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Drawing upon previous research about long-term care service utilization and social network analysis, a conceptual framework is developed and presented that identifies those social network factors appearing to have the greatest potential impact upon the differential utilization of long-term care services by older persons. Using this framework, and a research methodology that employed the techniques of social network analysis, an exploratory study was conducted which examined the social network factors associated with the differential utilization of formal long-term care services by older persons living in two counties of northwestern Florida. / Differences were found to exist between the study's two subject samples with regard to several of the social network factors that were examined. The nature of those differences suggest that the type of formal long-term care services used by the older persons in the study, may have, in part, been influenced by certain structural qualities of the social networks by those persons, by certain attitudes and values held by those persons with regard to their networks, and by the nature and quality of the relationships that existed between those persons and individual members of their networks. / The results of the exploratory study have important implications for formal providers of long-term care services and for persons who are involved with the development of long-term care social policy. In addition to those programs and policy implications, the study demonstrates that despite certain methodological weaknesses, the method of social network analysis developed for this study can be a valuable research tool for adding to present knowledge about long-term care service utilization. Such information can be critical for the future development of policy and programs concerned with meeting the long-term care needs of older persons. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: A, page: 0548. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

This study was an initial effort to use social network concepts to compare the informal support systems of mothers identified as child abusers with those of non-abusing mothers. A social-psychological approach was taken to the measurement of social network strength. The strength of the mother's primary group network was defined in terms of the mothers' reported perceptions of the amount of role-supportive help available to her from neighbors, friends, and relatives. / The data were collected by means of structured interviews with two groups of mothers. A group of 38 mothers were interviewed who had been identified as physical child abusers by one of eight public protective services programs in North Florida and North Georgia. A control group of 59 mothers who had not been reported for child abuse were similarly identiviewed. / A structured, 51 item Index of Social Network Strength, was developed by the author and used as the interview guide. The instrument contained 28 Likert-type items which yielded a summated index of the mother's perceived strength of her combined neighbor-friend network and an index of the perceived strength of her kinship network. The total of the combined scores was the measure of the mother's perceived strength of her total primary group network. The data collection instrument also provided demographic characteristics of the mothers, a measure of their use of formally organized parent-support services, a marital satisfaction index, and an index of situational stress. / An inverse relationship was hypothesized to exist between mothers' perceived strength of their primary group networks and maternal child abuse. This inverse relationship between mothers' perceived strength of primary group network and maternal child abuse was hypothesized to be stronger for mothers in high stress situations than for mothers in low stress situations, and stronger for mothers who reported low use of formally organized parent-support services than for mothers who reported high use of the service. The fourth hypothesis postulated that the inverse relationship between mothers' perceived strength of their kinship network and maternal child abuse would be greater than the inverse relationship between the mothers' perceived strength of their neighbor-friend networks and maternal child abuse. / The data were analyzed by means of contingency tables and non-parametric statistics. Chi-square was used as a measure of statistical significance and Yule's Q was used as a measure of the strength of association between the variables. / The findings supported the major research hypothesis. Mothers who perceived their primary group networks as strong were significantly less likely to be child abusers than mothers who perceived their primary group networks as weak. This inverse relationship between the mothers' perceived strength of their primary group networks and child abuse was significantly stronger for mothers who did not utilize formally organized parent-support services than for mothers who did utilize them, and was stronger for lower-income mothers than for higher-income mothers. Level of situational stress did not significantly influence the inverse relationship between mothers' perceived strength of their networks and child abuse. The perceived strength of the mother's neighbor-friend networks was found to have a stronger, negative association with child abuse than did the perceived strength of their kinship networks. / The findings suggest that interventions to prevent maternal child abuse should be directed toward strengthening the social linkages between abusive or potentially abusive mothers and their neighbors and friends. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-02, Section: A, page: 0806. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Two experiments replicated the results of a series of earlier studies (Sagi and Hoffman, 1976; Simner, 1971). Calm infants cry in response to the tape-recorded crying of other infants. In addition, four new findings were reported: (1) crying infants continue to cry in response to the crying of another infant; (2) crying infants who hear their own cry almost completely stop crying; (3) calm infants who hear their own cry make practically no response; (4) calm infants simply ignore the cries of a chimpanzee and an older child. The response differential between own cry and other cry tapes was taken as evidence in opposition to a conditioning hypothesis. A post hoc explanation of response crying was offered. It was suggested that the observed behavior is based upon the concept of intraspecific rivalry--response crying is an evolutionarily adaptive mechanism by which infants compete for food and physical contact from adult care-givers. The behavior is peer and species specific. Finally, several suggestions for further research were offered. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-08, Section: B, page: 3233. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

The actor-observer bias in social psychology has been very well documented (Jones, 1976) and states that actors tend to attribute the causes of their behavior to situations while observers tend to attribute the causes of the actor's behavior to personal dispositions. An extension of this bias, termed perspective effects, has recently been demonstrated (Arkin, Gabrenya, & McGarvey, 1978; Regan & Totten, 1975) and indicates that the more similar the roles of the actor and observer, the more similar the observer's attributions will be to those of the actor. / The present study investigated two hypotheses related to perspective effects and causal attributions for behavior. First, it was predicted that inmates would make less internal attributions than prison staff about an offender since their social role is more similar than prison staff's to the offender's. Second, based on Batson's (1975) work it was predicted that causal attributions for criminal behavior would be related to recommended rehabilitative techniques. / A 2 x 2 x 3 factorial experiment was conducted with the factors of role (either inmate or prison staff), attributional condition (either internal-stable or external-unstable), and type of crime (either monetary, monetary involving violence, or violent). Sixty inmate volunteers and 42 institution staff volunteers at the Federal Correctional Institution (Tallahassee) were administered experimental questionnaires consisting of two crime scenarios and 22 Likert type scales. The scales measured crime specific perceptions (e.g., blame for the crime, likelihood of a subsequent crime being committed, internality of the cause of the crime, stability of the cause of the crime, belief in the crime description, intentionality, and seriousness of the crime), human nature perceptions (e.g., the goodness of human nature, the ability to change behavior by oneself or with the help of others), endorsements of rehabilitation programs (e.g., high school diploma program, vocational training, counseling, employment aid, financial subsidy, and religious services), and a decision about the locus of potential change for each program (e.g., either within the offender or within the offender's environment). Each participant rated two different crime scenarios on the 22 Likert items. / Results indicated some support for the hypothesized attributional differences between inmates and staff; staff indicated a greater degree of internality of the cause of the crime than did inmates for the monetary crime and the monetary crime involving violence. Staff also indicated a greater perceived stability over time for criminal behavior than did inmates for the same two crimes. There was no evidence to support the hypothesis that causal attributions were related to recommended rehabilitative techniques; rather role and type of crime seemed to influence the program endorsements such that inmates recommended financial subsidies more strongly than did staff and financial subsidies were more often recommended for the monetary crime. The violent crime received the lowest rating for the vocational training program. When the cause of the crime was seen as highly stable, low inmate education level also seemed to strongly influence recommendations for the General Equivalency Diploma program. Failure to confirm the hypothesized relationship between attributions and rehabilitative recommendations may have resulted from the respondents' vast experience with programs in the institution, unlike Batson's (1975) participants who were generally more naive with respect to their client population and specific programs. Of particular interest, was the positive endorsement of the financial subsidies program by inmates but not by institution staff. This program description was based on the LIFE financial subsidy program (Lenihan, 1977) which has been demonstrated to be somewhat more successful than other programs in reducing recidivism. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-10, Section: B, page: 3937. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

A study utilizing a questionnaire format was undertaken to compare married, cohabiting and dating individuals on four variables: equity (overbenefitted, equitably treated, underbenefitted), optimism for continuance of the relationship into the future, relationship satisfaction and time with partner. It was proposed that cohabiting individuals would indicate more inequity in their relationships, with male cohabitors more likely to indicate that they were overbenefitted in their relationships than female cohabitors and all married and dating subjects. In addition, it was hypothesized that cohabitors would be less optimistic about their relationships' future, less satisfied with their relationships, and have relationships of shorter durations than married and dating individuals. / No differences for the equity classifications and optimism for the relationship's continuance among the three relationship types (married, cohabiting, dating) were confirmed, and male cohabitors were not found to be more likely to indicate that they were underbenefitted than other respondents. Most respondents in the three relationship types indicated that they were equitably treated and optimistic about their relationships' future. However, dating individuals were found to be slightly less satisfied with their relationships than married and cohabiting individuals, but the subjects in all three relationship types were, on the whole, satisfied with their relationships. Finally, married individuals had been with their partners for greater amounts of time than both cohabiting and dating individuals. / Females were found to be more likely to indicate that they were underbenefitted than males. Underbenefitted individuals indicated that they were less satisfied with their relationships than overbenefitted and equitably treated individuals, with married and cohabiting subjects especially likely to exhibit this tendency. Equity had no effect on the relationship satisfaction of daters. / Long term married respondents were less satisfied with their partners than other married individuals. Underbenefitted marrieds were less satisfied with their relationships and less optimistic about their relationships' future than equitably treated and overbenefitted marrieds. / No single relationship type was found to be more likely to terminate their relationships, and relationship type and equity had no effect on the couples' follow-up assessments of their relationships. Neither cohabitors or daters were more likely to become engaged or get married. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-06, Section: B, page: 2604. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

Two experiments investigated whether minority influence and conformity operate by the same or by different processes. It was predicted that subjects who were simultaneously exposed to a majority and a minority condition would move towards the minority in private but towards the majority in public. Eighty-four females with moderate attitudes towards gay rights were selected for Experiment 1 by an attitude pretest. In a 3 x 2 design, subjects either read a summary of a discussion in which four participants opposed and one favored gay rights, or one in which four participants favored and one opposed gay rights, or no summary (control group). Subsequently, half of the subjects responded to an attitude posttest on gay rights in private, the other half in public. A 3 (influence condition) x 2 (private/public) ANACOVAR on the posttest scores with pretest scores as covariate supported the predicted interaction between influence condition and private versus public response. Experiment 2 investigated three hypotheses predicting that (1) the above interaction would be replicated, (2) minorities would trigger more arguments and counterarguments, and (3) cognitive activity could mediate internalization but not compliance. Eighteen males and 30 females were exposed to the same procedure as in Experiment 1, but recorded their own thoughts before responding to the posttest. A 2 (influence condition) x 2 (private/public) x 2 (order) ANACOVAR on the posttest scores with pretest and sex as covariates replicated the interaction of Experiment 1. The second hypothesis was not supported. However, a 2 (influence condition) x 2 (order) x 2 (minority/majority) x 2 (arguments/counterarguments) mixed ANACOVAR with sex as covariate revealed that minorities triggered more arguments and fewer counterarguments than majorities. The third hypothesis was supported in a multiple regression / procedure in which influence condition was either entered before or after the cognitive activity scores. If entered second, the effect of influence condition on attitude change was wiped out for the private but not for the public responses. The results were interpreted as supporting the dual process model. Implications for future research and methodological issues are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-03, Section: B, page: 0914. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

This questionnaire survey investigated the causal attributions made about outcomes of sexual experiences. Subjects were queried about the extent to which self, partner, the situation and a new dimension--the sexual relationship--were responsible for the results of sexual encounters. / The sample consisted of 233 male and female, graduate and undergraduate students at Florida State University enrolled in Home and Family Life, Business, Sociology, and Psychology courses. / It was hypothesized that attributional differences would be a function of the satisfaction experienced in a given sexual interaction as well as the gender and sexual history of the individual subject. The extent to which persons viewed themselves as satisfied and involved in their general relationship also was hypothesized to predict the kinds of attributions made. / Analysis of variance and hierarchical regression were performed to analyze the data. The results indicated that subjects ascribed significantly more importance to their sexual relationship, their partners, and themselves when making attributions about satisfying sexual outcomes versus unsatisfying ones. There was a significant interaction between outcome and gender for the partner attribution measure. Women made more partner attributions for satisfying sexual outcomes than did men; men made more partner attributions for unsatisfying outcomes than did women. There was also an interaction between outcome and sexual history for the sexual relationship attribution dimension. Women with a problem history of experiencing sexual satisfaction made significantly more attributions to the sexual relationship for current unsatisfying outcomes than did women with a problem free history. / General relationship satisfaction accounted for a consistent but small amount of the variance in predicting causal ascriptions to the sexual relationship for satisfying sexual outcomes, especially for women. Relationship variables did not appear to predict the use of other attributional dimensions. / The results suggest that men and women are quite similar in their attributional patterns about sexual outcomes and that those differences which do appear may be a function of ego-enhancing, ego-protective or role norm consensus biases. Finally, the study strongly advocates that a relationship dimension be included in subsequent attributional research on interpersonal processes. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-12, Section: B, page: 4969. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

This investigation examined persons 60 or over concerning their volunteer activity. Volunteering was defined as contributing one's time without pay to non-profit organizations in the community. A list of older volunteers was compiled and subjects were randomly selected from that list. A non-volunteer group was similarly formed to serve as a basis of comparison and accord a fuller understanding of the volunteers. / Volunteers were found to have more income, to be younger, more educated, more likely to be white and more likely to be married than their counterparts who do not volunteer. The volunteers had higher measures of self-esteem and peer relations than the non-volunteers. Subjects who volunteered prior to age 60 were more likely to be presently volunteering, but 19 percent of the present volunteers had never volunteered before the age of 60. The 75 volunteers interviewed were found to be more active in volunteering now than before the age of 60. This is probably due to an increase in leisure time as a result of retirement or other role loss. / Of the 56 non-volunteers, a startling 59 percent expressed a willingness to volunteer and a main reason given for not volunteering was simply that no one has asked them. Both volunteers and non-volunteers preferred volunteering in a setting that served members of their own age group. / Older persons have historically underutilized and/or have been underserved by the social service network in the community. Results of this and other investigations indicate that there is a significant group of older volunteers and potential volunteers waiting to be asked who can be used to bridge this service gap. In addition to providing a service, it was learned that volunteers may benefit themselves in terms of higher self-esteem and peer relations. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: A, page: 0549. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

This study examined the relationship between the level of involvement in decision-making, as perceived by staff, and the performance of those staff members in a human service organization as well as the effect on that relationship of the extent to which staff want to be involved. / The data were gathered by means of a questionnaire administered to 235 direct service and unit supervisory staff within two geographical districts of the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. The data collection instrument included scales developed and used by other researchers to measure the variables of participation in decision-making, job discretion, and congruence. The instrument also included a seven-dimension scale developed by the author to measure a staff person's perception of quality of work being performed. Demographic data were also gathered from the respondents. / A positive relationship was hypothesized to exist between the level of a staff person's participation in organizational and job specific decision-making and the perceived quality of staff performance. It was also predicted, however, that not all staff wanted a great deal of involvement in such decision-making and that whether or not one was satisfied with one's level of involvement, regardless of what that level was, would affect the quality of staff performance. It was expected that the staff who either want more or less involvement than they have would perceive a lower quality of work being performed than would staff who are satisfied with their level of involvement. / The findings largely supported the hypotheses but only for direct service staff. The possession of job discretion appears to be more important to an assessment of high quality work performance than does participation in organizational decision-making. Additionally, the findings suggest that staff who are either satisfied with the level of job discretion or want less of it evaluate staff performance higher than staff who want more. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: A, page: 0549. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.