Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1984. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-82).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1983. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-72).

M.A. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / This research originated from a focus group which the student was part of as a research assistant. The focus group concentrated on LGBT aging and care where participants who are HIV positive spoke about their concerns. The Anti Oppressive practice was deemed suitable for this study as it gives charity on social justice movements as the major roots necessitating the emergence of anti-oppressive practice in social work (Wilson & Beresford, 2000; Thompson, 2002, 2003). Social work, in being a unique profession, contains several distinct approaches and philosophies regarding care, what it constitutes and how to stop or slow social problems that generate the need for care. The project was funded by the National Research Fund.

This study investigated the relationship between global/specific and stable/unstable dimensions of attributions and the generalization of helplessness across tasks and situations. Four groups of subjects were given instructions suggesting that their performance on a Venn diagram task could be attributed to (a) global or specific and (b) staple or unstable factors. Then, during performance of this task, these subjects were given noncontingent correctness feedback on their responses. A control group given the same task received no attribution instructions or feedback on their performance. Generalization of helplessness was assessed by examining the magnitude of performance deficits displayed on an anagram task presented as a separate experiment. Contrary to expectations, no reliable differences in performance were found between any of the five groups. Factors which may have interfered with the manipulations are discussed. Suggestions for future research are provided.

The present study tested Abramson, Seligman, and Teasdale's (1978) reformulation of the learned helplessness hypothesis. Specifically, the study employed a laboratory paradigm to investigate: (a) whether attributions about uncontrollable events mediate subsequent deficits, particularly self-esteem loss; and (b) if lower socio-economic class individuals are more susceptible to helplessness following uncontrollability than are middle class individuals, All subjects were Black female college students, 25 from the lower class and 25 from the middle class. These subjects were randomly assigned to one of five experimental conditions: internal attribution provided for failure to a concept-identification task, external attribution provided for failure, no attribution provided for failure, no attribution provided for success, and no pretreatment task. All subjects were then tested for performance deficits on an anagram-solving task. Additional dependent variables included mood change, self-esteem change, and persistence at Rubick's Cube. A two-way analysis of variance using the factors social class and experimental condition revealed few differences across groups on any of the measures. Possible reasons for the failure to obtain differences were discussed. / Master of Science

The efficacy of two cognitive self~management training programs in preventing the deficits associated with exposure to noncontingent reinforcement was examined. Subjects in the inoculation condition received four hours training in a variety of cognitive coping strategies while participants in the brief treatment condition received only a few minutes of training in cognitive relaxation. Subjects participating in four hours of recreational activity served as attention placebo controls. Subjects in the above three experimental conditions then participated in a discrimination task in which they received noncontingent feedback on a 50% reinforcement schedule. Subjects in a fourth experimental condition receiving no pretreatment intervention and response-contingent reinforcement served as helplessness induction controls. All subjects were then tested on an anagram task. Performance, affective and attributional data were collected. Subjects receiving inoculation pretreatment performed similarly to helplessness induction controls on anagram performance and mood measures. Subjects in the attention placebo control condition demonstrated helplessness deficits while brief treatment subjects exhibited motivational and mood disturbances. Attributional data was not consistent with the above behavioral differences. Supportive evidence that the content of the inoculation pretreatment program may have accounted for the demonstrated immunization effect was found in self-reported improvement in implementation of cognitive coping strategies and ratings of treatment credibility and expectancies of behavior change. The effect of individual differences in the tendency to utilize self-controlling strategies to cope with problems remained unresolved. / Ph. D.

A specifically oriented instrument was used to partially replicate a study by Dietz (1988) in an effort to compare the utility of the phi coefficient and Rescorla index measures of perceived contingency of reinforcement in children and examine the relationship of these measures to locus of control, teacher ratings of helplessness and academic performance.

The problem of assessment and diagnosis of depression in the elderly begins with the definition of depression being indefinite. In this study, the theory of learned helplessness was chosen because of its value in organizing research within a learning theory framework. The Beck Depression Inventory, measures of fluid and crystallized intellectual ability, locus of control, and attribution of success and failure were chosen as variables for an exploratory factor analysis. The purpose of selecting these variables was to assess the cognitive, motivational, and affective components of learned helplessness as they affected the responses of elderly subjects to depression items. Self report measures of income, education, and health, were included to assess the relationship of these variables to depression. A somatic factor was predicted to correlate with an affective factor of depression.

To test predictions of learned helplessness theory and attribution theory, depressed and nondepressed subjects were exposed to a word-association task in a skill, chance, or no-instructional-set condition. Subjects were asked to make attributions of success and failure to four factors--ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck--and rate expectancy of success. The predictions of both theories were only partially confirmed. Difficulties relating to the experimental design may account for the failure of nondepressed/skill subjects to show greater expectancy change. As predicted, all subjects in the chance condition displayed similar expectancy changes. Also as predicted, nondepressed subjects did not rate effort as being the least influential factor. Depressed subjects, however, rated all factors equivalently, instead of rating effort least influential.