Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-87). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Psychology and Cognitive Science, 2004. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Dec. 8, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-05, Section: B, page: 2859. Chair: Kelly S. Mix.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Syracuse University, 2009. . / "Publication number: AAT 3381595."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2008. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-184). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR51668

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Syracuse University, 2005.

Thesis (PH.D.) -- Syracuse University, 2006 / "Publication number AAT 3242508."

<p> This study was an investigation of the proportions of male and female adolescents who commit violent crime and also exhibit depression or conduct disorder. The National Comorbidity Survey: Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A) database of 10,148 surveyed male and female adolescents was examined to determine adolescents who reported having been arrested for committing a violent crime or committing a violent crime without being apprehended (the violent crime group) and who had also been diagnosed with depression or conduct disorder according to DSM-IV-TR criteria. Findings showed that 72 (22.9%) of the 314 violent males had been diagnosed with depression and 146 (46.5%) with conduct disorder. Fifty-nine (44.4%) of the 133 violent females had been diagnosed with depression and 61 (45.9%) with conduct disorder. Chi-square tests revealed that the proportion of violent females with depression was significantly larger than the proportion of males (P = 0.001). There was no significant difference between violent males and females in diagnoses of conduct disorder.</p>

Methods of assessing the self concept were reviewed. Two measures of the self concept stated by previous experimenters to be related to psychological adjustment as measured by other psychological tests were discussed. These two measures were, uncertainty about what the self is really like, and self acceptance. An experiment was carried out to investigate the relationship of these two aspects of the self concept in children to psychological adjustment, as measured by tneir anxiety, neuroticism ana extraversion scores on the Childrens Personality Questionnaire (C.P.A.T). The subjects were 127 children, between the ages of 7--12 years, and their 6 teachers. An attempt was also made to investigate the reported relationship between the children1s self concept, and the personality of their teachers as measured on the 16 Personality Pactor Questionnaire (I.P.A.T.), and the teachers attitudes to certain teaching situations as assessed on the Sargant Insight test using specially devised armatures. It was found that increase in uncertainty about the self concept in children between the ages of 7 and 12 years,was associated with significantly higher neuroticism scores than decrease in, or no change in uncertainty scores. (The change was assessed over a 10 week period in a normal school term). Both increase and decrease in uncertainty about the self were found to be associated with significantly higher anxiety scores than no change in uncertainty. It was found that high self acceptance and medium self acceptance were associated with significantly lower anxiety and neuroticism scores than low self acceptance. However, looking at the separate age levels tested it was found that: a) the level of anxiety shown by children with high self acceptance scores rose with age. b) the numbers of children with very high self acceptance scores decreased with age. It was found that the anxiety scores of children in the classes of the three more introverted teachers were significantly higher than those of the children in the classes of the more extraverted teachers.

The present study is concerned with the relation between children's self-acceptance, and their acceptance by their peers, as well as the developmental processes involved in the establishment of the self-image during middle childhood. 144 children divided into four age groups (age 7.5, 8.5, 9.5 and 10.5) were included in the study. Children's self-image was investigated in terms of three variables: 1) self-acceptance 2) uncertainty or inconsistency of self-evaluation, and 3) a social versus personal orientation in evaluating both self and peers. Social adjustment was studied in terms of four variables: 1) sociometric status, 2) reciprocal choices, 3) insight into peers' choices, and 4) peer interactions during play situations. In the first part of the study, the equivalence of three measures of self acceptance: 1) self-esteem derived from an interview technique, 2) self-acceptance derived from a Q sort technique, and real self-ideal self congruency (derived from Kelly's repertory grid technique) was borne out. Self-acceptance and real self-ideal self congruency were found to be positively associated, though not entirely overlapping. The second part of the study was concerned with some developmental trends, which emerge during middle childhood in the self-image, as well as in peer-interaction. In this respect it was found that: 1) self-acceptance linearly decreases with age. 2) real self-ideal self congruency decreases with age, though a quadratic rather than linear age trend component was found. 3) Children's uncertainty with regard to self-evaluation linearly decreases with age. 4) The amount of peer interaction in play situations linearly increases with age. Social self-orientation (in terms of the ideal self) was found to increase with age. A parallel personal selforientation linearly decreased with age. A differentiation according to a social versus personal orientation in evaluating peers and self was investigated by principal component analysis. In the fourth part of the study a curvilinear relation between self-acceptance and acceptance by peers, tested separately in each of the eight subgroups (divided according to age and sex), was confirmed. Furthermore, the significance of this relation linearly increased with age.

The development of laughter is little understood even though it is an area of human behaviour that long intrigued psychologists and philosophers. A framework for understanding is required. With guidance from existing literature, observational data is used to develop such a framework. It is argued that no one single approach can, in principle, explain the phenomenon. Laughter occurs in too varied situations for it to be possible to claim that it is due to one single cause. Moreover, laboratory studies usually require subjects to laugh at 'funny' stimuli on cue. As a result, they have focussed on responsive laughter rather than on the conditions under which subjects try to make others laugh. Given this background, observational data is useful. In this study observational data from a longitudinal study of two children and from a study of children in a playgroup are used to argue that very young children not only laugh responsively but also create occasions for their own laughter. Moreover, while their ability to laugh develops in many ways linked to their cognitive and social development, they can still laugh at the kinds of situations that made them laugh when they were very young. It is concluded that observations have helpfully added to ways in which the development of laughter has been conceptualised. It is also suggested that some observations of laughter in young children have implications for research on how young children are capable of intentional behaviour.