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The investigation of a person's degree of forward planning as a strategy for coping with the unknown future, has not been widely explored in the psychology literature. Two groups of students classified as planners and non-planners on the basis of their responses to an open-ended questionnaire were compared in terms of the following: 1. Number and type of hopes and fears about the future. 2. The relative importance of the time zones of past, present and future. 3. Optimism/pessimism .about the future at a personal as well as societal level. 4. Perception of people who plan their lives and work to attain specific goals. 5. Beliefs regarding the extent to which people can exercise control over the occurrence of various events in their lives as opposed to external forces such as luck, fate or powerful others (Internal versus External locus of control). 6. Values as measured by Rokeach's 18 instrumental and 18 terminal value survey. Items 1-4 were explored by means of a questionnaire developed after carrying out a number of extensive interviews and a pilot study. Beliefs in Internality-Externality were explored by using the Internal-External locus of control scale developed by Rotter and his colleagues (1966), while values were measured by Rokeach's (1966) Value Survey of 18 instrumental and 18 terminal values. The questionnaire, Rotter's I-E scale and Rokeach's Value Survey were distributed to a sample of 88 first-year undergraduate students (44 females and 44 males), from I8 to 23 years of age. According to the findings, planners and non-planners adopt different strategies for coping with the future: planners through setting up goals determine their future outcomes and consequently reduce uncertainty, while non-planners seem not to attempt to influence future events. In the first case, planning for the future is seen as a person's sense of agency over his environment while in the second case, focussing on the present is seen as a defensive mechanism against the possibility of disappointment in the future. The results showed that planners: 1) hold more positive attitudes towards planning and the future; 2) had more hopes rather than fears about the future; 3) valued the future more than the present and past; 4) held optimistic views about private and public aspects of life in the future; 5) were more Internal in their beliefs about locus of control; 6) had a value orientation which was more intra-personal than interpersonal in focus. In order to explore further the relationship between planning and Internality-Externality a second study was designed. More specifically, the study investigated: 1) The extent to which a person's beliefs about his ability to exercise control over a variety of situations in the private and socio-political aspects of life (measured by Rotter's I-E scale) were related to the extent of forward planning in these areas; 2) Planners' and non-planners' preferences for immediate or long-term solutions to issues of unemployment, inflation and pollution in Britain. A sample of 46 first year undergraduate students (23 males and 23 females), from 18 to 23 years of age, were asked to fill out the first part of the Time Perspective Questionnaire used in the first study, Rotter's I-E scale and a socio-political questionnaire developed for the purpose of the study. Findings support the results from the first study regarding differences in number of hopes and fears about the future. Findings also suggested that respondents' beliefs about Internal versus External locus of control were related to the extent of their forward planning in the private aspects of life, but not the sociopolitical aspects, for which they had little or no plans. Planners' and non-planners' preferences for immediate or long-term solutions to the three socio-political issues, was a function of so many possible factors that only some of the data were considered. The impact of planners' and non-planners' orientation to the future on their actual behaviour in the present, was explored in the third study. Three aspects of present behaviour were considered under this study: work patterns / studying; free time activities, and relations with others. To explore these aspects, 44 first year students, 22 males and 22 females, from 18 to 23 years of age, were interviewed for approximately forty-five minutes each. The interviews were based on a schedule developed on the basis of the findings from 40 preliminary interviews. According to the findings, planners were more organised, systematic and self-disciplined in studying, whereas non-planners tended to rely more on the University syllabus or moods, feelings and external pressure. Planners also expressed a need for privacy and regularity, and tended to see others as being instrumental to the realization of their goals. Non-planners on the other hand, showed a greater sociability, spontaneity, an involvement with, and an orientation towards other people, which emphasised the value of relationships for their own sake rather than because of their importance to the achievement of personal goals. On the whole, differences in planners' and non-planners' orientation to time are seen as being characteristic of an "instrumental versus expressive" or "becoming versus being" orientation to life. An "instrumental" or "becoming" orientation involves views about the instrumentality of the present to the future. and manipulation of both personal and interpersonal aspects of life towards the achievement of future goals; whereas an "expressive" or "being" orientation involves an emphasis on living the present for the present, preferences for variety, change and freedom of choice in living, and a tendency to value interpersonal relations for their own sake rather than because of their importance to personal objectives.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between variables that may be related to rape myth acceptance in college students. Identifying variables that may be related to rape myth acceptance is essential for improving rape prevention programming. The setting chosen to examine these variables consisted of 349 students enrolled in undergraduate courses at a mid-size, Midwestern University. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to examine the relationship between gender, year in school, previous participation in rape prevention programming, knowing a victim and/or past experiences of sexual victimization, and knowing a perpetrator and/or perpetration with rape myth acceptance. Personality constructs were utilized as covariates due to their expected influence on the dependent variable. Overall, only Openness to Experience significantly correlated with rape myth acceptance and the effect size was small.Results indicated a significant 2-way interaction for gender and year in school. The interaction revealed that at freshmen year, men showed much higher rape myth acceptance than women. Rape myth acceptance in men declined from freshmen year to senior year, but consistently remained higher than women. Rape myth acceptance in women only slightly decreased between freshmen and sophomore year, yet were significantly lower from freshmen to senior year. Although a significant interaction between gender and year in school was found, the interaction was ordinal making the main effects interpretable. In fact, results indicated a significant main effect for both gender and year in school. Specifically, men report higher rape myth acceptance than women. Also, acceptance of rape myths decreased as year in school increased. Implications of these findings and future directions for research are discussed. / Department of Educational Psychology

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1949 J57 / Master of Science

No description available.

In this study, a survey instrument measuring knowledge and attitudes about AIDS, information sources about AIDS, and personal behavior was administered to college students. Students completed the survey during a single class period.

Includes bibliography. / The aim of this thesis research was to replicate the important work conducted by Noel Entwistle and Paul Ramsden, published in 1983, which sought to establish the relationship between perceived contextual factors and students' approaches to studying. The two instruments that they developed for this purpose, the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI) and the Course Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ), were administered to 1194 English-speaking and 590 Afrikaans-speaking students in 12 disciplinary areas at the Cape Technikon. Alpha factor analysis of the 24 summated sub-scales of the two inventories was conducted separately for the two samples. When these were compared with the factor structure obtained in the Lancaster research programme certain differences were evident. Although the two main study orientation, meaning orientation and reproducing orientation, were present in slightly modified forms, there were no empirical associations between these two orientations and the contextual factors as measured by the sub-scales of the CPQ. In order to explore the differences between the factor structures of the Lancaster programme and the two Technikon samples, the conceptual assumptions regarding the first order factor structure of the two instruments were relaxed. Firstly the 103 items of both instruments together were subjected to alpha factor analysis and subsequently the 63 variables of the ASI and the 40 variables of the CPQ were subjected to separate alpha factor analysis. These analyses confirmed the integrity of the majority of the sub-scales of the ASI while calling into question the composition and indeed the conceptual validity of the sub- scale surface approach. The factor analysis of the CPQ variables confirmed the sub-scale groupings, but the analysis of the 103 variables failed to demonstrate any empirical association between the two instruments. The replicative study concludes that the CPQ is of no value in terms of explaining students' approaches to studying. The ASI, however, appears to be a useful instrument which produces conceptually meaningful results for different population samples with respect to the two main study orientations. Areas which warrant investigation for the refinement of the ASI were identified and alternative methodologies to explore perceived contextual factors in conjunction with the ASI are suggested.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1956 N42 / Master of Science

The present study assessed the views of students on school-related determinants with respect to liking or disliking technology. In determining students' views, two self-report instruments, the Classroom Learning Environment Survey (CLES) and Attitudes Toward Science Scale (ATSS) were used. Also, an interview schedule was arranged with a selected group. Participants were 200 first years registered for Diplomas in Primary -, Secondary -, and Technology Education. Results indicated a positive relationship between attitudes towards technology and each of teacher characteristics, student characteristics and the classroom environment. Regression analysis showed that attitudes toward technology were predicted by the three study variables. On the other hand, no statistically significant gender differences were established. Recommendations and suggestions for further research are also advanced. / Mathematics, Science & Technology Education / M. Sc. (Technology Education)

This study examines the psychological, social and environmental predictors of sexually aggressive and assaultive behaviors reported by a sample of 466 males at one institution. Emphasis was placed on determining the impact of Greek affiliation and place of residence on self-reported aggressive and assaultive behaviors. A questionnaire was administered which incorporated demographic and background characteristics, environmental characteristics and attitudes towards women and relationships. Analysis of variance was used to determine statistically significant differences among five residential groupings on selected variables. A series of interlocking multiple regression analyses was then performed to determine the predictive influence of factors explored in this study. Results indicate that "peer harassment," including verbal aggression and unwanted touching, was reported by the total sample with great frequency. More severe behaviors were reported with less frequency, however, slightly more than 5% of the men in the total sample reported committing at least one act which met the legal criteria for sexual assault in the academic year preceding the study. Although statistically significant differences among residential groups emerged, attitudes and living environment characteristics found predictive of sexually aggressive and assaultive behaviors were found in all living environments. "Worst" behavior reported was predicted best by rape myth acceptance followed by environmental and background characteristics including the number of sexual partners one had, sexual speculation about women, alcohol consumption and perceived level of impact one had on their environment. Institutions are encouraged to examine the level of sexual violence against women on campuses and marshal the efforts of student personnel administrators as well as faculty in an effort to reduce the prevalence of such behavior.