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Attitudes Of Income Maintenance Line Workers In The State Of Oregon About The Causes And Amelioration Of Poverty, Gene Lamar Stutzman

Dissertations and Theses

It has been of some interest to the profession of social work that eligible persons underutilize or fail to use social services and benefits to which they are legally entitled. A number of different reasons have been cited in the social work literature and otherwise generally accepted within the ranks of the social work profession as possible or probable causes of underutilization or lack of use. The variety of reasons includes client lack of knowledge about programs, lack of motivation on the part of eligible clients to apply for benefits and services, client unawareness about legal recourse in securing services, …

Development And Use Of A Phonological Recoding Strategy For A Short-Term Memory Task By Normal And Mentally Retarded Subjects, Mary Jo Bartels

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the presence or absence of a phonological recoding strategy in the mentally retarded population by using a memory matching exercise with visual stimuli. Pictures of common objects were divided into eight pictures with names that sound alike (homophonous) and eight with names that do not sound alike (non-homophonous). The null hypothesis tested was:

No statistically significant difference will be found between mentally retarded and normal subjects in the development and use of a phonological recoding strategy for a short-term memory task, when the subjects are matched for receptive vocabulary age.

A Comparison Between A Clinical Sample Of Parents And Non-Parents, As Reflected By Their Scores On The Mmpi, Thomas Kearney, Casey Wegner

Dissertations and Theses

The area of childlessness, particularly voluntary childlessness, has been virtually ignored by most researchers. Pohlman claims to have been unable to find research which supports the popular idea that intentionally childless husbands and wives tend to be emotionally disturbed. However, he does note that he was able to find numerous statements from medical and social science publications which in various ways imply that the deliberately childless are usually maladjusted.

Paraprofessionals In Oregon: An Exploratory Study Of The Status Of Associate Degree Human Service Workers, Richard William Hunter

Dissertations and Theses

The concern in human services as to how to provide skilled manpower of sufficient training and in sufficient numbers to meet public demand has been a source of experimentation and controversy over the past decade. In recent years the rapid growth of social and mental health services has provided a multitude of programs and services for both the poor and non-poor. Traditional services of social welfare -- health care, education, housing and employment -- have been increasingly supplemented by new forms of services (e.g., community organization, youth work, recreation, and personal growth therapy), thus vastly expanding the numbers of actual …

Assertion Training Of Nursing Home Residents, Roberta Saul

Dissertations and Theses

The National Organization for Women use assertion training as a part of its strategy to overcome the oppression of women in our society. Certainly another group of people who suffer from oppression are the elderly. When a person in our society reaches age 65, he or she may suddenly be perceived as of decreased worth and may face forced retirement and quite often may have to adjust to a lifestyle of poverty. If an elderly person's physical health begins to wane, a nursing home may suddenly become the day to day environment he or she must accept.

The therapists in …

Social Control Theory And Delinquency, Michael David Wiatrowski

Dissertations and Theses

The concept of social control has been used in sociology since the foundations of the discipline were laid almost a hundred years ago. At the turn of the century social control developed two distinct orientations. The concept has referred to the process of socialization or how individual behavior is regulated in primary group relations, and alternatively, to how the large macrosocial institutions such as education, religion, law and the political system maintain order in society.

Early research in social control focused on the development of inventories of societal means of social control. Changing standards of science, however, forced an abandonment …

A Study To Determine If Service Workers Want Additional Training Regarding Black Issues, Patricia Dickerson, Diane S. Whalen

Dissertations and Theses

The study is based upon five research questions which seek to determine service workers’ perceptions of black life experiences, the causes of black clients’ problems, and possible ways to alleviate these problems. Service workers are asked if present modes of intervention are effective in working with black clients. They are further asked if training regarding black issues would help facilitate their working with black clients, and if so, what areas of training would be most useful.

The researchers could have chosen any from among several client groups for this project. It was decided to limit the study to one group, …

Memory For Crossed And Nested Classifications, John Ernest Garwood

Dissertations and Theses

Memory for crossed and nested classifications was investigated. Two experimental groups were exposed to stimuli which could be organized by both a crossed and nested classification. The stimuli consisted of nine drawings in a 3 x 3 matrix. Each drawing is characterized by attributes on five dimensions. The nested classification requires four dimensions to organize the nine drawings, while the crossed classification requires two dimensions. Of the five dimensions, three are unique to the nested classification, one is unique to the crossed classification, and one is common to both classifications. Subjects were presented the stimuli so that either the crossed …

The Resilience Of The Child As A Factor In Successful Adjustment To Permanent Placement, Lani Maureen Mcdonald

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores the hypothesis that constitutional factors were significant in mediating their successful adjustment. The adjustment of children who in the past would have been viewed as permanently scarred and unable to adjust has provided researchers with an idiosyncratic situation that has also been found in other studies: children have adjusted despite odds against it and children considered to have incurred minimal trauma have had difficulty adjusting.

A Comparative Study Of The Resettlement Status Of Indochinese Refugees In Portland, Rosalynn R. Ringor, Chareundi Van-Si, Steven Hernandez

Dissertations and Theses

This study sought to explore the resettlement of Indochinese refugees to their new life in Portland, Oregon. Three basic areas were under consideration. The first area dealt with demographic data: who are the refugees and what are their pasts? The second area focused on aspects of successful resettlement: what do refugees seek in order to consider themselves successfully resettled, and how do their ideas of successful resettlement collate with their present state of resettlement? The third area dealt with the effectiveness of resettlement programs: how have various assistance programs been helpful to the refugees, and are the refugees aware of …

Indications Of Feminist Influence On Contemporary Social Work Practice, Clara Elizabeth Miller

Dissertations and Theses

It is criticism of traditional theory and methods, and the advocacy of new approaches that feminists have tried to present to social workers and to other professionals in mental health and other social services. The feminist goal has been to convince social workers and others to modify their beliefs and practice in order to be more helpful (as the feminists believe) to women. In this study of the beliefs and practice of social workers in Oregon, I attempt to find out to what extent, ten years after the "rebirth of feminism," they have adopted feminist beliefs and recommendations for practice.

An Explorative Study Of Parents' Ability To Predict Representative Feelings Of Their Children, Kathleen Marie Koudele

Dissertations and Theses

This is a study of thirty fifth-grade children and their parents to examine how accurately parents can predict the feeling reactions of their children in various situations. This focus on parent-child interactions regarding feelings has several implications for the field of Social Work.

Native American Social Work Symposium : An Evaluation, Lou Stone

Dissertations and Theses

The inconsistencies of the state and federal policy toward Native populations and additionally those inconsistencies within the two governments themselves, require the maintenance of Indian and Alaskan Native organizations with sophisticated mechanisms developed to advocate “reforms” in Indian services to meet unique Indian needs.

Indian and Alaskan Native social workers invariably find themselves at the confluence of client service provision and surviving the extension of policies available to them from resource allocators for the purpose of service provision. In order to approach this dilemma, the Native American Social Work Symposium, held in May of 1977, convened on the basis of …

A Survey Of Reading-Readiness Skills And Their Application To The Late Reader, Gail E. Robbins

Dissertations and Theses

Reading readiness is a subject that concerns reading teachers and educators. Inadequate readiness training may cause some students to become late readers, who can be identified as students who score below their age and grade level on a standardized reading test. It is important to define reading readiness and examine the component skills and factors in order to help late readers. This examination was conducted by a study of reading-readiness literature. The reading-readiness skills include auditory discrimination, visual and visual-motor discrimination, development of language, concept formation, and reasoning skills. Readiness factors include fixed factors, social, and emotional factors. Fixed factors …

Organizational Decision Making And Participation In An Interorganizational Service Network, Vinod Valji Chohan

Dissertations and Theses

This study attempts to identify the variables associated with an organization's decision to participate in an interorganizational service network. The survev of literature on the subject supported the hypothesis that structural variables of complexity, formalization, and centralization and a psychological variable, the awareness of organizational interdependency, are associated with the decision to participate. Interorganizational participation was operationally defined in terms of various behavioral components: an organization's involvement with the coordinating agency, client referrals to and from other organizations and to and from the coordinating agency, and information exchanged with other organizations and with the coordinating agency. Using this framework, testable …

A Study Of The Incidence Of Divorce, Religious Conflict, And Need And Potential Utilization Of Marital/Family Services Among Seventh-Day Adventist Couples In The North Pacific Union Conference, Fern M. Ringering

Dissertations and Theses

The following study is designed to look at one religious group and assess some of the social service needs as seen by the study participants.

Since social services cover such a broad spectrum, it was decided to limit the study to marital counseling needs and related issues as seen by individual church members.

Personality, Counseling And The Cancer Patient, Janet March, Ann Maxwell

Dissertations and Theses

The researchers in this study are concerned about what factors are involved in determining who actually does seek out adjunctive counseling for help in dealing with their diagnosis. In particular, personality factors of those who have cancer are examined. The more known about what motivates a patient to seek counseling, the easier it will be to develop rehabilitation and supportive programs to meet the needs of cancer patients. Hence, sanction for a research project such as this lies in the fact that the question of motivation regarding adjunctive counseling has not been dealt with specifically in the past.

Parental Perceptions Of Behavioral Changes In Children Following Divorce, Kenneth W. Bork

Dissertations and Theses

This research was undertaken primarily to describe the parental perceptions of the effects of divorce upon the children age eighteen or younger of the first married couples filing for divorce in Clackamas County, Oregon during 1975.

Description And Analysis Of The Public Guardian And Conservator Program In Multnomah County, Oregon, Dianne Wyers

Dissertations and Theses

The law and the public programs designed to implement the intent of the law should serve as a model for the way in which needs are met in our society. With this view in mind, a study of the Public Guardian and Conservator program has been undertaken.

This study is the first written description of a young program designed to offer unique services to legally incapacitated persons. Public guardianship and conservatorship evolved from an early notion that a guarantee of rights is a public as well as a private responsibility. The question of the extent of public responsibility required as …

A Validation Study Of The Family Environment Scale: Family Incongruence Score, Linda Joanne Neale

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated the validity of the family incongruence score, a statistic which quantifies the discrepancies between family members' perceptions of their family system using answers given on the Family Environment Scale. Based on findings concerning incongruence in other environments, it was hypothesized that high family incongruence scores would be associated with more problems in the family system.

Human Services Aa Degree Programs, Ken Price

Dissertations and Theses

There are two major purposes of this study. One purpose is to provide faculty, administrators, and advisory committees of the Human Services program at Clackamas Community College (CCC) with information for use in recruitment and curriculum planning. The other purpose is to fulfill practicum credit requirements of the Master of Social Work program at Portland State University.

The four chapters of this practicum cover background information about Associate of Arts (AA) programs and CCC, the review of the literature, the empirical research, and implications of the study for the CCC Human Services Department.

Outcome Evaluation Of Medical Care Utilizing Goal Attainment Scaling, Bonnie G. Little

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose for this study was to develop guidelines for the implementation of Goal Attainment Sealing (a mental health measurement technique) in the medical care setting. As a graduate student of social work, I have become involved in the delivery of medical care and am interested in the dynamics of psycho-social variables as they affect the structure, delivery, and outcome of medical services.

The Relationship Of Weight Loss To Self Concept In The Mentally Retarded Adult, Pauline Bunting Wall

Dissertations and Theses

The major part of this study was a treatment program designed to motivate mentally retarded adults to lose weight within a small group setting. Subjects were tested pre- and posttreatment on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale to ascertain any improvement in self-esteem. A 50-question diet quiz was constructed by the experimenters and administered pre- and posttreatment to find out if the subjects would improve their knowledge of health and nutrition through the study.

The Threat Index And Two Forms Of Resistance To The Concept Of Death, Henry E. Miller Jr.

Dissertations and Theses

Many investigators of death attitudes have emphasized the limitation of self-report measures of the fear of death in that responses are often unreal and highly questionable due to defenses and ego maneuvers. The Self-Administered Threat Index (SATI) introduced by Rainey and Epting (1977) appears to meet most criticisms of other investigators.

The present study was a partial replication of the Golding, et al. (1966) study with the SATI replacing the Sarnoff Fear of Death Scale. Forty-six introductory psychology students, both males and females, performed a tachistoscopic recognition task, completed the SATI and the Semantic Differential and were administered a brief …

Analysis Of The Two Word Stage Of Language Development: An Ideographic Study, Lou Ann Mccoy

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this longitudinal, ideographic clinical research project was to analyze a corpus of expressive language emitted by a child at the two word stage of language development via grammatico-semantic relationships (Brown, 1973) and via Developmental Sentence Analysis (Lee, 1974).

The Effects Of Prolonged Alcohol Use On Heart Rate During A Submaximal Workload And Other Selected Parameters, Gayle Macdonald

Dissertations and Theses

This study dealt with the effect on various athletic parameters, of small alcoholic dosages (.2cc of 95% alcohol per lb. of body weight, consumed nightly over a period of ten days. Adult, male athletes (ten runners and one swimmer with a mean age of 31 (SD±3.9)) who trained regularly were used as subjects. The subjects performed a battery of five tests: pull-ups, jump reach, reaction time, hand grip strength, and six minute bicycle ergometer test (1206 kpm). Heart rate response during the first and second minutes and during the fifth and sixth minutes were used as indicators of physiological response …

Involuntarily And Voluntarily Committed Persons Compared Using Factor And Discriminant Function Analysis, Cheryl Marie Marrow

Dissertations and Theses

A comparison of the voluntary and involuntary patients at Dammasch State Hospital, Wilsonville, Oregon. A representative sample of cases over time, were chosen for the year 1976, 72 voluntary and 72 involuntary patients. One-hundred and twelve variables were coded onto sheets for each patient. The variables concerned marital status, job history, history of violent acts, present living situations and relationships, as well as drug history and diagnosis and treatment in the hospital. The data were coded onto cards and a computer analysis was done using Factor and Discriminant Function Analysis. It was hypothesized the populations of persons voluntarily admitted and …

Measurement Of Ambiguity Tolerance (Mat-50): Further Construct Validation, Burl Mostul

Dissertations and Theses

Ambiguity tolerance is a personality variable in its own right, often associated with authoritarianism yet remaining separate from it.

Ambiguity intolerance is defined as the tendency to perceive and interpret information that is marked by vague, fragmented, incomplete, inconsistent, contradictory, or unclear meaning as actual or potential sources of psychological threat. Ambiguity tolerance is defined as the tendency to perceive ambiguous situations as challenging and desirable.

Efforts to measure ambiguity tolerance have met with varied success, however, it was not until Norton (1975) developed the Measurement of Ambiguity Tolerance (MAT-50) that accurate measurement became a possibility. The present study presents …

Landscape Painting In The Secondary Classroom, Margaret Shirley

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis attempts to demonstrate an approach to secondary art education which will emphasize the student's own experience as the basis of his art work. Furthermore, the students' learning activities are given a broader context by the inclusion of material from the history of art within the framework of the studio course. Such an integrated approach can give meaningful insight to the adolescent as he deals with experience in a visual form.

This orientation to art education has evolved through the writer's own teaching experience and from reading the works of art educators. In preparation for the thesis, I researched …

Educational, Sociocultural, And Phonological Obstacles For The Japanese Learner Of English, David Howard Waterbury

Dissertations and Theses

Every Japanese high school student studies English for at least six years. However, the results of this study, especially in speaking, are poor. In the present study, educational, sociocultural, and linguistic obstacles to learning for the Japanese student are considered.

An educational system oriented toward passing college and university entrance examinations has distorted English curriculum. Furthermore, English teachers in Japan lack proficiency in the language. The teaching staffs and materials of language schools are poorly regulated.

Concern with relative status, group identification, and loss of face acts as a deterrent to learning. For many learners the wrong type of motivation …