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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Control (Psychology); Learning, Psychology of; Mentally ill children--Education;

Abstract

A single subject treatment comparison study was made with 2 junior high boys in a classroom for the emotionally disabled to determine the effects of their perceived locus of control on their response to different agents of reinforcement. Out of 7 students from a middle class background, the most internally and externally oriented students were chosen. Student orientation was determined by the results of the Modified Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire, an instrument designed to assess the degree to which students perceive themselves to be responsible for the events in their lives. The study consisted of data collection under teacher reinforcement, self-reinforcement and no reinforcement conditions. All students were given instruction and practice in appropriate ways to reinforce themselves. Data indicated that the student with an external orientation showed a higher increase in performance rate under teacher reinforcement conditions than under self-reinforcement conditions. The student with an internal orientation also showed a higher increase in performance rate under teacher reinforcement conditions. However, differences in behavior were noted. The internally controlled subject had no difficulty self-reinforcing, but the externally controlled subject had great difficulty doing this.

Year of Submission

1983

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education

Department

Department of Special Education

First Advisor

Donna Raschke

Second Advisor

William P. Callahan

Third Advisor

Barry J. Wilson

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1983

Object Description

1 PDF file (67 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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