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Competence Theory and the Appreciation of Novel and Familiar Humor

Description: According to Suls' (1972) incongruity model for the appreciation of jokes, humor with which recipients are familiar should not be perceived as funny because the ending is predictable. Suls (1975) later proposed that familiar humor is appreciated because of the sense of competence derived from adequately remembering the joke. This study examined Suls' theories by having subjects rate jokes on two occasions and supply their punch lines on the second occasion. Statistical significance was determin… more
Date: August 1979
Creator: Chambers, John Thomas
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Ward Environment: Assessment and Implied Function

Description: Ward environment as assessed by the Ward Atmosphere Scale was the focus of this exploratory study. The Ward Atmosphere scores of 110 patients hospitalized on two units for acute psychiatric care in a state hospital were analyzed for determining differences along the dimensions of population factors, sex and program change. Significant differences in attitude were obtained on certain of the ten scales for each of the three comparisons. The premise of ward atmosphere being a global entity as impl… more
Date: August 1979
Creator: England, Nancy L.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Children's Causal Attributions in Success and Failure Situations and Academic Performance

Description: To determine correlates of better academic performance, a scale was devised for this study to measure children's attributions to ability and effort in academic success and failure situations. These measures as well as measures of locus of control an d perceived contingency of teacher rewards and punishments were related to achievement test scores, grades, and a teacher's ratings of the helplessness or competence of classroom behaviors. Subjects were 137 sixth-graders (66 girls and 71 boys). Int… more
Date: August 1976
Creator: Riley, Mary Margaret
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Coacting Group Effects of Learning and Performance across Anxiety Levels

Description: The problem with which this study is concerned is that of determining the effects of coacting groups and test anxiety on the learning and performing abilities of children. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of small coacting groups and test anxiety on specific "performance" and "learning" tasks. This study also provides a direct test of Zajonc's theory.
Date: August 1972
Creator: Stevens, Jimmy L.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Massed Group Desensitization in the Reduction of Anxiety

Description: The problem with which this investigation was concerned was that of determining the effectiveness of massed group desensitization in the reduction of anxiety. Thirty test-anxious nursing students who scored in the upper quartile on the Test Anxiety Questionnaire (TAQ) served as the subjects. The subjects were assigned by the use of a randomized block procedure to one of the following three groups matched on the basis of their pre-test TAQ scores: (1) desensitization, (2) placebo, and (3) contro… more
Date: August 1972
Creator: Dawley, Harold H., 1940-
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Improving the Acceptance of Isolated Elementary School Children

Description: The purposes of this study were: (1) to develop a program based upon a combination of previously tested techniques, (2) to adapt these techniques for use by school personnel within the classroom situation, (3) to test this program upon an all-black, multi-age kindergarten and a first-grade classroom in an inner-city school, and (4) to evaluate the effectiveness of this program.
Date: August 1972
Creator: Fallis, Patricia J.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Context, Cue Selection, and Transfer of Training

Description: The investigation examines the effects of three contexts (strong easily discriminable colors, shifting strong to weak colors, and a homogeneous white background) on cue selection in a paired associate study. Stimuli employed were high similarity consonant-consonant-consonant trigrams, and the responses were high imagery value nouns. Each S learned two lists.
Date: August 1972
Creator: Framer, Edward M.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Birth Order and Parent-Child Relations

Description: The purpose of this study was to investigate the birth order differences in perception of parental child-rearing practices in one-and two-sibling families. The two-sibling families were separated into all the possible sex permutations (male-male, female-female, male-female, female-male) to assess the influence of sex of sibling in viewing the parents' child-rearing practices.
Date: August 1972
Creator: Hale, Allyn Kay
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Effect of Meaningfulness, Position, and Overlearning on Selective Stimulus Encoding in Paired-Associate Learning

Description: The present experiment was an attempt to study to joint effects of stimulus component meaningfulness, positional cues, and overlearning upon cue selection in recall and, additionally, to test the stimulus component independence hypothesis advanced by Wichawut and Martin (1970).
Date: August 1972
Creator: Molavi, Hossein
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Male-female Perceptions of Male and Female High and Low Achievement Using the Semantic Differential

Description: The purpose of the present study was to examine 1) the effect of achievement information on evaluations of males and females, 2) male and female expectations of discrepancies between their opposite sex and themselves in evaluating achievement.
Date: August 1973
Creator: Edwards, C. Malinowski
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Operant Procedures in Marital Treatment

Description: The ability of marital partners to directly change a currently unhappy marriage to a happy one may be a function of each individual's conscious awareness of the topography, frequency, and other parameters of his own behaviors, as well as the effects or consequences these behaviors bring to bear on his spouse. This study was an attempt to combine the use of relevant behavioral awareness and a token economy to rehabilitate a marriage in crisis.
Date: August 1973
Creator: Hickok, James E.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Relationship of Children's Perception of Parental Punitiveness toward Aggression and their Church Attendance

Description: One of the main purposes of the present study was to use a parental punitiveness scale, that was developed on the assumption that parental punitiveness is a function of the situation in which aggression takes place. This in turn was used to determine what relationship a child's perception of parental discipline toward aggression has to varying degrees of church attendance of the child.
Date: August 1970
Creator: Arnold, Russell L.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Facilitation of Social Behavior in Group Psychotherapy with Geriatric Patients

Description: The purpose of the present study was to attempt to use the principles of behavior therapy and group psychotherapy to enhance social adjustment of the geriatric patients in an institutional environment. There are several factors positively related to satisfactory adjustment to old age such as educational level, marital status, employment history, religion, health, and membership in groups.
Date: August 1970
Creator: Blair, Ben R.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Effects of Anxiety, Hostility, and Depression on Responses to the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank

Description: The present study is an attempt to determine the effect of anxiety, hostility, and depression on responses to the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank when it is scored according to the manual instructions. Whether the score fluctuates or not will have implications on how psychologists should use this test as a diagnostic tool.
Date: August 1970
Creator: Boutte, Margaret Ann
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Nondirective Group Play Therapy with Aggressive Boys

Description: The study reported here attempts to demonstrate the utility of group play therapy as a method of reducing aggression in preadolescent aged boys. Previous research has attempted to demonstrate the value of play therapy as a method of dealing with a variety of emotional and behavioral problems.
Date: August 1970
Creator: Bucur, Raymond R.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Measurement of Differences in Hostility Between Individuals Convicted of Crimes Against Persons and Those Convicted of Crimes Against Property

Description: This study is concerned with distinguishing between persons convicted of crimes against persons and those convicted of crimes against property using the hostility factor as a criterion for comparison. There is some indication that the crimes against persons group is more likely to express overt hostility than the crimes against property group. This would be a useful distinction since the ability to recognize and separate violent or potentially violent persons from the nonviolent is desirable in… more
Date: August 1970
Creator: Diploma, Michael E.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Prediction of Marital Status After Marriage Counseling Using the Polyfactor Test of Marital Difficulties

Description: The purpose of this investigation is to determine if the Polyfactor test can be used to predict the success or failure of marriage. The Polyfactor test is an indirect scale assessing the present marital adjustment of each spouse and the overall marital adjustment of the couple.
Date: August 1970
Creator: Edwards, Peggy Deane
Partner: UNT Libraries
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