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Strengths Enhancement Training: Self-Concept And Self-Actualization, Tony J. Strelich

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The strengths enhancement training program was developed and evaluated in order to determine empirically if a group method designed specifically to assist subjects in the identification of personal strengths, resources, and potentials, would be effective in broadening their perceptions of themselves in a positive direction.

The strengths enhancement training program was based primarily on the work of Herbert A. Otto, using the Multiple Strengths Perception method as the central component of the training program. That method was pilot tested, and program modifications were made on two occasions.

A pretest-posttest control group design was used to assess the 80 Introductory Psychology …

The Relationship Between Self Concept And Children's Figure Drawings, Marta Lynn Severson Campbell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study investigated the relationship between self concept and children's figure drawings. The principle variable under consideration in each child's drawing were (a) size of drawing and (b) number of colors used. The Tennessee Self Concept Scale (Fitts, 1965) was administered to 80 students selected from the seventh grade at Logan Junior High School, Logan, Utah.

The subjects were then instructed to draw a picture of themselves. No further instructions were given regarding specific details of the requested picture. Ten colored pencils along with a regular pencil were made available to each student. No instructions were given as to …

Sex Role Preference, Sibling Status, And Bonding Behavior In Children, Mary Kay Biaggio

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The focus of this study was to explores some of the important variables in sex role development in children. The major hypotheses were concerned with differences between the independent variables child's grade level, sex, and sibling status (ordinal position and sex of sibling) on the dependent variables sex role preference and bonding behavior. Bonding, a concept which has not been examined in conjunction with sex role preference, was here defined as (1)the degree to which a child affiliates with members of his own sex and (2)the degree to which a child excludes opposite sex play-mates from his affiliative realm.

Subjects …

The Effects Of Interpersonal Competition On The Performance Of Schizophrenics, Brent L. Andersen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The effects of interpersonal competition on schizophrenics were studied to determine if competition facilitates or impairs task performance of schizophrenics and to further determine if schizophrenics respond to interpersonal competition differently than nonschizophrenics. Forty-one hospitalized patients diagnosed as schizophrenics, 36 hospitalized patients diagnosed as personality disorders, and 36 employees of the Wyoming State Hospital were used as subjects. Each group of subjects was randomly divided into competitive and noncompetitive research groups, thus forming three competitive groups and three noncompetitive groups.

Each of the six groups of subjects was administered two equivalent forms of four standardized tests. Each group was tested …

The Effects Of Age And Socio-Economic Status On The Diagnosis And Educational Treatment Of Mildly Handicapping Conditions Of School Children, John W. Kelsey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Biasing effects in labeling and recommendations for educational services when factors of socio-economic status and age are manipulated were studied using 50 certified school psychologists in Utah. Subjects received case report information about IQ, behavior and achievement which described a school child in need of services within one of four conditions, Age 7 Socioeconomic status (SES) High, Age 7 SES Low, Age 13 SES High, and Age 13 SES Low. Other potentially biasing variables such as ethnic background, and sex were held constant. No evidence of bias could be found when dependent measures of labeling, recommendations for educational services, and …

The Development Of An Inexpensive, Anonymous And Portable Classroom Feedback Device With Data Recording Capability, John Peter Dworetzky

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

One way to approach the improvement of teacher behavior is through the application of feedback. An electronic device was developed to provide immediate anonymous feedback from students to teachers in the classroom situation. The newly developed system, unlike other systems available, has the advantages of being portable, inexpensive, easy to use, and able to provide continuous feedback. As the system relies on a sampling procedure, it may be used adequately with any size class. In addition, the system possesses full data recording capability.

Experiments were designed to utilize the device to investigate the effects of immediate anonymous feedback from students …

An Analysis Of Oral And Written Quizzes As Teaching Techniques, K. Anthony Edwards

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was conducted to determine whether any differences existed between the effectiveness of oral and written quizzes as teaching techniques. In the first of two experiments, 130 students enrolled in two sections of an introductory psychology class and two sections of a psychology of adjustment class served as subjects. The course was taught using Michael's method of instruction, a contingency managed technique. In the first half of the term, one section from each course was taught by written quizzes while the other section was taught by oral quizzes. Following four weeks, teaching assignments were reversed. The dependent variables were …

Religious Commitment And Meaning In Life, Merrill L. Barfield

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between meaning or purpose in life as measured by Crumbaugh's Purpose in Life Test, and the degree of religious commitment of college students, with particular interest in the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Religious commitment was measured by Hoge's Intrinsic Religious Motivation Scale (IRM).

Two hundred and fifty-five undergraduates, 122 males and 132 females, enrolled in introductory psychology and sociology classes at Utah State University during spring quarter, 1975, served as subjects.

A two-way analysis of variance calculated separately for the LDS and non-LDS …

The Development Of A Composite Criminal Suicide Attempt Scale, Norman Salzberg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to understand and identify prison male inmates who had attempted suicide in their history prior to their incarceration. The objectives were (1) the comparison of inmates who had indicated that they had attempted suicide in their past, referred to as "suicide attempt inmates," with inmates who had not, referred to as "non-suicide attempt inmates," on 33 behavioral and personal variables; (2) The development of a suicide attempt scale by means of an item analysis on the responses of suicide attempt and non-suicide inmates to the items of the Bipolar Psychological Inventory (BPI). This scale was named …

A Test Of The Effectiveness Of Two Treatment Modalities For Adolescent Residents Of An Intermediate Care Facility, Paul David Warner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study attempts to test the effectiveness of two treatment modalities for adolescent residents of the Intermediate Care Facility at St. Anthony, Idaho.

The study was conducted at the Intermediate Care Facility (ICF) at St. Anthony, Idaho. The St. Anthony ICF is a separate yet distinct part of the Youth Services Center in the same area.

The participants of this study were 20 emotionally disturbed adolescents who were randomly assigned to two treatment groups (10 participants in each group). The participants of both groups were shown to be homogeneous with regards to severity of emotional disturbance, family background, race, sex, …

Probability Learning In Prey Selection With A Great Horned Owl And A Red-Tailed Hawk, Deborah L. Mueller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the hunting strategies of birds of prey in a probability learning situation. One great horned owl and one red-tailed hawk served as subjects. Three boxes and associated perches, each representing different potential prey areas, were placed in a room adjacent to the birds' regular housing and served as test apparatus. One box were required to land on a perch in order to gain access to the associated box and to the potential prey. A discrete-trial, self-correction procedure was used. In Experiment I, Box 1 was loaded with a live laboratory mouse on …

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. …

Sex And Marital Status Differences In Death Anxiety, Michael Cole

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Previous research in death anxiety has suggested that marital roles, and especially the male’s role as the family provider, influence the sex differences in death attitudes (Diggory & Rothman, 1961; Tolor & Murphy, 1967). The present study attempted to directly investigate the effect of marital roles by comparing the sex differences in death anxiety scores (as measured by the Templer Death Anxiety Scale) of married persons, with and without children, and single persons. In addition, 20 demographic covariates were investigated to observe their possible effect on death anxiety. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that marital status was …

A Validation Of Tests For Selection Of Office Workers At Western Michigan University, Allen E. Doolittle

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Behavioral Community Psychology: Encouraging The Community-Based Elderly To Participate In A Nutritious Meal Program, Theodore J. Bunck

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Central And Peripheral Graphics On Personal Disclosure, Louis C. Saksen

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Forty-eight college students, twenty males and twenty-eight females, were used to assess the effects of central and peripheral graphic environments on personal disclosure and subjective evaluation. Scales developed by Cash (1972) were used to determine the type and amount of subjects' disclosure and non-disclosure; scales developed by Nehrabian and Russell (1974) were utilized to assess subjective evaluation of the environmental space in terms of information theory and approach-avoidance.

Results replicated a previous study by Cash (1974), indicating that females made more positive self-references than males (p < .01) . Hales also chose to disclose less often than females (p < .05) . No significant differences resulted from the graphic environmental conditions.

The data did produce substantial variance between the sexes in response to the environments. …

The Yiptis Common Belief Scale: A Psychometric Evaluation, John Linden

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The basic psychometric characteristics of the Common Belief Scale (CBS) of the YIPTIS, Your Irrational Personality Trait Inventory Score, were investigated. The CBS was formulated within Ellis's conceptual framework of Rational Behavior Therapy. Designed for use with adults of at least normal intelligence, its purpose is to evaluate the strength of identification with a specified set of common irrational beliefs which are hypothesized to lead to emotional disturbance.

Subjects taking part in this study were volunteers ranging in age from seventeen to twenty-seven. The total sample of 186 subjects was composed of 105 female- and 81 males. Approximately one half …

An Exploratory Study Of Runaway Female Adolescents In A Residential Treatment Center, Mary E. Cook, Stan Jasper

Dissertations and Theses

If correctional institutions are to function according to established criteria, that is, to "correct" the deviant behavior of juvenile delinquents, then one obvious requirement is to have continuous contact with that individual over a period of time. This research project is one attempt to study runaways from the juvenile delinquent girls institution. This study specifically focuses on what factors influence a girl to run away and what factors encourage her to stay at Villa St. Rose.

Both researchers discovered in working at Villa St. Rose that one the biggest obstacles for the treatment program was the number of runaways that …

A Test Of Conservation For Continuous And Discontinuous Quantity In The Very Young Child, Nancy Patrick Kaye

Dissertations and Theses

The development of mathematical concepts in children has been studied by many researchers. Much of this research has focused on the concept of conservation which was introduced by Piaget. It has generally been assumed that children under the age of five years are not capable of such conservation. Some recent evidence suggests that children Wlder this age do conserve on particular tasks. In this study one hundred children from age two years four months to three years seven months were tested for conservation of discontinuous and continuous quantity. Although some evidence of conservation in this age range was obtained, no …

Effects Of Verbal And Pantomime Stimulus Input On The Short Term Sequential Recall Of Aphasic Adults, Lauryl Suzanne Ivers Grotting

Dissertations and Theses

The question posed in this investigation was: Which stimulus input mode, verbal, pantomime, or combined verbal and pantomime, is more effective in facilitating short term sequential recall of language material with aphasic adults?

Preferred And Nonpreferred Color As Irrelevent Background In Paired Associate Learning, Margaret Ann Kenner

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the School of Education at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Psychology by Margaret Ann Kenner in January of 1976.

Audio Tape Induction Of Juvenile Delinquents Into A Group Living Milieu, Philip J. Blende

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Covert Scanning And Serial Encoding In Visual Short-Time Memory, Robert C. Olson

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Scopollamine Upon Behavior In A Reversal Situation, Theodore Alan Glance

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

A group of 20 female albino rats was trained to turn either left or right opposite their natural pre-potent responses for food reinforcement under the influence of saline or scopolamine in a T-maze. Upon reaching criterion of nine out of ten correct choices, the rats were then required to make a reversal to the opposite arm of the T-maze used in training. The applicability of various theories on the cholinergic mechanisms involved in the learning processes was investigated. The results indicate the occurrence of a state-dependent learning phenomenon accompanied by a disinhibitory effect of scopolamine upon behavior.

Contextual Memory Effects In Problem Solving, John Robert Buri

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Male-Female Stimulus Variables On The Reliability Of The Motivation Index Of The Thematic Apperception Test, Roger S. Arnold

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Number Of Dominant Speakers, Participation Time And Leadership Ratings In The Leaderless Group Discussion, H. Ray Berry

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Self-Concept Instruction As Part Of The Basic Speech Course, Gayle Lynn Davenport

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Crowding, Density, And The Duration Of Each On Learning, Richard A. Neetz

Masters Theses

Ninety-six male albino rats were housed from weaning in groups of 4, 8, or 16 animals. For all group sizes, animals were housed either in cages of a constant size (crowding) or in cages with floor space proportional to group size (density). Six animals from each of these conditions were tested for learning after either 55 or 109 days on a straight alley, a Lashley III maze, and a Y-maze. On the straight alley, no significant differences in running speed were found between durations, crowding and density, or group size. A significant trials effect was obtained (F=63.28, df=15/900, p < .01). On the Lashley III, a significant trials effect was obtained for running speed (F=102.27, df=8/480, p < .01) and errors (F=63.80, df=8/480, p < .01). The duration comparison showed the 55 day group making significantly more errors than the 109 day group (F=5.36, df=1/60, p < .05). No significant differences were found on running speed or errors between crowding and density or group size. On the Y-maze, the 55 day group had significantly more avoidances than the 109 day group (F=6.47, df=1/60, p < .05). …

Muscle Relaxation Training: A Comparison Of Emg Biofeedback With Verbal Instruction, Michael D. Dennis

Masters Theses

The effectiveness of two muscle relaxation modalities, EMG biofeedback and verbal relaxation instruction, were compared. Fifteen college students were assigned to two experimental groups and a non-treatment control condition. Measurements of frontalis muscle activity were taken prior to, during and following three 20-minute training sessions. Results based on a set of non-orthogonal contrasts indicated significant relaxation effects for relaxation instruction when pre-training levels were compared to training completion and post-training levels. Experimental groups differed only at training completion where relaxation instruction was superior to EMG biofeedback. The necessity of careful scientific research of biofeedback techniques to be used in clinical …