Digital Commons Network^™

A Study On The Simultaneous Transmission Of Incongruent Information, Dennis Keith Smeltzer

Masters Theses

No abstract provided by author.

The Application Of Information Theory To A Single Visual Search Task, Charles F. Gidcumb

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Predicting Delinquent Sub-Types With The Social History Questionnaire, Charles S. Sulcer

Masters Theses

A major problem encountered in the juvenile courts concerns the large number of young offenders placed on probation, as well as the seriousness of their violations. Representative studies by Jenkins and Glickman (1947), Hathaway and Monachesi (1953), and Shinohara and Jenkins (1967) have pointed out the complexities of delinquent behavior by indicating that most legal authorities are often unable to determine who will repeat illegal acts.

This problem necessitates some objective approach toward identifying potential repeaters and non-repeaters. Such a technique would be useful in studying the early stages of delinquent behavior and provide a means of studying the growing …

Facilitation Of Retrieval Of Words From Long Term Memory, Edward John Federman

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This paper investigated whether retrieval may be facilitated by a process in which one learns to retrieve in a manner analogous to learning to learn as demonstrated by both Harlow's (1965) work with monkeys and Postman's and Keppel's (1966; Keppel, Postman, & Zavortnik, 1968) work in verbal recall. While the major focus of this study was to demonstrate this phenomenon, and the analogies cited suggest that the process will remain unspecified, an attempt was made to indicate and analyze the processes involved in the facilitation.

The Relationship Of Sex-Role Identification And Achievement Motivation To Self-Esteem In Male And Female College Students, Anne B. Stericker

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

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 …

Dimensions Of Psychological Health For Retarded Adults In A Community Residence, Barbara Dianne Reid

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Residents’ Needs Questionnaire was developed to measure attitudes concerning the needs of retarded adults for Physical Existence, Psychological Existence, Submissive Relating, Dominant Relating, Shared Relating, and Environmental Mastery. Two measures, identification of the need and perception of the extent to which the need was actualized, were obtained for each of forty items. The questionnaire was administered to staff, residents, parents, and Advisory Committee members of the David Fisher Residence in Erbsville, Ontario. Results indicated that residents’ needs are identified differently by the four different subject groups, and that residents, staff, and Committee members perceive discrepancies between identified needs and …

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 …

Towards An Understanding Of Courage: An Exploratory Analysis Of Changing Definitional Conceptions, Gertrud Lavalley

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present paper was an exploratory attempt at examining changing definitional conceptions of courage. Traditional conceptions were found to abound in popular definitions and confusion with respect to both the meaning and origin of courage. Unconscious conformity to societal norms, symbolic attachment to national roles, a learning theory analogue and the broad conception of S-R (stimulus-response) behaviour were examined as possible explanatory frameworks. An analysis of courage and survival clarified the relationship between courage and hope. An interdependent rather than independent relationship between the two concepts was postulated. The S-O-R (stimulus-organism-response) model was employed as a general explanatory framework for …

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 A Sensitivity-Encounter Group Experience Upon Self-Concept And School Achievement In Adolescent Underachieving Girls, Naughne' La Vonne Thomas

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Race, Induced Expectancy, And Individual Presenters, On White Raters Using Graphic Rating Scales To Record Their Judgement Decisions, William Hart Schultz

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Experimental Manipulation Of Status On Signature Size, Karen Jensen Gillespie

All Master's Theses

This paper presents an attempt to change the size of a person's signature by changing his perceived status within the experimental situation.

Eight-four subjects were divided into four equal groups. Each group received two treatments, one of which was a status treatment, the other a success-failure manipulation. The results showed a significant difference in signature size between high and low status treatment groups. A significant variation was also noted between females in the success manipulation group and females in the failure manipulation group. The direction of this variation was opposite to predictions.

Recommendations included addition of a control group, presentation …

The Effect Of Environmental Enrichment On Delayed Alternation, Passive Avoidance And Exploration Behavior, David L. Knobel

All Master's Theses

Long Evans Hooded rats were reared in either perceptually complex (EC) or simple (IC) environments. As adults, exploration, delated alternation and passive avoidance task performance was investigated. The exploration level of the EC and IC reared groups was identical on Day 1, but on subsequent days the IC rats on delayed alternation and passive avoidance tasks was not found, but the alternation response was acquired with significantly fewer trials by EC rats.

Spatial Orientation Of Children In Dyads With Female Adults, Susan Menig Karstetter

All Master's Theses

Subjects were requested to enter the experimental setting, choose a chair, and sit while speaking to an adult female who listened to the child for two minutes. The distance and angle of seating were measured and studied with regard to the age, sex, grade level, height, handedness, academic achievement, size of chair used, and the listener.

The results indicated that seating distance was influenced by the sex, age and height of the subject and size of chair chosen. The angle of seating chosen was influenced by the sex and height of the subject and the size of chair chosen. It …

The Generalizability Of Learned Helplessness, Ian J. Grabenhorst

All Master's Theses

While it has been experimentally demonstrated that "learned helplessness" can be conditioned in a number of species, the subjects commonly employed have been dogs. This paper presents an attempt to investigate "learned helplessness" in rats (a variant of the Long-Evans strain), and examine the question of its generalizability from shock as an aversive stimulus to noise. It also explores the possible generality of "helplessness" to exploratory behavior in an open field. The results demonstrated that the Ss were susceptible to "helplessness" conditioning across shock conditions; however, "helplessness" did not generalize across shock to noise conditions. The present study also showed …

The Relationship Of Verbal And Symbolic Mediation To Induced Meaning, Dennis G. Groome

All Master's Theses

Four experimental groups were presented nine induced-meaning training trials with 20 CVC stimuli and either abstract or concrete noun, picture alone, or picture plus noun responses. Two control groups received no training trials. Two experimental groups were required to learn associations and the other two simply viewed S-R pairings. Half the groups in each condition generated images and the other half generated word associates to 12 nouns and 20 CVCs. No evidence of induced meaning or of active versus passive learning differences was found. Suggestions for more effective experimental procedures are made.

The Effects Of Pattern Of Extraneous Auditory Stimuli And Sex On Vigilance Performance, Paul G. Fisher

All Master's Theses

Eighty introductory-level psychology student volunteers performed a sweep-clock perceptual vigilance task. Each subject was exposed to one of four noise conditions: 65-dB constant noise, 100-dB constant noise, 100-dB regularly-intermittent noise and 100-dB variable intermittent noise. No overall effects of pattern of presentation schedule of noise on performance were found. Time-related changes in three measures, correct detections, reaction times, and incorrect detections plus sex differences in reaction times, were found. In the regularly-intermittent condition females showed a greater time-related decrement in correct detections than males and made fewer incorrect detections. With intermittent background stimulation the time-related change in incorrect detection rates …

The Social History Questionnaire As Related To Length Of Stay In Psychotherapy: A Cross-Validation, Robert Crowley

Masters Theses

The purpose of the present study was to cross-validate the Terminator-Remainer subscale of the Social History Questionnaire (Jachim, 1972). The subjects were 72 clients from a mental health clinic. Two groups were used in the study (N = 72 and N = 36). Both groups were divided into Terminators and Remainers.

A point biserial correlation between the score on the Terminator-Remainer subscale and the criterion groups was significant (N = 72: rpb = .24, p < .05; N = 36: rpb = .38, p < .05). Predictive validity was established.

No relationship was found between being a Terminator or a Remainer and sex (x² = 0.07, N …

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

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.

Beyond The Best Interests Of The Child, Joanna B. Strauss, Peter Strauss

Faculty Scholarship

Identifying just principles for minimizing and resolving disputes over child custody remains one of the law's knots. King Solomon's renowned gambit for resolving the claims of two women to a newborn child was in fact the easy case: only one of the two contenders had a just claim; only one of the two contenders was prepared to be responsible; and in that first of reported cases, the judge had the advantage of surprise. Yet where each potential custodian has a claim, where each is equally prepared (or unprepared) to sacrifice his interests for the child, and where the rules of …

Study Of Aggression And Competitive Anxiety Among Intercollegiate Football Players, Edward Ian Leland

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between aggression, as measured by various personality questionnaires, and competitive anxiety, as measured by the Illinois State Competitive Anxiety Questionnaire, among the intercollegiate football players at the University of the Pacific.

A sub-purpose of the study was to determine the relationship of aggression scores among intercollegiate football players as measured by the selected personality questionnaires.

The Effects Of N-Length And Iti On Resistance To Extinction In A Free-Operant Situation, Raymond Kenworthy Mulhern Jr.

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The prediction of Capaldi's sequential learning theory (i966, 1967, 1970) that resistance to extinction (Rn) increases as a function of the number of successive nonrewarded trials (N-length) conditioned to the instrumental response has recently been supported in a discrete-trials leverpress situation but not in a free-operant leverpress situation (Wolach & Ferraro, 1971). To investigate this discrepancy, 32 male albino rats were trained to leverpress in the presence of a visual s^D under one of two N-length conditions (8 or 16) and one of four intertrial interval (ITI) conditions (5, 10, 15, or 30 sec.), the lowest of which corresponded …

The Impact Of Psychiatric Ward Programming On Patient Habilitation: The Relative Merits Of Systematic Contingency Management, Noncontingent Milieu, And No Formal Ward Programs, Victor J. Bernstein

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Racial Awareness, Preference And Self-Identification In Negro And Caucasian Early Elementary School Children (Grades Kindergarten, One And Three), Jean Marie Leforge

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Pictures of three identical faces differing only in skin colour were shown to 88 Negro and Caucasian subjects in grades kindergarten, one and three and questions about the pictures were asked. The procedure was designed to measure racial preference, awareness and self-identification and social awareness on the part of the subjects. Male subjects saw pictures of male faces and female subjects saw female faces. An experimental group of approximately one-half of the subjects saw a fourth picture face, which represented a novel stimulus and which was included to probe the reaction of the subjects to novelty.

In addition, a warm-up …