Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Affinity-Maintenance Strategies And Relationship Satisfaction, Carla J. Jernigan

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the influence of affinity maintenance strategies (i.e., positivity, openness, assurances and sharing tasks) on relationship satisfaction. An individual's perception of his or her partner's affinity-maintenance behaviors was investigated. Gender differences and sex-role attitudes were also examined. Using Stafford and Canary's (1991) Affinity-Maintenance Strategy Measure and Hendrick's (1988) Relationship Assessment Scale, positive correlations were found between the frequency of positivity and relationship satisfaction for males and females. The perception of partner's use of sharing tasks was positively correlated with relationship satisfaction. Gender differences were not found in how frequently males or females utilized affinity-maintenance strategies within their relationship. …

An Exploratory Study Of Gender And The Process Of Negotiating Academic Contracts Among Sociologists, Miriam M. Newton

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Ample evidence supports the existence of the gender wage gap. One explanation for the gender wage gap in academia may be men's and women's different experiences of the process of negotiating academic contracts. Past literature on gender differences in negotiation suggests that males are more likely to initiate negotiations and are more successful in negotiations than women. This study investigates the process of negotiating academic contracts through a survey of recent PhD graduates in sociology. The research is guided by two questions: (1) What are the experiences of new faculty regarding the process of negotiating academic contracts; and (2) What …

The Utilization Of Sexual Harassment Grievance Procedures In Universities, Beth Parsons

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present research examined the relations between students' and employees' knowledge of the university's sexual harassment policy/grievance procedure and their reporting behavior. The present research also examined the position of the complainant (i.e., undergraduate student, graduate student, staff, faculty, and administrator) with respect to the incidence of sexual harassment and the response of filing a sexual harassment complaint. A survey assessing the various aspects of interest was sent to all full-time female employees (n = 954) of a medium sized, southeastern university. The response rate was 42% for administrators, 43% for faculty, and 36% for staff. In addition, 178 undergraduate …

Narcissism And Actors: A Comparative Study Of The Narcissistic Qualities Of Actors Acting Students And Psychology Students, David William Wicker

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study compared 200 psychology undergraduates, 47 acting students and 69 professional actors using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. The inventory was evaluated using both Robert Raskin's seven factor system and Robert Emmons' four factor system. Three comparisons were done. The first analysis involved the three groups, undergraduate, student actors, and professional actors and gender. The second involved only the professional actors and investigated effects of gender and membership in an acting union. The third examined effects of gender and age. The age groups were delineated by decade beginning with teens, the oldest group being in their sixties. The acting groups …

Lower Chesapeake Maritime Enterprise: 1781-1812, D. Dennis Duff

History Theses & Dissertations

The American Revolutionary War, officially concluded by the Treaty of Paris of 1783, forever changed American maritime enterprise. An examination of the response of Lower Chesapeake merchants to elimination of the British monopoly on American seagoing commerce reveals that Virginia shipping activity recovered quickly after the conflict, then expanded and prospered until the War of 1812. In addition to propelling the Commonwealth's post-war economic resurgence, Virginia's prosperous foreign trading interests influenced political decisions on Constitutional ratification, establishment of Confederation period and early national commercial policies, and diplomatic initiatives to strengthen American overseas exchange.

Principal sources include customs records of the …

A Total Systems Analysis Method For The Conceptual Design Of Spacecraft: An Application To Remote Sensing Imager Systems, Knut I. Oxnevad

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Increased emphasis is being placed on improving the performance of space projects, within tighter budgets and shorter development times. This has led to a need for more efficient space system design methods. The research described here represents an effort to develop and evaluate such a method.

Systems engineering and concurrent engineering together provide the theoretical foundation for the method. The method, derived from both this theoretical foundation and ideas from experts in the space industry, emphasizes a total systems analysis approach, taking into account given mission requirements, and the mathematical modeling of interactions between system variables and between subsystems. The …

Correlates Of Parental Discipline In Adhd Children, Dawn Marie Powers

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study was designed to examine the parenting of an ADHD child in several important ways. First, it was hypothesized that mothers of ADHD children would report employing harsher, more restrictive disciplinary practices and that more negative interaction patterns, specifically resembling the coercive pattern described by Patterson (1982) would be evident in mother/ADHD child dyads. Second, the present study sought to identify the determinants of disciplinary practices and negative interaction patterns that are believed to exist in mother/ADHD child dyads. It was hypothesized that greater parental stress, difficult child temperament, and less ability to regulate self-control will be positively …

Correlates Of The Mmpi-A Immaturity (Imm) Scale In An Adolescent Psychiatric Population, Eric Albert Imhof

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Despite numerous theories of adolescent ego development, there is no objective measure of ego development or maturation targeted for the assessment of adolescents. The Immaturity (IMM) Scale developed for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - Adolescent (MMPI-A) was designed to fill this void in adolescent assessment. The present study examined the concurrent validity of the IMM Scale based on sixty-six adolescents (13-18 years old) in an inpatient setting using four prominent measures of maturity, i.e., The Defining Issues Test (DIT), the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT), the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status - Second Revision (EOM-EIS-2), and …

Extreme Response Style, Irvine Clarke Iii

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

The objective of this research was to understand the effect of culture on Extreme Response Style (ERS) for cross-cultural marketing efforts employing Likert type scales. Growth in quantitative cross-cultural marketing research has brought alternative methodological considerations, like ERS, to the forefront of attention, since, traditional inferential statistics used in group comparisons become confounded by this systematic bias. Marketers comparing groups with differing degrees of response style may incorrectly make claims based on observed differences that are strictly attributable to cultural ERS. Therefore, the specific objective of this dissertation was to relate ERS to culture, Likert response formats and to demonstrate …

The Destructive Narcissistic Pattern, Nina W. Brown

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

Identifying characteristics of the Destructive Narcissistic Pattern (DNP) in the workplace are presented. The DNP is most easily recognized by the reactions of those who have to work with him/ her. Characteristics are derived from the literature on pathological narcissism which differs only in intensity and degree. Strategies to develop constructive working relationships with the DNP are presented.

Therapist Orientation And Circularity-Linearity Of Causality, Responsibility, Intentionality, And Blame For Clinical Problems, Helen Alexander Jones

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Differences in circularity of attributions of causality, responsibility, intentionality and blame for clinical problems by therapists of psychodynamic, behavioral and systems orientations, a psychiatrist group, and an attorney control group were investigated using the Circularity-Linearity Attribution Scale (CLAS). Respondents' judgments about the sufficiency of a single cause for the problem, circular conceptualization of the problem, and linear conceptualization of the presented problems were also solicited. Responses were compared for two problems, schizophrenia and domestic violence. It was hypothesized that the systems-oriented therapists' attributions would be more circular than those of other therapist groups on all dependent variables. It was also …

Social And Economic Opportunity In Seventeenth-Century Charles County, Maryland, Garett William Hughes

History Theses & Dissertations

This study explores social and economic opportunity within Charles County in the context of the seventeenth-century and the founding of the Maryland colony. By illustrating the strong cross-Atlantic ties between England and the Chesapeake region, as well as the impact that a high population turnover rate and unsteady tobacco economy had upon the Maryland colony, this study first establishes the environment that those settlers who chose to immigrate to the Chesapeake inhabited. Further, by utilizing community connections, personal relations, and the legal system, the men and women of Charles County developed new methods in which to access opportunity. The source …

"Never Draw Unless You Mean To Shoot": United States Department Of State's Responses To Property Seizures In Latin America, Nathan D. Younge

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines the U.S. Department of State's diplomatic handling of disputes over the seizure of U.S.-owned property in Latin America between 1937 and 1973. Seizures in Bolivia, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Peru and Chile are used as case studies, and provide examples of successful and unsuccessful diplomatic outcomes.

Several key factors are analyzed in each dispute, including Several key factors are analyzed in each dispute, including whether the Department took a conciliatory or confrontational approach toward each country, the kind of economic pressure applied, the situations under which the Department opted for official diplomatic involvement, and the types of informal …

Economic Interdependence Along A Colonial Frontier: Capitalism And The New River Valley, 1745-1789, B. Scott Crawford

History Theses & Dissertations

Historians have generally placed the beginning of capitalism in the United States in the early- to mid-nineteenth century. This assumes that the industrialization of the New England states fostered in a modern economic environment for the country as a whole. However, evidence of modern economic principles existed on the Virginia frontier as early as the mid-eighteenth century. As frontier settlers aspired to emulate eastern society, they not only sought to recreate a lifestyle similar to the one they left behind, but also set up similar governing practices, which in turn created social stratification similar to that which existed in the …

An Evaluation Of The Norfolk Interagency Consortium's Community-Based System Of Care For At-Risk Youth, Melody Bingman Wilt

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The primary purpose of this research was to design and to implement an evaluation model for the Norfolk Interagency Consortium (NIC). The research design employed in this study focused on four areas of investigation: program clarification, processes and activities, outcomes, and cost. The study utilized qualitative and quantitative methods and procedures.

The program clarification stage of the research served as a pre-evaluative phase. An evaluability assessment was incorporated to define and clarify the NIC'S program components and goals, and determine which goals were evaluable. Data regarding the target population also were collected.

The processes and activities investigation used a survey …

The Tacit Dimension Of Organizational Learning, Thomas Reeder Robinson

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This research was conducted to observe the self-reflections of an organizational participant group to further understand the organizational learning phenomenon. The participant group consisted of the 15 managers, spanning three levels of management, of a large engineering group in the southeastern United States.

The intent of the research was to generate theory, rather than to test theory. To accomplish this objective, a qualitative research methodology in a participatory action framework was modeled from Keating's (1993) Organizational Learning Process (OLP) to co-construct participants' organizational reflections. The methodology included individual interviews designed to elicit spontaneity that co-generated organizational perspectives. These perspectives were …

Affective Reactions, Social Support And Willingness To Self-Disclose To Hiv Seropositive Individuals: Impact Of Sexual Orientation And Responsibility For The Infection, Susan Paige Sherburne

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

An attributional model of controllability suggests that perceptions of someone's controllability of an event lead to anger and rejection, whereas perceptions of uncontrollability lead to pity and helping. This study examined the impact of an HIV victim's sexual orientation and "responsibility" for infection on subjects' affective responses, self-disclosure to the person, social support, and liking and trust for the person. Subjects received messages from their "partner" (a confederate) stating that he had just learned he was HIV positive. The message either stated that he was heterosexual or homosexual, and that he had either only one partner or many partners. Subjects …

Views Of Feminist Family Therapy: A Q-Methodological Inquiry, Bronwen Cheek

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The feminist critique of family therapy has had a growing impact on theory and practice for almost two decades (Hare-Mustin, 1978; Bograd, 1990). Writings on feminist family therapy (FFT) reveal both common and diverse opinions about what FFT is. The present study examined how views of FFT are segmented using Q-methodology (Stephenson, 1953; Brown, 1980; McKeown & Thomas, 1988), a small-sample empirical technique for identifying emergent viewpoints and studying their similarities and differences. A Q-sort instrument of 60 statements was constructed to sample diverse discourse on FFT. Magraw's (1992) interviews with leading experts in FFT served as a primary source …

Mmpi And Rorschach Findings Of Individuals Approved For Gender Reassignment Surgery, Gregory Ralph Caron

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Both clinical experience and empirical data from psychological tests present a picture of extreme clinical variation among those individuals who request gender reassignment surgery. Results of past empirical studies utilizing the MMPI and the Rorschach Test have tended to be equivocal regarding the level and nature of psychopathology associated with samples of gender dysphorics. These past studies are considered limited particularly in terms of methodological problems related to statistical power. This present study examined the nature and degree of psychopathology in a sample of candidates approved for gender reassignment surgery as reflected on their MMPI-2 clinical scale values and scores …

The Effects Of Simultaneous And Successive Tasks And Knowledge Of Results On Add And Non-Add Children, Pamela J. Bishop

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Computerized continuous performance tasks (CPT) are often used to diagnose attention deficit disorders (ADD) The purpose of the present study was to continue the evaluation of a CPT developed from a psychophysical perspective. Specifically, two versions of a monitoring task (simultaneous and successive) were examined in the context of three conditions of knowledge of results (KR); KR to correct detections, false alarms, and irrelevant KR. Thirty children diagnosed with ADD and 30 without ADD performed two 9-minute monitoring tasks. Parents of the children were also interviewed with an adaptive behavior scale to investigate whether ADD children exhibit social functioning at …

Distance Education Library Services At Old Dominion University, Ann Pettingill, C. J. Jacob (Editor)

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

Library resources and services are an essential part of a strong academic distance education program. Students at remote sites must have consistent access to library informational and research materials in order to develop and broaden their understanding of the ideas and research in their disciplines, to bring new ideas to their off-site classrooms, and to acquire and develop their skills in research. These resources are as essential to the remote student as to those on campus. However, students at remote sites may have no facilities comparable to those easily accessed by on campus students. Additionally, many remote site students face …

The Effects Of Social Interaction And Verbalization On The Acquisition Of An Organizational Memory Strategy, Suzanne F. Morrow

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The effects of peer tutoring on third- and fifth-graders' use of an organizational memory strategy was examined. Children were first introduced to the memory task with highly associated items. Children then either taught another child the task, tape recorded instructions to give another child, or did the task again. Organizational memory was then retested measuring recall and clustering on moderately associated items. There was a significant effect due to condition with those in the Peer Tutoring condition recalling more items than the Control condition. Subsequent analyses comparing only the two experimental conditions revealed that the Peer Tutoring subjects recalled significantly …

A Historical, Theoretical, And Empirical Study Of Ppp Using Traditional And Alternative Methodologies, Kerry E. Clendenon

Economics Theses & Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Russia's China Policy Under Yeltsin And Its Effect On The Korean Peninsula, Jong Dyuk Lim

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This thesis studies current developments in Russia's China policy and their effect on the Korean Peninsula. This thesis asks these questions: how has the Russia's China policy changed since Gorbachev era, what are the determinants of Russia's current China policy, what is the effect of this policy on the Korean Peninsula, and what is the prospect for Russo-Chinese relations? Russia's China policy has been profoundly influenced by a series of domestic Russian institutional changes. Russia may be developing a political-economic system more consistent with "Eastern" notions of democracy and capitalism than those of the West. The result has been a …

An Analysis Of The Impact Of Race, Socioeconomic Status And Gender On Juvenile Justice Case Processing In A Southeastern C-Level Metropolitan Area, Melanie Wynell Smith

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

The goal of this research was to evaluate intake, adjudication and disposition of juvenile court cases to determine the extent to which outcomes are influenced by the race, socioeconomic status and gender of the referred youth. Three causal models were developed which incorporated the hypothesized relationships in both consensus and conflict paradigms. Zero-order correlations and path analysis were employed for quantitative analysis. Additionally, court services unit personnel were surveyed to determine the extent to which quantitative results were reasonable and reflective of their experience in the court system under study.

Path analysis and qualitative survey results indicate that the effect …

Attentional Processing Of Visual Stimuli: What Makes A Face A Face?, Samuel L. Chapman

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Reaction time (RT) and accuracy have been used to investigate the manner in which humans process visual stimuli for many years. Some researchers have found evidence of serial processing (e.g., Sternberg, 1969a) while others have shown that some visual stimuli are processed in parallel (e.g., Neisser, 1963). There have been very few studies investigating the processing of schematic faces with respect to RT and accuracy. The present study investigates the mechanisms associated with the recognition of schematic faces with respect to RT and accuracy.

Forty-two Old Dominion University students were shown a target face for ten seconds and were then …

The Effects Of Multiple Monitors And Knowledge Of Results On Vigilance Performance And Mental Workload, Peter John Ceplenski

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present laboratory study examined the impact of knowledge of results (KR) with multiple monitors on vigilance performance and mental workload. Previous studies have shown that multiple monitors and KR both have positive effects on performance. In addition, KR has been shown to attenuate the vigilance decrement, and reduce subjective ratings of mental workload. Social facilitory effects were e..pected to increase arousal for monitors working in pairs on a vigilance task and result in better performance compared to monitors working individually. Also, the social interaction between monitors working in pairs was expected to lower ratings of subjective workload. Subjects monitored …

The Influence Of Work Environment, Perpetrator Power And Victim Characteristics On The Occurrence Of And Response To Sexual Harassment In The Workplace, Cynthia J. Maahs

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The current study developed and tested a model of sexual harassment that encompasses characteristics of the work environment, perpetrator, and victim. The impact of four characteristics of the work environment—organizational tolerance for sexual harassment, gender ratios, gender communication, and gender of the supervisor— on the occurrence of sexual harassment and the victim's response was examined. The moderating influence of victim age, job dependency, education level, ethnicity, gender, and marital status on the occurrence of sexual harassment was also examined. Results indicated that organizational tolerance for sexual harassment and gender of the supervisor predicted the occurrence of harassment. Sexual harassment significantly …

A Bio-Cybernetic System For Regulating Operator Engagement In An Adaptively Automated, Multi-Task Flight Environment, Lawrence J. Prinzel Iii

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

A bio-cybemetic, closed-loop system was validated for use in an adaptively automated environment. Subjects were asked to perform either one task or three tasks from the MAT battery. EEG was continuously sampled while they performed the task and an EEG index was derived (20 beta/alpha + theta). The system made allocation decisions based upon the level of operator engagement as determined by the EEG index. The NASA-TLX was administered after each trial. The results of the study demonstrated that it was possible to moderate an operator's level of engagement through a closed-loop system driven by the operator's EEG. It also …

Development Of A Cross Generational Measure Of Altruism, Paul G. Schloemer

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

A self-report measure designed to assess altruism across the life span was developed and evaluated. Participants in the design phase of the study included 76 adults ages 18 to 25, 57 fifth grade students, and 65 second grade students. Participants in the confirmation phase of the study were 34 adults ages 18 to 25, 18 fifth grade students, and 14 second grade students. A positive significant correlation was found between the life span measure of altruism and a corroborative measure for the fifth graders. A significant correlation between life span. measure of altruism and a corroborative measure was not found …