The purpose of this study was to determine if nursing students could be differentiated along a patient-technique nursing orientation continuum, and whether there would be a shift in the orientation of student nurses subsequent to participating in a training program for nurses. This study attempted to determine if personality traits could be used as predictors of the patient-technique orientation of the student nurses and if the personality of the student nurses remained stable over one year. Thirty-four student nurses in the two-year associate degree nursing program in a southern regional university were administered the nursing Pictures Interest Test (NPIT), the Personality Research Form (PRF), and a brief biographical questionnaire. The student nurses were assessed at the beginning of the second semester and at the end of the third semester of the four-semester training program. The results of this study indicated that these nursing students could be differentiated into role orientations along the patient-technique continuum, but that there were no consistent changes in orientation from the pre- to post-testing periods. The results also indicated that the group means for the personality traits were generally stable over time, but that the Aggression and Infrequency scores declined significantly. An increase in Order resulted in a decrease in Impulsivity, and an increase in Autonomy resulted in a decrease in Succorance. The personality variables appeared to predict orientation, but the usefulness of that apparent predictive power was minimal, due to the small sample size in relation to the number of predictor variables. The results of this study indicate that nursing students can be classified along a continuum of patient-technique orientations and that predictions of orientation type can be made from personality variables. Additional data on the reliability and validity is needed to ascertain the credibility of this instrument in measuring nursing orientation.

Recent studies have shown that different free will beliefs affect moral behavior. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether different free will beliefs also influence moral judgment. College students (N = 56) were randomly assigned to one of three framing manipulations: free will, determinism, or neutral. They then read three morally questionable scenarios that differed by situational context. Following each scenario, participants completed a moral judgment questionnaire that measured four moral constructs: moral evaluation, moral responsibility, justification, and punishment. Finally, participants completed a Free Will & Determinism Questionnaire (FWD-Q) that measured their lay beliefs in free will and determinism. For analysis, we grouped participants according to their reported FWD-Q scores into one of three groups: free will, determinism, or compatibilism. We found that different free will beliefs influenced moral judgment to a small degree, but not in the ways that we predicted. Our results show that situational context affects moral judgment much more than lay philosophical beliefs regarding free will. Future studies should examine whether this still holds true for older adults with more developed worldviews.

Functional analysis techniques traditionally used in the assessment of problem behaviors in humans were used to identify the reinforcing consequences for undesirable, human-directed behaviors such as feces throwing and spitting in two captive adult chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). The first subject's problem behaviors were maintained by both positive and negative reinforcement contingencies, with rates being highest when the display of inappropriate behaviors resulted in access to social attention and juice. The implementation of a function-based treatment plan combining functional communication training with extinction resulted in a 90% reduction in the chimpanzee's inappropriate behaviors. No function was identified for the second subject's inappropriate behaviors. This project represents one of the first attempts to apply these function-based behavioral techniques to a non-human subject.

The first part of this literature review goes over the biological and psychological aspects of stress. The cause of stress can be linked back to a primitive instinct known as “fight or flight.” The “fight or flight” instinct is triggered by several chemical reactions in the body starting from a signal from the amygdala to the sympathetic nervous system. Stress can also be categorized into internal and external stress. Further research links stress to sports. Many studies show that stress coping techniques such as meditation, self-talk, rituals, etc. are beneficial to athletes during competition. Suggested avenues of further research are to develop a standardized way to incorporate practicing stress coping techniques into a younger athlete’s routine, discover whether the same stress coping techniques can be used throughout all sports, and whether certain stress coping techniques will benefit people of different personality types equally. Keywords: Stress, Coping, Sports, Psychology, Athlete

The present studies evaluated the effect of training structures on the development of equivalence classes in college students and individuals with intellectual disabilities. Experiment 1 evaluated the effects of two types of training structures, One-To-Many (OTM) (AB, AC, AD), and Many-To-One (MTO) (BA, CA, DA), on the establishment of equivalence classes in college students. A between group comparison was used in Experiment 1. Forty-two participants were randomly assigned to two different groups. Twenty-one were assigned to the OTM group and twenty-one to the MTO group. Participants in both groups were taught 3 four-member stimulus classes. Participants in both groups were exposed to conditional discrimination training, mixed training, symmetry and equivalence test. Response accuracy and response latency were measured in both groups. The results showed that the MTO training structure was slightly more effective in establishing equivalence classes in college students. In the Experiment 2, six young adults with intellectual disabilities were taught mathematical relations using the MTO training structure which was the most effective training structure in Experiment 1. All participants were taught three 3-member stimulus equivalence classes using the MTO training structure. The experimental sequence consisted of a generalization probe and pretest followed by conditional discrimination training, symmetry test, equivalence test, and posttest. Upon the completion of the training and testing phases a generalization probe was evaluated. Five participants demonstrated equivalence relations. The results show that the MTO training was superior to the OTM in the Experiment 1. Response latencies were faster in the MTO group during the training phases and slower in the testing conditions. Experiment 2 showed that only five participants demonstrated equivalence relations and transferred untaught relations to new setting. Results and implications are discussed in light of the research on equivalence and training structures in both adults and individual with intellectual disabilities.

Orientador: Jair Lopes Júnior / Banca: Maria Eliza Mazzilli Pereira / Banca: Maria Regina Cavalcante / Resumo: Orientações para o ensino nas séries iniciais advogam propostas centradas no desenvolvimento de capacidades pelo aluno comprometidas com a construção de aprendizagens significativas, a partir de uma expansão na acepção do conceito de conteúdo curricular. Admite-se que a concretização dessas orientações exige o desenvolvimento de habilidades específicas. O grupo de pesquisa ao qual o presente trabalho de pesquisa está vinculado tem obtido os seguintes resultados em estudos sobre inciências dessas orientações nas práticas educativas nas séries iniciais: a) restrições de repertórios dos docentes que descrevem as habilidades exigidas por determinadas práticas de ensino; b) dificuldades na interpretação de medidas comportamentais que se mostrariam compatíveis com as capacidades mencionadas pelos objetivos de ensino; c) ao vincular práticas de ensino e de avaliação com determinados objetivos de ensino, predominam propostas nas quais uma dada atividade didática mostrar-se-ia consistente com a tentativa de obtenção de um conjunto de objetivos distintos. Em consideração a esses resultados e à importância inconteste da área de Língua Portuguesa nas séries iniciais, a presente pesquisa objetiva: 1) identificar, descrever e analisar repertórios operantes das professoras no ensino de conteúdos curriculares de Língua Portuguesa; 2) avaliar e caracterizar possíveis contribuições do planejamento conjunto entre pesquisadora e professora de unidades didáticas de conteúdos curriculares de língua portuguesa. A ênfase recaiu em investigar se este... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Educational reforms for initial series from public elementary level put distinct requirements in terms of didactic strategies and practices for children's academic performance. This research explored whether behavior analytic resources, derived from principles and research in behavior analysis, could make relevant improvements in the acquisition and development of teaching strategies about Portuguese language to students on the 4º grade of elementary public school. The aims of this research were: a) identify, describe, and analyze teacher's operant behavior during Portuguese language's classes; b) evaluate and characterize possible and effective supports of the interaction between teachers and researcher in the planning didactic units. This planned activities were based in concepts and principles from Behavior Analysis. Three techers participated. In Phase 1 were carried out observations (video recorded) of Portuguese language's classes and an interview about teaching strategies, teaching aims, and behavioral measures of learning curricular contents. In Phase 2 were followed interviews about teaching objectives from National Curriculum Framawork and about teaching practices and strategies to be taken on the didactic unit 2 during the next phase. The procedure of... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Orientador: Jair Lopes Júnior / Banca: Tereza Maria de Azevedo Pires Serio / Banca: Maria Regina Cavalcante / Resumo: No âmbito da Análise do Comportamento, instruções são definidas como estímulos verbais que descrevem, de modo completo ou fragmentado, relações de contingência em contextos específicos, sendo que as consequencias explicitadas ou implicadas poderiam ter modelado os mesmos repertórios descritos na ausência da instrução. A identificação de relações funcionais entre instruções e desempenhos operantes constitui-se em relevante objeto de investigação para a Análise do Comportamento. Este estudo procurou ampliar o alcance de tal objeto concentrando ênfase em caracterizar o comportamento do treinador de fornecer instruções de três jogos consecutivos da fase classificatória de um torneio de futebol júnior. Participaram a comissão técnica e 25 atletas. As verbalizações foram gravadas em vídeo na sala de preleções do hotel na qual a delegação esteve hospedada, bem como no campo de treinamento. O procedimento consistiu em duas etapas. Na Etapa 1 ocorreu um período de ambientação da pesquisadora com a equipe durante as atividades de preparação para a competição. Inicialmente sem a filmadora e posteriormente com a mesma, a pesquisadora observou e gravou preleções ministradas em situações de treinamentos de campo. A Etapa 2 consistiu na gravação em vídeo de três ocorrências consecutivas de três fases: Fase 1) preleção efetuada antes do último treino de campo que precedeu o jogo; Fase 2) preleção realizada antes do jogo no dia em que este foi realizado; Fase 3) preleção efetuada no primeiro treino após o jogo. Todos os registros em vídeo foram transcritos. Foram adotados três critérios para a classificação das instruções emitidas pelo treinador: audiência, topografia e características relacionais, definidas pelos elementos de contingências presentes no enunciado da instrução. A caracterização dos relatos foi efetuada simultaneamente... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: In Behavior Analysis, instructions are verbal stimuli that make entire or breaking up description about contingencies relations in situational constraints. The explicit or implied consequences in contingencies could shaped the same repertoires described in the instruction fault. The identification of functional relations among instructions and operant behaviors corresponds to relevant object of investigation to the Behavior Analysis. This study aimed to broaden the extent of such object by emphasizing the sporting coach's behavior when giving instructions in the routine of three consecutive games in the classificatory phase of a junior soccer tourney. The technical committee and twenty five athletes have participated on this project. The verbalizations were recorded on video on the conference room of the hotel, where the delegation had been accommodated, as well as in the training field. The procedure consisted of two stages. In the first stage, an involvement period was carried out among the researcher and the team during the preparation for the compettion. Initially, without the camera and after that with it, the researcher observed and recorded previous instructions ministered in training situations in the field. The second stage consisted in the video recording of the three consecutive events of three phases: Phase 1) previous instructions which happened before the last training field that preceded the game; Phase 2) previous instructions that happened before the game, on the day it was accomplished; Phase 3) previous instructions that happened on the first training after the game. All the video records were transcribed. Three criteria were adopted to classify the instructions that were given by the coach: audience, topography and relational characteristics, defining as contingencies elements related by instructions. The characterizations of the instructions were simultaneously... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

This study used a multiple baseline across behaviors design to evaluate the use of video self-evaluation on the performance of dance movements. The self-evaluation condition included training participants how to view a video of them performing the dance movement and evaluate their own performance from video using a task analysis of the movement. Each participant applied the self-evaluation procedure to three separate dance moves. Target behaviors were scored using an individualized task analysis for each dance move. Self-evaluation improved all three dance moves for each participant. Self-evaluation produced an increase in all target behaviors from baseline to intervention for each participant. Social validity was also assessed, which yielded high likability of the procedure from the participants as well as social significant increases in target behavior performance as assessed by proficient dance instructors. Though some increases in performance were gradual, self-evaluation is proposed to be an effective, efficient, and accessible procedure to increase performance of competitive dance movements.

Group contingencies are efficient and effective behavioral interventions that allow teachers to apply a reinforcement criterion to a large group of students. However, most research on group contingencies has not examined the impact of types of teacher feedback and student choice of teacher feedback incorporated into the use of group contingencies. The current study used a multiple baseline across participants design with an embedded alternating treatments design to explore the use of an interdependent group contingency that compared the effectiveness of incorporating auditory or visual feedback to improve student on-task behavior of three students in public elementary school classrooms. The study also explored whether incorporating student choice into the feedback would enhance the outcomes for student behavior. The results indicated that the interdependent group contingency intervention was successful in increasing the on-task behavior of all three participants. The results also indicated that while both auditory and visual feedback were effective in increasing on-task behavior of all three students, two of the students engaged in slightly higher levels of on-task behavior when auditory feedback was used. When students were given the option to choose which type of feedback would be used, two of the three students favored auditory feedback over visual feedback, and on-task behaviors maintained for all three participants. These results have implications for the use of auditory feedback and choice in the classroom setting as part of a group contingency.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the procedures described in the PEAK-E curriculum in generating derived intraverbal categorization responses in both a vocal categorization context and written problem-solving context, replicated across three children with disabilities. Six four-member equivalence classes were taught, including three class member stimuli (A, B, and C) as well as one function class name (D), using a match-to-sample arrangement. These classes were divided into two stimulus sets (i.e., classes 1-3 and classes 4-6) and trained using pre-class (D-C training followed by mixed A-B/B-C training) and post-class formations (Mixed A-B/B-C training followed by D-C training). The procedures were efficacious in generating derived intraverbal categorization responses for one participant in a vocal context, and additional exemplar training was required for the emergence of vocal categorization responses in the other two participants. None of the participants were able to solve the written problem-solving tasks following training and testing of all target relations.