Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of this study was to examine the types of pressures adolescents experience. The factors of age and/or gender were also investigated in order to determine any possible effects upon adolescent experienced pressures. The researcher believed that findings from such a study could be useful to high school counsellors in both planning future Guidance programs for adolescents as well as aiding in individual counselling sessions with their adolescent clients. Using a cluster-sampling technique, 505 adolescents were selected from a Vancouver high school. Subjects were chosen with consideration to the factors of age and gender. The researcher designed an open-form measurement instrument intended to gather adolescent responses to the three greatest pressures they had experienced during the previous four months. Following a pilot of the instrument, which was to aid in determining construct validity, the survey was administered to the sample over an eight day testing period. With the initial help of an assistant, responses were content analyzed and initial categories constructed. All responses were coded and assigned a frequency score to one of eleven mutually exclusive categories. The chi-square "Goodness of Fit" test for significant difference between or among groups was then applied. Results of the statistical analysis indicated that the factors of age and/or gender are related to certain types of pressures experienced by adolescents. Future Pressure was found to be a significant pressure experienced by older age adolescents. Regardless of gender, age appears to be an important factor related to who will experience Future Pressure. Female adolescents experience greater Family Pressure than do males. Whether within the same age group or within a total female and. a total male population comparison, this result remains consistent. Younger age adolescents also indicate greater gender differences compared with older age adolescents. Younger age female adolescents are more likely to experience greater Family Pressure and Peer Pressure while young male adolescents are more likely to experience greater Situational Pressure. In conclusion, it appears that significant gender differences found in this study tend to support the notion that differences in the rate of physical growth as well as learned sexual stereotypes are significant factors in determining such differences. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Thesis (Ph. D. - Anthropology)--University of Arizona. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Water resource development in the American West is partially dependent upon a political process of decision-making. Within Weststate, U.S.A., this political process is viewed as a system composed of various social units and it is examined through the activities of one type of social unit--the formal voluntary association. Eight associations were studied over a period of eighteen months. Each of the associations was examined with regard to its activities in seven issues of water resource development, the internal organization of the association, the relationship of the association with the water-oriented power structure of the state, the interrelationships with the other social units of the system, the problems of associational success and failure, and function of the association in the internal maintenance of the system and its output. It was found that the associations were not totally independent of one another nor of the other social units in the system. Rather, they were observed to be connected in varying degrees of elasticity through the sharing of personnel, interlocking directorates, the role-positions of expert and observer, and indirect ties via intermediary social units. Within the system one of the basic functions of the associations was conflict reduction. Associations were found to decrease the potential for cooperation. The associations also served as conflict creators by acting as autonomous bases of countervailance. The distribution of power throughout the system, and particularly between the "public" and "private" sectors, was another function of the association. This was usually done in three ways: (1) coordinate, usually related to a task-specific division of power, (2) subordinate, usually tied to the need for grassroots support for agency programs, and (3) superordinate, which usually involved a clientele's control of a service agency. Another power distributing function of the associations was to act as a "drain" to draw power away from the system by arousing the masses and having them rescind the proxies of power which they had given de facto to the System. The association also functioned as change inducers by providing an informal and nonpublic setting for compromise and decision-making, by reducing conflict, and by distributing power. Conversely, the associations also functioned to prevent changes by acting as independent bases of countervailance and by draining power from the system.

The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of feedback regarding personal and group performance on children's views of (a) themselves (e.g., state selfesteem), (b) their ingroup and outgroup (e.g., trait stereotyping), and (c) novel tasks (e.g., task liking). In addition, moderating effects of age and individual difference variables (self-esteem, conformity orientation, and entity/incremental theory of personality) on the relation between self and group views were examined. Theorists have offered differing accounts of the causal mechanisms that underlie relations between views of the self and social groups. Self-verification theorists have argued that perceptions of the self drive individuals' views of, and attitudes toward, their groups. In contrast, self-categorization theorists argue that membership in groups causes individuals to perceive themselves in ways that are consistent with perceptions or stereotypes of the group. However, membership in many social groups (e.g., gender, racial, ethnic groups) is not freely chosen. What happens when individuals' views of themselves differ from their perceptions of their ingroups or the prevailing stereotypes about their ingroups? To address this question, children (N = 120, ages 7-12) attending a summer school program were randomly assigned a novel social group membership. As in other research (e.g., Bigler, Jones, & Lobliner, 1997), teachers used the groups to label children and organize the classroom. Over the course of several weeks, children completed three novel tasks and received feedback indicating that their performance was either excellent or mediocre and their ingroup's performance was either excellent or mediocre. Thus, there were four conditions: personal performance excellent, group performance excellent (positive verifying); personal performance excellent, group performance mediocre (overachieving); personal performance mediocre, group performance excellent (underachieving); and personal performance mediocre, group performance mediocre (negative verifying). Effects of condition on self-perceptions, views of the tasks, and intergroup attitudes were then assessed. Results indicated effects of personal and group feedback on children's task evaluations, ingroup identification, and intergroup attitudes. There was stronger evidence for main effects of feedback type than for interaction effects of feedback consistency versus inconsistency. Results are discussed in light of self-categorization, selfverification, and optimal distinctiveness theories.

Thesis (M.Sc.) -- Memorial University of Newfoundland. 1976. / Typescript. Bibliography : leaf 71. Also available online.

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / Pressure on children implies external forces making a compelling demand on their time and strength to comply with higher standards of excellence in the classroom and on the sports field. Modern society greatly admires competence and efficiency and places special emphasis on achievement, success and winning. As a result children I s education also reflects a tendency towards intense competition inside and outside the classroom. Several underlying causes are given for the pressure on children. Conflicting values and the expectations of parents and teachers are the most important causes which create a feeling of uncertainty inside the child. It is, therefore, essential for educators to reconsider their attitudes towards children. Pressure as a result of external forces often cause feelings of anxiety in children, affecting their learning abilities, creativity and personality development. In this regard the value of intrinsic motivation must be emphasized. This will enable a child to cope with failure and respond in a positive manner to the challenges of life. The role of competition in the lives of children must be appreciated and educators need to justify their actions on moral grounds. If competition helps the child towards self-fulfilment, promotes cooperation among people, creates equal opportunities for all, recognizes human dignity, sets realistic expectations and protects the individual's health, it can be regarded as healthy competition which can be instrumental in the upliftment of a child's self-image and self-confidence. A modular curriculum is often suggested as a solution for the problem of overloaded curricula which result in over structured lives where children have very little time for themselves. It is the intention of this study to create a greater understanding for the problem of increasing pressures on children in modern society.

Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-48).

We analyze performance under pressure and estimate the causal effect of audience size on the success of free throws in top-level professional basketball. We use data from the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the seasons 2007/08 through 2015/16. We exploit the exogenous variation in weather conditions on game day to establish a causal link between attendance size and performance. Our results confirm a sizeable and strong negative effect of the number of spectators on performance. Home teams in (non-critical) situations at the beginning of games perform worse when the audience is larger. This result is consistent with the theory of a home choke rather than a home field advantage. Our results have potentially large implications for general questions of workplace design and help to further understand how the social environment affects performance. We demonstrate that the amount of support, i.e. positive feedback, from a friendly audience does affect performance. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series