Research examining student-teacher interactions has tended to focus upon the teacher's perceptions of, and reactions to, his/her students. Such studies have indicated that teachers tend to react differentially to male and female students, that these students are aware of sex-role stereotypes, and that this awareness seems to affect perceptions of self and others, as well as actual performance. The majority of these studies have targeted the perceptions and behaviors of preschool and elementary school children. As there is a dearth of research examining similar variables in adolescents, more intensive investigations need to be conducted before any generalizations about classroom behavior can be drawn. The purpose of the current investigation was to examine the effects of middle-school students' levels of androgyny and self-esteem on classroom behavior, as well as to examine the impact of these variables on students' performance attributions and classroom perceptions. Students were asked to complete questionnaires assessing their levels of androgyny and self-esteem, and their perceptions of which of their peers perform various behaviors. While few significant differences were found by degree of androgyny for student behaviors, student sex did seem to play a role in which classroom behaviors were exhibited. Peer behavior in the classroom was related to students' sex and level of androgyny. Internal and external attributions for performance seemed to be affected by degree of androgyny. Boys received higher grades than girls in both science/computer science and English, although there were no sex differences for grade expectations. High-androgynous individuals tended to have higher self-esteem than low-androgynous individuals. Implications for the conceptualization of androgyny were discussed, as well as empirical findings and developmental issues. / M.S.

Recently there has been increased interest in the nature of children's peer relationships. This is partially in response to a number of research findings linking peer popularity in childhood to social adjustment in adulthood. As such, a large body of research has attempted to differentiate children of varying sociometric status on a variety of global behavioral dimensions (e.g., quantity of peer interaction). Oftentimes these efforts have yielded weak and nonspecific findings. In response, the study of more complex interactive behavior has been attempted (e.g., peer group entry behavior). The purposes of the present study were to expand this body of research by (1) examining peer group entry behavior within a social learning theory framework, (2) exploring the relationship between assertion and the oft-found "disagreement" evidenced by unpopular children when entering groups, and (3) providing additional information regarding the nature of group responses to peer group entry behavior. Fourth and fifth grade boys and girls were administered sociometric rating forms, assertion scales, and self-report measures of the social learning constructs (i.e., locus-of-control, self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, peer preference). Then, popular and unpopular children were observed as they attempted to enter same-sex, familiar popular and unpopular peer groups. Both entry behavior and group responses were coded. Results indicated that unpopular entry children took longer to enter groups, used more waiting and hovering, and tended to be ignored more often than popular children. That is, the behavior of unpopular children resembled that of newcomers. Within a social learning theory framework, successful group entry was found to be predicted best by value placed on peer interaction, a social learning construct. Finally, both examination of the relationship between assertion and disagreement, and the elaboration of group responses to entry attempts were precluded since no disagreement entry bids of "types" of group rejection occurred. These findings have clear implications for the continued assessment of interactive social behavior and its relationship to social competence in children. / M.S.

The present study examined whether previously reported effects of altered prenatal sensory experience on the subsequent acceleration of intersensory functions are mediated by mechanisms sensitive to the overall amount of stimulation. Results reveal that chicks exposed to augmented amounts of prenatal visual stimulation show interference in subsequent species-typical perceptual development. Specifically, chicks continued to respond to maternal auditory cues into later stages of postnatal development and failed to respond to maternal visual cues at the age when normally reared chicks to exhibit this species-specific ability. Embryos in this study also failed to demonstrate early auditory learning of an individual maternal call, a behavior reliably seen in unmanipulated embryos. These findings suggest that substantially increased amounts of visual stimulation appear to prevent the emergence of species-typical patterns of intersensory functioning and lend support to the notion that stimulation that falls within some optimal range seems to maintain or facilitate normal patterns of perceptual functioning, while stimulation beyond the range of the species norm appears to result in intersensory interference. / Master of Science

Three groups of rats were trained and extinguished with continuous (CRF) and partial (PR) reinforcement in the presence of two auditory stimuli differing in amount of similarity along a frequency dimension. Results revealed that in the groups where stimulus similarity was least, a within-subjects reversed partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE) was found. The results also suggest that as similarity between the stimuli associated with CRF and PR decreased, the magnitude of the reversed PREE increased. This result is in contrast to Rashotte's (1971) predictions concerning the type of PREE produced as stimulus similarity varies along a single dimension. / Master of Science

Putrescine is a polyamine with multiple roles in cellular metabolism. It is also a minor precursor of the inhibitory neurotransmitter, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Conversion of systemically administered putrescine to GABA in rat neural tissues has been reported. In this thesis, three experiments were conducted to characterize changes in rat behavior after putrescine administration, and determine if any effects resembled known GABAergic behaviors. Experiments l and 2 investigated the behavioral consequences of oral and intraperitoneal putrescine treatment. Male adult rats were given either saline or putrescine doses and tested with seven procedures which evaluated motor behavior, sensory reactivity, body temperature, and other behaviors. Results showed that putrescine-treated subjects exhibited significant changes in behavior compared to saline controls, and that certain effects resembled behaviors related to the function of GABA and/or other neurochemicals. Experiment 3 investigated the modifying effects of putrescine treatment on behavior induced by a dopamine agonist, apomorphine, and were compared to effects produced by a GABA agonist, muscimol. Male adult rats were given either saline, putrescine, or muscimol, and later treated with saline or apomorphine. Locomotor and specific activities were time sampled for 45 minutes. Results indicated that putrescine and muscimol had similar interactions with apomorphine in modifying sniffing stereotypies. From the behavioral evidence obtained in this thesis, it was suggested that systemic putrescine administration may indirectly influence behavior in the rat via GABAergic mechanisms. The results were interpreted as preliminary support for a significant neuropharamacological role of putrescine in the mammalian central nervous system. / Master of Science

Research has found absence of premarital sexual experience positively correlated with marital adjustment (Davis , 1929; Terman, 1938; Reevy, 1959; Shope and Broderick, 1967). Others raised doubt of this conclusion (Locke, 1951; Burgess and Wallin, 1953; Kinsey et. al, 1953; Ard, 1974).Bell and Balter (1973) found 81% of married women under 26 had premarital intercourse. Since a majority engage in this, it is appropriate to consider premarital intercourse relationship variables to identify marital correlates.In Love, Strong Affection, and Little Affection premarital intercourse relationships were examined. Questions were explored concerning premarital independent variables: number of relationships, length of relationships, number of live-in partners, relationship exclusivity, sexual satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, and gender. Dependent variables were: relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and fidelity, in marriage.This questionnaire study consisted of the Marital Satisfaction Scale (Roach et. al, 1981) and other original items.Subjects were 286 volunteers from Long Island MacArthur airport, 209 of which reported premarital intercourse relationships and 77 who did not, all under age 41, in first marriages.Pearson correlation and t-test were used. The hypothesis was confirmed for only In Love premarital relationships with marital satisfaction and marital sexual satisfaction being positively related to premarital sexual satisfaction.Groups with and without premarital intercourse were not significantly different on marital satisfaction or marital sexual satisfaction. For subjects having premarital intercourse relationships higher marital satisfaction was related to higher number of live-in partners and higher relationship and sexual satisfaction for In Love type. Also for only this type, higher marital sexual satisfaction was related to higher premarital sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction.Having no or few premarital intercourse partners was associated with higher likelihood of fidelity. Other premarital factors associated with higher fidelity were longer In love relationships and higher number of In Love live-in relationships. Lower relationship satisfaction with premarital Strong Affection type also led to higher fidelity. Women were found to have higher likelihood of fidelity.Summarizing, In Love premarital intercourse relationships seem to relate positively to marriage. More independent variables were related to fidelity than the other dependent variables.

Saltz (1970) has hypothesized that the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) is an index to the types of situations that constitute stress for individuals scoring at the extremes of the scale. Specifically, the behavior of individuals scoring as low-anxious on the MAS is disrupted by pain-induced stress but not necessarily by failure-induced stress, while the behavior of individuals scoring as high-anxious on the MAS is disrupted by failure-induced stress but not necessarily by pain-induced stress. This hypothesis is in contradiction to the traditional drive theory interpretation of the MAS, which considers the MAS to be a measure of drive level. The present study attempted to empirically test these rival views of the measurement characteristics of the MAS in a verbal learning situation. Results of the experiment provided support for Saltz's hypothesis, with both low-anxious shocked subjects (Ss) and high-anxious failure Ss making significantly more errors than all other groups on paired-associates in which the correct response was dominant. No significant differences in performance were found on paired-associates in which the incorrect response was dominant, and there were no significant differences in the levels of shock that pain-stress Ss agreed to take. Scores on the A-State Scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) reflected performance differences for high-anxious groups but not for low-anxious groups. Possible reasons for failure to find each of these differences are discussed. / M.S.

While a variety of researchers have identified periodic recurrences in infant behavioral state with various time-series techniques, the appropriateness of techniques which identify periodic recurrences in all infants at all ages have been questioned. The purpose of this study was to compare the utility of four time-series techniques used in the analysis of periodic recurrences in the behavioral state of 21 newborns during a 2 hour observation period. For quiet sleep, active sleep and awake states the period length of the major rhythm was estimated by 1) binary spectrum analysis, 2) binary autocorrelation, 3) renewal time analysis, and 4) kappa analysis. Repeated measures analysis of variance showed that the period lengths identified by renewal time analysis were significantly shorter than those identified by the other three techniques for quiet and active sleep. Further, the kappa analysis and binary autocorrelation showed that awake states were significantly shorter than both active sleep and quiet sleep. Pearson product-moment correlations showed that the relation between the periods for a given state identified by each analysis ranged from .01 to .83. The results indicate that 1) renewal time analysis is more sensitive to state interruptions than the other techniques, 2) awake states may have a different period length than either quiet sleep or active sleep, and 3) although the four techniques identified state recurrences in almost all of the neonates, only a smaller subgroup of neonates displayed a pattern of technique agreement that would indicate a clearly rhythmic pattern of states. / M.S.

Childhood fears have been considered to be part of normal development. It is when these fears develop into severe fears or phobias that they become of concern to clinicians. Children's fears have varied over the years from school related fears, to political fears, to fears of danger and death in most recent years. Of the latter category, fear of fire-getting burned emerged as the second most commonly reported fear among children. The present study examines two cognitive self-instructional strategies to test their effectiveness in reducing children's fear of fire. Cognitive strategies were the ones of choice in that they remedied many of the problems found in some of the other behavioral techniques. Either of two self-instructional strategies including a fire safety training program using self-instructions and a self-instructional fear reduction strategy were taught to second and third grade children. A major hypothesis of the study was not confirmed which maintained that children who learned self-instructional fear reduction exercises would show greater reductions in fear than children who did not learn the exercises. Although these results were not evident immediately following training, a trend toward this expectation did appear at follow-up. These findings implied that although the cognitive self-control strategy was not effective in reducing children's fear immediately, it did tend to provide for greater maintenance of behavior change over time. The present study has implications for continued investigation in the areas of childhood fear reduction and the maintenance of behavior over time. / M.S.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of cry pitch and attributions that crying infants had or had not been abused on the perceptual ratings of maltreating and comparison parents. Twenty maltreating parents and 20 comparison parents rated 12 cries which varied in the pattern of their fundamental frequency on (a) the cry's similarity to their own child's cry, (b) the likelihood that the crying infant would be abused in the future, (c) 5 perceptual items and (d) 7 caregiving response items. Attributions of whether the crying infant was "abused" or "not abused" were varied before each cry sound during the ratings of the perceptual and caregiving response items. Results showed that as the pitch of the cries increased, all parents rated the cries' as less similar to their own infant's cries and the crying infants as more likely to be abused. Maltreating parents, however, rated mixed- and high-pitched cries as more similar to their own child's cries than comparison parents did. Generally, more sympathetic perceptions and responses were given to "abused" infants. However, perceptions of how "arousing" and "distressing" cries sounded were equally high for high-pitched "abused" and "not abused" infants' cries. Maltreating parents were more likely to "ignore" cries, and their ratings of urgency for mixed- and high-pitched cries were lower than comparison parents' ratings. The results are discussed within the framework of how children may contribute to the development of their own abuse or neglect. / M.S.