The goal of this study was to examine theory of mind and deliberate rule use in children with Down syndrome as compared to children of normal intelligence. Theory of mind was defined as the ability to understand that other people have thoughts, beliefs and desires. Deliberate rule use was considered to be the extent to which children were able to learn and subsequently switch between a set of ad hoc rules unrelated to mental states. Participants included 10 individuals with Down syndrome and 10 individuals of normal intelligence matched for mental age. The primary finding of this study was that individuals with Down syndrome do not possess a theory of mind at a mental age of 5 years. Furthermore, individuals with Down syndrome possess domain specific knowledge of embedded rules, whereas, individuals with normal intelligence apply an embedded rule structure that effects mental and non-mental state tasks equally. The embedded rule use of individuals with Down syndrome was characterized by: (a) an inability to effectively use embedded rules in theory of mind and deductive card sort tasks; and, (b) the ability to use embedded rules in a task assessing physical causality.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis draws on twenty-three women's retrospective accounts of their abortion experiences to examine the course of their feelings and the social, situational and personal contexts in which these feelings arose. Their experiences and feelings were affected by abortion's morally ambiguous status; its quasi-legal status (particularly between 1969 and 1988); its provision in medical settings in ways that differ significantly from the provision of other health services; and the on-going polarized ideological conflict over its acceptability. The experiences and feelings of the women interviewed were also affected subtly and profoundly by widely held expectations about how women in such situations normally do and should feel. The thesis examines the "feeling rules" (Hochschild, 1979) women encountered in interactions with others (confidants and health-care providers, notably abortion counselors) and how women's actual feelings, especially after the abortion, became problematic.

Inspection of the data obtained by Deckers and Kizer (1974) in exploring the incongruity hypothesis of humor brings to attention what appears to be discrepancies with the incongruity hypothesis of humor. Shifts in weight of equal physical proportion produced differential degrees of expressed humor. The incongruity hypothesis would predict humor to be a function of the size of the incongruity rather than the direction. In the present study, it was hypothesized that these differences in expressed humor were the result of incongruous shifts of unequal psychological distance. A total of 120 subjects were assigned to one of three ranges of expectation with half shifting tc a heavy weight and the others to a light weight. As predicted, shifts of equal psychological distance produced equal degrees of humor expression and shifts of unequal psychological distance produced differing degrees of humor expression. An interaction (p<.002) between the weight of the Standard and the weight of the Critical Comparison affected humor expression. The incongruity hypothesis was upheld.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

The purpose of this study was to determine what are the basic factors that influence one's attitudes toward death. Questions central to the proposed investigation are these:1. What factors can be identified which seem to predispose certain individuals to different types of attitudes toward death?2. What are the general societal participation styles of individuals of the various integration types? Can distinct styles be identified? For example, do those of one type have distinct occupations, marital status, similar residence size, and so forth as compared to those of another type?3. Are there specific differences among the integration types in terms of scores on tests measuring anomie? In other words, do some types have significantly greater amounts of anomie than other types?4. What specific factors are useful in determining an individual's measure of fear of death? Are some distinctions more useful than others in determining attitudes toward death?These questions are basically all interrelated. Tentative hypotheses may be suggested in regard to each of these questions:1. Fear of death varies inversely with the degree of integration of the individual in the social groups of which the individual forms a part.2. Fear of death varies inversely with the degree of internal orientation of the individual.3. Fear of death varies directly with the degree of anomie of the individual.A survey sample of 635 from various occupations, marital statuses, ages, and so forth was used for the study. A Fear of Death Scale was developed and administered along with Srole's Anomia Scale and Neal and Seeman's Internal-External Scale.The data generated indicate that basically fear of death is inversely correlated with the degree of integration of the individual in his or tier social groups. Those with higher rates of anomie did exhibit greater fears toward death. Those people who were more externally oriented also exhibited greater fears toward death. Both findings were predicted.A revision of Emile Durkheim's typology for suicides also yielded some results. The fatalistic type of attitude toward death which sees death as the price for a chosen life-style was tested by including police officers, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, and State Policemen in the sample. All were very low on the fear of death scale as predicted. The anomie type, as already suggested, exhibited greater fears of death as expected. The altruistic type was more difficult to measure. Since the over-fifty category had significantly lower fears of death, it would seem to at least not detract from the theory. Those who saw religion as preparing them for death were also low on the fear of death scale which is also consistent. The egoistic type seemed most prevalent among those persons who had little meaning or purpose in life. Those persons also had higher fear of death scores as expected.The lower level hypotheses were generally also supported with some exceptions. Projected differences in fear of death between males and females were not there. Also, the older the respondent, the lower the fear of death. Had children been included in the sample, this might not nave been the case. A trend also existed in that the larger the size of residence, the higher the fear of death as was also predicted. The predicted differences in occupational categories were not as great as projected, but they were in the direction that was predicted.The best indicators of fear of death, other than the comparative scales used, were the age of the respondent and his or her marital status. Widowed persons were less fearful of death followed by married, divorced, and lastly, by single people as predicted.

No description available.

In North America, hysterectomy is the most common major surgery for benign non-obstetric reasons (e.g., uterine fibroids, endometriosis, abnormal bleeding) in premenopausal women. Many of these conditions may result in pelvic pain, sexual and psychological difficulties. However, the capacity of hysterectomy to relieve these problems has not been adequately evaluated. Recently, there has been controversy as to whether less invasive surgeries such as subtotal hysterectomy, in which the uterus is removed and the cervix is left intact, are less detrimental than total hysterectomy, in which both the uterus and the cervix are excised. / The first part of this thesis consists of a comprehensive review of the literature on the psychosocial outcomes of hysterectomy published within the past 30 years. Controversial theories, empirical studies, and review articles are discussed with regard to sexual, pain, and psychological outcomes. Findings suggest that while hysterectomy results in reduced pain, there are no strong effects on sexual or psychological functioning. Nevertheless, many studies reported adverse psychosocial outcomes in a subgroup of 10-20% of women post-hysterectomy. / The second part of this thesis presents findings from a randomized controlled trial investigating the psychosocial outcomes of total versus subtotal hysterectomy. Premenopausal patients with benign gynecological conditions were randomly assigned to either total hysterectomy, i.e., laparoscopic assisted vaginal hysterectomy (N=32), or subtotal hysterectomy, i.e., supra-cervical laparoscopic hysterectomy (N=31). In addition, two control groups of premenopausal women undergoing minor gynecological surgery (N=30) and healthy women undergoing no surgery (N=40) were recruited. For the two hysterectomy groups, abdominal pain was significantly reduced post-surgery. There was some evidence for positive effects of hysterectomy on sexual functioning, while psychological functioning did not significantly change. The study indicated that total and subtotal hysterectomy produced equally beneficial outcomes. Although 3-16% of women reported various adverse effects in psychosocial functioning post-hysterectomy, similar percentages of the two control groups reported such changes.

No description available.