Two major purposes existed for this study. The first purpose was to compare how persisters and nonpersisters in the first year of a two-year nursing program differed in locus of control, selected personality traits, and seven demographic variables. The second major purpose was to develop a predictive model for the persisters and the nonpersisters. The particular personality variables examined were intelligence, superego strength, extraversion, anxiety, tough poise, and independence as measured by the 16PF. The summary findings were that persisters had significantly higher scores on the NDRT and the B and G traits, significantly lower externality, and were generally younger with no previous nursing experience, and more likely not to have prekindergarten age children than the nonpersisters. The major significance of this research comes from its use of data gathered at the beginning of an educational program to make predictions which can be available to teachers, counselors, and administrators who may make use of the information to improve the chance potential nonpersisters have of completing the nursing program, or perhaps to assist students in reexamination of their career choice.

The problem of this study was to determine whether or not the variables locus of control, perceived anxiety, anxiety proneness, nursing experience and intensive care experience were better than chance predictors of job stress in intensive care nurses. The study was conducted using 200 volunteer nurses (RN's) who worked in the Intensive Care Units of two major hospitals in a large metropolitan area. All subjects were administered Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scale and the Nursing Stress Scale as well as a demographic questionnaire. Multiple Regression Analysis was used to determine the predictive value of the characteristic variables to job stress and to determine the most efficient predictive model possible using these variables.

The diagnostic value of children's play was investigated. The question explored was "Can maladjusted children be discriminated from adjusted children through observation of their play therapy behavior?" The play of 15 maladjusted and 15 adjusted children 5 to 10 years of age was compared during an initial 36-minute play therapy session. Three scales of the Play Therapy Observational Instrument (PTOI)—emotional discomfort, social inadequacy, and use of fantasy-- were used to rate the children's play. The children in the maladjusted group were referred by their parents for counseling and their teachers reported the children had exhibited one or more problem behaviors indicative of emotional disturbance. The children in the adjusted group were recommended by their teachers as exhibiting none of the problem behaviors and their parents did not believe their children needed counseling. Discriminant function equations predicted correct group membership for 23 of the 30 children during the second 12-minute time segment and for the entire play session. The analysis showed the play behaviors on the emotional discomfort scale of the PTOI items discriminated maladjusted and adjusted children. During the second and third 12-minute time segments and when all three time segments were combined, maladjusted children's play expressed significantly more dysphoric …

This study utilized ethnographic methodology to describe the communicative interactional patterns in families with a member who has breast cancer. Three breast cancer patients whose families were between the adolescent and launching of children developmental lifestage (McGoldrick & Carter, 1982) were chosen for the study. Data were collected from a series of three interview sessions over a period of four weeks with a two week time lapse between each of the interview sessions. Interview sessions were conducted in the families' homes by the researcher. All interviews were video and audio tape recorded for the purpose of preserving data for transcribing and coding. Research questions examined individual perception of meaning in regard to the disease, the structure and organization of the family in relation to the illness, and the effects of family communicative interaction on the course and management of the disease. Findings indicated that family members' responses to the diagnosis of "breast cancer were influenced by multi-generational "beliefs. All three families formulated a collective belief which supported the mother's belief about the disease. Each of the three families were mother-centered, and each mother seemed to use a metacommunicative approach to mediating family transactions. Each of the three fathers were reported …

The problem with which this investigation was concerned was that of determining the relationship between the variables of acculturation, imagery, self-concept, anxiety, stress, and seriousness of disease in Mexican-Americans. The purposes of this study were 1) to determine the statistical predictive efficiency of stress and its relation to disease, 2) to determine if a combination of anxiety, acculturation, self-concept, imagery, along with stress, would increase the statistical predictive efficiency concerning seriousness of disease, and 3) to provide information that may help to develope a theoretical base concerning the above variables and disease in Mexican-Americans.

The problem with which this investigation was concerned was that of the use of parents as therapeutic agents. The purpose of this study was twofold. The first was to determine the effect of filial therapy on parental acceptance, self-esteem, parent-child relationship, and family environment. A second was to analyze the results and make recommendations concerning the effectiveness of filial therapy as a treatment modality for parents and their children. The experimental design of the study was a nonrandomized, pretest-posttest, control group design.The sample (N=47) consisted of the experimental group (parents N=15, children N=9) who received filial therapy and the control group (parents N=12, children N=ll) who did not. The treatment included ten, two hour weekly parent training sessions. During these sessions the parents were taught the principles of client-centered play therapy and were instructed to conduct weekly one-half hour play sessions at home with their own children. Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were drawn: 1) Filial therapy does significantly increase the parents' feeling of unconditional love for their children and 2) Filial therapy does significantly increase the parents' perception of expressed conflict in their family. In addition to the statistically significant results, there were some …

This descriptive study with quantitative aspects examined the phenomenon of elder abuse through the systematic review of 60 cases of elder abuse. Cases were randomly selected from the files of an Adult Protective Services agency in the North Central Texas area. Research questions examined the characteristics of the victims and abusers, types and duration of abuse, descriptions of abusive situations, the reporting and verification of abuse, case management strategies utilized by caseworkers, and the consequences of those strategies. The results of this study point to the probability of the elderly abuse victim being 75 years of age or older, female, white, and widowed. There did appear to be some connection between race and type of abuse with white victims more likely to experience physical and financial abuse. Approximately half of the elderly abuse victims had severe limitations in physical and/or mental functioning leading to some degree of dependence upon their abusers. However, eighty percent of the elderly victims resided in their own homes and half of these individuals were functionally independent. This study provided descriptions of the various types of abuse that were observed: physical, financial, emotional, passive neglect, and active neglect. Financial abuse was noted most frequently, and multiple …

Among the social sciences, guidance is relatively young, having evolved out of the American social experience with its concern for the welfare of the individual. As an independent discipline, guidance is about seventy years old. However, the foundations for guidance are imbedded in the nation's historical past. Beginning with seventeenth-century New Englanders, who stressed religious and economic reasoning, a systematic approach to occupational selection began. By the close of the colonial period, the precedent of freedom of choice of vocation and educational opportunity was well established.