Digital Commons Network^™

Decreasing Nighttime Fears In Children: A Thesis ..., Carol J. Mcmenamy

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to find out if children ages 4- 5 who were experiencing nighttime fears could be taught coping behaviors to decrease their fears. Five children and their parents participated in the study. A treatment package consisting of teaching the children brave self- statements, relaxation exercises, and the introduction of a token economy was used. Results indicate a reduction in fear behavior at post treatment, and further decreases in fear related measures at follow- up.

The Assessment Of Peer Social Acceptance And Social Behavior Of Type A Children, Constance Lynne Cappas

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted in order to extend the generalizability of a previous study CCappas et al., 1985) that examined the social acceptance of Type A children. One hundred and ninety-six 1 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children from two public schools were classified as Type A or Type B based on teacher ratings on the Matthews Youth Test for Health (Matthews & Angulo, 1980). Students and teachers then assessed the level of social acceptance of each child. Lastly, behavioral observations were conducted on ~0 of these students. Results indicated that, similar to the prior study, Type A children were …

An Experimental Analysis Of Generative Manding In Preschool Children, W. Guy Tidwell

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the development of mands for missing objects. Two female children and two male children (ranging from 2 years, 1 month to 3 years, 5 months) were selected on the basis of screening probes that indicated an absence of manding. A mand probe consisted of instructions to complete a response chain when one of the needed objects was missing. For every response chain, each child was:. (a) taught to label (tact) the objects, (b) then taught to use the objects in reinforced response chains, and (c) then given mand probes for the stimuli just trained.

Results for all …

Formal Observation Of Family Interaction During Structured Play, Darell C. Provencher

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The present study explored how behavioral interactions in two-male sibling families during structured play may be affected by the relative ages of siblings and by the interaction situations involved. Six dyadic interaction situations of 30 minutes duration each were observed among members of 12 normal families in their homes, once a week for five consecutive weeks. Families were categorized into three groups: (a) a younger sibling and an older sibling between 2-5 years of age, (b) 2-5 year-old younger sibling and 6-9 year-old older sibling, and (c) a younger sibling and an older sibling between 6-9 years of age. The …

Comparison Of Two Preference Assessment Procedures And The Effect Of Before Versus After Preference Assessment On Children's Discrimination Learning, Lynn Willis Kaufman

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Using both incomplete and complete triads methods , dimensional preference (form or color) was assessed in 121 children (mean age 79.1 months) either before or after performance in a discrimination learning task to determine the effect which prior preference tests have upon the relations between dimensional preference and discrimination learning. The results indicated little support for the perceptual-differentiation hypothesis and some support for both the attentional hypothesis and the developmental-mediational hypothesis . The complete triads method was recommended as an improvement over the incomplete triads and opposed cues methods of preference assessment because the former allows E to determine Ss …

Children's Reactions To One Hundred Thirty-Seven Visual Items, Robert James Tufts

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to present the responses of children to one hundred thirty-seven visual items developed under the direction of the present writer specifically for this purpose. The items are pen and ink sketches of situations, actions and objects which any child might find in his daily living or about which he might fantasy.

The subject matter of the items can be best be determined by direct reference to them as they are presented in Chapter III of this thesis. They represent many types of situations and objects with no intention of including or evaluating any specific …

A Study In Child Thought, Language And Logic : Observations Of A Six-Year-Old Child, Individually At Home, And Together With His Play And School Groups : Experimental Tests And Analysis Of Observations, In Accordance With The Theories Of Piaget, Gertrude Allen Farley

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

It must be made clear in the very beginning that the basis for this thesis is the two volumes by Dr. Jean Piaget, Institut J. J. Rousseau, Geneva, Switzerland, The Language and Thought of the Child and Judgement and Reasoning in the Child; hence the very small bibliography, the material used being observations and experimental tests based on these volumes.¹

Much has been written heretofore on the vocabulary and phonetics of child language, piling up statistics on the number of words various children have acquired at different ages and on the sentence structure (number of adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, etc.) …