Psychology Commons^™

A Test Of The Self-Regulatory Model Of Prejudice Reduction, Sonja Williams

Student Work

Two assumptions derived from Devine and Monteith’s (1993) self-regulatory model of prejudice reduction were tested utilizing a stereotype-activating stimulus believed to be similar to one which is more likely to occur in everyday-life than those used in previous research. Black and white actors making ambiguously hostile statements were evaluated by 92 low and high-prejudiced participants. Rating-scale data provided partial support for the assumption that low-prejudiced participants inhibit stereotype-consistent responses and replace them with personal, more egalitarian beliefs. Specifically, low-prejudiced participants provided significantly more favorable ratings than their high-prejudiced counterparts (p = .030). Reaction-time data provided support for the model’s assumption …

The Effect Of Control Strategies On Sixth Graders' Metacognitive Awareness, Pamela Haag Clower

Student Work

This experimental action research study provided sixth grade students five lessons about metacognitive control skills, with pre- and post-instruction measurements of the students’ observable behaviors and notation of the students’ think-alouds regarding their metacognitive activity. The purpose of the study was twofold: 1. To test whether students’ metacognitive awareness can be increased, and 2. To compare the performance of students who initially demonstrate higher metacognitive awareness by scoring above the median on a Metacognitive Awareness Inventory with student who students scored below the median on the inventory. Because research has shown metacognitive ability to operate independently of academic ability and …

Social Intelligence, Problem Construction, And Leadership: The Trait Approach Revisited, David Michael Koch

Student Work

Social intelligence is a personality trait that refers to an individual's ability to correctly interpret their environment and take the appropriate action. Recent research (Gilbert, 1994) found social intelligence to be an important and significant predictor of leader effectiveness across multiple situations. Because the social intelligence construct can account for effective leadership behavior across multiple situations, it may represent a reconciliation of the trait and situation theories of leadership.

The purpose of this study was to continue this line of research on social intelligence and leadership by examining the role of social intelligence in creative problem solving. Problem construction is …

Interparental Conflict, Family Environment And Perceived Interpersonal Conflicts Among Late Adolescents, Harry Durell Johnson

Student Work

The characteristics of interpersonal conflict within the family system during adolescence may be influenced not only by the attempts of adolescent's to individuate from their parents, but also by the environment in which this individuation process occurs. Family systems that are characterized by decreased family cohesion and increased interparental conflict may inadvertently provide environments that foster increases in conflict among its members. How these environmental factors are associated with the quantitative and qualitative aspects of conflict is an important question which is addressed in this study. The relationship between the family system environment (i.e., family cohesion and interparental conflict), participant's …

Relationship Between Life Change Events And Communication Apprehension, Elaine Bylund

Student Work

This research investigates relationships between communication apprehension (CA) and life change events, using college students at a Midwestern university. Instruments used were the Personal Report o f Communication Apprehension-24 (PRCA- 24) which measured CA, both overall and in four subareas, and a modified version of the Adolescent Life Change Event Questionnaire (ALCEQ), which records life change events during formative years and past year before being questioned.

No significant relationships were found between the overall scores of the two instruments in this study, although demographic information showed that the younger college students reported more public speaking apprehension than the older groups. …

Orthographically Mediated Inhibition Effects: Evidence Of Activational Feedback During Visual Word Recognition, Jason F. Reimer

Student Work

According to the multistage activation model of visual word recognition (Besner & Smith, 1992a, 1992b; Borowsky & Besner, 1993), during visual word recognition, activation can spread from semantic to orthographic representations via a feedback mechanism. Two experiments were conducted in order to test directly whether or not such feedback occurs, and if so, under what conditions. In order to directly measure feedback, a mediated priming paradigm was utilized. In this paradigm, participants named aloud targets that were preceded either by a semantically related prime (e.g., dog - cat! or by a prime that is related to the target via a …

Affect During Conflicts Between Adolescents And Their Best Friends, Other Friends And Acquaintances, Mary J. Spenceri

Student Work

While conflict, in general, has received much attention in the literature, "affect felt" during conflicts and its influence has not been a major concern to researchers. Only a few investigations of "affect intensity" associated with conflict have been conducted. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of affect intensity, an individual differences factor, in the affect experienced in conflict situations with friends and acquaintances by different age groups, and the resolution strategies that are used. Students from grades 5, 8, and 11 and first and second year college students completed the Affect Intensity Measure, a conflict questionnaire, …

Living In Two Worlds: Asian-American Women And Emotion, Kimberly S. Gangwish

Student Work

Asian-American women have faced certain difficulties in growing up due to the distinct differences in Asian and American cultures. The two cultures have philosophical differences as well as differences in acceptable manners of behaving and communicating. The expression of emotion is one of these areas. This research study looks at the differences in the two cultures concerning the expression of emotions and how this affects the women who are trying to live within both worlds. Ten first-generation Asian-American women were interviewed, using an oral history method, concerning three different situations. One situation involving just their parents, another involving their friends, …

Effect Of Degree Of Cue Separation And Stimulus Encoding Method On Cue Sample Size And Learning Rate, Robert Jason Weiss

Student Work

Response mode research shows that participants under a judgment response mode demonstrate more compensatory processing than participants under a choice mode. Research on affect and choice reveals that positive-affect participants display more noncompensatory examination of information than negative-affect participants. In the present study, participants viewed a film clip to induce positive or negative affect and made judgments or choices for a series of candidates for a university professor's position. Results indicate a powerful effect for response mode across all dependent variables whereby judgment participants took more time, looked at more information, and showed less search variability than choice participants. The …

The Effect Of Response Mode And Affective State On Multiattribute Decision-Making, Robert Jason Weiss

Student Work

Response mode research shows that participants under a judgment response mode demonstrate more compensatory processing than participants under a choice mode. Research on affect and choice reveals that positive-affect participants display more noncompensatory examination of information than negative-affect participants. In the present study, participants viewed a film clip to induce positive or negative affect and made judgments or choices for a series of candidates for a university professor's position. Results indicate a powerful effect for response mode across all dependent variables whereby judgment participants took more time, looked at more information, and showed less search variability than choice participants. The …

Cognitive Differentiation And Verbal Ability: A Test Of Two Judgmental Models, Kristine K. Siedis

Student Work

Differences in judgmental models between highly differentiated individuals and poorly differentiated individuals were investigated. Level of cognitive differentiation was determined by participants’ responses to a Repertory Grid technique. Based upon previous research, it was predicted that highly differentiated individuals would engage in judgmental processes that reflected a nonadditive model, while poorly differentiated individuals would engage in more additive judgmental processes. While it was shown that highly differentiated individuals did engage in nonadditive judgmental processes and poorly differentiated individuals did engage in additive judgmental processes, the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant. The findings are discussed in context …

A Comparison Of The Ways That Teachers, Parents And Preschool Children Classify Toys Into Gender Categories, Linda Schneider

Student Work

This study compared the ways that teachers, parents and children classified toys according to gender categories. Fifty-eight teachers and seventy-eight parents completed a toy survey in which they were to sort a list of 49 preschool classroom toys into gender categories. The six toys most often rated masculine and the six toys most often rated feminine by the teachers were used in a toy sorting task for preschool children. Seventy-four preschool children were asked to sort pictures of the twelve toys into gender categories.

One-way analyses of variance, t-tests, and Least Significant Difference multiple comparison procedures were used to examine …

Procedural Justice And Voice: Do Individual Differences Moderate The Voice Effect?, Mark N. Van Osdel

Student Work

Previous researchers (see Lind & Tyler, 1988) have reported that persons allowed an opportunity to express their opinions (voice) typically report a heightened level of perceived fairness-labeled as the voice effect. Instrumental and group-value theories have been proposed as explanations for this effect. The present study examined the voice effect in the context of personality theory to explore individual differences in relation to instrumental and group value theories of voice. This study was designed to test the effect of two individual difference components, Locus of Control and Need for Affiliation, across three conditions of voice (predecision, postdecision, and no-voice). Predecision …

The Situational Interview As A Measure Of Intelligence, Deborah F. Goodman

Student Work

The employment interview has traditionally been regarded as having low reliability and validity for predicting job performance. This assumption has been challenged recently by research findings which indicate improved reliability and validity for structured interview formats (Arvey & Campion, 1982). The situational interview in particular is associated with strong predictive accuracy; this fact has sparked debate regarding the source of this enhanced validity. This study tested Hunter and Hirsh's (1987) notion that situational interview validity is derived from its measurement of cognitive ability. In addition, their theory that the situational interview operates as an orally administered intelligence test for new …

The Influence Of Valence Of Additional Information And Affective State On Regret And Subsequent Decision Making Behavior, Rhonda A. Stutzman

Student Work

To date, there is little research on the phenomena of decisional regret. Most of the literature contains speculation about the antecedents, moderators, processes and consequences of regret rather than offering empirical evidence. This study looked at temporary affective states and the moderating effect of the valence of additional information in terms of the amount of post-decisional regret experienced, confidence levels, ratings of decision alternatives and subsequent choice. A 2 X 2 factorial design was used to examine the influence of affective state (positive vs neutral) and the valence of additional information (neutral vs negative) on regret and the evaluation of …

Task Experience, Assigned Goals, And Performance Norms As Determinants Of Goal Choice And Performance, Jon Shanahan

Student Work

A cognitive mediation model of goal setting (Garland, 1985; Meyer & Gellatly, 1988) is explored from a perspective that combines the social information processing, expectancy-valence, and control systems literatures. Assigned goals, performance norms, and task experience are viewed as information sources that influence goal choice, and therefore effort and performance, through performance expectancy (expectancy of success) and performance valence (anticipated satisfaction with any given performance level). Subjects were 100 introductory psychology and sociology students who participated in exchange for extra credit. Subjects performed a card sorting task and were assigned to one of five treatment conditions. Each experimental subject was …

The Perceptual Weighting Of Speech-Related Acoustic Cues For 3 & 1/2-Year-Old Children Differs From That Of Adults: Results Using Natural And Synthetic Stimuli, Carol J. Manning

Student Work

Previous studies have found that children’s judgments of syllable-initial /s/ and / ∫ / are more related to the vocalic F2 transition and less related to the fricative-noise spectrum than are adults’ judgments [Nittrouer & Studdert- Kennedy, JSHR, 30 (1987); Nittrouer, J. Phon., 20 1992]. These results have been taken as evidence that young children organize linguistic input in units more closely approximating syllable size than phoneme size. Furthermore, such results have led to a model of speech development proposing that children’s weighting of the acoustic cues for phonemic categories changes as they gain linguistic experience, with a general shift …

Mothers' And Fathers' Perceptions Of Parenting One-Month Old Infants With Respiratory Distress Syndrome Or Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia, Nancy Marron

Student Work

Recent significant advances in the field of neonatology have resulted in increased rates of survival of infants who are born prematurely (Avery & Taeusch, 1984). Although mortality rates have decreased, many of these children and their families may be faced with complications related to prematurity, extended hospitalization, numerous lifesaving medical procedures, and a lengthy recovery.

The Effects Of Gender Of Observers And Victims On Perceptions Of Fairness In Unjust Situations., Laura Leah Josoff

Student Work

The effects of gender of observers and victims on perceptions of fairness in unjust situations were investigated. Subjects participated in group sessions and were blocked by gender and then assigned to either the disadvantaged female (read a composition concerning a femal who received poor outcomes) or disadvantaged male (read a composition concerning a male who received poor outcomes) group. After reading the composition, subjects completed a questionnaire which was related to the composition. It was expected that the perception of fairness would depend upon the gender of the perceiver as well as the gender of the victim. Specifically, females would …

The Effects Of Child-Directed Speech Vs Adult-Directed Speech On Attention And Categorization In Prelinguistic Infants, Jean M. Schumacher

Student Work

The facilitative role of linguistic input on nonlinguistic categorization is frequently explained in terms of children's attention to uniquely linguistic forms such as words. In the three experiments reported here, 15-month-old infants were familiarized to visual stimuli in the context of hearing either adult-directed speech (ADS) or child-directed speech (CDS) during visual fixations. Categorization was successful with CDS and ADS input when accumulated attention was not constrained (Experiment 1). Moreover, there were no differences in accumulated attention as a function of input type. When attention was constrained to 90 seconds (Experiments 2 and 3), ADS input disrupted categorization more for …

Refining Personality Disorder Assessment Procedures: The Relationship Between Mcmi-Ii And Scid-Ii, Robert J. Pass

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to examine the compatibility of personality disorder diagnoses made by a self-report questionnaire (Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, MCMI-II) and a standardized interview (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R, Axis II, SCID-II). Diagnoses of 50 intake clients at NOVA Therapeutic Community's residential facility were compared using Chi-Square analysis. Agreement between the two instruments was promising at the cluster level (p

A Comparison Study Of The Wisc-Iii And Wisc-R With A Special Education Population, Henry P. Green

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of comparability between the WISC-R and the WISC-III over a three year period. The subjects were 207 children, 124 Learning Disabled, 51 Mental Disabled, and 32 Behavior Disabled, enrolled in special education, in a large urban district (Omaha, Nebraska) and several rural districts in southwest Iowa. Results from the comparison study between WISC-III and WISC-R supports the hypothesis that students in the special education population tend to have significantly lower IQs on the WISC-III than the WISC-R. A significant decrease in Full Scale IQ scores was found in the mental …

Expectancy Effects As Moderated By Expecter Need For Achievement And Target Self-Consciousness, Paula Ethington Felchner

Student Work

The phenomenon labeled "self-fulfilling prophecy” is one of the most widely researched areas of psychology (Miller & Turnbull, 1986). However, even after more than three decades of research related to the effects of expectancies, opinion about the importance and even the existence of selffulfilling prophecy is mixed (Jussim, 1991). Effect sizes are often small (Rosenthal & Rubin, 1978; Jussim, 1991), but even small effects cannot always be considered inconsequential. In certain settings small effects of invalid expectancies may rob individuals of opportunities to which they are entitled. Accordingly, this study was undertaken to evaluate the moderating effects of personality on …

The Role Of Cognitive Distractibility In Special Education Diagnosis, Mavis A. Nigro

Student Work

The three factor scores that Kaufman (1975) measured on the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (Freedom from Distractibility, Perceptual Organization, and Verbal Comprehension) were compared among students referred and/or placed in special education. Three diagnostic groups were compared: behavioral disordered (BD) , learning disabled (LD) and students who were referred but not placed in special education. Results indicated a significant factor structure difference on the WISC-R for the BD and LD diagnostic groups, but not for the referred but not placed students. However, only the LD group manifested a significantly lower distractibility factor score when compared to the referred but …

The Relationship Between Pain Locus Of Control And Treatment Adherence At Long-Term Follow-Up From An Interdisciplinary Pain Center, Lisa J. Wall

Student Work

Locus of control is a cognitive construct that can be quantified and used in conjunction with other social learning theory variables to predict human social behavior. Previous research suggests that when a person perceives rewards and punishments as being contingent upon personal actions, (i.e. they possess an internal locus of control) behavior is quite different compared to when such reinforcements are perceived to occur independently of personal efforts and characteristics.

Pain is one of many areas in which there has been a significant amount of interest in relating locus of control health beliefs to a variety of relevant behaviors. Whether …

The Effect Of Persuasion, Across Task Difficulties, On Self-Efficacy, Performance And Persistence A Thesis, Linda J. Kaiser

Student Work

Self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1977a, 1982, 1986) postulates that efficacy expectations can be modified by persuasion if it is perceived as being instilled by a credible source, it is realistic, and it is not in opposition to performance information. Subsequent research revealed equivocal results for the relationship between persuasion and self-efficacy. This study investigates the effects of persuasion, across task difficulties, on selfefficacy, performance, and persistence. A mathematical task was utilized. Six hypotheses were tested. Persuasion was found to be effective in a hardtask situation. Gender had a substantial impact on the results of this study; overall findings may have been …

The Dispositional Approach To Job Satisfaction: Trait Or State?, Sharlyn K. Whingham

Student Work

Job satisfaction has been one of the most extensively researched areas of Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Although situational influences on job satisfaction have traditionally been the primary focus of research, staw and Ross (1985) asserted that job satisfaction may be determined as much by personal dispositions as situational factors. Specifically, they proposed that an individual's predisposition toward optimism or pessimism is a critical determinant of job satisfaction. However, subsequent empirical investigations purporting to test the influence of the trait-like predisposition of optimism/pessimism have employed measures of positive and negative affective states. This study attempted to disentangle the influence of temporary negative and …

Looking At Barbie: Social Comparison Processes And Body Esteem Among Women, Sally Elizabeth Ware

Student Work

In this thesis, three areas are described: the phenomenon of body dissatisfaction among apparently normal-sized women from a sociocultural perspective; social comparison theory, which is proposed to be the mechanism by which the phenomenon operates; and the results of an experiment designed not only to test the nature of the phenomenon itself, but also to test certain components of social comparison theory, such as selection of comparison targets and the role of derogation.

The study reports women’s responses to inescapable social comparison on the attribute of body size and shape with two groups of social comparison targets: photographs from popular …

Psychophysiological And Personality Correlates Of Repression And Sensitization, John Patrick Kline

Student Work

This study assessed relationships among indices of modulation of stimulus intensity by the autonomic and central nervous systems, perceptual defense, and repressive coping. Subjects were twenty female and nine male paid volunteers between the ages of 19 and 38. Perceptual defense, defined as the difference in recognition thresholds for unpleasant versus pleasant words, was assessed with a tachistoscopic masking paradigm. Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) were obtained in an augmentation reduction paradigm that evaluated cortical responses to discrete tones of varying intensity. Cardiac responses to these same tones were also obtained. Amplitude/intensity slopes were determined for P2 amplitudes obtained from the …

Touch Avoidance And Eating Disorders: A Relational Study, Christine L. North

Student Work

This relational study had therapists from an eating disorder program distribute a touch avoidance questionnaire to patients currently in treatment for an eating disorder. This study looked at touch avoidance among three groups: subjects with an eating disorder and non-sexual abuse background, subjects with an eating disorder and sexual abuse background, and a control group. The questionnaire consisted of the 20 question Same-Sex Touching Scale (SSTS) (Larsen & LeRoux, 1984) and the Touch Avoidance Measure (TAM) (Andersen & Leibowitz, 1978). T-tests revealed a significant value of -2.19 on the TAM between eating disorder and eating disorder/sexual abuse, a score of …