Teaching children with autism to interact with their typically developing peers can be a challenge. Previous research has documented that there are many effective ways to teach social interaction; however, these interventions were implemented almost exclusively by trained professionals. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of parent-implemented contextually supported play dates. Specifically, two parents were taught to use mutual reinforcement and to design cooperative arrangements to help their child with autism to interact with a typical peer in their homes. Two independent reversal designs were used to demonstrate a functional relationship between parent-supported contextually supported play dates and an increase in synchronous reciprocal interactions for both participants. Social validity was also high for both parents; however, there was no consistent impact on participant, confederate, or parent affect. The results are discussed with reference to previous research, future directions, and implications for practice. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The study of adolescents’ idols has an over 100-year tradition. The meta-analysis of Teigen, Normann, Bjorkheim and Helland (2000) showed that idols, which are commonly understood as role models, changed over the last century which is attributed to changes in the social context. The present paper argues that Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986) offers an appropriate theoretical framework to conceptualize social context by hypothesising a functional relationship between idols and identity management strategies moderated by the status position of the adolescent’s group s/he belongs to. The hypothesised functional relationship was tested in two studies with white and black adolescent South Africans. The results of the two studies supported our assumptions that the functional relationship between idols and identity management strategies is indeed moderated by status position. The results also indicate that Social Identity Theory seems to be an appropriate theoretical framework when social context is particularly conceptualised as social change.

A fundamental assumption underlying any interpersonal model of depression is that depressed social behaviour evokes a predictable response from others that in turn contributes to depression. Whereas most recent research has focused on the response that the depressed elicit in others, the present study examined the social impact of that response. The central premise of interpersonal models of depression can be expressed more precisely in terms of interpersonal circumplex complementarity theory: The hostile-submissive quality that has been reported in depressed behaviour evokes a complementary response from others (labelled RD). That response, in turn, evokes more hostility and submissiveness in the depressed, thus perpetuating the cycle. To have clinical relevance, RD would also be expected to induce relatively negative mood. Predictions regarding possible intrapersonal mediating variables were derived from critics and proponents of cognitive models of depression. After initial mood was assessed, each of 12 0 female subjects was shown a videotape depicting either RD or a control condition. Each subject then completed questionnaires assessing mood, her perceptions of what she would be like in the company of the person she had watched, and the social impact of the person she had watched. It was predicted that, compared to the control group, a) subjects exposed to RD would show more negative mood, b) they would anticipate that they would be more hostile and submissive in the company of the person they saw, and c) RD would impact as the interpersonal complement of hostility-submission, whether according to the traditional model of interpersonal complementarity or a facet analytic approach. These three predictions were borne out and the facet analytic prediction was supported. Further predictions that preexisting depressive symptoms and cognitions would correlate with mood and social acceptance for experimental group subjects were not supported. Methodological and theoretical implications are discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Art teachers have inherited unreconciled attitudes toward the teaching of drawing, which stem from an unresolved conflict between interventionists and non-interventionists. The resulting fragmentation of teaching practises is further confounded by consideration of the "crisis in confidence" period of drawing development that surfaces in grade four. In an effort to provide a clearer definition of the teacher's role in the drawing class, this study examined the practises of four exemplary art specialists^ Descriptive research techniques were employed in the observation of 27 drawing lessons, nine each at the grade two, four and six levels. Recorded dialogue was analyzed using Kakas' Peer Interaction Typology and Clements' Questioning Typology, and it was found that peers at all grades spoke most often about their own drawing experiences or artwork, and that teachers used mostly indirect questioning strategies when interacting with students. Data collected regarding initiators of interactions revealed that with increasing age came decreasing amounts of student initiated interaction, together with increasing amounts of teacher initiated interaction. It was also found that there was a paucity of peer interaction at the grade four level, and that in-process viewing of peers' artwork was an important component of the drawing lesson. Within a supportive environment, interaction generally ranged from neutral to positive. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Although past research has consistently demonstrated that hostile individuals report fewer satisfactory sources of social support, it remains unclear whether their evaluation is based on an objective assessment of their social environment or is coloured by hostile cognitions. To evaluate this question, 120 young adults, falling in the upper or lower tercile groups on a hostility measure, participated in a social cognition experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three priming conditions (Hostility, Support, or Neutral) designed to activate cognitive schemata. They then read through vignettes depicting stressful situations typically encountered by students and evaluated how supportive various offers of help would be perceived in response to these problems. A 2 Hostility (high, low) x 3 Condition (hostility, support, or neutral) MANOVA examined the impact of personality and primed schemata on judgments of social support. Analyses yielded a significant Hostility x Condition interaction. Simple main effect analyses indicated that individuals low in hostility made the most negative judgments of perceived helpfulness in the Hostility condition, supporting the prediction that an active hostile schema biases people to view offers of help in a more pejorative way. However, hostile participants made their most negative judgments in the Support condition, which could indicate that an active social support schema is associated with increased mistrust and guardedness about offers of help in hostile individuals. These data suggest that hostile and non-hostile individuals process support-related information differently, which has important implications for interventions designed to augment social resources in at risk individuals. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The goal of this study was to attempt to develop a classification scheme that systematically related individual behavior, interpersonal behavior, and group interactions for the purpose of using the resulting classification scheme to evaluate theories of group development proposed by Bion, Bennis and Shepard, Bales, and Tuckman and Jensen. It was assumed that theorists' presuppositions about the structure of groups might influence their theories. Using a qualitative process of analysis, a structural classification scheme (SCS) was developed based upon transformative and generative rules, utilizing the General System Theory subsystem process of self-regulated boundary operations. The SCS protocol was employed to categorize and compare the theories of group development proposed by Bion, Bennis and Shepard, Bales, and Tuckman and Jensen. The resulting categorization of theories indicated that relationships existed among and between a group's structural properties, the complexity and type of communication connections among and between group members, and the size of the group. In addition, a common structural relationship was demonstrated to exist among and between individual, dyadic, and triadic group forms. A similar structural relationship was also speculated to exist between groups of any size. It was concluded that a structural approach to groups may offer insight to group leaders and members in recognizing and creating alternative frameworks that best fit a group's structure to its task. This approach may have broad implications in that it suggests that group goals might best be considered before the structure of the group is determined. In addition, a structural approach was also speculated to be an emotionally neutral alternative method of discussing individual and group behavior.

Holograms are a newer form of digital media. Digital media is changing traditional arts. They are also shaping how people play. How holograms have influenced play and crafting is not well understood. This project used dollhouses to examine how crafting a digital dollhouse relates to crafting a tangible dollhouse. Further, the project examined how playing in both dollhouses compares. Two dollhouses were created by the author/craftsperson. She reflects on her craft practices, relating her two experiences. Adult play testers describe their play experience in the holographic dollhouse and tangible dollhouse. The author’s experience creating is analyzed through its material, social and playful aspects. She found each dollhouses had both material and immaterial qualities. She preferred playing alone in the dollhouses and found the creation process of the dollhouses was both play and work at the same time. The play testers’ experience was also examined through material, social and playful characteristics. Their responses to the survey indicated that grasping objects was difficult in both dollhouses. They reported that they would have preferred to play alone in the dollhouses and that both dollhouses felt playful. An area of potential research that was uncovered involved a question of ownership of the dollhouse and how this may have changed the results of the study.

The development of a theory of motivation in symbolic interactionism is traced, with particular reference to the work of G.H. Mead, Kenneth Burke, C.W. Mills, Nelson Foote, and Ernest Becker. Specific attention is focused on comparing the original theoretical assumptions of particularly Mead and burke to the varying formulations of the problems of motivation that were later developed by symbolic interactionists. Specifically, it is argued that, primarily due to Burke’s analysis, the traditional practice of deterministically explaining human action as being the result of variously imagined motives “in” people is, in fact, no explanation at all but simply a variety of metaphorical re-descriptions dressed in casual vocabulary. Rather than something “in” people that determines behavior, Burke argued that motives are a particular kind of communication that people use to rationalize given actions in specific situations. Following these assumptions, C.W. Mills was later able to integrate Burke’s analysis with Mead’s (et al.) theory of symbolic interactionism. However, as symbolic interactionism was later developed various theorists reintroduced the deterministic bias into the problem of motivation. A critique of this determinism is developed based on the “fallacy of tautology.” It is finally argued that, as a kind of communication that interactants use, the problem of motivation alludes to a sense of “drama” in social interaction in which individuals negotiate motives in order to influence the behavior of significant others. Thus, motives are seen to derive their meaning problematically in terms of how others respond in social interaction to an individual’s avowed motive.

Several recent longitudinal studies of large community populations have revealed that people with more extensive network resources live longer. However, it is not known whether this occurs because social ties prevent disease or retard its progression once it occurs. The purpose of this research was to: (1) determine the relationship between social network indicators and mortality in an urban sample; (2) extend that knowledge by addressing the relationship between networks and disease incidence and disease progression; (3) delineate which specific network sectors were the strongest predictors of the health related outcomes. This was uniquely possible because measures of the three dependent variables were available within the same data set at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. The research design was longitudinal, based on survey data. The conceptual framework posited that social support delivered via social networks modifies disease states. The setting was the Northwest Region, Kaiser Permanente Health Care Plan, an HMO serving the Portland/Vancouver SMSA. The sample included 2603 adults who participated in a 1970 household interview survey. Their health service utilization data from 1967-73 has been computerized and linked with the survey information. As of 1982, 376 have died. To measure the independent variables, four summary social network indexes (scope, size, frequency of contact, and interaction) were prepared according to a network model based upon the survey questions available, network theory, and prior research. Indexes representing nine relationship domains were constructed. Control variables included age, sex, SES, health status indicators, and health behaviors. Multiple logistic regression was used to assess hypothesis 1 and ordinary regression was used to assess hypotheses 2 and 3. Each of the four summary network measures was a statistically significant predictor of 12 year mortality. Network scope was the strongest predictor. Marital, family, and kin relationships were not predictive of death. Extended ties of close friends, other friends, work associates, and social leisure activities were significant predictors. No relationship was found between network scope, disease incidence, or disease progression, so it is still unclear how social connections act to decrease mortality.

No description available.