Date of Award

Spring 1984

Document Type

Dissertation - Restricted

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Bardwell, Rebecca

Second Advisor

Gawkoski, Roman

Third Advisor

Davis, Anne

Abstract

This research addresses the question of whether or not a person feels more in control of his or her health and weight after weight loss has been achieved through surgical intervention. In addition, a number of variables, including several locus of control measures and health value, are assessed to determine which if any can be used as predictors of which patients will lose the greatest amount of weight. Participants were 100 patients who were planning to have the gastric bypass surgery in order to lose weight. Participants were evaluated with questionnaires both preoperatively and postoperatively. The questionnaires contained four measures of health and weight locus of control, a value measure as well as demographic questions and questions regarding the patients subjective reactions to the surgery, etc. The patient's weight was recorded at the time of pretest and posttest. Change in locus of control was measured using a multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures. The prediction of which variables would be predictors of weight loss was tested using a step-wise regression equation. The .05 significance level was applied for all statistical tests. There was a multivariate Time x Health Value interaction (p = .02). Only one of the health locus of control measures reached significance; however the results were not in the predicted direction. Therefore the individual univariate tests failed to support the prediction that there would be a greater increase in internality for higher health value subjects than there would be for lower health value subjects. The predicted increase in locus of control after the gastric bypass surgery was assessed with the time effect. There was an overall multivariate level of significance for the time variable (p = .0001). There was a time effect on the Powerful Others Health LC scale (p = .048) and on the Weight LC scale (p = .0001). Results and implications were discussed. Recommendations for future research were presented.

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