Psychology Commons^™

The Effects Of Individual And Group Incentives On High Performance, Heather M. Mcgee

Dissertations

The present study examined the performance levels of high performers under equally-divided group monetary incentives, individual monetary incentives, and hourly pay to determine: (a) whether the performance levels of high performers would be higher under individual and group incentive pay systems than under an hourly pay system, (b) whether the performance of high performers would be lower under group incentives than under individual incentives, and (c) whether changes in performance would be due to comparative feedback indicating that the participant is a high performer. Participants were eleven college students who performed a computerized work task that simulated the job of …

Role Of Naming In Stimulus Categorization By Preschool Children, Caio Flavio Miguel

Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to assess whether children would categorize pictures when taught the relevant listener and speaker behaviors separately. A category-sort test was used to assess emergent conditional relations. Category-sort trials consisted of looking at (Test 1) or tacting/labeling (Test 2) a samplestimulus and selecting the appropriate comparison stimuli. In Experiment 1, 4 children (3- 5 years) were taught to tact pictures of six U.S. state maps as either north or south. An assessment was conducted to determine whether they would (1) correctly categorize or sort when presented with a visual sample and (2) select the …

A Behavioral Account Of Remembering: Precurrent Behavior And Mediation Of Delayed Matching To Sample, David W. Sidener

Dissertations

Although “memory” research and theory often come under the domain of cognitive psychology, these areas may also be seen as being open to radical behavioral interpretations. Delayed matching to sample (DMTS) preparations have often been used to study performance that involves the occurrence of behavior some time after the presentation of a relevant stimulus, or what is typically called short-term memory (STM). The current study involved three experiments that provided evidence for the role of overt behavior in the mediation of DMTS performance in five-year-old children. Experiments 1 and 2 support the assertion that sample-specific, differential mediating behavior (in the …

Exploring The Relationship Between Race-Related Stress, Identity And Well-Being Among African Americans, Darrick Tovar-Murray

Dissertations

For almost four hundred years, African Americans have been victims of race-related stress. Race-related stress is defined as the encounters between individuals and their environment that surface from racism and strain an individual's resources or threaten his or her well-being. Despite findings on the negative impact of racism on African Americans' well-being, very little research has focused on the relationships between race-related stress, identity and well-being among African Americans.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between race-related stress, identity, and well-being among African Americans. A total of 196 African American community members and college students participated …

Examining The Behavioral And Physiological Components Of Communication Skills Training With Married Couples: Are Differential Effects Mediated By The Topic Discussed And Initial Level Of Marital Distress?, Tara L. Cornelius

Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to experimentally examine the effects of the Speaker-Listener technique when the couple was instructed to either (a) discuss an issue within, or (b) outside the marriage, on couples’ initial and long-term levels of marital distress and satisfaction. This study was designed to examine Gottman, et al. (1998) hypothesis that the Speaker-Listener skills training technique may be effective and lead to improved levels of marital satisfaction when the couple is complaining about a third party, but complaining about each other may become divisive and weaken the marital relationship, and that such an effect would …

The Effects Of Task Structure And Group Target Monetary Incentives On Social Loafing, Nelson R. Eikenhout

Dissertations

Social loafing refers to the decrease in individual performance output that occurs when individuals perform a task in groups in which the output is pooled. Pooled output refers to the performance of all group members added together to get a total group output. Therefore, because all group members contribute to a single group outcome, individual performance output is obscured. This study examined the following questions. First, what are the effects of the method of pooling the output (additive vs. disjunctive) on individuals who work on a concurrent task in small groups? Second, what are the effects of group target based …

The Effects Of On-The-Spot Observations In A Behavioral Safety Application, Sigurdur Oli Sigurdsson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a package intervention on critical safety behaviors and conditions in a food and drinking industry setting. The intervention involved training a sub sample of employees to conduct safety observations, providing all employees with safety information, and posting weekly graphic safety feedback on six safety-related variables based on employee observations. A multiple baseline design across departments was used to assess the effects of the interventions in two dining services kitchens on the campus of a midwestem university. Overall, the intervention implemented in this study had mixed effects on safety behavior, …

Nutrition Education For Persons With Disabilities, Jada A. Miller

Masters Theses

This study provides descriptive information about the dietary knowledge and intake of community-based young adults who have been diagnosed with a number of disabilities. A nutrition education curriculum was implemented for the Experimental group (N=9) and at a later date for the Delayed Intervention group (N=9). Results indicated that the three-week nutrition education curriculum produced moderate improvement in participants' nutritional knowledge and moderate improvement in nutritional value of foods chosen from a menu. However, the intervention proved to have a negligible effect on the nutritional value of foods consumed within this population of individuals.

Based on the results of this …

Superimposition And Withdrawal Of Tangible Consequences As A Treatment For Automatically Reinforced Problem Behaviors, Tina M. Sidener

Masters Theses

Tangible superimposition and withdrawal is a reductive procedure in which a new stimulus is delivered following behavior already maintained by a different controlling stimulus. The new stimulus is then removed in an attempt to reduce behavior. The current investigation sought to extend previous research on this procedure by evaluating its efficacy and durability as a treatment for stereotypy in three children diagnosed with autism. First, automatic reinforcement functions for stereotypic behaviors were identified via functional analyses. Next, for two participants, tangible items were delivered contingent upon stereotypy and then subsequently withdrawn. When the superimposition procedure proved ineffective, environmental enrichment was …

Controversial Maternal Roles Of Intrafamilial Child Sexual Abuse Cases, Rhonda Elliott Mcgee

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine Child Sexual Abuse case files, to determine which "maternal role": (a) protector, (b) co-victim, (c) co-perpetrator/conspirator, or (d) perpetrator was the most common in court cases studied in this research. The researcher also sought to find: (1) The most dominant maternal role in reference to percentage; (2) The effect, if any, of certain "role types"; (3) And the consequences and/or effects of selected variables (e.g. age, race, and gender) had in family court decisions and adjudications.

The target population consisted of forty-one cases of Child Sexual Abuse cases, adjudicated by the Family …

Monitoring The Effects Of Psychotropic Drugs In Students With Emotional Impairments: Home And School Data, Lynne E. Turner

Dissertations

Research has shown that schools do not typically participate in the systematic monitoring of psychotropic medications prescribed to school-aged children with emotional disorders. Conversely, research indicates that the information that is relayed to the prescribing physician from the schools consists, in general, of informal global reports regarding the student's overall behavior. Additionally, research evaluating systematic monitoring systems within schools has lacked input from the prescribing physician regarding relevant data to be collected. These findings provided impetus for the present project, which was an attempt to develop a practical system for schools to monitor possible desired and adverse effects of psychotropic …

Taiwanese Female Counselors’ Experiences Of Managing Work And Family Roles And Responsibilities, Joy Yuyin Huang

Dissertations

Mental health professionals work in emotionally demanding environments when they work with clients who have emotional problems and interpersonal conflicts. Self-care and managing family and work responsibilities are concerns of great importance for mental health professionals to maintain quality in their services. This is of special concern for Asian female counselors who play important supportive roles for their families. As a result, Asian female counselorsnot only work with clients but also assume heavy family responsibilities, yet there is a dearth of literature on this specific group (Leong, 2002; Saso, 1999; Lee, 1998).

This qualitative study using grounded theory methods explored …

Aiding At-Risk Students, Jeremy Baldwin

Honors Theses

Kalamazoo's Loy Norrix High School was the location of a study in conjunction with the institution's school-wide achievement process to aid at-risk students. Characterized by poor attendance, behavioral problems and/or failing two or more subjects, at-risk students are monitored more closely through school-wide efforts. According to the Michigan Department of Education, the effort to hep struggling students implicates the use of supplemental services before or after school to help students in the core subjects: math, science, social studies, and English. Norrix has successfully begun its own efforts to improve the overall academic success of the student body by employing the …

Working With Heterosexual Allies On Campus: A Qualitative Exploration Of Experiences Among Lgbt Campus Resource Center Directors, Melissa A. Bullard

Dissertations

The scholarly literature has just recently begun to address the role that heterosexual allies can play in responding to the unique needs and challenges facing LGBT people. As Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Campus Resource Centers are expanding in number and scope on college and university campuses across the United States, heterosexual allies have increased opportunities to support and advocate for LGBT people. Yet very little is known about what heterosexual allies do, or how their presence and actions impact LGBT people. The purpose of this study is to identify and describe the experiences that LGBT individuals have with …

Academic Performance, Persistence, And Cultural Congruence Of African American Males Attending Predominantly White Colleges And Universities, Darrell Johnson

Dissertations

The continued lack of success for African American males attending predominantly White colleges and universities is alarming and unsettling. Other racial minority groups are making positive gains relative to their post-secondary educational experiences. However, the African American male lags behind in virtually every index of success in higher education. This trend could produce serious social, economic and cultural implications for the African American community and the entire country.

For African Americans, a strong sense of culture is important to their ability to achieve high levels of mental and psychological functioning, particularly in environments they perceive to be hostile or unwelcoming. …

Exploring The Behavioral Function Of Work Monitoring, Don H. Rohn

Dissertations

A number of studies have suggested the key difference between effective and ineffective managers is the extent to which managers engage in a particular form of monitoring - work sampling (Komaki & Minnich, 2002). Effective managers observe employees instead of relying on self-reports or secondary sources of performance. A factor contributing to the effectiveness of work sampling may be an increase in desired behavior as a function of reactivity to the presence of an observer. In spite of the large volume of research on the effects of observer presence on various physiological responses and task performances (Guerin, 1993), a study …

Comparative And Contributive Effects Of Process And Human Performance Improvement Strategies, Joseph R. Sasson

Dissertations

Organizational leaders know that the success of their organization depends on the organization's ability to either produce better products or produce equally good products at a lower cost to consumers. Interventions aimed at improving organizational performance stem from two primary perspectives. One perspective emphasizes changing system factors (e.g., equipment and processes) and the other perspective emphasizes changing human performance factors (e.g., performance specifications and behavioral consequences). The current study evaluated the comparative and contributive effects of process improvement techniques (Kock, 1999; Melan, 1992; Rummler & Brache, 1995) and human performance improvement techniques (Daniels, 1989; Gilbert, 1996; Rummler & Brache, 1995), …

Continuous And Interrupted Exposure Therapy In The Treatment Of Public Speaking Anxiety, Stacey A. Waller

Dissertations

Current research suggests that exposure-based interventions are the treatment of choice for anxiety disorders (Barlow & Wolfe, 1981; Barlow, 1988; 2002; Zinbarg, Barlow, Brown, & Hertz, 1992; Foa, Rothbaum, & Kozak, 1989). While the evidence to date supports the efficacy of these procedures, the precise mechanisms by which they achieve symptom reduction are not yet fully understood. Most theoretical explanations of exposure therapy appeal to the respondent and operant conditioning processes from which the procedure was originally derived. While it is frequently argued that in order to achieve operant and respondent extinction, exposure must be delivered continuously, without interruption (Barlow, …

Managing Social Conflict - The Evolution Of A Practical Theory, David B. Moore

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article describes the co-evolution of a process and a theory. Through the 1990s, the process known as "conferencing" moved beyond child welfare and youth justice, to applications in schools, neighbourhoods, and workplaces. In each of these applications, conferencing has assisted participants to acknowledge and transform interpersonal conflict, as a prelude to negotiating a plan of action. Much analysis of conferencing has been linked with social theorist John Braithwaite, whose work has influenced the development of a multidisciplinary theory of these process dynamics, and the development of guiding principles. Key links between theory and practice are described in chronological sequence.

The Use Of Computer-Based Programmed Instruction As A Supplemental Tool To Train Behavior Analysis Concepts, Jason T. Otto

Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation was to produce effective computer-based programmed instruction modules to serve as supplemental training for an ongoing college seminar in behavior analysis. Computer-based programmed instruction supplemented a checklist of a strategy for diagramming behavioral contingencies in the first study and supplemented difficult textbook material in the other studies. In all, the instruction involved 31 concepts, rules, or objectives. Microsoft ®PowerPoint® and Macromedia Flash(TM) were the authoring tools used to develop these supplemental modules. The modules involved multiple-choice-branching programming, which students completed as homework assignments that were delivered with a compact disk (Studies 1-4) and the World …

Potential Components Of Time Personality: A Literature Review, Jane Ackerson

Honors Theses

What is time? The simple yet puzzling question has been posed on numerous occasions generating various responses. Time can be described as quantifiable, structured, even having monetary value. Time can be viewed in a subjective or objective manner and can be influenced by internal and external factors. Time can create pressure, anxiety, or boredom. Time is what we perceive it to be. This perception is a potentially vital component involved in the makeup of time personality. Theoretically, time personality is shaped by many factors affecting the relationship an individual has with time. The objectives of the research were to identify …

The Effects Of Individual And Group Incentives On High And Low Performance, Heather M. Mcgee

Masters Theses

This study examined the effects of individual and group monetary incentives on the performance of high and low performers. Participants were six college students who performed a computerized work task called SYNWIN. Participants earned points for correct responses and lost points for incorrect responses. The primary dependent variables were the total number of points earned per session and the percent correct per session. An ABAC within-subject reversal design was used, where A= individual incentives, B = group incentives (either high or low performance), and C = hourly pay.

The point scores of all six participants decreased when group incentives were …

The Effects Of Feedback, Goals, And Consequences On Response Time For Medical Staff In A Medical-Surgical Hospital Setting, Don K. Nielsen

Masters Theses

Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) has developed procedures useful in addressing a variety of organizational challenges. Frequently used components of OBM interventions include feedback, goal setting, and consequences. Literature on various combinations of these components is abundant but there are few reports of their use in the hospital setting. Specifically, no published studies were found that focus on response time of answering patient calls. The present study was an attempt to evaluate the effects of feedback, goals, and consequences on the latency of responses to patient calls. A multiple-baseline design across individuals was used in a hospital setting to evaluate the …

Organizational Factors Contributing To Worker Frustration: The Precursor To Burnout, Cathleen A. Lewandowski

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study examined the organizationalf actors that contribute to workers' frustration with their work situation. The sample included 141 service professionals who attended workshops on burnout in 2001. The purpose of the workshops was to increase awareness regarding the organizational factors that could contribute to burnout. Findings indicate that factors most directly affecting clients were predictive of frustration, rather than factors that may indirectly support service quality or factors impacting workers' professional autonomy. A sense of powerlessness and isolation was also predictive of frustration, suggesting that participants viewed workplace problems as a private rather than an organizational concern. To address …

Because A Better World Is Possible: Women Casino Workers, Union Activism And The Creation Of A Just Workplace, Susan Chandler

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Based on a re-analysis of data from a qualitative study of the work experience of 36 women casino workers, this article examines the contributions and personal characteristics of the 13 women in the sample who described themselves as committed union activists. These women, all leaders in the Hotel Employees, Restaurant Employees Union, were proud that collectively they had improved wages, benefits, and the conditions of work in Nevada casinos, and had created an environment that reinforced pride in a job well-done, provided job security, and promoted strong families and communities. These women's workplace experience serves as a reminder to the …

Response Cost In The Treatment Of Lunging In Dogs, Jennifer L. Sobie

Masters Theses

Contemporary professional applied animal behavior management employs a diagnostic and treatment approach for unwanted pet behavior that incorporates ethology-based causal factors. As in behavior therapy for humans, behavioral assessment includes descriptive functional analysis when possible to determine relevant contingency variables. But this information is then considered in the context of an appropriate motivational classification, such as social or prey-directed motivation or fear-motivated, and treatments are designed accordingly. A different view is that behavior can be treated effectively without a presumption of the motivation through analysis of the manifestation of the behavior itself. This study sought to evaluate the efficacy of …

Shift Work And Negative Work-To-Family Spillover, Blanche Grosswald

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A representative sample of the U.S. workforce from 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce data (Families & Work Institute, 1999) was examined to study the relationship between shift work and negative workto- family spillover. Negative spillover was measured by Likert-scale frequency responses to questions concerning mood, energy, and time for family as functions of one's job. Statistical analyses comprised t-tests, ANOVAs, and multiple regressions. Among wage earners with families (n = 2,429), shift work showed a significant, strong, positive relationship to high negative work-to-family spillover when controlling for standard demographic characteristics as well as education and occupation. Distinctions among …

Resiliency Factors Related To Substance Use/Resistance: Perceptions Of Native Adolescents Of The Southwest, Margaret A. Waller, Scott K. Okamoto, Bart Miles, Donna E. Hurdle

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This exploratory, qualitative study examined risk and protective factors influencing drug and alcohol use and/or resistance of Native youth in the Southwest. Thirty-two Native middle school students participated in 10 focus groups that explored their experiences with alcohol and drugs in their school and reservation communities. The findings indicate a complex interaction of both risk and protective factors related to substance use. Respondents' cousins and siblings, in particular, played a key role in their decisions to use or resist drugs. Implications for social work practice are discussed.

Psychophysically Derived Work Frequencies Associated With Roof Shingling Operations Involving Change In Grade, Sang Dae Choi

Dissertations

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of roof slope on psychophysical roof shingling frequency. Twelve healthy males (21-30 years old) were used as participants. Experiment one was designed to determine Maximum Acceptable Roof Shingling Frequency (MARSF) for a workday period using psychophysical methodology. Results indicate that 198 shingles/hr is an acceptable roof shingling frequency for a workday. Furthermore, 2 hours is an acceptable testing period (equivalent to the workday). Postural sway and physiological variables support these findings. Experiment two was designed to study the effect of slope (18°, 26°, and 34°) on MARSF. Experiment two indicates …

Review Of The Making Of The Chinese Industrial Workplace: State, Revolution And Labor Management. Mark W. Frazier. Reviewed By M. K. Lee., M. K. Lee

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Mark W. Frazier, The Making of the Chinese Industrial Workplace: State, Revolution and Labor Management. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. $60.00 hardcover.