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Continuing Professional Education For Teachers And Its Relationship To Teacher Effectiveness, Gregory Allen Knoblock

Dissertations

In this study, the relationship between continuing education for the teacher and that teacher's effectiveness as measured by an achievement test and an evaluative measure completed by the teacher's students is investigated. The importance that number of hours, currentness, and subject area has upon any relationship with effectiveness, and the relationship between motivation for entry into and satisfaction with graduate/postgraduate work are also studied.

Data necessary to test these relationships were obtained from two sources: a survey of mathematics teachers in Macomb County, Michigan, and the results from two student instruments randomly administered to the classes of those teachers volunteering …

On Common Subgraphs, Hung Bin Zou

Dissertations

A greatest common (induced) subgraph of graphs G(,1) and G(,2) of equal size is a (an induced) common subgraph (without isolated vertices) of G(,1) and G(,2) having maximum size. For a given graph L, a graph G is locally L if the induced subgraph of the neighborhood of each vertex of G is isomorphic to L (L is called a common link). Several topics concerning these concepts are investigated in this dissertation. An historical background to these topics is given in Chapter I.

Chapter II is devoted to the topic on highly connected unique greatest common subgraphs of graphs. We …

The Implementation Of Deterrence: A Multi-Approach Assessment Of The Impact Of Recent Changes In Anti-Drunk Driving Legislation On Reducing Alcohol-Involved Fatalities, Josef R. Soper

Dissertations

The objective of this study is to determine if anti-drunk driving legislation, enacted between January 1979 and December 1983, has significantly reduced the number of alcohol-involved traffic fatalities.

At the macro-level, 60 consecutive months of alcohol-involved fatality data were requested from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Sixteen states supplied the requested data. The Box-Jenkins technique for interrupted time-series analysis was used to determine if a change in the state's drunk driving law impacted the frequency of alcohol-involved fatalities in that state. Results are discussed in relation to the statewide impact of anti-drunk driver legislation.

At the micro-level, …

A Study Of The Relationship Between Church Sponsored K-12 Education And Church Membership In The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Warren Earl Minder

Dissertations

Church growth continues to be a concern for religious sects. Writers on church growth hold that all the various ministries of the church must assist the church in accomplishing church growth.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not persons who had been students in the Adventist school system had greater probability of joining the church and staying in the church than those who did not attend an Adventist school but were from homes where at least one parent was a Seventh-day Adventist.

There were two dependent variables in the study: initial baptism to join the church …

Reinforcement Increases The Strength Of An Elicited Response, Michael D. Peters

Dissertations

A response initially produced by noncontigent fixed-time delivery of brief electric shock was strengthened by reinforcement. Following the fixed-time shock baseline condition, response contingent shock absence (avoidance) was programmed for the lower probability of two response options for one group of squirrel monkeys. For the other group the interposed history was variable-interval food reinforcement. When responding was reliably maintained reinforcement was discontinued and a return made to fixed-time shock conditions as programmed prior to reinforcement. Upon a return to original conditions, rates were substantially elevated over baseline with the elevation sustained for many sessions. The avoidance group showed the most …

The Status Of Performance Evaluation Practices As Perceived By Student Personnel Administrators In Michigan Four-Year Colleges And Universities, Todd Steven Voss

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to seek answers to the following question: What is the present status of performance evaluation practices as perceived by student personnel administrators in Michigan four-year colleges and universities.

The participants, consisting of 25 chief student personnel administrators and 68 student service department heads, were surveyed by means of a questionnaire soliciting information concerning the existence of essential elements in their department head evaluation system.

An analysis of the data revealed 64% of the institutions surveyed had an established department head evaluation program. In addition, the majority of both groups observed their system as fair …

Predicting Agency Survival As A Function Of Constituency Support In The Michigan Mental Health System, R. Dee L. Woell

Dissertations

Two public facilities for the mentally ill, Michigan Institute for Mental Health and Lafayette Clinic were examined, using a framework provided by Douglas R. Boulter (1983). The basic research question was, why did Lafayette Clinic survive while Michigan Institute did not?

The following research propositions were explored: (1) Organizations that receive strong constituency and media support are more likely to survive than those which do not; (2) Program success or failure is dependent on the decision-maker's perception of the sum of public support; (3) The media serves both as a carrier of opinion and as an influential actor in its …

The Intuitive Dimension Of The Therapist's Consciousness: A New Paradigm, Bonnie Marie Truax

Dissertations

The major purpose of this study was the examination of the incidence and nature of the intuitions of therapists. A secondary purpose was to create and evaluate an alternative approach to the study of human subjective experience. The research was completed in three phases.

Phase 1 involved creating a paradigm about intuition based on historical perspectives and viewpoints. Sixteen basic theoretical constructs about intuition were developed following an extensive synthesis and integration of philosophic and psychological literature.

In Phase 2, the paradigm was evaluated using the constant comparative method of qualitative analysis, which allows for the continual emergence of new …

The Effect Of Task Responsibilities On Assistant Principals' Roles, Sandra B. Sirotti

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect that increased responsibilities had on the assistant principal's role. Because of increased responsibilities, it was believed that the assistant principals had been forced to become more task and less person oriented as a result of inadequate time to deal with both tasks and people. The study was designed to ascertain whether there had been growth in task responsibilities and, if so, whether the growth had caused the role to become more task than person oriented.

The sample consisted of 400 Michigan assistant principals. From this sample, 67% of the administrators …

Behavioral Toxicology Of A Glucocorticoid: Analysis Of Selected Behavioral And Physiological Effects Of Repeated Prednisolone Treatment, Robert G. Sewell

Dissertations

Glucocorticoids are used medicinally for numerous chronic ailments. While dramatically effective, glucocorticoid treatment is replete with psychiatric complications. The behavioral toxicology of glucocorticoids, however, remains relatively unexplored. Therefore, 13 laboratory studies were performed to analyze the influence of prednisolone, a representative glucocorticoid, upon varied behavioral and physiological endpoints in rats. Experiments 1-3 showed prednisolone to produce marked hypodipsia, body weight loss, selective adrenal gland atrophy, hyperactivity, hyperalgesia, altered grasping responses, hyperglycemia, enhanced predation, and conditioned taste aversion. Most of these findings were directly dependent upon dose, and where explored, number of treatments. The remaining ten studies examined both acute and …

Implementation And Meta-Evaluation Of An Experimental Method For Evaluating An Administrator Training Program, Nancy B. Larsen

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to operationalize, test, and assess the utility, feasibility, propriety, and accuracy of the "success case method." A review of the literature revealed that although evaluation is presently being conducted in educational training programs, it is often not practical nor cost-effective. The Kirkpatrick model for evaluation provided the conceptual framework for viewing evaluation of training. A training managers' interview questionnaire was developed to elicit perceived changes in trainees' performance after training. Nine success cases, selected from a group of 37 administrators, were interviewed by telephone 2 weeks after the training. Selection criteria and procedures were …

Reducing Emg And Cardiovascular Reactivity With Cue-Controlled Relaxation, Janel Kay Harris

Dissertations

The present study compared cue-controlled relaxation (CCR) to progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) as possible methods of reducing reactivity to active stressors (math and anagram tasks). The CCR training entailed practicing relaxation during exposure to the active stressors, while the PMR training did not. Ten cardiac rehabilitation patients served in an experiment which used a repeated-measures ANOVA to assess changes in frontal EMG, skin conductance level (SCL), systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, and pulse-rate reactivity across three experimental conditions. These were: baseline, progressive muscle relaxation, and cue-controlled relaxation. The results indicated that CCR led to reduced EMG, SBP, and …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Premorbid Personality And Depression, William Essenburg

Dissertations

Depression is a significant mental health problem and has been studied extensively for decades. However, there is still disagreement among clinicians and researchers regarding the causes and psychodynamic processes of depression.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between premorbid personality and depression. Using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) and the Beck Depression Inventory, personality and depression measures were obtained from a sample of adult psychiatric inpatients during acute and remission phases of their hospitalization.

Results obtained indicated that the MCMI scales intended to measure premorbid personality during periods of acute psychiatric illness were sensitive to …

Differences In Typology Among Nurses At Different Levels Of Management In Acute Care Institutions As Measured By The Mbti, Catherine Marie Devet

Dissertations

This survey research study explored differences in personality types between staff nurses and nurse managers in acute care institutions (hospitals). The study tested a theory about expected differences which was based on an extensive literature review of nursing administration and type theory as developed by Jung and measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

Eight acute care institutions were selected randomly from hospitals listed by the American Hospital Association (1983) as having 400-600 beds and located in the state of Michigan but outside of Wayne County. Of the eight hospitals approached, permission to conduct the study was obtained in five. …

A Study Of The Relationship Between High School Graduation Requirements And Student A.C.T. Assessment Scores In Public High Schools In The State Of Michigan, William M. Pritchard

Dissertations

The literature has pointed toward changes in high school curriculum as a contributor to the decline of standardized test scores during the 1960's and 1970's. During the past few years, many schools have increased graduation requirements in various subject areas in an effort to increase learning on the part of students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the number of years of required study in various subject areas on student achievement.

The population that was studied included all public high schools in the State of Michigan. Two hundred thirty-eight schools were sampled from the population, …

The Effect Of Medicaid Billing On Service To Developmentally Disabled Adults, Kambiz Alavi

Dissertations

This study provides a detailed analysis of the daily service delivery records before and after the introduction of a Medicaid Billing Form at a day-activity center for developmentally disabled adults. The form required therapists to record daily service delivery (in 15-minute units) to Medicaid eligible clients. There were 38 clients, 23 Medicaid and 15 non-Medicaid, and four therapists. The data showed, for three of the four therapists, a clear and large increase in reported service delivery to Medicaid clients and a smaller increase to non-Medicaid clients. Six months after the introduction of the Medicaid Billing Form the therapists were required …

The Rorschach As A Diagnostic Aid In Differentiating The Bipolar Affective Disorder From The Schizophrenic Disorder, Stephen James Newman

Dissertations

Misdiagnosis of the bipolar affective disorder (manic type) has profound consequences Including prescription of counterproductive medication, non-aggressive treatment approaches, extended hospitalizations, and poor prognosis (Fleve, 1975). Misdiagnosis Is extensive and has resulted from the tendency to over diagnose schizophrenia (Fleve, 1975), the tendency to equate psychotic symptomatology with schizophrenia (Garvey & Tuason, 1980), the similarity of psychotic symptomatology of the bipolar affective and schizophrenic disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1980), past confusion regarding diagnostic criteria of the bipolar affective disorder (Spltzer, Williams, & Wynne, 1983), and the absence of psychometric tools to differentiate the bipolar affective and schizophrenic disorders.

The purposes …

An Investigation Into The Effects Of Learner Control Options On Patterns Of Learning Strategies, Debra Small Nelson

Dissertations

A body of literature termed learner control research examined the efficacy of allowing learners' control over the type, rate, amount, and sequence of content to be covered in an instructional program. The growing impact of computer based education has enhanced the possibility of providing learners greater autonomy in the learning process. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of providing learner control options in a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) microcomputer program on patterns of learning strategies and content mastery.

The sample consisted of 98 adult learners involved in the fields of general or special education in the State …

The Feature-Value Effect In Children; An Attempt To Replicate And Further Experimentation, Kathleen Wright

Dissertations

In the "feature-value effect" faster acquisition occurs when a distinguishing feature is placed on the correct stimulus (S+) during discrimination training than when the distinguishing feature is placed on the incorrect stimulus (S-). The former is a "feature positive" discrimination task, whereas the latter is a "feature negative" discrimination task. The feature-value effect only occurs when the discrimination involves stimuli that are identical except for one distinguishing feature. The effect has been obtained in a number of nonhuman species as well as in children and adult humans. Experiments 1 and 2 failed to replicate the findings of previous experiments with …

Training Behavioral Assessment Interviewers: A Comparison Of Two Procedures, Raymond G. Miltenberger

Dissertations

Two procedures were used to teach behavioral assessment interviewing skills; a training manual and a one-to-one training procedure consisting of instructions, modeling, rehearsal and feedback. Four subjects, two graduate students and two seniors, were trained with each procedure. Interviewing skills were recorded in simulated assessment interviews conducted by each subject across baseline and treatment conditions. Each training procedure was evaluated in a multiple baseline across subjects design. The results showed that both procedures were equally effective for training behavioral interviewing skills, with all subjects reaching a level of 90-100% correct responding. Finally, a group of experts in behavior analysis rated …

Beyond Contingency Theory: Environment, Structure, And Administrator's Coping Ability In The Public Sector, Shyu-Tu Lee

Dissertations

In the last two decades, organizational-environment contingency theory has attracted much attention. A great deal of research has been done on investigating the impact of environment on organizations, suggesting the appropriate design of organizational structure. In recent years, organizational theorists have moved to investigate proactive approaches to organizational environments.

Most empirical studies, however, have been conducted in the private sector. In order to transfer the knowledge to the public sector, it is necessary to investigate whether public organizations are also subjected to environmental influence and how public administrators interact with the environment.

This study investigated the following three questions: (1) …

Scientific-Technological Dependency And Uneven Development: The Case Of Iran, Abdullah Mehdipour

Dissertations

With the decline of various forms of military and economic power of the more industrialized countries (MICs) as the primary control structure for maintaining the dominance/dependence relationships with the less industrialized countries (LICs) in the international political and economic system, science and technology has emerged as a significant means for sustaining international status quo.

The problem of the study was stated in two questions. First, why and how Iran (an LIC) became dependent on more industrialized countries' science and technology. Second, what effect(s) did Iran's scientific-technological dependency have on its social structure, and what is the more appropriate strategy for …

The Effects Of Symbolic Modeling And Parent Training On Noncompliance In Hyperactive Children, George Kahle Henry

Dissertations

This study examined the interactions of mothers with their hyperactive children during a structured-task period to determine the effects of a symbolic modeling and parent training intervention on child noncompliance. Analysis of videotaped sequences across all phases of the study indicated that symbolic modeling was not a very effective technique for improving compliance in hyperactive children. Phase one of parent training, which taught mothers appropriate attending, ignoring, and rewarding behaviors, was more effective than symbolic modeling. Phase two of parent training, which introduced a time-out contingency for noncompliance, was the most effective intervention as it resulted in significant reductions in …

The Effects Of Reward And Reinforcement On Intrinsic Interest, Alyce Muzette Dickinson

Dissertations

Under certain circumstances, rewarding individuals for performing a task that they enjoy may decrease their subsequent interest in that activity when rewards are no longer available. Decreased task interest is not, however, an inevitable outcome of reward and the subsequent termination of reward. This study investigated one variable that may influence whether task interest will increase or decrease following reward termination: the degree to which the reward is reinforcing. The study also examined how long post-reward performance changes persisted when they occurred.

A multiple-trial, within-subject comparison design was employed in which three reward phases were alternated with post-reward phases. Two …

To Establish The Degree Of Interest For New Technical Instructional Programs At Taif Junior College, Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Said Sulayman Derbas

Dissertations

At the present time, junior colleges do not have technical programs that would provide trained Saudis to assume responsibility in technical and middle management fields. The purpose of this study was to establish the degree of interest for new technical instructional programs at Taif Junior College to meet those needs.

The population of this study consisted of all students attending the college for the academic school year 1984-85. A sample of 255 was selected by using a simple random method. Data were collected utilizing a two-section questionnaire which has been developed by the researcher. The first section focused on demographic …

The Use Of An Incentive System To Increase Worker Performance In A Financial Setting, Steven S. Armstrong

Dissertations

The use of merchandise as a consequence in a performance based incentive system was assessed in a financial setting. Points were earned by each subject based on individual daily performance. These points were collected by each subject and used toward the purchase of merchandise. A multiple baseline across two groups of bank tellers showed substantial increases in worker behavior after the onset of contingent points. Differences between groups existed and an analysis is provided. Follow-up data revealed sustained performance and a cost-benefit analysis demonstrated substantial savings.

The Relationship Between Managerial Experience And Conflict Management Styles Of Men And Of Women In Community College Administration, Betty Pritchard

Dissertations

Conflict management is a vital component of the manager's function. It is also assumed that men and women manage conflict differently, and therefore perform differently as managers. This assumption, along with many other sex-role stereotypes, has restricted the entrance of women into management, and especially into top level management.

This study investigated differences in the conflict management styles of men and women managers, and specifically of men and women administrators in 2-year colleges across the United States. It utilized the self-administered Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument to measure conflict management on five modes determined by the dimensions of cooperation and assertiveness. …

The Development And Evaluation Of An Educational Therapeutic Group Procedure To Assist Preadolescent Children To Process Parental Divorce, Donna K. Prins

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate an educational therapeutic group procedure to assist preadolescent children to understand and assimilate the process of parental divorce.

The group procedure is a short term therapeutic approach which focused on general problems experienced by children processing parental divorce. A prestructured format was developed, and the entire procedure was designed to occur in a small group setting.

The major goal of the study, developing the group procedure Things Have Changed At My House, was accomplished. The complete text of the procedure is contained in the appendix of the dissertation.

Both process …

Holland Area Employer-Sponsored Community Coordinated Child Care: A Case Study, Bonnie Church Piller

Dissertations

This is a report of a case study, in the anthropological tradition of an employer-sponsored community coordinated child care program. The program is located in a midwest community of 20,000. Program start up and functioning is described. Also reported are the responses and rationales of participating companies and the impact of the service on child care in the community. The employer-sponsored child care information and referral consortium, a cost effective employee benefit for corporations, gave the Community Coordinated Child Care agency financial stability. The program provided incentive and staff to train family day care providers and an early childhood education …

A Study Of The Academic Problems Encountered By Saudi Students At Western Michigan University, Ali Hajjan Mustafa

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify perceptions of Saudi students studying at Western Michigan University (WMU), faculty and administrators at WMU, and academic advisors in the Saudi Arabian Educational Mission in Chicago regarding academic problems encountered by Saudi students enrolled at WMU, and to determine any differences in perceptions of Saudi students regarding their academic problems based on age, marital status, academic level, and length of stay in the United States.

Respondents to this study included 47 Saudi students, 22 faculty, 24 administrators, and 8 academic advisors. The data for this study were obtained by means of a …