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open access

Academic Achievement: Effects of Congruency, Consistency, Differentiation, and Modal Personality Types

Description: This investigation explored relationships between four determinants of first-semester undergraduate academic achievement derived from Holland's (1973) theory of vocational development. Groups of 438 male and 468 female students completed the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and were categorized in terms of congruency, consistency, differentiation, and modal personality type. Undergraduates with congruent college-major choices enjoyed greater academic success than students with incongruent cho… more
Date: August 1977
Creator: Reuterfors, David Lawrence
open access

Marital Satisfaction in Returning Female Students

Description: One area which may be expected to play an important role in a married woman's decision to return to school. as well as in determining the magnitude of the difficulties she will be confronted with, which is marital satisfaction. The present study explored the roles of sex-role identification, sex-role stereotypy were found to exert a significant influence on marital satisfaction. The present study explored the roles of sex-role identification, ex-role stereotypy, self-esteem, maternal employment… more
Date: December 1982
Creator: Outland, Debra Ann
open access

Assessment Center Performance of Volunteers and Nonvolunteers

Description: The present study compares the performance of volunteers and nonvolunteers in a 10-hour integrated series of management simulation exercises. It was hypothesized that there would be no performance differences in these two groups. Subjects were business students. Dependent measures were global ratings of management level and potential, as well as a behavioral checklist score. The results partially support the hypothesis. Volunteers performed significantly better on the global measures but not on… more
Date: May 1982
Creator: Cunningham, Howard Michael
open access

Learned Helplessness: The Result of the Uncontrollability of Reinforcement or the Result of the Uncontrollability of Aversive Stimuli?

Description: This research demonstrates that experience with uncontrollable reinforcement, here defined as continuous non-contingent positive feedback to solution attempts of insoluble problems, fails to produce the proactive interference phenomenon, learned helplessness, while uncontrollable aversive events, here defined as negative feedback to solution attempts of insoluble problems, produces that phenomenon. These results partially support the "learned helplessness" hypothesis of Seligman (1975) which pr… more
Date: August 1975
Creator: Benson, James S.
open access

Effect of Nucleus Circularis and Lateral Preoptic Lesions on Osmotically Induced Drinking

Description: The area most widely associated with osmoreception has been the lateral preoptic nucleus. However, Hatton (1976) proposed that the nucleus circularis could be the actual osmoreceptor in the hypothalamus. The present study supported Hatton by using 30 rats which were randomly assigned to sham, lateral preoptic, and nucleus circularis lesion groups. After a 2-week post-operative period, half of each group was injected with isotonic saline while the other half was injected with hypertonic saline. … more
Date: August 1982
Creator: Wallace, Forrest Layne
open access

Intersensory Transfer of a Learned Shape Discrimination

Description: Intersensory transfer of training was systematically investigated for visual to tactual and tactual to visual situations. College students were trained in one modality on a successive-shape-discrimination task, then transferred to the opposite modality to perform a related-shape-discrimination task. The investigation showed successful transfer in both directions, Transfer from vision to touch was specific to the situation wherein all discriminata were exactly the same In the two tasks. In contr… more
Date: August 1974
Creator: Taylor, Ronald D.
open access

The Effect of Monetary Reward and Knowledge of Results on Complex-Choice Reaction Times

Description: This investigation was designed to determine relative effects of monetary reward and knowledge of results on complex-choice reaction time tasks. Subjects were twenty-five male and thirty-two female undergraduate students. Apparatus consisted of nine stimulus lights and eight response keys. Subjects were required to add the number of lights presented, subtract the sum from a constant, and press the correctly numbered response key. Reward subjects received twenty-five cents for responses faster t… more
Date: May 1975
Creator: Davies, Terry Barnett
open access

The Influence of Transcendental Meditation on Anxiety

Description: This study was concerned with the degree to which the practice of transcendental meditation (TM) aids in the long-term reduction of anxiety. The Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS), short form, was given to 16 Ss about to learn the technique of TM and to 16 control Ss. Eighteen weeks later, the TMAS was again administered to both groups. A significant difference was found in TMAS score reduction between the two groups, with the meditation group showing the greater reduction. These findings len… more
Date: December 1974
Creator: Floyd, William T., III
open access

The Interpersonal Communication Inventory: a Measure of Social Skills

Description: The Interpersonal Communication Inventory, a self-report instrument for assessing social skills, was given to undergraduate college students to determine its reliability. Following this administration, other small groups of undergraduates were asked to complete an attraction scale, the Interpersonal Communication Inventory, an assertiveness scale, and a sociometric questionnaire. Results confirmed the Inventory as a reliable instrument, but a stepwise multiple linear regression did not support … more
Date: December 1981
Creator: Armstrong, Betty K.
open access

Police Attitudes Toward Rape

Description: Research has demonstrated that the general public accepts many rape myths and that rape attitudes are strongly connected to other deeply held and pervasive attitudes. However, it has not been clear whether police officers reflected similar attitudes. This research attempted to ascertain if police share the same antecedents of rape myth acceptance as the general public. Using officers from two police departments, it was demonstrated that attidudes regarding sex role stereotyping, sexual conserva… more
Date: August 1981
Creator: Best, Connie Lee
open access

Validity Scale Elevation in Factor Analysis of the MMPI-168

Description: In a statistical comparison of orthogonal normalized varimax factor analytic solutions for the MMPI-168 including and excluding invalid protocols of psychiatric inpatients, at least one factor reflection was observed. Factors identified were Psychotic Distortion (Absence of Distress), Somaticism, Depression, Extroversion, Masculinity-Femininity, and Low Morale. Factors obtained, and representative clinical scales, were consistent with those obtained by others in investigations of both abbreviat… more
Date: May 1981
Creator: McGraw, Richard Michael
open access

Appearance or Function: Factors Related to the Likeability of Handicapped Individuals

Description: Descriptions of obesity, cerebral palsy, and scoliosis were rank-ordered (from one to twenty) and rated on a five-point scale by 75 college students. The descriptions were of two types: with the appearance of an individual on five levels of severity of a disorder and with the appearance and level of functioning of an individual on five levels of severity of a disorder. The ranking data indicated males rank-ordered descriptions of obese individuals different from cerebral palsy (p < 0.01) and sc… more
Date: May 1983
Creator: Dawson-Black, Patricia A. (Patricia Ann)
open access

The Effect of Hypothalamic Stimulation on the Phagocytic Activity of the Reticuloendothelial System

Description: Although research has linked the central nervous system with changes in immunoresponsivity, research on the possible role of the central nervous system in altering reticuloendothelial activity is lacking. This study investigated the possible relationship between hypothalamic structures and changes in responsivity of the reticuloendothelial system. Eight male albino rats received bilateral electrode implants in the ventromedial area of the hypothalamus and, following brain stimulation, reticulo… more
Date: December 1979
Creator: Lambert, Paul Louis
open access

Operant Conditioning of the Tongue Flicker Response of Snakes

Description: Sixteen Nerodia rhombifera were used in each of two experiments investigating operant conditioning of the tongue flicker response. A yoked pair design was utilized throughout phases of baseline, continuous reinforcement, partial reinforcement, and extinction. During partial reinforcement, one-half of the experimental animals were reinforced FR-4 and the other half were reinforced continuously. Control subjects were treated as were their experimental partners, with the exception of noncontingent… more
Date: May 1981
Creator: Ward, Rocky
open access

Hedonic Versus Predictive Inhibition of Avoidance Responding in Rats

Description: Traditional two-process theory predicts that a conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with shock offset on Pavlovian trials will inhibit operant avoidance responding. Two explanations of the inhibitory mechanism involved were compared: contemporaneous pairing of CS with a hedonic relief reaction versus the predictive, discriminative relationship of CS to the non-shock interval. The pattern of avoidance inhibition associated with cessation CSs paired with electric shocks of constant duration was expe… more
Date: December 1976
Creator: Lipscomb, Robert Scrivener
open access

Skills Acquisition and Cognitive Restructuring Operations in Training Assertive Behaviors

Description: Behavioral and cognitive skills training for increasing assertive behavior in college students were compared to an equally credible expectancy-control. One significant multivariate function successfully discriminated between the behavioral and control groups, and between the cognitive and control groups. This function was interpreted as showing enhanced behavioral/cognitive construction competencies in the behavioral and cognitive groups. A second function, though not significant, suggested tha… more
Date: May 1979
Creator: Lefebvre, R. Craig
open access

Patient Behaviors: Development of a Rating System

Description: The patient's failure to cooperate effectively in the patient/physician (patient and physician) interaction has been shown to be a problem of significant magnitude. In the present study, an attempt was made to identify specific, patient behaviors which might be related to physician judgment of a good patient and progress of treatment. A checklist of 37 behaviors was compiled. A series of 100 patients was observed during their interaction with physicians and occurrences of behaviors from the che… more
Date: May 1980
Creator: Martin-Cannici, Cynthia Elaine
open access

Sex Differences in Performance Expectancies

Description: Previous research demonstrates expectations predict actual performance. These studies evaluated the influence of other variables, specifically task sex orientation, biological gender, and sex-role identification, on performance expectancies. Two studies investigated sex differences in performance expectancies: Study 1 used a task normatively favoring males; Study 2 used a task normatively unbiased by gender. Subjects were 207 undergraduates, approximately equal numbers of males and females. Exp… more
Date: August 1982
Creator: Horne, Amy Beth
open access

Passive and Active Avoidance Learning in Depressives

Description: In order to aid in the understanding of the personality components that contribute to the symptoms of depression, the learning process of persons labeled as depressed was examined. Twenty female subjects who were either receiving or being evaluated for psychotherapy participated in this study. Based on MMPI and DACL scores, 10 depressed and 10 nondepressed subjects were placed in avoidance learning situations. An active avoidance situation required making the correct button press to avoid a sou… more
Date: December 1979
Creator: Weeks, Randall E.
open access

Attributions for Achievement: Differences as a Function of Sex and Race

Description: The proposed interaction between race and sex on achievement orientation has not been adequately demonstrated when cognitive measures are used. Therefore, the present study examined the effects of sex and race on attributions for achievement., Elementary level students made attributions to ability, effort, task-difficulty, or luck for 16 academic successes or failures described in a questionnaire. Girls made significantly (p < .001) fewer ability and significantly (p < .001) more effort attribu… more
Date: May 1980
Creator: Swick, Rebecca Lund
open access

Peer Counselor Effectiveness in a Study Skills Course

Description: Research has demonstrated the efficacy of attitudinal-motivational counseling in conjunction with study skills training. However, it has not been clear whether group or individual counseling was most beneficial. This research attempted to evaluate the usefulness of peer counselors in group and individual counseling sessions. Using students voluntarily enrolled in a study skills program, it was demonstrated that all students improved in study habit scores. However, only individual-peer counselin… more
Date: May 1980
Creator: Till, Steven Michael
open access

Structural Aspects of Loevinger's Model of Ego Development

Description: The study reviews the structural and psychometric underpinnings of Loevinger's theory of ego development. It is noted that the current literature investigating the validity of Loevinger's model has not adequately addressed the structural assumptions of the theory. "Process" variables are hypothesized to vary depending on the process of structural change. Two such variables, cognitive complexity and the organization of cognitive constructs, were measured in 73 college students, staff, and facult… more
Date: August 1985
Creator: Harrison, James Ray
open access

Highway Abuse and Violence: Motorists' Experiences as Victims

Description: Only circumscribed aspects of highway aggression have been investigated. The upsurge of abuse and violence transpiring between motorists necessitated a more definitive depiction of the actual events, participants, and relevant contextual features. A questionnaire administered to 120 motorists, aged 18 to 68, solicited a recountal of incidents occurring within 12 months and a description of their most recent encounter. Based on severity of experience, subjects were relegated to distal threat, di… more
Date: May 1984
Creator: McAlhany, Deborah A.
open access

Learned Helplessness: Effect on Working Memory and Fluid Intelligence

Description: To determine if learned helplessness treatment debilitates human working memory and fluid intelligence, 60 university students, classified as high or low self-monitors, were assigned to one of three treatments: intermittent (50%) controllable positive feedback, uncontrollable (yoked) negative feedback, and no treatment. Test tasks included backward digit and backward spatial span (representing working memory), matrices (representing fluid intelligence), vocabulary (representing crystallized int… more
Date: August 1984
Creator: Fernandez, Peter, 1961-
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