This study investigated the effect of cost-of-escape on helping among children. Forty-four children between the approximate ages of six and twelve served as subjects. The experiment was performed in a natural setting using an ice cream truck. The driver (experimenter) manipulated the cost-of-escape and then had an "accident." The easy-to-escape group received their ice cream before the driver spilled 300 spoons on the ground. The difficult-to-escape group had paid for their ice cream but had not received it before the "accident" occurred. The number of spoons picked up by each condition and the lapse time before a member of each group began to help was recorded. No differences were found between the groups (all ps > .05). Implications for cost-of-escape were discussed.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

With dual-career couples and single-parent families on the rise, adults may find themselves overloaded with work and family responsibilities, resulting in the experience of work-family conflict (WFC). Further, employers appear to be demanding more from their employees, while giving less. Therefore, it is important to discover ways in which to manage the conflict between the work and family domains. Since level of involvement within a particular domain has been previously demonstrated to have a positive effect on WFC, the present study examined the possible moderating effects of social support on the relationship between work and family involvement and WFC. Surveys assessing work and family issues and dependent care needs were distributed to a random sample of university faculty, staff, and students. Since WFC was a focus of the present study, surveys from those respondents who met the following criteria were analyzed: a) those who worked more than 20 hours per week, and b) those who had either a partner or a child, resulting in a sample size of 203. Based upon factor analyses results, social support and WFC were addressed in terms of their subscales. Specifically, social support was assessed from three sources: a) partner; b) supervisor/co-workers; and c) friends/relatives. WFC was assessed as work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW) . Multiple hierarchical regression analyses indicated that family involvement was a significant predictor of both WIF and FIW, however, work involvement did not appear to have a positive effect on either type of WFC. Buffering effects of social support from all three sources were demonstrated for the relationship between family involvement and FIW. Additionally, social support from partner and from supervisor/co-workers moderated the relationship between work involvement and FIW. Further, social support from supervisor/co-workers moderated the relationship between family involvement and WIF. Finally, gender did not appear to have a significant effect on the buffering effects of social support. Limitations of the present study and future research implications are discussed.

A case study of two software teams in a large American software company revealed evidence of a power imbalance and intergroup conflict. The case study was used to generate questions about the effects of task-dependence on interpersonal work relationships. Situational affordances and Heider's balance theory were used to explain how task-dependence and expectations impel helping behaviour between coworkers. The theoretical model was tested using an experimental card-game. The card-game was designed so that the task would remain the same while three factors of task-dependence were manipulated: level of dependence (low vs. high), mutuality of dependence (asymmetric vs. symmetric), and reward interdependence (individual vs. group). The goal was to isolate these aspects of task-dependence and measure their effect on helpful behaviours and intragroup conflict. The results indicated that as the level (the amount) of dependence increases, the amount of intragroup conflict increases, but so does the number of helpful behaviours. As the mutuality of dependence changes from asymmetric to symmetric, the number of helpful behaviours increases, but the intragroup conflict decreases. The experiment deepens the findings of the case study: asymmetric dependence is associated with intragroup conflict and it presents a situation where the more powerful of the two is less inclined to give help to their dependent. Unexpectedly, however, if the level of the dependence increases, the more powerful of the two will offer more help. These findings contradict the predictions of social exchange theory, interdependence theory, and the power and influence approaches. Balance theory offers an explanation: a request for help coming from a co-worker in great need creates an imbalanced cognitive situation, one with more tension than the situation created when a request comes from someone less dependent. One way the help-giver can relieve their cognitive tension is to offer help; helping a co-worker satisfies the co-worker's expectations, thereby balancing the help-giver's cognitive situation. The experiment also demonstrated that a high level of task-dependence is necessary for helpful behaviours to increase; without the ability and opportunity to help afforded by task-dependence, greater social expectation will have little effect on the amount of helping behaviour.

A case study of two software teams in a large American software company revealed evidence of a power imbalance and intergroup conflict. The case study was used to generate questions about the effects of task-dependence on interpersonal work relationships. Situational affordances and Heider's balance theory were used to explain how task-dependence and expectations impel helping behaviour between coworkers. The theoretical model was tested using an experimental card-game. The card-game was designed so that the task would remain the same while three factors of task-dependence were manipulated: level of dependence (low vs. high), mutuality of dependence (asymmetric vs. symmetric), and reward interdependence (individual vs. group). The goal was to isolate these aspects of task-dependence and measure their effect on helpful behaviours and intragroup conflict. The results indicated that as the level (the amount) of dependence increases, the amount of intragroup conflict increases, but so does the number of helpful behaviours. As the mutuality of dependence changes from asymmetric to symmetric, the number of helpful behaviours increases, but the intragroup conflict decreases. The experiment deepens the findings of the case study: asymmetric dependence is associated with intragroup conflict and it presents a situation where the more powerful of the two is less inclined to give help to their dependent. Unexpectedly, however, if the level of the dependence increases, the more powerful of the two will offer more help. These findings contradict the predictions of social exchange theory, interdependence theory, and the power and influence approaches. Balance theory offers an explanation: a request for help coming from a co-worker in great need creates an imbalanced cognitive situation, one with more tension than the situation created when a request comes from someone less dependent. One way the help-giver can relieve their cognitive tension is to offer help; helping a co-worker satisfies the co-worker's expectations, thereby balancing the help-giver's cognitive situation. The experiment also demonstrated that a high level of task-dependence is necessary for helpful behaviours to increase; without the ability and opportunity to help afforded by task-dependence, greater social expectation will have little effect on the amount of helping behaviour.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1979.

Graduate

Teacher preparation institutions have begun to challenge the sufficiency of the "Three R's" approach to education. Many concepts once thought to be on the periphery of education and learning are being considered. One such concept, the impact of "helpful relationships" on learning has most recently moved to the foreground in the research and theoretical literature. If, as this literature is indicating, the quality of the student-teacher relationship is critical to learning, teacher education programs ought to be focusing on that relationship. If such a focus is taken, students in teacher education ought to be able with increasing precision to identify a "helpful" teacher. To be able to identify what a helpful person is or does allows a frame of reference from which to evaluate one's self, one's impact, one's effectiveness. Such an individual can consciously choose to be helpful and can recognize the times when he is or is not behaving in a helpful manner.The purpose of this investigation was to determine what happens to a student's ability to identify a helping relationship as he progresses through the program of Elementary teacher education at Ball State University.The subjects were Elementary Education majors at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana during the 1971-1972 academic year. A sample of 45 subjects was randomly selected from each of the following groups: freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior. The instruments utilized to ascertain a helpful relationship were the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory and a specifically designed semantic differential instrument. The resultant data were analyzed using the one way analysis of variance technique comparing the means of the four classes. The .05 level of significance was established for rejection of the null hypothesis.An analysis of the data indicated that there was no significant differences between the four classes in their ability to identify a helping relationship.Some clear trends were in evidence, however, and were discussed. Recommendations for further study pertaining to the identification of a helping relationship were made.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--School of Nursing. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2008. / "A dissertation in nursing." Advisor: Patricia J. Kelly. Typescript. Vita. Title from "catalog record" of the print edition Description based on contents viewed Sept. 12, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-114). Online version of the print edition.

M.A. (Psychology) / The present study represents an attempt to develop a metatheory with regard to counseling theory and practice. The metatheory is based upon principles abstracted from the General Systems Theory, whereby it is possible to encompass all levels of client functioning in the explanation of behavior and the application of helping strategies. The present state of theory in counseling was taken as the point of departure. Counseling theory is shown to be hindered by a state of seperateness and fragmentation. It is also shown that there currently exists a tendency towards the integration of different theories and the helping strategies involved. Eclecticism is studied as a way of integrating different counseling strategies. It is shown that although applicable as a method of integration, eclecticism is theoretically unsatisfactory because of its subjective and unsystematic character. Other methods of integration and its implications to the development of a meta theory in counseling is then discussed. The General Systems Theory is then discussed in terms of its value to the development of a metatheory in counseling. It is shown that by differentiating between the complex systems representing an individual's functioning, and the cybernetic feedback cycles involved in these systems, valuable guidelines for the implementation of helping strategies can be obtained. Two cybernetic feedback cycles that ought to be closely moni- . tored during the counseling process is mentioned. They are (a) the interactions amongst biological and physiological factors, thinking, feeling and acting, and (b) the feedback patterns in the larger social systems of which the client forms part, for example family and career functioning...