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Social Influences On Individual Performance, Robert C. Paul

Psychology ETDs

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of various social pairing conditions on the performance of individual rats, and the extent to which single subject principles would account for the results. Thirty-two male hooded rats were used as subjects. Twelve rats were deprived of water and individually trained to press the left lever of a two lever operant box and twelve rats were deprived of food and trained to press the right lever of the same box for pellets. During the individual training sessions one of the remaining eight naive, satiated rats was placed in the chamber …

Alternative Methods For The Analysis Of Curves, Randi Christine Martin

Dissertations and Theses

The interpretation of data from psychological experiments often involves the analysis and comparison of curves, like the electrocardiogram, spectral sensitivity, or dose-response curves. Existing statistical techniques are often inadequate for making this type of analysis. This thesis presents alternative methods for handling the data comprising curves and discusses the advantages of these techniques against those of existing methods.

Four types of analysis are discussed:

1. finding a confidence band around one curve,
2. finding a confidence band around the difference between two curves, or making an overall comparison between two curves,
3. decomposing a curve into its components,
4. making a component by component …

"Mental Health Seminar", Dick Bose, Nancy Adams, Babe Wilson

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

No abstract provided.

Social Workers In The Community Mental Health Field A Delphi Forecast Of Training Priorities, William Boyce Thomas, Mark L. Clay

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis describes an exploratory research project initiated to facilitate curriculum planning for and evaluation of a social work training program in the field of community mental health. The literature concerning community mental health, the historical relationship of social work to this field, and current issues in social work manpower and education was reviewed as part of the thesis project. On the basis of the review, a study was undertaken to determine appropriate priorities for training Master ' s level social worker’s specializing in this field of practice. The researcher's decided that these priorities would be determined in terms of …

Commitment Of The Mentally Ill In Maine: A History Of Public Policy, William Sewell Muller

Senior Scholar Papers

This paper traces the historical development in the State of Maine of the procedures by which persons found to be mentally unsound can be committed to institutional care against their will. Beginning in 1820 and continuing to the present, specific changes in the statutes governing this area are noted. Both the criminal and civil commitment procedures are dealt with. Following the historical trace, pending legislation relating to the criminal commitment process is examined in detail. Finally, consideration is given to the need for a complete reexamination of the practice of involuntary commitment involving ethical and constitutional issues.

Sex As An Extralegal Factor In Judicial Decision-Making, Sarah K. Gaughan

Psychology ETDs

Previous studies, most of which have been sociological, have shown the influence of extralegal factors on judicial decision­making. The present experimental study was conducted to determine the specific effects of sex of the offender and sex of the judge on sentencing. Sixteen fictional cases of both juvenile and adult offenders were given to graduating law students. The cases were counterbalanced by sex, and contained both serious and minor crimes. The subjects then assigned sentences from a list of six alternatives. At the conclusion of the experiment the students were asked to guess what the independent variable might have been and …

Description And Research Study Of Four Effective Teaching Methods, Gail Ryan

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

During my years in the public school system, I have felt that a basic deterrent to the child's personal and emotional growth has been the inability of educators to effectively communicate with children in the classroom. Gordon (1970, p. 298) states that teachers and other adults "lack the basic attitudes and skills to be effective training agents in an interpersonal relationship with a child or adolescent." Flanders (1971) feels that teachers, while behaviorally influencing children and determining the learning situation, actually have little knowledge about those methods of influence.

I am concerned with the need to train teachers to work …

Self Concept & Permanent Birth Control Choice, James Evans

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between an individual's self concept and his method of permanent birth control. The subjects consisted of two groups of males: (1) males who were seeking a vasectomy, and (2) males who were not seeking a vasectomy but who indicated that they had obtained their desired family size, or who indicated they would not consider a vasectomy. The subjects in grout, one were paired with subjects in group two according to select demographic variables such as age, race, education, and occupation. The Tennessee Self Concept Scale, TSCS, Total P Score was …

The Protestant Ethic Effect: Children In A Multi-Choice Situation, Patricia Anderson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Twelve kindergarten and 16 first grade children were placed in a four Protestant Ethic to obtain tokens choice situation in order to investigate the Effect (PLE). The task for each child was to trade for candy. These tokens were available from three black boxes (choice locations) which were rotated in a clockwise manner around the four corners of the testing room. These three choice locations were as follows: (B1) a location where the child was allowed the option to manipulate switches and/or obtain freely accessible tokens, (82) a location at which tokens were freely accessible, and (84) the work location …

A Comparison Of Time-Out & Response-Cost Conditions Within A Token Economy Using Trainable Mental Retardates, James Willis

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

An investigation was done on the relative effectivness of time-out and response-cost conditions in reducing inappropriate behaviors in a token-economy classroom using trainable mental retardates as subjects. A significant difference was found between baseline levels of inappropriate behaviors in each of the two conditions but no significance was indicated between time-out and response-cost conditions.

A Factor Analytic Study Of The Weschsler Intelligence Scale For Children-Revised, John Miller

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Since the original Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC, 1949) had recently undergone a major revision in content structure of the test and in the populations utilized for standardization, the present study sought to examine the factor structure of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R, 1974) using test data from 126 white and black fifth graders from a predominantly lower middle class socioeconomic background. The analysis of data was performed by a principal components method of factor analysis utilizing Varimax rotation. The results of the data analysis indicated the presence of three primary group factors, and these factors closely …

The Influence Of Work History On The Protestant Ethic Effect, Kathy Nau

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

For 10 days, seven female and five male albino rats were given a choice between barpressing for water or drinking it freely without having to perform. Prior to the choice sessions, the animals had to earn their total water intake for either 0, 5, 15, or 25 days. All 12 animals worked for a part of their total reinforcement intake during testing. However, an analysis of variance showed that work preference increased as the amount of time the animals spent earning their total water intake increased (p<.05). These results were discussed in terms of White's (1959) competency hypothesis.

The Effect Of Gun Handling On Aggression As A Function Of Cue Saliency, Arousal & Gender, Arthur Camplone

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The traditional construct of aggression as postulated by Miller (1941) has as its basis a frustration-aggression model in which frustration is a necessary antecedent condition to and the primary causative factor of aggression. The literature is replete with studies supporting and expounding on this theme. The construct has assumed a longevity and stature rarely enjoyed in psychological experimentation.

Many recent social and learning theorists contend, however, that the research on aggression has concentrated on the displacement and satisfaction of an instinctual aggressive drive to the exclusion of environmental and learning cues which may influence aggressive and violent reactions. The recent …

The Effects Of A Social Stimulus On The Protestant Ethic Effect In Rats, Gary L. Cotton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether rats’ preference to freeload (eat food pellets from a food cup) or to work for food (obtain food pellets by bar pressing) could be influenced by observing either a working or freeloading model in an adjacent operant chamber.

Following equal amounts of bar press and freeloading training, 18 male Sprague-Dawley rats approximately 100 days cold were divided into three experimental groups. The first group was permitted to view a working model while being presented a choice between bar pressing and free-loading. A second experimental group was exposed to a freeloading model …

Objective Strategy Assessment In Reception Paradigm Concept Identification, Elliot Jay Rapoport

Psychology ETDs

The ability of the Fink (1972) dimension selection technique to assess reception strategies was tested using an affirmational concept learning task involving a reversal shift. The Fink technique employs a distributed stimulus set composed of three binary dimensions and a procedure which requires the subject to make an overt response in order to sample each dimension. The subjects’ dimension selection responses were categorized into the reception strategies of wholism and partism and were found to be moderately predictive or performance. The reversal shift data were found to provide confirmation for the assertion that, in the presence of objectively determined terminal …

A Methodological Consideration In The Comparison Of Two Explanatory Hypotheses Of Imagery, Paula Carter

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A replication of the Carter and Craig (1975) investigation comparing the “conceptual peg” and “relational connective” explanations as to the effectiveness of an interaction imagery strategy in paired-associate learning was performed with the suggested changes in methodology. These changes included training the subjects and presenting the stimulus and response nouns on separate screens rather than visually side-by-side. In addition, two separation imagery strategies were investigated so that the nouns were visualized on opposite sides of the imaginary visual field or on opposite walls of an imaginary room.

An interaction imagery strategy, a separation imagery—space strategy, a separation imagery—wall strategy, and …

Attitude Toward Women’S Role And Self-Concept In College Women, Susan Fisher

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study was designed to help answer the question: Do women with nontraditional attitudes toward the role of women in society obtain higher self-concept scores than women with more traditional attitudes toward the role of women? A second question was also investigated: Do women with non-traditional attitudes toward the role of women report that they behave more assertively than women with more traditional attitudes? One hundred and eighty-five undergraduate females were administered the Tennessee Self Concept Scale (TSCS), the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS), and the College Self-Expressions Scale (CSES). Subjects were included in one of the three experimental groups …

An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Parent Training Programs In Changing Parent Behavior, Betty Payne Janiak

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The effectiveness of two types of parent training were evaluated and compared with a control group that received training. A child Management Inventory was constructed for this purpose.

Parent Effectiveness Training was significantly superior to a training program developed by the Utah State Department of Education as measured by pre- and post-test criterion measure. There were no significant differences between the Utah State Department of Education group and the control group. This was determined by applying an analysis of covariance to the pre- and post-test data from all three groups. However, on a follow-up critical incidents test the Utah State …

A New Self Report Behavioral Measure For Evaluating Therapeutic Outcomes, Clyde D. Elliott

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Statement of the problem

Psychology is currently unable to demonstrate that psychotherapy is effective because it has no reliable no-inference objective measures of behavior and behavior change. Reliable measures of therapeutic outcomes are currently nonexistent. The problem with which this study was concerned was one of reliably evaluating psychotherapy outcomes and behavioral change.

Objective

The objective of this study was to develop and assess new measures of behavioral change. The assessment was directed toward those distressing behaviors which cause adult clients to seek psychotherapy.

Methods and procedure

Development of a Behavioral Checklist which would assess the distressing behaviors which brought …

The Effects Of Different Time Arrangements On A Segment Of Individual Psychotherapy Sessions, Dan C. Yergensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether different time arrangements for individual psychotherapy vary in effectiveness for the therapeutic process. The following time arrangements were compared against each other: Treatment I, 1/2 hour sessions twice per week; Treatment II, 1 hour sessions once per week; and Treatment III, 2 hour sessions every other week.

Twenty-one subjects and seven therapists were selected from six mental health facilities in Utah and Idaho for this project. All therapists participating had at least 2 years experience as psychotherapists. All subjects were randomly assigned to one of the three treatments. Each therapist received …

The Effects Of Leadership Style On Group Interaction In Differing Socio-Political Subcultures, Kenneth W. Gilstein

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Four encounter groups were run using 41 undergraduates at Utah State University to measure the effects of leadership style, member vii socio-political subculture, and member personality on the quantity and quality of group interaction, and on member satisfaction. Using Kerlinger's Social Attitudes Scale, the subjects were divided into subgroupings of "conservatives" and "liberals." One conservative group and one liberal group were each conducted by a leader acting in a non-directive style, while one conservative and one liberal group were run by a leader acting in a directive style. The California Psychological Inventory was administered to the subjects to gain …

Community Alcohol Education And Prevention Program, John Fredricks

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate an alcohol education program for the inhabitants of region seven, state of Idaho. A questionnaire comprised of multiple choice, and true-false questions, plus an attitude scale was developed to measure changes by way of pre and post testings.

The five hypotheses of this study are:

1. That our community and school education program would result in subjects obtaining a higher percentage of correct responses on information items on the post test administration of our questionnaire versus the pre testing.
2. The community and school education program would result in subjects obtaining an …

A Partial Test Of The Contingency Model On Adult-Led Groups Of Children, Jeffrey Wayne Jones

Master's Theses

The problem was to test the applicability of Fiedler's contingency model on 15 adult-led groups of children in a field situation. The effectiveness of high and low least preferred co-worker (LPC) leaders on structured and unstructured group tasks was investigated when leader­ member relations were good and leaders had strong power. The data were analyzed in a 2 x 2 factorial design using the analysis of variance. None of the F tests reached statistical significance, thus the model was not supported. Several possible reasons for the findings were given as well as suggestions for future research.

The Effects Of Crowding On The Dominance Behavior Of Laboratory Rats As Assessed By Three Measures Of Dominance, Barbara C. Worthington

Master's Theses

The present study was designed to assess behavioral changes in social dominance, which may accompany or be affected by short term crowding and any adrenal enlargement which may be a concomitant of crowding. To avoid methodological inaccuracy and further establish whether different measures of dominance would accrue the same results a multimethod approach suggested by Howells and Kise (1974) was employed. · Additionally sequence of test presentation was considered and both male and female subjects were used to determine if the measures differentially discriminated between the sexes.

This experiment as designed to evaluate the effects of crowding (independent variable) on …

Utah And School Age Parents, Willa C. Hurd

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Background. As Dean of Women in a small high school for the past three years, I have been frustrated because of the fact that there was no program for married and/or pregnant students that would educationally aid them.

Night high school courses are not, in my opinion, "equal education; " I felt the need for a definite program. The school district is both legally and morally responsible to provide educational opportunities to these students .

Justification. In 1970 an estimated 200,000 American girls under 18 gave birth. Nearly two-thirds of the girls had married by the time of delivery (Pregnant …

Sodium Phenobarbital In Prevention Of Electroconvulsive Shock-Induced Disruption Of Taste-Illness Association, Stuart W. Reynolds

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Male Holtzman rats injected with a toxic solution of lithium chloride (US) 30 minutes after drinking saccharin flavored water (CS) learned to avoid that taste upon subsequent encounter. Electroconvulsive shock (ECS) interpolated temporarily between the pairing of a novel taste (CS) and an induced gustatory illness (US) prevents the taste from being associated with the illness (Kral, 1971). The purpose of the present experiment was to determine if sodium phenobarbital pretreatment would protect the association of taste with illness, against the normally interfering effects of ECS in the interpolated intervention paradigm. This question was investigated with a 2 (sodium phenobarbital …

Priming And The Post-Prime Pause In Mixed Fixed-Ratio Schedules, Larry Allen Alferink

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of a stimulus change inserted in the large component of a mixed fixed-ratio 10 fixed-ratio 100 schedule. In mixed fixed-ratio schedules, a run of responses which approximates the response requirement of the smaller fixed ratio occurs at the beginning of the larger fixed ratio. This run of responses and the pause it precedes is called a prime. In Experiment I, priming acquisition was compared in a mixed schedule in which a change in key-color followed completion of the first 10 responses of the fixed-ratio 100 component and a mixed schedule with …

Anxiety Correlates Of Sex Role Identity, Mary Kay Biaggio

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in anxiety levels between the sexes and between sex role identification groups (as defined by scores on a test of masculinity-femininity). Possible explanations for these differences were explored using a questionnaire made up of an openness versus closedness scale, a liberalism versus conservatism scale, and a cross-sex versus same-sex parent identification scale.

A sample of 108 females and 71 males was administered Gough's Femininity Scale, Cattell's IPAT Anxiety Scale Questionnaire, Taylor's Manifest Anxiety Scale, and a questionnaire devised for this particular study.

The sexes did not differ significantly in anxiety level …

The Development And Validation Of Self-Actualizing Education: A Primer For Affective Education, Carolyn G. Barcus

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study describes the development and evaluation of a communications skills course for elementary teacher inservice training. The development and evaluation strategy centered on a research and development (R & D) process. The major steps of the R & D process were: (1) product selection, (2) literature review, (3) prototype planning, (4) development of preliminary prototype, (5) expert appraisal and product revision, (6) main fieldtest, (7) product revision, and (8) operational fieldtest.

The course was composed of 13 communication skills with 20 behavioral objectives and evaluations. Experiences in self-awareness and practical application of the skills presented were stressed.

The purpose …

Behavioral Induction In Guinea Pigs As A Function Of Reinforcement Magnitude In Multiple Schedules Of Negative Reinforcement, Dennis L. Burns

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of changes in magnitude of negative reinforcement on multiple schedules with the guinea pigs. In both schedule components, the first response (lever press) after an average of 10 seconds was reinforced. In the constant component of this schedule the reinforcement magnitude (time-off from electric foot shock) was always 15 seconds; whereas, in the manipulated component the magnitude changed in the following sequence: 15, 7.5, 15, 30, and 15 seconds. All subjects showed a gradual decrease in response rate across baseline conditions. When behavioral effects were evaluated relative to this changing …