Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Qualitative Evaluation Of A Community Development Process Within A Housing Co-Operative, Gwenith Page-Clemmer

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Community development has been credited for numerous achievements since the turn of the century. Its premise and theory have been applied to a multitude of settings and cultures. Although the contexts are forever changing, the fundamental philosophy is still the same, to create in each individual a desire to work together for the overall good of the community. This thesis examines one community development project, its context, and process, and evaluates its effects using a qualitative approach. Russet Homes, a rehabilitative cooperative opened its doors to community development in 1985. Transformed from a typical townhouse project into a cooperative, Russet …

An Outcome Of The Undergraduate Program Of The School Of Human Services, New Hampshire College, Margaret Mary Foy

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis is an outcome evaluation of the Undergraduate component of the School of Human Services (SHS), New Hampshire College (NHC). The SHS is unique in the alternative college movement of the 1960’s and the early 1970’s in the U.S., both for its focus upon social change and for its ability to survive the conservative restoration of the late 1970’s and the 1980’s, that has forced the closure of most of the alternative colleges. This project involved collaboration with the faculty and staff of the SHS to mutually define all stages of the research process, including development, implementation, evaluation, and …

Religiosity And The Belief In A Just World, James Albert William Lea

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present study attempted to account for previous contradictory findings with regard to the relationship between religiosity and the belief that the world is a just place. There were 252 participants who each completed a questionnaire containing the manipulations of a 2 X 2 X 3 factorial experiment and a number of measures used for a correlational analysis. Part 1 found that varying the salience of religion influenced victim derogation (a common index of the belief in a just world) in high and low religious participants differently. Low religious participants only derogated an ill person relative to a healthy person …

A New Approach To The Assessment Of Social Functioning Of People Who Have Been Hospitalized For Psychiatric Treatment, Heather Smith Fowler

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Typical approaches to social functioning assessment--the social adjustment approach in particular--are seen to have a number of conceptual and methodological limitations which develop from a problematic value system. A new approach to the assessment of social functioning is advocated, based on the values of community psychology and giving priority to the individual's subjective experience, social environment, and personal growth, and to a qualitative methodology. As part of the development of this approach, this research sought to describe and interpret what a group of 40 people--previously hospitalized for psychiatric treatment and currently residing in co-operative supportive housing--think and feel about their …

The Effects Of A Thank-You Letter And/Or Phone Call To First-Time Volunteer Blood Donors, Larkey Sheldon De Neffe

Dissertations and Theses

This study measures two reinforcement strategies designed to increase repeat donations in first-time volunteer blood donors.

The Effect Of The Type A Coronary Behavior Pattern On Intergroup Conflict Reduction, Ian Beckford

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of an individual difference variable (the Type A/B coronary prone behavior pattern) on intergroup conflict reduction. Undergraduates were first characterized as Type A/B based on a pretest. They then participated in a study that consisted of the presentation of two conflict-inducing tasks to each of two groups homogeneous with respect to the A/B dimension. There were three conditions in the study: sessions in which the groups were composed exclusively of "A"'s or "B"'s, and sessions which consisted of "A"'s and "B's. The two groups competed with one another on …

Mineral-Deficient Diets And The Pig’S Attraction To Blood: Implications For Tail-Biting, David Fraser

Abnormal Behavior Collection

In two experiments, individually penned growing pigs were exposed daily to two "tail models” (lengths of cotton cord about the size of a pig's tail), one of which had been impregnated with pigs' blood. When fed a balanced "control" diet, the pigs chewed significantly more on the blood-covered model than on the plain one, but with Iarge individual differences between animals. Four weeks of receiving a diet lacking all mineral supplements (iodized salt, dicalcium phosphate, limestone, iron, zinc, manganese, copper, and selenium) caused a pronounced increase in chewing the blood-covered model, and 4 wk of recovery on the control diet …

The Application Of Program Evaluation Techniques To Improve Services For Emotionally Disturbed Children And Youth In Kentucky: Discussion Of A Statewide Needs Analysis Model And A Framework For Program Development, Vicki Phillips

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

No abstract provided.

Hemispheric Brain Laterality Of Perception Of Tachistoscopically Presented Erotic Stimuli By Male And Female College Students, Randall Warne Stewart

Masters Theses

The effects of hemispheric asymmetry on the perception of erotic stimuli presented in either of the two visual fields was investigated. Freshmen and Sophomore college students, 20 males and 27 females, were used as subjects in the study. Subjects were bilaterally presented with combinations of erotic, neutral, and blank visual field stimuli using a "split visual field" procedure for a total of 96 200 msec. presentations. Subjects were asked to rate the presentations on a scale of 1 to 5; 1 was equal to neutral and 5 was equal to very erotic. Males and females rated erotic stimuli presented in …

Restrained Eating : The Effects Of Privacy And Perception Of Having Overeaten On Subsequent Food Consumption, Geraldine T. Merola

Theses and Dissertations

Herman & Mack (1975) theorized that "restrained eaters," conflicted between social pressure to be thin and biological pressure to be fat, tend to alternately eat very little or a great deal, as they respond to one or the other constraint. According to restraint theory, restrained eaters' chronic dieting induces physiological and psychological states that make them highly susceptible to external disruption of eating controls. Research has shown that when led to believe they have already overeaten (i.e., when they are "preloaded"), restrained eaters will loosen restraints and "counterregulate" (i.e., binge-eat). In contrast, "unrestrained eaters" (i.e., normal eaters) will compensate by …

Drug Use And Abuse: A Survey Of Mentally Retarded Citizens In Kalamazoo County, Michigan, Sandra Ann Burdick

Masters Theses

An abundant array of research in the area of drug use and abuse among various populations has been conducted in recent years. These studies have determined that although several demographic variables affect the prevalence of drug use, all segments of society who have access to drugs are at some risk. Whether relative risk is influenced by subaverage intelligence is unclear, however, for very little has been done to determine the prevalence of drug use and abuse among the mentally retarded.

In this survey methods were utilized to gather such information in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. A survey return rate of 73% …

An Attendance Incentive Procedure Using Group Contingencies, Norman Kevin Brown

Masters Theses

This study used a multiple baseline design to examine the effect of a lottery-based group contingency on unscheduled sick leave (USL) use by residential treatment workers. Sixty direct-care workers participated in this study. Researchers employed a group contingency that required workers to meet 2-week absence criterion levels in order to participate in a subsequent reinforcement lottery. The workers who won the lottery chose one of four rewards including 20 dollars, 4 hours paid time-off, lunch with a supervisor, and four movie tickets. The mean number of USL hours used in each of five work units was reduced significantly during intervention. …

An Evaluation Of The Effects Of An Infant-Care Skills Training Program On Fathering Behaviors, G. Joseph Vrazo

Masters Theses

This study replicated the findings and expanded the assessment procedures of a previous study that had established the effectiveness of a multi-component infant-care skills training program for first-time fathers. A multiple probe design was used in this study to demonstrate that the training program produced criterion performance of the infant-care skills by four experimental fathers; also, an increase in the frequency of infant stimulation activities initiated by these fathers was observed. A pre/post training evaluation of the effects of the training program on the fathers' performance of play and affectional behaviors and daily infant-care activities yielded negative results. Four control …

Predictors Of Self-Esteem And Spiritual Well-Being Among Sexually Abused Women, Kathryn D. Rodriguez

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

The purpose of the study was to a) formulate an equation for predicting self-esteem and spiritual wellbeing among women molested as children and b) analyze the role of beginning age of abuse, ending age of abuse, relationship between offender and victim, family authority structure, and religious orientation of the home in predicting self-esteem and spiritual well-being in contributing to these equations. The sample consisted of 50 adult women between the ages of 18 and 60 who were involved in outpatient treatment for childhood sexual abuse in one of six outpatient treatment facilities in the Northwestern United States. Stepwise multiple regression …

Ratio Pausing And The Determination Of Discriminative Operant Latencies, Thomas M. Bell

Dissertations

The latency between discriminative stimulus onset and initiation of a corresponding ratio requirement (RR) was studied in pigeons using a two-key discrete-trial procedure with three-component multiple schedules. The two-key procedure allowed measurement of response-reinforcer relations on a "constant" key, and stimulus-reinforcer relations on a "stimulus" key. The first experiment showed regular between-session effects as equivalent fixed-ratio (FR) components were raised over several phases and then lowered. A direct relation was observed between latency and RR for each of ten subjects. Initial stimulus-key pecking showed several trends, the most prevalent being an inverse relation to RR.

Experiment 2 demonstrated within-session separations …

The Effects Of Caffeine On The Recall Of Prose Passages, Scott V. Sternhagen

Theses and Dissertations

It has been demonstrated that an individual's level of arousal has a significant effect on their ability to perform a specific tasks. This arousal may be due to stable trait characteristics such as those measured by the impulsivity subscale of the Eysenck Introversion Extroversion Scale or transient state effects like those caused by consumption of stimulants such as caffeine. Manipulation of trait and state arousal have been shown to cause significant effects on an individual's ability to perform various cognitive tasks such as to remember word lists or prose passages.

In this experiment, 79 male subjects listened to three expository …

The Effects Of Altruism On Activity Productivity In Elderly Women In Skilled-Care Nursing Facilities, Carol J. Getz

Masters Theses

This study investigated altruism as a factor in productivity in elderly women. Eight groups of institutionalized elderly women (n = 33) stenciled personalized (initials) stationery. Groups were randomly assigned to either the non-altruistic condition or the altruistic condition; there was control for time of day and location of the activity. Subjects in the non-altruistic condition made stationery for themselves, while subjects in the altruistic condition made stationery for abused children living in an innercity. The number of pieces of stationery produced and the duration of time engaged in activity were recorded for each subject. Mann-Whitney U tests revealed that subjects …

The Effects Of Test Result And Diagnosticity On Physicians’ Revisions Of Probability Of Disease In Medical Diagnosis, Ann Elizabeth Sinclair

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the effects of sensitivity, specificity and result of diagnostic tests on the uses which physicians make of those results. These were compared with the Bayesian model of probability adjustment, which is generally accepted for medical diagnosis. Ninety six active members of the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians were interviewed by telephone, using a case scenario describing a patient with a newly discovered breast lump. Subjects estimated prior probability of malignancy, based on history and physical findings, and then estimated posterior probability following results of a mammogram. Mammograms varied by result (positive or negative) and by high and …

The Influence Of Work Station Architecture On Work Perceptions And Work Behavior, Connie L. True

Dissertations and Theses

A field study was conducted to find whether open office architecture is related to employees' perceptions of their jobs and their work groups, and to their behavior in and around their work stations. Fifty-two employees in the administrative division of a large manufacturing operation volunteered to participate by answering a questionnaire and allowing their work stations to be analyzed for levels of visual access and visual exposure, the two independent variables. Access and exposure, at first theorized to be independent and interacting functions, were found to be too highly correlated in this open office setting to test as originally planned. …

Aircrew Training Devices: Utility And Utilization Of Advanced Instructional Features (Phase Iv–Summary Report), Donald J. Polzella, David C. Hubbard, James E. Brown, H. Craig Mclean

Psychology Faculty Publications

Modern aircrew training devices (ATDs) are equipped with sophisticated hardware and software capabilities, known as advanced instructional features (AIFs), that permit a simulator instructor to prepare briefings, manage training, vary task difficulty/fidelity, monitor performance, and provide feedback for flight simulation training missions. The utility and use of the AIF capabilities of Air Force ATDs were explored by means of a survey of 534 simulator instructors from Air Training Command, Military Airlift Command, Strategic Air Command, and Tactical Air Command training sites. The primary purpose of the survey was to provide a database that could be used in defining the requirements …

Benjamin Spock And The Spock Papers At Syracuse University, Robert S. Pickett

The Courier

This article gives a portrait of the controversial pediatrician and popular author Benjamin Spock, much of it gleaned from his personal papers located at Syracuse University's Special Collections. Among some of the insights into his life worth noting are his wife Jane's contributions to his personal attitudes and even his books.

School Of Psychology Master's Course Schedule Fall Session 1987, Nova University

College of Psychological Services / College of Psychology Postgraduate Student and Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

[School Of Psychology] Additional Course Numbers For Students Entering Doctoral Program Fall 1987, Nova University

College of Psychological Services / College of Psychology Postgraduate Student and Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Effects Of The Presence Of A Same-Sex Friend Or Stranger On Coping With Stress, Scott B. Harrison

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

To induce stress, subjects were told they would be maneuvering a tarantula spider through a decision maze. While waiting to perform this task subjects were randomly assigned to one of five experimental conditions. In four conditions subjects were paired with either a friend or a stranger, and they were instructed to either communicate or not. In the fifth condition subjects waited alone as they anticipated performing the task. Negative mood state and blood pressure measures were obtained before and after the treatment conditions. A behavioral fear measure was obtained after treatment manipulation. Higher amounts of anxiety were reported between friends …

Job Satisfaction Among Female Employees As Predicted By Work Friendships, Melinda Jan Montgomery

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to predict job satisfaction among female employees using social environment variables which relate to work friendships. The predictor variables used were target persons perceived job satisfaction level, breadth of workplace friendships, frequency of interaction, friendship quality, and the interaction of friendship and quality.

Thirty-seven female faculty members and 88 female staff employees at Old Dominion University served as subjects. The subjects were asked to complete the Communal scale {Clark, 1986), selected sections of the Acquaintance Description Form (Wright, 1969, 1974), and the work-in-general scale from the Job Descriptive Index on a co-worker considered …

Similarities Between Human And Animal Spatial Memory: Item And Order Information, Robert H.I. Dale

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Human subjects, sitting at the center of a circle of eight lights, were tested on analogues of radial-maze item-recognition (Roberts & Smythe, 1979) and order-recognition (Kesner & Novak, 1982) tasks. Subjects in the item-recognition condition saw a list of seven lights, and then the nonlist (eighth) light was tested against the first, fourth, or seventh light from the list. The sub- jects were required to point toward the non list light. Subjects in the order-recognition condition saw a series of eight lights, followed by a test of the first and second, fourth and fifth, or seventh and eighth serial positions. …

Andrew Strathern's Review Of Geoffrey M. White And John Kirkpatrick's Person, Self, And Experience: Exploring Pacific Ethnopsychologies, Andrew Strathern

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

The Efficacy Of Biofeedback In The Treatment Of Tension Headaches, Micahel Earl Waters

Graduate Theses

Fifteen adults from the general population with chronic tension headaches were divided into four groups. Four were assigned to relaxation instructions, biofeedback (EMG and temperature), and home relaxation practice; four were assigned to relaxation instructions and biofeedback; four were assigned to biofeedback alone; and three were assigned to a no-treatment group. Subjects completed a ten-day baseline period followed by a three-week treatment period. Measures were taken of headache frequency, duration, intensity, frontalis EMG, and temperature recordings. Comparisons of pre- and post-treatment data indicated that not one treatment group was significantly different from any other treatment group, including the no-treatment group, …

Depression In Caregivers Of Alzheimer’S Patients: Concurrent Validity Of Two Depression Scales, Joyce Sutton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Forty-five male and female family caregivers of institutionalized and noninstitutionalized Alzheimer’s Disease patients were assessed for depression, using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Internal consistency and concurrent validity for the BDI and GDS were acceptable, based on item-total correlation, coefficient alphas, and a Pearson’s Product-moment correlation. A stepwise multiple regression analysis was carried out to determine which variables predict depression in Alzheimer’s caregivers. Using the traditional cut-off score of 11 for each scale, it was found that 42% were depressed on the BDI, while 58% were depressed on the GDS; these rates were not significantly …

Task Load, Stimulus Encodability, Test Latency, And Processing Efficiency Effects On The Visual Recognition Memory Of The Chronic Neuropsychologically Impaired, Thomas W. C. Blash

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Psychologists assessing the visual recognition memory (VRM) of neuropsychologically compromised clients with the dual diagnosis of cognitive impairment and emotional sequelae confront two problems, including the dearth of studies dealing with the dually diagnosed (Menolascino, 1984) and inconsistent findings from past research on the effects of cerebral compromise on visual memory (Boller & DeRenzi, 1967; Cremonini, DeRenzi, & Faglioni, 1980; DeRenzi & Spinnler, 1966; DeRenzi, Faglioni, & Villa, 1977; Gouvier, 1983; Kimura, 1963). This study examines the effects of task load (number of stimuli), stimulus encodability, test latency, and cognitive processing efficiency on a group of dually diagnosed individuals who …