Several recent experiments have suggested that high versus low esteem persons differ in the extent to which they use interpersonal behaviors to cope with negative feedback from others. In particular, it has been suggested that low self-esteem persons attempt to enhance themselves in public but not privately whereas this difference does not exist for high self-esteem persons. The present study tested a proposed model of interpersonal reactions to performance feedback. The model was investigated through two experimental designs. Design la examined high self-esteem (HSE) and low self-esteem (LSE) subordinate's reactions to positive and negative performance feedback in a public versus private settings. Design is examined whether information about the subordinate's reactions affected the supervisor's ratings of the subordinate. Overall, the proposed model gained some empirical support. The prediction that LSE subordinates would engage in self presentational behaviors as a means of self-enhancement was partially supported in the positive feedback conditions, but not in the negative feedback conditions. As predicted, HSE subordinates showed no differences in reactions obtained in the public versus private setting, and as predicted, showed no increases in resultant esteem. The most striking support for the model comes from the correspondence between subordinate's reactions and subsequent supervisor ratings of the subordinate. This relationship emerged only when the supervisor had knowledge of the subordinate's reactions. The longer term effects of subordinates' reactions to feedback are discussed in reference to subordinate participation in performance appraisal meetings. / Master of Science

Research examining student-teacher interactions has tended to focus upon the teacher's perceptions of, and reactions to, his/her students. Such studies have indicated that teachers tend to react differentially to male and female students, that these students are aware of sex-role stereotypes, and that this awareness seems to affect perceptions of self and others, as well as actual performance. The majority of these studies have targeted the perceptions and behaviors of preschool and elementary school children. As there is a dearth of research examining similar variables in adolescents, more intensive investigations need to be conducted before any generalizations about classroom behavior can be drawn. The purpose of the current investigation was to examine the effects of middle-school students' levels of androgyny and self-esteem on classroom behavior, as well as to examine the impact of these variables on students' performance attributions and classroom perceptions. Students were asked to complete questionnaires assessing their levels of androgyny and self-esteem, and their perceptions of which of their peers perform various behaviors. While few significant differences were found by degree of androgyny for student behaviors, student sex did seem to play a role in which classroom behaviors were exhibited. Peer behavior in the classroom was related to students' sex and level of androgyny. Internal and external attributions for performance seemed to be affected by degree of androgyny. Boys received higher grades than girls in both science/computer science and English, although there were no sex differences for grade expectations. High-androgynous individuals tended to have higher self-esteem than low-androgynous individuals. Implications for the conceptualization of androgyny were discussed, as well as empirical findings and developmental issues. / M.S.

Despite an abundance of studies on the characteristics of college students described as campus disciplinary offenders, few studies have attempted to investigate the reasons why certain students end up as violators of campus social policies. The purpose of this study was to construct and test a causal model of college student disciplinary status. Containment Theory, Control Theory, and Involvement Theory served as the theoretical foundation of the study. Variables in the model were operationalized from the College Student Experiences Questionnaire. Data were collected from a sample of students classified as campus disciplinary offenders by the residence life office judicial system of a large land-grant university and from a sample of non-offenders at the same institution. The data were analyzed using path analysis procedures. Results indicated that there was only partial support for the linear causal model tested. Important findings were: (a) background variables directly affected disciplinary status, a finding consistent with previous research, (b) the model did not work differently for males and females, (c) students' satisfaction with their choice of college directly impacted on disciplinary status, (d) students' perceptions of the campus interpersonal environment and their personal vocational gains indirectly effected disciplinary status when mediated by the satisfaction with their college choice. In general, person-environment fit was proposed as the factor having an overall effect on disciplinary status. It was suggested that further testing of the model should occur and that a reciprocal causal model, rather than a linear model, might yield more information about the factors influencing disciplinary status for certain college students. / Ed. D.

Sociometric status in childhood, despite its predictive validity, remains determinants.The relatively poorly understood construct with regard to its aim of the present study was to attempt a better understanding. Like most research studies, for every question answered, several were raised. Results of the present study indicated that, undoubtedly, an interaction of factors relate to sociometric standing. These include behavioral and cognitive skills as well as personal attributes such as athletic ability and physical attractiveness. The direction of these relationships remains unanswered. Exemplary of this causal confusion is the finding from this and other studies of a positive relationship between various cognitive social skills and popularity. This relationship has been demonstrated most reliably with withdrawn children. However, it is unclear whether cognitive skill deficits discourage interaction or whether reluctance to engage in social interaction impedes the development of social understanding. With this, as with other variables, it is likely best represented as a transactional model. Hence, acceptance by peers for whatever reason encourages, through social reinforcement, continued pursuit in that and other dimensions which, in turn, facilitate increased skill. Further, the importance of many of these dimensions varies with age and sex. Results of the present study partially replicated previous findings of the importance of peer behavior to sociometric status. However, the finding of a positive relationship between popularity and peer initiated negative interactions underscored the importance of differentiating rejected and neglected subgroups of unpopular children. For treatment studies, the accurate identification of these subgroups as well as the development of different treatment programs for withdrawn versus aggressive children is indicated. Although the results of the present study indicated that unpopular children, as a whole, demonstrated poorer skills in social perception, findings from previous studies, coupled with the small magnitude of difference in present findings, suggest that these skills may vary according to the type of unpopular child. Further, it appears that the importance of these cognitive skills is age dependent. Future research in the area of sociometric status should continue to focus on the identification of behaviors, cognitive skills, and personal attributes associated with peer popularity. Rejected and neglected children should be considered as significantly different subgroups of unpopular children. Finally, it is recommended that future research focus on developing more refined and standardized procedures for measuring affective social perception skills since this appears to be a fruitful and relatively unexplored area in relation to sociometric status. / Ph. D.

According to the current literature, dysfunctional social behavior in children is purported to be strongly related to adult behavior problems. Hersen and Bellack (1977) reported that deficits in children's social skills are generally the result of "a deficient learning history, wherein the necessary responses never became a viable part of an individual's repertoire, or the result of the disruptive effects of anxiety that inhibit behavior" (p. 510). Thus, social skills training usually consists of a behavioral-acquisition procedure designed to provide the necessary skills repertoire, promote more skillful response alternatives, and reduce social anxiety. Based on social learning theory (Rotter, 1972) and Bandura's (1977) theory of self-efficacy, individuals who display dysfunctional social behavior in a given situation may be handicapped by perceived inefficacy, rather than, or in addition to, a lack of appropriate social knowledge of social skill. To date, no research has examined the relative roles of self-efficacy and children's self-efficacy appraisal in producing social skill deficits in either aggressive or withdrawn children. The purpose of the present research was two-fold: (l) to assess and investigate the relationship between self-efficacy, self-efficacy appraisal skills, and social behavior, and (2) to examine the relative effectiveness of a social skills training group, a social skills plus efficacy appraisal group, and a discussion group in remediating social skill deficits in children judged to exhibit aggressive and withdrawn behaviors in the classroom and on the playground. In general, the results of the current research failed to support the experimental hypotheses. Nevertheless, posttreatment changes in efficacy appraisal and self-efficacy were obtained, and some differential effects of treatment attributable to status of subject were reported. Unfortunately, however, post-treatment changes on measures of efficacy appraisal and self-efficacy did not generalize to produce subsequent changes in social behavior. Several alternative explanations for these results are discussed. / Ph. D.

Moral development as a cognitive process was first presented by Piaget, and then by Kohlberg, who brought together the philosophical and psychological views of morality into a theory of justice reasoning. Some twenty years later, Gilligan, by including women's thinking in theory building, identified two distinct moral orientations: care and justice. This research was intended to contribute to the evolution of theories of moral development. First, the phenomena of moral development was examined through a literature review, then semi-structured interviews were used to investigate moral reasoning of community college presidents. Data were analyzed using procedures suggested by Glaser and Strauss. whether two or more than two orientations to moral problem solving was used by research subjects was investigated by examination of real-life dilemmas of community college presidents. An analysis of findings considered gender of the respondent and the nature of the moral dilemma. The major findings indicate that when faced with a real-life moral dilemma, community college presidents know and use three overlapping orientations--Justice, Care, and Self--which form a pattern for moral decision making. The orientation patterns used in the moral reasoning process were found to vary somewhat by gender, but not by the nature of the dilemma, leading to the conclusion that future studies of moral reasoning and moral development should include a recognition of gender differences and multiple orientations in moral decision making. / Ed. D.

by Wong Kit Yi, Angel. / Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1987. / Bibliography: leaves 220-235.

The influence of demographic factors, work schedule flexibility, job satisfaction, job involvement, job seeking self-efficacy, certainty of retirement plans, familial and marital satisfaction, and attitude toward retirement on older workers' decision to fully retire, continue career employment, or participate in bridge employment was examined in this study.

M.Litt. et Phil. (Anthropology) / On the far eastern border of the Mhala district of Gazankulu there is a village called Dixie. The residents of this village and their conditions of living formed the setting for my research. The research was strictly ethnographic, and so is this thesis, given the dire shortage of in-depth ethnographic information particularly on the experiences of teenage girls. The research revealed various facets of the lives of these people. Whilst the research included all the teenage girls of the village, and most of the teenage boys, information on only four girls was singled out for the thesis, because of the diversity in their experiences and to demonstrate the impact of unique circumstances on the experience of violence. To the case material of these four girls, was added that of a teenage boy to highlight the contrast between the lives of girls and boys in this social setting. The events that formed a significant part in the daily lives of the girls and the boy were diarised in detail so as not to tamper with the information as far as possible. It emerged that girls were consistently subjected to violence by those persons with whom they were closely involved. Poverty contributes largely to the amount and intensity of violence on female persons, and it is thus violence which dominates social life in the village for these people. The result is a chain of events that is shocking and deeply disturbing. The information reveals very clearly the extent of male domination which is still prevalent in our society and it exposes the continual subjugation women experience daily in the struggle against men and poverty. This thesis wishes to challenge social scientists of our time to focus their attention on violence in much more detail than has been the case until now.

Summaries in Afrikaans and English / A primary school child finds him or herself in the middle childhood years and it is considered to be a rich phase of life, since children have already reached important milestones. These children have the ability not only to act with empathy but also to maintain independent behaviour. As a result of the development in the cognitive and moral stage of development, these children can also distinguish between right and wrong and they show insight that social rules can be changed. As a result of this development, it is believed that this child will accept learners with different skills more confidently when the required awareness is provided. One group of learners with special skills, which I focused on during this research, are those who have been deformed by burn wounds. Statistics show that a growing number of children in South Africa are deformed by burn wounds. As a result of the changing policy on inclusive education, these children cannot be denied into the mainstream education system because of deformity or disability anymore. It is therefore believed that an increasing number of deformed or disabled children will be entering the mainstream education system. Information is gathered through various methods by using triangulation. The literature study, semi-structured interviews with children as well as teachers for experimental subjects, who completed an incomplete sentence test and open questions, added valuable information. Research indicated that children in this phase of life are indeed equipped with certain life skills, which place them in a privileged position to handle interaction with the deformed child, if they receive the required awareness. The information also indicated that the gestalt approach could be used as theoretical perspective for the compilation of the guideline. This approach recognises that play is the child's natural communication medium but also recognises that awareness is created through means of experimentation. To my knowledge, there is no program or guideline from the gestalt approach that enables education staff to address children's awareness in respect of their inherent skills in the middle childhood years. The researcher made a breakthrough in the integration of the gestalt approach with the education environment by constructing a practical guideline from the gestalt approach for education staff. Education staff should, however, receive training with regards to the gestalt approach in order to use this guideline effectively. / Laerskoolkind bevind hom- of haarself in die middelkinderjare en dit word as ryk lewensfase beskou, aangesien kinders reeds belangrike mylpale bereik het. Hierdie kinders beskik oor die vermoe om nie slegs empaties op te tree nie, maar om ook selfstandige gedrag te handhaaf. As gevolg van die ontwikkeling in die kognitiewe en morele ontwikkelingsterrein, kan hulle ook tussen reg en verkeerd onderskei en toon hulle insig dat sosiale reels verander kan word. As gevolg van hierdie ontwikkeling word daar verwag dat hierdie kind met die nodige bewusmaking, leerders wat oor verskillende bekwaamhede beskik, met meer selfvertroue sal kan aanvaar. Een groep leerders, waarop daar tydens hierdie navorsing gefokus sal word, wat oor spesiale bekwaamheid beskik, is diegene wat deur brandwonde geskend is. Statistieke toon dat toenemende aantal kinders jaarliks in Suid-Afrika, weens brandwonde geskend word. As gevolg van die veranderende beleid op insluitende onderwys, kan kinders weens geskend- of gestremdheid nie meer tot die hoofstroomonderwysstelsel geweier word nie. Die verwagting is dus dat toenemende aantal geskende of gestremde kinders die hoofstroomonderwysstelsel sal betree. Inligting is deur verskeie metodes ingesamel deur die benutting van triangulering. Die literatuurstudie, semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude met kinders asook onderwysers as proefpersone wat 'n onvoltooide sinnetoets en oop vrae voltooi het, het bruikbare inligting tot gevolg gehad. Daar is gevind dat kinders in hierdie lewensfase wei oor bepaalde lewensvaardighede beskik, wat hulle in 'n bevoorregte posisie plaas om, indien hulle die nodige bewusmaking ontvang, interaksie met die geskende kind sal kan behartig. Die inligting het verder ook daarop gedui dat die gestaltspelbenadering as teoretiese perspektief vir die samestelling van die riglyn benut kan word. Hierdie benadering erken dat spel die kind se natuurlike kommunikasiemedium is, maar ook dat bewuswording geskied deur middel van eksperimentasie. Sover bekend is daar geen program of riglyn vanuit die gestaltbenadering, wat opvoedkundige personeel in staat stel om kinders in die middelkinderjare se bewustheid ten opsigte van hulle inherente vaardighede aan te spreek nie. Die navorser het 'n deurbraak in die integrering van die gestaltbenadering met die opvoedkundige omgewing gemaak deurdat 'n praktiese riglyn vanuit die gestaltspelbenadering vir opvoedkundige personeel saamgestel is. Opvoedkundige personeel behoort egter opleiding met betrekking tot die gestaltspelbenadering te ontvang ten einde hierdie riglyn effektief te kan benut. / Social Work / M. Diac. (Play Therapy)