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 An Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of Initial Occupational Choice by Male High School Graduates(1986) Cox, Donald Francis; Brechling, Frank; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)This dissertation consisted of an empirical analysis of the determinants or initial occupational choice by male high school graduates. The approach used was based on the theory of random utility. According to this approach, the individual selects a particular outcome from a set of possible outcomes based on both observed and unobserved characteristics of the individual and the particular possible outcome. In this analysis, the occupational choice set contained three possible outcomes. These possibilities were civilian sector employment, military service and college enrollment. For empirical analysis, a sample of 1,748 male high school graduates was drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youths (1979-1981). The empirical model consisted of a mixed discrete/continuous simultaneous 4 equation system. Three estimation strategies were used. The first was a sample two stage logit/ordinary least squares procedure. The second was a modified two stage logit/ordinary least squares procedure that corrected for self-selectivity bias. the third strategy consisted of a modified two stage logit/ordinary least squares procedure that corrected for both self-selectivity and choice-based sampling bias. The estimation results indicate that the decision to enlist is most sensitive to the net income of the individual's family and the predicted civilian sector wage. The military experience of the individual's father and the desire to acquire additional training are also important in this decision. In addition, the differences in the estimates across the three estimation procedures illustrate the importance of correcting for sample biases.Item The Effects of Police Systems and Their Environments on Police Homicides: An Exploratory Analysis(1988) Taylor-Greene, Helen Elizabeth; Wellford, Charles; Criminology & Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of police systems and their environments on police homicides. Data from five sources, the Crime Control Institute, International Association of Chiefs of Police, Joint Center for Political Studies, Police Executive Research Forum, and the United States Bureau of the Census were used to create the database which included information on police systems, their environments and reported police homicides. This study provided an exploratory analysis of the effect, if any, of the following on police homicides: (1) police administrative review and investigation policies, (2) firearms training standards, (3 ) police system resources (4) demographic community characteristics, (5 ) political community characteristics, and (6 ) community crime characteristics. The most significant findings of the research were the following: (1) In a multivariate analysis of police homicides, the civilian homicide rate was the best predictor of police homicides. (2) There was no significant association between restrictiveness of review and investigation policies (Control), moral, legal and ethical aspects of firearms training, financial resources or education of sworn personnel and police homicides. (3) Race as a system environment variable was correlated with other environment variables at the zero order level but not significant in the multivariate analyses. (4) Civilian Homicides, Race, Black Political Empowerment and Family Ratio were moderately associated with police homicides at the zero order level. (5) Demographic characteristics had little, if any, effect on police homicides. (6) Interjurisdictional variation existed not only in police homicides but also in system management, resources and environments. These findings suggest that police system environmental factors are the best predictors of police homicides. While police departments should continue to strengthen the internal management of police homicides through policies and training, they should include other approaches to controlling and preventing police homicides. One approach should be the development of a model program to educate officers and civilians on police use of deadly force. These programs should focus on (1) attitudes and fears of police officers towards Black citizens and vice versa (2) human relations training and (3) the role of community violence in police violence. The systematic collection and dissemination of police homicide data is essential to future police use of force research. The data should include fatal and nonfatal shootings and be easily accessible. Future research should examine race as an organizational factor. Analyses of the effect, if any, of racial attitudes of police officers and racial composition of police departments on police homicides are needed.Item Washington, D.C. and the Growth of Its Early Suburbs : 1860-1920(1980) Levy, Anneli Moucka; Groves, Paul A.; Geography; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)During the nineteenth century, the North American city greatly changed in size and internal structure. With the introduction of mass transportation, large scale suburbanization took place as one aspect of this change. Members of the evolving middle class not only wished to escape the pollution and congestion of the urban core, but also believed strongly in a 'rural ideal,' translated into a 'suburban ideal.' Urban changes and suburban growth were especially pronounced in industrial cities, and descriptions of conditions in these cities identify the accepted model of the spatial configuration of the metropolis existed in 1920. Examination of the growth of Washington D. C. between the Civil War and World War I indicates that the city shared few of the characteristics of the accepted urban model. Nevertheless, it exhibited distinct suburban movement connected with three major transport modes, including the steam railroad. The belief in the 'suburban ideal' was broadly based in Washington and therefore much variation was found among the city's suburban communities, even among those associated with the same transportation mode. Furthermore, in contrast to the suburban model, conditions in the suburban areas often did not compare favorably with those in the city. Even so, the suburbanization process accelerated from small beginnings, so that by 1920 the city displayed the local variant of the typical star-shaped pattern.Item Political Economy of the Third World Bilateralism(1984) Moon, Chung-in; Pirages, Dennis; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)The birth and development of extensive bilateral economic ties between Korea and Saudi Arabia, as we explained in Chapter Four, depended only partly on a set of preconditions conducive to the rise of such bilateralism. Industrial complementarity shaped by the precise timing of development sequencing provided both countries with various economic incentives to cooperate with each other. At the same time, their structural position in the international division of labor and the constraints resulting therefrom, combined with endogenous political and economic factors, had induced political elites of both countries to share a certain strategic consensus in their foreign economic policy which nurtured a feeling of mutual necessity. In this sense, it can be argued that both Saudi Arabia and Korea were endowed with a set of necessary conditions to promote bilateral ties. However, the mere existence of these necessary conditions alone does not offer a satisfactory explanation for the dynamic interactive processes which evolved around the Saudi Arabian-Korean connection. Certainly these preconditions define the parameters of the structure of bilateral interaction between two countries in terms of economic and political factors (i.e., comparative advantage and price, structural position in the international economic system and the range of policy choice, and domestic decision-making structure and the level of bilateral preference). It is from these preconditions that we can deduce a set of causal conditions leading to the rise of bilateral ties. Nevertheless, the process-level dynamics and the mechanisms through which this bilateral connection developed are not explained in these preconditions. In this connection, Chapter Two asserted that "the channel and process-level dynamics of inter-South bilateralism are a function of entrepreneurial dynamism (private) in general and the nature of business -state relationship in particular." In other words, since private entrepreneurs carry out economic transactions between two countries, it is essential to examine the role of private entrepreneurship in the evolution of the Saudi Arabian- Korean connection. Under standing the nature of entrepreneurial dynamism within the bilateral setting is not an easy task. However, Chapter Two identifies four behavioral and structural factors associated with business practices of private entrepreneurs: perception or monitoring capability of new markets, overall entry conditions in new markets, market penetration strategy, and the nature of a business connection as a structural determinant of the effectiveness of market penetration. This chapter's hypothesis is that the keener the perception of the new market the more effective the penetration strategy, and the more extensive the magnitude of business connections, the higher the level of bilateral economic transactions. once caveat is in order, however. The entrepreneurial dynamism involved in the Saudi-Korean connection is chiefly one way, rather than two way. While Korean businessmen were anxious to get into the Saudi market, Saudi entrepreneurs were less interested in Korea because their involvement with Korea was solely based on oil exports which did not require entrepreneurial efforts. We focus primarily, therefore, on the entrepreneurial dynamism exhibited by Korean businessmen and on the receptivity of Saudi entrepreneurs.Item Design for Decline: Executive Management and the Eclipse of NASA(1982) Petrovic, Nancy; Elkin, Stephen; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This study examines the organizational development of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration from the creation of its parent organization in 1915 through the 1960s. It focuses especially on the relationships which the organization's leadership established with external groups and individuals, as well as with its own employees . The dissertation intends to: provide a more adequate explanation of NASA's decline than currently exists; gain some insight into the management of research and development organizations within the federal government; and determine the utility of using different theoretical perspectives for exploring how organizations change. The findings from the case study are related to existing theories of organizations, and different explanations of NASA's decline are evaluated. Among the various reasons identified for NASA's decline, management's maladroit handling of several potentially conflicting organizational goals figures prominently. Steady decline in agency appropriation levels after 1965, coupled with the lack of widely agreed upon criteria to evaluate its technical and management decisions, produced in NASA a striking example of an organization unable to successfully adapt to changes in its external and internal environment.Item Modelling of Heuristic Evaluation Strategies in Game Playing: Linear and Configural Effects in Othello(1981) Phillips, Robert Vernon III; Norman, Kent L.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Psychological research on problem solving began with Thorndike's work on trial and error learning with cats, dogs, and monkeys. Kohler later initiated research with apes which convinced him that problems could be solved with insight. Through the 1940's, the study of human problem solving focused on general principles (following the Gestalt tradition) and S-R mechanisms to explain how people solve problems. The advent of computer technology in the 1950's spurred research in artificial intelligence, game playing, and problem solving. Formal definitions of problems outlined the components of a constituting the problem representation. This provided a framework for computer scientists to mechanize problem Solving with algorithms of search. Computer scientists met with success in developing programs to work on well-defined problems, such as games and puzzles, where the components of the problem representation are easily stated. Once the representation is adopted, solution is a matter of search. It has been shown that the efficiency of mechanized search is aided by the use of a ''heuristic evaluation function" (Nilsson, 1971), which has a form similar to psychological models applied in research on human decision making and judgment (Slovic and Lichtenstein, 1972). Samuel (1959), used a regression model of human judgment based on the knowledge of skilled checkers players in order to produce a heuristic evaluation function for a checkers playing program. Another model which can also be used to provide a heuristic evaluation function is based on Anderson's (1962) technique of functional measurement. This approach allows estimation of subjective scale values for the levels of information components relevant to playing a game. In contrast to these linear models, Edgell (1978) has argued that people can utilize configural information when making judgments, an issue which has been avoided by most decision modelling research. Samuel (1967) showed that use of configural infermation by a heuristic evaluation function can augment the skill of a checkers playing program, but the question of whether human players use such information was not researched. This paper reports one pilot experiment and two other experiments which were conducted to investigate whether people do use configural information when evaluating alternative moves in a game situation. The effects of game experience, learning, and training on use of configural information were examined. In addition, the research was conducted in a game playing situation in order to address the issue of ecological validity (Neisser, 1976) in psychological research. As Newell and Simon (1972) have argued, a good psychological theory of how a good chess player plays chess should play good chess.Item Cuban Latin Americans: Psychosocial Correlates of Cultural Adjustment(1988) Sinclair, Elsa A. Rivera; Magoon, Thomas M.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)The process of adjustment to a new culture-acculturation-- is considered a crucial factor contributing to variations of psychological distress and anxiety among immigrant groups. It is believed that a person's level of distress during the cultural adaptation process is a reflection of the interconnection of the psychological and sociocultural processes of personality functioning. Behavioral scientists' accounts of the psychological effects experienced by Latin Americans during the cultural adjustment process point to maladjustment rather than to the positive aspects of this cultural phenomenon. To a lesser degree the literature reveals that acculturation may have a wholesome effect for some individuals in the long run. Some evidence, however, suggests that biculturalism may be a healthy approach to cultural adjustment. The present study investigated the psychosocial correlates of biculturalism. Two-hundred and fifty four male and female Cuban participants ranging from 18-90 years of age, living in metropolitan Washington, o.c., were administered self-report questionnaires. This field study examined the role played in biculturalism (Bicultural Involvement Questionnaire, BIQ) by age, length of time in the United States, and gender of the participants. The role played by presence of a support group, educational level, income level, ethnic identification, and use of mental health facilities was also explored. The criterion for level of adjustment was the participants' anxiety scores (State Anxiety Scale, SAS). The investigation's assumption is that biculturalism is related to relatively low anxiety levels. A hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis revealed that (a) biculturalism and anxiety are related to the length of time the Cuban participant has been in the United States, (b) biculturalism is associated with the person's age, (c) there is a significant and positive linear relationship between BIQ scores and SAS scores. This means that if a person continues to remain monoculturally Cuban while living in a bicultural community, his/her levels of anxiety will be high. This tested the psychosocial model of adjustment. However, the test for the curvilinear relationship was not significant, and (d) the presence of support group networks, educational level, family income and ethnic identification are significantly associated with the process of biculturalism.Item PREDISPOSING FACTORS IN PEDOPHILIA(1989) Gordon, Susan; Spokane, Arnold; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This was an exploratory study about the etiology of pedophilia which examined the biological, psychological, and social background variables that may predispose men to a paraphilic sexual orientation. The biological variables included were chromosomal and hormonal irregularities. The psychological variables were introversion, depression, moralistic attitudes, and aggression (MMPI scales). The social background variables were childhood losses, relationship with parents, childhood sexual victimization, familial pedophilia, incest, and violence. Data on these variables were collected from a retrospective chart review of former male patients at Johns Hopkins sexual Disorders Clinic. The patients represented six different paraphilic (sexually deviant) diagnostic categories: (a) Homosexual pedophiles (b) Heterosexual pedophiles (c) Bisexual pedophiles (d) Exhibitionists (e) sexual sadists (f) Atypical paraphiliacs. Results of a stepwise discriminant analysis indicated that there were significant demographic, biological, and social differences among these six paraphilic groups. There were also significant differences between the major groupings of pedophiles (homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual pedophiles) and non-pedophiles (exhibitionists, sadists and the atypical group). Demographically, the diagnostic groups differed with respect to age, birth order, marital status, number of children, occupation and education. Biologically, the paraphilic groups had different testosterone levels. Psychologically, the paraphilic groups did not differ. Because only 14 of the 211 subjects had been given the MMPI, however, results of the analysis of psychological variables must be interpreted cautiously. Socially, the paraphilic groups' differences included experience of childhood loss, age of first sexual involvement, use of violence, and incestuous involvement. Two path analyses were conducted to test models of correlational relationships among the variables. The path analyses were conducted first with, and second without, the HMPI scores. Results indicated that two path coefficients were significant: (a) social circumstances, and particularly having a pedophile relative, was related to childhood sexual involvement with an adult, F(4,118)=6.54, p<.001; (b) incestuous involvement with a child was related to sexual orientation, F(1,203) = 11.19, p<.001. It is concluded that although generalizations about pedophiles as a single group cannot be made, a biological predisposition (hormonal irregularities) may interact with childhood familial relationships (father-son) in the development of paraphilias. This study's limitations, suggestions for future research, theoretical and practical implications are presented.Item Expectations for Organizational Combinations(1985) Rentsch, Joan; Schneider, Benjamin; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This study is an attempt to learn more about the expectations that people hold for organizational combinations (mergers and acquisitions). A measure of organizational combination expectations was developed to test hypotheses regarding the power, autonomy, identity, job security, and morale expectations that people hold for combinations. It was hypothesized that one's expectations would depend on the individual's perspective in the combination, that is, whether one is in an acquired, merged, or acquiring organization. Expectations were also hypothesized to differ depending on the motive for the combination (e.g. organizational survival or organizational growth). It was expected that perspective would also influence perceived uncertainty. The relationship between perceived uncertainty and motive, and the influence of perspective, and motive on expected satisfaction were also explored. 252 MRA students were presented with scenarios of combinations in which perspective and motive were manipulated. They then responded to the survey of combination expectations, a measure of perceived uncertainty and a satisfaction scale. Results indicated that motive and perspective did have significant effects on expectations, but they did not influence expected satisfaction. The influence of perspective on uncertainty was not significant. Uncertainty was influenced by motive, such that there was less uncertainty when growth was the motive than when survival was the motive. Exploratory analysis indicated that expectations are better predictors of expected satisfaction than is uncertainty, Implications of the results and the limitations of the study are discussed.Item The Politics of Variations in U.S. Foreign Direct Investment Policy Towards Less Developed Nations, 1948-1977: Focus on 1973 Policy Reorientation(1982) McDonell, Ann Temple; Piper, Don C.; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Previous studies of U.S. policy towards foreign direct investment in less developed nations by U.S. business corporations fail to fully identify policy content and the inter play of variables over time. Utilizing a public policy approach, this research is limited in scope to investment guaranty and expropriation policy. The policies are conceptualized both as dependent variables which need to be explained and as independent variables with influence on political and economic outcomes in inter-state relations. Drawing on Congressional hearings, historical accounts, roll call votes, nationalization cases, comparative country data, and detailed investment, insurance and aid statistics, the research found that international environmental conditions precipitated the formulation of policy content through a particular policy network concerned with investment issues. Investment guaranty policy was found to be primarily determined by foreign policy goals, liberal-conservative ideology, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Congressional specialists. Politicization of investment issues, accompanied by domestic pressures, caused the breakdown of consensus and policy reorientation in 1973. Investment policy effects, measured by goal aspirations, were marginal but implementation by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation provided unexpected utilities. Adverse effects were created by concentrations of investment, a by-product of unrestricted capital flows. Expropriation policy was determined by business corporate interests and Congress. As nationalizations of U. S. property increased from 1962-1974, counterproductive policy sanctions were mandated. To avoid policy decisions as crisis response, the full range of investment policy issues needs a comprehensive coordinated re-formulation through a restructuring of priorities in the Executive branch of the U. S. government and within the international community.