Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Youth Service: From Youth As Problems To Youth As Resources, Bonnie Benard

School K-12

New Paradigm "Youth as problems, or youth as resources? Communities with problems or communities with resources?" These opening sentences to Reaching Out. a recent book on establishing community service programs for youth, encapsulate a critical issue I see confronting anyone relating to or working with young people, whether as parents, teachers, community folk, or prevention advocates and other helping professionals: the framework or perspective from which we view youth in our society today. Whether we view youth as problems or as resources determines not only our expectations for our youth and our actions towards them, but also the type of …

Training Student Organizers Curriculum (Revised Edition), Michael Zamm, Robert Ortner, Beverly Deangelis

Curriculum

This second edition of the Training Student Organizers Curriculum has been written to reflect the project organizing experiences of students, teachers and staff participating in the Council on the Environment of New York City's Training Student Organizers Program (TSO) since the first edition of the curriculum was published in 1983. We have expanded the lessons/narratives in Part I to include more information on environmental issues and have also added lessons and/or narratives for specific environmental action projects. The "how to's" of project organizing are described, step by step, in specific improvement projects in Part I, and reviewed as a total …

A Longitudinal Test Of A Proposed Vie Theoretic Control Systems Model Of Self-Regulated Human Performance, Vernon A. Peterson

Student Work

Research by Campion and Lord (1982) suggested that the goal-setting process could be explicated by a control systems model of self-regulated behavior. However, as noted by Campion and Lord (1982), the model did not specify the process performers used to select their standards. To address this deficiency and to further specify the control process, I proposed an expanded model of human performance: an integration of VIE theory (Vroom, 1964) and control systems theory (Carver & Scheier, 1981). The model posited that performers select standards of performance based on their motivational force. It also specified when cognitive or behavioral control responses …

Age And Experience Effects In Spatial Visualization, Timothy A. Salthouse, Renee L. Babcock, Eric Skovronek, Debora R. D. Mitchell, Roni Reiter-Palmon

Psychology Faculty Publications

Three studies were conducted to investigate effects related to age and experience on measures of spatial visualization ability. All research participants were college-educated men; those in the experienced group were practicing or recently retired architects. The major results of the studies were (a) that increased age was found to be associated with lower levels of performance on several tests of spatial visualization and (b) that this was true both for unselected adults and for adults with extensive spatial visualization experience. These findings seem to suggest that age-related effects in some aspects of cognitive functioning may be independent of experiential influences. …

Influence Of Feedback Specificity And Simultaneous Goals On Task Performance, David W. Furst

Student Work

A laboratory experiment was conducted examining the influence of feedback specificity and simultaneous quantity and quality goals on the performance of an assembly task including the effect of feedback specificity on perceptual and behavioral measures of intrinsic motivation. The hypotheses were framed in terms of a traditional goal setting model and a control systems-goal conflict model. Neither model was supported for the quantity performance measure in that varying the specificity of quantity of performance feedback did not result in differential quantity of performance. The traditional goal setting model was supported based on results from the quality performance measure . These …

Memory And Age Differences In Spatial Manipulation Ability, Timothy A. Salthouse, Deborah Mitchell, Roni Reiter-Palmon

Psychology Faculty Publications

Young and old adults were asked, in 3 experiments, to make decisions about the identity of line segment patterns after either adding or subtracting line segments from the original pattern. On some of the trials, the line segments from the initial display were presented again in the second display to minimize the necessity of remembering early information during the processing of later information. Although this manipulation presumably reduced the importance of memory in the tasks, it had little effect on the magnitude of the age differences in any of the experiments. Because the 2 groups were equivalent in accuracy of …

Cigarette Smoking And Its Effect Upon Perceptions Of Source Credibility, Cari L. Tokheim

Student Work

This thesis examined the effect of cigarette smoking on perceptions of source credibility. Twenty-five bi-polar adjectives were used to measure five dimensions of credibility (competency, character, sociability, composure, and extroversion) developed by McCroskey and Jenson. Subjects recruited from students enrolled at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (n = 272) were assigned one of four versions of a photograph depicting either a male or female model holding a cigarette, or those same models in identical photographs with the cigarette removed. Subjects were then asked to complete the credibility scales, based upon the person depicted in the photograph.

Results from the …

Concurrent Validity Of The Pain Locus Of Control Scale And Its Relationship To Treatment Outcome Variables, Linda Kay Schaefer

Student Work

Studies have shown that locus of control orientation is related to emotional and behavioral adjustment to chronic pain. Researchers have begun the process of establishing the validity and reliability of the Pain Locus of Control Scale. This study was conducted to establish the concurrent validity of the PLC Scale at the time of follow-up from pain management treatment, an effort not previously undertaken. In addition, studies suggest that those persons with an Internal locus of control orientation demonstrate more favorable treatment outcomes, as compared to a Powerful others or Chance locus of control. This research examined the relationship between treatment …

Proxemic Behavior Of The Nonhandicapped Toward The Visually Impaired, Carol J. Olsen

Student Work

This study investigated spatial behavior of nonhandicapped individuals toward physically handicapped individuals. Initial seating distance was measured between a visually impaired experimenter and nonhandicapped subjects. Subjects were from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Students completed a survey and then, one at a time, went to an adjacent room to answer some follow-up questions posed by a visually impaired confederate. Distances were measured and compared to other studies measuring handicapped/ nonhandicapped interactions. Previous research showed significant differences in distance between handicapped/ nonhandicapped interactions and nonhandicapped/nonhandicapped interactions. Greater distances were chosen when interacting with a physically handicapped individual than with a …

The Civic Mission Of The University, Benjamin R. Barber

Civic Engagement

The modern American university is embroiled in controversy, fueled by deep uncertainty over its pedagogical purposes and its civic role in a "free" society. At times the college establishment seems to know neither what a free society is not what the educational requisites of freedom might look like. Nonetheless, both administrators and their critics have kept busy, for like zealots (classically defined as people who redouble their efforts when they have forgotten their aims), they have covered their confusion by embellishing their hyperbole. They wring hands and rue the social crises of higher education... apathy, cynicism, careerism, prejudice, selfishness, sexism, …

Cpar Focus, October 1989, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

This issue of Center for Public Affairs Research (CPAR) FOCUS features "Employment Trends in the Omaha MSA Construction Industry" by E. David Fifer.

Principals Of Good Practice For Combining Service And Learning, Ellen Porter Honnett, Susan J. Poulsen

Guides

The level of interest and sense of urgency in community and voluntary service grows greater every day. In every community, programs are being designed for participants from kindergartners to the elderly. Is there a set of guiding principles by which service programs can be designed and by which their effectiveness can be judged? Is there a set if ideas which have the potential for deepening and sustaining current movements?

The principles described on these pages reflect the grassroots experience and the thinking of thousands of people, hundreds of programs and numerous national organizations over the last several decades. They are …

Public Talk And Civic Action: Education For Participation In A Strong Democracy, Benjamin R. Barber

Civic Engagement

Civic education programs have always played a distinctive role in the American education curriculum. For the most part, however, civic education has been associated with civic knowledge and the cultivation of a cognitive faculty thought to be identical with political judgement (private judgment on public issues).

Perhaps this has been appropriate to a society which understood democracy primarily as a system of accountability in which elected representatives do most of the actual governing and "citizens" limit themselves to the passive roles of voter and watchdog.

National Service And Student Aid: Myth And Reality, Will Marshall, Joel Berg

Service Learning, General

Do citizens who receive government benefits owe a debt of service to society? That question lies at the heart of the controversy surrounding the Citizenship and National Service Act introduced in January, 1989 by Sens. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Charles Robb (D-Va.) and Rep. Dave McCurdy (D-Ok.). The bill stems from a May, 1988 proposal by the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) that challenges the efficacy and fairness of existing federal student aid programs and proposes instead a "new G.I. Bill" that would award public aid in exchange for civilian or military service to the nation.

The Predictive Value Of Mmpi Personality Style In Obesity Therapy, Jeffrey J. Harvey

Student Work

The present study assessed whether psychopathology influences obese subject’s ability to lose weight. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was used to differentiate between 46 pathological and 52 nonpathological subjects. A repeated measures analysis of variance did not support the hypothesis that the degree of weight loss is negatively associated with the amount of psychopathology measured by the MMPI. In addition, an analysis of covariance was conducted in an attempt to control for possible confounding factors at the start of treatment and also failed to support the hypothesis.

The Effects Of Feedback Referent And Content Upon Self-Determination, Rated Task Interest, And Intrinsic Motivation, Kerry L. Sheehan

Student Work

This study was an attempt to determine if verbal feedback could be used to convey information about feedback referent and feedback content to individuals in an experimental setting, and if so, if that information would influence their perceptions of perceived task competence, self-determination, task-interest, and intrinsic motivation. Eighty subjects were used from psychology classes. The majority were college freshmen or sophomores. Results showed that subjects did attend to the feedback referent, but that the referent had no subsequent influence on any of the dependent variables. Additionally, the feedback content manipulation did not produce the predicted effects upon the dependent variables. …

The Effects Of Facial Attractiveness On Judicial Recommendations Made By Middle-Aged Mid-Western Females, Angela Boyd

Student Work

Upon first meeting someone, we are most likely to notice their physical appearance before anything else. "We have a strong tendency to be favorably impressed by attractive people and to be less favorably impressed with those who are not so attractive" ( Janda, & Klenke-Hamel, 1982, p. 422). There are a number of studies that have dealt with characteristics of an individual as related to his or her physical attractiveness. Past studies (Asch, 1946, Landy & Aronson, 1969) have also looked at attractive and unattractive individuals and the effects this has on one's expectations of these individuals.

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 …

Speaking Out For Youth Service: It's Not Just The Thought That Counts, Youth Service America, Nittional Association Of Service And Conservation Corps

Conference Proceedings

Welcome to the Youth Service America conference on national youth service issues and policy. We are gathering in Washington at a time when interest in youth service is high and Congressional action possible. Together, at this conference, we have an opportunity to play a central role in expanding the diversified field of youth service and translating successful youth service strategies into a national policy that will make the ethic of service an integral part of growing up in America.

Caur Review Vol. 02, No. 01, Center For Applied Urban Research (Caur)

Publications

S.T.A.R.T. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

A Communication Methodology For Subordinates-Supervisors To Coactively Generate Heuristic-Leadership Decisions In Commercial Banking, Mary Ann Danielson

Student Work

This thesis neither advocates nor strictly adheres to the dominant, top-down style of leadership often used in commercial banking institutions. Rather, while working within the commercial bank setting, this thesis focuses on the subordinatesupervisor relationship and emphasizes a heuristic approach to leadership.

Negotiation Pedagogy As Communication Methodology Focused On Conditionality And Recursivity In Third-Order Coupling, Eroca Gabriel

Student Work

This study is not a prescribed method of communication techniques for learning how to negotiate. It is not designed to teach the reader various and sundry negotiation strategies or tactics. Neither is this a study in East Indian communication theory or cross-cultural communication. The result of this study is a negotiation pedagogy as communication methodology—a distinctly heuristic design intended to lead the student of negotiation to discover his/her own capacities for negotiating. In the broad realm of negotiation, this study serves to introduce a new approach—actually a meta-approach to negotiating— that provides a systematic means whereby students can direct themselves …

The Value Of Community-Service Programs, John H. Buchanan

Service Learning, General

When both President Bush and Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts assume leading roles in a new national movement, there is reason to believe that something significant may be happening.

Such appears to be the case with the growing interest in Washington and elsewhere in youth-focused community-service programs.

Fostering Intergenerational Relatiollships For At-Risk Youth, Marc Freedman

Intergenerational

Many at-risk youth are growing up isolated from the range of caring and consistent adult relationships so important for navigating the treacherous course from adolescence to adulthood. An accumulation of research from the social sciences suggests that adult relationships-provided not only by parents. but by grandparents, neighbors and other interested elders-are a common factor among resilient children, who achieve success despite growing up under disadvantaged and stressful circumstances. An important. and not often addressed, question for social programs and policy is whether the circumstances of more at-risk youth could be improved through efforts designed to provide greater access to helping …

Occasional Paper No. 089-1: Employment Of Black And Hispanic Police Officers, 1983-1988: A Follow-Up Study, Sam Walker

Publications

Police departments in the 50 largest cities in the United States made uneven progress in the employment of black and Hispanic officers between 1983 and 1988.

Nearly half (45 percent) of the big-city police departments made significant progress in the employment of black officers. Seventeen percent, however, reported a decline in the percentage of black officers. A similar pattern exists in the employment of Hispanic police officers. Forty-two percent of the departments reported significant increases in the percentage of Hispanic officers employed. Nearly 11 percent (10.6 percent) reported a decline, however, while 17.0 percent reported no change.

Affirmative action plans …

National Youth Service: The Proposed Legislation, Robert H. Atwell

Special Topics, General

I'm very happy to be back in sunny Arizona. I was here just a few weeks ago for another meeting, but this week I'm especially glad to be out of Washington, where the weather has been dreary and some of the political debate even drearier.

Because I work in Washington, everybody always wants to know what's really going on in the nation's capital, and why the government can't seem to get anything right. So I thought I'd begin by telling you about something you didn't read in the newspapers, and that's a meeting that took place the other day at …

The State Of Black Omaha: 1989, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

Creation of an economic base is necessary for the continued growth and development of any society or community. It is of utmost importance within Black neighborhoods in our urban center because they have Jacked representative economic development. They have been depleted as a result of a "dollar drain," through which money leaves Black communities and strengthens White communities. This drain must be halted. Economic enterprise must be created in Black communities, such as employment opportunities for the unemployed and underemployed to foster family stabilization, and neighborhood beautification projects that can provide jobs and an improved environment.

S.T.A.R.T. Economic Development Action Step Packet - Community Image And Marketing, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

Lack of a clear community image, or the presence of a negative or ambivalent image, may emerge during your S.T.A.R.T. Economic Development strategic planning sessions as a reason for economic difficulties. Image problems are often perceived as a major cause of declining sales, conflicts, residents shopping elsewhere, and young people leaving. Although a negative image may be only part of the reason for (or a product of) economic decline, it usually has some influence on the community economy. Image is manifest in feelings of pride or embarrassment about the community-its streets, houses, lawns, city buildings, and businesses. A lack of …

"Person-To-Person": A Community Service Guide For Youth Groups Visiting Senior Residences, Susan Chandler

Intergenerational

The purpose of this guide is to assist you in the development and implementation of intergenerational projects in which youth groups visit senior adult residences. These "youth in service to elders" projects are designed to meet a variety of needs. Through them, young people learn to give of themselves and their time in a significant and positive way. With our mobile society, young people often do not have the opportunity to spend time with their elders; and as a result are deprived of an awareness of the aging process and of the wisdom which older people possess. Conversely, older people …

Metropolitan Technical Community College Survey Of Current Students, James Johnson

Publications

The survey of 1,957 students enrolled at Metropolitan Technical Community College done in the spring, 1980 provided a variety of information. The data on their characteristics were similar to earlier profiles of Metro Tech students. Most Metro students continued to be part time rather than full time and enrolled in a degree or certificate program rather than taking selected courses. Students were almost equally split between day and night courses. Only one-fifth were under 21 years of age. One-third earned under $9,000, but one-fourth earned over $20,000. Approximately 28% were not employed (slightly higher than earlier profiles) but almost half …