Date of Award
1978
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Steeves, Frank L.
Second Advisor
Dupuis, A.
Third Advisor
Ivanoff, John
Abstract
This research has sought and gained information in regard to certain profiles of program satisfaction, interaction, and work-attitude that represented the membership of three teacher-preparation programs. The question of whether group member program satisfaction was significantly correlated with group member interaction style was investigated. Also investigated was whether members with certain profiles of interaction and work-emotion were suggestible to profile fluctuation through exposure to an experimental treatment called an Instruction Session. The purpose of the Instruction Session was to provide each member of the experimental group with detailed knowledge as to the nature of each of the interaction, work-emotion, and satisfaction profiles of the other group members. The Instruction Session also provided each member with detailed knowledge of the nature of his own obtained profiles. Two specific instruments were used to provide the desired data. The sixteen members of the experimental group were given an opportunity to express their program satisfaction or dissatisfaction through an instrument titled, Program Variable Rating Scale. The profiles of interaction style and work-emotion were obtained from the experimental group members through a pretest and double post-test administration of the Self-Descriptive Q-Sort developed and used by Herbert Thelen and Dorothy Stock. A control group of nine members also participated in this research. The membership of this control group was pooled from two other Education Departments representing two other private liberal arts colleges of a similar nature to that of the experimental group. The profiles of interaction style and work emotion were obtained from the control group members through one pretest and one post-test administration of the Self-Descriptive Q-Sort. Data obtained from both groups was analyzed through the statistical procedures of single order correlation, independent t-testing and correlated t-testing. No significant relationship was found to have existed between the program satisfaction profiles and certain interaction profiles obtained by the experimental group. The interaction profile of Pairing was found to be the most predominant interaction profile among the members of the experimental and control group. The work-emotion profile of Work-Destructiveness declined from pretest to post-tests among the experimental group members very significantly, but showed no such decline among the control group members. It was concluded that such significant decline was indication of an Instruction Session effect, also called a "resolution effect", on certain experimental group members who revealed Work-Destructiveness profiles at the Q-Sort pretest administration. The most important implication for further research in regard to this study may be the possibility that negative work-emotion of a department member may be reduceable through the development of a specific procedure which clearly reveals such an attitude to the department member. The revelation to department members of their own profiles and the profiles of their department member peers may cause a renewal of positive resolution on the part of members whose work-emotion toward department concerns is of a Work-Destructive nature.