Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Fear Of Success And Perceived Task Difficulty On Cognitive Performance, David Eugene Elkins

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study investigated the relationship of fear of success (FOS) and perceptions of task difficulty, their interactive effect on anagram and matrix-task performance and possible gender differences on these variables. A total of 226 students, 83 males and 143 females, participated in the study. FOS was measured by the administration of Zuckerman and Allison's (1976) Fear of Success Scale. Perceptions of task difficulty were manipulated by use of falsified normative data. Subjects therefore believed the upcoming task was either easy or difficult or the subjects were employed as controls. An anagram task and 12 items selected from Raven's Standard Progressive …

Relocation Decision-Making In Dual-Career Couples, Lori Bartels

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the decision-making process of individuals in dual-career couples when faced with a job opportunity in a distant city. The purpose was to determine which factors would be given the most importance by males and females during the decision process.

Each scenario presented an identical situation in which the participant was offered a job in a distant city. Following this paragraph were five brief statements representing five factors; job opportunities for self, job opportunities for spouse, career commitment--self, career commitment--spouse, and economic considerations. Two levels (moderate and high) of each factor were used in order to manipulate the …

Computer Use In The Scientific Office, Douglas L. Miller

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Over the past two decades computers in research and development organizations have become a complex and integral part of the work process. Yet to date only a handful of systematic investigations have addressed issues involving scientists' or other professionals' use of computers, and very little is known about factors influencing use (Bikson and Gutek, 1983; Blacker and Brown, 1986; Collopy, 1988; Gasser, 1986; Helander, 1985; Nickolson, 1985; Pope, 1985). As a result, this research was designed to address four objectives. The first was to develop and evaluate a descriptive model of variables influencing scientists' computer use. The second objective was …

Virginia Woolf's Keen Sensitivity To War: It's Roots And It's Impact On Her Novels, Nancy Topping Bazin, Jane Hamovit Lauter

English Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) War InspIred Horror In Virginia Woolf. Her antipathy toward those who cause wars is evident in her two essays, A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas. The impact of war on her fiction expands from a portrayal of individuals as victims of war to a vision of war that encompasses the possible annihilation of civilization. Between the Acts, Woolf's final novel, is obviously an artistic response to the threat posed by World War II. However, a close examination of her works reveals, to a surprising degree, her early and persistent preoccupation with the consequences of war, …

Marge Piercy's Small Changes: Welcome To The Sexual Revolution, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

Marge Piercy's novel Small Changes is encyclopedic in its incredibly detailed, all-encompassing feminist analysis of female and male behavior in the late 60's and early 70's. The behavior of the younger generation is compared and contrasted with that of their parents. The overall impression given by the novel is that, despite the very different life-styles of the two generations, very little change has, in fact, occurred. At the end of the novel, sexism prevails and no significant threat to male control of the power structure has developed. From examination of the title, Piercy seems to place her emphasis not upon …

Women And Revolution In Dystopian Fiction: Nadine Gordimer's July's People And Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

Nadine Gordimer's July's People (1981) and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985) are both dystopias, nightmare visions of the future. Both of the worlds depicted come into being because of revolutionary coups. However, in both cases, the revolutions were in progress long before the actual takeovers, and there were opportunities for citizens to have prevented these dystopian situations from coming to pass. Yet, because changing the direction of political events requires energy, solidarity, bravery or at least some self-sacrifice, most citizens are reluctant to become involved. Nadine Gordimer and Margaret Atwood understand this attitude because they have felt that way …

The Effects Of Training And Feedback Format On Reactions To In-Basket Feedback And On In-Basket Performance, Michael G. Fedorko

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of training and feedback format on reactions to in-basket feedback and on in-basket performance. Performance was evaluated with a 2 (Training) x 3 (Feedback) x 2 (In-Basket) x 5 (Dimension) repeated measures factorial design. Reactions were evaluated with a 2 (Training) x 3 (Feedback) x 2 (Questionnaire) repeated measures factorial design. The Training factor was comprised of frame-of-reference training (designed to prepare the recipient to receive the feedback) and a control condition (a lecture on Mintzberg's managerial role classification system). The Feedback factor was comprised of written feedback, oral feedback, …

The Effects Of Job Characteristics And Task Decomposition On The Estimation Of The Dollar-Value Of Performance, Robert P. Delprino

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of job characteristics and structuring aids on the accuracy and acceptance of managers' estimates of the standard deviation of job performance in dollars (i.e., SD_y). The job characteristics consisted of critical incidents of work behaviors and existing performance appraisal dimensions. The structuring aids consisted of full algorithm and partial algorithm procedures. In addition, a global estimation procedure was included in the design and served as a control condition. Participants were 96 nursing managers. Through the use of questionnaires, the managers provided dollar-value estimates of the value of low, …

Psychosocial Developmental Levels Of Freshman Urban University Students With Learning Disabilities, Nancy Ann Wolthuis Olthoff

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

This research study addressed the question, "Is there a difference in psychosocial developmental levels, as defined by Arthur Chickering, between male and female traditional-aged urban university freshmen with and without learning disabilities?" Twenty students with learning disabilities, as diagnosed by independent practitioners who exhibited spelling disabilities on a writing sample placement test, were compared to two comparable groups of twenty students. One comparison group did not exhibit spelling disability. The second group while demonstrating spelling problems, did not have documentation of learning disabilities. The Student Developmental Task and Lifestyle Inventory, a measure of Arthur Chickering's theory of psychosocial development, was …

The Effects Of Wellness Activity Choices On Urban Employees' Psychological Mood States And Job Satisfaction, Ruth Porter Holland

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

This ex-post-facto study was designed to examine the effects of varied levels of physical activity participation choices on employees' mood states and job satisfaction. A six (group) x two (sex) x three (times) ANCOVA method analyzed the relationship of three independent variables (group, sex and repeated exercise sessions) to ten dependent psychological measures (seven mood states and three job satisfaction components). Comparisons by group, sex, and time were made to determine whether four treatment groups of male and female employees who made choices to participate in varied levels of physical activity over an eight week period differed significantly from two …

A Study To Determine The Development Of Organizational Commitment In Restaurant Training Practices, Stephanie Kamp-Carcano

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

By completion of this study, the following goals will have been answered: 1. The methods and procedures used by Virginia Beach restaurants in the training of wait staff will be identified; 2. the existence of restaurant objectives in training programs will be identified; 3. the attitudes of managers toward the effectiveness of training programs will be documented; 4. the organizational commitment of waitpersons in Virginia Beach will be measured.

Overall Laughing One And The Experiences, Anina Porter Adams

Institute for the Humanities Theses

A fictional play based on the study of writings by psychotherapist Carl Gustav Jung. The action is set in the imaginary realm of archetypes, amoral personified energies which appear in tales from diverse cultures. In this play the mythical characters move in an ordered, ritualistic manner. They are dependent upon a geometrically centered black box for the provision of human forms through which they experience "being." A female is the human form provided in this instance and she combines her own energy with that of the other characters though she is not conscious of this fact. The archetypal energies focus …

Laureate, 1991, Old Dominion University

University Yearbooks

1991 yearbook of Old Dominion University

The Ability Of The Special Needs Child In Comparison To The Average Child In A Beginning Computerized Keyboarding Class, Deborah K. Marshall

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The problem of this study was to determine how the ability of the special needs child, when mainstreamed into a Beginning Computerized Keyboarding course, compared to that of the average child. The hypothesis was that there was no significant difference in the learning of special needs students and academically average students when taught Beginning Computerized Keyboarding.

Information Technology And Wealth: Cybernetics, History And Economics, Elin Whitney-Smith

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Capitalism developed where and when it did because there was high information access. There was high information access because of a major advance in information technology--the press. Where the technology was not controlled by the "powers that be" there was economic growth and a shift in the entire social structure. Where it was controlled there was no structural change and there was economic ruin. The development of capitalism is a major step change in economic growth. It is also a major change in the way people organize themselves into groups.

Major step changes in the growth and in the organization …

The "Virginian-Pilot" Newspaper's Role In Moderating Norfolk, Virginia's 1958 School Desegregation Crisis, Alexander Stewart Leidholdt

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

This dissertation explores the critical role played by the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot newspaper's editor, Lenoir Chambers, in moderating public opinion during Norfolk, Virginia's, 1958/1959 public-school closing.

In 1958 the nation's attention was focused on Norfolk. In an attempt to stymy judicially mandated integration, Virginia's Governor J. Lindsay Almond, Jr., supported by the powerful political organization of United States senator Harry Flood Byrd, Sr., ordered the city to close its public schools.

Norfolk was a major urban area. Over ten thousand students were displaced by the state action; and four months after the closing, three thousand students were still receiving no education. …

From Aristotle To Ibm: Classical Rhetoric And The Teaching Of Technical Writing, Kathleen S. Scharf

English Theses & Dissertations

Over the past two decades, industry has placed increasing demands on higher education to produce students who can quickly adapt to a variety of writing situations. However, due to the relatively recent birth of technical writing as an academic discipline, technical-writing teachers tend to lack solid foundations on which to build their curricula. In their search for theoretical guidance, many teachers are turning to the classical rhetorical theories of Plato and Aristotle. Typically, teachers are applying Aristotle's notions of invention, arrangement, and style to the teaching of technical writing. Unfortunately, their approach tends to truncate Aristotle's five-canon system by deleting …

Looking For Literary Metaphor On Film: A Structuralist Study Of East Of Eden, Doctor Zhivago, And To Kill A Mockingbird, Charles D. Weaver

English Theses & Dissertations

A system based on existing research in semiotics and metaphor is developed and used to compare three novels with their film adaptations: East of Eden, Doctor Zhivago, and To Kill a Mockingbird. By grouping literary metaphors together in the novels, a subtext of meaning is revealed that can both aid in the understanding of the novel and serve as a tool for evaluating the faithfulness of the film adaptation. While none of the films studied completely followed this subtext, there were different levels of similarity between the novel and the visual metaphors used in the film. One reason for this …

A Comparison Of Decision-Making Variables Used By Dual-Career Couples, Margaret K. Conrad

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The increasing number of households transitioning from traditional oneworker families to dual-career families has created complex issues for the individual, the family, employers, and society in general. Learning more about how these dual-career couples make decisions will help provide a better capability to tailor counseling needs to these individuals, as well as guide policy for employers. This study examined 115 dual-career spouses from four different occupational groups: Air Force, Army, Navy, and civilian organizations. The participants consisted of 54 husbands and 61 wives who completed a questionnaire designed for this study. The survey measured 12 decision-making variables identified in a …

Relationship Of Dysphoria To The Recall Of Positive Negative And Neutral Words, Sarah Ellen Ware

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study investigated memory and cognitions in dysphoric and non-dysphoric individuals by examining reported thoughts and positive and negative word recall. Participants were female volunteers from Old Dominion University with 24 non-dysphoric subjects and 18 dysphoric subjects. Each subject was asked to read positive and negative life descriptions at separate times. After the descriptions had been read, 23 subjects were asked to suppress the description and 19 subjects were not given these instructions. Subjects then wrote down their thoughts for 6 minutes. Following the writing of thoughts, each subject was then asked to recall freely a list of 30 words. …

Body Image And Perceptions Of Body Size Among Black And White College Women, Clifford E. Rucker Iii

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to examine several facets of body image and weight-related concerns among 121 Black and White female college students. This study evaluated body-image using multiple, internally consistent, self-report measures and the use of the body-image silhouettes to assess perceptions of body fatness. Three primary domains assessed in this study were: (a) body-image attitudes, (b) body-image perceptions, and (c) eating behavior and weight concerns. As hypothesized, the Black females held more favorable body-image attitudes than Whites, on both global and weight-related body-image affect, cognitions, and behaviors. Moreover, compared with Whites, the Black women held body-size …

George F. Kennan And The Rebuilding Of Japan: The Second Phase Of Occupation Policy, Rhonda S. Beckham

History Theses & Dissertations

As head of the Policy Planning Staff of the Department of State, George F. Kennan had the opportunity to implement aspects of the containment policy which he had helped to create. In 1947, Japan became vital to United States national security interests in Asia but was threatened by Communist infiltration because of an unstable political and economic situation promulgated by the initial post-surrender policy immediately after the war. An investigation by Kennan led to the implementation of significant changes which were enumerated in a National Security Council Report. This thesis will examine Kennan's foreign policy philosophy, the containment theory, the …

Interaction Between Amphetamine And Ethanol On Amphetamine-Produced Conditioned Place Preference, Cheryl Pelphrey-Weigand

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Male Long-Evans rats were conditioned 6 days, alternating drug and non-drug conditions, using injections of .6 mg/kg d-amphetamine, amphetamine plus 60mg/kg ethanol, or amphetamine plus 120 mg/kg ethanol. These injections were given in a specific side of the shuttlebox to assess the development of a place preference or aversion. The amount of time spent in the drug-paired side was analyzed on 2 non-drugged test days. Rats spent significantly more time in the drug-paired side on Test Day 1 than on Test Day 2. When the ethanol groups were combined, these rats spent significantly more time in the drug-paired side than …

Effects Of Applied Soil Repellent Finish On Pesticide Residues In Work Clothing, Sandra L. Prior

Community & Environmental Health Theses & Dissertations

This study explores the feasibility of using an applied soil repellent finish, Scotchgard, on 100% cotton denim fabric in order to enhance the removal of atrazine and alachlor residue during the laundering process. The experimental findings provided no statistically significant evidence that Scotchgard fabric protector reduced pesticide residuals on the 100% cotton denim fabric either before or after laundering. A significant finding secondary to the study involved the possible interaction of Scotchgard with the pesticide alachlor, leaving greater amounts of residual on the fabric after laundering than those found with no fabric treatment. This suggests that agricultural workers be cautioned …

The Relationships Of Body-Image Attitudes To Sexual Functioning And Experiences In A Normal College Population, Jill D. Hangen

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the relationships of body-image attitudes and sexual attitudes, experiences, and functioning in a college population. Sixty-five males and 120 females completed a variety of established self-report measures assessing the constructs under study, as well as two new measures developed in this study. The new measures included (1) The Sexual Experiences and Problems Survey for self-assessment of difficulties in sexual functioning, and (2) The Body Exposure in Sexual Activities Questionnaire to measure self-consciousness and avoidance of body exposure in sexual contexts. Analyses were performed in the data of those predominantly heterosexual subjects who reported a history of sexual …

An Artificial Neural Approach To The Decomposition Problem, Chandrashekar L. Masti

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to develop an artificial neural approach toward addressing the intractability involved with the decomposition problem. The search for the lattice of substitution property (s. p.) partitions essential to decompositions is cast into the framework of constraint satisfaction. An artificial neural network is developed to provide solutions by performing optimization of a mathematically derived objective function over the problem space. The issue of transitivity is verified to belong to a class of problems beyond the scope of solvability for conventional quadratic-order constraint satisfaction neural networks. A theorem is stated and proved establishing that third-order correlations …

Interpreting The Personal Orientation Inventory Through The Five-Factor Model, Diane Donald Anderson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study was designed to determine how the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI; Shostrom, 1974) relates to the Five-Factor Model of Personality. Four self-report personality instruments were employed; the Personal Orientation Inventory, the Comrey Personality Scales (CPS; Comrey, 1970), the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI; Costa & NcCrae, 1988), and the Five-Factor Nodel Adjective Factors (AF,", Costa & NcCrae, 1985b). Data were collected from 128 psychology students aged 18 to 30 years. Scores for the Five Factors were obtained by factor analysis combining responses from the CPS, the NEO-FFI, and the AF. Pearson product-moment intercorrelations were then computed for the Five Factors …

Perceptions Of Women And Substance Abuse, Marla Harrison

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Sixty-five male and female substance abuse counselors were administered hypothetical scenarios and corresponding questionnaires regarding two types of substance abuse, one separately describing a male and a female cocaine abuser, and the other separately describing a male and a female heroin and alcohol abuser. Differences in perceptions of male and female substance abusers in regards to treatment recommendations and contributing factors among male and female counselors were predicted. Counselors perceived emotional and relationship problems as contributing more to female substance abuse, and male counselors were more likely to recommend group counseling and to perceive character problems as a contr1buting factor …

The Evolution And Implementation Of Eisenhower's "New Look" Foreign Policy: Guatemala, Jonathan Joseph York

History Theses & Dissertations

In 1954, a United States assisted coup ousted the freely elected Jacobo Arbenz Guatemalan government. The Eisenhower administration took action because it believed the Guatemalan government was influenced by a communist movement directed from Moscow. Eisenhower's "New Look" foreign policy, a continuation of the containment theory, utilized and revitalized the inner core of the Executive Branch to achieve its objective of eliminating the communist menace emanating from Guatemala. The strategy that supported Eisenhower's policy was successful largely due to conducive political and public opinion in the United States and instability within Guatemala. The "New Look" strategy incorporated use of diplomatic …

The Effect Of The Type Of Goal Setting Procedure Task Difficulty And Feedback On Psychomotor Performance, Jennifer Anne Mikulka Fletcher

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present experiment examined the effect of two levels of task difficulty (easy and difficult), two levels of feedback (feedback and no feedback), and three types of goal setting procedure (participative, assigned, and no goal setting) on performance. To control for effects due to goal difficulty, the assigned goals were yoked to the participative goals. A computerized letter cancellation task was employed to measure subject performance on three dependent variables: the number of correct. letter cancellations, the number of incorrect cancellations, and the reaction time between correct. cancellations ~ The results showed that the number of incorrect cancellations was not …