Abstract The aim with this study is to deepen the knowledge about what leaders in the Scouts think about their methods for learning and understanding the delicacy of nature and social life, helplessness versus initiative, and if they think that learning outdoors affects sustainable thinking and living in any way. I think the topic of my aim is important when it is about kids and a sustainable future, furthermore, there has not been specially much research done in this topic, especially not in  the Scouts. I decided to do a qualitative study where I use thematic analysis to analysis the findings. The first thought the Scout leaders seems to have, is that what they do need to be sustainable if it shall work as they want. The findings also show that the Scout leaders use special tools in their work with the kids, some of their tools are, learning by doing, situational leadership, and discussions, they use the tools on a ground of good values with nature as workspace, clasroom, and Livingroom. I am happily surprised that the findings show that the Scout leaders in a remarkable way care for the children to grow from the inside and out in a sustainable way. I can see in the findings that the Scout leaders are sure that children first need to have a certain level of sustainable feelings about themselves before they can connect with nature which is a must before they can start caring about it. This thesis shows the core of what the Scout leaders think of their work, and hopefully it can help the Scout leaders, but also others to handle the young in a more sustainable way, that helps the young to a more sustainable life.When I do not find any earlier research about this study´s specific topic my wish is that this study will add knowledge to the area of research, about how to increase the sustainable life for the young so they in turn have a chance to make society more sustainable.

The Coping Competence Questionnaire (CCQ), based on the reformulated learned helplessness theory, was designed to assess a general stress resistance versus a propensity towards learned helplessness with a brief, 12-item self-report questionnaire. In this study the CCQ was administered to 247 undergraduate students, who were then paired, in groups of around 24 at a time, and then randomly assigned to either success or failure conditions on the computer game TetraVex. Mood was pretested using the Profile of Mood States (POMS) depression subscale; the experimental condition, success or failure at TetraVex was conducted; then outcome measures including 20 five letter anagrams to test performance and a posttest of the POMS depression subscale testing mood were administered. The first n = 80 participants were administered the anagrams then POMS; then the next n = 167 participants completed the POMS then anagrams. Findings indicate helplessness was induced. A statistically significant main effect of group was found for both performance and mood measures, suggesting those who were exposed to success on the TetraVex puzzles performed better on the anagrams and had lower levels of depressed mood than those who were exposed to failure. A statistically significant main effect of CCQ on mood, indicating high CCQ scores were correlated with better mood, was also found. Three way interactions of CCQ, group, and the order in which the outcome measures were administered suggested that when performance was measured first, the CCQ moderated the relationship between performance outcomes and group in the predicted direction, but when mood was measured first no interaction between performance and group resulted. Additionally, when mood was measured first, the mood effects were greater; however, coping competence, as measured by the CCQ, was inadequate to immediately overcome the frustration induced in the treatment group by TetraVex failure.

Experimental examination of the generality of learned helplessness has previously been confined to treatment and tests employing aversive motivators, such as electric shock. In the present study, rats were used to evaluate the effect of inescapable shock on their performance in a water test of competitive dominance which employs no aversive motivator. The subjects were paired and pre-tested for competitive dominance. In the experimental groups one member of each pair was treated with inescapable shock and the pairs were then post-tested for competitive dominance either 48, 72, or 168 hours after treatment. The control subjects were pre- and post-tested with no treatment intervening. Competitive dominance ranks were assigned to subjects after each test. Rank differences from pre- to post-test were analyzed for treated and control subjects. Controls showed no shifts in dominance from pre- to post-test, while significant shifts toward subordination appeared in all three experimental groups. No treated subjects showed shifts toward dominance. Significant pre- to post-test differences in drinking time were produced in all treatment groups, with the greatest difference at 72 hours after treatment. These results parallel those of Glazer and Weiss (1976) for escape time latencies at different times of posttreatment testing. The results of the present study, in contrast to those of Glazer and Weiss, cannot be accounted for by the principles of stimulus control. Instead, they support the claim of Maier and Seligman (1976) for considerable generality to the effect of learned helplessness, though the generality observed in this study is not explained by current principles of learning theory.

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No description available.

Mothers' susceptibility to the effects of learned helplessness as a function of the perception of her own infants' temperament and exposure to varying degrees of control over infant crying was explored. Seventysix mothers were classified as having a difficult or easy infant based upon ratings of their infant on the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire. Using an adaptation of the learned helplessness paradigm, a relatively equal number of mothers from each group were exposed to an escape, inescape, or control pretreatment condition and subsequently tested on a solvable shuttle box task. Mothers of easy infants who were pretreated with inescapable crying demonstrated more failures and trials to criterion than mothers of easy infants in the escape and control conditions. In contrast, mothers of difficult infants did not demonstrate performance differences across the 3 pretreatment conditions. Mothers of difficult infants performed significantly better on the shuttle box task than mothers of easy infants following exposure to uncontrollable crying. Mothers of difficult and easy infants did not differ on measures of depression, perceptions of control over adult-child interactions, and potential for child abuse. Mothers did not respond more rapidly to the cries produced by unfamiliar difficult or easy infants. Findings suggest mothers of difficult infants may initially be less adept at terminating infant crying, but are more resilient to these failure experiences. Indeed, mothers of difficult infants responded more effectively following exposure to uncontrollable infant cry sounds. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of mothers' perceptions of their different caregiving experiences in mediating their responsivity to salient infant cues. / Ph. D.

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No description available.

As various forms of interpersonal family violence receive more attention in the literature, sibling abuse is still in the background. Despite the increasing knowledge about the prevalence, causes, and effects of sibling abuse, many of us continue to relegate it to a childhood occurrence. Sibling abuse symptoms continue to go unrecognized and its demoralizing effects continue to be ignored (Wiehe, 1990). Minimization and denial of sibling abuse have also contributed to constraining the extent of knowledge related to this phenomenon. The present study seeks to add to the existing research confirming the existence of sibling victimization and its long-term impacts. This study has two primary purposes: 1) to capture the beliefs, feelings, and firsthand account of the abusive sibling experiences from the perspective of victims, and 2) to investigate the potential learned responses associated with sibling abuse and their possible impact on adult relationships by exploring participants' emotional and relational histories, and belief systems. This study presents data taken from a clinical sample of six adult female sibling abuse survivors. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted and data analyzed using cross case analysis, constant comparison, and analytic induction techniques. Data suggests the long-term impacts of learned responses associated with sibling abuse can be detrimental to both interpersonal relationships and mental health. Emergent themes related to family functioning and environment and resiliency after abuse are also presented. Implications of findings and suggestions for future research are discussed. / Ph. D.

While the learned helplessness effect has been reliably found in dogs and other species (e.g., cats, mice, fish, and humans), it has been somewhat difficult to obtain in rats. In addition, it has been demonstrated that electroconvulsive shock (ECS) reverses learned helplessness in dogs, but ECS induced reversal has not been demonstrated in the rat. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation was twofold: (1) to determine if the learned helplessness effect could be reliably demonstrated in rats; and (2) if so, will a single ECS attenuate this phenomenon. If it could be shown that ECS attenuates helplessness, then two purposes would be served: (a) it would extend the generality of learned helplessness theory by indicating additional parallels between dog helplessness and rat helplessness; and (b) it would expand the parallels between learned helplessness and human depression, thereby increasing the validity of the learned helplessness model of depression. In Experiment 1, rats were randomly assigned to one of three groups: escape, yoked-inescapable, and no shock control. Each rat in the escape group received 80 trials of unsignaled escapable shock. The escape group rats were required to perform a progressive fixed-ratio bar press to escape shock. The yoked-inescapable group received exactly the same intensity, frequency, and duration of shock its escape partner received; but no response would escape shock. The no-shock control group received only pre-exposure to the training apparatus. The following day all rats were tested on a FR-2 shuttlebox escape/avoidance task. After test, half the rats in each group were given a single ECS and then were retested 24 hours later in the shuttlebox. The learned helplessness effect was clearly demonstrated during the test phase. In addition, a single ECS attenuated the learned helplessness effect in rats. In Experiment 2 rats were given training exactly as described in Experiment 1. Following training, one-third of the rats in the escape and yoked-inescapable groups were given a single ECS immediately, one-third were given a single ECS 23.5 hours later, and one-third received no treatment. In the no-shock control group one-third of the rats were given a single ECS 24 hours prior to test, one-third of the rats were given ECS 30 minutes prior to test, and one-third of the rats were not given ECS. Then, all rats were tested 24 hours following training. The test session was identical to the test session in Experiment 1. The learned helplessness effect was clearly demonstrated during test in the NO-ECS condition. In addition, it was demonstrated that ECS attenuates or reverses learned helplessness training when given immediately following training. Delayed ECS also reverses helplessness, but less dramatically than immediate ECS. In both experiments the criteria which characterize learned helplessness were matched: (1) Failure to initiate the escape response in the presence of shock; (2) failure to maintain escape behavior even after occasional escape response occur; and (3) that conditions 1 and 2 above are a result of inescapability and not a result of shock per se. In addition, since ECS attenuates helplessness, the generality of helplessness theory was extended to rats, and the validity of learned helplessness model of depression was strengthened. / Doctor of Philosophy