Digital Commons Network^™

Changing The Custody Of Children Whose Parents Have Been Divorced: A General View Of The Process, Dorothy E. Bateman

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this project was to obtain a preliminary description, through study of the legal files, of that group of persons who appear before the Court of Domestic Relations for a reconsideration of the custody decision made initially, at the time of divorce. A sample of 92 cases heard in Multnomah County in 1965 was obtained.

A survey of the literature revealed that much of what has been written on the subject of divorce and custody is primarily from a statistical or legalistic standpoint and very little bears directly on the granting or obtaining of custody or the problems …

Factors In Evaluation Of Student Performance In A Graduate School Of Social Work, Sharon J. Copeland, Gerald E. Warner

Dissertations and Theses

This study refined the criteria for the measurement of graduate student performance in a school of social work.

By using present criteria from other studies and general student performance criteria from school brochures a questionnaire was constructed. This questionnaire was administered to a. sample of students, faculty and field instructors from Portland State University School of Social Work. The data from the completed questionnaires were then processed by computer to determine the means, standard deviations of the items, and the correlations between items and between raters.

Through the computed correlations, means, and standard deviations the acceptability and reliability of the …

A Follow-Up Study Of Families With Children Labeled Retarded, Connie Finley

Dissertations and Theses

The research problem undertaken was to study how effective the University of Oregon Medical School--Crippled Children's Division Clinic is by determining how well patients followed through on Clinic recommendations. Three research hypotheses were posed for testing.

1. There is a difference between income and the following of Clinic recommendations.
2. There is a difference between educational levels of fathers and mothers and the following of Clinic recommendations.
3. There is a difference in the level of I.Q. of patients and the following of Clinic recommendations.

A random sample of 100 cases was selected from the patients who had been through the Clinic prior …

Post-Divorce Visitation Of Minor Children: An Exploratory Study, Barbara Griffith

Dissertations and Theses

ORS 107.100 gives the court broad powers to secure the "best interests" of minor children as third parties to a divorce. Further, the Oregon Supreme Court has ruled in Tingen vs. Tingen that the best interests of a minor child involve a complex constellation of factors pertaining to the parents, the environment, and the adjustment of the child. It has been assumed in case law that "reasonable visitation" of the minor child by the non-custodial parent is usually in the best interests of the child and is a right" of the non-custodial parent.

Most judges order reasonable visitation as part …

A Study Of Eighty-One Sexual Offenders At Oregon State Hospital, Eugene Fletcher Booth

Dissertations and Theses

This project was conceived at the Psychiatric Security Unit of Oregon State Hospital in 1968-69. The purpose of the study-was to develop a fund of knowledge concerning the Oregon "sexually dangerous" and to emphasize those elements of the subject which require more sophisticated research. It was undertaken with the hope that the information provided would prove of value to the professional and layman in their understanding of sexual offenses against children. The study plan, designed around an investigation of sexual offender characteristics, was submitted to the administrator of Oregon State Hospital, and permission was granted to examine clinical histories of …

A Study Of The Effects Of Professional Authority On The Attitude Change Of High School Sophomores, Sandra Lee Kelley, Lane Alan Myers

Dissertations and Theses

This research project was designed to test, directly, the effects of perceived professional authority on producing attitude change among high school sophomores. The study utilized a social psychological theoretical orientation to examine a specific aspect of socially mediated information, namely, persuasive communication as it is influenced by the source or communicator of the persuasive message, “Authority, as it has been defined in this study, includes two factors: (1) the prestige and (2) the credibility of the source. The two professions selected were that of a physician and a social worker. It was expected that the physician, by virtue of his …

The Sex Offender In Oregon : Fact And Fallacy, Richard G. Storch, Virginia T. Peterson

Dissertations and Theses

The principal objective of this study was to examine the proposition, advanced by several authorities, that the views, attitudes and beliefs of the public concerning the sex offender and his offense are characterized by fallacy, stereotype and misconception. That the approach to the problem of the sex offense has been and continues to be primarily legislative is a fact that can be demonstrated; and that legislation reflects and is influenced by public attitudes and beliefs is a premise that can be supported. Hence the accuracy or inaccuracy of these public attitudes and beliefs will have a bearing on the legislation …

Women In Professions And Status Inconsistency, Miriam Grace Mcclure

Dissertations and Theses

The general concern of this thesis is with the position of women in the United States. Specifically, the focus is on women in the professions. The theoretical perspective is taken from Everett C. Hughes’ 1945 discussion of “Dilemmas and Contradictions of Status.” Hughes maintained that when an incumbent of a status holds an unexpected auxiliary characteristic he is in a dilemma because others do not know how to respond to the contradictory stimuli. Others’ responses tend to reflect unfavorably back on the individual’s self-image and he seeks to avoid reactions from others by adopting behavior to reduce the impact of …

Factors In Assessing Effectiveness Of Orientation Programs For Public Welfare Caseworkers, Clyde Ferguson

Dissertations and Theses

A study done in 1968-1969 by students at Portland State University School of Social Work at the request of the Oregon State Public Welfare Commission Staff Development Division sought to devise an instrument for assessing the effectiveness of teaching the casework principles of Felix P. Biestek to casework trainees in the public welfare's orientation program. The test instrument developed was found to have low, but acceptable, internal reliability.

Building on the previous year's work, this 1969-1970 study sought to determine the validity of the test instrument by relating test scores to two measures of job performance, namely the latest supervisory …

Attitudes Of Youth Toward Social Institutions: A Comparative Study, Connie Mcgonigle, James F. Bakke

Dissertations and Theses

In August, 1968, after a series of confrontations in the city parks between young dissidents and the police, the Mayor of Portland called upon the Metropolitan Youth Commission to form a special study committee to explore the areas of conflict and to recommend ways in which municipal government might constructively respond to the young people in the community. The independent research project on the alienation of youth, the results of which are reported here, was an outgrowth of the interest generated by the request from the Office of the Mayor. Under the auspices of the Metropolitan Youth Commission (MYC), a …

A Survey Of Work Facilities And Rehabilitation Services Available To The Handicapped In The United States, Morgan William Dickerson

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this paper is to survey the work facilities and rehabilitative services available to the handicapped person in the United States. Information for this paper was obtained from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Goodwill Industries of Oregon, library sources and the Department of vocational Rehabilitation for many of the fifty states … The area of interest for this paper is that of rehabilitation. By the term rehabilitation is meant, "To return to an individual the ability to function as he did before becoming handicapped by physical or mental illness, or in the case of those born …

Verbal Accessibility And Authoritarian Family Ideology: A Study Of 50 Graduate Social Work Students And Their Spouses, Linda Louise Metz

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is the fourth in a series of empirical investigations concerned with symbolic interaction in marriage. Its basic assumption is that personal predispositions of marital partners as well as the social context of their marriage influences marital intimacy particularly the partner's readiness to communicate verbally with each other about important attitudes and feelings.

Fifty married graduate students attending Portland State University School of Social Work and their spouses comprised the sample. The subjects responded to three instruments: (1) a personality scale (Authoritarian Family Ideology – AFI) developed by Jane Loevinger, (2) a measure of verbal accessibility (VA), and (3) …

Evaluation Of The Role Of Neighborhood Health Coordinators In A Comprehensive Neighborhood Health Services Project, Sharron Faye Easley

Dissertations and Theses

This study evaluates the role of the Neighborhood Health Coordinators (NHC's) within Kaiser Foundation's Comprehensive Neighborhood Health Services (CNHS) Project. This project was established in September 1967, under the provisions of the 1966 amendments to the Economic Opportunity Act, to provide and make readily available comprehensive medical care to low-income persons. In compliance with the stipulations of this Act, persons who reside in target areas, designated as depressed neighborhoods, were hired to serve as NHC's. These indigenous non-professionals serve as links or "gatekeepers" between the low-income persons enrolled in this program, and the Kaiser medical care facilities which include the …

An Examination Of Disengagement Among Elderly People In A Low Income Public Housing Facility, Linda Bennion, Marion Paradis, Sheila Petrie

Dissertations and Theses

This project studied the consequences of disengagement among elderly people and examined the respondent's opinions about society's responsibility to the aged.

The study population was limited to 48 elderly people, equally divided between men and women, married and unmarried; residing in Northwest Tower, a high-rise public housing facility.

The possible consequences of disengagement which were studied included isolation, depression, frustration, despair, factors preventing satisfaction with present circumstances, desired activities in relation to available activities, and energy and desire relative to activity and responsibility. Finally, opinions were sought about society's responsibility to the elderly.

Six general hypotheses guided the development of …

Judging Development And Sexual Identity In Children's Art, Susan Lathrop Dietsche

Dissertations and Theses

This study identified selected characteristics of sexual identity and artistic development using 481 pictures from a collection of 1,008 pictures drawn by first through fourth grade males and females. The pictures were collected by the E. C. Brown Trust Foundation to study children's concepts of reproduction.

Three general hypotheses were developed: I. Sex differences are observable in children's art; II. There are observable differences in artistic development as grade level changes; III. Observations by social workers of content in children's art are reliable. From a search of the literature, certain variables were identified, including content, use of color, and aspects …

An Analysis Of Children's Drawings Of Policemen, Jess A. Armas, Linda L. Simonitch

Dissertations and Theses

The overall objectives of this study had a dual focus. One was to determine the attitudes of children toward police from projective drawings. The second utilized the experience of performing the first objective to assess the possible adaptation and use of projective techniques in social work. One hundred and twenty-nine children from three different Portland public schools were given the topic “I met a policeman in my neighborhood” and asked to draw a picture. Second graders in an upper white socioeconomic school, a lower white socioeconomic school, and a school in a lower socioeconomic Negro area were compared. It was …

The Complaint Process In Protective Services For Children, William L. Carey

Dissertations and Theses

This is a descriptive study of the community process by which a complaint is made to a protective service agency. It is by this process that deviant child care is first identified and the decision to take action is made. The study develops a typology of the complaint process and identifies seven elements as significant in complaints that reach community agencies. The elements were: the complaint situation, the precipitating events that brought the complaint situation to the attention of someone outside the nuclear family, the relationship between the complainant and family, the complainant's motivation for responding to the complaint situation, …

Some Interrelationships Between A Community Work And Training Program And Selected Indices Of Family Functioning, Audrey K. Arnst

Dissertations and Theses

This was an exploratory study of some of the relationships between a Community Work and Training Program and the family functioning of certain participants in that program. The CWT projects studied were those operated by the Public Welfare Departments of Clackamas and Marion Counties, Oregon during the three-year span between January 1, 1965 and December 31, 1967.

Participants' names were randomly selected from the records of the two welfare offices and the respondents interviewed during the summer of 1968. A questionnaire was developed which consisted of twenty primarily open-ended questions and this was administered to a total of sixty couples. …

Measuring Trainee Comprehension Of Casework Relationship In A Public Welfare Orientation Program, Margaret Berweger

Dissertations and Theses

This study was undertaken as a first step in measuring effectiveness of the Oregon State Public Welfare Orientation Center program in teaching principles of the casework relationship as conceptualized by Felix P. Biestek. This anticipated the development of a reasonably reliable instrument, improvement and validation of which would be undertaken in a subsequent study.

The population tested was made up of male and female college graduates, newly hired by the State, who were then entering a four week orientation program for caseworkers. Their education and experience varied, but all had passed the State Civil Service examination for this position.

Learning …

Value Orientation In Relation To Emphasis In The Process Of Diagnosing The Family In State Of Crisis, Bradford Lynn Everson

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this project was to explore for the possible existence of value orientations as factors operative in the social work judgment process. The study first tested for differences in value orientation between social workers. The extent to which these value orientations dominate the pre-disposing attitudes of the social worker was to be determined for the case of diagnosis of families in crisis. Utilized as a test for value orientation were five constructs developed by Charles Morris. These constructs as characterized by their titles were: A. Social Restraint and Self-Control; B. Enjoyment in Action; C. Withdrawal and Self-Sufficiency; D. …

Selected Experiences Of Boys And Girls Entering The Community Of Ketchikan, Alaska From Correctional Schools, Marian L. Swain

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore differences in self-reported experiences of fifteen boys and girls who were released from correctional schools from June 24, 1965, to May 16, 1967, into the community of Ketchikan, Alaska, from a control group of nineteen who had not been in correctional institutions, who were matched by sex, age and race. Between the dates of July 16, 1967, to September 13, 1967, I interviewed and administered a questionnaire to each respondent in both groups. The respondents, ranging in age from 14 years to 20 years, were seen in the welfare office, the person's …

Selected Factors In Assessment Of A Group Designated As School Malperformers, Janet E. Bullock, Ronald M. Marshall, E. Frank Oliver, Shizuko H. Sakai

Dissertations and Theses

This project was an exploratory study of malperformance among 60 children of the seventh grade of Creston Elementary School, Portland, Oregon. This class was described as an unusually disruptive group of students and was considered by the school as one of the most troublesome in the school's history. The study focused on the concept of malperformance itself and the reliability of its assessment. The major hypotheses were these: A. Teachers are consistent among themselves in how they define malperformance and in whom they designate as malperformers. B. Teachers' and students' estimation of the students' level of performance in the dimensions …

Child Care Arrangements In Affluence And Poverty, Josephine Jeannette Gurrola

Dissertations and Theses

A study of the attitudes of 40 mothers toward their child care arrangements tested hypotheses concerning the conditions of economic and child care necessity under which mothers of two socio-economic groups would be satisfied with their arrangements. It was hypothesized that the satisfaction with an arrangement would be associated inversely with economic necessity and child care necessity. A prediction was also made that the mothers' expressive satisfactions with the child care arrangements (benefits to the child and relationship to the sitter) would only be realized after the instrumental necessities of convenience and dependability of the arrangement were met.

Interest in …

Assessment Of Subjective Experiences Of Boys Entering The Community From A Correctional School, Thomas W. Dejardin

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore, classify, and evaluate the personal experiences of juvenile offenders following release from a state training school.

During a two month period beginning in the fall of 1967, a group of twenty-three releasees from the MacLaren School for Boys in Woodburn, Oregon were interviewed on a weekly basis in the Portland metropolitan area. The boys, ranging in age from thirteen to seventeen were contacted in their homes, schools, and other settings to learn of positive, negative, and critical experiences encountered in the community.

Open ended questions based upon a twenty- seven item schedule …

Verbal Accessibility Between Marital Partners As Studied In A Court Of Domestic Relations, Patricia Walker

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated the concept of verbal accessibility in marriage. It is an example of the interactional approach to the study of marriage, which is concerned with the on-going socialization process in marriage. Verbal communication is one component of the socialization process and also of problem solving in marriage.

Interpersonal communication is influenced by many variables--personality, culture and social situation. Polansky (1965) conceptualized verbal accessibility as the degree of readiness to communicate verbally and to participate in communication about determinant attitudes. Determinant attitudes are those which have the most far reaching influence on other attitudes and on behavior.

One of …

A Comparison Of Characteristics Of Terminated Afdc Cases With Cases Remaining Active From The June 1966 Afdc Load In Linn County, Oregon, William Everett Lowther

Dissertations and Theses

A study of the characteristics of AFDC cases active in Linn County, Oregon in June 1966 and of the difference in characteristics between those cases closed by September 1, 1967, and those cases remaining active on that date. The source of data was the case records of the Linn County Department of Public Welfare. There were 212 cases in the study with 200 suitable for full analysis.

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that there is a difference in selected characteristics between cases remaining active and cases that close. Case records were read and then characteristics …

Traits Associated With Choosing Social Work As A Career, Helen Ellsworth

Dissertations and Theses

This was a study of traits associated with the choice of social work as a career. Two samples of people from the metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon, who had shown an interest in social work, were studied, together with the factors that influenced this interest. The traits and factors considered were substantially those examined by Arnulf M. Pins in Who Chooses Social Work, When and Why?

Traits measured by the Pins study of individuals who had gone on to graduate education in social work were held indicative of individuals most likely to become professional social workers. The Pins' questionnaire was …

The Use Of Self-Determination And Confidentiality In Casework And Group Work Practice: An Exploratory Study, George A. Fisher, James M. Hanson, Frances Peterson, Helen Phillips

Dissertations and Theses

This study is the seventh in a series begun in 1957 to relate social work theory to general systems theory. The purpose of this study was to assess, through the judgment of professional social workers, the use of the two concepts, self-determination and confidentiality, in casework and social group work situations. The two concepts were operationalized by construction of five practice principles for each concept. An instrument was developed in which a critical hypothetical situation exemplified each principle for both methods with a forced choice of four actions evidencing the degree of self-determination and confidentiality. Forty randomly selected trained social …

Social Exchange In Private Family Day Care Arrangements, Gerald Wesley Perry

Dissertations and Theses

A study of social exchange between working mothers and their sitters was based on a sample of terminated family day care arrangements in Portland, Oregon (1966-67). The sample, provided by the Multnomah County Public Welfare Commission and the Day Care Exchange Project of northwest Portland consisted of the arrangements of 27 mothers and 23 sitters.

Review of the literature on family day care revealed a paucity of research on the relationship between mothers and sitters in such arrangements. The purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that continuity of a family day care arrangement is a function of …

A Scale Of Verbal Accessibility In Marriage, Barbara F. Kresse

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this project was to develop a tool to clarify one concept of verbal interaction in marriage. This concept, Verbal Accessibility, was developed by Norman Polansky and defined as the degree of readiness of the individual to communicate verbally and to participate in communication about his determinant attitudes. Verbal Accessibility is dependent on two variables: l) the enduring characteristics of the individual, and 2) the release of inhibiting factors in a given situation.

In order to facilitate the use of this concept in treatment, a scale was needed to measure Verbal Accessibility of both the person and of …