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Meetings And Announcements

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

A description of a symposium organized by the American Psychology Association on the ethics of animal research is listed.

The Psychology Of Euthanizing Animals: The Emotional Components, Charles E. Owens, Ricky Davis, Bill Hurt Smith

Human and Animal Bonding Collection

The emotional effects of euthanizing unwanted animals on professional animal control personnel are examined using written statements of and discussions among twenty-six euthanasia technicians at a workshop during a national session of the Animal Control Academy (Tuscaloosa, AL]. Emotional conflicts arise .in significant part from the dilemma that the same public which is responsible for the problem of unwanted animals also has a markedly negative perception of euthanasia, and by extension, of those who perform euthanasia. During discussions, the euthanasia technicians revealed a variety of strategies for coping with feelings of isolation, alienation and sorrow. These included intellectualization, avoidance of …

Lab Animal Housing: Numbers Or Common Sense?, Andrew N. Rowan

Laboratory Experiments Collection

No abstract provided.

An Extension Of The Behavioral Classification Project Upward To Adults., Sam Marullo Jr

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study consists of the extension of the Behavioral Classification Project upward into the adult age range. The instrument developed for the Adult Behavioral Classification Project (AdBCP) is an extension of an existing series of instruments ranging, in coverage, from the pre-school to adolescent ages. This study initiated the construction of and initial standardization of an instrument which will be used to determine dimensions of problem behavior which are to eventually be used as the basis for a system of classification. The literature regarding issues of classification and difficulties with present classification schemes is reviewed. Alternate classification systems are considered. …

The Influence Of Visual Texture On The Visual Facilitation Of Auditory Localization, George Raymond Mastroianni

Doctoral Dissertations

A substantial but contradictory literature on intersensory effects exists. Studies have been reported showing facilitation of sensitivity in one modality when other modalities are stimulated, as have studies showing inhibition of sensitivity in one modality when other modalities are stimulated. Studies reporting no effects whatever of multimodal stimulation have also been reported. This literature is reviewed in detail.

A recent series of experiments by Warren and his colleagues report a facilitating effect of simultaneous visual facilitation on the variability of responding in an auditory localization task. They hypothesize that the presence of visual texture in the light in conjunction with …

Drinking Induced By Second-Order Food Schedules: Multiple Controlling Factors, Leroy Keene Clark

Doctoral Dissertations

Second-order schedules, in which brief stimuli replace some food presentations, have been used to differentiate between physiological and psychological factors which might contribute to the induction of excessive drinking during exposure to periodic food schedules. Post-stimulus drinking is regarded as reflecting the influence of psychological factors.

In preliminary research, post-stimulus drinking was typically less reliable than post-food drinking. Rats which drank most reliably during post-stimulus periods also often resumed drinking after lever-pressing during post-food periods. Such drinking, like post-stimulus drinking, consisted of short bouts which alternated with bouts of lever-pressing. It was hypothesized that short-bout licking might be a terminal …

Maintenance Of Nonsmoking Following Self-Initiated Cessation, Susan J. Goldstein

Doctoral Dissertations

The process of trying to maintain abstinence from cigarettes was assessed in a longitudinal, descriptive study of self-initiated quitters. Participants completed: (1) a preliminary questionnaire; (2) six follow-up questionnaire packets mailed to them monthly; and (3) a final questionnaire sent with the sixth follow-up packet.

Abstainers and relapsers differed in the following ways: (1) Relapsers more often indicated cessation goals which left open the possibility of future smoking; (2) Although both groups began their participation with relatively high levels of commitment to quit, abstainers' levels were slightly higher than relapsers'. At the conclusion of their participation, relapsers' commitment to quit …

The Development Of Picture-Generated Stories, Dina Lee Anselmi

Doctoral Dissertations

Recently, certain aspects of story production, comprehension, and recall have stirred up much interest within psychology. Most of this research has focused on these story processes in adults; less work has been done on the development of story knowledge in young children. This dissertation explored the similarities and differences among nursery school, first and second grade children, and adults. Each individual was asked to produce an oral story after having viewed a set of story-book pictures.

The stories were evaluated on several different dimensions which included: the thoughts, intentions and emotions of the characters, how single elements from the pictures …

Simple And Contingent Chromatic Aftereffects In Pigeons, Jean Roberts Atak

Doctoral Dissertations

In order to assess whether pigeons acquire simple and contingent chromatic aftereffects, four White Carneaux pigeons were trained to discriminate between colored and achromatic slides: Right and left key-pecks were reinforced following exposure to colored and achromatic slides, respectively. The chromatic set included slides of six different hues, added sequentially. Behavior on the first day each new color was added and on two transfer tests involving novel stimuli indicated that a 'chromaticity' concept had been acquired by all four birds.

In Experiment II, an attempt was made to demonstrate the McCollough effect (ME). In five procedures, various conditions known to …

Effects Of Stimulus Complexity, Subject Age, And Stimulus Coding On Selective Stimulus Control, Ronald Louis Michaud

Doctoral Dissertations

Selective stimulus control refers to the functional relationships that are developed between the various stimulus elements of a discriminative stimulus and the subject's response. A multi-element conditional discrimination problem is an effective means of studying these relationships. In the first experiment, preschool and adult subjects were presented with a series of conditional discrimination problems. They were required to respond differentially to two multi-element stimulus cards by touching one of two response circles, one red and one blue. Each problem set contained either two, four, six, or eight elements per stimulus card. The discrimination was established using an errorless training procedure …

Dietary Obesity, Exercise Training, And Thermogenesis In Rats, James Oakley Hill

Doctoral Dissertations

The exact contributions of changes in thermogenesis to the energy balance of either rats or humans is not known. There is some evidence that differences in post-prandial heat production (dietary-induced thermogenesis), can explain why some individuals gain weight easily when overeating and others do not. There is also evidence that exercise enhances dietary-induced thermogenesis. However, it may be the effects of exercise training rather than the exercise itself which enhances dietary-induced thermogenesis. Aerobic exercise training may produce increases in dietary-induced thermogenesis and allow more calories to be expanded as heat when overeating.

In these three experiments, the effects of diet …

Effects Of A Sex Education Workshop In An Adolescent In-Patient Psychiatric Population., Christine E. Angelloz

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The present study was an experimental investigation of the effects of a sex education workshop in an adolescent in-patient psychiatric population. Eleven adolescent patients (seven males, four females) participated in the eight session sex education workshop (SEW). The attention control group was composed of eight patients (four males, four females) who participated in eight informal discussion (ID) sessions. The research utilized a pretest-posttest design. The dependent variables were sex knowledge as measured by the Sex Knowledge Inventory, self-concept as measured by the Total Positive, Self Criticism, and General Maladjustment scales of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale, and personal adjustment as …

The Application Of Behavioral Techniques To Change Eating Habits And/Or Exercise Habits To Effect Weight Reduction And Maintenance In Adolescents: A Year-Long Study., Cynthia Mary Gracianette

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study employed behavioral strategies of weight control with obese adolescents. Programs which modified eating habits (Eating Habits) and exercise habits (Exercise) and a combination of the two programs (Eating Habits and Exercise) were compared with a control group (Supportive Group) and a Drop Out Group. Program compliance was assessed and the utility of predictor instruments was studied. The treatment program lasted 12 weeks with seven follow-up meetings over a nine month period. The Eating Habits condition was designed to modify maladaptive eating habits using behavioral techniques. The Exercise condition consisted of establishing exercise programs for individual subjects. Contingency contracting …

The Effects Of Noise, Provocation, And Level Of Self-Awareness On Physical Aggression., John Fontan Knipmeyer

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The cognitive-labeling hypothesis states that the arousal properties of noise will increase aggression only if a person has been provoked and labels the arousal as anger. The arousal hypothesis states that noise-induced arousal may directly increase aggression. It is suggested that discrepant findings are due to differences in subjects' level of self-awareness when participating in sedate versus physical measures of aggression. Male subjects engaged in physical aggression by throwing balls at a confederate within a 2 x 2 x 2 design comprised of provocation versus no provocation, noise versus no noise, and low versus high self-awareness. The ball-throwing was videotaped …

Anthropocentrism: Construct Validity And Measurement., Edward W. Chandler

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The values, attitudes, and beliefs which humans hold regarding mankind's role in the universe must be understood if the natural environment is to be preserved. In this study, the utility of the construct "anthropocentrism" as an organizing principle for understanding consistencies among individuals' attitudes regarding man's role in nature was explored. Anthropocentrism was defined as a doctrine which posits humanity as the center of the universe and sees the well being of mankind as the ultimate purpose of things. The various attitudinal manifestations and historical roots of anthropocentrism were explored, and the sparse empirical literature relevant to this construct was …

Decision-Making Formats: A Comparison On An Evaluative Task Of Interacting Groups, Consensus Groups, The Nominal Group Technique, And The Delphi Technique., Robert Charles Erffmeyer

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Using Steiner's (1972) model of group process and productivity, four decision-making formats: the interacting method, the consensus method, the nominal group technique, and the Delphi technique, were compared on two dimensions of an effective decision, quality and acceptance. A literature review indicated that a comparison of the effectiveness of the decision-making formats is difficult because of the prevalence of idiosyncratic modifications made to the formats. To preserve the integrity of the findings of the present study, no modifications were made in the intervention techniques. A total of 144 male undergraduate students, working in four-person, ad hoc groups solved the NASA …

Vestibular Responsiveness In Normal- And In Impaired-Hearing Children., Nancy Mixon Hillman

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Vestibular responsiveness of 90 normal- and of 31 impaired-hearing children from 4 through 16 years of age was investigated using a modified Barany-chair test to provide horizontal angular acceleratory stimuli to the semi-circular canals and a parallel swing to provide alternating horizontal linear acceleratory stimuli to the otolithic end organs. Children's eye movements behind a sleep mask in response to vestibulo-ocular reflexes initiated by the angular and linear accelerations were recorded via electronystagmography and telemetry. Mean frequency, amplitude, and slow phase velocity of primary postrotatory nystagmus and presence or absence and latency of secondary per- and postrotatory nystagmus were obtained …

A Comparison Of The Early Social Behavior Of Twins And Singletons., Randall Louis Lemoine

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study was a comprehensive descriptive comparison of the early social behavior of twins and singletons in a playgroup situation. Eight pairs of same-sex female twins and 16 age-matched female singleton children, ages 17 to 43 months, participated as subjects. Playgroups composed of one pair of twins and two same-age unfamiliar singletons met for two free play sessions with their mothers present. A wide range of observational measures were recorded using a behavior categorization system. Twin-singleton comparisons were made between the four younger playgroups (mean age two years) and four older playgroups (mean age three years). Twins and singletons were …

The Processing Of Experience And The Evaluation Of The Self In Depressed And Nondepressed Females., Patricia Anne Bowers Hunter

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The hypotheses derived from Beck's theory that depressed individuals "minimize the positive" and "maximize the negative" were investigated using a series of positive and negative imaginary interpersonal situations. Fifty-two depressed and nondepressed college females responded to the imagined situations by rating their self-esteem and mood at three time intervals. Results showed that depressed subjects maintained lower levels of self-esteem and mood across all three measurements yet were less adversely affected with exposure to the negative situations than were nondepressed subjects. Additionally, depressed subjects showed a greater enhancement effect from the positive imagined experience even while maintaining lower levels of self-esteem …

A Critique Of Three Psychological Theories Of Behavior And The Presuppositions Which Underly Their Model Of Man, Marek Jantos

Master's Theses

Problem Each psychological theory of behavior is based on a specific model of man. The models of man in turn , are built on particular presuppositions concerning the nature of man. To fully understand the implications and limitations of the different models and theories it is necessary to examine the presuppositions upon which each model and theory is built. The purpose of this study is to examine and critique the presuppositions of three models of man as presented in three psychological theories of behavior. Method The method of this study consisted of a search of literature using as primary sources …

Teaching Children With Special Needs: A Western Australian Perspective, Kevin Casey

Research outputs pre 2011

The education of children with special needs in Australia gained considerable impetus from the report of the Interim Committee for the Australian Schools Commission under the chairmanship of Professor Karmel when, in 1973, it made strong recommendations for a substantial increase in the government expenditure on special education. It highlighted inadequacies in the existing services in special education both in terms of facilities and manpower and suggested greater responsibilities for the education of handicapped children be taken by the State Education Departments. The upgrading of qualifications of teachers in Special Education and the necessary establishment of suitable courses in Australian …

How Communication And Confirmatory Strategies Affect The Search For Truth, Michael Ernest Gorman

Doctoral Dissertations

Scientific reasoning has become a topic of recent psychological research. Studies have focused on Karl Popper's idea that scientists should try to falsify, or disconfirm, their hypotheses instead of verifying them. Results indicate that both scientists and college students prefer to use confirmatory logic on simple tasks that model scientific reasoning. The only attempt to instruct subjects to use disconfirmatory reasoning failed (Mynatt, Doherty & Tweney, 1977) though subjects that falsified on their own initiative were more successful than subjects who tried to confirm.

All the studies of scientific reasoning have focused on individuals. But major advances in science are …

A Family Structural Approach To The Study Of Adolescent Depression, Tina Marie Lindegren

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to better understand the antecedents of depression among adolescents by taking a family structural perspective. Based on clinical observations, Minuchin (1974) and Haley (1976) have developed theories of family functioning which define types of dysfunctional family structures (described as patterns of relating among family members) characteristic of disturbed families. This research attempts to empirically assess these dysfunctional structures in relation to adolescent depression.

A self-report questionnaire was designed and administered to 358 students from three high schools in southern New Hampshire. The questionnaire included assessments of: (1) behavioral interactions among family members representing …

A Peer Modeling Treatment Of Impulsive Cognitive Style Of School-Age Children, Barbara Fern Herman

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to test a particular peer modeling procedure, (a) for the modification of impulsive cognitive style and (b) for improvement of academic performance in the areas of Reading, Spelling and Arithmetic. The study was designed to train for and to assess generalization effects of academically relevant training materials. Subjects consisted of seven boys and three girls whose MFF20 scores placed them within the impulsive quadrant of the sampled fifth grade population. All subjects were within the range of ten to eleven years of age and met all the requirements necessary for inclusion in the …

Empathy, Communication Skills, And Group Cohesiveness: A Systematic Approach, Michael Hass

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"This article presents an approach to the teaching of interpersonal communication skills to children from 7-11 years of age, and should be of great interest to professionals in the fields of psychology, social work, education and people involved in training such persons."

Perceived Uncertainty As A Moderator Of Workrelated Expectancies And Goals Of Real Estate Salespersons, Helen E. Largen

Student Work

The effect of perceived uncertainty as a moderator of work-related expectancies and goals of real-estate salespersons was examined. The effect of tenure as a moderator of these relationships was studied, as well as the effects of uncertainty and tenure on perceived differences in the amount of effort required to meet income goals under changing economic conditions. Additionally, Kopelman’s (1977) return on effort construct was tested in an organizational setting. The results generally provided weak support or none at all for the hypothesized relationships between uncertainty, motivation, goals, effort and tenure. Possible explanations for these results were (a) unique characteristics of …

Attitudinal And Normative Determinants Of Task Performance, Frank Fuglestad

Student Work

Theories of work motivation are numerous and varied. The search for cognitive determinants of work motivation has led to the development of expectancy theories (e.g., Vroom, 1964). The numerous expectancy theories share one assumption - people perform behavior which they expect will lead to positively valenced events. Expectancy attitude consists of beliefs concerning the probability of obtaining outcomes by performing a behavior and the value of those outcomes. A review of expectancy research reveals several inconsistencies.

Television And Perceptions Of Reality, John M. Davis

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Cross-Sectional Analysis Of Women's Television Viewing And Its Relationship To Attitudes Toward Women And Sex-Role Orientation, Rosellen Margaret Rosich

Student Work

The major focus of this study was to examine the relationship between television viewing by women and their attitudes toward women and sex-role orientation. The Spence and Helmreich (1972) Attitudes Toward Women Scale was used to measure Women's attitudes toward their rights and roles. Sex-role orientation was measured by Bern' s Sex- Role Inventory (1977). These measures were used to determine whether the amount of TV women viewed was associated with their liberal or conservative attitudes towards women's rights and roles.

The Development And Evaluation Of A Training Program For Residential Child Care Worker Consultants, David A. Smart

Student Work

In 1975 and 1976, a training program for consultants to residential child care workers was developed at Boys Town, Nebraska. A study was conducted to analyze the training program's effectiveness in teaching Boys Town consultants the skills needed to initiate relationships, to conduct direct observation visits, and to give feedback and advice to child care workers. Two groups of consultants received one week of training in July and November, 1976, and a third group did not receive training. Pre and post training data were collected in the form of appropriate and inappropriate consulting behaviors engaged in during videotaped behavior simulations. …