Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Comparison Of Selected Old And New Right Wing Groups: Involvement With Law Enforcement, Elvin W. Keith

Masters Theses

This study has determined that current right wing extremist groups in the U.S. have no greater propensity for damage to the national security than older right wing groups.

Although right wing groups are dangerous due to the popularity of conservative causes and the proliferation of modern weaponry, an examination reveals that dedication and increased military capability are offset by more efficient law enforcement response and lack of support by the general populace.

A careful examination of the American right wing, both old and new shows the disparity between the two groups. Emphasis is placed on exploring the old right wing …

A Correlational Study Of Cognitive Style Measured By The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator And The Witkin Group Embedded Figure, Leith Wood Muessle

Dissertations and Theses

A review of the literature suggests a coincidence of personality characteristics among the cognitive styles defined by Field Dependence-Independence and the Myers-Briggs type preferences. This thesis proposed these independent measures of cognitive style tap common cognitive processes and hypothesized the Myers-Briggs dimensions of Extraversion-Introversion (EI), Sensing-Intuition (SN), and Judgement-Perception (JP) would correlate positively and Thinking-Feeling (TF) would correlate negatively with the dimension Field Dependence-Independence (FD-FI) as measured by the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT). The relationships of gender, age, and intelligence to the prediction of field-dependence-independence were also tested.

The Sex Stereotype Of A Job As A Moderator Of Sex Bias In Performance Evaluations, Sandra B. Crooks

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In accordance with the stereotype-fit model of discrimination (Dipboye, 1985), the results of past research indicate that the extent to which jobs are sex stereotyped dictates whether or not a main effect for rate sex is present in performance evaluations. The purpose of this study was to further examine the relationship between the sex stereotype of the job and the presence of sex bias in evaluation. Two hundred and five undergraduate psychology students viewed one of eight videotapes of a confederate job applicant performing a work sample task and evaluated the observed performance. A 2 x 2 x 2 between …

The Effects Of Adding Verbalizations On The Draw-A-Person, Phyllis Helen Millspaugh

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Sixty-two male and femal 9-, 10- and 11-year olds were administered the Naglieri Draw-A-Person (DAP) and the Vocabulary and Block Design subtests fro mthe Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). The study was conducted to determine the effects of verbalizations during the DAP on correlations with an estimated Full Scale IQ Score obtained from the two WISC-R subtests. Results of the study indicate that although there was an increase in the correlations between the Verbal DAP group and the estimated Full Scale IQ Score, compared to the standard DAP and the Full Scale IQ, it was not significant. The difference …

Hemispheric Effects Of Response Hand And Concurrent Auditory And Visual Information Processing On Task Performance, Paula J. Guerette

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Previous research (cf. Wickens, Mountford & Schreiner, 1981; Wickens & Sandry, 1982) has suggested that performance is facilitated by maintaining "integrity" between the hemisphere of information input, processing, and motor response. This task-hemispheric integrity has been found to exist during concurrent performance of verbal and spatial tasks, both of which are presented in a visual modality. The present study sought to examine whether task-hemispheric integrity exists during concurrent performance of a verbal and a spatial task when the verbal task is presented in an auditory modality and the spatial task(s) are presented in a visual modality. Fifty-six individuals (28M, 28F) …

Person Perception As A Function Of Sex And Age, Leslie Borland

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This experiment was designed to explore the effects of sex and age on impressions. The 228 volunteers ranged in age from 18 to 87 years. Subjects were asked to report impressions, using the PPQ, about fictitious targets who were systematically varied according to sex and age. A 2 (Sex of Subject) x 3 (Age of Subject) x 2 (set of Target) x 2 (Age of Target) ANOVA was performed on ratings of likability, adjustment, femininity, masculinity, and androgyny. Older subjects received and gave the highest ratings. Middle-aged subjects gave lower ratings to all targets, but discriminated least. Young subjects were …

The Use Of Rhythm In The Acquisition Of Motor Skills, Ann C. Fulop

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This research assessed whether rhythm aids in the acquisition of motor skills by providing cues for the timing of those skills. The nature of representations of rhythms in memory was also explored. Certain rhythms have stable memory representations, while others have unstable representations. It was hypothesized that rhythms that had stable memory representations would be more beneficial in learning a skill than unstable rhythms. Three groups learned three different rhythms by practicing a tracking task. Three different tracks displayed the three rhythms. Following training, subjects attempted to reproduce the rhythms from memory. The results suggest that rhythms do help in …

Self-Concept And Its Relationship To Achievement In Minority Preschool Children, Larry Lennard Lindsey

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between self-concept, self-esteem, demographic information, and racial preference to achievement in minority preschool children. The subjects were 56 minority preschool students from a Head Start program in Newport News, Virginia. The subjects were assessed using four different instruments. The instruments were the Joseph Preschool & Primary Self- Concept Screening Test (JPPSST), the Behavioral Academic Self-Esteem Test (BASE), the Preschool Racial Attitudes Measure (PRAM), and the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery. The JPPSST, PRAM, and Woodcock-Johnson were administered to the subjects by an examiner. The Woodcock-Johnson assessed achievement in two separate areas: …

The Effects Of Differential Task Instructions And Motivational States On Individual Creative Response Generation, James Clarke Llewellyn

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The extent to which creative response generation may be affected by motivation orientation and task instruction was investigated in the context of Amabile's (1983) model of creativity. A three-way mixed design with repeated measures across a time factor was employed using 104 undergraduate students as subjects. Subjects generated responses to an initial sentence construction task, completed either an intrinsically- or extrinsically-oriented questionnaire, and then received either nonspecific, criteria-cued, or brainstorming instructions for a second sentence construction task. All task responses were rated using a standardized creativity assessment technique (Amabile, 1982). The results indicated that (a) criteria-cued task instructions yield a …

A Comparative Analysis Of Selected Adolescent Fears, Martina Griffith Meyer

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The subject of adolescent fears troubling today's generation was studied with the question of specific fears and methods of questioning. It was hypothesized that direct, close-ended questions related to the fear of nuclear war and the fear of failure would elicit responses of greater fear than would indirect, open-ended questions about the future. It was also hypothesized that there would be sex differences in fearfulness of nuclear war with females indicating more fear. It was also expected that there would be developmental differences with 8th-grade subjects more fearful of nuclear war than 12th-grade subjects, and with the older subjects more …

Construct Validity And Development Of Local Norms In The Assessment Of Adhd., Rose Ternes Hunter

Student Work

A pilot study was performed to determine the validity of on-task behavior and locally developed attention tasks# to assist in the identification of children with ADHD. Subjects were third grade students in the Hampton City Public Schools. Means and standard deviations were computed for time-on-task as well as number correct and number committed for each of five separate attention tasks. A correlation analysis was performed to compare results of attention tasks with each other as well as with the Abbreviated Conners Teacher's Scale (ACTS), a Hyperactivity Index, and IQ. Results were in the expected direction, although correlations with ACTS were …

The Effects Of Life Stress And Risk-Taking Style On Risk Perception And Driver Performance, Christine B. Philput

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the effects of risk-taking style, stress level, and highway environment on driver performance. In Phase I, 50 subjects were assessed for risk-taking style and stress level. In Phase II, the same subjects were presented with slides of traffic situations that varied in terms of risk of accident. This was a paired comparison task in which they rank-ordered ten highway sites, producing a measure of subjective risk. No significant relationships were identified between these subjective risk judgments and objective data regarding those sites (accidents and fatalities), though this is most likely due to problems with the slide presentation. …

Psychopathology, Psychotherapy And Demonic Influence, Rodger K. Bufford

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

No abstract provided.

The Effectiveness Of Relaxation-Visualization Training On The Natural Killer (Nk) Cells Of Breast Cancer Patients, Morry Edwards

Dissertations

A large number of studies have found that stress qualitatively and quantitatively reduces a variety of immune components. Several recent studies have examined relaxation skills and their ability to increase immune measures. The primary hypothesis of this project was that relaxation-visualization training (RVT) would enhance Natural Killer (NK) Cell Activity. Two other major hypotheses were generated: (a) RVT would produce beneficial psychological effects and, (b) increased psychopathology would be inversely correlated with NK levels. Six volunteer breast cancer patients who were at least 3 months post treatment were taught a passive form of relaxation that included visualizing an increase in …

Misfit Between Motivational Style And Type Of Job Demand As A Factor In Developing Occupational Stress, Arlene Gray Blix

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Occupational stress is costly in terms of human suffering and impaired organizational effectiveness. Occupational stress involves the interface between the individual worker and the work environment. The purpose of the study was to analyze the fit between motivational style and the type of job demands as a contributing factor in developing occupational stress symptoms. A literature review of occupational stress models was conducted. The six models compared and contrasted included the Person-Environment fit model (French, Rodgers, & Cobb, 1974), Integrative Transactional Model (Schuler, 1982), Organizational Stress Models (Ivancevich & Matteson, 1987; Parker & DeCotiis, 1983), Facet Analysis Model (Beehr & …

Religious Commitment As A Predictor Of Health Behavior And Health Status In A Selected Population, Donald George King

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Religious beliefs and behaviors are multidimensional and they profoundly determine the ways we respond to health and illness, suffering and death. Researchers have designed numerous scales to measure different dimensions of religious commitment, beliefs and behaviors. A thorough review of the literature has shown general relationships between religion and health, but no researcher has developed an instrument measuring dimensions of religious commitment specifically relevant to health behaviors.

In this study, scale items were developed to measure three dimensions of religious beliefs thought by Kenneth Vaux (1976) to be related to health behavior--purity of life, peace in existence, and belief in …

The Predictive Validity Of The Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory To Assess Borderline Conditions In Adolescents, Juan Mario Herakovic

Dissertations

This study examined the predictive validity of the Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory (MAPI) (Millon, Green & Meagher, 1982) to evaluate Borderline Personality Disorder in adolescents. The hypothesis is that the MAPI tends to overdiagnose Borderline Personality Disorders. The origin of the term is placed first within the framework of psychoanalysis and its evolution through other theoretical constructs is then discussed. The concept of Borderline is surrounded by imprecise terminology which contributes to the confusion of a clinical diagnosis. While there is a movement in mental health to provide a more precise and behaviorally oriented description of this disorder, current explanations …

The Effectiveness Of Three Study Aids As Measured By Immediate Examinations And Delayed Examinations, Yousef Abdulwahab Abuhmaidan

Dissertations

Two experiments were performed to examine the effectiveness of three study aids: (1) information maps, (2) behavioral objectives, and (3) the students' own strategies in reorganizing written material. A training workshop was given prior to the first experiment to teach the students appropriate skills to use to read research articles (e.g., generating and answering questions, filling out and generating information maps). Eighteen undergraduate students participated in the study. In the first experiment, students were randomly assigned to three groups. The researcher provided students with a research article every week for three weeks, together with either an information map, a set …

Design Of A Program Of Instruction To Teach State Notation, Esther Hannah Shafer

Dissertations

The process of programming instruction involves a series of steps which include determining the need for programming instruction on a particular topic, choosing the appropriate programming method, and a series of approximations toward the final program through testing and revision. State notation (Michael, 1986), a notation system which is used to visually represent procedures such as those used in an operant laboratory setting, was deemed an appropriate topic for programmed instruction since the complex decisions that learners must make when diagramming are difficult to teach using conventional methods. Mathetics (Gilbert, 1962) was chosen as an appropriate programming method for state …

Altruism, Cooperation, And Type A Behaviors In Kindergarten And Third Grade Children, Pamela S. Martin

Graduate Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelationships of altruism, cooperation and Type A personality types in school-aged children. It was predicted that older children and Type A children would be more competitive and show fewer altruistic behaviors. Forty third-grade students and fifty-two kindergarten students served as subjects. Teachers completed the MYTH on each child to determine his/her personality type. Subjects were then paired according to Type A or Type B profiles, AA, AB, BB. The children played two games, a marble pull and a teaching task. By the time all of the games were completed, each child …

Attributions Of Responsibility Among Caregivers Of The Frail Elderly: Predicting Formal Service Use, Richard Troyer

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A review of the research on family caregivers of the frail elderly indicates that although caregivers often experience high levels of burden, they make only minimal use of available professional, or formal, services. A theoretical model of helping and coping proposed by Brickman, Rabinowitz, Karuza, Coates, Cohn, and Kidder (1982) suggests that attributions of responsibility for causing and for solving problems define four distinct attributional styles, each determining how people will respond to outside help. The current study of 40 family caregivers attempted to validate an attribution instrument based on the Brickman et al. (1982) model, and to determine whether …

A Study Of Training, Feedback, & Goal Setting For Improving Quality In An Organizational Setting, C. Richard Moore Iii

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study investigated the effects of training, knowledge of results (KR), and goal setting on improving product quality in a field setting. Both practical and theoretical issues were addressed through the experimental design. A practical concern was the improvement of product quality in an organization. The theoretical issue was the increased understanding and utility of goal setting and knowledge of results for motivating workers' quality behavior.

Two existing departments (n=60 employees) of an aluminum window manufacturing plant were studied with the use of a multiple-baseline, within-subjects design across four experimental phases: a) baseline, b) training only, c) visual presentation …

Gender, Sexual Orientation, And Truth-Of-Consensus In Studies Of Physical Attractiveness, James M. Donovan, Elizabeth Hill, William R. Jankowiak

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Truth-of-consensus methodology presently holds that sex differences in perceptions of physical attractiveness are negligible and may be routinely ignored during prescaling. No determination has been made in the literature of the effects of sexual orientation on this perceptual process. The data presented herein suggest that while sex and sexual orientation of judge are largely irrelevant to prescaling of female stimuli, these variables are important when judging male stimuli. In particular, male homosexuals and male heterosexuals differ significantly in ranking male facial photographs. Thus, experimenters wishing to treat attractiveness levels as known quantities should control for this difference, especially when using …

A Method For Knowledge Engineering In Clinical Decision Making, Sheila S. Giere

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to validate the problem behavior evaluation section of an expert system computer program, Class.BD. Class.BD was developed to assist special education personnel in determining whether students qualify for special education services as behaviorally disordered/severely emotionally disturbed students.

The subjects were six Utah who regularly individuals from the state of 1) work with behaviorally disordered/severely emotionally disturbed students and 2) participate in multidisciplinary assessment teams. Three of the subjects were special educators, and three were school psychologists.

Specifically, this study investigated the impact of five behavioral factors on the subjects' ratings of the seriousness of …

Socio-Behavioral Correlates Of 6- To 11-Year-Old Offspring Of Alcohol Consuming Parents, Jan Garver Bacon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There is a lack of simple random sample based research into whether there are social skill and behavior problem differences for six- to eleven-year-old boys and girls which correlate with rates of parental alcohol consumption, social sequelae of parental alcohol consumption, reported level of marital conflict, and extended family history of alcoholism.

This simple random sample study correlates the above variables with T scores on the behavior problem and social competence scales of the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist and Child Behavior Checklist - Teacher's Report Form for six- to eleven-year-old children (N=100). Behavior problem scales include disorders of affect, thought, …

Public School Preschool For Disadvantaged Children: Program Quality And Long-Term Effects, Ellen Frede

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Although preschool for disadvantaged children is strongly supported nationally as a beneficial endeavor, the research that underlies this support has mostly been limited to small-scale, high-quality experiments. Some have questioned the ability of public schools to provide similar experiences for young children and to produce long-term effects. This study is a long-term follow-up in first-grade children who attended preschool in a statewide public school program. The classrooms were observed to assess the quality of treatment. It was determined that children who attended classrooms that provided medium- to high-quality experiences outperformed those in poor-quality classrooms, as well as comparison children who …

Sex Differences In Attitudes And Motivation Of Egyptian Students In An Intensive Efl Program, Amani Shawki H Demian

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Aspects Of Mammalian Predation On Upland Nesting Waterfowl In Central North Dakota, John Thompson Trevor

Theses and Dissertations

The impact of mammalian predation on upland nesting waterfowl was studied in central- North Dakota during the summers of 1987 and 1988. Survival of artificial nests was examined in relation to nest density, vegetation cover, distance from roads, active predator dens, and other artificial nests in a plot. Survival of artificial nests was also compared between an area with predator control and one without predator control.

Artificial waterfowl nests located in high density plots had a significantly lower probability of survival than nests located in low density plots. Although there were significant differences in vegetation height and density between years, …

Relationships Across Training Programs, Professional Titles, And Perceptions Of Therapy Performance, Debra E. Anderson Bach

Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to examine the perceptions of students training to be counselors, clinical psychologists, and social workers, regarding the professional titles of counseling psychologist, psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, and social worker. A videotaped counseling session of a therapist and a client, a client description, and a therapist description served as the stimuli. The professional title of the therapist varied in the therapist description and served as the independent variable. One hundred three subjects were grouped according to their training program and then randomly assigned to one of the four treatment groups differentiated by the professional titles of counseling psychologist, …

Training Potential Witnesses To Produce Higher Quality Face Composites, David Bradley Marwitz

Master's Theses

This study attempted to determine if training and familiarization with a composite construction system would improve the quality of subjects' composite production. Subjects were trained in the use of the Mac-a-Mug Pro system over two sessions. During the course of the two meetings, subjects constructed eleven composites (six from memory and five with the face in-view) and were allowed time to practice with the system. Results suggests that the quality of subjects' composites improved with practice. However, training with the composite system prior to exposure to the first face did not lead to higher quality composites. These results have implications …