Psychology Commons^™

Psychosocial Effects Of Shared Book Reading, Amy Halling

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many studies have examined the academic benefits of parents reading with their children, but few studies have looked at the psychological and social benefits, and even fewer have related the quality of shared book reading to psycho-social benefits. This study looked at whether positive and negative reading interactions during shared book reading predicted parent-child relationships, child social skills and child academic skills. Twenty-five parents of 4-year-olds read a story with their child and completed parent relationship and child social skills questionnaires. The reading interactions were then coded into two separate composite scores: positive and negative. Positive interactions did not significantly …

An Exploratory Study Of Fifth-Grade Students’ Reasoning About The Relationship Between Fractions And Decimals When Using Number Line-Based Virtual Manipulatives, Scott Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Understanding the relationship between fractions and decimals is an important step in developing an overall understanding of rational numbers. Research has demonstrated the feasibility of technology in the form of virtual manipulatives for facilitating students’ meaningful understanding of rational number concepts. This exploratory dissertation study was conducted for the two closely related purposes: first, to investigate a sample of fifth-grade students’ reasoning regarding the relationship between fractions and decimals for fractions with terminating decimal representations while using virtual manipulative incorporating parallel number lines; second, to investigate the affordances of the virtual manipulatives for supporting the students’ reasoning about the decimal-fraction …

Training Parents In Descriptive Assessment And Function Identification, Makenzie Sip

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

It is often difficult for parents to address their child’s problem behavior. Children with special needs can display more frequent and intense problem behavior. Therefore, professionals need to help parents of children with special needs identify how to decrease their child’s problem behavior. Professionals help to decrease problem behavior by performing assessments called descriptive assessments to identify why the problem behavior is happening, and then using these assessments to create an appropriate plan of how to prevent and respond to the problem behavior. We examined if parents could be taught the skills necessary to perform descriptive assessments and then use …

Language Brokering Consequences As A Function Of Development, Brent M. Gage

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Language brokering can be defined as a child mediating linguistically for a parent or other adult figure, either in spoken or written communication. This situation is a common occurrence among migrant and refugee families as children tend to acquire a new language at an accelerated rate in comparison with adults. As the immigrant and refugee populations continue to grow in comparison with native groups within the United States, it is increasingly important to understand the phenomenon of child language brokering. Moreover, it is particularly relevant to understand how the expectations for and consequences of language brokering may help to shape …

Child Sexual Abuse: Development Of Psychiatric Disorders And Interventions, Toshikazu Kuroda

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Child sexual abuse has become a serious social concern due to the recent report of its higher incidence rate than commonly believed. This form of child abuse has been proposed to bring about adverse effects on children's development since more than one century ago. However, research over past decades reveals that effects of sexual abuse are extremely complex and diverse. Particularly, there appear to be many unclear factors increasing the probability for the development of psychiatric disorders in sexually abused children. The present paper investigated how child sexual abuse creates diversity over the course of the victims' development from multiple …

A Follow-Up Study Of A Primary Prevention Program Targeting Childhood Depression, Norman Chris Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Children have not historically been the subject of research focusing on internalizing disorders (i.e., childhood depression), even though childhood depression continues to be viewed as one of the most prevalent affective problem within this population. Over the past two decades, a small portion of that literature describes prevention efforts in public schools. There has been a growing body of literature centered on childhood depression. However, there are only three studies that report on longitudinal findings that have taken a primary prevention approach.

The present study was a follow-up investigation to delineate the effects of a school-based primary prevention program. The …

An Investigation Of Criterion-Related Validity And Clinical Sensitivity Of The Internalizing Symptoms Scale For Children, Lisa Ann Mcclun

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The need for a self-report instrument that assesses internalizing problems in children ages 8 through 12 is evidenced in the lack of such an instrument, and in the prevalence of internalizing problems in children. A new self-report instrument, the Internalizing Symptoms Scale for Children (ISSC), has been proposed and developed to fit this need. The present study evaluated the criterion-related validity, clinical cutoff points, and discriminating power of the ISSC. Two groups of child subjects, clinic-referred and general-school-population, were recruited and administered the ISSC, and a parent of each subject completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Each case within the …

Implications Of Mediating Parent-Child Interactions In The Treatment Of Child Abuse, Connie Faye Nelke

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Child abuse has been shown to have a detrimental effect on the emotion development of the abused child. Due to a history with the parent that includes a high proportion of negative interactions and an impaired parent-child relationship, the child who has been subjected to physical abuse often manifests psychological symptoms. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect that treatment aimed at increasing the frequency of positive interaction in the parent-child relationship had on the emotional status of the abused child. Results showed that parent-child interaction play sessions were effective in increasing positive interaction and decreasing subsequent …

Development Of Cooperation Between Children In The Minimal Social Situation, Janice V. Siegel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children can learn to cooperate in what has been described as the "minimal social situation." The research also compared the effectiveness of verbal instructions and a training task for teaching subjects the "win-stay, lose-change" rule. This rule has been used to explain the development of cooperation in the minimal social situation.

Subjects were 19 teams of first-, second-, and third-graders. Five teams were composed of two girls; six were girl-boy teams; and eight were boy-boy teams. Ten of the 19 teams learned to cooperate in the minimal social situation without treatment. …

Summer Camp 1973: Recreation, An Approach To Behavior Modification, Christine Elizabeth Erni

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

At the culmination of the highly successful first annual Bridgerland Special Olympics, the author decided that more recreational activities needed to be provided for the exceptional (handicapped) children of this area. Academic and vocational programs were rapidly increasing but little was being done to help these exceptional children develop their social and recreational skills. Besides, college students found interaction with the children from the Exceptional Child Center and the Benson Instructional Workshop to be so educational and rewarding that they wanted to plan other recreational activities. Consequently, interested students met in May 1973 to plan a summer camp for these …

Task Persistence In Early Childhood Education, Thomas Richard Stephenson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to discover developmental trends in task persistence (TP). It was hoped that the results would suggest when and for what groups a task persistence (TP) curriculum is crucial.

To study this development a sample of two, four, and six year old children were given a "work" task. The task required 120 subjects (Ss) to sort and fold 33 items of clothing and linen. After the task instructions and demonstration, the experimenter did not intervene with reinforcers or further directions.

The dependent variables investigated were time spent on the task, time spent away from the task, and …

Behavioral Contrast In Children, Wenden Wayne Waite

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study was conducted as a systematic replication of earlier work investigating the phenomenon of behavioral contrast. Behavioral contrast has been consistently reported in alternating two component multiple schedules using infra-human subjects. The present study was interested in answering the question, "Does behavioral contrast exist in humans?"

Two experiments were performed which investigated the behavioral contrast and sequential contrast phenomena in children. In both experiments, lever press responses were analyzed using an ABA single-subject design. The children were instructed to press a lever to obtain as many tokens as possible. In Experiment I, six Ss were equally divided into …

The Effects Of Response Sets On The Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, Brent L. Andersen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Modified versions of the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (CMAS) and Marlow-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS) were administered to 40 normal and 29 retarded elementary school children to determine the effects of response sets upon CMAS scores. The results of the research indicated that CMAS scores obtained from retarded subjects reflect the use of acquiescence and denial response sets. Acquiescence response set did not affect the CMAS scores of normal children although there was a negative relationship between their CMAS scores and social desirability. The higher anxiety scores obtained by normal girls was felt to reflect their lower use of social …

A Validation Of Koppitz's Scoring Method For Children's Human Figure Drawings, William Gary Evans

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to see if the Koppitz objective scoring method for interpreting children's human figure drawings could be used as a valid assessment instrument with elementary school children. Human figure drawings were obtained from two matched groups of elementary school students, a normal and an emotionally disturbed group. The results of the comparison of human figure drawings of the two groups did not support Koppitz's findings. The Koppitz objective scoring method was found to be invalid as an assessment instrument with elementary school children and of doubtful use in diagnosing emotionally disturbed children. Possible explanations for …

The Teaching Of Concrete Thinking Strategies To Five-Year-Old Children And Its Effect On Performance On The Bender-Gestalt Test, Ronald C. Bennett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to examine the effect teaching five and one-half to six-year-old children analytical and conceptual thinking strategies would have on their subsequent performance on the Bender-Gestalt Test. The sample was composed of 34 kindergarten children in this age range from the Providence Elementary School. They were randomly divided into two groups of equal size; one group was then given three 10-minute training sessions over three days which were designed to teach them analytical and conceptual thinking strategies. The other group was also given three 10-minute sessions with the investigator; however, they were only involved in looking at …

A Longitudinal Evaluation Of The Ogden City Head Start Program, Robert D. Eyestone

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study attempted to investigate the differences in the Head Start population of the Ogden City Schools and to determine if the differences had a significant influence on ability comparisons. An attempt was also made to evaluate the longitudinal benefits of Head Start training. The original data was collected in the 1966-67 evaluation of the Head Start program. Additional data was collected as this original group of Head Start children progressed through kindergarten, first, and second grades.

Variables considered in this study were, residence, age, sex, socio-economic deprivation, family constellation, and ethnic group. In addition, a comparison was made of …

Measurement Of The Perceptual Rotation Of Visual Stimuli, Floyd W. Stettler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Apparatus for study of the phenomenon of rotation consisted of two rotating turntables constructed to receive disks for presenting varied visual stimuli. Turntables were graduated into 360 degrees for measurement of angular discrepancy in the task of visually matching rotational positions. Subjects from ages four through eleven attempted to match six compass positions for each of three designs--a boxlike house, a straight line, and Bender-Gestalt Figure No. 3.

Errors of rotation were classed as either transpositional or nontranspositional, Transpositional error, involving reversal or mirroring of the directional aspect of the designs, largely disappeared by age six. Non-transpositional error declined rapidly …

A Review And Construction Of Career Development Programs In The Elementary School, Chase Driggs

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Overview

Every child has a right to acquire his own realistic selfevaluation of the career he intends to pursue, and the process of exposure to occupational information should be permitted and encouraged to start at an early age. From this point of view we need to foster concepts and techniques designed to facilitate the vocational maturation of the child. Interaction with counselors, teachers, parents, and community will increase the student's ability to understand the opportunities of the world of work as it relates to his aptitudes and interests and values and to enable him to be more aware of the …

Behavioral Modification Of Trainable Mentally Retarded Children, Cheryl Mayo Frair

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In Experiment I, contingency management was employed with five non-institutionalized trainable retardates (mean MA=4.l, CA=9.9, and language age=2.6) in a classroom situation. Empirically determined high probability behaviors were displayed as colored cartoon figures in a reinforcement menu. Tasks from the Peabody Language Development Kit defined the behavior strengthened during 15 one-hour sessions. A quantity of low probability task behavior had to occur in order for subjects to emit 4 minutes of high probability reinforcing activity. Through contingency management, amount of task per reinforcement was shaped from a low ratio to a high ratio. Significant gains in language age (p

In …

A Psychological Investigation Of Seven Hermaphroditic Children, Peter Lewis Kranz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An in-depth personality and intellectual evaluation of a group of hermaphroditic children residing in the state of Oklahoma was undertaken in this study. The following techniques were utilized in order to extensively study the impact of this anomaly on the families of these children: psychological tests, parental interviews by a social worker, and diagnostic play interviews conducted by the investigator. It was the purpose of this study to examine the psychological impact of sexual ambiguity on the child and his parents.

There were no significant differences between the two groups on any of the tests given. This may be attributed …

Organizing For Guidance In The Willcox Elementary Schools, Agnes M. Briggs

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The director of Guidance in the Arizona State Department of Public Instruction realizing the great need for more experimental programs, proposed that part of the [National Defense Education Act of 1958] monies in Arizona be used for the purpose of developing pilot projects in the elementary schools. Schools that had expressed interest in a possible elementary guidance project were contacted and invited to write a proposal with the assistance of the State Department. Forty districts submitted plans for elementary guidance programs. Of these, ten were selected on the basis of the nature of the proposed program, the geographic location of …

The Effects Of Paternal Absence On Male Children, Martha H. Rigby

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The society in which our children are living and growing today is complicated by strife and conflict both internally and externally . It is a time when statisticians are telling us that 481 out of 1,000 marriages, or nearly one out of every four, will end in divorce; many others will end in separations not legally terminated (Bureau of Census, 1966). Many families are also separated because of the military action which at present is keeping 500,000 men at war in a country many thousands of miles from their families. During the year 1967 over nine thousand of this number …

The Use Of Mental Imagery Among Young Children In The Acquisition Of Piaget's Principles Of Conservation, Richard C. Sweetland

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study attempted to discover some parameters in terms of mental age at which young children, ages five through eight, begin to utilize effectively their mental imagery in the learning process. Using Piaget's principles of conservation as a learning task, subjects were taught in one of two groups: Group one was instructed in conservation concepts by use of concrete example, in which case they were allowed to see, handle and manipulate materials as they underwent transformations. Group two received identical instruction but were called upon to use their mental imagery to visualize the materials undergoing transformations.

Based upon the administration …

Relationship Between Self-Concept Discrepancies And The Expression Of Need Achievement In Children, Ian Griggs

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that a significant relationship exists between self-concept discrepancies and expressed need for achievement.

A self-concept discrepancy score was obtained and a low and high discrepancy group was isolated.

Expressed need for achievement was measured by the use of the Thematic Apperception Test and scored according to the Atkinson method.

Mean comparisons of need achievement scores of subjects whose discrepancies between actual and ideal self-concept were in the upper or lower one-third of the distribution were found not to be significant at the 5 percent level of confidence.

Guarded And Unguarded Responses To Sentence Completion Tests Among Normal Adolescents And Juvenile Delinquents, Mohammed K. Fazel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to test the responses of a group of juvenile delinquests and a group of normal adolescents to a sentence completion test. The test used was a modified form of Sack's Sentence Completion test in two forms--form A, first person stems and form B, third person stems. The hypothesis to be tested were (1) people project more in the third person, (2) the normal projects more, and (3) there would be no difference in projection on neutral items. The results bear out the three hypothesis. The sex scale, however, was an exception. This may be due to …

Children's Friends In Ability Vs. Randomly Grouped Classrooms, Nolan Kay Griffin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For over forty years ability grouping has been of professional concern to educators in the United States (Reisner, 1936). There have been fundamental changes in educational theory and practice during that time, one of which is the recognition that educational practices must adjust to individual differences. The interpretation of "equal opportunity" in education has gradually changed from meaning the same methods, standards, and course content for all children, to meaning the full opportunity for each child to develop his own potential in a school program suited to his individual capacities and needs.

The interpersonal relationships and social development of school …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Effects Of Heterogeneous And Homogeneous Elementary School Grouping Practices On Selected Personality Variables, Clarence D. Swaner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The relative advantages or disadvantages associated with the practice of grouping school children according to ability level has long been the subject of considerable discussion among educators. The general tendency has been for educators to divide into two camps: Those who expound the various merits of homogeneous grouping, and those who favor and support heterogeneous grouping practices. Less common, but acknowledged, are those educators who favor a combination of the two methods. Research dealing with the relative value of either method has usually been concerned with only one aspect of the problem--that of academic achievement. However, the efforts of several …