Showing papers by "DePaul University published in 1984"

Organization Strategy and Structural Differences for Radical Versus Incremental Innovation

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to test a model of the organizational innovation process that suggests that the strategy-structure causal sequence is differentiated by radical versus incremental innovation. That is, unique strategy and structure will be required for radical innovation, especially process adoption, while more traditional strategy and structure arrangements tend to support new product introduction and incremental process adoption. This differentiated theory is strongly supported by data from the food processing industry. Specifically, radical process and packaging adoption are significantly promoted by an aggressive technology policy and the concentration of technical specialists. Incremental process adoption and new product introduction tends to be promoted in large, complex, decentralized organizations that have market dominated growth strategies. Findings also suggest that more traditional structural arrangements might be used for radical change initiation if the general tendencies that occur in these dimensions as a result of increasing size can be delayed, briefly modified, or if the organization can be partitioned structurally for radical vs. incremental innovation. In particular, centralization of decision making appears to be necessary for radical process adoption along with the movement away from complexity toward more organizational generalists. This suggests that a greater support of top managers in the innovation process is necessary to initiate and sustain radical departures from the past for that organization.

Developmental Changes in the Contribution of Shared Experience to Social Role-Taking Competence

Abstract: The contribution of shared experience to the social role-taking competence of 120 preschool, second- and fifth-grade children was evaluated under experimental conditions which did or did not provide subjects the opportunity to previously occupy the perspective of those whose points of view they were later required to assume. It was demonstrated that the youngest subjects regularly failed in their role-taking efforts with or without such backgrounds of shared experience, that the 11-year-olds succeeded in either case, and that the success of the 7-year-olds was a direct function of whether or not they shared common background experiences with those whose roles they attempted to assume. These results indicate that social role-taking competence in early and middle childhood is a joint function of both cognitive ability level and the actual degree of overlap which exists between the experiences of subjects and their role-taking partners.

Mexican-American Recreation Activities: A Reply to McMillen

Abstract: The analysis of Mexican-American and Anglo groups observed in Chicago public parks indicates substantive and systematic differences in the social organization of recreation activities between the t...

Ontogeny of hypothalamo-adenohypophyseal-gonadal (HAG) interrelationships in the chick embryo.

Abstract: In the male chick embryo the components of the hypothalamo-adenohypophyseal-testicular axis initially function independently of each other. It is not until days 12.5-13.5 that the adenohypophysis begins to regulate testosterone synthesis and secretion; on day 13.5 plasma testosterone reaches a maximum embryonic level. This feed forward regulation of the pituitary-testicular unit appears to involve a cause and effect relation between a statistically significant increase in the number of testicular interstitial cell LH receptors on days 12.5 and 13.0 and an increase in plasma LH levels on day 13.5 (up-regulation). Subsequently, events occur that are interpreted as indicative of the feedback phase of this endocrine axis. Plasma LH levels decrease after day 13.5. Also on day 13.5 and all subsequent embryonic days, there is a significant decline in the volume density of testicular LH receptor-positive interstitial cells (IC) associated with an internalization of the LH receptor complexes and a marked decline in plasma testosterone levels (down-regulation). It is strongly suggested that the decline in the number of LH receptor-positive ICs and the internalization of the LH receptor complexes is indicative of a "desensitization" of the ICs followed by a decrease in testosterone synthesis and secretion. Comparable events that occur in the female embryo with respect to the development of the hypothalamo-adenohypophyseal-ovarian axis are also discussed in this minireview.

Female harassment after ending a relationship: A preliminary study

Abstract: While dramatic instances of male aggression directed toward women, such as rape and wife battering, have been frequently studied, a more subtle form of male aggression—female harassment—has been investigated less often. In the present study, 50 women who had terminated relationships with males and then were harassed were interviewed. In general, the harassment lasted for about a year, and episodes which occurred on a daily basis consisted of calls, letters, visits to home or work, being followed, verbal threats, and physical aggression. For the most part, these aggressive actions were perceived as both threatening and disturbing. Findings indicated that assertive female strategies were not more effective in reducing harassment than more sex-role stereotyped passive and nonassertive responses to male aggression. In the second phase of this study a sample of college undergraduates was interviewed on the topic of harassment. Fifty-six percent of the women indicated that they had been harassed by men.

Assertiveness Training in a Preventive Drug Education Program.

Abstract: The efficacy of two preventive drug education programs was studied in inner-city elementary schools. Seventh graders were either provided a traditional or an assertiveness drug prevention program. While children in both groups showed significant gains in knowledge, only those in the assertiveness group demonstrated significant changes in drug attitudes. In contrast to these findings, no significant knowledge or attitude changes were observed in youngsters who were not provided either program. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Stimulus Control Techniques Applied to Handicapped-Designated Parking Spaces: Deterring Unauthorized Use by the Nonhandicapped

Abstract: The present study evaluated strategies to deter nonhandicapped drivers from parking in handicapped-designated parking spaces. For a 10-day period, a symbol for the handicapped was painted at the front end of the parking spot. During this first phase, violations occurred on 53% of the observations. For the next 4 days, a prominent vertical sign was combined with the ground markings, and no violations occurred during this phase. When the sign was taken down, violations increased to 47% of the observations during this 5-day period. Posting of the vertical sign for the next 5 days decreased violations to 7%. Violations increased to 59% when the vertical sign was removed during the next 4 days. No violations occurred during weekly observations for the sUbsequent six weeks. At a four-month check the sign was still posted, and there were no violations.

Developing an International Marketing Course for the Future

Abstract: Surveys of business people reveal that instruction in international marketing is given a low priority for job candidates. This article presents an argument for making international marketing an advanced course, which would integrate and elaborate on many of the more quantitative functional areas of business.

Vietnam Veterans: Fighting the Employment War

Abstract: The extent and nature of unfairly discriminatory hiring practices involving Vietnam veterans was experimentally explored. Sixty-six supervisors and mid-level managers reviewed the resume of an applicant and the position description for the job being sought. Given otherwise identical qualifications, the applicant was described as either a Vietnam veteran or a non-Vietnam veteran. Results demonstrated that subjects made significantly lower recommendations to hire the Vietnam veteran even though both applicants were judged equally qualified for the job. The Vietnam veteran was also perceived to have a higher probability of psychological problems in his life. Findings are discussed in the context of Asch's (1946) central trait theory.

Scaling Managerial Respect: A Developmental Perspective:

Abstract: In an examination of what employees considered to be characteristic of excellent managers, it was found that trust and respect dominated all other categories of managerial behavior. An instrument to assess trust and respect was constructed by using the Rasch model. In an examination of item difficulty estimates, it was found that the item content could be described in terms of a developmental model of supervisor-subordinate relationships. The present paper describes the construction and preliminary validation process for the instrument and offers a probabilistic hierarchical developmental model.

Reducing Excessive Television Viewing

Abstract: Excessive television watching among children can have several negative consequences, including exposure to frequent violent and aggressive scenes and limitations in their opportunities to engage in alternative educational and prosocial activities. In the present study, a youngster evidencing high levels of television viewing behavior was placed on a modified token economy: earned tokens were used to activate the television for set periods of time. With onset of the intervention, immediate and dramatic reductions in television viewing were noted. High levels returned during a return to baseline phase, but reductions again occured when the intervention was reimplmented. Positive second-order effects were noted in the child's school work, in the amounts of time the family spent together, and in the mother's perception of a social support variable.

Behavioral community psychology: an introduction to the special issue.

Abstract: An overview of this special issue, and of behavioral community psychology, is provided, beginning with a summary of terminology and history. Five dimensions on which behavioral community interventions may be classified are then described: (a) subject matter/target behavior, (b) behavioral procedures used, (c) experimental design, (d) intervention level, and (e) time focus. The studies composing this special issue serve as illustrations of these dimensions. This is followed by a discussion of issues important in designing and implementing behavioral community projects. Finally, challenges facing the field are noted.

Rorschach space response and aggression.

Abstract: Summary.-The study investigated the construct validity of the Rorschach space response by factor analyzing the stress-coping reactions to highly stressful conditions. Self-report reactions to stress of 173 medical students measured on the Habits of Nervous Tension showed that space responding loaded highest on a factor identified as "anger affect" and secondarily loaded negatively on a factor identified as "regressive withdrawal." Findings were consistent with earlier results for space response on validity. The interpretation of oppositional tendencies for the Rorschach space response (S) remains the most prominent and frequently employed meaning in spite of the only meager support for its validity. Reviews of S responses have concluded that "the behavior attributed to S has not been proved'' (Beck & Molish, 1967) and the "full meaning of S remains to be fully explored" (Fonda, 1977). Alternate interpretations for S responses suggest significant traits to be ego strength, aggression, paranoid tendencies, and obsessive-compulsive features. The present study exam~ned the constructs underlying S responses by factor analyzing the stress-coping to highly stressful conditions with the expectation of providing additional information on construct validity. From a larger pool of 570 medical students (527 male and 43 female), whose average age was 23.8 yr. (Thomas, Freed, & Ross, 1971) a subgroup of 173 was selected who had taken both the Habits of Nervous Tension (Thomas, 1966), a selfreport measure of subjects' reactions to stressful conditions which was adopted from the Thomas study, and the individual Rorschach test administered and scored in accordance with the principles of Beck. To control for the effects of Rorschach productivity (R) on the determination of S% protocols with extreme Rs, less than 28 and more than 80

Developing undergraduates' skills in behavioral interventions

Abstract: This is a description of a training program for, and a series of studies conducted by, university undergraduates intending to intern in a mental health facility. The behaviorally oriented program provided training experiences in both clinical and community psychology. The more traditional clinical components involved each student's identifying a personal bothersome behavior and, after collecting baseline data, implementing an intervention. The course's community component involved designing a project within an organization or community. Illustrative projects included attempts to set up a no-smoking section in a cafeteria, to prompt university professors to turn off lights after class, to ensure that only handicapped drivers used parking facilities designed for them, to increase church attendance, and to ensure that customers selected appropriate medication at pharmacies. Issues involved in, and barriers to, training undergraduates in behavioral community approaches are discussed.

Locus of Intervention in Child Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Abstract: The present chapter considers the locus of intervention taken by research and clinical endeavors in child cognitive behavior therapy, with particular emphasis on (a) the implications one’s chosen locus of intervention may have on outcome and (b) the possibilities for thoughtful selection of locus of intervention to improve the efficacy of treatment efforts. For present purposes the term locus of intervention is defined broadly, encompassing not only the question of where to intervene but also the following related issues: (a) when, (b) at what target levels, (c) with what types of populations, (d) with what kinds of training and support personnel, and (e) toward what ends and target behaviors. As will become evident, such a wide-angle view is necessary in discussing locus of intervention because of its inextricable relatedness to these other issues.

Lie ideals with regular and nilpotent elements and a result on derivations

Abstract: LetU⊄Z be a Lie ideal of a ringR. We examine those ringsR in which everyu∈U is either regular or nilpotent and prove that ifR has no non-zero nil left ideals then eitherR is a domain or an order in the 2×2 matrices over a field. We proceed by first examining ringsR with no non-zero nil left ideals possessing a derivationd≠0 such thatd (x) is nilpotent or invertible, for allx∈R. It is shown that such a ring must either be a division ring or the 2×2 matrices over a division ring. We also prove similar results for semiprime rings where the various indices of nilpotence are assumed to be bounded.

Chronicity of criminal behavior and psychopathology in male exhibitionists.

Abstract: Conducted this study to resolve inconsistencies in the literature with regard to the personality characteristics of male exhibitionists. Both exhibitionistic and non-exhibitionistic criminal offenses as they relate to severity of psychopathology as measured by the MMPI in 84 exhibitionists were studied. An increase in psychopathology was not found to be associated with an increase in chronicity of exhibitionistic activity in exhibitionists. When exhibitionists who had been involved in other forms of illegal activity were considered alone, positive correlations were found between elevations on MMPI Psychopathic Deviate (PD) and Hypomania (MA) scales and an increase in both non-exhibitionistic criminal behavior and total criminal involvement.

Assertiveness and cognitive processing in interpersonal situations

Abstract: This study examined social skills components that precede the delivery of a skilled overt interpersonal response. Using a cognitive-behavioral systems approach to assertiveness, a task analysis of how women receive and process information in interpersonal situations requiring an assertive response to men was performed. Forty women were assigned to high- or low-assertive groups based on their Rathus Assertiveness Schedule scores. In small group sessions, each woman viewed four videotaped problem situations requiring an assertive response to both pleasant and angry males. After viewing each scene, each woman completed three questionnaires: (a) receiving information, (b) processing-generation of alternatives and decision making, and (c) processing-generation of consequences. High- and low-assertive participants were found to differ in their evaluation of consequences, for response options, particularly how a male would likely to behave to them. High-assertive participants were judged to evaluate more correctly than low-assertive participants the likely behavior of males if response options were implemented. All participants generated more complex alternatives and more assertive responses to situations involving an angry male as compared to a pleasant male. No differences were found between groups in their ability to receive information accurately. Correlational results were supportive of a cognitive-behavioral systems approach of assertion, that is, the emission of a skilled response depends on a chain of preceding responses.

Diatom flora of a kettle-hole bog in relation to hydrarch succession zones

Abstract: Diatom assemblages were compared to the vegetational seres and to physical and chemical parameters of a kettle-hole bog which had distinct hydrarch successional zones and was in turn surrounded by a cattail marsh and a willow swamp Multivariate analysis of variance showed the water parameters (temperature, pH, conductivity, color, free calcium) among the zones were significantly different (p < 00001) Diatoms were enumerated using the first 500 valves counting method and results showed each zone had a distinct flora Cluster analysis of the diatom data by both species and zones grouped the bog successional zones into one major group and the marsh/swamp zones into the second major group The occurrence of well defined seral stages of vegetation and diatoms suggests microorganisms are undergoing ecological succession in kettle-hole bogs

Academic Planning--Back to the Basics.

Abstract: Education has generally existed in a relatively stable environment. However, because of recent demographic and technological changes, high levels of uncertainty have been created which have led to a decrease in productivity. To combat the dysfunctional consequences of change, many institutions of higher learning have adopted myopic and piecemeal decision-making processes. This article explores some of the basic questions that need to be answered if systematic planning is to result.