Psychology Commons^™

Single-Parent Women, Catherine Margaret Thompson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Fifty separated and divorced single-parent women with heterogeneous demographic characteristics participated in research designed to provide both a theoretical framework and a data base for the study of the single-parent woman.

The theoretical framework of self-perceived comfort was assessed with the use of a Comfort Survey designed by the researcher. A factor analysis of the scale revealed that comfort in this role was most related to the parental role and support for personal and family problems and was least related to financial considerations.

A discriminant analysis yielded information regarding how attitudes toward sex-roles and a variety of personality and demographic …

The Relation Between Environmental Factors And Acting-Out Behaviours Of Youth In A Treatment Centre, Denis Andrew Belicki

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present study examined the relation between social climate/staff attitude variables and disruptive behaviours within a school, a day-treatment service and three residences located in a centre for emotionally disturbed children. Ten categories of disruptive behaviour were recorded in three settings for ten weeks (five weeks in two settings). Data analysis revealed that the settings different significantly in acting-out indicidence. A series of discriminant analyses indicated that what might be referred to as a “traditional” approach best discriminated the settings. Social climate variables were found to be a major component of the discriminating functions.

A Study Of Community Psychology Graduate Student Training Experiences For Consultation Roles, Joanne Granek

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

An exploratory study investigating graduate student consultation training experiences was conducted. Eighty-five graduate students from 35 training programs focusing on community psychology participated in the study. Students reported that they experienced an increase in the intensity of negative feelings as they moved through successive phases of the consultation. The concept of the role discrepancy was introduced and described as the incongruence between the student and professional expert roles which students play simultaneously. There was some evidence to suggest that students who perceived the roles of student and professional as discrepant were more likely to feel incompetent than were students who …

The Extent Of Primary Prevention Research In The Community Psychology Literature: A Content Analysis, Catherine Comeau

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Previous research and opinion suggested that community psychology had not realized its 1960’s commitment to primary prevention. This thesis employs theoretically-oriented content analysis to investigate the extent of the specialization’s commitment to this issue as reflected in research published in three journals: American Journal of Community Psychology (1973-1978), Journal of Community Psychology (1976), Community Mental Health Journal (1966, 1976). The data suggests that approximately 50% of this periodical literature focuses on some aspect of primary prevention. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Individual Differences In Human Operant Heart Rate Conditioning: Autonomic, Cognitive And Dispositional Concomitants, Paul Favaro

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Research in human operant heart rate conditioning concerned with the elucidation of the mediators of operant heart rate changes has postulated five mediating mechanisms related to operant heart rate change: respiratory, somatic-muscular, central neurological, cognitive and dispositional (personality). However, examination of the literature indicates that much of this research has produced equivocal results, hence, a clear picture of mediation has not emerged. Experimenters interested in the events that mediate operant heart rate changes have not devoted much attention to the individual variability that is so pervasive in studies of human psychophysiology. Individuals may fundamentally differ in teh autonomic, central neurological, …

Threat Frequency And Contingency In A Threat-Vulnerable Game, Christine Anne Driver

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The primary purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of threat frequency and contingency on game-playing behaviour in a threat-vulnerable game. A second purpose was to determine the stability of these effects when strategies were alerted during the final 75 trials of the game. Threat was operationally defined as the use of a particular choice in a threat-vulnerable game. One hundred students enrolled in undergraduate courses at Wilfrid Laurier University played in one of nine programmed strategy conditions: all possible pairwise orderings of a passive, demanding contingent, and a demanding noncontingent strategy. The latter two strategies were …

An Assessment Of The Validity Of The Developmental Inventory Scales For Children (Disc), Marian Kathleen Mainland

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Developmental Inventory Scales for Children (DISC) was designed as a screening device for preschool children. The purpose of the study was to assess the validity of the DISC. Twenty male and twenty female preschoolers were observed for three 30 minute sessions and their activities recorded by an observer. The observer then rated each child in each of the areas of the DISC under study. Each child was then rated by his/her teacher and one parent using the same rating scales as had the observer. The DISC was then administered to each child and each of the areas under study …

The Prediction Of Success-Failure And Terminating-Remaining In The Bibliotherapy Treatment Of Obesity, David John Mckay

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

136 obese adults, 119 females and 17 males, all at least 15% over their ideal weight, participated in a ten week self-administered bibliotherapy treatment of obesity. The study examined the relationship between socio-economic status, locus of control, field dependence and their interaction terms and success-failure and terminating-remaining in a totally self-administered behavioural self-help treatment. A multiple regression data analytic strategy was used for data analysis. Significant relationships were found between locus of control and total number of lessons completed and success-failure. Also, significant relationships were found between participants’ age and locus of control and terminating-remaining. The marginal results of the …

Parent, Child, And Context Factors And Interactions As Precipitants To Child Battering, Trevor Austin Thomas

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A random sample of the literature on child battering and interviews with parents who had battered their child was content analyzed. From paragraph themes which indicated causality for child battering, the presence of seven causal dynamics in child battering was noted. The causal dynamics included three factors (parent, child and context) and the interactions between and among the factors. All of the causal dynamics were found to exist in the interviews, literature and separately identified segments of the literature which delineated events immediately preceding an incident of battering. It was concluded that a strong possibility existed that all of the …

The Interrupted Task Paradigm: Age And Observer-Performer Differences, Laurie E. Davidson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Previous research has indicated a developmental tendency toward greater repetition choice and recall of interrupted tasks than for completed tasks. The present study investigated this relationship and the possibility that observing versus performing a task might have differential effects on recall and repetition choice. Thirteen ten year old and eleven year old boys (performers) individually assembled eighteen jig-saw puzzles of birds and animals. Twenty-four peers of the same age (observers) observers puzzle assembly. Contrary to previous research, no significant tendency was found for older participants to recall and to choose to repeat more interrupted tasks than for younger participants. However, …

The Modification Of Smoking Behaviour: A Research Evaluation Of Aversion Therapy, Hypnotherapy, And A Combined Technique, Herman Surkis

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study compared aversion therapy, hypnotherapy, and a combined method. It was predicted that the treatment of imagined behaviour would generalize to overt behaviours. Individuals were randomly assigned to one of three groups: the aversion group with shock contingent on imagined behaviour, and finally the combined group which consisted of traditional hypnotherapy in combination with aversion therapy. The treatments were contained on separate cassettes with each subject receiving his appropriate cassette. Subjects met in groups of 3-5 individuals, twice a week for three weeks. Individuals acted as their own controls through the establishment of a pre-treatment baseline of smoking rate. …

Discrimination Of Bidimensional Stimuli By Autistic Children, Kathryn A. Brock

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Four autistic and four normal children were trained to respond on a series of four bidimensional complex-component discrimination tasks where the complex stimuli were comprised of auditory and visual components. The results indicated a transfer of learning effect for the autistic group. The increment in performance was such that the autistic group’s performance did not significantly differ from the normal group on the last task. These results were seen as encouraging evidence that the apparent phenomenon of stimulus overselectivity, as described in previous research, is not an enduring characteristic of autistic children. It was suggested that further research is needed …

Creativity, Self-Actualization And Meditation Programmes, Robert Wakefield Kitcher

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Twenty-seven students enrolled in a first year Graphics Course at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario were rated on creativity by two groups of experts, a self rating and by the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) Figural Forms A and B (Torrance, 1966) and self-actualization by the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) (Shostrom, 1964) before and after a three month meditation program. The expert rating-rerating of the pretest collagen was very reliable (r=.82) and there was fair agreement (r=.61 average) between Graphic Experts and Non-Grahpic visual communications experts. The lack of significant correlations (p

The students who were randomly assigned to …

Aggression In Amateur And Professional Hockey, Darryl Norman Upfold

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Aggressive behaviour (as measured by “minutes in aggressive penalties”) and players’ perceived attitudes were investigated at four levels of hockey—pee wee and midget (major All Star), Junior A (Jr. A) and the National Hockey League (NHL). No support was found for the hypotheses suggesting that minutes in aggressive penalties occur as a function of differences in weight (light or heavy), position (forward or defense), skill (“less-skilled” or “more-skilled”), or years in league (rookie or veteran). The midget sample incurred significantly more minutes in aggressive penalties per player per 60 minutes of game time than did the other three samples.

Analyses …

The Effects Of Interaction With Conserving Adults And Peers On The Acquisition Of Conservation By Nonconservers, Douglas Arthur Smith

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Nonconserving children were placed in a situation where they had to interact with either two conserving adults or two conserving children. Each triad (one nonconserver and two conservers) was asked to give judgments and explanations for conservation problems. The type of conserving explanations (invariant quantity, reversibility, and compensation) given by the conservers in the interaction were varied. Approximately one week after the interaction the nonconserving subjects were posttested and the results indicated that nonconservers increased in conservation score after interacting with conservers. Hearing different explanations did not differentially affect the scores of nonconservers. The results did indicate that invariant quantity …

A Study Of The Onset, Severity And Frequency Of Illness As Related To Life Changes And Coping Mechanisms, Lynne Susan Dubblestyne

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A study which investigated the relationships between the onset, frequency and severity of past and present illnesses, with life changes and coping mechanisms was carried out. Subjects consisted of three levels of health care: (1) symptom-free (N=88); (2) minor illness (N=72), and (3) hospital patients (N=100). Three measures were employed to test these relationships: (1) the Schedule of Recent Experience (SRE); (2) the Medical History Check-List (MHCL) and, (3) the Boston University Personality Inventory (BUPI). In addition, Seriousness of Illness Rating Scale (SIRS) mean values or severity weights were assigned to subjects’ physician diagnosed illnesses.

As expected, the amount of …

Meaning Formation, Gail F. Czukar

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

An attempt was made to demonstrate laboratory conditions in which experiential components of meaning (i.e. perceptual and emotional correlates of observable stimuli and responses) pattern to form a gestalt. Semantic differential scales were used to measure the meaning of simple visual figures in two phases of the experiment. The first phase consisted of a pre- and post-exposure measurement of meaning with an intervening exposure to a compound visual display. In the second phase, subjects were exposed to an altered visual display and then rated the stimuli again.

Results do not support the predictions that (1) the meaning of the central …

Community Corrections, Judith Ursula Mary Gedye

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Troubled and troubling youth have been the focus of interest for generations of mankind. Modern society has chosen to deal with its “delinquent” youth in characteristically alienating ways. This thesis looks in depth at the development of community psychology, the history of the juvenile court system and corrections, the literature of troubled and troubling youth, and the history of the community of Kitchener-Waterloo in an effort to understand the current situation for youth in our culture. Theintent of the thesis was to develop a Group Home Committee which would focus the interest and energy of some members of a community …

An Investigation Of Semantic Desensitization As A Therapy In The Treatment Of Snake Phobia, Linda Rose Brown

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The initial study of the present research was conducted to determine the effect of low versus high imagery stimulus words on the outcome of semantic desensitization as conducted by Hekmat and Vanian (1971). The overall lack of significant findings led to a more intense examination of the basic underlying assumptions of semantic desensitization. Study II was designed in an attempt to find a method which would successfully achieve meaning change while maintaining interest. A paired associate method was more powerful than the Hekmat procedure in producing meaning change. Study III compared the potency of the paired associate and Hekmat procedure …

Measures Of Approach And Avoidance In The Defence Style Of Spider Phobics, Gysbert Herman De Vink

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Phobic behaviour is traditionally described in terms of avoidance of the phobic object. Andrews (1966) contested this notion and formulated several postulates in which approach toward the phobic object as well as avoidance could be expected as the behavioural manifestation of the phobia. In the present research Andrews’ idea of approach is examined with behavioural and pencil and paper measures.

On the basis of Repression-Sensitization Scale (R-S) scores and their self-rated fear of spiders, 30 fearful repressors and 30 fearful sensitizers were obtained. These people were then tested with the Behavioral Avoidance Test designed by Lang and Lazovick (1963), a …

Supervisory Performance And Satisfaction In Relation To Supervisory Style Interactions At Adjacent Levels Of Management, Gary F. Hanke

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present study examined, for a range of industrial management positions, the relationship of supervisory style patterns at adjacent managerial levels to supervisory performance and job satisfaction. It also investigated the utility of Fiedler’s Contingency Model for determining the supervisory style associated with optimal work group performance at the middle levels of industrial management. Supervisory style was viewed as the extent to which a supervisor’s job related behaviour was basically task-oriented or human relations-oriented. One hundred and twenty-four production supervisory staff representing six manufacturing companies and six organizational levels completed a multi-faceted questionnaire. Measurement devices included: three indices of supervisory …

Personality Factors And Operant Heart Rate Conditioning, Jerry M. Malkiewicz

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present study was concerned with certain individual differences that relate to a subject’s ability to increase his heart rate on command when given appropriate external feedback. The main purpose was to extend to the operant conditioning paradigm Eysenck’s theory that introverts classically condition more readily than extraverts. A second purpose was to determine which personality factors—extraversion, anxiety, and ability to perceive autonomic responses—contribute to heart rate control in operant conditioning. The Eysenck Personality Inventory and the Autonomic Perception Questionnaire were administered to 46 undergraduate males who attempted to accelerate their heart rates, with visual proportional feedback provided, during 20, …

The Experimenter Bias Effect And Its Relation To Submission To Authority, Anat Rutenberg

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Scientific researchers are expected to control the “Experimenter” or “Rosenthal” effect, in which the experimenter’s (E’s) expectations somehow induce the experimental results. Some seventy studies dealing with experimenter bias effect (EBE), many of them recent, were critically reviewed. Contradictory results and failures to replicate were reported. The most plausible explanation involved the personality characteristics of, and the dominance relation between, E and S. Accordingly, the present study examined one personality trait which seems to underlie the EBE, namely, submission to authority.

To elicit EBE, students serving as Es administered Ss Rosenthal’s Photo Rating Test (RPRT), a series of photographed faces …

Racial Awareness, Preference And Self-Identification In Negro And Caucasian Early Elementary School Children (Grades Kindergarten, One And Three), Jean Marie Leforge

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Pictures of three identical faces differing only in skin colour were shown to 88 Negro and Caucasian subjects in grades kindergarten, one and three and questions about the pictures were asked. The procedure was designed to measure racial preference, awareness and self-identification and social awareness on the part of the subjects. Male subjects saw pictures of male faces and female subjects saw female faces. An experimental group of approximately one-half of the subjects saw a fourth picture face, which represented a novel stimulus and which was included to probe the reaction of the subjects to novelty.

In addition, a warm-up …

Exploratory Study Of Gossip In A Rural Community, Ruth Anne Laverty

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this study was to investigate social psychological factors in the process of gossip. A second purpose was to determine whether gossip is a process distinct from rumor. An American community was the location of the study. The situations observed were behavioural settings which either the E or her assistant were permitted to attend without arousing suspicion. The 79 Ss studied were male and female adults and children who happened to be present in these behavioural settings. Conversations of all Ss were tape recorded as well as the gossip portions of conversations in other settings. The content of …

Residential Care For The Mentally Retarded: A Systemic Analysis Of The Creation Of A Community Residence And How Its Development Was Viewed By Members Of The System, David G. Hallman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present study, placed in an historical context of care for the mentally retarded, examines the creation and development of a Community Residence for retarded adults. The Residence is described as a system of interrelating groups (the retarded adults, the director and staff, the parents, the Advisory Committee members) whose patterns of communication and interaction affect the nature of the program. The primary sources of data are the observations of the author who was a participant in the develop[ment of the facility and the results of a survey of each of the system’s groups. The survey results indicate some differences …

A Multivariate Analysis Of The Factors Affecting Treatment In A Child Guidance Centre, Brian Charles Regan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Initially, all the children who had received treatment and been discharged from the West End Créche between 1962 and 1971 were selected for this study. These children were then sub-divided into groups according to where they had gone after discharge. This study considered only two of these groups, 32 children who went into the normal school system and 20 children who entered institutions after being discharged. Both groups were then examined with reference to a list of forty-two variables which provided information on the children’s background and the facilities of the treatment centre. An analysis of these variables demonstrated that …

Towards An Understanding Of Courage: An Exploratory Analysis Of Changing Definitional Conceptions, Gertrud Lavalley

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present paper was an exploratory attempt at examining changing definitional conceptions of courage. Traditional conceptions were found to abound in popular definitions and confusion with respect to both the meaning and origin of courage. Unconscious conformity to societal norms, symbolic attachment to national roles, a learning theory analogue and the broad conception of S-R (stimulus-response) behaviour were examined as possible explanatory frameworks. An analysis of courage and survival clarified the relationship between courage and hope. An interdependent rather than independent relationship between the two concepts was postulated. The S-O-R (stimulus-organism-response) model was employed as a general explanatory framework for …

The Creation Of A Social Service Setting: A Description Of The History And Theoretical Considerations, Paul W. Davock

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Social service organizations are created continuously with little attention given to the process by which they come into existence. The existing literature on the creation of settings is examined, and the method of study of a particular study is described. The theories which were important to the leader in the creation of the setting are examined. The background information, the events leading to the opening, and the first six months of the setting’s existence are chronicled, detailing the major events, issues, and interactions within the setting, giving attention to major theoretical considerations. Major findings are related to existing theory.

Dimensions Of Psychological Health For Retarded Adults In A Community Residence, Barbara Dianne Reid

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Residents’ Needs Questionnaire was developed to measure attitudes concerning the needs of retarded adults for Physical Existence, Psychological Existence, Submissive Relating, Dominant Relating, Shared Relating, and Environmental Mastery. Two measures, identification of the need and perception of the extent to which the need was actualized, were obtained for each of forty items. The questionnaire was administered to staff, residents, parents, and Advisory Committee members of the David Fisher Residence in Erbsville, Ontario. Results indicated that residents’ needs are identified differently by the four different subject groups, and that residents, staff, and Committee members perceive discrepancies between identified needs and …