Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Explanations In Rejection Letters On Perceptions Of Fairness And Accountability, Troy A. Romero

Student Work

The present study was designed to test Folger and Cropanzano’s (1998) Fairness Theory as it pertains to perceptions of fairness and accountability in rejection letters. This study was a partial replication of Gilliland, Groth, Baker, Dew, Polly and Langdon (2001), which examined the impact of Fairness Theory variations in rejection letters on perceptions of fairness, recommendation intentions, and reapplication behavior. Participants in this study were applicants rejected in the first stage of the selection process with a large, Midwest corporation. Perceptions of fairness and accountability were collected after receiving one of four versions of a rejection letter: the company’s standard …

Prayer As A Treatment Modality In Patient Healthcare: Physicians' Spiritual Beliefs And Religious Practices And Their Relationship To Patient Health, D. Ronald Rickerhauser

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The intention of this study was to determine whether physicians' spiritual beliefs and the integration of prayer in medical practice are associated with patient health. In this study, 546 physicians from 40 different family practice residency programs in the contiguous United States completed and returned surveys. Regression analyses using these data and patient statistics provided by the clinics were performed. Patient's length of hospital stay and a ratio of clinic patients to hospital patients were used as dependent measures. The results did not show a relationship between physician beliefs, prayer, and patient health. However, there was a significant relationship between …

The Working And Living Conditions Of Migrant Farm Workers, Hilario Molina Ii

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the world of migrant workers, through first hand account, through the description of the living and working conditions of migrant farms by focusing on each camp (A, B, and C), by observing and describing the line of work, by discussing the social and cultural dynamics of migrant farm working—the role and culture of the migrant women, children, and alpha males—and by documenting the exploitation of migrant farm workers. This is a qualitative research, based on ground theory, which consisted of participant observation of these factors. There was no hypothesis due to the …

Relationship Advertising: Investigating The Strategic Appeal Of Intimacy (Disclosure) In Services Marketing, Andrea Diahann Gaye Scott

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One approach to communicating and thereby building a close relationship with consumers is via advertising. In other words, if service providers can invoke feelings of connection and intimacy--where consumers feel understood, cared for, and validated--through advertising, a stronger bond and sense of loyalty is likely to follow. When intimacy is conceived as knowing and being known by another, which incorporates mutual and reciprocal (though not necessarily equal) liking and vulnerability, its application extends beyond romantic relationships to the current context of relationship and services marketing. This research provides empirical support for the use of intimacy as an appeal in services …

Job Satisfaction And Organizational Commitment Among Faculty At Taiwan's Higher Education Institutions, Yu-Ching Huang

Student Work

The purpose of the study was to determine faculty members' level of job satisfaction and organizational commitment and to determine the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Two types of satisfaction were surveyed: intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Three types of commitment were surveyed: affective, normative, and continuance commitment. This study was delimited to faculty members at five institutes of technology in the Mid-Taiwan area.

Behavioral Analysis Of Interactions Between Teachers And Children With Selective Mutism, Jason D. Wallace

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study focused on the interactions between a child with selective mutism and that child's teachers. The hypothesis was that the teachers unknowingly maintained the mutism by not placing the expectations of speech on the child. Therefore, by training three out of the four teachers how to interact with the child with selective mutism, and using the fourth teacher as a control, the researchers were able to identify that the training not only changed the three teachers' behaviors, but also the child with selective mutism's behaviors as well. Also, based on a pre-training/post-training test, the teachers had a much …

The Influence Of Positive Performance Appraisal Ratings And Regulatory Focus On Motivation To Improve Or Maintain Performance, C. Allen Gorman

Student Work

The present study was designed to test the anecdotal supposition that excellent performance appraisal ratings do not motivate employees to improve or maintain performance as much as good performance appraisal ratings. Self-regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997, 1998) predicts that high levels of motivation are induced either by failure under prevention focus or by success under promotion focus. Using a 2 x 2 completely randomized design, this study examined the effects of regulatory focus and performance appraisal ratings on motivation to improve or maintain performance. Research participation credit was used to manipulate regulatory focus, and bogus performance feedback was used to …

Organizational Justice, Organizational Citizenship, And Group Performance In An Educational Setting, Charles Peterson

Student Work

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is a widely researched topic in the psychology literature. However, the research has failed to provide strong support for one of the most central assumptions of OCB, the assumption that it increases organizational performance. Thirty-one groups of graduate students participated in this research, which attempted to demonstrate a link between OCB and group performance within a social exchange framework. Data were collected measuring the groups’ levels of perceived trust, justice, and OCB; instructors provided grades and ratings of the performance of the groups on various class projects completed throughout the semester. Although the sportsmanship OCB sub-dimension …

"My Partner Wasn't So Disgusting When We First Started Dating, What Happened?" : An Exploration Of Change Processes In Close Relationships And Their Causes., Stephen R. Shamblen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We are more likely to "hurt the one's we love" than we are complete strangers (cf. R. Miller, 1991, 1997). Early in dating relationships, partners appear to me more likely to manage their impressions to present themselves as better than they really are (romantic inflation), and later in relationships, partners may behave in a manner that is worse than their typical behavior (post romanticism). The social allergy and social enrichment constructs are relevant to these phenomena, as these typologies focus on partner behaviors that are rather minor in their impact on an individual's affect to behaviors that have a major …

The Visual Perception Of Distance In Action Space., Bing Wu 1973-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work examines our perception of distance within "action space" (about 2m ~ 30m), an ability that is important for various actions. Two general problems are addressed: what information can be used to judge distance accurately and how is it processed? The dissertation is in two parts. The first part considers the "what" question. Subjects' distance judgment was examined in real, altered and virtual environments by using perceptual tasks or actions to assess the role of a variety of intrinsic and environmental depth cues. The findings show that the perception of angular declination, or height in the visual field, is …

Frequency Of Rad Diagnosis And Attachment Disorder In Community Mental Health Agency Clients., Paula S. Morgan 1958-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Attachment Disorder (AD) in children has been characterized by particularly alarming behaviors, yet the identification of this disorder for clinicians in community mental health agencies is problematic. The only available diagnosis that addresses attachment problems is the DSM-IV diagnosis of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), a diagnosis that does not include the more severely disturbed behaviors that have been associated with attachment-disordered children. This dissertation examined the frequency with which CMHA child clients were diagnosed with RAD, as well as the actual occurrence of attachment problems and Attachment Disorder as measured by the Randolph Attachment Disorder Questionnaire (RADA). The Personality Inventory …

A Manual For A Junior Lab Technician, Jared Blaine Burton

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Dear New Junior Lab Technician,

Welcome to Dr. Barnard's laboratory. My name is Jared Burton, and I am currently in medical school. I wanted to write a little bit to give you a "heads-up" about what you should expect working here. I worked in this lab for three years. I picked up quite a bit of experience and research time during my employment here. It was a good, on-campus job. I thought I would write a little manual to be kept in the lab, with the hopes that some future employee will benefit from it, and not be quite as …

Extraversion/Introversion And Subclinical Self-Harm In Undergraduate Students, Norma Salazar-Cortez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Objective. To examine the relationship between the extraversion/introversion personality dimension and mildly injurious (fingernail biting, skin picking, etc.) and more injurious (cutting, burning, etc.) self-harming behaviors.

Method. An undergraduate sample of 146 students volunteered to complete several measures including the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised and Self-Harm Information Form.

Results. Participants with no history of self-harm endorsed similar levels of extraversion in comparison to participants with a history of mildly or moderately injurious self-harm. Comparison between the groups using a One-Factor Between Subjects Analysis of Variance was not significant.

Conclusion. A proposition is made to expand future research …

An Exploration Into Gender Role Conflict, Attitudes Toward Females, And Relationship Beliefs, Julia M. Wood

Doctoral Dissertations

Gender role conflict and negative attitudes toward females have been areas of increasing concern since the early 1970s. Research has shown that both gender role conflict and negative attitudes toward females cause complications for the person with such perspectives. Relationships are an area that has been impacted by gender role conflict and attitudes toward females. Determining the impact that gender role conflict and attitudes toward females have upon each other and upon relationship beliefs will increase awareness of the seriousness of these complications allowing clinicians to focus therapeutic interventions on methods that will increase relationship quality.

Using the Gender Role …

Relationship Between Personality Styles And Drug/Alcohol Use In Prison Inmates, Anita S. Quinn Flye

Doctoral Dissertations

When assessing areas of clinical pathology and substance abuse, clinicians are not always provided with critical background information needed to assess properly and diagnosis their clients. For various reasons, full disclosure is not forthcoming during the initial intake or assessment process. Inadequate knowledge will, in turn, affect treatment planning. Valid and reliable assessment instruments are an invaluable resource for extracting additional facts. This study investigated that criterion validity between the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III) and the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-3 (SASSI-3), as well as attempted to replicate psychopathology subgroup clusters as noted in a study by McMahon, Malow, …

The Effects Of Scripts On Treatment Integrity, Kyle S. Hesser

Student Work

The extent to which teachers carry out interventions as designed, called treatment integrity, is an important area that has recently received an increase in attention. Without treatment integrity, any behavior change that may occur cannot be confidently linked to the intervention. There have been few studies attempting to increase treatment integrity using scripts. Scripts are collaboratively developed step-by-step outlines of treatment components that aid the teacher in implementing the intervention. Two general education elementary teachers used scripts to implement an intervention and monitor treatment integrity. Student performance was moderately improved once the intervention was implemented. Scripts did not significantly change …

The Advantage For Name -Designated Characters During Reading, Kelly A. Peracchi

Doctoral Dissertations

When two characters are mentioned in a text, one referred to by a title (e.g., professor) and one referred to by a proper name (e.g., Christopher), the character referred to by the name is more accessible in memory. Although there has been a lot of research documenting the advantages that name-designated characters have over title-designated characters, most of it has done so using very short texts. The experiments reported in this dissertation utilized longer passages of text to examine whether certain variables that are known to affect accessibility, such as order of mention, number of mentions, elaboration, and distance, will …

Linking Focus And Context In Three-Dimensional Multiscale Environments, Matthew D. Plumlee

Doctoral Dissertations

The central question behind this dissertation is this: In what ways can 3D multiscale spatial information be presented in an interactive computer graphics environment, such that a human observer can better comprehend it? Toward answering this question, a two-pronged approach is employed that consists of practice within computer user-interface design, and theory grounded in perceptual psychology, bound together by an approach to the question in terms of focus and context as they apply to human attention. The major practical contribution of this dissertation is the development of a novel set of techniques for linking 3D windows to various kinds of …

The Venetian Blind Effect: Contrast Disparity Modulation In Irradiation Stereoscopy, Eugene T. Filley

Doctoral Dissertations

In Experiment 1 we measured contrast disparity thresholds for the perception of slant in the venetian blind effect for a square-wave carrier spatial frequency of 3.14 c/deg and square-wave modulation spatial frequencies of 0.26, 0.39, 0.79, and 1.57 c/deg.

In Experiment 2 we increased the spatial frequencies. We measured contrast disparity thresholds for the perception of slant for a square-wave carrier spatial frequency of 5.24 c/deg and square-wave modulation spatial frequencies of 0.33, 0.65, 1.31, and 2.62 c/deg.

In Experiment 3 we returned to the spatial frequencies of Experiment 1 but used sine-wave modulation. We measured contrast disparity thresholds for …

The Role Of Frontal Cortical-Basal Ganglia Circuits In Simple And Sequential Visuomotor Learning, Kathleen R. Bailey

Doctoral Dissertations

Imaging, recording and lesioning studies implicate the basal ganglia and anatomically related regions of frontal cortex in visuomotor learning. Two experiments were conducted to elucidate the role of frontal cortex and striatum in visuomotor learning. Several tasks were used to characterize motor function including: a visuomotor reaction time (VSRT) task, measuring response speed and accuracy to luminance cues; simple stimulus-response (S-R) learning, measuring VSRT improvements when cues occurred in consistent locations over several trials; and a serial reaction time (SRT) task measuring motor sequence learning. SRT learning was characterized by incremental changes in reaction time (RT) when trained with the …

Corporal Punishment As A Determinant Of Developmental Outcomes: Longitudinal And Process Models, Matthew K. Mulvaney

Doctoral Dissertations

There were two goals of this research: (1) to establish that normative corporal punishment has an impact on children's mental health and the parent-child relationship and (2) to identify intrapersonal variables that determine the impact of this parenting behavior. The first study examined the influence of corporal punishment across infancy and early childhood with longitudinal analyses performed on data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. The results suggest that corporal punishment does have a direct, unique impact on children's mental health and on the mother-child relationship. For the second study, a college sample was studied …

Self-Efficacy And Allocation Of Effort During Reading Among Older And Younger Adults, Danielle D. Gagne

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent research in social cognition suggests one's self-efficacy beliefs regarding one's cognitive abilities can influence the effort expended on cognitive tasks (Bandura, 1989; 1997; Cavanaugh & Greene, 1990; Dunlosky & Hertzog, 1998), which may affect performance. This project was conducted to examine the relationship between age, self-efficacy beliefs, text difficulty, resource allocation to text comprehension processes, and memory for text. 82 younger adults and 74 older adults completed the Metamemory in Adulthood Questionnaire (MIA; Dixon, Hultsch & Hertzog, 1988), Reading Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (RSEQ), and Media Consumption Habits Questionnaire. Using the on-line word-by-word moving window method, participants read 24 two-sentence passages …

Mental Accounting Psychology And Life Cycle Economics: Who Saves, Who Doesn't And How To Tell The Difference, Thomas James Van De Water Iv.

Doctoral Dissertations

Wealth is often associated with status purchases or belonging to a demographic group instead of a cognitive decision process for saving and accumulating wealth. Mental accounting psychology (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979; Shefrin & Thaler, 1988) and life cycle economics (Modigliani & Brumberg, 1954) describe two different saving processes. Qualitative interviews in Study 1 (adult heads of household, n = 24) and a quantitative analysis in Study 2 (2001 Survey of Consumer Finances, n = 4,332) compared high and low saving people using mental accounting and life cycle variables. Interviews in Study 1 predominantly described saving in terms of short-term, mental …

Impact Of Macular Pigment Optical Density On Photophobia Threshold, Adam James Wenzel

Doctoral Dissertations

Two carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin, accumulate in the central retina where they are collectively referred to as macular pigment (MP). By absorbing short-wavelength light, MP may attenuate photophobia (PP)---visual discomfort induced by normal light exposure---for targets composed of short-wavelength light. The aim of this study was twofold: first, to investigate a possible relationship between integrated macular pigment optical density (MPOD) and PP thresholds for short-wavelength targets relative to mid- to long-wavelength targets; and second, to measure changes in PP thresholds after increasing MP with lutein supplements.

MPOD was measured psychophysically at 20', 30', 60' and 120' eccentricity with a Macular …

Relationship Dynamics In Latino-White Intercultural Marriages: A Three Group Comparison, Raquel D. Muller

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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The Effects Of Parental Burden, Teacher Burden And The Student's Request For Counseling On School Psychologists' Decisions To Recommend Counseling, Brian L. Burgess

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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To Examine The Relationship Between Neuropsychological Tests Of Executive Functioning And Living Independently, Steven Paul Greco

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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What Happens When Grrrls Riot? The Relationship Between Feminism And Eating Pathology In Adolescent Girls, Jillian M. Leggatt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the past fifty years there has been a marked increase in the prevalence of eating disorders (Steiner & Lock, 1998) with women making up the vast majority of sufferers (Mussell, Binford, & Fulkerson, 2000). Growing up female in today's society is a risk factor for eating disorders. Although girls have more opportunities than previously, they are also confronted with powerful cultural messages to please others, through being beautiful, thin, helpful, caring, and self-sacrificing (Weiland Bowling, Schindler Zimmerman, & Carlson Daniels, 2000). As such, teenage girls are more likely than previous generations to struggle with eating disorders, poor self-image, substance …

Self-Esteem Reactivity To Mood Induction Procedures: Investigating Cognitive Vulnerabilities Within The Diathesis-Stress Model Of Depression., Daniel P. Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although self-esteem reactivity plays a crucial role in the diathesis/stress model of depression, refinement of the interactions between variables included in this model is required. Specifically, the current research examined the extent to which cognitive-priming versus mood-state theory explains changes in participants' self-evaluations across multiple domains after exposure to experimental procedures that simulated positive and negative life events. Of the 212 undergraduate student participants who completed the pretest phase, 179 (128 female, 51 male) participants completed the experimental phase. Eighteen participants were excluded from the experimental phase due to elevated depression scores. The experimental methodology involved random assignment of participants …

Mothers' Parenting Style And Preschoolers' Social Behaviour In Japan And Canada., Jody Levenbach

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The relations among mothers' goals for their children's social behaviour, their parenting style and children's social behaviour were examined in Canada and Japan, two countries that differ with respect to individualist/collectivist cultural models. Seventy-four Canadian and Japanese mothers of children between the ages of three and six years old completed questionnaires about their allocentricism (collectivism) in family relationships, their preferences for their children's interdependent and independent social behaviours, the directiveness and explicitness of their parenting style, and their preschool child's social strengths and weaknesses. It was predicted that Canadian mothers, consistent with an individualistic model, would show a preference for …