Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of Prior Experience Of One Group Member On The Performance Of The Wheel Network, Mark Hinterthuer

Student Work

The present study investigated the effects of prior experience of one group member on the performance of the wheel network. Groups participating in the experiment included four experimental groups and a control group. The four experimental groups included combinations of centrally or peripherally trained Ss transferred to a central or peripheral position in naive wheel networks. Dependent variables were measured in four categories: time, number of messages, number of errors, and individual ratings on a post-communication questionnaire. The position occupied by the experienced Ss during training had no apparent effect on their transfer group,s performance. The network position of the …

Effects Of Relevant And Irrelevant Characteristics Of Leaders In A Communication Network, Janet Ann Scheetz

Student Work

The present study involved groups of four Ss participating in a communication network, problem-solving task. Groups were assigned to one of the two treatments involving an irrelevant leader characteristic, race, and one of two treatments involving a relevant leader characteristic, efficiency. Race was varied by informing some groups that their leader was White while the other groups were informed that their leader was Negro. Efficiency was defined by an efficiency index, which, through a script followed by a confederate leader, produced either a high or low degree of efficiency. Race of the leader had a non significant impact on all …

The Manifest Anxiety-Defensiveness Scale, Induction Of Threat To Self-Esteem, And The Resolution Of Dissonance, Dennis F. Gardner

Student Work

It has been suggested that self-esteem is a significant contributing variable in determining defensive behavior (Asch, 1948; Janis & Field, 1959; Lazarus & Longo, 1953; Rosenzweig, 1938; Sears, 1940). Several studies suggest that individuals of high and low self-ssteem (SE) manifest different patterns of response to the experience of success and failure (Altrochi, Parsons, & Dickoff, 1960; Stotland & Hillmer, 1962; Stotland, Thorley, Thomas, Cohen, & Zander, 1957). Further, Slock and Thomas (1955) and Altrochi, Parsons, and Dickoff (1960) have shown that persons with high SE tend to avoid threatening materials, while persons with low SE tend to approach and …

Effects Of Proportion Of Positive Instances And Degree Of Restriction On The Induction Of A Principle, Dennis C. Dervin

Student Work

An experiment is reported in which student subjects attempted to discover a principle by pairing number and letters. Seven groups of subjects varied on two dimensions, proportion of positive instances sampled and degree of restriction in choosing number-letter pairs. It was found that subjects who sampled a higher proportion of positive instances were more successful that those sampling a lower proportion. Furthermore, subjects who were unrestricted in their choice of number-letter pairs, because they sampled a higher proportion of positive instances, performed more efficiently than subjects who were restricted and sampled a lower proportion of positive instances. Finally, when both …

Concurrence With Persuasive Suggestion As A Function Of The Sex Of The Speaker, Sex Of The Listeners And The Form Of Persuasive Suggestion Used, John A.G. Klose

Student Work

Twelve groups of Ss participated in twelve different conditions to assess the relationship of concurrence to the sex of the speaker, sex of the listener and form of suggesttion used by a speaker. None of these independent variables was significantly related to the number of concurrent and nonconcurrent responses of Ss. However, nonconcurrent responses increased significantly for all groups of Ss with each suggestion in a series of four suggestions. This finding lends support to the theory of psychological reactance (Brehm, 1966).

The Effectiveness Of Information Feedback On The Conformity Behavior Of Children, John Jay Wicks

Student Work

This paper summarizes a developmental study concerning the effects of correctness feedback on the conformity behavior of children. Specifically, the study proposes to test the following assumption: (1) that conformity is a positive function of age on ambiguous stimulus tasks and (2) that the effectiveness of correctness feedback is greater for older than younger Ss. To test these assumptions, the Ss were divided, at each grade level, into three groups: (1) a reward conformity group where the Ss received a "correct” signal for agreeing with the group and a "wrong" signal for disagreeing, (2) a reward nonconformity group where Ss …

An Experimental Examination Of Racial Distance Attitude Change In Young Delinquent Girls, Jane Anne Beem

Student Work

This research project was designed and expedited as the result of several long standing interests and concerns. These interests, theoretical in nature, focus upon: (a) the individual consequences of positive and/or negative interracial attitudes, and (b) the social consequences of existing interracial Interaction patterns manifested throughout the United States, particularly within the past two decades. The concerns, pragmatic in nature, are with "social reform."

The Pattern Of Religious Institution In The Northwest Urban Fringe Of Omaha, Nebraska, 1968, Grace R. Gardner

Student Work

Most writers attempt, at the outset, to define the subject of their discourse. To be certain of capturing the essence of an idea or concept, they will turn to renowned scholars and practitioners in the field and derive a composite of a wide array of views and approaches to the problem. Such an attempt In the field of religion reveals so many definitions and such variance between them, that it is soon apparent no simple definition will suffice. Is it intellectual acceptance of an idea, ideal, or code of ethics which binds men together philosophically, or is it formal membership …

Effects Of Serial Position Of Relevant Cue In The Rehearsal Order And Method Of Encoding On Attention In A Single Cue Concept Identification Task, Barbara M. Bethel

Student Work

Five groups of Ss were forced to encode briefly exposed stimuli in a prescribed order and to classify the stimulus as a negative or a positive instance of the concept. For the first four groups, trials to criterion were found to be a function of the ordinal position of the relevant cue in the encoding order. These groups were forced to encode in an ungrammatical order. The fifth group employed a grammatical order of encoding and the position of the relevant cue was randomly assigned to an S. The fifth group was found to be superior to the other four …

Forced Resettlement And Attitude Change: A Study Of Cognitive Dissonance, Vincent Joel Webb

Student Work

The United States during the 20th century has been characterized by an ever increasing amount of Federal responsibility and intervention in effecting change in the lives of the local citizenery. This Federal intervention and responsibility takes many varied forms; it is the aim of this research to deal with only one of these forms - the Civil Works Program of the United States Army Corps of Engineers as it relates to water resources development.

Middle And Working-Class Fathers' Occupational Expectations And Aspirations For Their Daughters, William H. Bieck

Student Work

Sociological research in the areas of occupational preference and mobility, together with related work in the sociology of education has been concerned almost entirely with males. An all but exclusive preoccupation with the male worker is somewhat surprising considering the fact that census data reveal, an increasing proportion of women in paid employment during the last sixty years.¹ An examination of labor statistics by Bossi,² disclosed that between 1950 and I960, women accounted for 65 per cent of the increase in the labor force. By 1965, according to Davis³, approximately one paid worker in three was …

A Sociological Consideration Of Pretense, John F. Else

Student Work

Few, if any, persons pass through a day without observing and engaging in some form of pretense. Pretense is a basic aspect of interpersonal relations. In an office or factory the supervisor tells the worker to ’’look busy" even when he does not have work to do. The salesman tries to make the customer feel as if the item being presented is the best buy ever placed on the market. Two people meet and exchange “PIeased to meet you!" when neither actually cares at all about the presence of the other; in fact, each may have negative feelings about meeting …

The Effects Of Mid-Task Motivation On Risk-Taking, Speed, And Persistence, Joel S. Stephenson

Student Work

Theoretical advances in science are often precipitated by some methodological development that permits a new approach to the guest for knowledge. Such was the case with the study of human motivation in psychology. This thesis represents, in part, a review of the work in achievement motivation that followed the development of the thematic apperceptive measure of achievement motivation by McClelland, et. al. in 1953. In addition, it is hoped that this study will make a significant contribution to the large body of knowledge spawned in the field of achievement motivation.

Need-For-Approval, Locus Of Reinforcement, And Peer Presence Effects In Goal-Setting, Barbara Jean Hicks

Student Work

Recent studies, focusing on defensive qualities of approval-oriented individuals, have shown that persons high in need-for-approval are avoidant and defensive in self- and socially-evaluative situations. Most of these studies have investigated behavior in situations where social implications are fairly explicit. There is evidence, however, that some individuals respond to implicitly held cultural norms in an experimental situation.

Socialization To The Parental Role: A Study Of Reactive Norms, Don Stanley Ecklund

Student Work

The interplay of social theory and social research is the most important attribute of the present day scientific study of human behavior. On the one hand, the scientist as theorist is interested in generalizations, and on the other hand, as a researcher he is interested in testing his hypothesis so that he is assured that what he reports is empirically valid. The effective social scientist does not aim to be strictly a theorist or an empiricist, but seeks to meaningfully combine both theory and research in a way that enhances scientific knowledge. In the following pages of this thesis, such …

Concept Instruction Effects In Complex Problem Solving, Charles Jay Gadway

Student Work

Since relevant environmental factors and individual differences affect problem solving behavior, E evaluated interactive effects of situational problem, response, and concept instructions, and abstracting ability. A crossed-factorial design with two levels of each environmental factor (given and not given) and two levels of abstracting ability (high and low) was used. The criteria were efficiency in solving 15 complex numerical problems by S on a five point scale. The hypotheses are that Ss receiving concept instructions can solve the problems faster and more accurately and express more confidence I their solutions than Ss not receiving them.

Religious Preference And Worldly Success: A Comparison Of Protestants And Catholics, James W. Crowley

Student Work

The problem, of theory construction toward a sociological understanding of the religious-economic relationship has relied to a great extent upon the work of a German social scientist, Max Weber.¹ Historical observations made by Weber, which described a meaningful relationship between Protestantism and modern industrial capitalism,² stimulated scholars from a number of fields to continue investigation of this relationship. The Weberian thesis advanced the position that religious and economic phenomena within a society were mutually interdependent. More specifically, Weber was concerned with the 'economic ethics of a religion'³ in relation to the economic institution. This relationship was considered …

The Relationship Of Locus Of Reinforcement To Change In Initial Perception Of Communicator Credibility And Type Of Decision Generated, Stephen Allan Brown

Student Work

Hovland, Janis, and Kelley (1953) distinguished between expertness and trustworthiness, two variables most relevant to communicator perception. They defined expertness as the extent to which a communicator is perceived to be a source of valid assertions and trustworthiness as the degree of confidence in the communicator's intent to communicate the assertions he considers most valid. They defined communicator credibility (degree of belief) as incorporating both expertness and trustworthiness but concluded that there was experimental confounding of both variables.

The Effects Of Physostigmine Sulfate On Inferential Learning In The Rat, Stephen Frederic Johnsen

Student Work

The following study has arisen out of an interest in the recent work done on the chemistry of neural transmission. Since experimentation has indicated that certain chemicals affect some lower level learning performance of animals such as maze performance, this experiment is an attempt to find out whether the same effects hold for such a chemical on higher order learning processes, as indicated by Maier's three-table-test.

The Test-Retest Performance Of 427 Institutionalized Mentally Retarded Individuals On The 1937 Revision Of The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, David C. Ihrig

Student Work

Rothstein (1962, pp. 582, 583) in summarizing some of the findings which were issued at the 1960 meeting of the White House Conference on Children and Youth stated:

That there are 5,000,000 retarded individuals of all ages in America ....That 95 out of 100,000 citizens in the United States are receiving care in residential institutions for the mentally retarded....That, of the number of retarded individuals admitted to state institutions for the first time, 85 percent are under 20 years of age ... The proportion of institutionalized educable retarded individuals is dropping, hut the proportion of institutionalized children with I.Q.s below …

The Progressive Matrices (1938) With Chronic Brain Disorder And Chronic Schizophrenic Subjects, Ellis L. Schultz

Student Work

This is a report of a study which investigated the performance of two experimental groups of adult psychiatric patients and one group of noninstltutional control subjects on Sets A, B, C, D, and E of the 1956 revised edition of the Ravens Progressive Matrices (1938 Fora, referred to throughout this paper as the PM). The two experimental subject groups consisted of a chronic schizophrenic reaction group and a chronic brain disorder without-psychosis group.

Correlation Between Some Of The Cattell Objective-Analytic Personality Tests And Biographical Data, Ronald Nixon Taylor

Student Work

Although there Is little agreement as to the exact definition of the term "personality," there is almost universal agreement as to the wide scope encompassed by this term and the tremendous influence of the personalities of individuals in every area of their lives and on the lives of those around them. Its importance in college activities, as in all other areas of behavior, can scarcely be denied.

Relationships Within And Between The 1960 Stanford-Binet L-M And The Goodenough Intelligence Test With Intellectually Sub-Average Children, Frederick M. Rudie

Student Work

The examination of relationships within and between the 1960 Stanford-Binet and the Goodenough Intelligence Test provided the basis for this thesis, Before considering the relationships, some background on the testing movement, Binet Scales, Stanford-Binet, Goodenough Draw- A-Man Test, Stanford-Binet vocabulary subtest* Stanford-Binet scatter, and the slow learner would prove useful.

The Relationship Between The Wechsler-Bellevue Subtests And Academic Achievement Using Institutionalized Retardates, Fred Richard Seybold

Student Work

The relation of intelligence to achievement is complex, and studies have yielded varying and inconsistent results. It is recognized that intelligence is only one variable of many which contributes to some degree to one’s educational attainments. However, in the case of mental retardation, there is no doubt that intelligence is one of the most important factors influencing academic achievement.

An Experimental Investigation On The Theoretical Development Of Conditioned Inhibition, Daniel B. Felker

Student Work

The Hullian Intervening variables, reactive Inhibition (IR) and conditioned inhibition (SIR) have, like many other Hullian intervening variables, generated large amounts of research as reported in the psychological literature. These views of Hull are presented systematically in two of a proposed three-book system.

A Content Analysis Of Self-Reliance Or Dependence In A Sixth Grade Reading Text-Book, Roxilu Kelton Bohrer

Student Work

Traditionally, our nation has been one in which individual effort and enterprise are rewarded. Our “log cabin” heroes, our “Horatio Alger” stories, are a reflection of a cultural tradition of interdependence and self-reliance which we cherish. Most of us fondly recall the story of the little train engine who said, “I think I can, I think I can,” and managed to puff over the hill.¹ This little train showed self-reliance and independence in reaching his goal. By contrast, a recent children’s book tells about a little locomotive who goes to school to learn to be a big locomotive and …

An Investigation Of The Correlations Between Years Of Service In Pastoral Work And The Scores Of The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, C. L. Wessman

Student Work

In the August Twentieth issue of Life Magazine an article appeared entitled, “Why Ministers Are Breaking Down.”¹ Three months later, the Christian Century answered this article in Life with “Are Ministers Cracking Up?”² The conclusions of these two articles were in disagreement. However, they were alike in that they were based upon personal observations of a few cases and not upon careful study. Since then other periodicals have carried like articles written in like style.³ A casual examination of the books on a minister’s personal problems in the library of any theological seminary will manifest the same …

An Investigation Of The Attitudes Held By A Randomly Selected Group Of Members Toward Their Young Women's Christian Association A Socio-Psychological Analysis, Robert Lee Geisel

Student Work

Curing the last few years the study of voluntary membership in clubs and other social organisations has become a matter of increased importance in the area of social research. Sociological literature contains several significant studies which have focused attention on this particular area of human behavior. Notwithstanding this development, an attempt will be made in this research project to demonstrate that there is still a definite lack of information with respect to several,important aspects of voluntary membership, it is hoped that the findings of this study will be fruitful in supplying some date deemed necessary to increase our understanding of …

An Analysis Of Existential Psychology, Arthur Erwin Wolfgarth

Student Work

The purpose of this thesis is to trace the thread of existential psychological thought from its first systematic statements in Denmark through its expansion in Europe to its influence in contemporary thought in the United States. This study begins with Søren Kierkegaard who cast existential expression into molds that have not broken to the present day. The study then primarily concerns Jean-Paul Sartre who expanded Kierkegaard’s germinal concepts into a theoretical psychology. From Sartre the thread is followed to the United States in the writings of Erich Fromm, Rollo May, and Carl Rogers. Existential theoretical psychology develops a psychoanalytical approach, …

The Psychological Viewpoints Of William Hertzog Thompson And His Contributions., Gloria Kurtz Sinnett

Student Work

In all institutions of Metier learning there are a few personalities who are outstanding to not only the student body, but also to the community. One such personality is William Hertzog Thomson, who has been associated with the University of Omaha since 1913 when ho enrolled as a freshman. In his role of student, alumnus, Professor and Head of the Department of Psychology, Dean of Men, Director of the Child Study Service, and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, he has left an indelible impression on many individuals, including students in his classes and also on the citizens …