Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of Cued Intertrial Intervals On Response Latency In Pigeons, Franklin Paul Whitley

Masters Theses

Six White Carneaux pigeons were exposed to fixed-ratio schedule components in a systematic replication of a study by Michael et al. (1981). Separation between median latencies for the two schedule components was demonstrated consistently, reproducing the general features of that research. In a subsequent manipulation, differential stimulus conditions were introduced into the intertrial intervals preceding onset of schedule components in an effort to enhance the likelihood that differential "waiting behaviors" would develop. Two subjects demonstrated a clear decrease in the magnitude of the latency splits following introduction of the cued ITI condition, while other subjects evidenced a similar but less …

Curbing Noncontractual Absences In A Mental Health Setting Through The Application Of Contingent Rewards, Craig A. Crawford

Masters Theses

In this study, the effects of contingent rewards on attendance behavior of direct care staff in a psychiatric institution were investigated. The intervention consisted of a letter of commendation and an opportunity to win a lottery for the staff exhibiting perfect attendance for a two week pay period. A multiple baseline analysis of three units failed to show significant declines in absenteeism although there were areas of significant improvement.

Performance Contracting As A Support System For Minority Graduate Students: A Feasibility Study, Monica Porter

Masters Theses

This study analyzed the feasibility of implementing a performance- contracting program for black graduate students so they could achieve or maintain a grade-point average of a 3.0 or above. Students attended weekly contracting meetings where academic tasks and deadlines were identified and task completion was monitored. The total number of tasks assigned per student for the entire study ranged from 12 to 44, with a mean of 32.6. Task completion ranged from 42% to 100%, with a mean of 68.4%. Nine of the ten students achieved a semester grade point average of 3.0 or above, although the present study did …

An Ethnographic Study Of Punk Rock In Western Michigan: Identity In A Youth Subculture, Robert P. Pomeroy

Masters Theses

This thesis presents an ethnosemantic analysis of the punk rock subculture of western Michigan. Assertion of personal identity is demonstrated to be the underlying principle which organizes punk terminology for their music, cultural environment, and members of the subcultures. An analysis of punk song lyrics, visual style, and verbal style demonstrates that this assertion of identity is accomplished through opposition to the dominant American culture. Punk rock can then be understood as a subculture of cultural rebellion which allows its members to assert their individuality through violation of culturally accepted aesthetic values.

The Kalamazoo County Juvenile Home's Foster Shelter Care Unit: Toward An Evaluation, Michael John Underwood

Masters Theses

A formative evaluation of the Foster Shelter Care Unit was conducted in order to analyze the success/failure of the program during its firs t year of operation. Data on 77 cases were analyzed, and nine Independent variables and one dependent variable were bivariately tested 1n order to provide a theoretical explanation of the success/failure rate.

The evaluation was conducted 1n order to supply the Foster Shelter Care Unit with recommendations to enhance its success/ failure rate and to modify its existing policies.

The success rate for the unit was 48.1%, and it was found that the only significant association with …

Detection Of Deception In The Laboratory As A Function Of Motivation And Set Size, Daniel Mark Tuckett

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of the polygraph in a controlled laboratory setting. The Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT) was the procedure employed in conjunction with the galvanic skin subjects over the two trial each. Overall the polygrapher was correct 44 times, out of 80 trials. This number of detections exceeded chance (p<.001) levels. The manipulation of subject motivation with a monetary reward increased detection rates significantly (p<.05) in comparison to those offered money. With each subject being tested over two trials, there appears to be a habituation effect as indicated by a decrease in detection from trial one to trial two. The relationship fell slightly short of significance at the (p< .05) level. In general the level of the subject motivation may play a major role in the detection of subjects who attempt deceit.

An Investigation Of The Effects Of An Applied Behavior Management Program On Selected Measures Of Worker Performance In A Financial Institution, Daniel A. Schroeder

Masters Theses

Twenty CRT operators from an operations department at a financial institution were used to evaluate whether a behavior management program utilizing feedback and incentives would improve their work performance on real job tasks. In accordance with predictions, results revealed that the group performed significantly better (p<.05) under the behavior management program than they did during a baseline period. Behavior management was significantly effective for most, but not all, work areas. The program also produced some unexpected, but positive, side-effects.

Analysis Of The Effects Of Goal And Feedback Specificity On Subsequent Task Performance, Gregory Mark Van Dahm

Masters Theses

The effects of goal and feedback specifically on subsequent task performance were examined to text the hypothesis that specific goals and feedback facilitate performance to a greater degree than general goals and feedback (Ilgen, Fisher, & Taylor, 1979). Ten subjects, in each of the four conditions, were assigned one of two levels of goal specificity and feedback specificity and were then required to perform a simple assembly and sorting task utilizing multiple size and color fasteners. No significance was discovered between correctly assembled and sorted products of the four groups although there was a general trend in the hypothesized direction. …

Use Of A Changeover Key To Train Serial Learning In The Pigeon, Rhoda Kay Yutzy-Ryan

Masters Theses

Three pigeons were presented with a serial learning task involving a sequence of three colors: yellow, green and red. The colors appeared on a lit key one at a time in random order. The pigeons were required to peck the colors in the correct order and to use a second lit key (the changeover key) to change the color when it was incorrect. The data show that the pigeons were able to learn the task and generalize to novel arrays at a high level of accuracy. This extends the findings on serial learning with pigeons to a type of sequence …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Self-Esteem And The Ability Of The Family Of Origin To Promote Autonomy, Expression Of Feelings, And Trust Development In Adult Children Of Alcoholics, Paula Andrasi

Dissertations

Several theories have been proposed in the last 5 years suggesting that adult children of alcoholics (ACAs) comprise a unique population in need of specialized treatment services. The purpose of this study was to test two of the basic assumptions underlying the various theories. The first assumption considered was that ACAs have poorer self-esteem than adults who are not children of alcoholics (non-ACAs). The second assumption was that an alcoholic home is less facilitative in the promotion of trust development, autonomy, and expression of feeling than the nonalcoholic home. The researcher proposed that poor self-esteem in ACAs would be positively …

Loneliness And Graduate Students: A Descriptive Study, Mary Zirpoli

Dissertations

The major purposes of this study were to identify the lonely among graduate students, the types and degree of loneliness they experience, and the possible variables associated with graduate student loneliness. The Belcher Extended Loneliness Scale (BELS), and a second questionnaire about the causes of loneliness, were administered to 337 graduate students in 23 classes at Western Michigan University (WMU).

The BELS identified two types of loneliness that some graduate students experience as well as 104 significant differences which were found to relate mostly to an unspecified type of loneliness. The following variables were found to be very important in …

A Few Parting Words, Norman N. Goroff

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The publication of this issue brings to an end thirteen years of my involvement with this Journal as Managing Editor, Publisher, and Editor. Ralph Segalman and I put the first issue together in the backyard of my house in West Hartford in 1972. The issue was printed in 1973 and marked the beginning of an adventure that has lasted all these years. We advanced the money to pay for the printing of that first issue. The subscriptions that came in enabled us to pay back the advances and to be self-supporting.

The Definition Of Social Problems: Differing Perceptions Of Israeli Social Workers And Women, Varda Muhlbauer, Claire Rabin, Nadine Hollander

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Recent social changes have intensified and created special problems and needs among women. However, social work schools have not included women's studies as part of the overall curriculum. This Israeli study examined the congruence of women's needs as perceived by women clients and as perceived by social workers, to see whether a specialized training program is needed. Fifty low-socioeconomic status women, women selected from the general population, and 16 social workers from the same community were presented with a list of 21 problem areas known to be pertinent to women. The group of 50 women equally represented homemakers, divorced, widowed, …

Professional Contacts And Perceived Occupational Prestige, Moshe Sherer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A random sample of 142 social workers in Israel, were asked to indicate the other professionals whom they meet in the course of their work, and the frequency of these contacts. They were also asked to assess the occupational prestige of social workers relative to that of the other professionals. The findings showed that social workers tended to downgrade their own prestige, the more frequently they met with representatives of occupations which have higher rankings on an objective occupational prestige scale.

Assessing The Needs Of Mothers With Mentally Retarded Offspring: An Empirical Approach, Jonathan Rabinowitz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This exploratory study assesses the needs of mothers with retarded offspring living at home. Previous studies have focused on meeting those parental needs which would benefit their retarded offspring. This study does not limit parental needs to those needs, which if met would benefit the retarded child, and defines parents as an independent group with special needs.

Restraint Economics And The New Right: A Structural Analysis Of The Political Economy Of Social Services Cutbacks, John Butcher

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Restraint by government in the area of social service spending in the 1980's has become an issue of grave concern for social service practitioners, planners, and administrators. The emergence in North America of neo-conservative economic policies has engendered a body of critical and provocative literature which examines the effects of "restraint economics".

Recent work in geography has sought to locate the supply-side trend within a framework of macro-level processes. These suggest that a declining public commitment to maintaining the social safety net is linked to broader structural changes in the workplace and spatial shifts of capital and industry (Dear & …

Social Workers' Satisfactions: Methodological Notes And Substantive Findings, Y. Meller, D. Macarov

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The use of instruments derived from industrial research to investigate the work satisfactions of social workers can lead to distortion of results. Responses from ninety-one social workers in nine agencies indicates sources of satisfactions and dissatisfactions not present in industrial settings, and -- in contradistinction to the "dual-factor" or "bipolarity" theory -- both satisfactions and dissatisfactions arising from the same source in some cases.

The most important factors affecting workers' satisfactions were the ability to achieve results, their relationships with clients, their relationship with members of multidisciplinary staffs, and presence or absence of sufficient time and resources.

The "higher order" …

Social Service Needs Of Migrants In Limbo: Israelis In New York, Josef Korazim

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This is an exploratory study about the social service needs of Israeli migrants in New York City. A structured, face to face interview schedule was administered by the author to a sample of 86 intact families. The families were found to be mostly undecided regarding their stay in the United States. Their state of "limbo" was reflected in specific patterns of utilization of general and ethnic social services, and in six major areas of concern and needs: (1) a sense of social isolation; (2) the wives' low level of adjustment; (3) emotional stress due to the families' hesitancy to stay …

Holidays As Multiple Realities: Experiencing Good Times And Bad Times After A Disabling Injury, Mary Jo Deegan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Holidays are idealized as times of celebration. They are embedded in cultural symbols, family patterns, and lived experience. Because all holidays are not good times, however, the lived experience of holidays is considerably more complex than its symbolization. This ambivalence is dramatically deepened for recently disabled adults who view holidays as a specially strained time of remembrance. Past holidays are often idealized in a new way as one's biography is placed into a new embodied reality. Simultaneously, holidays remain days when one is supposed to celebrate, and often denote some celebration for the injured. The resulting experience is a melange …

A Perspective On Differential Services In Counseling: Altruism And Likeness, James Latimore

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In this exploratory study using a small sample, an attempt is made to understand the differential services provided by vocational counselors in a non-profit agency, a setting in which a strong identification with clients is encouraged. The services are measured and the unequal measures of service are related to the degree to which the client is seen as an image of the counselor in certain respects. Counseling is viewed as an altruistic occupation and the differential services are analyzed in this context. In general, it is suggested that the differential counseling and psycho-therapeutic services noted by other writers all reflect …

Children's Violence To Single Mothers, Larry R. Livingston

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A survey of 151 mothers to determine characteristics of violence experienced from their children. The survey assessed the length of time they had been single parents, the age and sex of their children, the frequency and types of violence they experienced, and the influence of violent adult modeling upon the children's violence.

Findings indicate that 29% of the mothers had been assaulted by their children. The violent families contained more children than the nonviolent families, and the violent children's ages were more closely-spaced. Battered mothers also reported greater modeling of violence (the children seeing an adult striking their mother) than …

Increasing The Participation Rate For International Behaviorists At The Convention Of The Association For Behavior Analysis, Marsha Lee Benz

Masters Theses

This is a descriptive study that reviewed past participation of International behaviorists at the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA) convention, to provide sore help to these presenters to improve the experience, and to disseminate behavioral information outside of the United States by trying to Increase International participation at the ABA convention.

These methods were used to Invite the behavioristsi (a) call for papers, (b) personalized invitations, and (c) poster invitations. Procedures used to improve the convention experience weret (a) an interest questionnaire, and (b) pre- and post-convention surveys.

Comparisons were made between the number of International presenters from years 1981 …

A Comparison Of The Personal Values Of A Sample Of Unemployed American Males And A Normative Sample Of American Males As Measured By The Rokeach Value Survey, Timothy J. Howard

Dissertations

Problems of the unemployed and unemployment are evidenced in personal, social, and economic areas. The measurement of the personal values of unemployed American males may yield information that could be useful to individuals in the helping professions.

Seventy-seven unemployed Job Training Partnership Act male participants were administered the Rokeach Value Survey in their employability skills sessions. The Median Test was applied to compare the unemployed sample of American males and the Rokeach Value Survey normative sample of American males. The Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance was calculated with several demographic characteristics of the unemployed American male sample (age, education, ethnicity, …

The Deaccelerator: A Behavioral Application Of A Differentially Imposed Force Schedule To The Accelerator Pedal Of A Motor Vehicle To Control Unlawful Highway Vehicle Speed, Richard Schulman

Dissertations

The Deaccelerator is a behaviorally designed speed control device that utilizes punishment and reinforcement by way of a differentially imposed force schedule to the accelerator pedal of a motor vehicle when vehicle speed exceeds the preset speed. Specifically, increasing and decreasing accelerator pedal resistance is a negatively accelerated function of respective increases and decreases in vehicle speed as speed moves in excess of 1 mph beyond the preset speed. A lesser force schedule generates linear increases and decreases in accelerator pedal resistance as a function of respective increases and decreases in accelerator pedal depression once vehicle speed moves in excess …

The Incidence And Nature Of Dating Violence Among Never-Married Students At One Junior College, Nancy Cole Masterson

Dissertations

The subjects were a convenience sample of 151 never-married junior college students who completed the Violence Index Schedule (VIS).

Analysis of the VIS indicated that 30.5% of the subjects had been the victim of at least one incident of dating violence, and that the majority of those victims, 67%, reported receiving no injuries. Of those who were injured, bruises and welts were the most common form of injury. Significant differences were found in nonassaultive partner behaviors present in the relationships of the victims and nonvictims of dating violence, t = -10.55 (149), p < .001. Chi-square analyses of the Nonassaultive Index items revealed significant differences for 24 of the 25 nonassaultive characteristics. Partners of the victims displayed significantly more jealously, coercive anger, verbal abusiveness, and controlling behaviors than did the partners of nonvictims.

An analysis of the quantitative and qualitative …

Peer Reinforcement For Social Work Training: An Evaluation, Robert W. Weinbach, Karen M. Kuehner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Techniques for peer reinforcement of social work training programs appear to be a promising complement to educational supervision. The authors conducted a quasi-experimental evaluation of its effectiveness for reinforcement of learning, of interviewing skills. Subjects were income maintenance workers in a large state public welfare agency. Findings indicated that peer reinforcement may have resulted in knowledge retention and use of skills which were superior overall to those demonstrated among trainees denied access to peer reinforcement techniques. Interpretation of findings and productive areas for future research are suggested.

The Sociology Of Alcoholism Counseling: A Social Worker's Perspective, Katherine Van Wormer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

An occupation - alcoholism counseling - strives to gain professional status. Still a field largely dominated by counselors who derive their status more from personal attributes - the fact of being recovering alcoholics - rather than from achievement of impersonally applied standards, chemical dependency counseling is in a state of flux. This sociological analysis examines recent developments in the field. Special emphasis is on roles for social workers.

Community Empowerment As A Non-Problem, John L. Russel-Erlich

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

It is not much fun to be a radical any more -- as a student, a teacher or a community activist. Often it seems as if there are too many battles and not enough time to begin to fight them. The privileged position in which many on the left found themselves in years past has given way to the treatment usually accorded persons with serious contagious diseases. Feeling unappreciated, unneeded and unwanted, we have tended to become a bit cranky and hypercritical. In our frustration, we have fallen prey to an isolation that encourages us to think only of people …

People Learning To Help Themselves, Carl Tjerandsen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

When the preparation of a final report of the Emil Schwarzhaupt Foundation was first envisaged, it was assumed that it would deal primarily with education for citizenship and, hence, would be primarily of interest to civic educators. However, because so much of its grant program involved efforts to form community organizations or to use other kinds of groups (e.g. 4-H club groups or boys clubs) as vehicles within which certain behaviors might be changed, it became evident that other kinds of professionals such as social workers or community health educators might find the experiences of its grantees to be useful. …

Revival Of Welfare Reform, Seung Ja Doe

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

It is a well known fact that poverty is prevalent among single mothers and children. Currently, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program fails to provide for all children and single mothers in need of public assistance. Previous attempts to "reform" the welfare system have been unsuccessful. However, in the time when the poor's right for social welfare is increasingly threatened, ideas for welfare reform need to be revived. The author advocates for a threedimensional agenda for welfare reform: universal assistance to families with children, reinforced support for children with absent parents, and targeted employment programs for single …