Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Temporal Distribution Of Short-Duration Keypecks In Variable-Interval Schedules Of Reinforcement, Joseph G. Williams

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An experiment was conducted in order to determine the duration of pigeons' keypecks during three separate variable-interval schedules of reinforcement. Pigeons were exposed to variable interval (VI) 30 sec, VI 60 sec and VI 120 sec schedules of reinforcement for twenty sessions each. Response durations were analyzed in terms of VI schedule, location in time during the inter-reinforcement interval and any pattern of short and long duration pecks. Mean duration of response was reliably different for three out of four birds for VI 30 sec and VI 120 sec schedules of reinforcement. The VI 30 sec schedules produced longer durations. …

The Relationship Between Goal Attainment And Self Concept For Assertive Training Groups, Lori Peterson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between self-concept and goal attainment for assertive training groups. To determine if self-concept is related to the extent to which one's goals are attained was of major interest. Another purpose was to determine if self-concept measures increase as a result of participation in group assertive training.

Subjects were 67 volunteers, students from Utah State University, and Cache Valley, Utah, community members.

Subjects were administered as pretests and posttests the Tennessee Self Concept Scale and the Goal Attainment Scaling procedures including the Behavioral Monitoring Progress Record.

Three groups were formed: 1) …

The Use Of Self-Control Procedures With Pre~Adolescents Classified As Educable Mentally Retarded, Lizabeth A. Mcgill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The effectiveness of self-recording and self-reinforcement procedures implemented in the classroom setting with six pre-adolescent children classified as Educable Mentally Retarded was determined relative to changes in on-task behavior. A multiple baseline design was used and each subject was exposed to both a self-recording procedure and a self-reinforcement procedure. After an initial baseline period, three subjects were exposed to self-recording first, and three subjects went through self-reinforcement first. Contingent reinforcement was not provided for accuracy in either self-recording or self-reinforcement patterns. Observations were conducted to investigate generalization effects of each procedure, and two weeks of follow-up observations were conducted to …

The Effect Of Inescapable Shock On Competitive Dominance In Rats, Pamela A. Cheney

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Experimental examination of the generality of learned helplessness has previously been confined to treatment and tests employing aversive motivators, such as electric shock. In the present study, rats were used to evaluate the effect of inescapable shock on their performance in a water test of competitive dominance which employs no aversive motivator. The subjects were paired and pre-tested for competitive dominance. In the experimental groups one member of each pair was treated with inescapable shock and the pairs were then post-tested for competitive dominance either 48, 72, or 168 hours after treatment. The control subjects were pre- and post-tested with …

Bait Shyness And Neophobia In Several Species Of Osteichthyes: An Extension Of Taste Aversion Studies To The Superclass Pices, Brent W. Roberts

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Three experiments were conducted with five species of tropical fish to investigate the phenomena of taste aversion and food neophobia. In addition, an experiment determined specifically if position in the tank could acquire conditioned aversive properties.

In Experiment 1 , four habituated fish were fed novel meat-flavored pellets on the treatment day. Six were made ill within 30, 60, or 90 minutes (2 subjects each) by intragastric administration of syrup or Epicac. The following day all were fed familiar commercial pellets. On the second day after treatment, all were offered the meat-flavored pellets. Results showed longer latencies, more tasting, and …

Influence Of Clinicians' And Clients' Religion On Diagnosis Of Mental Illness, Robert Dombey Wadsworth

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Theorists propose that because psychodiagnosis is not a completely objective procedure, it is influenced by sociocultural values. It was hypothesized that religion might be one aspect of sociocultural values which influences psychodiagnosis. The present study sought to determine, by using a clinical analogue design, whether psychologists' formal diagnoses of clients are biased by their present religious affiliations and activity levels, their religious upbringing (assessed by their fathers' and mothers' religious affiliations and activity levels), the clients' religious affiliations and activity levels, or interactions between psychologist and client religious variables. Questionnaires were sent to 228 psychologists licensed to practice in Utah, …

A Study Of Variables Which Are Associated With Successful And Unsuccessful Furloughed Prison Inmates, Sharon Goodwill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Two types of variables which might be differentially associated with the performances of prison inmates while on furloughs were studied. They were, 1) demographic data in the central files of inmates known to have been successful or unsuccessful on furlough, and 2) personality test data taken on groups of inmates who could be expected to be either successful or unsuccessful on furlough, given the demographic data in the central files which is found to discriminate between the two groups.

Demographic data was gathered from the files of adult male felons housed in correctional institutions in the following states: Virginia, Pennsylvania, …

Park Visitor Responses To Natural Hazards, Lee H. Rentz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Natural hazards have been an increasing problem in wildland recreation areas. This study attempted to identify factors affecting park visitor perception of and preparedness for hazards.

A model was formulated incorporating three major independent variables which might affect park visitor responses to hazards. These were: (1) previous experience, (2) information about hazards provided by the park administration (such as warnings located on signs or in brochures), and (3) visitor perception of whether responsibility for hazards rests with the individual or with an outside authority such as government or God. Trip length and knowledge of hazards were also thought to be …

The Impact Of The Act Automated Admissions System As Perceived By The High School Counselors In Utah, James Rodney Clark

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The ACT automated admissions system was adopted by the Colleges and Universities in the Utah system of higher education in 1974. The automated admission system was conceived at a time when College enrollment all over the United States was decreasing, and thus was viewed by its proponents as a positive step in alleviating some of the articulation problems between post secondary institutions, high school counselors and prospective students.

Educators who developed the program felt that it would be an advantage to prospective students by providing an admissions decision shortly after the ACT was taken. Automated admissions appears to be an …

Problems And Dissatisfactions Encountered By Families In An Indian Housing Project, Al Jean Snow

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The problems and dissatisfactions experienced by thirty Ute Indian families as they relocated into new federally subsided homes were studied. A researcher administered interview guid was developed which produced data that could be analyzed using descriptive statistics. Four recommendations to improve the relocation process in future housing projects were framed.

Identity, Intimacy And Sex Differences, Mary Ann Kacerguis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ego identity and intimacy statuses were determined for 88 college students, 44 men, and 44 women, and related to each other and to measures of intimacy-isolation, loving and liking, Sex differences were also investigated. Identity achievement subjects were more likely to be engaged in intimate relationships. Students having foreclosure. moratorium. and diffusion identities were variable in their intimacy statuses. A stronger association exists between intimacy and loving than intimacy and liking. While no significant sex differences were found on the overall ego identity and intimacy comparisons, sub scale differences were noted. The evidence suggests identity achievement status is predictive of …

Participation In Family Decision Making By Korean Home Managers, Hyo-Sook Hwang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of participation in family decision making among Korean home managers residing in Salt Lake City, Utah, with respect to selected variables, such as the length of stay in the United States, the husband's nationality, the husband's occupational status, the levels of education of both husband and wife, the difference in education between husband and wife, the wife's employment status, and the stage in the family life cycle. A questionnaire was constructed and administered by telephone interview to 72 Korean home managers in Salt Lake City.

On the whole, the pattern …

An Analysis Of The Effects Of The Impacts Of Oil Shale Development On The Economy Of The Uintah Basin, David Zachary Kaufman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The development of oil shale resources will have a significant impact on the Uintah Basin in Utah. To analyze this impact, this study used a regionalized imput-output model. The input-output table for the State of Utah was revised to fit the Uintah Basin, using the RAS technique.

The scarcity of water in the Basin may cause a shift of water use from irrigated agriculture to oil shale. This reduction in agricultural production was estimated, using demand curves for water in agriculture and an intergen programming model which generated minimum water requirements for shale developments from 25,000 barrels per day to …

Nonresident Enrollment Demand At Utah State University, William G. Workman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The determination of the level of student registration fees at colleges and universities in many cases appears to be made without adequate consideration given to probable enrollment responses and to the associated implications for tuition revenues. This study was aimed at reducing this information gap at Utah State University and focused specifically on past sensitivities of students from neighboring western states to changes in the nonresident charges at USU. The analytical framework employed in this investigation specified a causal link between the proportion of the college-attending populations from these states choosing to enroll at USU and comparative tuition levels.

The …

Linguistic Surface Structure In Family Interaction, Thomas D. Macroy

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the usefulness of the linguistic processes of Distortion, Deletion, Generalization, and Semantic Ill-Formedness as constructs which differentiate the verbal communication of families who express dissatisfaction with their current intrafamilial relationships from families expressing satisfaction with their current relationships. Specifically, it was hypothesized that dissatisfied families would use these linguistic structures to a greater extent in their interaction than would satisfied families.

Thirty-one family triads (father, mother, and child) were obtained by asking families randomly selected from the local high school student directory to participate. The families were given a Revealed Differences questionnaire …

The Reorganizational Problem Of The School Districts In Cache Valley, David P. Phippen Sr.

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Some years ago, in 1972 to be exact, I was a student senator at Sky View High School. Every once in a while we would be called together to discuss issues that affected our school. One particular session dealt with school population. Six years ago we were experiencing a lot of overcrowding in the school auditorium. The authorities at that time were concerned, and were asking our opinions, as student leaders, on the issue.

During that meeting, we learned that the school district owned land above Hyrum, and eventually a high school for the south end of the valley was …

Social, Psychological, Economic Factors, And The Migration Intentions Of Senior High School Students In Utah, Elias Toumeh Nijim

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study deals with a comparison between rural, urban, and metropolitan students as to their migration intentions and factors associated with their migration intentions. The study is based on the initial stage of a larger longitudinal panel study of 2,500 high school seniors in public high schools in the state of Utah in 1975. Survey research was the principal method of investigation. Stratified random sample was used for choosing the students and administered questionnaire was used to collect the information. Proportions and crosstabulations were the statistical techniques used in the analysis with chi square and gamma as the statistics for …

Household Projections For Utah: 1970-2000, Stephen Hauwah Kan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study deals with Utah household projections by age and sex for five-year intervals from 1970-2000. Projections are based on the method used by the bureau of the Census with certain modifications. Two sets of the population projects prepared by the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station, high and low medium, are chosen as the population base. By assuming the household formation pattern in two alternate ways, constant rates and exponential growth rates, two sets of household projections are prepared for each of the two sets of population projections. This study also makes some examinations on the social and economic implications of …

The Feasibility Of A Computer-Based Library Reference Interview, Stephen C. Weiss

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The feasibility of a computer-based library reference interview is forecasted through an analysis of the literature concerned with primary aspects of the library reference interview, concept formation, computer concept formation, computerization of reference service and the future of reference service. The state of the art is discussed in light of specific computer programs currently available for the automation of library reference service. Factors supporting and limiting the automation of library reference service are presented. Conclusions and recommendations are made for the realization of a computer-based library reference interview.

Three Ordered Sets Of Factors And Their Relationship To Act Scores, Thomas J. Russo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There has been in recent years a marked decline in college entrance examination test scores. Declines have been documented both on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Testing Program (ACT). In turn there has been an increasing interest concerning the test score declines as well as possible sources of influence on test scores. These sources or factors seem to be functions of three main "contexts." These contexts are: (a) school-related factors, (b) student-related factors and (c) family-structure related factors. It was of interest to attempt to explain the relative association of each variable to composite ACT scores …

A Comparative Study Of Mmpi Variables And Their Relationship To Successful Alcoholic Rehabilitation, Verl G. Prestwich

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to determine whether the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory could successfully predict the outcome of rehabilitative treatment given 84 racially mixed male alcoholics having a mean age of 42.2 years who were admitted to the Wyoming State Hospital between September 1, 1965, and September 1, 1966. The subjects were given the MMPI before receiving 16 weeks of treatment consisting of education, group and individual psychotherapy, alcoholics anonymous, routine "ward treatment," disulfiram (antibuse), special ward unit, and special program without ward. After their release from hospital, the subjects were evaluated yearly for five years by relatives, employers, and …

The Development Of Inventory Items To Measure Response Differences Of Delinquent And Nondelinquent Youths, Lionn Dean Kirk

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to refine and validate a 160-item self-report instrument which drew its items from personality theories and from clinical practice related to delinquency. The aim was to estimate the usefulness of items descriptive of delinquent behavior by testing their reliability and discriminative power.

There were two objectives. First: to test a set of items for their power to discriminate delinquent from non-delinquent responses which referred to delinquent and nondelinquent behavior. Second, to validate the power of the selected set of items to discriminate delinquent from non-delinquent youths in a second mixed group. Both objectives were realized in …

Teacher Attention As A Controlling Influence Of Student Classroom Behavior, Lagrande E. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this thesis was to assess the influence of the teachers' classroom behavior on students' classroom behavior. Three hypotheses were made as the teacher systematically increases positive responses and decreases negative responses in the classroom, 1) the total time spent with the misbehaving student will decrease, 2) student non-attentive behavior will decrease and student attentive behavior will increase, and 3) there will be an inverse relationship between teacher negative responses and student attentive behavior.

Student subjects were selected randomly from a previously selected group of misbehaving students; teacher subjects were 12 volunteers from a Junior High School who …

The Consequences Of Rapid Population Growth On Nigeria's Economic Development: A Simple Econometric Analysis, Richard A. Eniang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the economic implications of a rapid population growth on Nigeria's economic development. It was particularly interesting to study the relationship, because at the present Nigeria is making some economic progress while undergoing a demographic transition. Apparently, despite the acceptable growth of the national income, the growth of the per capita output has not been encouraging. This output growth must have been hampered by the rather rapid population growth in Nigeria.

The neoclassical growth theory was basically employed to explain the growth of output in the economy in terms of both capital and …

The Study Of Intended Distance Based On The Migration Intention Of Utah High School Senior Students, Pyoung Kim

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examines the relationship between the distance 1975 high school seniors intended to move, referred to as intended distance, and socioeconomic and psychological factors. The research is based on information collected from separate samples of about 900 graduating seniors from the rural, urban and metropolitan areas of Utah. Utilizing the type of boundary that would be crossed in carrying out an intended move as the proxy for distance, it was found that 14 percent of the youth intended to live most of the rest of their lives out of Utah. While rural youth were more likely to intend to …

An Evaluation Of Using In-Field Evaporation Pans To Schedule Irrigation On Potatoes, Michael J. Tremblay

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research project was undertaken to determine if an evaporation pan would accurately predict evapotranspiration when placed in an actual irrigated field situation. Two potato fields in Southern Idaho with different micro-climates and soil types were used in this study. The in-field evaporation pan method was compared with the gravimetric method and the Jensen-Haise and modified-Penman climatic methods. Yield and quality responses were evaluated by varying the amount of sprinkler-applied water so that three distinct moisture regimes were evaluated. It was also necessary to evaluate recent crop coefficient (K_c) curves on potatoes to see if the K_{c …}

Interpretations And Implementations Of Compulsory Free Enterprise Education In Utah Public High Schools, Marsha M. Campbell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Utah legislature passed Senate Bill 203 in 1975, requiring all public secondary schools to offer instruction on the essentials and benefits of free enterprise. The problem is that no evaluation has been made to determine if the specific requirement is being fulfilled. The purpose of this study is to determine interpretations and implementations of Senate Bill 203. Questions in four areas were studied.

1. Administrators: (a) how did administrators of the districts interpret the guidelines, (b) how did the administrators decide upon the approach followed, (c) how did the administrators justify the approach followed, (d) what instructional materials did …

Children's Attitudes Toward The Dental Experience, Tom Leo Day

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of children toward the dental visit. A group of children who had undergone dental treatment with the use of nitrous oxide-oxygen served as the experimental group while children who had received dental treatment without the use of nitrous oxide-oxygen served as the control group. Attitudes toward the dental experience among these two groups were compared to determine any differences or similarities due to the type of treatment used. Data were also collected on the parents of the children to determine whether the child's attitude toward the dental visit tended to …

Decision Making In Two Types Of Working Families, Nancy Ann Bueche

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate actual decision making in two types of families in which both spouses worked and their perceptions of decision making responsibility in the ideal family. The two family types were composed of (1) Professional wives with professional husbands; and (2) nonprofessional wives with nonprofessional husbands.

Questionnaires were completed by 34 professional couples and 63 nonprofessional couples who resided in Flint, Michigan during the fall of 1976. Factor analyses were completed on the husbands' and wives' self reported responses to questions concerning who should make decisions in the ideal family and who actually mode …

The Micro-Characteristics Of Adult-Neonate Social Interaction, Ann Marie Berghout-Austin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In order to dissect social behaviors into their smallest components, five interactions, each involving one neonate and one adult, were video taped and kinescoped into 16mm black and white film exposed at 24 frames per second. The film was analyzed frame by frame and all starts, stops, and changes in direction of movements were scored. Adult movement durations were significantly shorter during vocalization and longer during nonvocalization. Each infant and adult body part had its own characteristic movement rate. Almost two-thirds of the dyadic movements were interactionally synchronous and most of the synchronization occurred during vocalization. It is suggested that …