Psychology Commons^™

An Interactional/Social Psychological Approach To Defiance And Therapeutic Paradox, Glenn Thomas Gould

Theses and Dissertations

This study tested the general hypothesis that a client's compliance or defiance of a therapeutic directive could be accurately predicted by manipulating the variables of incongruence and dependency within the client-counselor relationship. An attempt to control the relationship variables was made by using a no-choice, paradoxical directive to increase levels of relationship incongruence. The manipulation of the client's perception of their counselor's level of experience and expertness was aimed at controlling the dependency variables. The hypothesis that clients would report improvement of their symptom, following the delivery of a paradoxical directive, was also investigated.

The subjects of the study were …

Interpersonal Perceptions As Function Of Personality Styles, Suzanne R. Gascoyne

Theses and Dissertations

One hundred, sixty-nine undergraduates participated in a study that investigated the effects of interpersonal self-perceptions on judgements made about others. Subjects' interpersonal styles were assessed by self-ratings using the Interpersonal Adjective Scales (IAS). Subjects also rated the interpersonal styles of two video-taped stimulus others using the IAS. In addition, subjects' degree of identification and desire to affiliate with the stimuli were assessed. The general design was a two-group rating comparison (Friendly-Dominant and Friendly-Submissive, and more extreme and less extreme) across two stimulus conditions, Hostile-Dominant and Hostile-Submissive. There were several findings and interpretations were forwarded. Extreme subjects assigned higher, more extreme …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Two Exercise Programs On Children's Self-Concept, Locus Of Control, And Mood, Lynne Blanken Einhaus

Theses and Dissertations

The effects of two physical fitness programs on children's self-concept, locus of control and mood were investigated in this study. It was expected that children who participated in a vigorous running program would demonstrate reduced depression and anxiety but a more internal locus of control and an increase in self-concept than children in a routine exercise group.

Participants in the Running Group were three fifth grade classes of a public elementary school in Richmond, Virginia (N = 60). Participants in the Routine Exercise Group were three fifth grade classes from a comparable public elementary school in the same district (N …

Use Of An External Inhibition Procedure In The Treatment Of Spider Phobic Subjects, Jerome D. Gilmore

Theses and Dissertations

This research represented an extension of previous work on the therapeutic application of the external inhibition phenomenon, and sought to examine the effects of such a procedure on the verbal- cognitive, motoric, and physiological components of the anxiety response. To accomplish this, subjects were selected and treatment effects evaluated on the basis of changes elicited in each of the three response modalities by a specific fear stimulus, The relative effectiveness of the external inhibition treatment in modifying the multiple components of the anxiety response was examined by a comparison with procedures controlling for expectancy effects and repeated exposure to the …

Personality, Sex, And The Neuropsychology Of Attention, Peter A. Williamson

Theses and Dissertations

The influences of sex and personality on attentional style were examined in two neuropsychological studies in which perfor mance and event-related potentials (ERP's) were employed. Pribram and McGuinness1 (1975) conceptions of Activation and Arousal were recast in a lateralized framework in which the former was seen as characteristic of left hemisphere function while the latter was identified more closely with the right hemisphere. Four equal groups of nine subjects were selected on the basis of sex and ex treme extraversion scores (I-E), while controlling for neuroticism, to participate in two lateralized attentional tasks. The first, a vigilance task designed to …

The Sex Typed Activities Test: A Supplementary Measure Of Masculine And Feminine Dimensions Of Personality, Steven Harold Weaver

Theses and Dissertations

This paper details the development of a personality measure which differentiates among individuals on the basis of their self-reported comfort with a variety of day to day activities. These activities were systematically pre-se lected to be either masculine or feminine in nature. The history of masculinity and femininity measurement is exam ined, and the trend toward increasingly specific measurement devices traced. In line with an emerging multi-dimensional model of masculinity and femininity, it is suggested that a paper and pencil measure of two separate masculine and femi nine dimensions composed of items that are behavioral in terms of content would …

Lignite Liquefaction Using Carbon Monoxide And Water In A Hot-Charge Batch Autoclave, Michael L. Swanson

Theses and Dissertations

The effects of temperature history on the liquefaction of lignite were investigated using the UND hot-charge, time-sampled batch autoclave facility. Approximately two hundred grams of moisture- and ash-free lig nite, one hundred grams of water, four hundred grams of hydrogenated anthracene oil solvent and carbon monoxide gas were reacted in both cold- charge and hot-charge experiments. The oil yields and overall conver sions were determined by extraction with cyclohexane and tetrahydrofuran, respectively. Maximum operating pressures ranged from 3670 psig to 3925 psig and the maximum reaction temperature was approximately 420°C in all cases.

Oil yields and overall conversion ranged from …

Design Optimization Of Slider-Crank Mechanisms Subject To Coulomb Bearing Friction, Anthony J. Pascuzzi

Theses and Dissertations

Optimization techniques are applied to the design of slider-crank mechanisms operating as single acting compressors subject to Coulomb bear ing friction. The dynamic force analysis is performed by the solution of a set of nonlinear equations in dimensionless form. The optimization re sults presented are for various cases of inertia, friction, and external loading.

The optimization procedure developed minimizes a weighted sum of the input work and bearing shear stress by adjusting the mechanism's dimensions. The independent dimensions that are varied are the connecting rod length, the offset, and the three bearing radii. The results of the optimization are different …

Arts Education In A Teacher Education Curriculum: A Model Based On Comparative Analysis Of Arts Education Theories, Jean A. L. Olson

Theses and Dissertations

In this study the historical role of the arts in America was briefly traced as well as the history of federal interest in the arts and arts education. The importance of arts education for the individual, the school, and society was stated. Four basic tenets of arts education were derived from research and literature which provided criteria for effective arts activities and strategies. These tenets suggest that arts education (1) should be based on experiential, discovery-based, process-oriented approaches; (2) should be viewed as a developmental activity; (3) should focus on the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of learning; and (4) …

Some Developmental Components Of The Career Decision Making Process Among College Students, Glenn Thomas Gould

Theses and Dissertations

Current research suggests that there is some relationship between developmental variables, levels of career maturity and career decisions. In this study, the relationships between certain developmental factors and the degree of certainty expressed by college students about their decision to major in a field of study were explored. The variables included the student's decision making stage, decision making styles, levels of autonomy and interpersonal relationships, and degree of career maturity. The relationships between students' status as decided or undecided about a choice of major and the variables were also investigated. The participants of this study were 104 men (n=47) and …

Locus-Of-Control In An Interactionist Approach To Behavior, Christopher Jacob Reiss

Theses and Dissertations

The impetus for this empirical study is: 1) to provide further construct validity for the I-E scale; and 2) to advance the locus-of-control construct as an important concept in the growing theoretical model of interactionism. The main models in personality psychology are compared and contrasted with interactionism.

The literature on locus-of-control, implicating its importance for understanding the interactionist perspective, is reviewed. Because anxiety and anagram tasks are utilized as person and situation variables in the present study they also are reviewed prior to stating specific hypotheses. 2 The major hypotheses are: 1) that the state anxiety of subjects with scores …

Person-Environment Interaction In Nursing Homes For The Elderly, Stan J. Orchowsky

Theses and Dissertations

There has been a growing interest in recent years in the study of person-environment interaction in the elderly. Several theoretical models have been proposed in the gerontological literature. Each of these models suffers from one or more limitations, including the restriction of requiring that the person and the environment be measured in the same terms, and the difficulty posed by attempting to empirically test the model.

A new model of person-environment interaction in the elderly is proposed here. The model views life satisfaction as the ultimate outcome variable. Feelings of personal control and choice are seen as intervening between life …

The Effects Of Religious Beliefs On Preferences Among Four Types Of Christian Counseling, Suzanne Ruth Gascoyne

Theses and Dissertations

Forty-five participants from Protestant denominations completed surveys designed to investigate the effects of religious beliefs on preferences among four types of Christian counseling. The proponents of the counseling theories were Clyde M. Narramore, Jay E. Adams, Lawrence J. Crabb, and Andre Bustanoby. Participants read a case history of a fictitious client, and four short treatment plans which represented each Christian counselor's approach. Then, they completed questionnaires designed to assess their preferences for the counseling approaches, as well as completing other measures, including a religious fundamentalism scale, the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS), and the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS). It was found …

Mental Health Status Of Vietnamese Refugees In Utah County, Utah, David A. Acree

Theses and Dissertations

This study attempted to measure mental health status of Vietnamese refugees in Utah County, Utah. The test instrument used was the Cornell Medical Index (CMI). Two subproblems were considered: First, to see if refugee complaints on the CMI were predominantly physiological or psychological. Second, to see if there was a relationship between CMI scores and a related list of demographic variables.

Results showed the mean CMI score for the sample under study was well above the suggested score indicative of possible psychological dysfunction. For 80% of participants, psychological complaints were predominant over physical complaints. The only variables showing a relationship …

Interactionist Strategies For Assessing Personality And Behavior Differences Among Female Intercollegiate Athletes And Nonathletes, Frances Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

Thirty six female intercollegiate team athletes and 40 female non-athlete control subjects were studied in a two-experiment investigation designed to explore the personality patterns of female athletes; to measure any differences in performances of the experimental and control groups attributable to changing conditions, i.e., solo, coaction and competitive; and to explore the interactions of personality variables and performance. The previous research on personality, with Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor Inventory and female athletes, is not plentiful and frequently in conflict. No previous research could be located that employed controlled competitive conditions with athletes—male or female. In Study 1, the team athletes …

Motivational Differences Between Depressed And Nondepressed Students In Detecting Noncontingency, Gerald D. Oster

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of learned helplessness assigns a mediating role to the recognition that events may be unrelated. However, current representation of individuals as "intuitive statisticians" unveils a lack of these information-processing abilities. This is particuIarIy apparent in the skill required to recognize noncontingent events. Similarly, in a series of experiments on the detection of contingent and noncontingent events, Allo and Abramson (1979) demonstrated that this “illusion of controI” couId discriminate between depressed and nondepressed students.

In extending their research, the concept of "contrast effects," on animal Iearning phenomenon, was introduced as a competing motivational framework to account for differences between …

Relationship Between Personality And Value Structure, William B. Pettus

Theses and Dissertations

Humankind has been interested in the study of individual differences throughout recorded history. Plato discussed the issue of individual variations in aptitudes and suggested having tests for selecting those persons most suited for the military, artisans and rulers (Tyler, 1965). Hippocrates proposed a two-fold classification system of body builds which he called ”habitus apoplecticus” and ”habitus phthisicus” (Tyler, 1965). The nineteenth century German astronomer, Bessel, discovered discrepancies among individuals in recording the time of the passage of stars across the meridian at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. This source of error, due to individual differences, became known as the ”personal …

Stages Of Adult Development For Women Religious And Married Women, Ellen Rufft

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the stages in the adult development of single women living in religious communities and compare these stages with those of married women. Specific research questions about each five year period from age 21 to 50 were answered by this study.

Questionnaires were sent to 200 women religious and 200 married women between the ages of 36 and 50 who live in the Pittsburgh area and are white, middle-class, and Catholic. In addition to requesting biographical information, these questionnaires asked participants to specify which five year period in their lives they experienced certain …

Components Of State Anxiety For Varying Levels And Dimensions Of Trait Anxiety, Dennis C. Donat

Theses and Dissertations

Recent research has provided support for a multidimensional view of trait anxiety to supplant the former unidimensional approach. Unidimensional measures of general trait anxiety have been found to be inadequate as predictors of state anxiety reactions across a wide variety of situations. As such, they are poor measures of general trait anxiety. The present investigation was conducted to examine the possible utility of a single anxiety trait score, summed from the subscales of the Stimulus - Response Inventory of General Trait Anxiety (S-R GTA), a multidimensional measure of trait anxiety, in supplementing the ability of individual subscale scores to predict …

An Investigation Of Identity And Self-Esteem In Traditional Married Women During Their Middle Years, And The Impact Of The Life Planning Seminar, Susan E. Ellett

Theses and Dissertations

There is contradictory evidence as to whether the middle years are problematic for women. The research indicates that the middle years, particularly the empty nest period, are traumatic for some women, but for others a time of relief. More recent research suggests that for women who do find the middle years problematic, certain types of group experiences may be helpful. The purpose of this study was to investigate this time of life for a specific population of women, traditional married women who have devoted their time primarily to raising a family. This study examined identity and self-esteem in these women …

Effects Of Cognitive Set On The Physiological, Subjective, And Behavioral Responses To Fearful Stimuli, Jerome D. Gilmore

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the effects of cognitive set on the physiological, subjective, and motoric responses of fearful and non-fearful subjects exposed to specific fear stimuli. High, moderate, and low mutilation fear subjects were given instructions designed to persuade them that they were or were not afraid of mutilation stimuli. The extent to which instructions differentially affected subjects in the three fear groups and produced differential effects on responses in the three modalities was examined. The degree to which the physiological, self-report, and behavioral channels responded concordantly was also investigated.

A series of hypotheses were derived which generally indicated that high-fear …

Age Differences In Attributions Of Causality: Implications For Intellectual Assessment, Thomas R. Prohaska

Theses and Dissertations

The present investigation was designed to test the hypothesis that failure experienced by the individual in a testing situation is moderated by causal attributions and these attributions influence subsequent test measures. The effect of manipulating cause (lack of effort or Lack of ability) to response-independent failure and its relationship to scores on the Reasoning, Hidden Patterns, and Paper Folding Test, in younger an older person's was investigated. The same measures were assessed in a group that experienced the same response-independent-failure but with no explanation offered as to the cause for the failure, a group that was not given any information …

Personality Correlates Of Musical Talent, Walter W. Tunstall

Theses and Dissertations

Existing commentary and research on the nature of musical talent was reviewed and found lacking in conception, primarily because previous researchers had failed to identify the unique creative element a musician contributes to a musical performance. The personality structures of 60 subjects, 32 males and 28 females, were analyzed via the 16PF. A Pearson Product Moment Correlation, an ANOVA, and a second order factor analysis were used to assess the relationship between personality and musical talent for 1) persons with little or no musical ability, 2) highly talented university music majors, and 3) professional performing musicians. Significant relationships were found …

Autonomic Responses Of Normals And Depressives To Stress Inducing Stimuli, Dennis Donat

Theses and Dissertations

A group of depressed (N=10) and a group of normal (N=10) were presented a series of stressor stimuli to assess several parameters of their physiological responses to these stimuli. The results indicated that the groups did not differ in their relative tendency to show maximal response specificity (consistently responding to stress with a maximum response in the same channel) or pattern stereotypy (the tendency to respond consistently in all physiological channels relative to each other). A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), of the levels of the physiological channels under conditions of rest, anticipation, and stress revealed a significant group effect. …

The Measurement Of Anger In Children: A Multi-Modal Approach, Edward Shirrell Eastman Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to utilize self-report, peer-report and teacher-report techniques in measuring (reporting) anger in children; and to determine the intercorrelation between these three approaches in order to determine their relationship to one another and in turn, to assess these reporting tools. Subjects were 38 male and female emotionally disturbed children from the Virginia Treatment Center for Children, a short-term residential psychiatric facility in Richmond, Virginia. There were 28 boys and 10 girls, with a mean age of approximately 11 years.

Each student was given the Children's Inventory of Anger (CIA) and the Peer-Report of Anger (PR). …

Parental Induction, Coercion, And Support And Adolescent Church Attendance, Stephen B. Morris

Theses and Dissertations

The study was an effort to determine the relationship between certain parental behaviors and church attendance of children of high school age. Eight parental factors, each consisting of certain behaviors, were used: support, coercion, positive induction, and negative induction for each parent.

Data were gathered with a self-report instrument which was mailed to a random sample of high school students in Sanpete County, Utah.

There were moderate correlations at high levels of significance between four of the parental factors and children's church attendance. Factor analysis demonstrated structural equivalence between six of the eight factors in this study and previous ones. …

An Examination Of Intellectual Functioning, School Achievement, And Personality Characteristics Of Male Juvenile Delinquents, Robert A. Rymer

Theses and Dissertations

Research in the area of juvenile delinquency has reported personality and background differences between delinquents who have committed certain types of offenses (Randolph, l96l; Mizushima and DeVos, 1967). The major purpose of this study was to examine the academic characteristics of certain classifications of delinquent offenders. Specifically, the incidences of three school-related problems and absence of any of these problems were compared for certain classifications of offenders. The comparisons that were made were group versus individual offenses, person versus property offenses, and actual aggressors versus threatened aggressors. A second aspect of the study involved a comparative investigation of the personality …

A Study Of The Relationship Between Maternal Employment History And A Woman's Sex Role Orientation And Career Development, Susan Elizabeth Ellett

Theses and Dissertations

Much of the research reviewed suggests that there is some relationship between a woman's mother's employment history, a woman's sex role orientation, and a woman's commitment to a career. In this study, the sex role orientation, career commitment, and career decision making of college women were examined in relation to length of maternal employment history. It was found that the longer a mother worked during the daughter's lifetime, the greater was the daughter's own desire to work. The length of maternal employment history was not found to significantly influence the daughter's sex role orientation or career decision making process. It …

Effectiveness Of Professionals Vs. Paraprofessionals In The Group Management Of Test Anxiety, Matthew P. Bars

Theses and Dissertations

This research was concerned with the relative effectiveness of professional and paraprofessional therapists in group management of college students exhibiting test anxiety. It was predicted that both the professional and paraprofessional therapists' groups would exhibit significant pre-post decreases in debilitating test anxiety. It was also predicted that there would be no significant pre-post differences between the professional and paraprofessional therapists' groups. Subjects were 26 participants in five Illinois State University Student Counseling Center Test Anxiety Workshops. Subjects completed a modified State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Achievement Anxiety Test at the beginning and end of the test anxiety workshops.

The hypothesis that …

Parental Control Of Children's Television: An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Control And Family Home Evening, Marion Wixom Mccardell

Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to examine the relationship between a secular behavior—television control—and a religious one—Family Home Evening. The findings show that there is a relationship, with those having favorable attitudes toward Family Home Evening and those who hold casual FHE's being most inclined to exercise positive control over their children's television viewing.