Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Clinical Trials Evaluation Of A Double-Blinded Protocol To Assess The Therapeutic Effectiveness Of Stimulant Medication Prescribed For Children Diagnosed Adhd, Ann V. Thompson

Dissertations

This clinical trials investigation developed and evaluated a protocol for determining the therapeutic effectiveness of medication prescribed for children diagnosed ADHD. The protocol included two separate baseline periods of two week durations, each of which were followed by four randomly assigned probes of one week duration, consisting either of Methylphenidate or placebo capsules. Baseline probes were unblinded, but medication and placebo probe trials were double-blinded. Therapeutic effect, expectancies, and integrity of the double-blind control were assessed through a battery of rating scales and forms completed by the parent, teacher and child at the end of each protocol week, including baseline …

Adolescent Substance Use Patterns: Testing A Multidimensional Sociogenic Model, Eric O. Johnson

Dissertations

This dissertation begins with the understanding that behavior is a product of a variegated and complex web of social factors. Bringing this approach to the subfield of adolescent substance use, both substance use itself (alcohol, cigarettes and a broad range of illicit drugs) and the factors that influence such use are viewed as existing within the complex of demographic/structural, social contextual, attitudinal, and behavioral layers of adolescents' social worlds.

The Patterns of Adolescent Substance Use Typology, developed by Stanley S. Robin and me (1992a), is used to categories the overall level and kind of substance use, over time, that adolescents …

The Effects Of Training And Experience On The Ability To Detect Relapse Precipitants In A Substance Abuse Client, Michael F. Sunich

Dissertations

This study examined the effects of training and experience on counselors' ability to detect relapse precipitants in substance abuse clients. Eighty counselor trainees from Western Michigan University and the University of Northern Colorado participated. They were classified as to their previous level of experience and then exposed to either the treatment condition or the control condition. Pretest-posttest data were gathered using a modified version of the Alcohol Confidence Questionnaire (Annis & Graham, 1988) (ACQ-M).

The findings from this study suggest that counselors with previous substance abuse experience tend to show less confidence in a client's ability to remain abstinent than …

Motivational Effects On A Psychometric Measure Of Prefrontal Brain Functioning In Patients With Chronic Schizophrenia And Related Disorders, Paul C. Smith

Dissertations

This study compared multiple sequential performances on a computerized version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (Grant & Berg, 1948; Harris, 1986) by adult men receiving institutional inpatient treatment for chronic schizophrenia and related disorders. Participants were exposed to differential test conditions of minimal post-session non-contingent token reinforcement (baseline phases) and enhanced intra-session performance-contingent token reinforcement (experimental phase). Each major participant resided at the same continuing treatment unit at Kalamazoo Regional Psychiatric Hospital receiving similar social therapies but idiosyncratic psychotropic medication regimens, changes in which were tracked in relation to test performances. A simple single-subject reversal design was employed with …

The Relationships Between Marital Adjustment, Family Functioning, Task Management And Family Relationship Concerns In Couples Incorporating A Second Child, Amy Diguiseppe Bade

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among variables identified as potentially significant during the transition to second time parenthood. The theoretical framework for this study was based on the Circumplex Model of family systems (Olson, Sprenkle & Russell, 1979; Olson, Russell & Sprenkle, 1983), and a five domain structural model of marital and family adaptation (Cowan & Cowan, 1988).

The convenience sample consisted of 49 Caucasian middle class couples all expecting their second child. This was a one group pretest-posttest design with the birth of the second child functioning as the independent variable. The dependent variables …

A Validation Of The Family Of Origin Scale Using Alcoholic And Mental Health Patients, Arthur J. Fedor

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to add to the knowledge of family of origin assessment by demonstrating the utility of the Family of Origin Scale (FOS; Hovestadt, Anderson, Piercy, Cochran, & Fine, 1985) as a posttreatment measure of change with clinical samples. In this context, a second feature of the study was a further validation of the FOS.

Eighty-one clinical subjects in inpatient alcoholism treatment centers and outpatient mental health clinics were administered the FOS prior to treatment and again following treatment. Although the pretest-posttest model of the study was a quasi-experimental design, the focus was on the FOS's …

The Psychological Needs Of Sex Offenders Of Children As Measured By The Personality Research Form, Shirley Anne Miller

Dissertations

Major contributors in the field of child sexual abuse have agreed that sex offenders who sexually abuse children are not primarily motivated by sexual desire and have proposed that the simultaneous satisfaction of a number of psychological needs is the prominent motivation of sex offenders of children. Few attempts have been made to empirically validate the clinical and theoretical impressions regarding the psychological needs of this group using psychological measures designed to assess needs or motives.

The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent the assumptions about the psychological needs of sex offenders of children would be …

The Effects Of Spouse-Based Cognitive-Behavior Therapy On The Treatment Of Agoraphobia, Joan Woods

Dissertations

The purpose of this clinical research was to determine whether spouse-supported treatment of agoraphobia would result in greater improvement on measures of exposure and avoidance than would individual treatment or no treatment. It was hypothesized that Couples Treatment subjects would demonstrate a significantly greater change from pretest to posttest than would Individual Treatment subjects or No-Treatment Control subjects. The study further predicted that significant improvements would be demonstrated for both treated groups on the same outcome measures, pretest to posttest and from pretest to follow-up.

Total N was 10 subjects, all were agoraphobic, married, and female, with 4 in Couples …

The Effects Of A Wilderness/Adventure Program On The Self-Concept, Locus Of Control Orientation, And Interpersonal Behavior Of Delinquent Adolescents, Timothy J. Zwart

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a 26-day therapeutic wilderness program for delinquent adolescent males on three conceptually distinct but closely related constructs: self-concept, locus of control orientation, and interpersonal behavior. Justification for the study was derived from the limitations of past wilderness/adventure research which suggested that there was a need for additional research on the effects of this type of alternative program for delinquent adolescents.

It was hypothesized that following participation in this program the youths would exhibit increased self-concept, more internal locus of control orientation, would express higher needs for inclusion and affection …

Development And Evaluation Of An Infant-Care Training Program With First-Time Fathers, Ronald S. Dachman

Dissertations

We evaluated the effectiveness of a multicomponent package in training infant-care skills to first-time fathers. After developing and socially validating a set of infant-care skills, we assessed the effects of training in a hospital-based program with expectant fathers (Experiment 1) and in a home-based program with fathers having varied degrees of experience with their infants (Experiment 2). In both experiments, a multiple probe design demonstrated that the training package was responsible for producing criterion performance by the expectant and first-time fathers. A one-month generalization probe in Experiment 1 showed that the effects transferred across training conditions (training doll to human …