No description available.

This study is part of a program of research on the nature of "stage fright". The analysis to date has suggested that stage fright is an instance of a more general phenomenon of "social influence" where people in interaction are conceptualized as "actors" presenting themselves before "audiences". [...]

This thesis includes several studies on the use of fear appeals in social marketing advertising. The first study uses a content analysis to examine the use of fear appeals in a sample of 589 social marketing television ads. The social marketing ads represented five health-related behaviors (smoking, drinking, driving while impaired, drug abuse, unsafe sex) in five countries (Canada, United States, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand), covering the period from 1980 through to 1994. The sample was content analyzed to examine the incidence of fear appeals, the adherence to the prescriptions of the Ordered Protection Motivation (OPM) model (Tanner, Hunt, and Eppright 1991), and whether fear appeals vary by country-of-origin, the types of behavior being targeted by social marketing advertising (smoking, drinking, driving while impaired, drug abuse, unsafe sex), and the choice of an intended target group (by age and/or sex). Findings suggest that ads generally adhere to the major tenets of the OPM model. In terms of incidence, the use of fear appeals is less common when the sponsor is a for-profit corporation, when the ads are targeted at a youthful target group, and when the behaviors being targeted are perceived to be less serious. Fear appeals appear to be more common in ads from Australia, as compared to the United States or Canada. To examine the idea that different target groups may respond differently to fear appeal ads, two experiments and a focus group were conducted. First, an exploratory experiment used drinking and driving (DUI) ads as a stimulus to examine the differential effectiveness of two different types of ads against different behavioral risk groups. This study compared an "OPM" social marketing print ad (i.e., one using fear appeals of the format prescribed by the OPM model), to a "MALADAPT" social marketing print ad (i.e., one which simply presents counter-arguments against maladaptive responses, beliefs, and behaviors). Individuals who differed in the extent to which they engaged in the targeted risky behavior (i.e., those who do engage in DUI versus those who do not engage in DUI) were exposed to either the "OPM" or "MALADAPT" social marketing ads, or to a control condition. It was expected that the non-DUI group would experience the greatest change in attitudes and behavioral intentions when exposed to the traditional "OPM" social marketing ad, while the DUI group would experience the greatest attitudinal/behavioral change when exposed to the "MALADAPT" social marketing ad. However, the results of the initial exploratory experiment were inconclusive, and further study of the DUI target group was warranted. Therefore, a focus group was conducted which examined the attitudes and beliefs of the DUI group. A key finding from this qualitative research was that DUI individuals are unconcerned about getting into an accident, but are instead primarily concerned with getting caught by the police. This suggests that some of the traditional high-fear appeals which feature bloody accidents may not be effective with this high-risk target group, and reinforces the idea that the MALADAPT ad which tries to attack maladaptive beliefs may be the most effective means of influencing this DUI target group. Insights from the focus group provided the means for improving the ad stimuli and questionnaire for a replication of the experiment. Pretests for the ad stimuli helped in developing ads which were compelling and interesting for all experimental conditions. Based on these inputs, the experiment was refined and replicated. Findings indicated that the "MALADAPT" ad (which attacked maladaptive coping responses) was actually more effective with the high risk DUI group than the traditional OPM fear-appeal type of ad.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of bibliotherapy in reducing the fears of kindergarten children.The experimental design of the study compared three groups using pretest/posttest measures: 1) The Experimental group was an intact class of kindergarten students. The treatment for the group involved reading books on fear related subjects to the students and then having follow-up discussions concerning the book and the children's feelings. The treatment was conducted on a biweekly basis for eight weeks. 2) Control group I was an intact class of kindergarten students. The treatment for the group involved reading books of non-fear related subjects to the students and then having follow-up discussions concerning the book and the children's feelings. The treatment was conducted on a biweekly basis for eight weeks. 3) Control group II represented students from two intact classes of kindergarten students who had the same teacher and had received parental permission to participate in the study. There was no treatment for Control group II. The Experimental group and Control group I were randomly assigned treatment.The Link Children's Fear Scale was administered as a pretest and posttest. The instrument was developed from fifty items which purport to measure children's fears. Factor analysis was employed utilizing principal axes components to estimate the number of factors needed to best explain the total variation in the items. Using squared multiple correlations as initial communality estimates, the principal axes. analysis suggested a two factor solution. An Oblimin rotation was used. Those items which loaded above .30 were selected and retained in the revised instrument. The instrument in its final form consisted of twenty-four items. An example of an item: "Do you like to sleep with a light on?" The response mode was the child's indication yes or no.The factor analysis described above attests to the construct validity of the instrument. Face validity and sampling validity had previously been determined. The test-retest reliability of the instrument was calculated from kindergarten students who did not receive treatment. A reliability coefficient of .70 was obtained.The design for the study attempted to control for all variables other than treatment received. The Experimental group and Control group I were supervised by the same kindergarten teacher. A Reader/Discussion Leader, certificated as an elementary teacher, read the selected books and led the follow-up discussions for the Experimental group and Control group I. The Experimental group and Control group I followed the same procedure of hearing a book read by the Reader/Discussion Leader and then participated in a follow-up discussion of the book, as a part of each treatment session.The hypothesis was stated in the study as follows: There is no difference between the mean adjusted posttest scores of kindergarten students who received bibliotherapy to reduce childhood fears and the mean adjusted posttest scores of kindergarten students who did not receive bibliotherapy, where the means have been adjusted on the basis of the pretest scores.To test the hypothesis an analysis of covariance was used. The pretest served as the covariate and the posttest was the criterion.The analysis showed that the pretests for all groups differed significantly (.001) from the posttests. However, the group effects were not significant at the .05 level, thus indicating no difference between the experimental and control groups. The hypothesis was not rejected.

This thesis examined the effects of temporary inactivation of the dorsal or ventral hippocampus on unconditioned and conditioned fear, using the shock-probe test. Rats received either dorsal or ventral hippocampal infusions of Lidocaine, muscimol or saline, before or after exposure to an electrified shock-probe. A retention test in the same apparatus was given 24 hr later, at which time the hippocampus was no longer inactivated, and the probe was disconnected from the shock-source. We found that ventral hippocampal inactivation impaired fear behaviour during acquisition, and dorsal hippocampal inactivation impaired fear behaviour during retention. We conclude that the: 1) ventral hippocampus mediates unconditioned fear behaviour, 2) the dorsal hippocampus mediates fear memory and 3) afferent input from brain structures located outside of the hippocampus are not responsible for the differential effects of dorsal and ventral hippocampal inactivation on fear and memory. / Behaviour, Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience

Thesis (M.A.)--Columbia Biblical Seminary and Graduate School of Missions, Columbia, S.C., 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-87).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Decker School of Nursing, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007. / Title from title screen (site viewed Oct. 10, 2007). PDF text: x, 223 p. : ill. ; 10 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3262188. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.