Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.Helping

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Parental Responses to Children's Negative Emotions: Relations with Diverse Forms of Prosocial Behavior in Head Start Preschoolers
    (2015) Gross, Jacquelyn; Cassidy, Jude; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    An important predictor of prosocial behavior in childhood is parental response to child distress (PRD). Often, researchers have investigated the link between PRD and broad indices of prosociality. Recent research, however, suggests children’s prosocial behavior is multidimensional, with few studies finding correlations between specific behaviors. The goal of the present study was to investigate links between PRD and children's specific prosocial behaviors, in addition to examining these links among a rarely studied population. Predominantly African American preschoolers enrolled in Head Start (n=141) responded to an experimenter simulating needs; their helping, sharing, and comforting behaviors were recorded, and mothers reported on their PRD. Contrary to hypotheses, PRD did not predict any prosocial behaviors; also unexpectedly, the specific behaviors were correlated. These findings are inconsistent with previous studies, suggesting the multidimensional nature of prosociality, or the hypothesized role of PRD, may not apply to African American children from low-income families.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Determinants of Communal Strength: The Effects of the Other's Likeability and of Benefiting the Other
    (2006-12-04) Curtis, Ryan Dean; Mills, Judson; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This research investigated potential determinants of communal strength. Communal strength refers to the degree of motivation to respond to a communal partner's needs. It was hypothesized that increased liking for the other and giving a benefit to the other would each increase communal strength toward the other. Female participants completed pretest and posttest measures of communal strength toward another female student. Participants heard an audiotape that made the other sound likable or unlikable and in need of advice or not in need of advice. The participants gave advice to the other or observed someone else giving advice to the other. The results of an analysis of covariance of the posttest measure of communal strength, controlling for the pretest measure of communal strength, revealed support for both hypotheses. Communal strength toward the other increased when the other was likable, and when the person gave a benefit to the other.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Performance tip-sharing: When, and how, do employees share their insights?
    (2006-11-15) Burnett, Meredith Flowers; Shapiro, Debra L.; Management and Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of my dissertation is to expand understanding about when, and how, employees share performance-tips-- that is, when employees will more frequently disclose to their colleagues (in organizationally-targeted or coworker-targeted ways) the new ideas that they have discovered in the process of working that improve their work tasks (e.g., ideas that help employees to work faster, more efficiently, with fewer mistakes, etc.) for the purpose of helping others in the same job to complete work or solve problems to improve efficiency or quality. Current literature suggests that this is more likely to occur when employees: (1) feel more rather than less obligated toward their organization and (2) believe that sharing performance-tips will benefit, not harm, them. The conceptual problem I resolve in this dissertation regards my belief that the latter assumptions are overly simplistic since the effect of any one of them seems likely to depend on the presence or absence of the other factors and on what type of performance-sharing (coworker-targeted vs. organizationally-targeted) is occurring. Via a field-survey of employees in the information-technology industry, I test the more complex set of relationships I theorize as predictors of the frequency and type of performance-tip sharing that employees engage in. I conclude with the theoretical and practical implications of my findings.