Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Traits Of Instrumentality And Self-Concept As Related To Mathematical Ability In Pre-Adolescent Girls, Bridget Lee Toon

Student Work

This study examined whether the androgynous trait of instrumentality, (otherwise known as having an androgynous gender-type), and having a positive self-concept is related to higher mathematical ability in pre-adolescent girls in the seventh and eighth grades. Since participants were in both honors and average math classes, the additional variable of being in honors math versus regular math was also analyzed. There were 39 participants that were selected from Norris Middle School, which is in the Omaha Public School System. From these 39 participants, 18 were in honors math classes, while 21 were in regular math classes. The Piers-Harris Self-Concept scale …

Communication Stereotypes Of Caucasian College Students, Danna Voorhes Swartz

Student Work

This thesis examined what communication stereotypes are held by Caucasian college students. The literature review focused on defining stereotypes, the function and roles of stereotypes, how stereotypes serve as communication barriers, and findings of previous studies of stereotypes. The research question asked what are the communication stereotypes of African-Americans, Japanese-Americans and Mexican-Americans as maintained by Caucasian undergraduate college students? Participants in the study were 200 Caucasian, undergraduate students who were asked to complete a survey regarding typical communication characteristics of each group in question. The results indicated uniformity in response to Japanese- and African- Americans with less agreement on characteristics …

Stress, Stress Utilization, And Creativity, Lisa M. Kobe

Student Work

This study investigated the effects of stress on creative problem solving. It was predicted that individuals in a stressful condition would perform worse on creative problem solving tasks than individuals in a relaxed condition and worse than individuals in a stressful condition where they successfully coped with the incident. It was also predicted that when in a stressful experience, individuals who are able to acknowledge and to advantageously use the information obtained from a stressful situation (high stress utilization) would perform better on creative problem solving tasks than individuals who are not able to acknowledge and use this information (low …

Humorous Communication In Casual Work Relationships: Self-Perceptions Concerning Humor Orientation, Loneliness, And Verbal Aggressiveness, Maurizio Gagliolo

Student Work

In order to understand humor orientation, loneliness, and verbal aggressiveness better, 14 faculty members and 25 graduate students from the University of Nebraska at Omaha completed measures of humor orientation (HO), loneliness, and verbal aggressiveness (VA). These individuals were asked to have an acquaintance (as opposed to a close friend or relative) complete an adapted version o f the HO scale (HOA). Results indicated that faculty members and graduate students did not significantly differ in HO, loneliness, or HO A, however graduate students were more verbally aggressive than faculty members in 10 different questions concerning VA. No correlation was found …

The Physician/Patient Interaction: Patient Satisfaction, Communication Apprehension, And Health Locus Of Control, Darian Allicia Galyon

Student Work

The purpose of this investigation was to discover the nature of the relationships between a patient’s communication apprehension with physicians and health locus of control and his/her satisfaction with the physician/patient interaction. No significant relationship was found between communication apprehension and a patient’s health locus of control. However, a positive correlation was found between communication apprehension and overall patient satisfaction and patient satisfaction with information. Possible explanations exist for this unexpected result within the uncertainty literature, and by considering that individuals with high communication apprehension may still communicate well despite their anxiety. Statistical analysis also showed that communication apprehension predicts …

The Effects Of Choice And Ego-Involvement On Confidence Judgments, Jonathan H. Chow

Student Work

Studies on confidence judgments have generally shown that people are overconfident about their abilities or knowledge, and their confidence judgments are not well calibrated. The purpose of this study was to contribute toward a more precise and defensible version of how motivational factors interact with cognitive biases to influence confidence judgments. Review of the effect of choice on confidence judgments suggests an avenue to study the joint effect of motivational factors and cognitive biases on confidence judgments. In particular, the study investigated how motivational factors such as ego-involvement interact with cognitive biases involved in making choices to increase overconfidence in …

Information Search And Creativity: The Role Of Need For Cognition And Personal Involvement, Jody J. Illies

Student Work

The effects of type of personal involvement and need for cognition on information search behaviors and creative problem solving were investigated. It was predicted that participants who are involved through the personal relevancy of the outcome of a problem would engage in more information search behaviors and be more creative than participants who are involved through having their values and morals engaged. It was also predicted that participants high in need for cognition would engage in more information search behaviors and would be more creative than would participants low in need for cognition. Results showed that information search behaviors effectively …

Incidental Memory For Spatial Information In Young Children As A Function Of Age And Gender, Isabelle D. Cherney

Student Work

The purpose of the present study was to investigate Hasher and Zacks' (1979,1984) automaticity theory of memory for spatial location information in young children using two incidental memory tasks. A total of 96 three- and fiveyear- olds (48 boys and 48 girls) were randomly assigned to either the "manipulation condition" (MC) or the "observation condition" (OC). In order to assess task difficulty, half of the participants manipulated a total of 18 genderstereotyped animal toys (male, female, neutral) and half of the participants a total of 9. After a 2 minute filler task, the participants were instructed to return the animals …

Temporal Integration In 17- And 20-Month Old Infants As Assessed By Elicited Imitation, Rebecca M. Starr

Student Work

The present study used a unique task derived from the elicited imitation paradigm to assess temporal integration in 17- and 20-month-old infants. Experiment 1 implemented a simpler task than has previously been used in order to tap temporal integration ability in 17-month-olds. The results indicated that the performance of 17- month-olds did not improve over that of previous research (de Haan & Bauer 1997). Experiment 2 added storage and processing demands to the de Haan and Bauer task in order to assess the robustness of temporal integration ability in 20-month-olds. The results indicated that the performance of 20-month-olds did not …

Senior Outlook On Death And Dying: A Comparative Study Of Older Volunteers Serving Older Clients Versus Older Volunteers Serving Younger Clients, Charles O. Udstuen

Student Work

This thesis examines the attitudes toward death and dying held by volunteers in the Senior Companion Program as compared with those in the Foster Grandparent Program. These programs represent two distinct environments, since volunteers in the former program interact only with other senior citizens while those in the latter program interact with children. In recent years volunteerism has been studied extensively relative to the positive effects that volunteer activities have on those performing them. However, there is a lack of research on the effects of the particular surroundings in which the volunteers operate. The comparison of two groups of volunteers …

Gender Types, Self-Esteem, And Academic Achievement In Middle School Students, Kimberly D. Noll

Student Work

The relationship among gender typing, self-esteem, and academic achievement was investigated in 314 middle school participants. Participants were administered the Children’s Sex Role Inventory (CSRI) and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory-School Form (CSEI). The results of the CSRI and CSEI were compared to each participant's score on the California Achievement Test (CAT). Analysis of variance, chi-square, and Pearson product moment correlation's were utilized to assess relationships among the variables. Results indicated that, in the current sample, self-esteem and achievement were unrelated, aschematic characteristics were correlated with high achievement, girls exhibited higher achievement than boys, both boys and girls responded most frequently …

A Comparison Of Relation-Breaking Behaviors, Relation-Maintaining Behaviors, And Maternal Sensitivity In Population Of Handicapped And Non-Handicapped Infants, Karol Basel

Student Work

The infant enters the world with certain abilities that allow him or her to interact with the environment. Early on infants demonstrate a preference in viewing the human face (Fantz, 1968) and selectively responding to the sounds of human speech (Eimas, Sigueland, Jusczyk, & Vigorito, 1971). The early development of perceptual sensitivities enable the infant to become a partner in the social environment. It has been suggested that the ability to engage in social interactions provides the infant with the structure to organize cognitive and affective experiences (Stern, Beebe, Jaffe, & Bennett, 1977). Through the interaction process the infant first …

Effects Of Process Vs. Outcome Accountability, Responsibility, And Indentifiability On Solution Quality, Megan Potter

Student Work

This study investigated the effect of accountability, responsibility, and identifiability on the quality of solutions generated to an ill-defined problem. Accountable participants provided written justification for their output, either the solution generation process (process accountability) or the solution generation outcome (outcome accountability). Participants perceived themselves as either sharing responsibility for solution generation with others (shared responsibility) or solely responsible for solution generation (sole responsibility). Lastly, participants were either identifiable, such that their responses could be traced to them personally, or anonymous. Solution quality was measured by resolving power, or the degree to which a solution resolves conflicting aspects of the …

Peer Versus Adult Models: Infants Immediate And Deferred Imitation Of Familiar And Novel Events, Robina Enayat Gul

Student Work

The present study examined the effects of different aged models (adult vs. peer) on infants' memory and imitative behaviors. Thirty infants between the age of 14- to 18-months were included in the study. Fifteen of the infants watched an adult model demonstrate two familiar three-step event sequences and two novel three-step event sequences on simple objects. The other fifteen infants observed a peer model perform the same event sequences on the same objects. Three questions were addressed: (a) Do infants learn to imitate three-step event sequences better from an adult or a peer model? (b) Do infants better recall familiar …

Relationship History And Friendship Development In Adolescence, Jay L. Ringle

Student Work

Adolescents in grades 8, 10, 12, and college (13-22 year olds) completed the Relationship Closeness Inventory (RCI) (Berscheid, Snyder, & Omoto, 1989), a written relationship development narrative, and a graph of major relationship events for a designated friend in a same-sex and cross-sex relationship. Data collection was done in separate sessions for each relationship type, with order of com pletion randomly assigned.

Age and relationship differences were found for total score on the Relationship Closeness Inventory (RCI), indicating that closeness in same-sex relationships increases gradually with age, whereas closeness in cross-sex relationships does not increase until later adolescence. When asked …

A Test Of The Self-Regulatory Model Of Prejudice Reduction, Sonja Williams

Student Work

Two assumptions derived from Devine and Monteith’s (1993) self-regulatory model of prejudice reduction were tested utilizing a stereotype-activating stimulus believed to be similar to one which is more likely to occur in everyday-life than those used in previous research. Black and white actors making ambiguously hostile statements were evaluated by 92 low and high-prejudiced participants. Rating-scale data provided partial support for the assumption that low-prejudiced participants inhibit stereotype-consistent responses and replace them with personal, more egalitarian beliefs. Specifically, low-prejudiced participants provided significantly more favorable ratings than their high-prejudiced counterparts (p = .030). Reaction-time data provided support for the model’s assumption …

The Effect Of Control Strategies On Sixth Graders' Metacognitive Awareness, Pamela Haag Clower

Student Work

This experimental action research study provided sixth grade students five lessons about metacognitive control skills, with pre- and post-instruction measurements of the students’ observable behaviors and notation of the students’ think-alouds regarding their metacognitive activity. The purpose of the study was twofold: 1. To test whether students’ metacognitive awareness can be increased, and 2. To compare the performance of students who initially demonstrate higher metacognitive awareness by scoring above the median on a Metacognitive Awareness Inventory with student who students scored below the median on the inventory. Because research has shown metacognitive ability to operate independently of academic ability and …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Communication Competence And Interactive Strategies For Coping With Romantic Jealousy, Amy J. Bull

Student Work

This thesis investigated the relationship between communication competence and interactive jealousy coping strategies. Two hypotheses were proposed and tested utilizing the Interactive Reactions to Jealousy Scale and a subscale of Wiemann’s Communication Competence Scale. Results indicated a significant positive relationship exists between the level of communication competence and the use of integrative communication, which is considered a positive and helpful coping strategy. However, no significant relationships were found between the level of communication competence and the use of potentially destructive coping strategies. Discussion and interpretation of results and general future areas for research on jealousy and communication competence are proposed.

Does Protestant Fundamentalism Produce Traditional Views?: The Impact Of Religious Commitment Affiliation On Gender Role Beliefs And Political Ideology, Melissa Myers

Student Work

This research looks at the relationship between religious commitment/affiliation and traditional beliefs. Data from the 1993 General Social Survey is used to test hypotheses linking religious commitment and religious affiliation to traditional gender role beliefs and conservative political views. Findings show statistical significance but weak substantive support for the idea that fundamentalists hold more traditional gender role beliefs and political ideology. Future research linking these attitudes to the actual behaviors of men and women in fundamentalist religions is proposed.

Social Intelligence, Problem Construction, And Leadership: The Trait Approach Revisited, David Michael Koch

Student Work

Social intelligence is a personality trait that refers to an individual's ability to correctly interpret their environment and take the appropriate action. Recent research (Gilbert, 1994) found social intelligence to be an important and significant predictor of leader effectiveness across multiple situations. Because the social intelligence construct can account for effective leadership behavior across multiple situations, it may represent a reconciliation of the trait and situation theories of leadership.

The purpose of this study was to continue this line of research on social intelligence and leadership by examining the role of social intelligence in creative problem solving. Problem construction is …

Communication Apprehension And Exercise Adherence: An Exploratory Study, Janette Thomas Carr

Student Work

This thesis explored whether adhering to an exercise program could significantly predict an individual’s level of communication apprehension (CA). The project expands the study o f CA by analyzing a potentially new treatment option for alleviating this fear of communication. Specifically, it asked if an individual’s level o f exercise adherence (EA) - as measured by the four components of intensity, frequency, duration, and longevity - could significantly predict an individual’s level CA in each o f the four contexts - interpersonal conversations, group discussion, meetings and public speaking - and overall. Five research questions were posited (one for each …

Interparental Conflict, Family Environment And Perceived Interpersonal Conflicts Among Late Adolescents, Harry Durell Johnson

Student Work

The characteristics of interpersonal conflict within the family system during adolescence may be influenced not only by the attempts of adolescent's to individuate from their parents, but also by the environment in which this individuation process occurs. Family systems that are characterized by decreased family cohesion and increased interparental conflict may inadvertently provide environments that foster increases in conflict among its members. How these environmental factors are associated with the quantitative and qualitative aspects of conflict is an important question which is addressed in this study. The relationship between the family system environment (i.e., family cohesion and interparental conflict), participant's …

Relationship Between Life Change Events And Communication Apprehension, Elaine Bylund

Student Work

This research investigates relationships between communication apprehension (CA) and life change events, using college students at a Midwestern university. Instruments used were the Personal Report o f Communication Apprehension-24 (PRCA- 24) which measured CA, both overall and in four subareas, and a modified version of the Adolescent Life Change Event Questionnaire (ALCEQ), which records life change events during formative years and past year before being questioned.

No significant relationships were found between the overall scores of the two instruments in this study, although demographic information showed that the younger college students reported more public speaking apprehension than the older groups. …

Orthographically Mediated Inhibition Effects: Evidence Of Activational Feedback During Visual Word Recognition, Jason F. Reimer

Student Work

According to the multistage activation model of visual word recognition (Besner & Smith, 1992a, 1992b; Borowsky & Besner, 1993), during visual word recognition, activation can spread from semantic to orthographic representations via a feedback mechanism. Two experiments were conducted in order to test directly whether or not such feedback occurs, and if so, under what conditions. In order to directly measure feedback, a mediated priming paradigm was utilized. In this paradigm, participants named aloud targets that were preceded either by a semantically related prime (e.g., dog - cat! or by a prime that is related to the target via a …

Affect During Conflicts Between Adolescents And Their Best Friends, Other Friends And Acquaintances, Mary J. Spenceri

Student Work

While conflict, in general, has received much attention in the literature, "affect felt" during conflicts and its influence has not been a major concern to researchers. Only a few investigations of "affect intensity" associated with conflict have been conducted. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of affect intensity, an individual differences factor, in the affect experienced in conflict situations with friends and acquaintances by different age groups, and the resolution strategies that are used. Students from grades 5, 8, and 11 and first and second year college students completed the Affect Intensity Measure, a conflict questionnaire, …

Living In Two Worlds: Asian-American Women And Emotion, Kimberly S. Gangwish

Student Work

Asian-American women have faced certain difficulties in growing up due to the distinct differences in Asian and American cultures. The two cultures have philosophical differences as well as differences in acceptable manners of behaving and communicating. The expression of emotion is one of these areas. This research study looks at the differences in the two cultures concerning the expression of emotions and how this affects the women who are trying to live within both worlds. Ten first-generation Asian-American women were interviewed, using an oral history method, concerning three different situations. One situation involving just their parents, another involving their friends, …

Effect Of Degree Of Cue Separation And Stimulus Encoding Method On Cue Sample Size And Learning Rate, Robert Jason Weiss

Student Work

Response mode research shows that participants under a judgment response mode demonstrate more compensatory processing than participants under a choice mode. Research on affect and choice reveals that positive-affect participants display more noncompensatory examination of information than negative-affect participants. In the present study, participants viewed a film clip to induce positive or negative affect and made judgments or choices for a series of candidates for a university professor's position. Results indicate a powerful effect for response mode across all dependent variables whereby judgment participants took more time, looked at more information, and showed less search variability than choice participants. The …

The Effect Of Response Mode And Affective State On Multiattribute Decision-Making, Robert Jason Weiss

Student Work

Response mode research shows that participants under a judgment response mode demonstrate more compensatory processing than participants under a choice mode. Research on affect and choice reveals that positive-affect participants display more noncompensatory examination of information than negative-affect participants. In the present study, participants viewed a film clip to induce positive or negative affect and made judgments or choices for a series of candidates for a university professor's position. Results indicate a powerful effect for response mode across all dependent variables whereby judgment participants took more time, looked at more information, and showed less search variability than choice participants. The …

A Study To Determine The Perception Of Racial Attitudes Of Graduate Counseling Students, Christa F. Brown

Student Work

This study measured the perceptions of racial attitudes in graduate level counseling students. The participants were 138 graduate counseling students from the counselor education program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha enrolled in the fall semester of 1995. The racial attitudes were measured using the revised Social Scale (SS) questionnaire. The outcome showed a relationship between the number of hours taken in the graduate level counseling class as offered at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and positive racial attitudes. However, the null hypothesis was accepted when measuring a) the racial attitudes of participants in different counseling programs, b) …

Cognitive Differentiation And Verbal Ability: A Test Of Two Judgmental Models, Kristine K. Siedis

Student Work

Differences in judgmental models between highly differentiated individuals and poorly differentiated individuals were investigated. Level of cognitive differentiation was determined by participants’ responses to a Repertory Grid technique. Based upon previous research, it was predicted that highly differentiated individuals would engage in judgmental processes that reflected a nonadditive model, while poorly differentiated individuals would engage in more additive judgmental processes. While it was shown that highly differentiated individuals did engage in nonadditive judgmental processes and poorly differentiated individuals did engage in additive judgmental processes, the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant. The findings are discussed in context …