Digital Commons Network^™

Exploratory Study Of Gossip In A Rural Community, Ruth Anne Laverty

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this study was to investigate social psychological factors in the process of gossip. A second purpose was to determine whether gossip is a process distinct from rumor. An American community was the location of the study. The situations observed were behavioural settings which either the E or her assistant were permitted to attend without arousing suspicion. The 79 Ss studied were male and female adults and children who happened to be present in these behavioural settings. Conversations of all Ss were tape recorded as well as the gossip portions of conversations in other settings. The content of …

The Effects Of Pictorial Stimuli On The Direction-Following Behavior Of Mentally Retarded Adolescents, Dennis J. Tucker

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Two groups of retarded adolescents were presented sets of multiple verbal directions (imperative sentences). One group was exposed to pictures illustrating the objects and action of each direction in addition to the verbal directions. Subjects were required to carry out performances demanded by the directions. The direction-following behavior of the Verbal + Picture Group was found to be significantly superior to that of the Verbal Group. The groups did not differ significantly in sequencing their performances, i.e., carrying out the verbal directions in the order in which they were presented. Two possible explanations for the superior performance of the Verbal …

A Proposal For The Identification And Prevention Of Emotional Dysfunction In Primary School Children, Dan Allan Butler

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Field Dependence And Field Independence On A Series Of Inverted Field Tasks, David R. Murphy

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Roles And Functions Of The School Psychologist And The Counselor: Perceptions Of School Psychology Trainees And Counselor Trainees, Leslie A. Englehart

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Study Into The Effects Of Knowledge Of Peer Group Evaluation Upon Self-Concept Change, Janice Marie Beyer

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Metrazol On Acquisition Of An Oddity Task In Squirrel Monkeys, Stephen Wilson

Masters Theses

Recent evidence indicates that Metrazol can enhance learning in rodents provided certain variables such as genetic strain, difficulty of problem to be learned, and dosage levels are considered and carefully controlled. The effects of Metrazol on oddity acquisition in four squirrel monkeys was investigated. The apparatus employed was a modified version of the Wisconsin General Testing Apparatus. The dosage level of Metrazol was 15 mg/kg of body weight. The results suggest that Metrazol had no effect on the learning of the oddity task by the squirrel monkeys.

Social And Psychological Correlates Of The Selection Or Rejection Of Vasectomy, Steven Marc Ratnow

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Personality, Interest And Motivational Correlates Of Persistence In Religious Vocations, Charles Noty

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Actor And Observer Bias In Causal Attribution: The Effects Of Consistency And Perspective, Joseph W. Wuerth

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

A Multivariate Analysis Of The Factors Affecting Treatment In A Child Guidance Centre, Brian Charles Regan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Initially, all the children who had received treatment and been discharged from the West End Créche between 1962 and 1971 were selected for this study. These children were then sub-divided into groups according to where they had gone after discharge. This study considered only two of these groups, 32 children who went into the normal school system and 20 children who entered institutions after being discharged. Both groups were then examined with reference to a list of forty-two variables which provided information on the children’s background and the facilities of the treatment centre. An analysis of these variables demonstrated that …

Influence Of Behaviour Setting And Interaction On Patterns Of Successful Aging, George D. Macdonald

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study investigated the effects of behaviour setting and interaction on patterns of engagement and disengagement within a home for the aged. The purpose of the study was to illustrate that both patterns may be a function of situational and psychological factors and therefore should not be used as definitions of “successful aging.” Data were collected using an observational technique. Observations were made on five behaviour settings for a typical week. The results indicate that there is a relationship between patterns and the two factors specified. A similar finding was reported for staff patterns within the home. Implications of these …

The Department Of Family Services, Court Of Domestic Relations, Portland, Oregon : A Report Of Its History, Function, And Future, George Brune, John Hart, Sandra Smith

Dissertations and Theses

The study begins with a look at the sociological foundations underlying the Department of Family Services and the social institutions of law and marriage and the family. In order to present the working operation of the agency there are chapters dealing with custody and visitation and marriage and family counseling. This work is defined, and the methods involved are explained and illustrated. An historical overview of the agency with regard to personal, policy and orientation is presented.

The Children's Schedule Of Recent Experiences As A Predictive Test Of Behavior Problems Of Children Entering First Grade, Alcie Anne Griffith

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis provides a survey inquiring about recent life events in children to determine predictive behavior for first grade. It is based on the Social Readjustment Rating Scale.

Personality Characteristics, Work Practices, And Error Rates Among Welfare Assistance Workers At East Multnomah County Public Welfare Branch, Roy Dale Beams, Mike David Gotesmen, Howard Wayne Knytych

Dissertations and Theses

The research project herein contained was an outgrowth of concern associated with performance levels placed upon Welfare Assistance Workers (WAW’s). The Oregon State Public Welfare Division has become increasingly concerned with accuracy rates among branch offices throughout the system. It was the impression of the research group that WAW’s see this increased concern as combined pressure to reduce error rates and demand for a broader diversity of skills.

The primary purpose of this study was to explore ways of clarifying individual characteristics and work habits and their relationship to error rates in the WAW’s in the East Multnomah County Branch …

A Reexamination Of The Effects Of Prismatic Displacement On Pointing Straight Ahead, Anastasia Houndoumadi

Dissertations and Theses

A fully counterbalanced extension of the Bauer and Efstathiou (1965) study involved exposing 11 Ss to lateral prismatic displacement for five minutes and measuring their adaptation to it. The difference between pointings at a target taken before and after prismatic exposure constitutes an adaptive shift.

A Q-Sort Historical Analysis Or The Learning Theories Of Clark L. Hull And B. F. Skinner, Keith V. Syrja

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Behavioral Contrast After Errorless Discrimination Learning As A Function Of Non-Contingent Shock, James H. Kaye

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Personality Correlates Of Reticent And Nonreticent High School Students, Nancy Adele Mohrlock

Student Work

The development of communication skills is vital to socialization in the classroom and to personality development. Petty and Starkey (1966) suggest that language is the greatest force for socialization that exists and at the same time is the most potent single factor in the development of individuality. Rosenberg and Coopersmith (1965, 1967) showed that a person's verbal behavior will influence others ’ attitudes toward him, while Mead (1934) indicated that an individual’s behavior is affected by the kind of image that he has of himself. This image comes largely from the individual's perceptions of o thers’ attitudes toward himself until …

Differences Between Supervisor And High And Low-Rated Employees' Perceptions Of Job Performance Ratings And Importance Of Job Factors, Harvey Edward Mcgowan

Dissertations and Theses

This study was an attempt to gain insight into differing conceptions of job performance and job performance factors held by supervisors, employees in general, and of employees rated high and low on overall job performance by their supervisors. The discrepancy in the perceptions of job performance is an element in a general pattern of a well-documented discrepancy in the perception of subordinates' wants, needs and desires by superiors.

To assess employees' perceptions about their own job performance, self-ratings were taken, along with estimate ratings of how employees thought their supervisors would rate them. A graphic rating scale was used, Format …

Backpacking: A Pilot Study Of Hikers, Vincent Bolduc

Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Fading To Train B-D And P-Q Discrimination In Children With Specific Learning Disabilities, Janet L. Culbertson

Master's Theses

The present study was designed to assess the effective­ ness of a stimulus programming technique, fading, in teaching visual discrimination and name association to the letters b-d and p-q. The Ss were first and second grade children with diagnosed learning disabilities, who displayed a high frequency of reversal errors, particularly to the letters b-d and p-q. The study also provided a means of assessing the benefit of the fading technique in £s ability to read words and phrases, and discriminate b-d and p-q when they appear in the context of a nonsense syllable. The results indicated that the fading technique …

Behavioral Comparison Of Septal Lesioned And Anosmic Rats, Sharon Kay Suppes

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of The Components Of Platonic And Romantic Heterosexual Relationships, Philip F. Guinsburg

Theses and Dissertations

During the past twenty years, heterosexual relationships have been studied extensively by researchers in the field of interpersonal attraction without the attainment of consistent results (Wright, 1968). Wright (1968) stated that there were two methodological problems with this past research which are the treatment of variables used to explain attraction as both the independent and dependent variables in the same study and the use of dyadic indices. Also, Wright (1969) noted that past research has generally not examined heterosexual relationships separately for each sex. Finally, Guinsburg (1970a) found that most research dealing with heterosexual relationships has only examined the "romantic" …

Observer Reliability As A Function Of The Number Of Behaviors Being Simultaneously Recorded, Response Rate, And Definition Adequacy, Roger Frame

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Replicability Of Behavioral Definitions: Implicit Vs Explicit Definitions, Robert W. Dobes

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Political Verbal Behavior, Paul Richard Shukovsky

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Trait Anxiety, Leadership And Group-Induced Decision Change, Chester D. Gaston

Student Work

The twelve item Choice Dilemmas Questionnaire (CDQ) developed by Kogan and Wallach (1964) has been used extensively for investigating individual and group decision-making processes. Each item presents a hypothetical life situation in which the central character must choose between two courses of action, one of which is more risky than the other but also more rewarding if successful. For each situation the Sis must select the lowest probability of success they would accept before recommending that the potentially more rewarding (and risky) alternative be chosen. After Ss have made their private individual choices, a group is formed and each item …

Between Words And Actions: The Problem Of Motivation In Symbolic Interactionism, Robert Scott Broadhead

Dissertations and Theses

The development of a theory of motivation in symbolic interactionism is traced, with particular reference to the work of G.H. Mead, Kenneth Burke, C.W. Mills, Nelson Foote, and Ernest Becker. Specific attention is focused on comparing the original theoretical assumptions of particularly Mead and Burke to the varying formulations of the problems of motivation that were later developed by symbolic interactionists. Specifically, it is argued that, primarily due to Burke's analysis, the traditional practice of deterministically explaining human action as being the result of variously imagined motives "in" people is, in fact, no explanation at all but simply a variety …

Strength Of An Established Taste Aversion As A Function Of A Tap Or Distilled Water Adaptation Period, Frank Etscorn

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Studies in taste aversion learning are typically of the following designs An animal is made to consume a novel tasting substance (the conditioned stimulus) such as saccharin diluted in water. Following a specified length of time, the animal is then subjected to a gastrointestinal insult (the unconditioned stimulus) from such independent sources as X-ray overdose or poison injection. After the subject is allowed to recover from will made the ensuing illness, it can be observed that the animal avoid consuming the flavored substance if it available.