Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effect Of Explanation On The Art Preferences Of Liberals And Conservatives, Joseph Fay

Master's Theses

One hundred thirteen subjects at the University of Richmond were shown twenty-four slides of paintings from four categories of art: simple representational, simple abstract, complex representational, complex abstract. Half of the paintings in each category were accompanied by a one-paragraph explanation. Based on their scores on the Conservatism Scale (Wilson & Patterson, 1968), subjects were divided into two groups: liberals and conservatives. Using Wilson’s (1973) theory of conservatism as the theoretical base, it was hypothesized that, for the unexplained paintings, conservatives would prefer simple art while liberals would prefer complex art.

Effectiveness Of Three Differential Reinforcement Techniques As A Function Of Past Reinforcement History And Present Schedule Of Reinforcement, La Rue Chappell

Student Work

The effectiveness of three differential reinforcement techniques, extinction of the old response with reinforcement for the new response versus extinction of the old response with double reinforcement for the new response versus continuation of reinforcement for the old response with double reinforcement for the new response, in reducing lever-pressing behavior, was studied, as a function of past reinforcement history and present schedule of reinforcement. Thirty children, with a mean age of 5 years 10 months, were reinforced for tapping the assigned key on either a differential reinforcement of low rates (drl 10"') or a differential reinforcement of high rates (VR …

The Effects Of The Couples Communication Program On Marital Communication And Perceived Satisfaction With The Relationship, Candace Barbara Waller

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The increasing popularity of marital enrichment programs suggests a need for a systematic analysis of their effectiveness. Earlier evaluative studies contained numerous methodological shortcomings, making it difficult to draw inferences about enrichment-induced change. Twenty married couples participated in the Couples Communication Program (CCP) or a placebo control group. Measures of marital communication and perceived marital adjustment were obtained prior to the program, at the conclusion of the program and at a one month follow-up. The simulation measure of communication indicated that the experimental couples learned the skill taught in the CCP. However, there was no significant change in marital satisfaction. …

Effects Of Individual Differences In Cognitive Flexibility And Motor Variability On Learning Processes, Merith Anne Cosden

Psychology ETDs

No abstract provided.

Deviations From Matching As A Measure Of Preference For Alternatives In Pigeons, Sam M. Leigland

Psychology ETDs

A growing body of literature indicates that animals and children tend to prefer situations which provide for a greater number of choice alternatives. In the present work, the problem was approached through the investigation of preference for larger or smaller response classes in a free-operant choice procedure. The method of assessing preference in the choice situation was afforded through the well-documented matching law of concurrent reinforcement schedules, which generally states that the ratio of responses or time allocated to each of two independent and concurrently-available schedules will equal the ratio of the reinforcements obtained on those schedules. A systematic and …

Efficacy, Contrast Effect And Differential Effectiveness Of Two Time-Out Durations In The Treatment Of Two Autistic Children, Susan Adell Blankenbaker

Master's Theses

A single subject simultaneous treatment design, within a multiple baseline framework, was used to test the efficacy, contrast effect and differential effectiveness of two durations of time-out (TO). With two children on the autistic ward of a residential mental hospital serving as subjects, the TO procedure was demonstrated to be effective in reducing target behavior. No statistically significant difference was found between the 2 minute and 5 minute TOs and limited support for the existence of a contrast effect was revealed. It was concluded that strategies for the facilitation of the use of the shortest TO interval possible should be …

Storage And Retrieval Processes In Retention, Charles R. Grah

Psychology ETDs

Two experiments investigated the contributions of storage and retrieval to the retention of a categorized word list by varying the number of successive study or test trials. The logic behind this approach was based on the assumption that storage and retrieval are tied to study and test trials respectively. Therefore, the results of the study trial manipulation could be used to make inferences about the contributions of storage, while the results of the test trial manipulation could be used to make inferences about the contributions of retrieval. Retention of both categories and words within a category was assessed in a …

The Image And The Unconscious, Nancy C. Panagiotou, Anees A. Sheikh

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Verbal language has long been the most widely used source of data for clinical inference; recently, however, an increasing number of therapists have turned to images for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. This paper focusses upon the use of mental imagery in analytically oriented therapies. The first segment presents a brief discussion of some important psycholinguistic questions that bear upon the use of images in psychotherapy. The second part discusses the observations of spontaneous images by analytical therapists and shows the relation of these images to linguistic-rational cognition and to unconscious organization. The third section brings out the unique function …

Effect Of Interpolated Stimulus Training On Generalization To A Reinstated Stimulus: Reciprocal Generalization, Ward Arthur Rodriguez

Psychology ETDs

Reciprocal and higher order reciprocal transfer or generalization effects are said to occur when performance in the presence of an interpolated stimulus influences performance to the reinstated original stimulus conditions. The present studies examined reciprocal and higher order reciprocal effects in the CER, free operant, and instrumental runway situations. In addition, first order reciprocal effects were examined when interpolated training was correlated with a less potent reinforcer.

Results showed that in the CER paradigm, first order reciprocal effects enhanced the disruption of the appetitive baseline behavior. In contrast, there were no first order reciprocal effects in either the operant or …

Developmental Aspects Of Nonsolution In Adults, Elliot Jay Rapoport

Psychology ETDs

The relationship between the complete learning concept task and Piagetian tasks used to evaluate the presence and extent of formal operations was investigated with adult college students. The results of this study demonstrate that both solving and nonsolving in concept tasks are a subject related parameter and are stable over twenty-four to thirty-six hour intervals. The generality of formal operations in adult college students was found to be significantly less than that predicted by Piaget. The relationship between the concept task and the Piagetian formal operations tasks was assessed using correlations and was found to be significant. In addition, the …

Coding Processes In Bilingual Word Recognition, Susan E. Gonzales

Psychology ETDs

Spanish-English bilingual subjects performed in a memory search task which required them to determine whether test words were members or nonmembers of previously learned memory sets. For some trials, memory set and test words were from the same language, but for other trials, they were from opposite languages. Test items were blocked into either pure or mixed sequences. Pure blocks contained test items from a single language only, while mixed blocks contained either 2, 4, or 6 words which were nouns from a single semantic class. Some negative stimuli were semantically related to memory set words, while others were unrelated. …

The Effects Of A Group Therapy Program On Truancy, Keith Politi

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Two truancy groups were conducted for the Simpson County School System. A multifaceted group treatment approach was used with truants in an attempt to reduce school absences, increase feelings of personal and social security and change negative attitudes toward school. A contingency contract in conjunction with a modified token economy was used to increase school attendance. Group discussions were used to increase feelings of personal and social security and to change negative attitudes toward school. A comparison of group members pre- and postgroup school attendance records showed that group members significantly increased their school attendance. A comparison of group members …

The Relationship Between Number Of Sessions And Client-Judged Outcome, Jay Athy

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Outpatient clients from a community mental health center were surveyed by questionnaire to examine the relationship between number of therapy sessions attended and client-judgments of therapeutic outcome. The results indicated that client-judgments of therapeutic benefit tended to be independent of length of therapy when the client-judgement is a global assessment of therapeutic benefit. Controls for mode of therapy, initial diagnosis, type of referral, and status of case yielded similar findings. The nature of these relationships was nonlinear with the possible existence of different zones of sessions that account for varying degrees of client-perceived success. It also appeared that clients evaluated …

An Examination Of Commitment To Scholarly Openness & Religious Belief Among Academicians, Jim Alsdurf

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The relations between faculty religiosity, changes in reliaious beliefs, and commitment to scholarly openness were examined through a survey of 257 faculty at three universities. A new measure of scholarly openness was developed for this study because of ambiguities in previous indirect and attitudinal measures. Patterns of faculty religiosity as a function of education, graduate school prestige, academic discipline, and educational period of religious change are generally compatible with previous studies, but patterns for scholarly openness are not. Faculty religiosity and scholarly openness were negatively correlated for those Faculty who had never experienced sinnificant reliaious change and for those who …

Indicators Of Anxiety On Bender Records: A Correlational Study, Kevin Dooley

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Since the Bender's growth in popularity as a tool for assessing organic brain damage, other factors have been shown to influence the accuracy of design reproductions. Mental deficiency, cultural background, early age and :ex are among those factors. Attempts to demonstrate the effect: of personality traits have been few, but supportive. Research into the influence of personality on Bender performance has largely been group comparison designs. The degree of overlap found among groups has reduced the degree of confidence with which the results can be applied to individual performance:. The present study used a correlational approach to determine how validly …

The Effects Of Sucrose Concentration On Punishment Produced Suppression Of Licking Behavior In Rats, Okechukwu Igboanumma S. Ozuzu

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of An Individualized Remediation Program On Comprehensive Final Examination Performance, Timothy N. Trainor

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of The Differential Effects Of Retesting And A Mastery Criterion On Student Performance In A Psi Course, Carol M. Sundberg

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of The Ecological Psychology Literature With Respect To School Size, Behavioral Psychology And Cultural Survival, Bruce E. Hesse

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Generalization Of An Academic Response Rate Under Self And Externally Determined Reinforcement, Samuel James Gitchel

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of Vicarious Reinforcement In A Basic Research Setting, Ted R. Ruggles

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Response Variability As A Function Of Stimulus Change, Margaret E. Peterson

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Treatment Package For Proctor Pre-Quiz Discussion In An Instructor-Paced Introductory Psychology Course, Benjamin Robert Ober

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Training Social Work Students In A Practicum Setting, Linda L. Maier

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Life Satisfaction And Aging: A Comparison Of Life Satisfaction Index A, The Tennessee Self Concept Scale And Correlates, Ann Rowley Penberthy

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between life satisfaction and other relevant variables in a sample of noninstitutionalized older Americans. Recent research has related satisfaction with life to adjustment in aging. Previous studies, however, have used a variety of methods to measure life satisfaction or self-concept. This study was designed to be an analysis of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale and the Life Satisfaction Index A with selected personal and behavioral variables. 59 subjects, primarily Jewish, aged 56 to 91 were tested during their regular activity meetings at the Jewish Community Center of Richmond, Virginia. The …

Relationship Of State-Trait Anxiety And Type Of Practice To Reading Comprehension Of College Students, Lewis R. Waid

Master's Theses

Sixty male and female college students of average scholastic aptitude, 30 with high A-trait and 30 with low A-trait, were tested for reading comprehension following either massed (MP) or distributed practice (DP) with narrative reading material. Twice during the experiment the students' A-state was assessed through Spielberger's STAI A-state scale. The findings demonstrated; (a) high A-trait students responded to the experimental situation with greater elevations in A-state; (b) performance on the reading comprehension task was related to A-trait level with low A-trait students performing significantly better; (c) the A-state level of the students immediately prior to the reading comprehension test …

Self-Management: A Comparison Of The Effects Of Self- And Experimenter-Imposed Schedules Of Reinforcement On An Academic Response Rate, Robert S. Leopold

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Sex Roles Orientation And Career Orientation On The Career Development Of Adolescent Females, Karen Fenske Kamischke

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Two Correction Procedures Upon The Acquisition Of Three Line-Tilt Discriminations, Jane Stewart Howard

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Role Imposed Academic Abilities On Group Induced Risk Shift With Choice Dilemma Questionnaire Items, Sang H. Han

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.