Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of Task Difficulty, Performance Consequence, And Social Interaction On Physiological Reactivity In Post-Coronary Patients, A. Janelle Maldonado

Dissertations

Three experiments were performed to determine the effects of three task variables and Type A behavior pattern on physiological reactivity to time-limited math and anagram tasks. In the first experiment, ten post-coronary patients performed time-limited computer tasks under two performance consequence conditions: Point Reward or presentation of an Auditory Blast combined with two task difficulty conditions (40% and 60% difficult). The findings of Experiment 1 indicated that while the tasks did produce levels of physiological reactivity comparable to those observed in the literature, there were no significant main effects for either variable for any of the five measures. A significant …

Self-Control In Mentally Retarded Adolescents: Choice As A Function Of Amount And Delay Of Reinforcement, Steven P. Ragotzy

Dissertations

Three severely mentally retarded adolescents were studied under discrete-trial procedures in which a choice was arranged between edible reinforcers that differed in magnitude and, in some conditions, delay. In the absence of delays, the larger reinforcer was consistently chosen. All subjects directed the majority of choice responses to the smaller reinforcer when the larger reinforcer was sufficiently delayed, although the value at which this occurred differed across subjects. Under conditions where the larger reinforcer initially was sufficiently delayed to result in preference for the smaller one, progressively increasing in 5-s increments the delay to both reinforcers increased percent trials with …

Psychotherapists' Responses To Anger Manifested By Female Clients, Lisa L. Morshead

Dissertations

The responses of therapists to anger directed at them by female clients was the topic under investigation. Sixty-nine professional therapists were engaged as subjects, with each therapist reading two fictitious transcripts depicting the first portion of a therapy session. The two transcripts portrayed an angry client and a nonangry client, with client sex varied in each condition for a total of four transcripts. Each subject read both an angry and nonangry transcript of either two male or two female clients. Subjects were then asked to rate the client on competence, and interpersonal functioning, along with providing diagnostic impressions. A four …

An Evaluation Of An Intervention Program For Juvenile Probationers, Kevin I. Minor

Dissertations

Although the efficacy of correctional rehabilitation was questioned during the early 1970s, recent research has demonstrated that certain intervention programs, when implemented under appropriate conditions, are effective in reducing illegal behavior. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of a court-based intervention for juvenile probationers.

The program was developed on the basis of caseworkers' assessments of youths' problems and needs. The theoretical perspective underlying the intervention consisted of a joint combination of critical, social control, and differential association theories. A major implication of theory is that the juvenile court's capacity to facilitate informal social control should be …

Evaluation Of A Psychoeducational Curriculum For Promoting Psychological Health And Self-Esteem, Michele Susan Meola

Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of a psychoeducational curriculum in psychological health skills, entitled Psychological Health and Self-Esteem (PHSE). The study evaluated PHSE which is a 10-week class offered through the Psychology Department at Michigan State University, East Lansing, and is part of the Health Promotion Program, partially funded by a Kellogg Foundation grant.

Two hundred students participated in the study, and complete data were obtained from 117, 56 of them enrolled in PHSE and 61 enrolled in a different class designated as a control group. The design of the study was a pretest-posttest quasi-experiment with a …

Construct Validation Of The Family Of Origin Scale: A Factor Analysis, Omar L. Mangrum

Dissertations

The major purpose of this two-part study was to contribute to the body of knowledge concerned with the construct validity of the Family of Origin Scale (FOS). The issues of construct and discriminative validity were specifically addressed. The first phase was an attempt to empirically establish the underlying factor structure of the Family of Origin Scale (FOS) through factor analytic techniques. The analysis utilized data collected from a previously studied population (i.e., college students) and a demographically different population (i.e., prison inmates). Results from this study indicate that the FOS appears to measure at least seven distinct factors/constructs, four of …

The Effectiveness Of Feedback Procedures On Machine Set-Up Time In A Manufacturing Setting, Connie J. Wittkopp

Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a treatment package designed to improve and maintain set-up time in the extrusion department of a rubber manufacturing company. Subjects were exposed to various behavioral techniques including training and a feedback system in the form of both written and verbal supervisory comments with an emphasis placed on improving performance through use of videotaping. An attempt was made to maintain treatment gains by teaching supervisors how to give information concerning set-up performance to their employees. Results indicate that average weekly set-up times for each machine were significantly below baseline …

Repeated Acquisition With The Developmentally Disabled, Jeannie Madsen

Masters Theses

Repeated-acquisition data were obtained from four developmentally disabled adults. The task was selecting the poker chip with the sticker on its underside in a sequence of sets of chips. When a sequence was mastered (four consecutive errorless runs) the subjects were given a new sequence to learn. Money was reinforcement for correct sequence completion. Total errors before mastery was the dependent variable.

In Phase 1 the subjects completed as many sequences as possible during each 15-minute session. Errors per sequence was a reasonably stable dependent variable within subjects, and between-subject differences were what would be expected on the basis of …

Crime And Delinquency In Haiti: A Study Of Crime In A Developing Country, Gerard Mauze

Masters Theses

The primary intent of this study was an attempt at describing, understanding and analyzing the most common types, incidences and forces that produce crime and delinquency in Haiti. A secondary concern of this work was to do the ground work which would enable the formulation of testable hypotheses about the causes of crime and delinquency in Haiti.

Even though a number of developing nations face a rapid growth in their crime and delinquency rates, Haiti appears to maintain a relatively low crime rate.

The law-abiding behavior of Haitian youths is due to a number of factors: (a) the strong family …

Effects Of Response Requirements And Reinforcement Probability On The Latency To Depress A Foot Treadle, Terri Deborah Starin

Masters Theses

Previous studies have shown response latency to be a sensitive measure of die effects of many experimental manipulations. However, when key pecking is the required response topography, it is difficult to ascertain whether latency is exclusively due to the effects of the independent variable or is confounded by respondent influences. The present study attempts to separate operant from respondent influences on response latency by requiring a response topography that is unlikely to have respondent components. Three pigeons responded under a multiple fixed-rado fixed-ratio schedule of food delivery with a 5 s intertrial interval separating trials. For two subjects, the independent …

Utilizing Daily Repertoire Behavior To Facilitate The Acquisition Of Generalized Imitation In Profoundly Mentally Retarded Adults, Scott A. Kremser

Masters Theses

Two procedures were compared in teaching the skill of generalized imitation. One procedure incorporated some of the subject's daily behavior repertoire into the imitation training paradigm. Another similar procedure utilized non-repertoire responses during training. Two male profoundly mentally retarded adults were trained with each procedure. Overall, the acquisition of generalized imitation was facilitated by incorporating daily repertoire behaviors into the imitation training packages. Statistical analysis revealed a significant difference in levels of generalized imitation as a function of training condition. Results were variable across subjects however, and it is questionable whether the difference is clinically significant. Further and more refined …

The Discriminative Stimulus Properties Of Ethosuximide In The Pigeon, Rodney D. Clark

Masters Theses

After initial exposure to 80 mg/kg ethosuximide, pigeons trained in a two-key drug discrimination procedure rapidly learned to discriminate 120 mg/kg ethosuximide from saline. When 40 to 160 mg/kg doses of ethosuximide were administered during generalization tests, the percentage of the responses directed to the ethosuximide-appropriate key varied directly with dose. Time-effect determinations revealed that the discriminable properties of ethosuximide were evident as early as 15 min after, and as late as 2 hrs after, intramuscular injection. The discriminative stimulus properties of ethosuximide failed to generalize to the anticonvulsant compounds clonazepam (0.5-4 mg/kg), methsuximide (25-200 mg/kg), and phenytoin (5-15 mg/kg). …

Factors That Relate To Job Retention For Former Welfare Recipients, Lisa Spadafore

Masters Theses

This descriptive study attempted to determine the factors that relate to job retention for former welfare recipients. Welfare recipients (15 women and 17 men), who were participating in a job club program, completed the Wonderlic Personnel Test (Wonderlic, 1985), the 16 Personality Factors Test (Eber, Cattell, & IPAT Staff, 1985), and a Background/Monetary Questionnaire. Thirty-two clients who obtained jobs were divided into two groups, those who retained their job for 90 days (n = 21) and those who did not (n = 11). Of the 31 factors analyzed, four showed a statistically significant relationship with job retention; amount of jail …

The Effects Of Participative Management On Teacher Satisfaction During Periods Of Organizational Decline, Robert Michael O'Brien

Dissertations

Public school teachers and administrators are increasingly challenged to demonstrate effectiveness in the face of organizational decline. A management system proposed by researchers in organizational development to promote worker effectiveness is participatory management. This study investigated the effects of participatory management as they related to teacher satisfaction and productivity during organizational decline. Two local school districts that used a participatory management system, identified as Quality of Work Life (QWL) districts, were studied. Two similar local school districts that did not use a participatory management system were also studied. The results of the analysis indicate that there were no significant differences …

A Study Of Factors Correlated With Career Persistence Of Male Pastors In The Free Methodist Church In Michigan, Robert Q. Bailey

Dissertations

The research objective was to create a descriptive profile of clergypersons who are persisting in career roles as pastors of the Free Methodist Church in Michigan.

An original instrument was administered to 113 male pastors, soliciting biographical data (age, pastoral tenure, educational background, statistical growth of churches served, family background, health and influences in career decisions) and responses to fifty value statements about the pastors' careers. The value statements were applications of ideas from the "Motivation-Hygiene" theory of career satisfaction and more individualized concepts as reinforcers of personal needs.

Attempts to describe the persisting pastors by correlating tenure to their …

The Effects Of Spouse-Based Cognitive-Behavior Therapy On The Treatment Of Agoraphobia, Joan Woods

Dissertations

The purpose of this clinical research was to determine whether spouse-supported treatment of agoraphobia would result in greater improvement on measures of exposure and avoidance than would individual treatment or no treatment. It was hypothesized that Couples Treatment subjects would demonstrate a significantly greater change from pretest to posttest than would Individual Treatment subjects or No-Treatment Control subjects. The study further predicted that significant improvements would be demonstrated for both treated groups on the same outcome measures, pretest to posttest and from pretest to follow-up.

Total N was 10 subjects, all were agoraphobic, married, and female, with 4 in Couples …

Effects Of Terminal-Link Response Topography On Choice Behavior Under Concurrent-Chains Schedules, Stephen P. Starin

Dissertations

Previous research has indicated that both absolute response rate and choice behavior differs under concurrent chains requiring different terminal-link responses, even when the reinforcement schedules are nominally identical. To date, no studies have investigated responding under concurrent chains with unequal schedules and different topographies arranged in the terminal links. Moreover, although the delay-reduction hypothesis has been widely tested using concurrent chains in which the same response topography is required in all links, the generality of the delay-reduction hypothesis in describing performance when different terminal-link topographies are required has yet to be examined. The present study was designed to address both …

Stimulus Overselectivity: An Investigation Of Determinants, Margaret T. Mcglinchey

Dissertations

Stimulus overselectivity refers to a phenomenon in which, after discrimination training with a multiple component stimulus, behavior fails to come under the control of all of the components of the stimulus. After a screening process based on past research, a group of children with specific learning disabilities was categorized into one of two groups: overselective and non-overselective. Both groups were exposed to training and testing for generalization. All children in both groups evidenced "stimulus overselectivity" during these tests for generalization. Generalization training subsequently reduced stimulus overselectivity for all students. There were few differences between the two groups. The results suggest …

What Social Workers Do: Implications For The Reclassification Debate, Charles Green

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The reclassification trend is one of the most formidable issues facing American social work today. Social work's vulnerability stemming from a general ambiquity about its distinct role and boundaries, competition from emerging helping occupations, and its debated professionalism is a major contributing factor. Often ignored in recent efforts to address reclassification is empirical evidence of social work's distinct performance in the human services versus other occupational groups. In this article comparative research findings supporting social work's unique performance are presented and their relevance for reclassification discussed.

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 15, No. 2 (June 1988)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Table of Contents

• SYMPOSIUM ON THE WELFARE-WARFARE STATETEN YEARS LATER - Editorial - NORMAN N. GOROFF
• The Warfare-Welfare Tradeoff: Consequences of Continuing the Nudear Arms Race and Some Policy Alternatives - SAM MARULLO
• Social Democracy, War, and the Welfare State - PAUL ADAMS
• Making War Thinkable - SHIMON S. GOTTSCHALK
• Social Work Concerns Related to Peace and People Oriented Development in the International Context - DANIEL S. SANDERS
• Beyond War: Empowerment for Senior Citizens in a Nuclear Age - SUSAN RICE
• Transcending Despair: A Prelude to Action - NORMAN N. GOROFF
• ADDITIONAL PAPERS
• What Social Workers Do: Implications for the …

Making War Thinkable, Shimon S. Gottschalk

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper identifies significant cognitive elements in Western thought which appear to undergird and lend an aura of legitimacy and credence to discussions of defense, armaments, and the preparation of war.

Social Work Concerns Related To Peace And People Oriented Development In The International Context, Daniel S. Sanders

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

It is the thesis of this paper that the social work profession along with other human service professions has the potential of making a vital contribution in promoting peace and people oriented development and that the ultimate test of the profession's contribution to individuals, families, and communities in varying contexts is the ensuring of human survival and the enhancing of the quality of life for all people.

Social Democracy, War, And The Welfare State, Paul Adams

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Many writers have discerned links between the welfare state and social democracy. A few have examined the connections between the welfare state and war. The links connecting war, social democracy, and the welfare state are here examined, and it is argued that all three can be fruitfully understood as aspects of a tendency to state capitalism which prevailed in the first half of the twentieth century but which has increasingly been offset by a countervailing tendency to internationalization. The welfare state and social democracy, as national-state centered phenomena resting on the capacity of individual states to manage their own segments …

Deprofessionalization, Proletarianization, And Social Welfare Work, Paula Dressel, Michelle Waters, Mike Sweat, Obie Clayton Jr., Amy Chandler-Clayton

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In this paper we explore the personnel transformations which have occurred in social welfare work. Specifically, we examine the tensions between the dynamics of professionalization and deprofessionalization and how these trends have impacted upon those who work in the social welfare enterprise. Another concern of the paper is the effect of the proletarianization of social welfare work in the face of increasing efforts of some to create professional standards and to solidify the position of professionals in agencies. These struggles are examined in terms of their ability to affect the likelihood of both worker unionization and worker-client political coalitions.

An Ecological Approach For Social Work Practice, John T. Pardeck

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The ecological approach offers a comprehensive theoretical base that social practitioners can draw upon for effective social treatment. The critical concepts of the ecological approach are presented. It is suggested that the ecological perspective can be a useful treatment strategy for improving the social functioning of the client system.

Introduction And Dedication, Norman Goroff

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In 1977 the Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare published a Special Issue edited by the late Larry Northwood on The Welfare-Warfare State. This was one of the first journal publications by social workers and sociologists on this vital issue. Larry was one of the original members of the National Association of Social Workers' Peace Committee and did much to stimulate the analysis of the relationship between a warfare and a welfare state.

The Warfare-Welfare Tradeoff: Consequences Of Continuing The Nudear Arms Race And Some Policy Alternatives, Sam Marullo

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper provides a survey of the positive functions of the nuclear arms race for segments of society and society as a whole. The analysis of the positive functions does not serve as a justification for the status quo, but is undertaken to point out the numerous constraints mitigating against change. Massive social forces operate in such a manner as to continue and expand the arms race, indicating large scale social changes are required to stop it. A series of policy alternatives are enumerated as functional alternatives which would have fewer negative consequences while preserving our national security.

Beyond War: Empowerment For Senior Citizens In A Nuclear Age, Susan Rice

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

An educationally focused non-partisan grass roots peace movement is described, as are the empowering effects of being involved in such a group. Beginning attempts to utilize this approach with senior citizens are explored, and further experimentation is encouraged.

Transcending Despair: A Prelude To Action, Norman N. Goroff

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The central thesis of this essay is that in order to feel empowered to work for the elimination of nuclear weapons, persons need to face and transcend their despair when they contemplate the nuclear destruction of the planet. The repression of fear of nuclear disaster results in a sense of powerlessness to do anything about the inevitable destruction and consequently nothing is done, thereby allowing the "Lovers of Death" (Fromm, 1964) to build bigger and better ways to destroy the planet.

Book Reviews, Isidor Walliman, Elizabeth D. Huttman, Shimon S. Gottschalk, Robert Sheak, Christina R. Curtiss

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

BOOK REVIEWS

• The Swiss Way of Welfare: Lessons for the Western World. Ralph Segalman. New York: Praeger, 1986, 205 pp., $39.95. - Reviewed by Isidor Walliman
• Vieillesses: Situations, Itineraires et Modes de Vie des Personnes Agees Aujourd'Hui. Christian Lalive d'Epiany (Ed.). Saint Saphorin, Switzerland: Edition Georgi, 1983. - Reviewed by Elizabeth D. Huttman with the assistance of Anna Marie Rampmaier and W and N. Weber.
• Wohlfahrtsstaat Schweiz (The Swiss Welfare State). Antonin Wagner. Bern: Paul Haupt, 1985, 248 pp., S.E 32. - Reviewed by Shimon S. Gottschalk
• The Mean Season: The Attack on the Welfare State. Fred Block, Richard A. …