This study investigated several facets of the environmental coping process. Environmental coping was defined as any behavioral or cognitive attempt to reduce annoyance resulting from bothersome environmental conditions. In this study, library patrons using study carrels were observed while two people talked nearby. The library patron's behaviors in response to this event were recorded. In addition, self-report data were collected by means of follow-up questionnaires. Drawing on the literature from areas of research such as environmental stress, the coping process, and the effects of perceived control, four hypotheses were proposed. In summary, these hypotheses proposed that people would attempt to deal with the intrusion created by others talking nearby through indirect means first, and that people would attempt to"make do" (satisfice) rather than exert control over environmental events (optimize). Due to methodological difficulties, no definite conclusions could be drawn. Suggestions for methodological refinement in this area of research were offered and conceptual issues discussed. / M.S.

The present study evaluated the relationship between parental attitudes and their injury preventive efforts related to bicycle-related head injuries. Specifically, the present study assessed the contribution of components of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT; severity, vulnerability, response-efficacy, self-efficacy, response-cost) in persuading parents to engage in the preventive action of purchasing a bicycle helmet. Participants were 69 parents of elementary school-aged children. Parents were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions: a PMT/low RC group (n = 18), a PMT/high RC group (n= 18), a No Information/low RC group (n = 17), and a No Information/high RC group (n = 16). As such, parents either received a PMT-based informational message regarding bicycling head injuries or they received no information. Similarly, parents in both of these conditions either received a discount coupon for a bicycle helmet or they received no coupon. Parents' intentions to purchase a bike helmet for their child as well as their actual purchases were assessed. Overall, regardless of experimental group, parents reported similar perceptions of severity, vulnerability, response-efficacy, self-efficacy and response-costs associated with bicycle head injuries and helmets. Neither the receipt of PMT-based information nor the availability of discount coupons resulted in parents' increased intentions to purchase or actual purchases of bicycle helmets for their child. Rather, parents generally reported that they were fairly likely to purchase a bicycle helmet for their child, yet few had done so at the time of the home visit. The most notable finding involved the failure of parents' intentions to purchase a bicycle helmet for their child to predict their actual purchasing behavior. Limitations of the present study and directions for future research are discussed. / Master of Science

Master of Science

People tend to maintain certain positive illusions about themselves and their futures that may be adaptive in buffering their self-esteem and feelings of efficacy from the effects of negative or threatening feedback. The illusion of unique invulnerability is the expectation that others will be the victims of misfortune and negative events more so than oneself. One possible implication of holding this belief is that, if a false sense of security is fostered, actual vulnerability to experiencing negative events that one has control over (for example, contracting lung cancer from smoking) might be increased if self-protective behaviors are decreased. The purpose of this study was to determine 1) what personality characteristics are related to this belief in unique invulnerability, 2) whether unique invulnerability is related to assumption of risk in behavior, 3) how accurately people assess the riskiness of their own behavior, and 4) how beliefs in unique invulnerability change over time and experience with risk. Subjects were 164 male and female Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets, ages 17-20, engaged in rappelling down a tall structure, an inherently risky activity. A measure of unique invulnerability and several personality measures were administered before rappelling, and risk-relevant behavior was observed during rappelling. Personal safety ratings were obtained and the invulnerability measure was readministered after rappelling. Results indicated that unique invulnerability was positively correlated with self-esteem (p<.004). For subjects’ first rappels, unique invulnerability was negatively related to number of bounds to descend a 40-foot tower (p<.01), such that as invulnerability increased, number of bounds decreased. Although assumption of risk was operationally defined as taking fewer bounds, further analyses indicated that number of bounds might be more a reflection of physical competence than of riskiness. This finding suggested that greater beliefs in invulnerability were related to competent rappelling performance, while lesser beliefs in invulnerability were related to ultra-conservative behavior. Self-reports of safety were positively related to number of bounds for first rappels off a 40-foot tower (p<.01), and were related to instructor ratings of jump competence and safety for first and second rappels off a 40-foot tower (ps<.05). This suggests that as a number of bounds became more conservative, and as instructor ratings improved, self-reports of safety increased. Finally, beliefs in unique invulnerability decreased after rappelling, both for subjects who rappelled (p<.001), and for control subjects who observed but did not rappel (p<.05). Conclusions are that self-esteem is an important component of the illusion of unique invulnerability, that invulnerability is related to competent performance while engaging in risky activities like rappelling, that invulnerability is subject to change over time and experience, and that subjects can fairly accurately assess the objective safety of their behavior. Implications for theory and research on unique invulnerability are discussed, as well as limitations and future directions. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to examine children's cognitive interpretations of the physiological symptoms of panic. Children from grades 3, 6, and 9 imagined experiencing the physical symptoms of panic and reported their attributions for these symptoms. Conceptions of common illnesses and panic attacks were assessed. It was hypothesized that girls would make more internal, catastrophic (I/C) attributions to the symptoms of panic than would boys, and that older children would make more I/C attributions relative to younger children. These hypotheses were based on the suggestion that notions of external causality characterize the cognitions of younger children (Nelles & Barlow, 1988), and that girls tend to report higher levels of anxiety and fear relative to boys (Ollendick, King, & Frary, 1989; Ollendick, Yule, & Ollier, 1991). It was also suggested that older children would display more mature conceptions of illness than younger children, and that girls would be more advanced in their understanding of illness than would boys. No differences were predicted between children's level of understanding common illnesses and panic attacks (Nelles & Barlow, 1988). Finally, the contribution of several individual factors to children's cognitive interpretations was investigated. No significant grade or gender differences were found for tendency to make I/C attributions. While no gender differences were evident, a significant main effect for grade was found for conceptions of illness, and understanding of panic attacks was more advanced relative to common illnesses. Finally, internal attributional style in response to negative outcomes and anxiety sensitivity were significant predictors of tendency to make I/C attributions. The relevance of these findings to understanding children's cognitive interpretations of panic symptomatology are discussed. / Master of Science

Crying is the primary source of distal communication through which newborn and young infants’ needs are related to the caregiving environment and, as such, this social behavior is vital to the survival and development of the infant. Recently, a series of experimental studies has begun to isolate the effects of specific durational components of crying on adults’ perceptions of infant cries. These studies have found the duration of pauses within and between cries to be perceptually salient features, however, the point at which adults were able to detect changes in the duration of the pauses was not addressed. Seventy-five introductory psychology students participated in three experiments designed to determine Difference Thresholds for the point at which manipulations in the durations of pauses before and after the inspiration in infant cries were detectable by the adult listener. The Difference Threshold for the pause before the inspiration (PBI) with the duration of the pause after the inspiration (PAI) held constant was an increase of 354.18% in the duration of the PBI. Difference Thresholds for increases and decreases in the duration of the PAI were 58.53% and -61.91%, respectively. For increases and decreases in the duration of the PAI with a perceptibly longer PBI, Difference Thresholds were 39.82% and -57.6%, respectively. The Difference Threshold for an increase in the duration of the PBI with a perceptibly shorter duration of the PAI was 420.06% and the Difference Threshold for a decrease in the duration of the PBI with a perceptibly longer duration of the PAI was 485.61%. Results provided the first known experimental evidence of the point at which changes in the durations of pauses before and after the inspiration in infant crying are detectable by adult listeners. / Master of Science

The effect of learning style preference on a student's performance on math problems solved both cooperatively and competitively was examined. Eighty-nine first graders were assessed for their preferences for cooperative or competitive interactive styles. Thirty-eight children were found to have clear preferences for either cooperative or competitive styles, or to have no preference for interactive style. Students were then put into pairs, consisting of students from the same or different learning preference groups. These pairs were instructed to solve math problems cooperatively and competitively. After solving the problems under both conditions, the subjects were asked which way they would like to solve the problems again. Of primary interest was the students' overall level of accuracy on the task as a function of learning preference and pair type. The differences between performance for each condition were analyzed by a 3x2x2 Mixed Analysis of Variance with repeated measures. All students performed better under cooperative conditions than the competitive condition regardless of their learning preference or type of partner, but this was not a statistically significant difference. Results also showed that students did not shift their learning preferences as a function of their group assignment. These preliminary findings support that learning preference does not appear to be associated with academic performance. Methodological limitations of the study and possible improvements are discussed. / Master of Science

The current study examined the impact of self-presentation and self-esteem concerns on goal choice. Subjects who were high or low in self-esteem worked on a series of analogies and were presented with noncontingent or contingent success feedback. They were then told that their performance on an upcoming puzzle task would be either public or private. Subjects were then allowed to choose a goal level for the upcoming task. Subsequent performance on a standard test was measured. In general, males chose more difficult goals than did females and high esteem subjects chose more difficult goals than did low esteem subjects. Analyses indicated that when low esteem male subjects were given noncontingent success feedback and were led to believe that their choice of goal was public, they reported lower performance expectations and showed a tendency to choose more difficult goals than did comparison groups. No performance differences emerged across any of the experimental conditions. The results are discussed within goal setting theory and in light of previous research on self-handicapping. The implications of this investigation for future research are also considered. / M.S.

The present study was designed to test two theories which conceptualize performance deficits and negative mood associated with depression. Reformulated learned helplessness theory suggests that the expectation of uncontrollable outcomes is sufficient to result in performance deficits and depressed mood. On the other hand, self-efficacy theory proposes that while the expectation of uncontrollability is important, the individual's perception of self-efficacy determines when performance deficits and depressed mood will occur. In the present study, both self-response (efficacy) and response-outcome expectancies were manipulated and performance, mood, and self-esteem were measured. Ninety undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups or a no-treatment comparison group. Group 1: Low self-response/high response-outcome expectancy Group 2: Low self-response/low response-outcome expectancy Group 3: High self-response/high response-outcome expectancy Group 4: High self-response/low response-outcome expectancy Group 5: No-Treatment Comparison Hard or easy math problems manipulated self-response expectancy. Graphs and cards indicating high or low percentages of peer solution of math problems manipulated response-outcome expectancy. While the data suggested that the manipulations were effective, performance was enhanced, not diminished. Further, no subjects scored in the depressed range. Finally, there were no significant differences in self-esteem between groups. Failure to find the expected differences are discussed in terms of the facilitation effects found. In conclusion, support was found for Roth's (1980) reconceptualization of learned helplessness theory which relates facilitation effects to the amount of exposure to helplessness training. Implications of the results are discussed in terms of practical application and future research. / Master of Science

The current study examined the effects of self-esteem and initial goal level on performance when that performance would affect an individual's future goal level. High and low esteem subjects were randomly assigned either moderately easy or difficult goals for an upcoming interview (quiz session). They were then given an anagram pretest to complete before the interview. Subjects were told either that their performance would or would not affect their goal level for the interview, or were not told anything about the relationship between their performance and the interview goal level. Actual and reported performance on the anagram pretest were measured. Analyses indicated that when given the chance to alter their goal level, low esteem subjects who were assigned difficult goals performed more poorly than did their high-esteem counterparts. Additional analyses were conducted to investigate the effects of subjects' social anxiety on performance. A significant three-way interaction did emerge between social anxiety, goal level, and instructions condition. High social anxiety persons given difficult goals performed worse when given the chance to alter their goal level than when they were not given the chance to alter their goal level or when they were given easy goals. These results are discussed in conjunction with other research on strategic failure and self-presentation within goal setting theory. / M.S.