMRA subscale scores aid in diagnosis was investigated. Assessment measures included the informant …

Social Loafing, Social Facilitation And Self-Efficacy Theory: Judgments Of Control In A Group Psychokinesis Task, Mark Jordan Henn

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the effects of self-efficacy and group size on the judgments of control of individual subjects in a group situation. It was predicted that highly efficacious subjects would report more judged control, inefficacious subjects would report less judged control. Group size was predicted to affect judgments of control in a manner consistent with the social loafing and social facilitation literature, such that individually unidentifiable subjects should "loaf" and report less control. Individually identifiable subjects should find their prior efficacy beliefs facilitated, such that high believers feel increasing control with increasing group size and low believers feel decreasing control …

Internal Working Models Of Self And Others In Adolescents: A Social-Cognitive Perspective, Saul Rosenthal

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, links between internal working models of attachment and self-concept are examined. Attachment and self-concept researchers discuss mental models of the self and the self in relationships as cognitive processors that affect attention to social information, as well as encoding, interpretation, and recall. Although some research supports the notions of attachment and self-concept constructs, no associations between the two have been previously examined. An argument is presented that concepts of the self and models of important relationships are interdependent. This argument is empirically tested with a sample of adolescent girls and their mothers, who completed a series of …

Thalamocortical Contributions To Olfactory Non-Matching To Sample And Discrimination In The Rat, Susan Margaret Koger

Doctoral Dissertations

Twenty-eight male rats were pretrained on a go/no-go, continuous olfactory non-matching to sample (CONMTS) task, and randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: radiofrequency lesions of either the medial wall or rhinal sulcal cortical projection sites of the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus (MDn); lesions of the lateral internal medullary lamina site (L-IML) of thalamus; or sham surgical control.

All three lesioned groups exhibited a significant impairment on initial retraining of CONMTS. However, the two cortical groups rapidly improved, and did not differ from the control animals for the remainder of CONMTS training. Alternatively, the L-IML deficit persisted throughout retraining. The …

Family Systems, Object Relations, And Identity Formation In Late Adolescent College Women, Elizabeth Anne Jordan

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether characteristics of family system and object relations are associated with identity formation in late adolescent women. Identity status, features of family system function and structure, and two dimensions of object relations were assessed in a sample of 204 18- to 21-year-old college women. It was hypothesized that different combinations of family system functioning and object relations dimensions would be found for each of the four identity statuses. Univariate analyses and discriminant function analyses revealed that distinct patterns characterized the family system and object relations of the Diffusion and Foreclosure statuses. The …

Accessibility Of Goal Information In A Mental Model, Jason E. Albrecht

Doctoral Dissertations

Most models of comprehension differ in the degree to which they suggest that readers attempt to maintain both local and global coherence. Several models suggest that readers are concerned primarily with maintaining local coherence and only attempt to establish global coherence when there is a local coherence break. In contrast, other models suggest that readers attempt to establish both local and global coherence even when there is no local coherence break. These different types of models make competing predictions about accessibility of goal information during comprehension. Local coherence strategies predict that readers should only have access to goal information when …

Toward An Understanding Of The Cognitive Etiology Of Depressive Reactions To Life Stressors: An Evaluation Of The Hopelessness Theory Of Depression, Nancy Lynne Asdigian

Doctoral Dissertations

Abramson, Metalsky, and Alloy's (1989) theory of hopelessness depression is the most recent model of depression to emerge from the learned helplessness tradition (Seligman, 1975). Hopelessness theory describes an etiological pathway by which a unique subtype of depression--hopelessness depression--is believed to emerge.

The most proximal cause of hopelessness depression is the formation of a hopelessness expectancy. Experiencing a significant life stressor and either making stable and global causal attributions, anticipating adverse consequences, or inferring derogatory self-attributes is thought to contribute to hopelessness. In turn, generalized tendencies to make stable and global causal attributions, expect negative consequences, or perceive personal deficiencies …

Predicted Hue And Saturation For Non-Spectral Lights, Thomas David Kulp

Doctoral Dissertations

The Jameson and Hurvich opponent colors model of hue and saturation was tested for spectral and non-spectral lights. Four observers scaled, using standard color naming techniques, the hue and saturation of both spectral and non-spectral lights. These lights consisted of 11 wavelengths from 440 to 640nm in steps of 20nm and consisted of 5 purities, 1.0, 0.80, 0.60, 0.40 and 0.20. Admixtures of monochromatic light and a xenon-white desaturant yielded the different colorimetric purities. For each observer, chromatic response functions were measured by the method of hue cancellation for each purity, and an achromatic response function was measured by the …

The Use Of Shakow's Reaction Time Procedure To Measure Components Of Attention In Brain Damaged Individuals., Steven. Donaghy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the efficacy of a RT procedure developed by David Shakow and colleagues for examining attentional deficit after BD. This procedure involves the presentation of a warning stimulus (a bell) followed by the presentation of an imperative stimulus (a light) 1, 2, 4, 7.5, or 15 seconds later. The time between the warning stimulus and the imperative stimulus (the Preparatory Interval (PI)) is either constant (in the Regular Procedure) or variable (in the Irregular Procedure). Two studies were conducted examining the performance of brain damaged subjects on Shakow's procedure. The subjects in …

Relative Habituation And Recovery Of Visual Attention To Orientation-Movement Compounds By Newborn Infants., David P. Laplante

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated that newborn infants are capable of discriminating stationary objects based on one stimulus dimension. The present study asked the following questions: can newborns process spatial orientation changes?; does stimulus movement influence spatial orientation processing?; can stimulus movement changes be processed?; and can changes to two dimensions of a stimulus be detected? Forty-eight, 2-day-old newborns were administered successive presentations of either stationary or moving, high contrast, black-and-white square wave gratings (stripes) and their level of visual fixation was recorded. The results indicated that newborns are capable of detecting spatial orientation changes in stationary and moving stimuli. Moreover, …

Sex Differences In Perceptions Of Dangerous Sexual Behaviours: The Case Of Acquaintance Rape., Jodee M. Mccaw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research in the area of coercive heterosexual sex has assumed that the shocking frequency of men's sexual coercion of women is due in part to misunderstandings and miscommunication between women and men, so that a woman may experience as coercive a sexual interaction which the man believes to be consensual. The present study was designed to investigate sex differences in perceptions of and communication during sexual encounters. Forty university undergraduates, 20 women and 20 men, were asked about their own experiences with coercive sex and then wrote stories based on an outline in which a woman and a man who …

Memory Bias And Body Image Disturbance In Normal Weight Body Dysphoric Women., Jeffrey Duane Baker

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Body dysphoria is common in the general population and is thought to be associated with the development of eating disorders. Few studies have examined the role of cognitive processes in normal weight body dysphoric women. This study proposed an associative memory model of body dysphoria. The model predicted an increased memory bias for negative body words and increased body image disturbance in high body dysphoric subjects induced to a depressive mood. Based on the proposed model of body dysphoria, high dysphoric subjects were also predicted to give more depressive/negative body word associates on a word association task. Finally, the Pathfinder …

Attention Deficit Disorder (Add) With And Without Hyperactivity: Neuropsychological, Academic, And Psychosocial Correlates Of Add Subtypes In Children., Joseph Emile. Casey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study was designed to evaluate the external validity of Attention Deficit Disorder subtypes formed according to whether or not hyperactivity was present. The groups were compared on variables that reflected neuropsychological, academic, and psychosocial functioning. They were also compared on child and family history variables. Of particular interest was whether and to what extent the ADD subtypes could be distinguished on clinical neuropsychological measures that have been associated with "executive" or "frontal lobe" processes in adults. Sixty-two children with ADD+H and 22 children with ADD$-$H were selected from consecutive referrals to a hospital-based neuropsychology service. Few significant differences …

Psychosocial Dimensions Of Learning Disabilities: External Validation Of (1) Statistically-Derived Psychosocial Subtypes And Their Relations To (2) Cognitive And Academic Functioning., Katherine D. Tsatsanis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study aimed to assess the following: (a) the relationship between age and psychosocial functioning; (b) the relations between psychosocial functioning and cognitive and academic achievement; and (c) the external validity of statistically-derived psychosocial subtypes, employing a behavioral measure distinct from the one used to establish the typology. The subjects in this study consisted of 152 learning disabled children between the ages of 7 and 13 years (inclusive). Of these subjects, 147 were assigned to one of seven psychosocial subtypes using a profile matching algorithm developed by Fuerst (1991). Comparisons between these subtypes yielded the following results: Overall, learning …

Psychological Correlates Of Eating Disordered Behaviour And Attitudes In Female Undergraduate Students., Karen Joan. Narduzzi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined the degree to which selected psychological characteristics (e.g., inter-personal competence, locus of control, ineffectiveness) covaried with dysfunctional eating behaviour and attitudes (i.e., drive for thinness, bulimic symptoms, body dissatisfaction). A secondary purpose was to compare the efficacy of different measures of ineffectiveness in predicting dysfunctional eating behaviour. The sample consisted of 200 female university students (ages 18-26) with no history of clinical eating disorders. Measures included the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI: Garner et al., 1983), Bulimia Test, (BULIT: Smith & Thelen, 1984), Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (ICQ: Buhrmester et al., 1988) and I-E Scale (Reid & Ware, …

Behavioral, Electrophysiological, And Neuroanatomical Plasticity In The Rat, As A Result Of Complex Environment Housing, Eric Lynn Hargreaves

Digitized Theses

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is an electrophysiological phenomenon of neuroplasticity, whereby synaptic transmission of specific brain pathways become enhanced, or potentiated, after the delivery of a series of brief, high-frequency electrical trains. The increase in synaptic efficacy is of substantial duration, and therefore LTP has been likened to the theoretical reverberatory circuit that lead to permanent memory traces, as originally hypothesized by Hebb (1949). To further examine the direct relations between LTP and learning this thesis focused on the paradigm of complex environments, which have been shown to enhance learning, neocortical thickness, and hippocampal evoked potentials. It was decided to examine …

Cognitive Profiles Of Psychological Maladjustment, Henny Alice Westra

Digitized Theses

A review of the literature investigating various cognitive constructs across different maladjustment patterns indicated that, despite numerous cognitive similarities, the content domains to which cognitive processes apply may be one potentially important feature distinguishing various forms of psychological maladjustment. This proposal was empirically tested in a pilot study, in which irrational belief profiles were examined concurrently across four maladjustment patterns: depression, anxiety, the Type A behaviour pattern, and bulimia. Correlational data gathered from 63 introductory psychology students yielded data consistent with content specificity proposals.;Using a university undergraduate population, content specificity proposals were comprehensively investigated across four cognitive components: irrational beliefs, …

Child Sexual Abuse And The Mother-Daughter Relationship: Moderating Effects, Patricia Anne Bourdeau

Digitized Theses

The enormous variability of negative effects putatively resulting from childhood sexual abuse has prompted researchers to consider situational and environmental factors that may contribute to differential outcome. Because the clinical literature has traditionally focused on sexual abuse of female children, the relationship with nonoffending mothers is thought to play a crucial role in recovery. However, empirical evidence is sparse.;The present study investigated the moderating effects of mother-related variables in relation to features of child sexual abuse and subsequent maladjustment. Child adjustment was assessed by standardized measures, both parent- and child-report. Information about mothers' histories of childhood sexual abuse was obtained …

Polysemy Effects: Evidence For Dual Access Routes To Word Meanings, Yasushi Hino

Digitized Theses

The effects of polysemy (number of meanings) and word frequency were examined in lexical decision and naming tasks. Polysemy effects were observed in both tasks. In the lexical decision task, polysemy was additive with frequency. Polysemy effects appeared for both high and low frequency words. In the naming task, however, polysemy effects interacted with frequency, with polysemy effects being limited to low frequency words. When degraded stimuli were used in both tasks, the interaction appeared not only in naming but also in lexical decision. When pronounceable nonwords were replaced by pseudohomophones in lexical decision tasks, however, polysemy was once again …