Degree Discipline

The Effects of Cultural Bias: a Comparison of the WISC-R and the WISC-III (open access)

The Effects of Cultural Bias: a Comparison of the WISC-R and the WISC-III

It has been suggested that the use of standardized intelligence tests is biased against minorities. This study investigates the newly revised Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III in which Wechsler states that the new scale has eliminated biased items. Comparisons of the scores on the WISC-R and the WISC-III of a clinical population of sixteen African American and eighteen Caucasian males, ages ten to sixteen, revealed significant differences between the two groups on the WISC-III. The minority scores decreased predictably from the WISC-R to the WISC-III, but the Caucasian scores increased rather than decreasing. The findings of this study do not support the predictions and goals of revision as stated in the manual of the WISC-III.
Date: December 1994
Creator: Ewing, Melissa Cox
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Path Analysis of a Job Burnout Model Among Firefighers (open access)

A Path Analysis of a Job Burnout Model Among Firefighers

The purpose of this study was to propose an exploratory causal model that examines the influence of several antecedent variables on burnout. The antecedent variables included age, marital status, education, tenure, Type A personality, Jungian types, death anxiety, leadership style, job satisfaction, stress, coping efficacy, and marital satisfaction. The validity of the causal model was tested by using path analysis. Subjects were 100 male firefighters who completed self-report measures of the predictor variables. Instruments included the Jenkins Activity Survey, Myers- Briggs Type Indicator, Collett-Lester Attitudes Toward Death Scale, Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire, Job Descriptive Index, Perceived Job Stress, The Coping Inventory, Dyadic Adjustment Scale, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Perceived work stress made the only direct contribution to the variance in burnout. Direct paths were found to stress from job satisfaction, Type A personality, and single marital status. Job satisfaction was directly related to leadership (consideration) and the Jungian Introversion, Feeling, and Perceiving preferences. Direct paths were found to marital satisfaction from death anxiety, leadership (consideration), and leadership (structure). Leadership (consideration) was directly related to structure. From the above results, it can be concluded that perception of stress is an important factor in predicting burnout. Other factors are important contributors …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Goza, Gail R.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Imagery/Mental Practice: A Cognitive Technique for Teaching Adaptive Movement to Postoperative Spinal Patients (open access)

Imagery/Mental Practice: A Cognitive Technique for Teaching Adaptive Movement to Postoperative Spinal Patients

Postoperative spinal patients were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions and were taught five adaptive movements by occupational therapists. The Control group received routine hospital occupational therapy; the Placebo group participated in an imagery relaxation task unrelated to the mental practice task of the Imagery group, which was shown line drawings of the adaptive movements under study, provided movement instructions, and asked to mentally practice each movement in a familiar, daily living situation. Thirty-five patients returned for follow-up, and a measure of outcome was obtained through the use of a quantified movement assessment instrument. Subjective ratings for anxiety, rumination, and imagery were made by the occupational therapists. An occupational motoric-symbolic rating scale was developed to assess the symbolic portion of the patient's job experience. Statistical procedures including chi square, analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation were performed. Results were in the predicted direction although statistical significance was not achieved. Possible explanations for the obtained results were discussed.
Date: December 1986
Creator: Ransom, Kay Johnson
System: The UNT Digital Library
Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Clinical Scales of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Test Battery, Form II (open access)

Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Clinical Scales of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Test Battery, Form II

The factor structure of the Luria Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB) Form II was examined. A principle components factor analysis was performed on a sample of 102 psychiatric and neurologic subjects. It was necessary to remove 45 items from the analysis due to perfect performance by most subjects. The results were orthogonally rotated to simple structure using a Varimax method of rotation, and then compared to previous LNNB Form I and Form II results. Thirty-three factors were generated in the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) . There was a very high agreement with the factors from Form I. Only one new factor was identified that didn't have a comparable Form I factor, and this factor appears to have neurological support. The similarity of the factor solutions between the two forms supports the continued use of factors derived from Form I for the interpretation of Form II, and supports the underlying structure presupposed by Lurian constructs. The present study also tested the significance of the hypothesized factor structures through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). No hypothesis about the underlying factor structure based on previous exploratory studies was supported. The CFA did suggest that the best factor solution to the LNNB Form II is one …
Date: May 1990
Creator: Nagel, Jeffrey A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Influences of Stated Counselor Religious Values on Subjects' Preference for a Counselor (open access)

Influences of Stated Counselor Religious Values on Subjects' Preference for a Counselor

The effects of the counselor's religious values on the counseling process has been a focal point recently in the literature on counseling and psychotherapy, especially with regard to how the counselor's announced values might effect potential clients' selection of a counselor. In the present study, the investigator addressed this issue in a study with 125 male and 125 female undergraduate students assigned to five different groups in which they read a script that differed with respect to the counselor's religious orientation. The content of the five scripts ranged from no mention of religious values to describing in detail the specific religious values of the counselor. Subjects' responses to the scripts were measured by having them rate (1) the degree of similarity in their own values and the announced values of the therapist; (2) their rating of how helpful they thought the therapist would be with their problem; and, (3) their stated willingness to see the counselor. Results indicated that subjects who read the script describing an agnostic counselor saw a significant degree of dissimilarity between their own and the counselor's values, but this did not affect subjects' perceptions of the counselor's helpfulness or their willingness to see the counselor. Differences …
Date: May 1985
Creator: Wyatt, Steven C. (Steven Charles)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Test Order Effects on Children's Rorschachs (open access)

Test Order Effects on Children's Rorschachs

Thirty-three children from a community sample, ages 5 to 13, were administered the Rorschach Inkblot Test, along with projective Draw-an-Animal and Draw-a-Person tasks and other psychological measures. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three test order conditions: Draw-an-Animal followed by the Rorschach, Draw-a-Person followed by the Rorschach, and Rorschach before any other projective test. The number of Human and Animal contents in the test records was examined. Analysis showed no significant differences among the three groups for production of the content variables, suggesting that the Rorschach Inkblot Test is relatively robust with respect to test order effects.
Date: May 1993
Creator: Coyle, Edward L. (Edward Louis), 1965-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sex Differences in Extreme Response Style (open access)

Sex Differences in Extreme Response Style

The main objective of this investigation was to study the influence of sex on extreme response style as measured by a semantic differential. The previous studies led to a general hypothesis formulated as follows. Normal males and females differ from each other with regard to their mean extreme response style scores with females having the greater extreme response scores on the semantic differential.
Date: December 1973
Creator: Gossie, Michael
System: The UNT Digital Library
Effects of a Preschool Program on Intellectual Functioning and Sensory Motor Abilities of Disadvantaged Children (open access)

Effects of a Preschool Program on Intellectual Functioning and Sensory Motor Abilities of Disadvantaged Children

Research points out the many complex problems of the disadvantaged child. The purpose of establishing many preschool programs throughout this country has been to seek the most effective ways of educating the culturally deprived and to utilize the standardized measurements to assess various programs. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the intellectual functioning and sensory-motor abilities of the disadvantaged child at the preschool level, to determine his growth in these areas during his participation in the program, and to determine whether or not four different teaching models are instrumental in bringing about intellectual and sensory-motor improvements.
Date: December 1973
Creator: Chambers, Jean Irvin
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Rational-Emotive Therapy Approach to Romantic Jealousy (open access)

A Rational-Emotive Therapy Approach to Romantic Jealousy

Rational-emotive therapy was proposed as a therapeutic treatment approach to romantic jealousy. It was hypothesized that rational-emotive therapy would be significantly more effective than an attention placebo group in the reduction of romantic jealousy with undergraduate single female subjects. It was also hypothesized that reductions in romantic jealousy would be sustained to a significantly greater extent in the rational-emotive therapy group rather than the attention placebo group on a follow-up evaluation after a 2-month period. Advertisements soliciting single females who were romantically jealous and who felt that this was a problem in their love relationships yielded 18 female subjects from the North Texas State University campus. The pre-treatment, post-treatment, and follow-up assessments consisted of two self-report questionnaires. The pre- and post-treatment also included a physiological measurement (heart rate) while the subject was imagining a jealousy scene. Both of the self-report questionnaires (Sexual Jealousy, Irrational Beliefs) were given to a significant other (such as a boyfriend or lover). Results support the hypothesis that rational-emotive therapy is more effective than an equally credible placebo in the reduction of female romantic jealousy.
Date: December 1981
Creator: Marshall, Melissa
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparison of Performance and Levels of Aspiration of High and Low Anxious Males and Females (open access)

A Comparison of Performance and Levels of Aspiration of High and Low Anxious Males and Females

The present study was concerned with the relationship between level of aspiration and anxiety. Level of aspiration is a term used for goal setting behavior. In other words, if a person sets his goals high it is said that he has a high level of aspiration. Anxiety, for the purpose of the present study is assumed to possess drive properties. Theoretically, at least, a highly anxious person has a high drive level. This assumption may be warranted in terms of physiological unrest--causing an effort toward equilibrium or homeostasis; or it can be defended psychologically as the need to achieve or the need to prove one's abilities to himself. However, the present paper was not concerned directly with the current controversy of anxiety as a drive mechanism. Rather it was the general purpose of the study to determine whether or not highly anxious college students set their goals higher, in response to previous experimental success or failure experiences than low anxious students. To be more specific the purpose was to determine whether or not highly anxious subjects differ significantly from low anxious subjects with respect to responses on a level of aspiration task. The particular response measures or scores investigated on …
Date: August 1964
Creator: Cotten, Larry L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effect of Scheduling on College Achievement (open access)

The Effect of Scheduling on College Achievement

This investigation is concerned with the problem of determining the variation of test achievement obtained by students enrolled on a MWF and a TTh schedule. The purpose of the study is to determine if either schedule is superior. The Ss were students enrolled in an Introductory Psychology course at North Texas State University. A t test was administered to the experimental data. The experimental hypothesis of an expected higher test achievement by students enrolled in the TTh schedule was rejected. It was concluded that test achievement for this study was not affected by scheduling.
Date: December 1974
Creator: Boney, Ronald Jay
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Influence of Time-Keeping Devices on Time Perception (open access)

The Influence of Time-Keeping Devices on Time Perception

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that time-keeping devices influence our perception of time in a way apart from their usual role of telling time. The subjects obtained for this project consisted of forty-two students enrolled in freshman psychology courses at North Texas State University.
Date: August 1974
Creator: Buckley, Thomas E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparison of Delinquents and Nondelinquents Using the IES Test (open access)

A Comparison of Delinquents and Nondelinquents Using the IES Test

Many of the causes for delinquency are known, but more investigation is needed in the prediction of future delinquent behavior. It was in this area of delinquency that this study was concerned. The problem was to compare scores made on the IES Test by a group of nondelinquent males with those made by a group of delinquent males to determine if the IES Test would discriminate between these two groups.
Date: August 1964
Creator: Mangold, Kenneth M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Community Gardening: a Novel Intervention for Bhutanese Refugees Living in the USA (open access)

Community Gardening: a Novel Intervention for Bhutanese Refugees Living in the USA

Since 2008, the United States (USA) has resettled thousands of Bhutanese refugees, providing brief financial support and pathways to citizenship. Despite the efforts of governing bodies and voluntary agencies which facilitate resettlement, many refugees struggle with adapting to the vastly different lifestyle, economy, language and social structures. In particular, effectively addressing psychological needs of this population is a challenge for service providers operating within an expensive health care system based on Western constructs of mental health. In response to this challenge, refugee resettlement agencies throughout the country use community gardens to promote psychological healing, self-sufficiency, community engagement, and a return of human dignity. Though success of these programs is being shared in the media, there has yet to be empirical data examining their impact. The current study tested whether Bhutanese refugee engagement in a community garden impacts symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD and somatic complaints. The study also investigated whether community gardening is associated with perceptions of social support and adjustment to life in the United States. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected from 50 adult Bhutanese refugees in Fort Worth, Texas. Gardening was significantly related to increased social support overall, a key factor in overall functionality within communal cultures; …
Date: August 2015
Creator: Gerber, Monica M.
System: The UNT Digital Library