College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item Land Use in Charles County(1962) Langen, John S.; Van Royen, W.; Geography; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)The land use of Charles County does not basically differ from that in the past. Land in forest and land in farms are the two categories of land utilization. The great demand for tobacco on the overseas markets in the early days of the county's history, led to the introduction of this crop. Because of the favorable climate and soils, tobacco became soon the mainstay of the county's economy, a situation which still exists today. The purpose of the thesis was to determine which geographical factors and others accounted for the use of the land. In addition to field work, use was made of detailed statistical data. It was found, that the county could be divided into three sections. In the western section, land in forest was the dominating land use form. In the central section, land in forest and land in farms were about equal in areal extent, whereas in the eastern section, land in farms dominated. The reason was that soils in the western part became exhausted, and a shift to the eastern section took place. Landforms contributed much to the distribution of land in crops, especially for tobacco. Recently, a change in the use of the land is taking place. The encroachment of the Washington Metropolitan area, and the building of a major highway, connecting the North with the South, have induced farmers to sell their lands, which are converted into residential areas.Item Juvenile Delinquency and the Negro in Charles County, Maryland(1966) Seaman, Thomas W.; Lejins, Peter P.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)Are there differences between Negro and white juvenile delinquents? This was the question that constituted the basis for this exploratory study. The objectives of the project were to determine if Negro juveniles were proportionately overrepresented among juvenile delinquents and if there were differences in types of offenses committed by Negro and white delinquents. The differences found were analyzed in the light of socio-economic class differences between Negro and white delinquents. Previous research has tended to indicate that racial differences disappeared when socioeconomic class was held constant. The area selected for the project was Charles County, Maryland, because of the writer's access to court records and knowledge of the area. Delinquency rates were developed to determine if Negroes were proportionately overrepresented among delinquents and/or if lower class juveniles were overrepresented among delinquents. Delinquent offenses were divided into four types: offenses involving theft or attempted theft of property, offenses involving violence, offenses involving the destruction of property, and offenses injurious to the child himself. Delinquency rates were developed for Negro and white delinquents in each socio-economic class for each type of offense. A simple ecological investigation was conducted to determine if there were any significant patterns in the spatial distribution of the delinquents. The findings show that Negro juveniles were not significantly overrepresented among delinquents even though Negro delinquents were overrepresented among lower-lower class delinquents. White delinquents were found to be overrepresented among delinquents from the lower-middle and upper-lower classes. The analyses of types of offenses revealed that types of offenses could be identified with certain levels of the socio-economic structure regardless of race, but that differences existed between Negro and white delinquents within socio-economic classes. The ecological investigation indicated that there was no significant ecological pattern among county delinquents.Item Internal Migration to Osaka Prefecture, Japan(1956) Lewis, David Michael; Hoffsommer, Harold; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)Item A Comparative Study of Certain Personality Characteristics of College Women Participating in Basketball and Modern Dance(1965) Bird, Anne Marie; Johnson, Warren R.; Health Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)Twenty-five college women attending the University of Maryland during the spring semester of 1963 were studied in an effort to determine whether or not there were any identifiable personality characteristics among those (14) who chose to participate in basketball, as compared to those (13) who chose to participate in modern dance. The subjects used in this study voluntarily chose the activity in which they participated. The California Psychological Inventory was used to evaluate the personality characteristics of the subjects. Analysis of the data showed that the basketball group scored significantly higher, at the 5 percent level of confidence, on the community scale. The modern dance group scored significantly higher, at the 5 percent level of confidence, on the scales measuring flexibility and femininity. A comparison of the group means for all other scales proved insignificant at the 5 percent level of confidence.Item Economic Development in Southern Italy Since the Establishment of La Cassa per il Mezzogiorno(1965) De Bone, Anthony Louis; Bennett, Robert L.; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)The study begins with a survey of the social and economic structure of the area. Attention is then focused on the nature of economic dualism in Italy by pointing out that the Northern economy yields to those employed in it a reasonably high income per capita, while the Southern economy provides for those working in it a low income per capita. In 1950 the Italian Government undertook to increase the level of public investments under a ten-year development plan for the South. It entrusted the execution of this plan to a new agency, La Cassa per il Mezzogiorno . Its life was soon extended to 1965 and more recently to 1980. The ultimate goal of the program was to reduce the differences in the consumption and income levels between the North and the South and to integrate the South into the national economy. Southern developments since 1950 and their effects on the economy are discussed, with emphasis on the Cassa programs and investments. It is discovered that many serious obstacles must be overcome in order to change the economic structure of a region such as Southern Italy. Despite the large transfer of resources to this area, The economic structure has changed little since 1950. However, whatever judgment may be passed on the Cassa at a later date, it is apparent that until now production has been concentrated in those sectors that offer relatively little possibility of rapid growth.Item The Economic Development of Iran(1948) Abbas, Ordoobadi; Ratzlaff, C.J.; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)In the machine age, with the advance of mass production, a new problem has occupied the minds of economists. This new problem is not the Malthusian doctrine of inadequate supplies but rather that of a rate of production too high to be sold continually at profitable prices. With periodic insufficiency of demand industrial countries have faced depressions of varying duration and intensity, which have continued until the rate of production and demand once more were in equilibrium. Despite increased industrial productivity a large part of the world subsists at a standard of living which provides insufficient food values and which does not yield a minimum amount of housing, medical care and education. In industrial countries from ten to fifty per cent of the working population is unemployed during depression periods although workers are willing and able to work in order to obtain goods. In the non-industrial countries, on the other hand, millions of workers are victims of what has been termed "disguised unemployment." They find themselves at tasks which are much below their potential productivity and consequently yield a standard of living substantially under that which they are capable of achieving. The solution to this problem in the undeveloped areas lies partly in spreading the gains of science, both pure and practical; in combining adequate doses of capital and management with the supplies of labor; and in using the excess of resources originating from technical advances in industrial countries . A program on this line would at the same time eliminate inadequate demand in the high-standard countries and depressing poverty in the low-standard countries. As far as Iran is concerned, it is necessary to know her economic background before the necessary measures for economic development can be discussed intelligently. In this respect, in spite of a few works by Iranian and foreign scholars, the materials on the economy of Iran, in English literature, are limited. The result of insufficient and first-hand information or "little knowledge" of some writers has been a distorted picture in which certain points are overemphasized, while the significance of others are under-estimated. Statistics, censuses and data in many aspects are lacking. The absence of statistics makes the study very difficult . Due to the scarcity of published data on many of the topics discussed in the present study, it has been necessary to secure the desired information and data directly from the Ministries of Iranian Government and/or offices concerned. The present economic situation of Iran is the product of an evolution, and can only be under stood by a study of its economic background. Therefore, the application of August Comte's adage that "no conception can be understood except through its history" seemed a logical approach in this study.Item STANDARDIZATION AND THE UNITED STATES(1959) Moench, John Otto Dax; Government & Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)For the past decade and more, the United States, through its military departments, other agencies of government, and private organizations, has placed a considerable investment in national and international standardization. A significant portion of this effort has gone into national standardization, but, with the increasing recognition of the principle of mutual defense and economic interdependence, an ever-increasing portion of the effort has been expended to achieve international standardization. However, in spite of good intentions and the application of considerable resources to achieve standardization, the results have been limited and the program, itself, has been marked with frustration, conflict, uncertainty, ignorance, open disagreement, and confusion. This is not directly a criticism of the personnel, agencies, and organizations participating in the program- - it is more a reflection of the conditions and circumstances encountered in society and in the processes of standardization. For four years (1954- 1958) the author of this thesis was in charge of the United States Air Force international standardization effort. During that period, he became uniquely concerned with many aspects of the United States national and international standardization programs. In consideration of this experience, while the author attended the Air War College of the United States Air Force (1958- 1959) he was given authority to conduct an extensive research of the problem of standardization. Based on this research and his personal experiences, the author then prepared for the United States government a lengthy history of the problem of standardization in the United States together with a discussion of the current national and international policy, organizational, and other problems. Due to the sources of much of the information used by the author in this governmental report and the nature of some of the conclusions, the document cannot be made public. However , since there is an almost complete lack of writings in the United States on this most vital national and international subject, the author considered it worthwhile to devote this thesis to discus sing those general portions of the problem that were not of a sensitive nature. In the bibliography appended to this thesis, the author has indicated the full range of the more important documents and information sources to which he has had access. It is not thereby implied that all the cited sources have been used directly in this thesis, but the listing will serve to give the reader a feel for the base upon which the author has built this thesis.Item The Fair Housing Movement: An Overview and a Case Study(1965) Noe, Kaye Sizer; Cussler, Margaret T.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)The fair housing movement is a recent development in the general civil rights movement. While subscribing to the ideology of the general movement, community fair housing groups concentrate upon making middle-income, and particularly suburban, housing available to financially qualified Negroes. Few fair housing groups are affiliated with Negro civil rights groups, and most are all-white in membership. Their methods utilize many of the concepts first developed in sociology and social psychology; their programs emphasize community relations when a Negro move-in is imminent, property listing services which bypass the practices of discrimination entrenched in the real estate industry, and subscription by community members to open covenants. They seldom try to "force" integration using test cases, attempting rather to prevent discrimination against Negroes seeking homes in their communities and to avoid violence. The major portion of the research was a case study of a fair housing group in Greenbelt, Maryland. The program of this group emphasized a "planning" approach to integration and publicly avoided the moral-ethical arguments which have been central in the general civil rights movement. Such resistance as they encountered was from individuals concerned about the possible effect of Negro occupancy on property values in the older, low-income section of the city. The leaders of the group were active in civic activities, representative of most religious faiths, tended to be college-educated, and many had a history of affiliation with other "liberal" groups. Few were active in other facets of the civil rights movement. It was concluded that the fair housing movement tends to be moderate rather than radical in its membership and strategy, and that its scope (some 600 groups in metropolitan areas across the United States) represents near-spontaneous action at the grass-roots level based on a conviction that discrimination on the basis of race is wrong.Item An Evolution of Land Use in Kent County, Maryland(1953) Singleton, Carey B. Jr; Van Royen, William; Geography; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)The object of this study is to determine the land use changes that have taken place in Kent County, located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland (See Fig. 1) with emphasis on recent land use changes. The principal objectives of this study will be to ascertain, analyze, and review the evolution of land utilization in Kent County. A major trend within the past ten years has been toward a decreasing number of farms and, at the same time, a decreasing number of people gainfully employed in agriculture. This trend has resulted in the displacement of agricultural earners by fa.rm machinery and farm consolidations. An increase in the average size of farms is due to "outsiders" - business men from out-of-state -- who have established themselves in the county by buying and combining principally waterfront property. Thus large estates are formed along with the restoration of Colonial homes. This type of land tenure has been bringing about utilization of the land in the form of large dairy and beef herds. Kent County has the smallest number of farms of all the counties in Maryland but it has the largest average farm size in the state. This is an area of predominantly large dairy farms with highly mechanized machinery and equipment. The major trend in the last 25 years has been from cash grain to livestock raising which has resulted from the growth of dairying. The pattern of field crops has also changed from cash grains to feed grains for the large dairy herds. This study has been accomplished through the use of field work historical data, tables, maps, and photographs. The assumption can be made that greater permanency and stability in land use may be assured by utilizing the land for what it is best suited to produce. In an agricultural county, such as Kent, the retention of the soil, maintenance of its fertility, and the productivity are fundamental and therefore, the outstanding problems of optimum land utilization in the county. Land use adjusted into a pattern set by man should be utilized according to its capabilities. Optimum production and use of the land may be obtained by utilizing it for purposes to which it is best adapted. This is essentially a geographical problem in the final analysis and is manifested by a myriad of socio-economic factors that compose the gamut of land use implications. The author's interest in this area emanates from a field course in Geography and a number of trips through parts of this county. Field work was accomplished during the spring and summer of 1952 and constitutes the primary source of data for this thesis. The initials of the author appear where compilation of maps and graphs have been drawn from research and field data. All photographs have been taken by the author during his field work in the county.Item Social Reinforcement and Diurnal Rhythms in Baboons(1966) Thach, John S. Jr; Gollub, Lewis R.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)The frequency with which one monkey opened a door for two minutes of visual and physical contact with another monkey was examined as a function of several experimental procedures. In the first series of manipulations removal of the second monkey allowed a comparison between the effects of the social reinforcing object and the effects of the non-social stimuli incidental to delivery of the social reinforcer. During daily four-hour sessions, reinforcement rates (number of door openings/unit time) with a monkey in the adjacent cage averaged several times those when no monkey was in the adjacent cage. Removal of the second monkey did not significantly affect rates of food and water reinforcement, but removal of food and water contingencies did increase rates of door opening to an empty cage. Idiosyncratic factors contributed to above-zero rates when the cage was empty. For example, one subject's empty-cage rates were halved, and his amount of stereotyped rocking nearly stopped, by a wall placed next to the door. The existence of pertinent variables peculiar to the individual subject and to the particular apparatus directs attention to the necessity of control procedures. In the second set of conditions two baboons lived in the cages 24 hours a day and were under continuous illumination, as they had been for several months. During a short initial period when either monkey could open the door, and in a second longer period when only one could open the door, the monkeys had a very regular day length of approximately 14 hours, which remained synchronous with clock time. The experiment did not identify the pertinent elements entraining the monkeys' activities. This persisting alignment with clock time under reasonably stable conditions suggests that the entraining environmental stimuli were more subtle than those demonstrated in the literature. The monkeys also revealed a distinctive patterning of frequency of social contact as a function of time of day. The distribution had a midmorning peak, a midday low, and a minor afternoon peak, the same pattern recently documented as occurring in troops of wild baboons. This pattern was only barely noticeable in distributions from individual days, and became significant only when averaged across days. To a lesser degree, similar patterns were evident in distributions of food and water reinforcement rates. In the final set of procedures two levels of food deprivation, two levels of social deprivation, and two times of day were produced by alternating the subjects in morning and afternoon sessions, by conducting only morning or only afternoon sessions, and by pre-feeding and "pre-socializing" in a sequence designed to contrast the effect of one condition against another. Regardless of deprivation of social or other reinforcers, the subjects displayed a higher rate of social reinforcement in the mornings than in the afternoons. An early morning "pre-socializing" session slightly lowered the usual morning rate of social reinforcement, but preceding an afternoon session with a morning session, an early morning and a morning session, or by no session since the previous afternoon, had no effect on the afternoon social reinforcement rates. Independence of social reinforcement rates from variations in food deprivation, and low frequencies of eating with the door open implied that the presence of food did not appreciably affect rates of social reinforcement. These studies established social reinforcement under controlled laboratory conditions as a strong reinforcer capable of maintaining behavior over long periods of time, and elucidated a pertinent variable in social reinforcement, that of diurnal rhythms.