The problem of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a stress-reduction training program for women. The purposes were (1) to compare the training program with a group counseling program, (2) to determine the effect of the selected personality characteristics of field dependence, perceived anxiety, and anxiety proneness on perceived stress, and (3) to provide counselors with information concerning the reduction of stress in women.

This study's problem concerned the conflict between the ethical desirability of giving participants relevant information about themselves versus the current practice of withholding sociometric data. Group counseling was selected to provide a relative basis for comparison of the effects of structured sociometric feedback (SSF). This study's ultimate purpose was to gather empirical evidence concerning the appropriateness and safety of conveying sociometric data to participants of sociometric studies.

The relationship "between touch "behavior, marital satisfaction, and touch expectation in stable marriages was explored. Subjects included couples, married a minimum of seven years, chosen at random from a community of middle-class families. Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Jourard's Body Accessibility Questionnaire, and a touch expectation question on the data sheet were utilized to measure each subject's level of marital satisfaction, touch behavior, and touch expectation. These instruments were hand delivered to each couple and returned by mail to the experimenter.

The purpose of this study was to compare working women, career women, and homemakers on the variable of self-concept, locus of control, and attitudes toward women; to determine the relationship between group membership and age, marital status, education, income level, number of children, age of youngest child, maternal education, maternal training, and maternal work history; and to predict self-concept from a linear combination of locus of control, attitudes toward women, group membership, and all the other variables.

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.

This study was undertaken to investigate the influence of a military counselor s attire on potential clients expressed perceptions of and preferences for a counselor. Ninety volunteer participants were selected from a large southwestern Air Force base. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 46 years, with 68 male and 22 female volunteers. Rank was divided into 69 enlisted personnel (56 males and 13 females) and 21 officers (12 males and 9 females). Three videotapes were made depicting a counselor in three attire conditions: civilian; military officer; and military enlisted. A pilot study was completed which validated the research assumption that the videotapes differed only in the counselor's attire conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to three treatment groups. After each group was shown a videotape portraying the counselor in one of the three attire conditions, the participants were administered the Counselor Rating Form and the Referral Questionaire. The Counselor Rating Form is composed of three scales which assess perceptions of a counselors' trustworthiness, attractiveness, and expertness. The Referral Questionaire assesses subjects preferences to see a specific counselor in the event counseling is desired. Two main hypotheses, each having three subhypotheses, were developed for the study. The first hypothesis compared participants …

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 research study was designed to investigate the relationship between participation in a nursing education program and the factors of stress, physical illness, anxiety, and self-concept experienced by the participants. Also, the study examined the relationship between age of participants and these same factors. The purposes of this study were (1) to determine if beginning and ending nursing students differ in stress, physical illness, anxiety, and self-concept, (2) to examine the relationship between age of nursing students and stress, physical illness, anxiety, and self-concept, (3) to provide information that may help develop a theoretical base concerning stressful life events and illness in nursing students, and (4) to provide information that may be beneficial with regard to future research involving stress, physical illness, anxiety, self-concept, and age in nursing students.

This study investigated whether behavior disordered children would decrease aggressive behavior if their social interest were developed. Three hypotheses that were tested predicted that there would be a significant difference between the control group and the experimental group on adjusted mean scores on aggressive behavior on post test scores. The measuring instruments used were the Child Behavior Checklist Parent Report Form, the Child Behavior Checklist Teacher Report Form, and the Child Behavior Checklist Director Observation Form. It was also predicted that there would be a significant difference between the control group and the experimental group on post test adjusted mean scores as measured on the Social Interest Scale. An analysis of covariance was employed to test the data. Behavior disordered students in the experimental group participated in three activities designed to develop their social interest. They participated in peer tutoring, socialization with nursing home residents, and group discussions. Data were collected from parents, teachers, and observers of behavior disordered students in an elementary school in Northwest Louisiana during the summer term of 1987. Teachers did report a statistically significant difference between the experimental and the control groups in the decrease of aggressive behavior. These results are in accord with predictions …

This study used a qualitative/phenomenological research methodology to examine the perspective of five bulimic subjects about their lives in order to understand the bulimic individual's point of view and develop a clearer picture of the world of the bulimic. This approach involved three interviews for each of the five subjects totalling 22 1/2 hours. The three interviews dealt with the subjects' past and present experiences and their ideas about the future. The qualitative/phenomenological methodology created an in-depth view of each subject's relationship to the beginning of her bulimia and its subsequent development. During the period when the interviews were being transcribed, patterns and concepts emerged and were examined. Nine categories were developed from this data reflecting some of the characteristics of a bulimic's personality. Six research questions were formulated and then answered by evaluating them in the light of the nine categories as well as data and descriptions from the interviews. No one single category was found to be uniquely dominant, but rather the categories tended to appear in a cluster-like fashion depending on the individual personality of the bulimic. The data of this study revealed a distinction between the personality and the behavior of the bulimic. A form with …

This research examined the influence of psychological temperament and family-of-origin socialization influences on relationship adjustment in marriage. The major goals were to determine: (a) if there was a relationship between the temperament of one mate in the marriage and the temperament of his or her spouse, and (b) if there was a relationship between the marital adjustment scores of a mate relative to either personal temperament or that of his or her spouse. A secondary purpose was to determine if certain family-of-origin socialization experiences influenced adjustment in marriage. One hundred seventy-nine couples (H = 358) completed three test instruments including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Myers, 1962), Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976), and the Socialization Background Questionnaire (Church, unpublished), along with a demographic questionnaire. The subjects, volunteers from 12 churches in a large metropolitan area, had mean ages of 35.3 and 33.6 years for husbands and wives, respectively, and had been married for an average of 10.1 years. Five hypotheses and two research questions were tested at the .05 level of significance. The results gathered did not support the hypothesis that there was a relationship between temperament type and mate selection. Similarly, no support was evidenced for any specific relationship between …

In this study, a computerized marriage enrichment program that gave couples instruction on communication skills and problem-solving was developed and tested. Couples completed the marriage enrichment courseware together on a computer. Forty couples from a metropolitan area in North Texas volunteered to complete the marriage enrichment courseware. Ten couples were randomly assigned to each of the following four groups: an experimental group that received the pretest followed by treatment and a post-test, a control-wait group that completed pre- and post-tests, an experimental group that received treatment followed by a post-test, and a post-test only control-wait: group. Three hypotheses were generated predicting that experimental subjects would significantly increase their marital communication skills following the treatment and that wives in the pre-test and experimental groups would achieve higher marital communication scores than would husbands. The dependent variable was the score on the Marital Communication Inventory (Bienvenu, 1970). Analyses of variance did not reveal any differences between husbands, wives, and couples at the pre- or post-tests. A three way analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect for treatment (p < .04), but no interaction effects were found. In related findings, a t-test on the post-test minus pre-test difference for wife's scores was …