Thesis (B.A. (Hons.)), Department of Psychology, University of Adelaide, 1971.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

The researcher began with a fundamental question, i.e., are social work students in any one specialized area more authoritarian than other social work students? A review of related literature revealed group workers to be higher scorers than other social work students on Rokeach's Form D Dogmatism Scale, a measurement of authoritarianism. The Form D Dogmatism Scale was administered to fifty-one undergraduate social work students. Results indicated that social work students were uniformly high in authoritarianism and no significant diminution of this authoritarianism was achieved with any variable, that is, age, sex, or social work specialty.

Thesis (B.A. Hons.))--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 1975.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1963. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [270]-283).

This is a study of whether an attempt to reduce the trait of high tension-anxiety by means of systematic neuro-musculature relaxation training will result in a decrease of the communication variable of closed-mindedness. A general review of the literature showed that the problem of tension-anxiety is complex, pervasive, and detrimental to effective communication. First, an attempt is made to bring relevant information to the field of general speech by citing a few findings from the research of other disciplines concerning the nature and effects of tension-anxiety. Currently-used methods of anxiety reduction are mentioned, and one, neuro-musculature relaxation training, discussed as to its effectiveness and adaptability to the college environment. This method was chosen for investigation in the present study because it can be administered to groups by trained personnel, who need not be professional psychotherapists, at no risk to the students. The major hypothesis is that there will be a significant difference between the dogmatism scores of the experimental group who receive relaxation training and the dogmatism scores of the control group who did not receive such training. The minor hypothesis is that there will be a significantly greater difference between the pre- and post-anxiety scores of the experimental group than between the pre-and post-anxiety scores of the control group, and the post-scores will show a downward trend. The design of the study consisted first of selecting a group of high-anxious subjects by administering the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale to all students who enrolled in the beginning fundamental speech course, which totaled 427, and sending invitations to the fifty-six students who scored twenty-four and above to participate in the research study. Those who accepted were arbitrarily placed in either the control group or the experimental group depending on whether their time schedules permitted them to attend the previously-scheduled training meetings. The experimental group was given a series of six weekly training sessions of forty-five minutes each using a modified version of the Jacobson method of progressive neuro-musculature relaxation. There was no more contact with the control group until after the six-week period when both groups were administered the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale and a repeat of the Manifest Anxiety Scale. Statistical procedures were employed at this time, and since no significant differences were found both hypotheses were rejected. The findings of this study show that the method of systematic neuro-musculature relaxation training employed did not cause significant differences in either the dogmatism or the chronic tension-anxiety level of the experimental subjects according to the measuring devices used. That the method could be used with the equipment and conditions of a normal college environment and with trained non-professionals as therapists was evident. Whether it would be useful for the reduction of chronic high tension-anxiety remains in doubt due to the uncertain motivation of the experimental subjects and the questionable sensitivity of the Manifest Anxiety Scale as a measurement of tension-anxiety change. Further study using a combination of measuring devices, including the electromyograph, is recommended.

In this thesis, I argue that the current biolinguists commit a categorical error when they study the so-claimed “language organ” (an ontological non-naturalist act) with methods that (they claim) align with natural sciences (a methodological naturalist act). I will argue that they are turning linguistic studies into “demonology”, a cult-like dogma, by having this disassociation in their ontological and methodological views, for this disassociation lets linguistics lose the ultimate ground that validates all knowledge: the reality, or experience in Kant’s term. In turn, this disassociation enlarges the split of current linguistic study: the generative/biolinguistics vs. the cognitive linguistics/psych-linguistics/ usage-based linguistics (or whatever other name one wants to call them). I will first briefly introduce what Kant said about similar issues (chapter 2). Then, I will introduce the disassociation of methodological and ontological naturalism in current linguistic doctrine (chapter 3) and how this disassociation is turning linguistics into a self-entertaining demonology with examples of the language organ, language evolution, and Principles and Parameters. Chapter 4 will be a discussion as why things have become what they are, and ends with some conclusions / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / This thesis criticizes the general biolinguistics enterprise in terms of the first suggestion that Kant would give in chapter 2.6; namely that biolinguistics distances itself from reality. Generally, like all dogmatism or rationalism that Kant meant to criticize, biolinguistics is no exception. However, it redeems itself from being yet another dogmatism with this seemingly justified disassociation of ontological dualism and methodological naturalism. It is doing this so covertly that many scientists fall into believing it is a science. As an undergraduate student, I was always awed at ideas like universal grammar and how it affects language learning. My impression was that Kant was being re-invited: that unlike other language theories, nativism recognizes that the internal epistemological factors are part of the language itself. This is parallel to Kant, for Kant recognized how a seemingly completely external entity such as experience is actually heavily constructed by our cognition. Then, there was something that did not feel right, something that was not very Kant when I heard “language came from a sudden mutation around…years ago and had no evolution; children learn L1 so effortlessly solely because of the language organ; language is biologically innate…”. I now know and will argue that they all come from the disassociation that I did not notice then, the disassociation that makes linguistics only a science on the surface but a dogmatism in the core, like demonology.

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