It is the basic hypothesis of this study that there exists a relationship between personal attitude and value changes and participation in group discussion. The purpose of this study will be an attempt to assess how some personality variables change as a result of group discussion.

This study explores the potential relationship between disordered eating and appearance-related possible selves. The sample consisted of 293 female college students (mean age=22). Participants were administered interviews consisting of demographic information, the Possible Selves Interview, the Eating Attitudes Test-26, The Physical Self Description Questionnaire, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. More than half of the participants reported an appearance-related possible self (n=154). As expected, disordered eating scores were found to be higher for participants who reported an appearance-related possible self: t(288)=-3.04, p

This study examined the effectiveness of information about, and/or practice with, visualization in increasing: self-understanding, belief in one's ability to effect self change, positive themes in ongoing imagery, and internality of locus of control. A sample of 19 women and 11 men, ranging in age from 18 to 50 years, were divided into four groups which each received different amounts of information about, or practice with, visualization. All groups were tested before and after treatment on four measures, and the three experimental groups also completed a posttest-only measure. The measures used were the Personal Response Questionnaire (developed by the author), subscales from the Imaginal Processes Inventory, the Spheres of Control test, the Questionnaire on Imagery Control, and the Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery. Results indicated that members of the experimental groups believed that visualization could contribute significantly to self-understanding, felt differently about themselves as a result of learning about visualization, felt it would be useful for personal development, and felt they would use it in their own future self-development. Vividness of imagery increased from pretest to posttest for those groups with most information about, and practice with, visualization. Increased internality on the sociopolitical control subscale of the Spheres of Control test was also found for all groups on the posttest. None of the other predicted effects were found to have occurred at a significant level. The failure to achieve the anticipated results was attributed partially to the short period of training and practice allocated, to the small number of subjects, and also to the lack of appropriate and sufficiently sensitive assessment measures. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

To date, the undertaking of health promoting behaviors in working women is an issue which has not been explored in any depth. This issue has become particularly important because of two parallel phenomena - the rapid expansion of the numbers of women in the workforce, and the growing interest in health promotion - which have emerged in Canada in the last twenty years or so. As well, factors which may relate to the undertaking of health promoting behaviors have been hypothesized and investigated to some extent, but have not yet been fully determined. Self-esteem has been proposed as one motivational factor in the undertaking of health promoting behaviors. The present study has sought to determine the extent to which self-esteem, working conditions, and demographic factors, are related to the undertaking of health promoting behaviors in working women. The conceptual model used is a modified version of Pender's (1982) Health Promotion Model in which a feedback mechanism operates, reinforcing the performance of health promoting behavior as self-esteem levels grow, and equally, reinforcing self-esteem levels according to the extent to which health promoting behaviors are undertaken. Subjects of a random sample of 500 female union members working in the greater Vancouver area were mailed a questionnaire package. The questionnaires asked for data on present levels of self-esteem, health promoting behaviors presently undertaken, and demographic and working condition factors. Following a repeat mailing, the final number of responses available for analysis was 229 (46%). Simple linear regression analysis revealed that self-esteem was predictive of health promoting behaviors in a global sense, and, in particular, of self-actualization, health responsibility, exercise, and nutrition. However, neither demographic variables, nor the number of hours worked per week, were found to be predictive of health promoting behaviors. Although the study suffered from a limitation due to a low response rate, the sample was determined to be broadly representative of the union population. Therefore, these study results may be generalized to other urban, unionized females sharing similar demographic characteristics. / Medicine, Faculty of / Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of / Graduate

Experimenter self-disclosure and verbal reinforcement of subject disclosure during an interview were both predicted to result in increased subject disclosure in a subsequent testing situation, as compared with direct instructions to the subjects to be more open.. The results indicated that for male subjects, verbal reinforcement had the predicted effect, but experimenter self-disclosure did not. Female subjects were found to be more disclosive than male subjects in general, but were relatively uninfluenced by the experimenter treatment conditions. Experimenter self-disclosure was shown to result in an increase in social evaluative anxiety and in more favourable perceptions of the self and of the experimenter in the subjects concerned. Both of these factors are discussed as having counteracted any modeling effect of experimenter self-disclosure. An interpretation of the results in terms of an interaction between subject sex, experimenter sex and experimental conditions is proposed and the implications this has for the related literature, which in general has ignored such variables as subject and experimenter sex, are discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The theories of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) and self-perception (Bern, 1965) are reviewed in terms of the "insufficient justification" and "observer replication" laboratory paradigms. The controversy generated by their competing explanatory claims was evaluated in three separate contexts: as debate, theory, and metatheory. In a debating context it was concluded that Ben got the better of the controversy by observing the input requirements of his theory and marshalling against his critics evidence generated by their own failure to do likewise. Analytical and epistemological errors committed by the dissonance theory advocates were major factors in this csnclusion. With respect to the more substantive context of theory-testing, it was concluded that Bern failed to establish the plausibility of the cognitive process postulated by the self-perception theory. A unique counter-instance was cited to demonstrate that self-perception is not a wholly viable alternative analysis of cognitive dissonance phenomena. In addition, an examination of Bern's adherence to a functional analysis in conjunction with a simulation methodology raised doubts that such a strategy could deliver the desired information concerning plausibility of the self-perception process. When viewed at the level of metatheory, however, Bern was considered to have had a substantial influence upon the working commitments of a small community of his colleagues. This conclusion was derived from a metaphorical application of Kuhn's (1962) thesis concerning scientific revolutions to events in the recent history of Social Psychology. In this view, the self-perception theory is an historical marker which brings clearly into focus the transition of attitudinal research from a motivational-consistency "paradigm" to an information processing/attributional "paradigm". Three experiments are reported which make use of Bern's credibility cueing procedure to articulate the newer "paradigm". The first experiment provides support for a fundamental hypothesis derived from the self-perception theory. Subjects' recall of a task was systematically influenced by external discriminative stimuli for self-credibility when internal memory cues were relatively weak, but net when such cues were relatively strong. The use of a statistic which takes into account subjects' differential guessing strategies increased confidence in the self-perception interpretation of these results. The second experiment attempted to extend the credibility cueing effect beyond the traditional impersonal cueing situation to one involving interpersonal discriminative stimuli for self-credibility. Although procedural insights rendered the results inconclusive, a serendipitous observation was made. The results suggested a novel hypothesis that different stimulus persons could have differential effects on subjects' self-credibility. A third experiment provided support for this hypothesis. When one live interviewer was manipulated as a discriminative stimulus for self-credibility, subjects' recall of a task was systematically influenced in accord with self-perception predictions. These effects did net occur in the presence of a second live interviewer. Speculation was advanced concerning the psychological basis for differential credibility cueing properties of parties to social interactions with particular reference to the credibility cueing potential of police interrogations. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Circumscription and Compromise theory suggests self-concept and sex stereotype explain occupational preferences, including preferences for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Support exists for sex differences between males and females in both science degrees and science careers. The main thrust of observed sex differences in science lies in the development of occupational interest, as it has been suggested females are encouraged away from science due to stereotypes and social pressure. The present study evaluates high school juniors and seniors (n = 295) to explore their preference for science as indicated by science motivation, attitude, academic experience, and interest. Latent Profile Analysis was used to model profiles of preferences for science with a person-centered approach. Then, the impact of self-concept variables was explored and four profiles of science interest were identified. Sex differences were identified based on science interest, but were not always in favor of males. Covariate analysis indicates vocabulary ability and personality as significantly different for students in the high science interest profile. Implications of these results and future research directions are discussed.

The thesis will deal with the relationship of adolescents' self-concept according to their life plans. The work focuses on the issue of their own self-professional concept in their third term of vocational school and fourth term of secondary vocational school. The aim of this work is to describe the relation of the students of the vocational school and secondary vocational school to themselves, how they evaluate themselves, as well as their relation to self-professional concept, to their future goals related to their professional life and further education. The theoretical part deals with their own understanding of self-concept, its development from childhood to adolescence, of the development of themselves and self-professional concept, the importance of life plans for the future life of adolescents on the basis of professional Czech and foreign literature. At the end of the theoretical part, there will be laid theoretical foundations for the research, which will be the content of the practical part of this work. The empirical part of the thesis will analyze the survey made at secondary schools, which focuses on themselves and self-professional concept of selected pupils of the fourth term of secondary vocational schools and the third term of vocational schools. A combination of qualitative and...

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / Current research has shown pediatric cancer patients to be at greater risk for lowered selfesteem, altered body image, and an overall change in self-concept. Even if patients are only at an increased risk, the development of a tool to identify these problems is necessary. Periodic screening of all patients would be beneficial and when problems are identified, intervention can take place. Research previously conducted with various tools concluded that cancer patients may select answers that allow them to appear "normal" or "supernormal" and therefore defensively deny their cancer (Puuko 1997). Currently there is not a unifonn instrument used to test these factors. To this end, a protocol was devised to evaluate the use of Harter's Self-Perception Manual in the pediatric cancer population and to test the current theories. Dr. Susan Harter's Self-perception Questionnaires have previously been used for prospective research in various pediatric populations and are designed specifically to allow patients to answer truthfully. The questionnaires have been determined to be a valid, reliable instrument to measure a child's self-perception of their self-concept. Further data (to come from the prospective study) is needed to determine if the scale is useful for pediatric cancer patients. In addition, the retrospective use of Harter's scale will be piloted in this protocol in order to determine how children really felt during trea1ment. In an effort to compensate for developmental advances/processes and issues with accurate recall specific limits have been placed on retrospective participants. / 2031-01-01