Showing papers by "DePaul University published in 1977"

A Review of Theory and Research on the Assumptions of Miller'S Response Competition (Conflict) Models: Response Gradients.

Abstract: Summary This is a review of published theory and research on the assumptions that underlie Miller's conflict models. Operational distinctions are made between single-goal and multiple-goal conditions and, within the latter, the spatial, temporal, and stimulus dimensions. Major operational divergences in research outcomes are single- vs. multiple-goal conditions and strength-of-pull vs. other measures. Support for Miller's postulate system is equivocal, with considerable support available for several alternate postulates. A preferred interpretation is that response gradients can assume any degree of steepness or generality as a function of several manipulation and selection conditions. One manipulation variable, time before testing, produces flatter gradients which simulate unpracticed time-course effects. A major unfinished research area deals with the summation hypothesis or, more generally, specification of principles of combination for response gradients.

Behavioral community psychology: conceptualizations and applications.

Abstract: During the past few years there have been important developments in two related fields, i.e., community psychology as it affects the delivery of mental health services and behavior modification as an approach for understanding etiology and treatment of mental disorders. Although behavioral technology has been applied increasingly to community areas, there has been little comprehensive integration of the two approaches. This failure may be due to a lack of clarity both in the definitions and assumptions of the two approaches. This paper presents an integration of community and behavioral psychology, first by delineating their critical concepts and then by presenting illustrations of behavioral community psychology.

African Interpretations of the Christian Cross in Vodou

Abstract: Scholars who have written about Vodou, the folk-religion of Haiti, have called it a syncretism, that is, an amalgam of various religious traditions (Price-Mars 1928; Jahn 1961; Herskovits 1971). These traditions permeate the folk-beliefs and ritual dances of the peasant masses of Haiti. The religious amalgam originated with the arrival in the New World of slaves from West Africa as early as 1510.

A behavioral approach in enhancing disadvantaged children's academic abilities

Abstract: Economically disadvantaged toddlers, aged 12-24 months, manifesting social and behavioral difficulties, were identtfied at a health care facility in Rochester, New York. Such children were randomly assigned to two groups, the first of which participated in an intervention program from September to December, the second group from January to April. Parents were exposed to the program through instructions and modeling during the home sessions and also had parent discussion meetings, to discuss child-rearing problems and techniques and to increase their feelings of competence and mastery. Target children registered significant academic gains following program participation, whereas without the program, skills remained constant. Children in the first semester program were found to have maintained their gains at a follow-up, i.e., 3 months after the program had ended. Parent involvement and participation was considered

Mechanisms underlying the slant aftereffect

Abstract: Transfer of the median plane slant aftereffect was assessed across changes in the type of depth information for the slant of the display. In addition, the effectiveness of monocularpictorial and binocular information in inducing the aftereffect was measured. Binocular information produced a larger aftereffect than did monocular-pictorial information, and adaptation created with one type of depth information induced an aftereffect assessed with presentation of the other type of depth information. The results suggest that the slant aftereffect is not entirely specific to type of depth information presented. The induction of the aftereffect involves a process more general than the sensory mechanisms responsible for adaptation to twodimensional tilt or adaptation to a texture gradient.

Modifying parent‐child interactions in a disadvantaged family

Abstract: An economically disadvantaged toddler, identified by a health care facility as evidencing developmental lag, was involved in a preventively oriented behavioral intervention. The program focused on identifying and modifying deficit mother‐child interactional patterns. Over the course of the seven session home intervention, considerable increases were noted in the child's compliance to parental requests and parental use of praise. Important ancillary changes included increases in frequency of child vocalizations and improvements in cognitive development.

The rise and fall of “self-interest”

Abstract: Drawing on Hobbes, Locke, Smith, Mandeville, and Rousseau, Faulhaber's 1977 article argues that self-absorbed self-interest cannot serve as the foundation of society because individual perversities do not sum to the common good. In Faulhaber's own words "the transformation of the water of 'self-interest' into a wine of public interest [is] a fake miracle." His concern is with the choices to be made regarding the interests of the self, the interests of the nation, and the interests of humankind. The key to these choices resides in self-respect in which a person understands that his/her own happiness and the happiness of others are intertwined. Community, in other words, is formed not on the foundation of self-interest through the invisible hand that makes more of self than of others but on self-respect wherein the disparate interests of the self, the nation, and humankind are reconciled by economic agents who exhibit a genuine regard for the well-being of others in everyday economic affairs. Keywords: self-interest, self-respect, community, egoism, self-love, common good ********** All men were, are and will be self-interested. There is no choice in the matter, and without choice there can be no question of the morality of being self-interested. In effect we must admit that every man possesses interests, concerns, preoccupations, goals and so on. No man is without interests; even he who commits suicide can be presumed interested in being dead. Therefore, the term "self-interest" is a redundancy. Interests are referred or belong to the self, if not, to whom? In this sense, no one is "altruistic" or "disinterested," "egoist" or "selfish." The important questions then become--and these are matters of choice--what are and what should be the self's interests, the nation's interests, and, finally, mankind's interests? (1) I This error which is the taproot of the tree of modern problems is not a simple proposition. But without too much risk it can be compressed into a twin doctrine: (1) that interests are radically egoistic, and (2) that the conflicts between such interests do not pose an unsolvable problem for social life, that is, they are able to be resolved into a public interest that can be qualified as good. The first, if not also the second, of these antagonistic beliefs is not peculiar to the modern era. It is a fundamental feature of Sophist, Epicurean and Skeptic views of man. Despite the influence of Platonic and Aristotelian schools, an essentially selfish interpretation of self-interest may well have dominated the classical world, but later the influence of Christianity's doctrines and philosophical attachment to Aristotle forced the notion of selfish interests underground. Yet even in medieval Christianity, the teaching that men must do the will of God does not automatically suppress, and probably stimulates, the narrowest of motives for doing that will since the self is rewarded with eternal happiness and punished with permanent suffering. The theologically correct motivation, love of God, and not a combination of infinite greed and fear, was by no means kept a secret; yet preaching, even up to very recent times, rarely eschewed the efficiency of creating a carrot-stick syndrome in the hearts and minds of the faithful. No doubt, too, Christian (sic) art, especially painting, made a hellish contribution to men's imagination, though that art was not so successful in depicting heaven. (2) All of this suggests that Christianity had concentrated men's attention on the self and tended, in effect, to produce egoists, however religious. It was the self that was saved from eternal damnation, even though salvation was held to be worked out in the Christian community. In Michelangelo's Last Judgment the terrifying look of horror on the face of the man who is contemplating his condemnation may be due not so much to fear of the pit but to the awful realization that it is irrevocably happening to him. …

A Review of Theory and Research on Miller's Response Competition (Conflict) Models.

Abstract: This is a review of published theory and research on Miller's conflict models. The research is largely supporting of the many deductions that are generated from the postulate system, with especially extensive research on approach-withdrawal response competition (AW-RC). There is also impressive agreement in demonstrating an ordered arrangement of difficulty among the RC models [approach-approach response competition (AA-RC) to approach-withdrawal response competition (AW-RC) to withdrawal-withdrawal response competition (WW-RC) and double approach-withdrawal response competition (DAW-RC)]. The most apparent weakness is the divergence between the conceptual importance of oscillation behavior and its limited direct use in research. A number of heuristic thrusts into new methods and contents are noted: namely, varied punishment effects, mastery of fear, risk taking, psychopathology and personality testing, alcohol and drug addiction, attitude formation and change, unpracticed time-course effects, and development of another RC model [withdrawal-approach response competition (WA-RC)]. Potential relevance to the various RC models is noted of a theory of active CNS reward and passive CNS punishment centers.

The Constitutional Status of Public Protest Activity in Britain and the United States

Abstract: Defining the constitutional status of public protest activity has for many decades been a matter of great urgency and complexity in Britain and the United States. This paper will examine the history and current status of the right to demonstrate and to engage in other forms of public expressive activity in Britain and the United States.

Some difficulties in longitudinal assessment of need satisfaction related to management by objectives

Abstract: This study reports changes in on-the-job need satisfaction as related to management training and development in Management by Objectives. Previous work (Timm, atensen, Strauss, & Babcock, 1977) indicated that the introduction of Management by Objectives may be related to positive changes in the extent to which various needs are met. One of the methodological difficulties, however, cited in the above study was the reliance upon respondents' recall as to levels of satisfaction prior to the Management by Objectives program. This srudy examines changes in job-related satisfaction before and after a 6-mo. management training program in Management by Objectives in a state correctional agency. This study describes data collected just prior to the initiation and shortly following the program The population smdied included all 50 employees of the stare correctional agency. Data were collected through the use of the Porter-Lawler Needs Questionnaire (Porter. 1961 ) . Deprivation for each of the five need levels decreased following the training program: security needs decreased from a mean of 1.52 (SD = 2.03) to 1.07 (SD = 1.72), social needs decreased slightly from .86 (SD = 1.17) to .83 (SD = 1.48), esteem from 1.60 (SD = 1.71) to 1.20 (SD = 1.54), autonomy needs from 1.61 (SD = 1.63) to 1.42 (SD = 1.58). and self-realization needs from 1.82 (SD = 1.63) to 1.26 (SD = 1.68). Although each of the need levels reflected change in the anticipated direction, none of the changes reported are at acceptable levels of significance (p = .05 for self-realization, however). Results suggest that, although the present design circumvented the previous problem of the unrcliability of respondent's recall in the measurement of change, it nevertheless presents another unanticipated problem in design. There is no reason to believe that respondents reporting a lack of need deprivation prior to the training should report changes in satisfaction; in fact, the only change which is possible is nrgatlve change. In the current design there are no means for identifying and determin~ng the influence of "satisfied" respondents, a task which would require the identification and matching individual responses before and after training, so that the change among "dissatisfied" respondenrs is probably understated, a condition which requires consideration in future research.

Nothingness and Being A Schelerian Comment

Abstract: Heidegger's central question, "What is the meaning of Being?", is intertwined with the concept of nothingness, as it has been since Pre-Socratic thought. I wish to articulate "nothingness" by restricting myself to three aspects of this concept given by Scheler: 1.) the meanings with which the word "nothing" is used, 2.) the moral implication belonging to the question of "nothing," and 3.) the concept of reality. It is the purpose of this selection of Schelerian thought to furnish some distinctions to be made in Heidegger's central position.

Texture size specificity in the slant aftereffect

Abstract: Transfer of the median plane slant aftereffect was assessed across changes in stimulus texture size (sine-wave grating frequency). Under binocular viewing, reliable decrements in aftereffect magnitude were observed when texture size was changed, compared with no-change control conditions. Under monocular viewing conditions, no significant aftereffects were found. The results indicate a spatial-frequency-specific component of binocular slant aftereffects.

Amphibian acid phosphatase--III. Electrophoretic analysis of tissue and plasma proteins and acid phosphatase isozymes in Rana pipiens.

Abstract: 1. 1. In frog plasma, 8 groups of electrophoretically separable proteins were detected. By comparing these with components of bovine serum, and by using ammonium sulfate fractionation, the albumin, α-, β- and γ-globulins of frog plasma were tentatively identified. 2. 2. Liver proteins included pre-albumins, albumin and others which varied in electrophoretic mobility and concentration. Fewer electrophoretically separable proteins were seen in spleen and bone. 3. 3. Three isozymes of acid phosphatase were identified in liver and spleen; in both tissues, each of the 3 isozymes had comparable migration rates and enzyme activities. The same isozymes were represented in plasma. 4. 4. Frog bone had 4 acid phosphatase isozymes. Three of these were similar to those found in liver and spleen, while the other was bone-specific. The latter also appeared in plasma. 5. 5. Following treatment of frogs with parathyroid hormone, a shift in magnitude of bone acid phosphatase activity in the isozymes occurred; two of the isozymes, which in untreated animals had much enzyme activity, were sharply reduced, while the bone-specific isozyme was greatly increased.

Helping Students Write Good Essay Examinations

Abstract: (1977). Helping Students Write Good Essay Examinations. The Journal of Business Education: Vol. 52, No. 7, pp. 305-306.

The Effect of Trimming and Normality Assumptions on the Efficiency of the O-BLUE Estimators

Abstract: The seriousness of trimming samples, and considering the trimmed samples as if they are complete samples of the retained size, from a normal distribution is explored for the parameters of the simple linear regression model. The exact efficiencies of the O-BLUE estimators of the parameters under these conditions are investigated relative to the O-BLUE estimators based upon the trimmed samples from the actual distribution G. Five symmetric distributions are considered. It is found that the overall loss in relative efficiency is quite substantial especially when the true distribution has heavier tails than the normal distribution, and in particular for larger amounts of trimming.