Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Jon Bailey, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 13, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 104 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, March, 2005. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 196-207)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-99).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Texas, May, 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

In the present study, three self-managed treatment programs were compared with respect to their ability to effect and maintain change in the cigarette smoking behavior of 27 subject volunteers from the population of employees of a Veterans Administration hospital. Subjects were randomly assigned to a self—imposed delay group, a self-directed relaxation group, and a self-monitoring group. The experimental program lasted 6 weeks with a 20-minute individual meeting each week. Three months following treatment, subjects were contacted by mail and were asked to monitor their smoking behavior for one week, and to return their average daily smoking rate by mail. The results provide support for the effectiveness of the self-management technique of self-imposed delay as a durability—enhancing treatment procedure. The effectiveness of self-management techniques as a general class of treatment strategies was not supported. A task for future research would be to establish the effectiveness of the delay technique implemented earlier in the cigarette smoking chain, as well as to determine whether effectiveness is increased or decreased by a specification of the content of a delay interval.

M.Ed. (Education Management) / A notable feature of the school principal as managerial leader's task is its comprehensive and complex nature. Behavior modification is a managerial skill, that should make the principal more effective in interpersonal relations and communication in the school as organisation. In this short dissertation the focus is on behavior modification as managerial task of the principal. Behavior modification has as its goals the explanation, prediction and control of. behavior. Behavior modification as described in this short dissertation relies extensively on the psychology of learning, including classical conditioning, operant conditioning and modelling. On managerial level classical conditioning has little or no application, consequently it will not receive much attention in this study. The use of operant conditioning is, however, discussed in detail emphasising the use of the positive aspects of operant conditioning. The principles of operant conditioning describe the relationship between behavior, and various environmental events (antecedents and consequences) that influence behavior. Although both antecedents and consequences can alter behavior, most applications of operant conditioning principles emphasize the consequences that follow behavior. In this short dissertation operant conditioning is divided into two sets of techniques to be used on managerial level: Techniques to alter unacceptable behavior and techniques or procedures for teaching acceptable behavior. Techniques to alter unacceptable behavior - punishment, extinction, saturation and counter conditioning - can all be used by the principal as managerial leader.

Learner discipline has become a major concern in South African schools. A society of entitlement has been bred over the past 20 years. The school is an open system that influences its environment and is being influenced by it too. The most challenging concern, at least for teachers, is to create and to maintain a form of order and structure at schools. The troublesome situation has an impact on teachers as they have to spend more time addressing challenging behaviour instead of spending that time on teaching a set curriculum and syllabus. Unfortunately, teachers report feelings of being ill-prepared to deal effectively with the challenging behaviour of learners in schools. Hence it is imperative to consider strategies to foster school discipline to manage and modify challenging behaviour in schools. To date, most researches have shown a major paradigm shift from the punitive disciplinary measures of the past towards a rather preventive and more positive approach. It became inevitable that learner discipline should be correctional and educational – especially after the abolishment of corporal punishment in South African schools. An increase attention has started to concentrate on early identification and prevention of challenging behaviour and on strategies to resolve such behaviour at its earliest appearance. Some of the guiding determinants for this positive approach are vested in maintaining a safe, harmonious and orderly environment that is conducive to teaching and learning. The outcry is to promote and encourage discipline amongst learners. An approach that has been termed school-wide positive behaviour intervention and support seems to address most of the challenging behaviours. Through the use of document analysis, observation and group interviews school-wide positive behaviour intervention and support was embraced. The findings further revealed that through proper planning, implementation strategies, and in-service training positive behaviour approach can be implemented in schools as framework for school discipline in primary schools. School-wide positive behaviour intervention and support will contribute successfully in managing and modifying challenging behaviour, fostering discipline in schools, and to educate learners in the habit of accountability and responsibility for their actions without using punishment following specified rules. Doing so some of the critical and developmental outcomes of education in South Africa will be realized. Although research in this area is limited, there are encouraging signs that a coordinated adoption of validated practice could substantially reduce challenging behaviours and thereby enhance the social and emotional well-being of learners in today’s society.

The present study evaluates attentional training and behaviour rehearsal in treating musical performance anxiety and in modifying self-talk and perceptions of self-efficacy. Pianists who experienced extreme anxiety in. performing situations were randomly assigned to the following conditions: (l) attentional training (n = 19), (2) behaviour rehearsal (n = 16), (3) waiting list control (n = 18). Three therapy sessions were conducted over a three-week period with subjects in the first two conditions meeting in small groups for one and one-half to two hours. Subjects in the attentional training program were taught to become aware of their negative thoughts before, during, and after their performances and to substitute these negative thoughts with positive task-relevant self-statements. Cognitive recall from videotaped performances and cognitive-modeling slide-tape sequences facilitated this process. Subjects in the behaviour rehearsal program were given a rationale for the effectiveness of repeated performance before a small supportive audience in reducing performance anxiety. Both treatments required performances during therapy sessions and in home assignments. A multivariate analysis of covariance revealed no difference among the three groups at post-treatment on self-report, behavioural, or physiological measures. At a five-week follow-up, however, attentional training and behaviour rehearsal were more effective than the waiting list control condition in reducing visual signs of anxiety and improving the quality of playing. Attentional training was superior to behaviour rehearsal in reducing visual signs of anxiety. Two scales were developed to measure the cognitive mediational variables of self-talk and self-efficacy. At follow-up, both treatments were superior to no treatment in increasing positive and decreasing negative thinking surrounding performances. Attentional training was superior to the other two conditions in enhancing expectations of personal efficacy. Behaviour rehearsal did not surpass the attentional training treatment on any of the six dependent measures, at follow-up. These findings were discussed in relation to previous research on attentional training and behaviour rehearsal, and to the cognitive mediational processes common to both therapies. Issues such as modeling effects, expectancy effects, follow-up, home assignments, subject attrition, and implications for the musical community were also discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

M.A. (Psychology) / The~present study is an exploratory investigation into the deliberate self-harm syndrome. Throughout the text, a distinction is made between other types of self-harm (for example, indirect self-harm such as alcohol abuse; "direct self-harm performed by a psychotic individual) and the self-harm performed within the deliberate self-harm syndrome (that is, direct, voluntary, non-lethal self-harm, performed by a non-psychiatric individual). The aim of this study is to foster an understanding of this syndrome and, accordingly, to facilitate acceptance of the individuals who suffer from this syndrome, without displaying the need to classify these individuals into any one particular psychiatric category. It is hoped that this aim is realised through a discussion of associated features and related.patterns of the syndrome. This research conducted an investigation of 21 individuals who appeared to fit into the syndrome. Three of the subjects were excluded from the study because their type of self-harm and/or their motivation for self-harming differed from those individuals who suffer from the deliberate self harm syndrome. Although some queries were made about the suitability of eight of the subjects, enough evidence has been put forward by the study to assume the possible existence of such a syndrome, and for the syndrome to be taken seriously. Many grey areas were discussed with regards to the criteria that should be considered when determining whether an individual fits into the syndrome or not. This merely serves to both highlight and confirm the point that it is not a rigid psychiatric category that is being proposed, but that there are, nevertheless, certain criteria that need to be considered when whether an individual deliberately self-harms, discussed in this study) determining or not (as even though there were certain limitations in the study (most of them being related to the study's exploratory point of departure) the researcher is of the opinion that the information provided in this study, should be treated with the respect that it deserves.