Digital Commons Network^™

Survey Of Language Acquisition Techniques Provided By Parents Of Talented And Gifted Children, Sharon Engen

Dissertations and Theses

Most of the studies on language acquisition techniques provided by parents have been addressed to the training of parents for prevention of language disabilities and disorders (Latzke, 1975). Few investigations have involved language acquisition of the superior functioning child (Patterson, 1981). Hence, the purpose of this study was to survey language acquisition techniques provided by parents of talented and gifted children (TAG) who were enrolled in the Beaverton School District Number 48 TAG program. The first question dealt with what materials and/or equipment did the parents use in aiding their child's language development. The second question dealt with which particular …

The Psychological Intervention Of Group Therapy For Women Coping With Genital Herpes, Susan D. Ferguson

Dissertations and Theses

Three groups of women who had been diagnosed as having genital herpes completed a series of psychological assessments over the course of the four-month research period. One group received two-hour weekly group psychotherapy sessions for eight consecutive weeks as a mode of treatment intervention. Two control groups were used for efficacy of treatment comparison. One control group consisted of regular members of a local self-help chapter for herpes victims. The second control group was formed from those volunteers willing to participate, but who did not choose, or desire, any form of treatment, Outcome measures reflected a greater improvement in psychological …

Forecasting Interest Rates Using Pattern Recognition Techniques, John S. Pearson

Dissertations and Theses

Much depends on the future course of interest rates. The decisions of families to make major purchases, the willingness of businesses to expand and invest, the rise and fall of the economy and stock market, the ability of lesser developed countries to repay their debts, the tenure of presidents and prime ministers--all of these may turn on whether interest rates increase or decrease in the months ahead. Several decision functions developed in the dissertation permit the direction of change of interest rates on long-term U. S. government bonds to be forecast correctly about 60% of the time. When the different …

The Contribution Of Social Support To The Successful Functioning Of Men With Epilepsy, Diane L. Pancoast

Dissertations and Theses

One hundred men with epilepsy were interviewed about the history of their illness, employment history and personal support network. Included as sources of support were: household members, close friends and relatives, more distant relationships and general forms of social participation such as church membership. Four potentially supportive aspects of these relationships were assessed: structural features of the pattern of relationships; characteristics of the individual ties; exchanges of helping resources and subjective assessments of the supportiveness of ties. The social support networks of the men who were satisfied with their lives were large, diverse, active and generally helpful. Church membership was …

Local Norms Of Personality Assessment For Rosebud Sioux, Richard H. Dana, Rodger Hornby, Tom Hoffmann

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

Measures of life stress, locus of control, world view, and values were administered to 91 Rosebud Sioux. The results provide some limited norms for local use of these measures and descriptive data for this tribe. These measures provide examples of culturally relevant, non-discriminatory instruments for assessment of Native Americans

The Role Of The Family In Delinquency Causation: An Interactional View, James W. Burfeind

Dissertations and Theses

American society traditionally has held the family responsible for the socialization and social control of children, and when youngsters get into trouble the causal finger of blame is pointed at the family. No wonder then that a recurrent issue within the study of delinquent behavior has been the precise etiological role of the family. This thesis begins with an historical examination of the different approaches taken in the sociological study of delinquency and the family. This research investigated whether "interactive effects" are important in conceptualizing and understanding the family's etiological role. The concept of interaction is based upon the assumption …

Intelligence Testing Of American Indian Children: Sidesteps In Quest Of Ethical Practice, Richard H. Dana

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

Previous literature reviews are updated. Recent findings impugn the WISC-R internal consistency and document item bias for American Indian children. A pattern of Spatial > Sequential > Conceptual > Acquired Knowledge holds across ages, tribes, and heterogeneous referral sources, except for acculturated children. Kaufman's three factors are replaced by Verbal and Performance factors for Papago and Navajo children. A culturally-learned basis for intellectual functioning among traditional children supports alternative assessment functions for traditional reservation lifestyle and for acculturation and entree into mainstream society. Performance measures, SOMPA, Piagetian and Luria-derived tasks may ultimately provide less biased intelligence estimates. Recent legislation outlines ethical practice although …

Urban Housing Policy Evaluation In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Tarek Ali Fadaak

Dissertations and Theses

The rise in wealth for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia led to an increase in demand for more and better housing. In response to this rising demand, and as part of an overall development policy, a housing 60a1 and several housing objectives were identified. To attain the goal and objectives, a formal housing policy was designed and authorized. It involved direct and indirect assistance to the private sector, a subsidized financing program for new housing construction, a serviced land program for the low income, and public housing. This thesis is an evaluation of the urban housing policy in the Kingdom …

Retirement Satisfaction And The Timing Of The Retirement Age: An Analysis Of Retirees And Older Workers From A Fortune 500 Firm, Donna Elaine Stuteville

Dissertations and Theses

This study focuses the effects of demographic characteristics, health status, income, work attitudes, and leisure activity involvements have on satisfaction in retirement and the retirement timing decision. The review of the literature revealed that no single variable alone is the predictor of retirement satisfaction and the timing of the retirement decision. Therefore, a conceptual model was developed to measure the two central research questions. The conceptual model is based on five categorical factors as the determinants of retirement satisfaction and timing. The five main factors in the model are: demographic characteristics, health status, income level, work attitudes and leisure activity …

Normative Data On The Auditory Memory Performance Of Three- And Four-Year Old Children As Measured By The Auditory Memory Test Package (Amtp), Patricia R. Davis

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to collect normative data on the auditory memory performance of three- and four-year old children as measured by the Auditory Memory Test Package (AMTP). Specifically, this investigation sought to answer one question: is the AMTP sensitive to age differences when administered to young children ages 3.0-4.11?

Stepfamily Adjustment: A Balance Theory Analysis Including The Noncustodial Parent As A Member Of The Family System, Margaret L. Fujita

Dissertations and Theses

This study developed a balance theory analysis of stepfamily relationships in order to understand family adjustment and empirically tested hypotheses derived from that analysis. Sentiment and unit relations between the stepparent, natural parent, and adolescent child, and between these stepfamily members and the nonresident (absent) natural parent were included in the analysis. The assumption of balance theory is that sentiment (affective) relations and unit relations (the perception of belonging together) tend toward a balanced state. If a balanced state does not exist, the imbalance will produce tension. The general hypothesis tested was that the degree of balance of the stepfamily …

Effective Acquisition Of Basic Skills: An Elementary Schools Program, Linda L. Terhark

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate and to determine the effectiveness of the Basic Skills Program. This was a program developed at Clackamas Elementary School that implemented many of the effective school characteristics along with analyzing low-achievement areas in the California Achievement Test and organizing an instructional program that would teach to those low areas. This study compared achievement test results from the Spring pf 1982 for grades four, five, and six (approximately 140 students) with achievement test results from the Spring of 1983. The treatment to improve low areas as determined by the California Achievement Test results …

Strong-Minded Woman Figures In A Time Of Crisis : Maria Stuart, Penthesilea, Sappho, Inger M. Olsen

Dissertations and Theses

The strong-minded woman as a character capable of genuine self-determination has not received nearly as much literary attention and study as the less psychologically and socially aware sublime woman, the innocent woman, and the femme fatale. Consequently, the strong-minded woman is only an occasional literary phenomenon and is absent entirely during some literary periods.

Thus the purpose of this thesis is to establish that the strong-minded woman exists as a literary figure, that she is a fully developed character capable of forming meaningful and even traditional relationships when allowed by circumstances. She is capable of relying on her own abilities …

Dance Therapy And Self-Concept Change In Psychiatric Patients, Cheryl Jeanne Hall

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated the effects of various forms of therapy (individual, occupational, and dance) on self-concept. Subjects were 29 psychiatric patients at Providence Medical Center who volunteered to participate in this study. The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS) was used to measure self-concept both at time of admission and prior to discharge. The data were analyzed in a step-wise multiple regression to determine which of the various forms of therapy are the best predictors of self-concept at second TSCS application. The results of the step-wise multiple regression did not support the hypothesis that exposure to dance therapy would be a significant …

Femininity And Self-Esteem In Professional Women, Shirley Ellen Harper

Dissertations and Theses

Research in sex-roles has found masculinity and androgyny to be correlated with self-esteem while femininity has a low or negative correlation with self-esteem. Much of the research in this area is based in studies of androgyny. Androgyny is the ability to respond in a feminine or masculine manner, depending on the situation rather than being limited to only feminine or masculine behavior because of sex-role stereotypes. In the research on self-esteem some studies have reported androgynous individuals measure high in self-esteem. Other studies have found that masculine characteristics contribute more to the self-esteem than androgynous characteristics. These results, taken together, …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet November 1983, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The November 1983 Monthly packet includes the November agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held October 1983.

Level Of Aspiration And The Type A Coronary-Prone Pattern In Children, Wendy L. Kliewer

Dissertations and Theses

Type A coronary-prone behavior has been recognized as a major risk factor for coronary heart disease. Characterized by extremes of achievement-striving, impatience aggression, and easily aroused hostility, this behavior pattern has been studied extensively in adults, but relatively few studies have examined the behavior pattern in children.

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine aspects of assessment of the Type A behavior pattern, goal-setting behaviors displayed by Type A and B children, and parents' goal-setting behaviors toward their offspring.

Derivation And Test Of Predictions Of A Discrete Latent State Model For Signed Number Addition Test Performance, Kentaro Yamamoto

Dissertations and Theses

This study is an investigation of the performance of a discrete latent state model devised by Paulson (1982) to account for signed-number arithmetic test data gathered by Birenbaum and Tatsuoka (1980). One hundred twenty nine students took a test which consists of sixteen item types with four parallel arithmetic items of each type. The present study utilizes the five addition item types of four items each; hence, there are four parallel subtests. Responses to the addition items can be analyzed in terms of two components: the sign component (is the sign correct?), and the absolute value component (is the size …

Report On Air Pollution Control Policies In The Portland Airshed, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

1983 Commencement Program, Commencement

Commencement Archives 1980-89

The program for the Portland State University 1983 Spring Commencement ceremony, held at Memorial Coliseum on June 12, 1983, in Portland, Oregon.

Opening statement by Gary Miranda, Poet-in-Residence, Reed College; opening remarks by Louis B. Perry, Oregon State System of Higher Education, and Mary Christine Bailey, Class of 1983.

Development Of An Mmpi Scale To Predict Therapeutic Response To Lithium Carbonate, Neal Allen Hayden

Dissertations and Theses

Common medications utilized in the treatment of psychosis include lithium carbonate and the major tranquilizers. The efficacy of lithium is well established in the treatment of manic-depressive patients exhibiting symptoms of mania. The major tranquilizers treat a broader range of psychotic disorders including schizophrenia.

In the treatment of manic-depressive illness, lithium produces normalization of affect with few side effects. However, since the interval between therapeutic and toxic dosages is narrow, lithium treatment must be closely monitored to avoid severe physical problems and even death. When a schizophrenic is incorrectly diagnosed as manic-depressive, and is treated with lithium, the patient does …

Rain, Eco-Net

RAIN: Journal of Appropriate Technology

Volume 9, Number 5

Inside: Let Them Eat Weeds; Real Security; Experimenting with Micro-hydro

RAIN began in October 1974 as a publication of ECO-NET, an environmental education network funded by the Hill Foundation and an Environmental Education grant. Its office was based in the Environmental Education Center at Portland State University. With a focus on the Pacific Northwest, particularly Oregon, RAIN originally described itself as a “bulletin board” with an “emphasis on environmental/energy related and communications kinds of information” and interested in “the evolutionary possibilities of inter-disciplinary connections.”

An Internal Review Of A Discipline: Journal Editors' Opinions Of Paradigm Development Within Speech Communication, Laurie A. Houghton

Dissertations and Theses

A review of the literature on paradigm development within academic fields revealed that researchers have drawn distinctions between disciplines with greater paradigm development (discussed as discipline-wide consensus) and disciplines with lesser paradigm development. Several of these investigations centered on paradigm development and evaluative criteria used by academic journal editors for judging scholarly work. The purpose of this study was to ascertain Speech Communication journal editors' opinions of paradigm development within their field.

A two-part survey was developed and mailed to eleven editors of the major Speech Communication journals. Data generated from the survey were analyzed using a descriptive methodology. Part …

Life Satisfaction Of Elderly Parents And Parent-Child Relationships In Old Age, Tehchou Yeh

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is designed to explore the nature of the relationship between elderly parents and their children and to investigate the association of that relationship with life satisfaction of the elderly parents. The examination of parents' life satisfaction is based on the activity theory of gerontology. The life satisfaction is measured by Adams's eighteen-item Life Satisfaction Index. The parent-child relationship is viewed from the standpoint of both the parents' expectations of their children and how the children fulfill these expectations. Filial discrepancies between parents' expectations and children's behavior are analyzed to fill a gap in the literature on behavioral and …

Career Supports And Career Mentors: An Analysis Of Their Prevalence And Their Relation To Career Success And Satisfaction Among A Group Of Women Lawyers, Sandra Lee Riley

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated three issues problematic to the state of knowledge on mentoring. These issues were: (a) lack of scientifically derived operational definitions in use in research on mentoring; (b) lack of agreement about how common mentoring is; and (c) lack of agreement about whether or not alternate forms of career support are more efficient than mentoring. The information collected to address each of these issues was acquired in two phases: a literature survey followed by a sample survey. The literature survey addressed the first issue. It resulted in the formulation of an operational definition of mentoring which was based …

The Correlation Between Expressive Language Delay In Children And Their Motor Abilities, Gail G. Cunningham

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the present study was to determine the correlation between expressive language delay in children and their gross and fine motor skills. Twenty children five years through six years, eleven months with a diagnosed expressive language delay, were selected to participate in the study. Each was screened on the basis of normal hearing, receptive vocabulary skills, motor functioning, and an expressive language delay of one year or more. After screening procedures, each child was administered the Preschool Language Scale-PLS (Zimmerman, et al., 1969) and the short form of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-BOMP (Bruininks, 1978). …

Rain, Eco-Net

RAIN: Journal of Appropriate Technology

Volume 9, Number 4

Inside: Development for Whom?; The Anatomy of Freedom; What If: Women and Future Technology

RAIN began in October 1974 as a publication of ECO-NET, an environmental education network funded by the Hill Foundation and an Environmental Education grant. Its office was based in the Environmental Education Center at Portland State University. With a focus on the Pacific Northwest, particularly Oregon, RAIN originally described itself as a “bulletin board” with an “emphasis on environmental/energy related and communications kinds of information” and interested in “the evolutionary possibilities of inter-disciplinary connections.”

Effect Of Tinnitus Maskers On Speech Discrimination Among Those Wearing Tinnitus Maskers, John Alexander Chonka

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect(s) of tinnitus maskers and tinnitus instruments on speech discrimination utilizing a population of subjects who currently have tinnitus and are presently wearing these devices. The hypothesis which guided this investigation states that there is no difference between discrimination scores with and without tinnitus maskers. In an attempt to test this hypothesis, speech discrimination scores were obtained from 26 listeners both in quiet and in the presence of cafeteria noise, with and without use of their tinnitus maskers.

Teaching Visual Awareness To General Education Students, Larry Edward Gross

Dissertations and Theses

The goal of this thesis was to present a teaching method which would demonstrate increased visual awareness in general education college students. The particular approach presented for that purpose was also designed to be of potential benefit to students' total educational experience. To that end sane conditions and specific research were introduced as necessary considerations for the teaching approach and for the role of art education as it pertains to the thesis goal.

Portland State Perspective; Winter 1983, Portland State University

Portland State Perspective

A quarterly alumni newsletter. In this issue: a report on PSU's Center for Urban Studies impact on the city's growth; an interview with Nancy Edwards, a PSU alumn bringing business and social services together; and small businesses get PSU's help