Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Background Music On Initial Counseling Sessions, Stella Elaine Dial

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

State Terrorism In The Arab-Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Social Constructionism And The Question Of Power, Amani Michael Awwad

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Professional Disclosure Statements On Counselors-In-Training Perceptions Of Supervision, John Richard Howie

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Facilitative Characteristics Of Supervisors, Elizabeth A. Olson

Dissertations

The relationship between supervisors’ facilitative characteristics and students’ willingness to learn and receptivity in supervision was the focus of this study. Forty Master’s level students, enrolled in a clinical practicum, rated their supervisors’ Empathetic Understanding, Regard, Congruence, Unconditionality, and Willingness to be Known on the Revised Relational Inventory (RRI) (Barrett-Lennard, 1962; Schacht, Howe, & Berman, 1988) and evaluated themselves on their willingness to learn in supervision and receptivity to supervisors’ feedback using the Supervision Perception Form (SPF) (Heppner & Roehike, 1984). Supervisors also participated by rating themselves with each student on these five relational characteristics and evaluating each student on …

Toward A Comprehensive Model Of Parent-Teen Socialization: The Antecedents And Consequents Of Parent-Teen Interaction, Gregory L. Sanders

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Adult Male Assaultive Behavior And Correlates With The Mmpi-2, Tom G. Lanning

Dissertations

This study was descriptive in nature and examined the relationship between demographic variables, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) variables, and levels of violence as measured by the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) (Straus, 1979). The research sample consisted of 44 males entering a treatment program for male batterers. All participants completed a research protocol during a required assessment consisting of: (a) a General Information Sheet, (b) the MMPI-2, and (c) the CTS. The CTS was the only instrument administered solely for research purposes.

The MMPI-2 data were used to construct a sample composite mean profile. MMPI-2 data were also divided into …

Multiple Personality Disorder And Major Depression: A Comparative Study, Mary L. Wassink

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Assessing Pediatricians' Diagnostic Practices: An Analogue Study Of Responses To Adhd-Like Presentations In Preschoolers, Helle Augustesen

Dissertations

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been considered one of the most chronic behavior disorders observed in the preadolescent population and is one of the most frequently diagnosed childhood disorders in North America. Currently, however, there is little consistency in terms of identifying specific criteria which need to be present in a child's behavior to make a diagnosis of ADHD. This difficulty is even more pronounced in very young children of preschool age. This study utilized a three year old male child shown to 80 subjects on a videotape engaging in either a high or a low level of activity. …

The United Center: A Community-Based Corrections Project, William George Hinkle

Dissertations

The United Center is a community-based corrections center located in Middletown, Midwest. Funded by the Midwest Department of Corrections, and administered by local county government, it provides a sentencing alternative to the county's jail, and the state's prison system. Defined as a correctional "halfway-in house," the program provides offenders with employment and education related services, job placement, mental health services, and drug and alcohol counseling in a highly structured, but supportive environment. In operation since the early 1980's, the program has serviced some 400 offenders sentenced to short prison terms for low-level property and drug offenses. Compared to national rates …

Evaluation Of A Computer Simulation To Assess Subject Preference For Different Types Of Incentive Pay: Part Two, Stephen Mark Sundby

Dissertations

This study further investigated the use of a computer simulation to assess subject preference for different types of pay systems. Subjects were eight undergraduates recruited from psychology classes at Western Michigan University. The dependent variable was the subjects’ choice of pay system, either simulated hourly pay or base pay plus incentive. Simulated work performance was determined by the computer with 0.50 probability of low or high performance. For Experiment 1, the independent variable was the maximum amount of simulated pay that subjects could earn under each pay type. For Experiments 2 and 3, the independent variable was the percentage of …

Autocorrelation In Single-Subject Data: A Meta-Analytic View, Laura L. Methot

Dissertations

Recent work by Huitema and McKean (1991, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c, in press) has shown that the most frequently used statistical methods for performing conventional time-series analyses lead to gross distortions of results when these approaches are applied in the context of the typical behavioral research study. Most of these problems could be avoided if researchers were aware that the time-series methods recommended in many areas are not generally needed. The appropriate evidence regarding the need for complex time-series methods requires a meta-analysis of the autocorrelation present in behavioral studies. The project involved: (a) sampling several hundred research articles published in …

The Effects Of Intensive, Structured Study On Gre Verbal And Quantitative Scores, Jan Marie Miller

Dissertations

This research served as a follow-up to previous research (Goodyear-Orwat and Malott, 1994) in which students engaged in self-study utilizing various study materials. Three courses (spring, summer, and fall) were offered to further examine the effects of intensive, structured study on Graduate Record Examination verbal and quantitative scores.

Twenty undergraduates enrolled in Graduate Record Examination preparatory courses studied from 66 to 105 hours. An attendance and participation contingency was established to encourage adequate study time. The courses were structured to allow students to assess and manage their own performance, utilizing standard, self-instructional texts and computerized drill programs. Students worked at …

Parallel Process In Psychotherapy Supervision And Its Relationship To Empathy, Gary E. Beyer

Dissertations

How clinical supervisors manage empathy and empathy failure and its relationship to parallel process was explored by interviewing highly experienced doctoral level supervisors. Supervisor responses regarding their experiences in supervision with empathy and parallel process phenomena was examined in this study. This approach was grounded in psychodynamic theory regarding constructs of identification (countertransference, projective identification, introjective identification, parallel process and empathy).

A qualitative research design using the constant comparative method was employed. The sample of supervisors consisted of 10 male and 5 female, Caucasian psychologists, ranging in age from 40 to 70 years. Supervisors had a mean of 19 years …

Lesbian Identity Development And Career Experiences, Mary Jo Thiel

Dissertations

This study used a qualitative research design to explore the experiences of lesbian women with respect to identity development and career issues.

Using the Stage Allocation Measure (SAM) (Cass, 1984), twenty lesbian women who were in the Synthesis Stage (Stage 6) of identity development were identified. In face-to-face, one and a half to two hour interviews, using a semi-structured interview guide developed by the researcher, respondents were asked open-ended questions about their coming out process and their career development .

Interviews were tape recorded and transcribed and the transcripts were analyzed using grounded theory coding techniques. Themes and patterns were …

Interdisciplinary Collaboration In The Elementary School A Case Study, Kathryn Kinnucan-Welsch

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the descriptive and interpretive knowledge base about collaboration based on two interdisciplinary teams of elementary school educators representing disciplines of general education, special education, speech-language, reading, and counseling. Using an educational ethnographic design, data were collected through open interviews, team meetings and classroom observations. These data supported the construction of two distinct case studies as well as working hypotheses concerning interdisciplinary collaboration among professionals from specialized disciplines.

One case study was characterized as caseload collaboration. The team originated out of the desire among teachers from specialized disciplines to effect a more …

Use Of A Structured Interview To Evaluate The Validity Of The Alcohol And Drug Dependence Scales Of The Millon Clinical Multi Axial Inventory Ii, Bert Van Hoek

Dissertations

This is an external validation study of the Alcohol and Drug dependence scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory II ([MCMI-II], Millon, 1987). The Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-III-R ([SCID], Spitzer, Williams, Gibbon, & First, 1990) was administered to a sample of 73 adults who presented for treatment at a substance abuse facility to establish all possible substance abuse diagnoses based on the nosology of the revised Diagnostic Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (3rd ed. [DSM-III], American Psychiatric Association, 1980). Subsequently, scores on the Alcohol and Drug Dependence scales of the MCMI-II for the present sample were compared to …

Contingency-Shaped Behavior And Rule-Governed Behavior: A Comparison In Terms Of Speed Of Acquisition, Generalization And Maintenance, Ronald Ramirez-Henderson

Dissertations

According to Skinner (1969, 1974), operant behavior can be acquired through two major processes, direct contact between the behavior and its environmental consequences and antecedents in a process referred to as contingency - shaped behavior (CSB) and through verbal mediation by rules and instructions in a process referred to as rule-governed behavior (RGB). CSB and RGB were compared in terms of the speed of acquisition of complex problem skills, the generalization of those skills to new stimuli, and their maintenance. Forty-four college students, 13 males and 31 females, with an average age of 21 .5 years, participated in four sessions …

Public Choice Or Public Spirit: Toward A More Comprehensive Theory Of Regulation, Gary R. Kitts

Dissertations

This study examines the decisions made by state public utility regulatory commissions from the perspectives of two primary theories of regulatory decision making-- the public choice and public spirit models. The public choice model posits that an agency’s decisions are responsive to the pressures placed upon the organization by competing external interest groups. The public spirit model postulates that an agency’s decisions reflect the relative values of those with authority or influence within the organization. The study hypothesizes that each is incomplete and proposes a process model based on variables derived from both theories.

The research analyzed 240 utility rate …

Sisters In The Hood, Deborah Burris-Kitchen

Dissertations

This research assembles and organizes the literature in the areas of African-American women, the political economy of racism, the Black feminization of poverty, drug use and distribution, and gang violence. This dissertation explores extant theoretical approaches with a special emphasis on their relationship to the underground economy. The researcher uses ethnographic methods to examine the role that female gang members play in the underclass drug infested community of south central Fort Wayne, Indiana. Of the Black females interviewed, some were drug dealers, others were using illegal drugs, and still others were females who just found themselves in the inner-city, in …

The Impact Of Mentoring On Leadership Among Young African-American Females, Joyce A. Montgomery

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived effectiveness of the mentoring relationship on the leadership behavior of female mentees in a community leaders program. More specifically, the researcher was concerned with what effects do the variables age, residence location, and family position have on aggressiveness, amount of influence, respect of knowledge, parental substitute and supportiveness components of leadership behavior among adolescent female mentees.

The target population consisted of 47 African-American adolescent females ages 14 through 18 years old attending the Community Leadership Program (CLP) based in Battle Creek, Michigan. The major data-gathering scale used, The Mentoring Leadership …

Toward A Biocritical Sociology, John Neuhaus

Dissertations

This dissertation is a critical discourse with three prominent trends in contemporary sociology. It is a critique of Emile Durkheim's admonition that sociological analysis, by definition, requires the exclusion of biological and psychological data. It shows, in contrast, that the exclusion of biosocial data removes vast sources of information which are useful and necessary in any interpretation of human behavior. This work also demonstrates that a biosocial perspective facilitates the development of a transcultural theory of human needs, which, if utilized, would enable sociologists to clarify a number of unproductive disciplinary conflicts concerning the definition and extent of social problems. …

Lost In The Fifties: A Study Of Collected Memories, Janelle L. Wilson

Dissertations

This is a study of ordinary people's recollections of the decade of the nineteen fifties. The theoretical concepts of collective memory and collected memories guide design and analysis. Unstructured interviews with 33 individuals who grew up in America in that decade were conducted. The snowball method identified potential informants. The data from these interviews, combined with secondary sources on that time period, served to reconstruct this decade. A number of themes emerged from the data; the decade was seen: as an apolitical time, as fun and innocent, as fearful with respect to atomic weaponry and Communists, as problematic for race …

The Role Of Elites In The Quality Of Life In Kalamazoo And Calhoun Counties, Sam S. King

Dissertations

My research examined the role of elites in the quality of life from 1890 to 1990 in two southwestern Michigan communities: Kalamazoo and Calhoun counties. This research is grounded in three research literatures: community power, elites and quality of life. My approach combined a quantitative analysis of six dimensions of quality of life and an historical analysis using case methods to look at the two communities over a 100 year time span.

My assumption at the beginning of this study was that elites play a major role in the quality of life. My data showed that some elites did have …

The Treatment Utility Of The Therapeutic Reactance Scale In Relation To Single Session Hypnosis For Smoking Cessation, Gregory N. Vaughan

Dissertations

This study examined the efficacy of three different hypnotic suggestion scripts each delivered in a single session of hypnosis for smoking cessation as mediated by reactance scores on the Therapeutic Reactance Scale (TRS) (Dowd, Milne, & Wise, 1991). Consecutive clinical trials were used to assign 48 subjects to treatment groups such that an equal number of subjects received: (1) direct suggestions, (2) suggestions that refrained the problem, (3) suggestions not specifically related to smoking cessation, and (4) a delayed treatment waiting list. Each subject rated the believability of treatment efficacy on a Likert type scale.

Four categories of the dependent …

Experiences Of Moral Commitment: A Phenomenological Study, Suzanne West Macrenato Edd

Dissertations

This study's purpose was to increase understanding and meaning of the lived experience of moral commitment as practiced by participants at the time of the study, not in retrospective. Phenomenology was the research methodology selected to elicit participants' understanding of moral commitment through in-depth interviews. Study participants were referred using selection criteria which included: demonstration of sustained selfless service to others outside of one's work life and a demonstrated tendency to inspire others to engage in similar service. The four women and six men in the study, ranging from 33 to 78 years of age, represented blue-collar and professional occupations. …

Psychological Climate And Organizational Commitment, Michael C. Helford

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Evaluation Of A School-Based Drug Prevention Program At The Elementary Level, Marie Anne Mackay

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

How And When Should Information Be Restudied?, William L. Cull

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Spina Bifida: How Are Pediatric Patients And Their Mothers Coping?, Joan Faier-Routman

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Therapists Psychological Adaptation To Client Suicidal Behavior, Patrick J. Horn

Dissertations

No abstract provided.