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The Psychometric Assessment Of Job Satisfaction And Its Relation To Stress In The Workplace, Timothy Douglas Hill

Digitized Theses

The purpose of this dissertation was threefold: (a) to review the current status of the job satisfaction construct, (b) to evaluate how well modern scale development guidelines can produce a satisfaction measure that will be reliable and valid, and (c) to investigate the relationships among satisfaction, stress, and other organizational outcomes.;The first chapter contains three sections. The first is a historical review. The second focuses on measurement concerns from the review. The third section reviews the shortcomings of the literature and how some of these shortcomings might be overcome by considering job satisfaction from a psychometric perspective.;The second chapter outlines …

Communication In Marital Dyads: Implications For Interactional Approaches To Depression, Debra Lynn Kowalik

Digitized Theses

The present investigation examined the nature of the relationships among marital interaction, marital distress and depression. Forty-six couples served as subjects, comprising the following five groups: ten maritally distressed, depressed psychiatric out-patients and their spouses, seven maritally distressed and seven maritally nondistressed, nondepressed psychiatric out-patients and their spouses, and 22 nondepressed, nonpsychiatric couples from the community, ten of whom were maritally distressed and twelve maritally nondistressed. The behavior of both spouses was assessed, using both self-report and behavioral measures of marital communication, gathered from multiple perspectives (self, spouse, observer). Measures were taken once early in treatment and again, two months …

Analyzing The Organization Of Animal Behavior: The Application Of Nonsymmetric Multidimensional Scaling Techniques, Linda M. Sorensen

Digitized Theses

Several multidimensional quantitative approaches have been applied to the analysis of the organization of behavior. These include chi square, lag sequence analysis, and non-symmetric multidimensional scaling techniques. Transition matrices are generally asymmetric and this is a problematic feature for the first two techniques noted above. Hence is is argued that non-symmetric multidimensional scaling (MDS) techniques are the most appropriate for the analysis of such data sets.;To illustrate these three techniques and to evaluate non-symmetric MDS as a valuable new tool which has been underutilized by ethologists, observational data were collected in a focal animal study of two members of a …

Procedures Affecting The Development, Maintenance And Loss Of Tolerance To Amphetamine-Anorexia And Their Effects On Haloperidol-Catalepsy, Angela Mary Streather

Digitized Theses

In Experiment 1 the effect of food-deprivation on the development of tolerance to amphetamine-anorexia was examined. It was demonstrated that both food-deprivation and access to food contingent on amphetamine administration were necessary for tolerance to develop.;It has been suggested that stimulant-induced anorexia is partially caused by concurrent drug-induced motor behaviour which is incompatible with eating or drinking. This implies that tolerance to amphetamine-anorexia should be accompanied by some tolerance to amphetamine-induced motor activity. The results of Experiment 2 demonstrated that tolerance to amphetamine-induced stereotypy develops at the same time as tolerance to amphetamine-induced anorexia. Furthermore, it was found that animals …

The Influence Of Environmental, Cognitive, And Pharmacological Factors On Alcohol-Related Behaviours, Stephen Walter Wigmore

Digitized Theses

A variety of effects previously attributed to pharmacological properties of alcohol have been shown to result from cognitive factors. For example, subjects believing alcohol was consumed show greater craving for alcohol and consume more beverage than subjects believing alcohol was not consumed, regardless of whether these beliefs are accurate. This has been demonstrated using the balanced placebo design. Many researchers, however, have argued that these experiments should be conducted in a natural drinking environment to assess the external validity of previous laboratory findings, and to investigate possible interaction effects resulting from the presence of alcohol-associated environmental cues. This is important …

Intermediate-Level Visual Processing And The Perception Of Inside/Outside Spatial Relations, Richard David Wright

Digitized Theses

The visual perception of inside/outside spatial relations often appears to be immediate and effortless. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the processes underlying this perception are numerous and complex. According to Ullmann, these processes can be characterized as sequences of basic operations called visual routines. Each routine consists of different combinations of operations which allow the visual system to establish object shapes and to extract spatial relations between objects. The research described in this thesis involved manipulations of display parameters for tasks in which observers made judgements about whether a target was inside or outside of a bounding figure. …

Memorial Effects Of Importance And Taxonomic Frequency In Schematic And Categorical Organizations Of Knowledge, Mustaq Khan

Digitized Theses

The functional similarity of schematic and categorical organizations of knowledge was investigated by comparing schema importance effects with taxonomic frequency effects. Importance effects refer to better recall of important over unimportant events in schema-based text (descriptions of everyday activities), and taxonomic frequency effects refer to better recall of common over uncommon members of natural categories. Importance effects have been explained in terms of differences in the number of interconnections among elements in the schematic knowledge structure, whereas taxonomic frequency effects have been explained in terms of differences in strength of association between the category and its members. Recognition and recall …

Social Desirability Responding And Depression: Both Content And Style In Psychological Assessment, Richard Neil Maclennan

Digitized Theses

Several investigations were undertaken to examine the relationship between desirability responding and depressive disorders. Desirability responding was defined as the propensity of subjects to make responses to personality inventories that convey a socially favorable impression of the respondent. Some researchers (e.g. Beck, 1976; Rehm, 1977; Ruehlman, West, and Pasahow, 1985) have suggested that such response variation has theoretical importance for understanding the etiology of depression. The first study investigated individual differences in depressed patients for the salience of desirability content in their responses to self-report measures of personality. Depressed patients were differentiated from normal subjects by their nonendorsement of desirable …

Peer Group Entry: A Focus On The Behavior And Gender Of The Entering Child And Group Members, Alvarez Teresita Borja

Digitized Theses

Ninety-two 7- to 9-year-old children (47 girls) were observed while attempting to join two relatively unfamiliar same- or opposite-sex peers who were playing a board game. Female guests were less obtrusive than male guests in their entry approaches, whereas male guests were more active and assertive. Guests were less behaviorally constrained when approaching same- than opposite-sex hosts. Female hosts were more socially attentive to the guests than male hosts, who tended to ignore the newcomers. Entry outcomes were best predicted by the joint contributions of the guests' and hosts' gender and behavior. Successful guests performed activity-related behavior, received initiations from …

The Depressive Personality: A Study Of Dependency, Self-Criticism, And Autonomy, Peter A. Barnett

Digitized Theses

Several theorists have hypothesized that certain personality traits may predispose individuals who are high in those traits to become depressed. The traits most often discussed are dependency, self-criticism, and autonomy. Empirical research has obtained preliminary evidence of personality disturbances among depressives; however, a number of theoretical hypotheses have received little research attention.;The present research examined the relations of personality and depression in two related studies. The first study involved the development and validation of two new measures of dependency and self-criticism. A pool of 141 original items written to reflect definitions of dependency and self-criticism, together with items from measures …

Subitizing And Counting: Preattentive And Attentive Processing In Visual Enumeration, Lana M. Trick

Digitized Theses

Subitizing, the process of visual enumeration when there are fewer than four items, is rapid (40-100 msec/item), accurate and effortless. In contrast, counting, the process of enumerating more than four items is comparatively slow (250-350 msec/item), effortful and error prone. Why does this occur? In this paper an attempt is made to incorporate subitizing and counting into a general theory of visual perception and spatial attention, as espoused by Marr(1982), Ullman(1984), and Treisman(1988). In particular, it is argued that the rapid apprehension of number in the 1-4 range is parasitic on a preattentive limited capacity mechanism that individuates feature clusters …

Psychology And City College, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

Five 1988 winners of APA Awards attended City College and one award winner taught chiefly at City College. Morton Deutsch, who won one of the Awards for Distinguished Scientific Contributions, and Robert Glaser, who won the Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology, are City College alumni. Three of the winners of the Awards for Distinguished Professional Contributions were students at City College. Lenore Walker earned her master's degree at City College, although she did her undergraduate work at City's sister institution, Hunter College. Alfred Wellner was a City College alumnus. Hans Strupp attended City College before moving to …

Explanatory Style And Goal Setting, Michele A. Rozhon

Honors Capstones

I conducted a longitudinal study to investigate whether the diathesis stress model of learned helplessness could account for differences in goal setting and performance. One week before a midterm exam, 136 college students completed questionnaires measuring explanatory style, threat appraisals, situational constraints, academic ability, level of depression, goal priorities, and academic goals. One week after the midterm exam, course grade goals were measured again and midterm exam scores were obtained. Results suggested modest support for the diathesis-stress model of learned helplessness: 1) Pessimists set lower goals with respect to the exam, but not with respect to course grade, 2) situational …

Assertiveness, Family History Of Hypertension And Other Psychological And Biophysical Variables As Predictors Of Cardiovascular Reactivity To Social Stress, Kim Marie Mooney

Doctoral Dissertations

This study was conducted to assess whether certain personality characteristics and a positive family history of hypertension are associated with excessive cardiovascular reactivity. Subjects (M = 28, F = 37) engaged in a laboratory task designed to serve as a social stressor. Subjects were separated into three groups based on their self-reports of assertiveness in social situations. It was hypothesized that high and low assertiveness groups would exhibit greater heart rate and cardiovascular reactivity than subjects with average assertiveness tendencies. This relationship was not supported although significant correlations were found between low assertiveness scores and increased systolic and diastolic reactivity …

Persuasion Via Audiovisual Transmission: Is The Persuasiveness Of A Message Affected By Whether The Audience Believes The Message Presentation Is A Videotaped Recording Or Is An Unrehearsed Live Telecast?, Charles Laurier Dufour

Doctoral Dissertations

One hundred and fifty-nine university students participated in a study examining the effect on persuasion of believing that an audiovisual message presentation was a videotaped recording or was an unrehearsed live telecast from an adjacent room. Participants were also assigned to one of two other groups, one instructed to focus its attention on the information being presented (i.e., a centrally focused group), the other instructed to focus on the message source's physical appearance (i.e., a peripherally focused group).

A 2 (Believed Live vs. Believed Recorded) x 2 (Centrally Focused vs. Peripherally Focused) Analysis of Variance was performed on the data. …

The Concept Of Conscious Pleasure In The History Of Modern American Psychology, David C. Devonis

Doctoral Dissertations

The concept of pleasure is acknowledged by historians of psychology as one of psychology's principles. Because the details of the concept's development are not well known, however, diverse views of pleasure's place in the history of psychology arise. Some historians see pleasure or hedonism as issues which were important only in psychology's distant past. Others believe that pleasure, understood as a conscious and valuable personal experience, vanished from psychology's conceptual vocabulary during the behaviorist period. Some have equated pleasure only with behavioristic theories and with psychoanalysis, two systems which have characterized pleasure as unconscious. These views, along with tendencies within …

Priming Access To Natural-Object And Trait Category Hierarchies On Pronunciation, Lexical Decision, And Category Verification Tasks, John F. Calabrese

Doctoral Dissertations

Lexical decision, pronunciation, and category verification response times (RTs) to natural object and trait hierarchies were measured. Prime and target words consisted of both superordinate and subordinate object and trait category members. Trait words were categorized as desirable and undesirable (Hampson, et al., 1986). Subjects' RTs to object and undesirable trait words displayed similar patterns. In all experiments, RTs to natural-object subordinate target words were significantly more rapid compared to superordinate words. This same pattern was also true for the undesirable traits, but reached significance in only the lexical decision task. The facilitation effect of the prime reached significance for …

The Effect Of A Readiness Year On Children's School Achievement, Self-Concept, And Teacher Expectations, Maria White Mckenna

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of a readiness year on children's later school performance and self-concept. An examination of teachers' attitudes towards readiness and expectations for students' performance was also included.

School records of fourth graders in two New Hampshire school districts were examined. Classroom grades, standardized test scores, Gesell School Readiness Test results, age, and sex were recorded for each participating student. A self-perception scale was administered to the students near the end of the third grade.

Teachers in the two districts completed a questionnaire composed of a series of vignettes. Five variables …

Adolescent Alcohol Expectancies And Alcohol Use As Functions Of Familial Factors., Andrew Ward Millar

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

In an extension of Brown, Creamer and Stetson (1987), this study investigated the relationships between components of family life, adolescent drinking and alcohol expectancies. Alcohol expectancies are defined as the learned associations between alcohol consumption and the results of drinking. Out of 73 adolescent (12- to 18-year old) subjects screened, 55 met criteria and participated in two comparisons with multiple dependent variables. In the first of these, 15 subjects who were exposed to alcoholics for at least 75% of their lives were found to have stronger expectations that alcohol would provide cognitive and motor enhancement than did 15 matched subjects …

Ambiguity And Sexuality: The Effects Of Advance Organizers On Memory Of An Ambiguous Text., Cathy Orman Castille

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Thematically ambiguous written text was presented to 269 subjects in an examination of the role of cognition in sexuality. Information in the form of a title and a descriptive sentence (advance organizer information) was varied according to experimental condition, and this information reflected either a sexual or a non-sexual theme. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of 9 experimental groups, which varied in the amount and type of advance information given prior to the story. After reading the story and performing an intervening task, subjects completed two memory tasks. Both recall and recognition memory tasks were utilized to determine the …

The Psychological Effects Of Exercise, Judith Rodin, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Thousands of businesses in the United States have implemented programs to promote physical fitness among their employees (Falkenberg, 1987). The programs range from company-paid memberships at private health and fitness clubs to complete work site fitness facilities. These programs have been developed not only to improve and maintain employee health but also to promote psychological well-being and productivity and to reduce absenteeism, insurance claims, and stress. Recent research focusing on the use of employee fitness programs to improve work-related behaviors suggests that these programs may improve absenteeism, job satisfaction, tenure. and health care costs, especially among female employees (Baun, Bernacki, …

Factors Affecting Supervisors' Use Of Corrective Actions Following Poor Performance., Wanda Ann Trahan

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The present study examined the relationships between supervisor, subordinate, and contextual variables and corrective action severity. Hypotheses were tested using questionnaire data from 103 nursing supervisors in 15 hospitals. Supervisors were asked to describe an incident of subordinate poor performance, indicate the corrective action used, then complete questions measuring incident severity, attributions, initiating structure and consideration leader styles, intent of the supervisor, effectiveness ratings of the corrective action, influence of contextual variables, and subordinate likableness. Analyses confirmed that severity of the incident of poor performance, supervisor attributions, and supervisor intent were related to corrective action severity. Also, corrective actions rated …

Subjective Undercurrents: Humour And The Naea, Harold Pearse

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The psychological climate of an NAEA conference is a highly variable one. Given the temporal and spatial restrictions, emotions tend to be intense and feelings concentrated. A good deal of what is felt is predictable – after all, conferences are call conventions. But beneath the surface veneer of officiousness, formality, and collegiality, there are subjective undercurrents. The novices experience loneliness, insecurity and feelings of inadequacy being surrounded by “experts” – people whose publications they have read or with whose names they are familiar. The experts may experience anxiety and insecurity as their egos, careers and reputations are exposed to public …

An Evaluation Of Multiple Aspects Of Asthmatic Functioning: Stress Responders Versus Stress Nonresponders., Anthony Joseph Goreczny

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to differentiate between asthmatics whose daily symptoms are related to daily stress level (stress responders) and those whose symptoms have no apparent relation to stress (stress nonresponders) and to indentify differences between the two groups. Using correlational procedures, 15 stress responders and 19 stress nonresponders were identified and compared along various dimensions. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and covariance (MANCOVA) procedures revealed no significant differences between the two groups with respect to affective/emotional responding, clinical symptomatology, or cognitions about illness and asthma. In addition, regression models using the Asthma Symptom Checklist Panic-Fear subscale, a …

Coping With Stress: Adjustment To Visual Loss In Diabetes Mellitus., Linda Roussel Upton

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Individuals with diabetes face complex health management tasks over a long period and must cope with serious long-term medical complications including retinopathy and resulting blindness and disability. Although it may be expected that psychological problems may accompany loss of vision in adulthood, little research attention has been given to psychological coping and adjustment in this group. Using a stress and coping model, this investigation focused on identifying and measuring stressor, cognitive, and coping variables in order to determine their associations with psychological and functional adjustment in individuals with adult-onset loss of vision. Forty diabetic subjects with vision loss requiring rehabilitation …

Illness Behavior And The Preoperative Prediction Of Postoperative Pain In Cholecystectomy Patients., Lannis Lee Tynes Jr

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Eighty (80) elective cholecystectomy patients volunteered to participate in the present study which assessed the relation between past illness behavior and the report of pain following surgery. A review of the literature indicated that demographic variables (e.g., sex, age) and general psychological variables (e.g. state anxiety) have been the subject of many studies attempting to predict postoperative pain, yet learning and behavioral factors such as past illness behavior and familial modelling of illness behavior have not. Preoperative assessments included the Illness Behavior Inventory (IBI; Turkat, 1983), the Familial Illness Behavior Inventory (IBI-F; derived from the IBI), the State Trait Anxiety …

Physical Attractiveness: Effects On Trained And Untrained Observers' Ratings Of Heterosocial Skill And Anxiety In Female College Students., James Douglas Calvert

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Physical attractiveness has been shown to be an important interpersonal variable. Physically attractive persons are perceived by others as possessing high levels of positive characteristics such as intelligence, competence, and warmth. Although research from social psychology has suggested that physical attractiveness has a major impact on peoples' perceptions, research on the behavioral assessment of social skill and anxiety has given little attention to the effects of physical attractiveness on ratings of skill and anxiety. The present study was designed to assess the effects of physical attractiveness on ratings of heterosocial skill and anxiety. A 4(groups) $\times$ 2(Observers) factorial design that …

Developmental Processes In Leader-Member Exchanges., Caroline Cooper Wilhelm

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the present study was to specify more fully the sequence of events by which leader-member relationships are formed. A model of leader-member exchange (LMX) development originally proposed by Dienesch and Liden (1986) was expanded with findings from role theory, attribution theory, and equity theory, and a set of hypotheses was derived for testing. One hundred forty-two subordinates and their respective supervisors (n = 53) from four divisions of a large manufacturing organization provided data for the study. Questionnaires and cover letters assuring anonymity were distributed to subjects, and completed questionnaires were returned directly to the researcher by …

The Relation Of Cognition, Emotion And Behavior To The Prediction Of Depressive Symptomatology In Referred And Nonreferred Adolescents., Tracy Lynn Cole

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Researchers have shown an increased interest in depression in children and adolescents in the last few years. As a result, a body of research exists which has focused on the cognitive and behavioral aspects of depression in children and adolescents. Few studies, however, have examined the relation of emotion to depression. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to examine the relation of cognition, emotion and behavior to depression. Eighty adolescents (nonreferred) from public schools in a southern city and seventy-three adolescents (emotionally disturbed) from a psychiatric facility in the same area participated in the study. Each adolescent completed self-report …

Effects Of Cocaine Use And Withdrawal On Clinical Memory And New Learning., Madeline Uddo-Crane

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This project was conceptualized as an exploratory examination of the neuropsychological sequelae of cocaine abuse, specifically the drug's effect on new learning and memory. The experimental groups were composed of 30 veterans enrolled in a drug treatment program for cocaine abuse. This group was divided equally by route of administration, i.e., group one included 15 individuals whose preferred route of administration was intravenous injection; group two included 15 individuals whose preferred route of administration was smoking. The comparison group consisted of 15 individuals enlisted in the National Guard. The groups were essentially homogeneous, with a mean age of 34.6 ($SD$ …