Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Variables Effecting College Enrollment Or Nonenrollment, Randy Jay Mendelson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine the reasons why students did not enroll at Utah State in the fall quarter of 1978 when they had listed the university as their first choice among institutions to attend. An equally important purpose was to determine whether or not there were differences in the personal characteristics of the enrolled and nonenrolled groups.

Both students who entered U.S.U. in the fall quarter of 1978 and those who failed at that time to enroll served as samples for the study. A random sample of 150 students per group, 300 students altogether, was employed …

A Comparative Study Of Kibbutz Children's And City Children's Concepts Of Family And Self Within The Family, Rachel Tal

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine if any significant difference existed between kibbutz and city children in terms of their concept of family and concept of self within the family.

The subjects chosen for the investigation consisted of 51 pupils in the third and fourth grades from two communities in Israel. The two communities were a kibbutz community and a middle class small suburb community. Raw score data were obtained for the investigation from two testing devices. The Draw-A-Family Test (DAF) was used here in order to gain insight to the subjects' perception of the two concepts under …

Effects Of Varying The Opportunity To Attack During A Fixed-Time Schedule, Phillip G. Muller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Three White King pigeons were exposed to a fixed-time 120-second food delivery schedule and a live target pigeon. In order to evaluate whether induced aggression can take place in time periods other than immediately after food delivery, the target bird could be attacked (l) throughout the interfood interval; (2) after fixed post-food times had elapsed, or (3) after random post-food times had elapsed. When target availability was continuous or limited to random 30-second periods of the interfood interval, attacking was greatest after food delivery and decreased thereafter. Attacking did not predominate in any 15-second target access period occurring 15, 45, …

The Effects Of The Physical Attractiveness Stereotype On Therapists' Perceptions Of Clients, Todd S. Larsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of the present study was two-fold: (1) to determine whether the ratings a client receives on measures of likeableness, psychological effectiveness, and prognostic outcome differ as a result of the client's perceived level of physical attractiveness (high or low) and, (2) to determine whether the level of professional training in clinical/counseling psychology possessed by the raters mediates these effects.

To achieve these purposes, four groups of subjects (varying in level of training in clinical/counseling psychology) listened to the same 12-minute audio-tape excerpt of an actual initial interview with a client. Half the subjects in each group viewed a …

Effects Of Perceived Child Rearing Practices On Moral Character, Melody T. Beutler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between perceived child rearing practices and the moral character or pro-social behavior of students in their late teens and early twenties.

A questionnaire was administered to forty-eight students to test their moral character which was the dependent variable on the following traits: ambitious, broadminded, capable, cheerful, clean, courageous, forgiving, helpful, honest, imaginative, independent, intellectual, logical, loving, obedient, polite, responsible and self-controlled. The child rearing practices used by the mothers and fathers were also tested as the independent predictor variables according to the following terms: autonomy, coercion, companionship, guilt, inconsistency, love …

The Salience Of Parent Education For Adolescents: Gender And Gratification Orientations, Katrina H. Miller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to test the relevance of parent education for high school students in terms of interest, concerns, expectations and experiences of the adolescents regarding children. The ability to delay gratification and gender served as independent variables. Weaver's (1977) "Adolescent Interest Survey" was administered to 179 high school students enrolled in three different programs in semi-rural northern Utah. These programs were objectively classified to represent two levels of ability to defer gratification. Regular high school stud ents, male (N=51) and female (N=52) were treated as "deferrers of gratification". Potential dropout students, Males (N=26) and females (N=23) …

Tradition And Household Tasks, Jennifer Hogge Miller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Utah husbands and wives thought household tasks should be allocated and how they actually were allocated in their own homes. The sample was 191 two-parent, two-child families residing in Iron, Washington, and Salt Lake Counties. Urban/rural residence, wife's employment status, educational level of both the husband and wife, family income, religious activity, and the husband's occupation were studied in relation to household task allocation.

Eight hypotheses were tested. Husband's religious activity and wife's employment status were found to be related to a traditional pattern of household task allocation. There was a …

Family Meal Patterns In Utah, Brenda Taylor Peterson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was conducted as part of an 11-state study on family time use coordinated by Cornell University. The particular emphasis of this research was family meal patterns. The independent variables were (1) homemaker's education, (2) homemaker's employment, (3) income of the family, and (4) place of residence of the family. These were analyzed in relation to the amount of time (1) spent in meal preparation, (2) the number of meals the family ate together, and (3) where the family ate their meals. The literature indicated that in the past the homemaker has done most of the meal preparation. It …

Contributions To Household Work By Children In Two-Parent/Two-Child Families In Utah, Lundie Lee Osborne

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate children's contributions to household work and to determine what factors affected the amount of time children spent in household work activities. Data for the study came from the Utah portion of the "Interstate Comparison of Urban/Rural Families' Time Use" which involved 210 two-parent/two-child families in Utah. Data were collected through interviews with the homemakers in each family using time diaries and an information questionnaire.Time use was recorded for two 24 hour days for all family members over the age of five . For the present study an analysis was made of the …

Parent-Child Affinity As Perceived By Basque Adolescence, Catherine K. Coombs-Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to assess parental preference as perceived by Basque adolescents. A questionnaire was administered to adolescents during the summer months of 1977 in Boise, Idaho and Salt Lake City, Utah. The questionnaire included the Parent- Affinity Perception Scale (Miller, 1972) with a Likert-type scale showing how much the adolescent preferred mother or father and a cover sheet to determine the degree of "Basqueness" of the subjects. The sample included 27 males and 37 females.

The findings indicate a strong preference for "mother" over "father" by both males and females at all ages. Basque adolescent males". …

Nutritional Understanding Of Preschool Children Taught In The Home And Child Development Laboratory, Thomas R. Lee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was devised to determine the readiness of preschool children to learn about basic concepts of nutrition. Sixty preschool children enrolled in the Utah State University Child Development Laboratory, comprised the sample. Twenty children were taught at home by parents, 20 were taught at the Laboratory, and 20 received no instruction. The curriculum was based on the concept of nutrient density and used the Index of Nutritional Quality (INQ) in developing instructional mate rials. INQ is an index for comparing the amount of nutrients to the amount of calories in a food. Food Profile Cards, visual representations of this …

Integrative Ability As It Relates To Problem Solving Strategies: A Study Of Possible Factors Affecting And Affected By This Ability, Ann King

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Individuals within the United States Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and state park systems were studied to determine their integrative orientation (general problem solving strategies). This orientation involves a preference for trying new ideas, working within a long time frame, generalizing in planning or managing, taking risks, working in close association with others, examining many aspects of a problem, working on difficult problems, developing a variety of skills, and working on problems requiring continual revision. An attempt was made to relate this orientation to education, major field of study, agency, time, tasks, level in …

A Study Of Organizational Change In The Bear River Valley Cooperative Association 1947-1977, Rahardjo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Bear River Valley Co-op Association was described in terms of certain changes that have occurred in its history, and analysis was made of how these changes relate to changes in the degree of local control by officers and members of the organization.

The method used in this study was content analysis of records of the organization. The main sources of data were: The Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws of the organization for 1947 and 1964, and the minutes of meetings from 1968 to 1977.

The study shows that the Bear River Valley Co-op Association today, as compared to the …

The Modification Of Emotionally Disturbed Behavior Through Teacher And Peer Training, Daniel James Kaeck

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of the present investigation was to develop and field test a practical program for the mainstreaming of behaviorally disturbed childred into regular fifth-grade classrooms. The 10-day training program emphasized the training of both teachers and peers as therapeutic agents. It focused upon the teachers' behaviors in terms of establishing classroom rules, praising and ignoring, minimizing reprimands, individualizing instruction, and providing naturally-occurring reinforcers to the children. The program enlisted the aid of the peers in terms of utilizing them as tutors, models, and as reinforcing agents or therapists. The children were taught to self-monitor their attention to appropriate and …

The Development Of A Video Tape Procedure To Train Awareness Of Behavioral Cues Of Anxiety, Brian Lee Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of the present investigation was two-fold: (1) to develop a training procedure which might be helpful in trying to teach beginning counselors how to recognize levels of anxiety by observing silent, nonverbal behavior of clients in association with EMG feedback, and (2) to assess the effectiveness of this procedure by using it to train a group of graduate psychology students. Graduate trainees exposed to the training procedure were compared with a control group of students to determine whether the training procedure effectively taught the skill.

Using the split image capabilities of a videotape recorder, video tapes were made …

Factors Affecting The Conditioned Reinforcing Strength Of Stimuli In Differential Reinforcement Of Other Behavior And Fixed-Time Schedules, Alexander M. Myers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Two experiments were conducted in an attempt to provide a direct, response-independent test of the delay-reduction hypothesis of conditioned reinforcement. In both experiments, pigeons made observing responses, by pressing a treadle, for stimuli associated with the schedule component in effect. The consequences of an observing response were varied; an observing response produced: a) either the stimulus associated with the shorter component or the stimulus associated with the longer component depending on the schedule component in effect; b) the stimulus associated with the short component only; c) the stimulus associated with the long component only; or, d) neigher stimulus (no consequence). …

Credit Cards: Average Monthly Unpaid Balance As Related To Certain Socio-Economic Factors, Marsha Gaye Maughan Cooper

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of relationship between selected socio-economic factors and the average monthly unpaid credit card balance subject to a finance charge. The socio-economic factors chosen were: 1) family and per capita income; 2) education of husband; 3) education of wife; 4) gainful employment of wife; 5) amount of savings; and 6) number of children.

The sample consisted of 80 couples, married in the year 1971, currently residing in the Logan, Utah, area.

A questionnaire was used to measure the six variables. The statistical tests used were the chi square and the gamma …

Eight To Twelve Hertz Occipital Eeg Training With Moderate And Severely Retarded Epileptic Individuals, Eric H. Rudrud

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A number of studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of EEG biofeedback procedures in reducing seizure activity in patients who have not achieved remission through drug therapy. However, results indicate a lack of correlation between changes in seizure activity and the EEG parameters trained. Recent research has suggested that occipital alpha activity may be modified indirectly as a function of the EEG biofeedback training procedures. The present study sought to determine the effects of directly conditioning occipital alpha on seizure activity.

Three retarded epileptic individuals, who had not achieved complete remission from seizures through drug therapy, were provided with 8-12 Hz …

Variables Associated With Fluctuations In Response Time On The Rorschach Test, Dean L. Gregg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A sample of 61 subjects from an introductory psychology class was administered a battery of psychological tests, among them the Rorschach and the MMPI.

The purpose was to determine the behavioral correlates, if any, of the two Rorschach variables, Mean Reaction Time, and Fluctuation in Time of First Response. This was accomplished by using multivariate statistical techniques, i.e. a factor analysis followed by a stepwise multiple regression.

The results were ambiguous. While not statistically significant, they suggest that the MMPI variables of Social Introversion and Psychopathic Deviant are more closely related to the two dependent variables than previous literature would …

The Impact Of Television On Mother-Child Interaction And Play, Eva L. Essa

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Television is a pervasive influence in today's family life. The number of hours family members, particularly young children, spend watching TV must replace some other functions in the viewer's lives. Since one of the primary tasks of families with young children is the socialization of their youngsters, one might assume that TV interferes to some extent with this process. Among aspects of the socialization process are the need for the child to observe and interact frequently with role models, to obtain ample feedback on the appropriateness of his behavior, and to have many opportunities to test out what he has …

The Role Of Relaxation And Systematic Desensitization In The Efficacy Of Assertiveness Training, Larry J. Carlson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study is to clarify the role of anxiety management techniques (cue-controlled relaxation, systematic desensitization) as components of an assertiveness training program.

Volunteers from Utah State University and the surrounding community were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups and a control group which were used in a pre-post change comparison design. Treatment groups consisted of: (1) cue-controlled relaxation plus assertiveness training, (2) systematic desensitization plus assertiveness training, and (3) assertiveness training extended. The control group was a delayed treatment control. All subjects were administered pre-tests with the following instruments: two self report inventories (the College …

A Validity Study: Relationship Between The Self Inventory Scale, The California Psychological Inventory, And The Adjective Check List, David Newbold

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The specific objective of this research was to begin assessment of construct validity of the Self Inventory Scale.

Subjects were 100 Utah State University students, living in university dormitories, chosen at random.

Subjects were administered the Self Inventory Scale and the California Psychological Inventory. Subjects submitted names of peers, one of whom was asked to complete an Adjective Check List describing the subject.

CPI subscale scores were correlated with Self Inventory Scale subscale scores, to determine the relationship between underlying constructs. Sixty-four of the 126 correlations computed were significant at the .01 significance level. Similarity of construct and configurational analysis …

A Comparison By Sex, Age, And Marital Status Of The Needs And Educational Goals Of Students In A Community College, Susan Carol Bracken

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible differences in needs and educational goals of community college students based on their sex, age, and marital status, particularly between older women students and other student groups. Information was gathered from the college application forms of all day students enrolled in any class during the fall of 1976 at Southwestern Community College. The total number was 6,854, 51% were men, with a mean age of 27.9; and 49% were women with a mean age of 25.2. Thirty-one percent were married.

The specific questions under study were:

1. Would there be …

Husbands' And Wives' Perceptions Of Their In-Law Parents, Carlos F. Watkins

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The critical lack of research in the area of in-law relationships leaves interested persons wondering about the nature of such relationships.

The purpose of this study was to ascertain how the independent variables of sex, number of children, education and age of the sons or daughters-in-law effected the relationship with the mothers and fathers-in-law. The four directional hypotheses tested were: (1) as the age of the son or daughter-in-law increases, the chances for a more positive relationship with mothers and fathers-in-law and their sons and daughters, increases significantly; (2) females feel significantly closer to their parents-in-law than males; (3) as …

Dyadic Approach And Withdrawal Sequences Of Preschool Children When Interacting With An Adult Male, Paul M. Crane

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Thirty-eight preschool children (20 male and 18 females) w ere filmed in a seated dyadic interaction with an adult experimenter. Frame- by-frame film analysis was done for head and arms of subjects and head, arms, and legs of experimenter for experimenter and subjects approach and withdrawal movements. Chi- square analysis were performed for the data both between and within zones with the following cells: approach-approach (A-A), experimenter and subject approach each other; approach-withdrawal (A-W), experimenter approaches and subject withdraws; withdrawal-approach (W -A), experimenter withdraws and subject approaches; withdrawal-withdrawal (W - W), both subject and experimenter withdraw.

The most frequent and …

Money Saving By Children: The Effects Of Interest And Instructions, James Thomas Northrop

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In two experiments, groups of children received interest money contingent upon their savings; yoked control subjects received identical interest irrespective of their savings. In the first experiment, interest was paid every 3 days by parents for the average savings of the period. In Experiment II, interest was paid on a daily basis and control subjects received instructions concerning the lack of a relationship between interest and their savings.

In both experiments savings and magnitude of expenditures increased systematically across the research phases for contingent and non-contingent interest subjects alike. Neither interest nor subject wealth was found to relate to subject …

The Effects Of Assertiveness Training On Marital Adjustment, Valerie H. Mead

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of assertive training on the marital adjustment of those participating. It was of particular interest to identify the effects of training wives only as compared to training couples jointly in assertiveness.

There were a total of 56 subjects sampled for this study, constituting 28 marriages, all investigated for marital adjustment. All of the subjects were volunteers and were obtained through the Women's Center at Utah State University. The subjects were placed in one of two treatment conditions depending upon the condition for which they volunteered. The wives only treatment condition …

An Assessment Of The Self-Actualizing Education Program, Kathleen Pope

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Elementary school teachers enrolled in the Self-Actualizing Education training course were tested prior to and following the ten-week in-service course to measure to what extent teachers improved interpersonal communication skills in discussions with students. Teachers' positive responses (e.g., listening, owning personal feelings, offering choices to students), teachers' negative responses (e.g., judging, lecturing, rescuing), teacher talk vs. student talk, and the frequency of student misbehaviors were considered. Audio tape recordings were made of teachers as they dealt with student problems in a group discussion and in an individual discussion. Also, student misbehaviors were recorded during a 15-minute observation time.

The data …

Generalization Characteristics Of Form Diversity And Novel Form Production Among Preschool Children, Craig B. Boswell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The blockbuilding, Lego construction, pen drawing, and painting of four preschool children were analyzed in terms of the construction of form diversity and new form production. Social descriptive reinforcement, contingent on the production of any form not previously constructed within the current session and overt modeling of forms never seen produced during the study, increased form diversity scores per session and new form production (forms never seen before in the child's total prior sequence of blockbuilding sessions).

The results indicated that after training, form diversity scores generalized to topographically similar and dissimilar media of expression. New form production generalized to …

Import Demand For Wheat: Japanese And Selected Eec Markets, Enayatollah Fakhrai

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The growing importance of trade internationally as well as for the United States (U.S.) spawned a body of literature concerning import demand, export supply, and trade balance. Most of the empirical work to date has employed estimates of commodity import demand functions derived from traditional linear and log-linear functional forms. These specifications of import demand impose separability restrictions on the consumer's choice between domestic and foreign goods, in addition to confining import demand elasticities to constant values. The policy recommendations made on the basis of the import demand elasticities derived from these traditional models may be misleading. In this study, …