Digital Commons Network^™

Teaching Friendship Making Skills To Emotionally Disturbed Children, Alison Stewart Agras

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of teaching children appropriate social skill behavior. The present study investigated a coaching procedure to teach emotionally disturbed children appropriate social skills within the context: of fourteen arts and crafts sessions. Using a multiple baseline across groups design, two groups of four children received training. As a result of training, cooperation behavior showed a moderate change, while eye contact increased substantially for both groups. The behaviors of on task and communication changed only slightly. In addition, these changes generalized to different settings and were· maintained over time. However, praising, receiving praise, as well as …

Assessment Of Heterosocial Performance : Development And Validation Of Self-Report Measures For Men And Women, Patti Lou Watkins

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Heterosocial cognitions, skill, and anxiety were identified as constructs which are components of heterosocial performance. Each of these constructs was defined, and Likert-scale items intended to reflect these definitions were generated. The possibility that these constructs differed for men and women was tested both consensually and statistically. Judges determined the suitability of of each item for each sex, as well as the appropriateness of each item for each construct. Items judged as belonging to the three constructs were assigned to three separate subscales of a self-report measure. The construct validity and reliability of each subscale were determined through, three administrations …

Rational-Emotive Therapy And Progressive Relaxation In The Reduction Of Trait Anxiety Of College Undergraduate Students Who Enroll In Anxiety Reduction Workshops, Thomas Arthur Walsh

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET), Progressive Relaxation (PR), Attention Placebo (AP), and a no-treatment group in reducing levels of trait anxiety in undergraduate students who participated in anxiety reduction workshops. The subjects in this study were fifty-one volunteer male and female undergraduate students from the University of the Pacific, Stockton, California, who chose to participate in a seven session anxiety reduction workshop. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of the four treatment groups. The Attention Placebo procedure consisted of a discussion of learning styles, and the effects that the learning …

The Assessment Of Reflective And Behavioral Social Cognitive Problem Solving Skills In Well-Liked, Aggressive, And Withdrawn Children, Linda Ann Bream

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Recent research suggests that children's ability to solve interpersonal problems is related to their social adjustment. As children are continually confronted with personal and interpersonal problems which they must solve in order to maintain positive peer relations, the study and promotion of effective problem solving skills is of great importance. The aim of the present study was to assess children's responses to hypothetical problem situations as well as to assess their overt behavioral responses in a simulated problem situation. Children were classified as socially effective (well-liked) and socially ineffective (withdrawn and aggressive) on the basis of peer and teacher ratings …

Formal Observation Of Family Interaction During Structured Play, Darell C. Provencher

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The present study explored how behavioral interactions in two-male sibling families during structured play may be affected by the relative ages of siblings and by the interaction situations involved. Six dyadic interaction situations of 30 minutes duration each were observed among members of 12 normal families in their homes, once a week for five consecutive weeks. Families were categorized into three groups: (a) a younger sibling and an older sibling between 2-5 years of age, (b) 2-5 year-old younger sibling and 6-9 year-old older sibling, and (c) a younger sibling and an older sibling between 6-9 years of age. The …

Public Acceptability Of Psychotherapy: The Effects Of Sex, Psychotherapeutic Orientation And Mode Of Presentation, Mark A. Etscheidt

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the public acceptability of psychotherapy. Three major models of psychotherapy were examined: behavior therapy, psychodynamic insight-oriented therapy, and client-centered therapy. The mode of presentation was manipulated based on previous acceptability research which has employed diverse types of stimulus materials. Written, audiotaped, and videotaped dialogues between a client and a therapist were used in this study. The sex of the subject was also of interest in this study. It was hypothesized: (1) that based on previous research, client-centered therapy would be perceived less favorably than either behavior therapy or psychodynamic therapy, (2) that …

Physical Attractiveness: Its Influence On The Perception Of Counselors, Connie H. Sanders

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

60 undergraduate students evaluated male and female counselors on fifteen counselor variables based on listening to a tape recording of a counselor self-introduction paired with an attractive or unattractive picture. Two groups served as control groups; they heard the tape but received no picture. The attractive counselor was perceived as significantly more decisive, interesting, caring, open-minded, likable and better adjusted than the unattractive counselor. These effects were more pronounced for the female counselors than for the male counselors.

Exploratory Study Of A Measure Of Self-Actualization, Norma C. Troncoso

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two studies were conducted to measure positive personality change expected to occur during four years of a self-actualizing program. The first study computed inter correlations among the scales of the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) for students in the Psychology and English Departments of a Spanish-speaking college, which were then compared with those reported in the test manual. Generally, correlations were greater than those in the manual, which suggested possible influence by the humanistic and Christian philosophy of the college. The second study examined the effect of training for self-actualization and personality growth on the behavior of a group of psychology …

The Use Of Strategy In The Solution Of Anagrams, Cathleen M. Campbell

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Rewards On Quality And Interest In Initially High Or Low Interest Preschoolers, Naomi Sobel Eisenstein

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Evaluation Of The Depressive Attributional Style In A Clinically Depressed And Nondepressed Sample, Donna Munic

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Construct Validity Study Of The Adience-Abience Scale, Loretta E. Lobbia

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Metacommunication Abilities In Schizophrenia: An Empirical Investigation Of The Double Bind Theory, Keith A. Baird

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Behavior Of Depressed Subjects In Impersonal And Interpersonal Situations, Linda. Brownell

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Assessing Psychopathology In Children's Bender Gestalt Performance: A Comparison Of Two Objective Systems, Edward D. Rossini

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

An Intensive Case Study Of A Candidate's Experience, Richard F. Mcgourty

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Psycho-Social Stress And The Use Of Coping Responses In University Students, George Hartwein

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Person-Environment Interaction In Nursing Homes For The Elderly, Stan J. Orchowsky

Theses and Dissertations

There has been a growing interest in recent years in the study of person-environment interaction in the elderly. Several theoretical models have been proposed in the gerontological literature. Each of these models suffers from one or more limitations, including the restriction of requiring that the person and the environment be measured in the same terms, and the difficulty posed by attempting to empirically test the model.

A new model of person-environment interaction in the elderly is proposed here. The model views life satisfaction as the ultimate outcome variable. Feelings of personal control and choice are seen as intervening between life …

Victim-Defendant Relationship And Juror Attitudes Towards Rape As Mediators Of Attribution Of Responsibility For Rape, Robert L. Fauber Jr.

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study attempted to examine the effect of specific information about the prior relationship between victim and defendant on subjects' attributive behavior in a case of rape, as well as the relative power of subjects' general attitudes towards rape in predicting their decisions in ambiguous vs. more clear-cut cases. Seventy-two (72) male and seventy-two (72) female undergraduate subjects read one of three written accounts of a rape case in which the sexual component of the prior victim-defendant relationship was varied. They were then asked for their judgements about the responsibility of both the victim and defendant for the rape, …

Role-Taking And Behavior, Jane Wynne Uphoff

Dissertations and Theses

The present study examined the relationship between the cognitive skill of role-or perspective-taking and naturally occurring behavior of behaviorally disordered children. Twenty-six boys, aged five years, nine months to twelve years, two months were tested and observed at their treatment facility. It was predicted that children who could take the perspective of others would prefer peer to adult interaction, would more likely give positive attention to their peers and would be more likely to use effective language than their non perspective-taking peers. These and related hypotheses were examined by observing each participant's interactive behavior for 36 minutes distributed over three …

A Study Of Age And Sex-Related Differences In The Perception Of Emotional Stimuli, Nancy Mellor Canizio

Dissertations and Theses

In a tachistoscopic perception task, adult males in the Fels Research Institute's longitudinal population (Kagan and Moss, 1960) were found to have a higher recognition threshold for pictures depicting dependency scenes than adult females. The female subjects had a higher recognition threshold for aggressive scenes than the males.

The present study was designed to further compare male and female perception of dependent and aggressive stimuli by including a developmental component to test if the perceptual differences vary with age. A benign or neutral stimulus category was added to aid in determining direction of any resulting differences: i.e., heightened perception or …

Locus-Of-Control In An Interactionist Approach To Behavior, Christopher Jacob Reiss

Theses and Dissertations

The impetus for this empirical study is: 1) to provide further construct validity for the I-E scale; and 2) to advance the locus-of-control construct as an important concept in the growing theoretical model of interactionism. The main models in personality psychology are compared and contrasted with interactionism.

The literature on locus-of-control, implicating its importance for understanding the interactionist perspective, is reviewed. Because anxiety and anagram tasks are utilized as person and situation variables in the present study they also are reviewed prior to stating specific hypotheses. 2 The major hypotheses are: 1) that the state anxiety of subjects with scores …

Viewpoint Apperceptive Ads Let You Dine On ‘Psychological Smorgasbord’, Humayun Akhter, Anees A. Sheikh

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Praise And Critical Feedback On The Task Performance Of Young Males Of Varying Levels Of Adaptive Behavior, Michael Reed

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The effect of evaluative feedback on the simple motor performance of young males of varying levels of adaptive behavior was examined. Subjects were 50 male Caucasians (6.0 to 8.5 years of age) randomly assigned to either a praise, criticism, or control condition. Subjects participated in a motor task twice (pretest, posttest). After the first trial of the task (pretest), subjects received either positive evaluative feedback (praise), negative evaluative feedback (criticism), or were asked for biographical information (neutral). The second trial of the task immediately followed feedback. The adaptive behavior level of each subject was determined in a subsequent interview with …

Effect Of Informational Posting And Employee Inspection On Safety Hazard Reduction In A Retail Drug Store, Craig A. Berger

Masters Theses

Undesired safety conditions were operationally defined for a large retail drug store. The recording of unsafe conditions were conducted for two different employee shifts for ten weeks. A multiple baseline design (ABC-ACB) was used in which three conditions were introduced: (a) baseline, (b) public posting of a safety performance chart, and (c) individual employee inspections. Results indicated that the frequency of safety hazards declined 23% from baseline for the public post-condition and declined 44% for the employee inspection condition (averaged across both shifts). An advanced analysis of variance indicated significant mean differences (p < .01) between baseline and employee inspection for both shifts. An additional measure was taken correlating photograph ratings by employees on a safety dimension and an attractiveness dimension. The coefficient of correlation was statistically significant (r = .76; p <.05). The results indicate that a training program involving employee inspections may be an effective way of reducing undesirable safety conditions.

Prompts And Feedback As A Means Of Increasing A Customer Service Behavior In A Family Restaurant, David B. Lennox

Masters Theses

Although waiters and waitresses traditionally receive a gratuity based upon quality of service from customers, it may be difficult for them to interpret the amount of the gratuity as an indicator of good service or bad service. This ambiguity could be a result of different amounts of customer checks or faulty comparisons of total dollar amounts (total for the working shift) without taking into consideration the total dollar amount of the customer checks or the number of customers served. This study was conducted to provide accurate information for waitresses regarding gratuity percentage received from customers while monitoring its effects on …

Improving On-The-Job Performance Of Restaurant Employees Through Behavior Modification Techniques, Patricia A. Kershek

Masters Theses

Behavior modification techniques were used to improve the performance of individual employees in a restaurant setting. Desired performance was defined in operational terms. Contingent upon observations of desired behavior, procedures involving praise, performance charts, and bonuses were implemented according to an ABCB design. After applying both praise and performance charts, bonuses were added so that all three techniques were in operation. Then, bonuses were discontinued. Results indicated that while employee performance (quality of performance and time spent on the job) improved when praise and performance charts were applied, the addition of a bonus led to even further improvement. Hence, bonuses …

Matching-To-Sample In The Pigeon: An Analysis Of The Effects Of Correction And Noncorrection Procedures, Deborah Lou Grossett

Masters Theses

Contradictory results concerning the effect that presence or absence of a correction procedure has on matching-to-sample were obtained by past studies (Carter and Werner, 1978; Thomas, 1979). Carter and Werner (1978) reported that exposure to a correction procedure resulted in an increase in accuracy, while Thomas (1979) found no difference between the noncorrection and correction procedures. The present study showed that exposure to a correction procedure resulted in an increase in accuracy in comparison to a noncorrection procedure during acquisition, but not during maintenance.

Past studies (Holt and Shafer, 1973; Thomas, 1979), using a correction procedure, showed that presence of …

A Comparison Of Reading And Listening Performances Of Braille And Print Readers, Betty P. Zook

Masters Theses

Blind and sighted subjects were tested on their capability to retain information after both reading and listening to specially prepared printed and taped materials. The sample consisted of graduate students and professional individuals. It was found that, on the average, subjects retained more after reading than listening. This effect was more pronounced in the braille reading subjects. As the level of complexity of the material increased, the difference in the points earned between the two modalities, reading and listening, increased significantly. A behavioral analysis suggested some reasons for this difference. It was suggested that further research into reading and listening …

The Effects Of Music On The Duration Of Time Spent In A Store By A Customer, Danita J. Mussatto

Masters Theses

The present study was compared the effects of employing music and withholding music in a retail setting. Over a three week experimental period, the duration of time customers spent in a store was recorded. The music system was first employed (Phase I), next the customers were subject to an environment void of music (Phase II), and then the music system was reimplemented (Phase III). During Phase II customers spent significantly less time in the store than in Phase I or Phase III. Another store, employing music continually, was used to control extraneous sources of variability. The results provide empirical verification …