The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of listening to mastery rehearsal audio tapes and mental readiness prior to practice and meets. Eleven members of the Modesto Junior College Swim Team were given instructions to create individual mastery tapes. The swimmers were to use the tapes before every practice and meet for six weeks, at which time the subjects were interviewed. A combination of an interview guide and standardized open-ended interview was used to examine the experiences of the swimmers using the tapes. Qualitative methodology was used to inductively analyze the interview transcripts. From the raw data collected, eight high order themes were categorized into three general dimensions that were experienced by swimmers both before practice and meets. The three general dimensions include: positive mental attitude; maintaining appropriate focus; and heightened arousal. Maintaining appropriate focus and heightened arousal before meets were the highest shared dimensions experienced by ninety-one percent of the swimmers. The second highest shared dimension was that of maintaining mental attitude before practice, expressed by eighty-two percent of the swimmers. Mastery tapes appear very powerful in the development of imagery. One hundred percent of the swimmers expressed the tape helped enhance their imagery. Negative factors including frustrations and improvement suggestions were also discussed to provide the reader with important information for future use of mastery tapes. The strength of this study was the rich description of experience discussed by the subject. From this description the study emphasized the importance of developing preperformance routines structured for each individual athlete.

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Throughout history men have been divided into groups, and attitudes have often been formed according to these groups. This study examined the attitudes of faculty members, as a group, toward intercollegiate athletics and student athletes. Three concepts were used to analyze the data. First, Rokeach's idea of attitudes-toward-an-object verses attitudes-toward-a-situation was utilized. Second, Allport's Contact Hypothesis was tested. Third, Sumner's notion of the in-group was incorporated. Types of analysis used were Chi square, regression, and Pearson r correlation. The analysis revealed several interesting things. The initial finding was that faculty members were unable to distinguish between the object (student athletes) and the situation (intercollegiate athletics) in terms of their attitudes. Other results indicated that the experience of attending athletic events was the best predictor of attitudes. Those subjects who attended games frequently had less negative, or slightly more positive, attitudes than other subjects. It was also found that subjects, other than the avid spectators, had very little variance in their attitudes. The results of this study have important implications for defining the role of intercollegiate athletics in the university setting. / Master of Science

Abstract: p. 266-268. Autobiography: p. 269-270. Bibliography: p. 257-260. Thesis (Ph.D.)—Boston University N.B.: Pages 197, 222, and 261 appear to be missing in all copies. We believe that these were all misnumbered by the author, and that no actual information is missing. / This is a psychological study of Protestant ministers' attitudes toward juvenile delinquency, and of their theological beliefs. The study has been guided by two hypotheses. The first hypothesis proposed that an interrelationship existed between a minister's attitudes regarding the causes and treatment of the different delinquencies and the degree of authoritarian or supportive tendencies in his personality. The second hypothesis assumed that an interrelationship existed between what a minister did in regard to juvenile offenders and his underlying attitudes toward causation and treatment. The survey of the ministers' theological beliefs focused on the possibility of an interrelationship between their beliefs and their attitudes toward delinquent behavior. Two methods were employed to collect data and test the hypotheses: a Juvenile Delinquency Attitude (JDA) scale was constructed and administered to ninety-two ministers; then forty of the seventy-four respondents completing the scale were interviewed. The questionnaire also contained the Fascism (F) scale, which measures implicit antidemocratic tendencies in the personality, and the Traditional Family Ideology (TFI) scale, which measures attitudes toward family structure and functioning on a democratic-autocratic continuum. Following are the findings. (1) The contrasting responses of the high (authoritarian) and low (supportive) scorers to the items of the JDA scale demonstrated the discriminatory power of the items and the interrelatedness of the authoritarian variables of the scale. (2) The test of reliability indicated a correlation of .95 of the JDA scale test-retest and of .92 from the test score correlations. These correlations show a high degree of consistency between the ministers' responses in the first and second administrations of the scale. (3) The correlation between the JDA and F scales was .831, between the JDA and TFI scales .817, and the correlation between the F and TFI scales was .774. These high correlations supported the hypothesis that a minister's internal frame of reference, i.e., his deep-rooted emotional dispositions, determined to a great extent, the nature of his attitudes toward the causes and treatment of juvenile delinquency. (4) The data obtained in the interviews with the high and low scorers supplemented their respective scores on the JDA scale. High scorers viewed causation on a symptomatic level, communicated an authoritarian philospphy of treatment, expressed messianic concepts regarding the role of the church in treatment, and indicated limited awareness and utilization of community resources. Conversely, low scorers revealed a comprehensive understanding of delinquent motivation, a supportive philosophy of treatment, an interpersonal view of the church as a rehabilitative resource, and a high awareness and utilization of community resources. In addition the high scorers tended to be authoritarian and low scorers supportive in their handling of youth offenders. This finding substantiated the hypothesis that a minister's treatment of youth offenders was related to his attitudes toward juvenile delinquency. (5) The measurement of the respondents' theological beliefs showed no significant correlation between their beliefs and their attitudes toward juvenile delinquency. The data revealed that both high and low scorers identified with similar theological positions. This finding indicated that religious beliefs can be reinterpreted to accommodate authoritarian ar supportive tendencies. The finding was supported by the significant scores of the high scorers on the messianic sentimentality variable of the JDA scale. While they agreed with the apparently supportive items of the scale, their agreement with a large majority of contradictory authoritarian items suggested that they may have intellectually accepted the conventional view of supportive pastoral care and still rationalized conflicting attitudes and dispositions toward juvenile offenders and offenses. On the basis of these data, therefore, it was concluded that a minister's deep-lying emotional dispositions, more than his abstract theological beliefs, generally determine the nature, extent, and effectiveness of his approach to juvenile delinquency. [TRUNCATED]

The present field study investigated the interaction between dispositions and task characteristics in determining general job satisfaction, satisfaction with specific facets of the job, and three forms of job performance. Dispositions accounted for total and unique variance in work outcomes. The proposed moderating effects of task characteristics on disposition-work outcome relationships were not supported. Results are discussed with respect to Staw et al.'s dispositional approach to work attitudes and implications for organizational settings. Suggestions are made regarding directions for future research. / Ph. D.