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Distinguishing Between Animates And Inanimates: Not By Motion Alone, R. Gelman, Frank H. Durgin, L. Kaufman

Psychology Faculty Works

Martin E. P. Seligman, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the world's leading authorities on learned helplessness and its relation to optimism and hope. This collection brings together eminent psychologists and professionals whose work has been greatly influenced by Seligman's innovative work.

The Gnostic And The Goddness, D. Ogilvie

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

No abstract provided.

Attorney And Judicial Perceptions Of The Credibility Of Expert Witnesses In Child Custody Cases, Michael T. Foot

Theses and Dissertations

Attorney and judicial attitudes towards expert witnesses in child custody cases were investigated by a cross-sectional research design. Subjects consisted of a sample of 381 of all attorneys and judges in the Commonwealth of Virginia who wished to be certified as guardians ad litem. Subjects were asked to fill out a six page questionnaire immediately prior to a daylong certification training session. The sample was primarily white (85.2%) and male (57.7%). Information was gathered on the subjects' demographic characteristics, experience with and attitudes toward expert witnesses in custody cases, opinions on traditional court and family structures, and knowledge of developmental …

Impact Of "Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder" On Educational Placement And Service Delivery, Marsha L. Groves

Masters Theses

Children with "Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder" face many changes within the school environment. Teachers strive to help these students meet those changes by providing for special learning and behavior needs. This study obtained teacher responses to examine demographic data, disability categories, placement, and educational treatment of children clinically diagnosed and/or suspected of having "Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorders". Of the 76 teacher surveys returned, 107 students were reported to have or were suspected of having "Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder". Forty-five were identified as learning disabled, seven were considered behavior disordered, seven were receiving speech services, seven others were health impaired, three …

Graduate Training In Geropsychology Among Licensed Psychologists In Illinois, Steven J. Johnston

Masters Theses

Recently, it has been suggested that several factors will likely lead to an increase in the number of elderly Americans in need of psychological services. In June, 1981, the Older Boulder Conference addressed the need to implement graduate level training of psychologists to serve elderly clients. It was found that after the Conference: 1) more graduate courses on geropsychology were taken by psychologists during their graduate training; 2) most psychologists either had no or 75% or more elderly clients; and 3) psychologists were more likely to have sought out post graduate continuing education in geropsychology yet they were less likely …

A Preliminary Study In The Design Of A Stress Inventory For Gifted Students: A Factor Analysis Of Potential Items, David Kinkade

Masters Theses

Items were designed for potential utilization in a stress inventory for gifted students. Two types of items were written; the first assessing stressful life events and situations, the second assessing coping ability. Both sets of items were administered to gifted students (N = 162) currently enrolled in the seventh and eighth grades. A principle components factor analysis with a varimax rotation was performed on both sets of items separately. The first set produced a four factor solution. The factors which emerged were identified as self-concept of giftedness, positive gifted programming, negative aspects of the gifted label, and performance pressure. The …

A Brief Discussion Of The History, Role, And Function Of The School Psychologist In The Former Soviet Union And Russia, Todd W. Knutson

Masters Theses

School psychology in the former Soviet Union and Russia had its beginnings as the field of Pedology which thrived in the early 1900s in Europe and in the former Soviet Union. School psychological services, in Western psychometric sense, have been virtually dormant since Pedology's downfall following ideological conflicts with Communist leaders in 1936 when standardized testing was banned in the U.S.S.R. This paper sketches a brief history of school psychology in the former Soviet Union and Russia, outlines the educational system, reviews the Soviet research on mental retardation, and calls for the sharing of general information related to international school …

Empowerment Versus Dependency Of Parents With Children In Special Education, Wendy J. Fisher

Masters Theses

This study attempted to determine whether parents of children receiving special education services are being empowered by the present special education system or growing dependent on it. A survey was constructed based upon the three criteria deemed necessary by social policy analyst Charles Murray to yield empowerment. The survey was administered by phone to 50 parents of children receiving special education services. Results indicated that primary source of income and expression of participation do not have an impact on degree of empowerment as measured by the Empowerment/Dependency Survey. Severity of handicap did not predict whether or not parents desired additional …

Gender Differences In Cognitive Ability Of Children With Hearing Impairment On The Wechsler Intelligence Scale For Children-3rd Edition, Damian D. Jones

Masters Theses

This research thesis investigates possible gender differences of deaf children on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (3rd ed.). The Illinois School for the Deaf (ISD) in Jacksonville, Illinois collated the standard scores of the five standard WISC-III Performance scale subtests and the Performance IQ of 25 students attending ISD. To examine gender differences on the Performance scale subtests and the Performance IQ's, a series of oneway-analyses of variance was calculated. No significant differences were noted on any comparison. A hypothesis that gender differences would occur was not confirmed. The results are discussed with respect to the intellectual assessment of …

Predictors Of Relapse And Long-Term Recovery, Leann Westerhold '95

Honors Projects

Previous studies on panic disorfer (Bruce et al., 1995) have examined predictors of relapse on a short-term basis. This study investigated predictors of relapse and long-term recovery in panic disorder treated with alprazolam or alprazolam plus cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Relapse was defined as return to medication or other treatment after discontinuation. Logistic regression analysis tested five variables derived from different conceptualizations of panic disorder etiology and treatment to determine if any predictors of relapse versus long-term recovery could be found. Only the change in Anxiety Sensitivity Index score from baseline to posttaper was found to be significant(p < 0.05, B= 0.22, df=1, R=0.25). this univariate model correctly classified 73 percent of patient outcomes at a two to four year followup. this finding suggests that a focus on cognitive change during treatment may help prevent relapse. Future research should include controlled studies to isolate the mechanism of cognitive change.

The Effects Of Circadian Entrainment On Operant Conditioning, Karen M. Lionello '95

Honors Projects

The matching law has been a prevalent theory in behavior analysis for the past thirty years. This theory states that responding changes as a monotonic function of reinforcement. However, several studies have found bitonic functions. One reason for this discrepancy may be due to circadian entrainment. There is evidence that rats are sensitive to circadian rhythms and that rats are capable of entraining to two feeding times per day. Also, it may be that the biological makeup of rats consists of two separate rhythm oscillators. One involves food and the other involves light. The present experiments attempted to discover what …

Socialization Of Emotion: The Role Of Parental Discipline In Infant Anger Expression, Jennifer L. Cioni '95

Honors Projects

The current study sought to examine how infant negative affect changes with age and the factors that underlie that change (i.e., infant locomotor onset and emotion socialization). Participants included white, middle-class mothers ages 18 to 44, as well as their first-born infants at 6 months (all prelocomotor) and 8 months (half remained prelocomotor) of age. Videos of 20 mother-infant dyads taken at home were coded for maternal affect, infant affect, and prohibition scenes. Four, 2-way analyses of variance indicated that (1) the number of prohibitions increased with age for locomotor infants only, (2) the degree to which infant negative affect …

Reinforcer Demand Elasticity Under Direct Competition Between Rats, Susan L. Reynolds '95

Honors Projects

Economic theory predicts that cost is an inverse function of the quantity of a commodity. This has also been shown in studies of behavioral economics (Dougan, 1992). According to the law of supply and demand, competition between organisms should drive prices up more rapidly. Previous studies with rats have failed to find an effect of competition; however, the competition was indirect in those studies (Johns, unpublished thesis). In the present experiment, twelve female rats actively competed in pairs for reinforcers on each of four modified fixed interval (FI) schedules: FI 30 s, FI 60 s, FI 120 s, and FI …

Comparison Of The Effects Of Saporin-Igg Injections Into The Nucleus Basalis Magnocellularis And Medial Septal Area Of Male Rat As Assessed By The Morris Water Maze Task, Alexander R. V. Mccampbell '95

Honors Projects

Alzheimer's disease currently afflicts approximately 4 million people in the United States, with 100,000 new cases being reported each year. As post mortem examination of AD patientsI brains has revealed a significant decrease in the number of cholinergic neurons, one approach we have taken is to look at the correlation between the depletion of certain cholinergic markers in animals and the resulting behavioral deficits. Two regions of specific interest are the medial septal area (MSA) and the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM). These regions are important because they are the major source of cholinergic neurons in the brain, they are selectively …

Gender And Leadership: Men And Women's Stories, Barbara A. Karanian

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigates gender and leadership.

Gender Analysis Of The Spiritual Well-Being Scale, Karen J. Kellums

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

The purpose of this study was to determine if any of the twenty items on the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) show differential item functioning (DIF) between gender and item response. Archival data were obtained on two groups: (a) 331 members of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS, USA), 197 males and 134 females, average age 44.5 years (Adams, 1993; Stratton, 1992); and (b) 392 incoming freshmen students at a liberal arts college in the Pacific Northwest, 148 males and 244 females, average age 18 years (Foster & LaForce, 1991). For each sample, partial correlations were computed for gender-related response …

School Of Social And Systemic Studies 1995-1996 Catalog, Nova Southeastern University

College of Psychological Services / College of Psychology Postgraduate Student and Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Religiosity, Sex Roles, And Attitudes Toward Women: Their Relation To The Roles Of Women In The Church, Kristen J. Petzinger

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Neuroticism As A Mediator Between Perceived Attachment Patterns And Career Search And College Self-Efficacy, Susanne E. Richter

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Racial Identity And Interracial Dating Attitudes Of African-American College Students At A Predominately African-American University, Russell Chad Hancock

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Psychology And Feminism: Can This Relationship Be Saved?, Jeanne Marecek

Psychology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Comparing Traditional Statistical Models With Neural Network Models: The Case Of The Relation Of Human Performance Factors To The Outcomes Of Military Combat, William Oliver Hedgepeth

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Statistics and neural networks are analytical methods used to learn about observed experience. Both the statistician and neural network researcher develop and analyze data sets, draw relevant conclusions, and validate the conclusions. They also share in the challenge of creating accurate predictions of future events with noisy data.

Both analytical methods are investigated. This is accomplished by examining the veridicality of both with real system data. The real system used in this project is a database of 400 years of historical military combat. The relationships among the variables represented in this database are recognized as being hypercomplex and nonlinear.

The …

Subjective Mental Health And The Interaction Of Biology And Environment In Personality, Stephen M. Gedo

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Control And Satisfaction With Hospital Birth Experiences For First-Time Mothers, Clelia Tedeschi

Theses : Honours

Satisfaction with childbirth is associated with women's future emotional wellbeing. This study examined whether first- time mother's antenatal expectations, postnatal evaluations of control during labour and delivery, and the discrepancy between expectations and evaluations were significant predictors of women's satisfaction with their childbirth experiences. The effect of medical interventions (e.g., obstetrical interventions and pain relief medication) on women's perceptions of control and satisfaction was also examined. The purposive sample of eighty first-time mothers, mean age 26 years (excluding women who had caesareans) delivered at the public hospital where they attended antenatal classes. During their fourth antenatal class women completed a …

Introversion, Extraversion, And Humor, Tanna Marlane Boucher

All Master's Theses

The differences in behavioral expression of humor for introverts and extroverts was investigated, as well as the behavioral expression of humor and humor ratings of video clips containing sound versus those with no sound. Subjects were videotaped as they watched humorous clips in a room alone. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between introverts and extroverts in terms of their behavioral expression of humor. These findings are consistent with the literature on social aspects of humor in that people tend to express more humor in social groups than when alone. However, subjects did show significantly more behavioral …

The Connection Between Childhood Sexual Abuse And Eating Disorders In Women: A Review Of The Literature, Susan M. Lavaccare

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

An Evaluation Of A Values Based Sex Education Program, Students' Levels Of Moral Judgement, Sexual Knowledge, And Self-Esteem, And Their Impact On Attitudes Toward High Risk Sexual Behavior, Margaret Catherine Laneri

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Competent Adolescents Despite Risk: Life Histories, Stress, And Coping Strategies Of Resilient Teenage Mothers, Anne Pelissier Montague

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Mediating Effect Of Self-Referencing In Consumer Responses: Effect Of Message Recipient's Sex And Gender Role And Sex Of Message Communicator(S) On Responses To And Evaluations Of A Radio Ad, Elke Liewald

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects On Memory And Self-Reported Behaviour Of Four Types Of Information About Water Conservation, Brigit A. Cosgrove

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Education campaigns conducted by water management agencies are intended to motivate people to conserve water. However, there has been little research to determine what kind of information best achieves this goal. Four types of information partly based on Stem, Dietz and Kalof's (1993) social-psychological model of environmental value orientations were examined in this study: action information about ways to conserve water; abstract factual information about water and its use; anthropocentric information about how people are affected by water use; and ecocentric information about how the environment is affected by water use. Using cluster sampling techniques 160 participants were selected from …