Digital Commons Network^™

Cultural Value Orientations As An Antecedent To The Formation Of International Interfirm Relationships: The Developmentof Cultural Value Dimensions In A Business Context, Susan Forquer Gupta

Doctoral Dissertations

With the importance of international interfirm relationships increasing, it becomes critical to understand the antecedents and consequences of relationship formation. Difficulty in relationships occur when firms with differing cultural value orientations attempt to engage in exchange. Culture affects the international firm in several ways: 1) difficulty in establishing a single organizational culture when a firm is comprised of multi-national employees; 2) difficulty in serving the market when cultural differences exist in the consumer; and 3) difficulty in establishing interfirm relationships across cultural boundaries. Individually, these problems are difficult to resolve, combined they can lead to failure. The first two have …

Troubling Gender : Transgression And Postmodern Fiction, Kristi Larkin Havens

Doctoral Dissertations

From the violation of the incest taboo in Acker's Blood and Guts in High School to Pynchon's coprophiliac scene in Gravity's Rainbow, from Ballard's eroticization of the automobile in Crash to the ritualized rape and castration of Evelyn in Carter's The Passion of New Eve, transgression is central to much postmodern fiction. Such transgression has been read as a drama of liberation, wherein natural desires are vindicated and unnatural restraints are rejected. However, postmodern critiques of natural desire demand that we reevaluate the traditional notion of liberation and explore its reliance on conceptions of transgression that rely on models of …

The Effects Of Interactive Television As A Medium Of Instruction On The Attitudes Of Developmental Mathematics Students, Patricia N. Brown

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of interactive television as a medium of instruction on the mathematics attitudes of developmental community college students as measured by the Fennema–Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scale. Specifically the study attempted to determine if the mathematics attitudes of developmental elementary algebra students so taught differed from the attitudes of students taught in the traditional classroom. In addition, the study identified some teaching methods utilized in the traditional developmental elementary algebra classroom that differed from the teaching methods utilized in the interactive (ITV) elementary algebra classroom. The subjects (n=21) were students enrolled in …

Cognitive Certainty : Trust And Betrayal In Interpersonal Relationships, Laurie L. Couch

Doctoral Dissertations

Past research has demonstrated the undeniable link between trust and betrayal. The present research assessed the ways in which cognitive certainty is associated with perceptions of negative relational information, especially betrayal. First, results from studies 1 and 2 supported the hypothesis that betrayal is a construct that is perceived with graded structure, meaning that events belong to the betrayal category to a greater or lesser extent. In other words, there is some degree of certainty associated with the categorization of examples, and it tends to be related to perceptions of seriousness/threat to the relationship. Dispositional trust was also related to …

Limitations Of Student Expression On Evangelical Christian College Campuses, David W. Tilley

Doctoral Dissertations

The rights of students to express themselves freely on state university campuses have been debated and affirmed, in most cases, by American federal courts. The issues are not so clear-cut, however, when the discussion shifts to expressive rights for students on private college campuses. The purpose of this study was to examine student expression in one segment of American higher education, evangelical Christian colleges, and explore the ways in which this expression is limited on these campuses.

The study consisted of students, faculty, staff, and administrators at three evangelical Christian colleges. Data were collected from twenty-two individual and focus group …

The Relationship Between Children's Self-Esteem And Parenting Styles In Taiwan, Yi-Ju Wu

Doctoral Dissertations

The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between children's self-esteem and authoritarian parenting style in Taiwan. A secondary purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that Taiwanese children tended to underrate their performance and competence. This study also investigated the significance of gender and grade level (age) in the pattern of self-esteem of Taiwanese children.

Two hundred and eighty fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, their mothers, and teachers were administered the Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC), Parental Attitude Research Instrument (PARI), and Teacher Rating Scale of Child's Actual Behavior (TRSCAB). A MANOVA, followed by …

Portraits Of Experiences : An In-Depth Interview Study Of American-Women In Secondary School Administration, Eloise M. Webb

Doctoral Dissertations

This is a qualitative study on the career path experiences of five African- American female secondary school administrators. A review of literature on the history of education in America revealed that history has been unkind to African-American women by omitting them from the existing literature on women in school administration. The purpose of this study is to begin to fill that void. Five African-American female secondary public school administrators were asked to share their career path stories of experiences. The interview was selected as the data gathering instrument.

The text of the stories were analyzed for common threads which were …

Presidential Agendas And Supreme Court Performance : An Analysis Of The Nixon And Reagan Justices, John Wilson Wells

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the extent to which the Supreme Court may be described as legitimate in a democratic society. Unlike the other two branches of the federal government, the Judiciary does not answer to the electorate. In order for an institution such as the Court to be considered legitimate, therefore, there must be some link between elections and the policy output of the justices. This project began by discussing the policy agendas of two recent presidents, Nixon and Reagan, and then assessing the levels of compliance demonstrated by their respective blocs of justices. In the case of both presidents, their …

Retail Service Quality : A Measurement Assessment And Exploration Of Customer And Sales Personnel Perceptions, Scarlett Wesley

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation was designed to replicate the Retail Service Quality scale (Dabholkar et al., 1996) using customer respondents and to determine whether or not the Retail Service Quality scale could be used to assess retail sales personnel's perception of retail service quality as well. To achieve this objective, data was collected and analyzed under the same conditions as the original study. The results of the data analysis provide evidence that the Retail Service Quality scale is a useful measurement in assessing service quality in retail organizations for both customers and sales personnel.

This study was also developed to explore service …

It Ain't All About The Books : Building Community-Based Literacy Education Programs, Connie L. White

Doctoral Dissertations

What is community-based literacy education, and how is it practiced? How are the students, the teachers, the community-based organization and the community as a whole impacted by this approach to literacy education? What factors are important in creating and sustaining community-based literacy education?

To answer those research questions, this study examines a community-based literacy education program in Eastern Kentucky. The data collection involved participant observation as well as work with a participatory research group within the organization in order to identify examples of community-based literacy work, and the students, staff and volunteers most active in those efforts. Sources of data …

Entrepreneur Value Orientations And Characteristics Effect On Choice Of Organization Strategies And Resulting Successful Performance In Auto Glass Replacement Firms, Jeffrey Ray Bruehl

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation extends research in entrepreneurial characteristics, values held by entrepreneurs, organizational strategies selected by the entrepreneurs, and resulting firm success. Entrepreneurship and small business management literature are used to develop a conceptual basis for the study. Values, which guide human behavior, are included, as are organizational process variables such as strategies. The setting for the study is the automotive glass replacement industry in the southeastern United States. Hypotheses and research questions are derived from the literature in entrepreneurship, strategy, psychology, and sociology. A framework is developed consisting of: (1) values, demographic, and psychological characteristics of the entrepreneur, (2) generic …

Black Doctoral Graduates From A Predominantly White University, Elisabeth S. Wright Harrison

Doctoral Dissertations

Understanding the experiences of Black scholars at predominantly White colleges and universities is essential as mainstream American institutions of higher education seek to increase minority populations on their campuses. This study examined the educational experiences of Black doctoral graduates who were awarded doctoral degrees at a predominantly White university. The study addressed their race related experiences, the strategies they employed to successfully complete their doctorates and the institutional practices that helped or hindered their success. In addition, their thoughts on how well their undergraduate educational experiences prepared them for graduate school as well as the professional goals they pursued after …

Sustaining The Hope : African American Women's Perceptions Of High School Experiences, Faye L. Hicks-Townes

Doctoral Dissertations

In 1972 the United States passed into law Title IX as part of the Educational Amendment Act. Implicit in that action was he acknowledgment that gender inequities did indeed exist in public education as well as other institutions in American society. Schools are influential institutions in American society. They reflect the values and traditions of our society. They also reflect injustices inherent in a social system stratified by class, ethnicity, and gender. Despite the enactment of Title IX over twenty years ago, there is still evidence of gender inequity in the educational system. Although progress has been made in some …

Troubling Gender : Transgression And Postmodern Fiction, Kristi Larkin Havens

Doctoral Dissertations

From the violation of the incest taboo in Acker's Blood and Guts in High School to Pynchon's coprophiliac scene in Gravity's Rainbow, from Ballard's eroticization of the automobile in Crash to the ritualized rape and castration of Evelyn in Carter's The Passion of New Eve, transgression is central to much postmodern fiction. Such transgression has been read as a drama of liberation, wherein natural desires are vindicated and unnatural restraints are rejected. However, postmodern critiques of natural desire demand that we reevaluate the traditional notion of liberation and explore its reliance on conceptions of transgression that rely on models of …

The Attitudes Of Chinese Students At The University Of Tennessee Toward The Computer, Gonghua Liu

Doctoral Dissertations

As computer literacy and computer use become more and more important in the educational environment, the attitudes of international students toward computers may play an important role in their academic success in this country. The study investigated the attitudes of Chinese students at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville toward computers and explored the possible effects of gender, age and computer experience on these students’ attitudes toward computers.

The primary instrument used in the study was Drs. Loyd and Gressard’s Computer Attitude Scale. The scoring strategy results in higher scores on the computer anxiety subscale corresponding to lower anxiety, and higher …

Le Statut De La Femme : Une Et́Ude Multiculturelle : Chedid, Desvignes, Sarraute, Inas T. Messiha

Doctoral Dissertations

Although all three write in French, Andree Chedid, Lucette Desvignes, and Nathalie Sarraute are authors who come from Egypt, France, and Russia respectively. A reading of their novels reveals common themes, such as that of the status of woman which is evoked in the following novels: Le sommeil délivré of Chedid, Vent debout oi Desvignes, and Enfance of Sarraute. This theme is elaborated through the depiction of the relationship of the protagonist with her husband, with her mother, and with her father. The most striking attribute shared by the heroines of the novels is sickness: they suffer from ailments both …

Locus Of Control, Coping Skills And Television Usage Among Middle School-Aged Children, William A. Richter

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined what, if any, correlations and relationships exist between television viewing, locus of control and stress coping techniques. The population for this study were middle school-aged children. The test instrument for this study consisted of the Nowicki- Strickland locus of control scale, the Brodzinsky, et al. coping scale for children and youth, and a uses and gratifications scale based on work by Cramond and Wilde. A group administration technique, using a non-probability sample was utilized. The data yielded mixed support for the stated hypotheses of the study. A relationship was found to exist between the amount of television …

Preschoolers' Language During Use Of Multiethnic Books In Daycare, Kathleen Anne Reid

Doctoral Dissertations

Books depicting various ethnic groups, multiethnic books, are provided for children for a number of philosophical reasons, such as to promote acceptance of diversity; however, there is an absence of empirical research that has examined their use. The purpose of this study was to explore the story-related topics of discussion initiated by preschoolers as they used multiethnic books. It was hypothesized that topics involving the children’s current understanding of - and attempts to further understand - diversity might emerge in their discussions. In addition to books depicting only white characters (Euro- American), two categories of multiethnic books were used: Culturally …

Women Engineers : Expectations And Perceptions, Janie Elaine Seat

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study examined the expectations and perceptions of women engineers from the perspective of the engineers themselves and managers of employees in technical jobs. Eight entry and seven mid-career women engineers from a geographic cross-section of the United States were interviewed about their careers. Seven male managers of technical workers were interviewed about what they perceived the women engineers' perceptions to be. The engineers' expectations and perceptions were primarily addressed through a discussion of critical incidents in the form of best and worst experiences. The managers were asked about how they believed the engineers perceived their careers. These two …

Students' Perceptions Of Educational Justice, Eddie Michael Stone

Doctoral Dissertations

Theoretical perspectives of justice in general and educational justice in particular are diverse and often conflicting. Some scholars pose problems of educational justice in terms of distributive justice—who should go to school, to what kind of school, and to what kind of curriculum should students be exposed? Other scholars focus directly on the substance and content of the curriculum. Still others look at educational justice from the perspective of institutional domination and oppression. Despite the variety of theoretical approaches offered by scholars, a review of the literature shows a significant gap in empirical studies of educational justice. For example, few …

A Comparative Study Of Economic Literacy Of High School Students Taking Economics And Marketing Education In Tennessee Public Secondary Schools, Janice Demarest Staley Cole

Doctoral Dissertations

Educators, business leaders and economists have expressed concern about the lack of basic economic understanding of high school graduates in the United States. Tennessee is one of 15 states requiring at least one semester of economics for high school graduation. Marketing education teaches economic principles in an applied setting. The Tennessee Department of Education allows one full year of marketing education to satisfy the economics graduation requirement. This study was conducted to determine if students taking marketing learn economic principles at the same level as students taking economics. The study also compared the level of economic understanding of Tennessee students …

Family Memorials : Domestic Imagery In The Life And Death Of Princess Charlotte Augusta, Kevin Eubanks

Doctoral Dissertations

This study analyzes domestic imagery associated with the life and death of Princess Charlotte Augusta, the only daughter of George IV. Such imagery served a disciplinary function by inculcating an apolitical female role centered in private affections. The introduction reads domestic discipline in the context of two other important power structures in early nineteenth-century Britain: namely, monarchical executions and the rule of law. The chapters are grouped in two parts. Part One outlines the popular image of the princess after her marriage, and especially after her death. Chapter one examines the image of Charlotte as ideal female, focusing especially on …

Sexually Abused Children : How They Compare To Other Children In State Custody, Gay Gibson Chalpin

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, sexually abused children in state custody were compared with other children in state custody in order to assess differences in psychosocial functioning. More specifically, this study was designed to evaluate the trauma of sexual abuse over and above the impact of other traumas experienced by children who enter state custody.

The sample was obtained from four geographical areas each comprised of 12 counties in the state of Tennessee. The sample was initially selected as every third child entering custody. During the data collection phase, this was changed to every second and then to every child entering state …

Measuring Achievement Motives : The Process Of Conditional Reasoning Through The Reading Comprehension And Inference Test, Anthony L. Hemmelgarn

Doctoral Dissertations

This study extended James' conditional reasoning process by investigating a new item format for measuring the latent motives to achieve and to avoid failure. Presented in the form of reading comprehension passages, the Reading Comprehension and Inference Test (RCIT) allowed for comprehensive passages of information through which the process of conditional reasoning could be applied. Initial item analytic work in a developmental sample demonstrated the usefulness of RCIT items in predicting the criterion of mean exam scores. Similarly, cross-validation results confirmed the usefulness of the RCIT format and the conditional reasoning process for predicting mean exam scores. Validities of .35 …

A Study Of The Predictive Validity Of The Urban Teacher Perceiver Interview In The Knox County School System, Mary Lou Smith Kanipe

Doctoral Dissertations

The Knox County School System in Knoxville, Tennessee has attempted to meet the challenge of improving teacher selection by using a specialized teacher interview process called The Urban Teacher Perceiver Interview which was designed and developed by The Gallup Organization. The intent of this study was to compare the perceptions of building principals regarding teachers' effectiveness with the teachers' scores on The Urban Teacher Perceiver Interview. Another purpose was to determine whether the correlation between the two variables differs as a function of gender, race, age, or grade level taught by the teacher.

There were two primary sources of data …

"A Question Of Silence" : The Not-Said As Narrative Space In Selected Works By Twentieth-Century American Women, Kecia Driver Mcbride

Doctoral Dissertations

Drawing from recent feminist and linguistic debates concerning silence, this dissertation explores how the not-said has been made central to the dynamics of many texts written by twentieth-century American women. The project focuses on three modem writers-Edith Wharton, Susan Glaspell, and Zora Neale Hurston-and uses historical, cultural, and biographical background in order to discuss the diverse manifestations of silence these writers employ in order to challenge conventional social constructions within the dominant discourse, with special attention to constructions of gender.

Chapter One surveys the critical work on silence that has been done in the past thirty years within feminist and …

Morgan Le Fay As Other In English Medieval And Modern Texts, Sandra Elaine Capps

Doctoral Dissertations

In this study the presence and power of Morgan Ie Fay will be re-examined as an ever-shifting figure of alterity in both medieval and modern texts. Using cultural materialist studies, the character of Morgan will be examined against contemporary medieval culture in four medieval texts -- Vita Merlini, Layamon's Brut, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Le Morte Darthur -- that span the mid-twelfth to the late fifteenth-centuries. Her presence in the modern texts Gate of Ivrel and Mists of Avalon will be read against a feminist agenda, analyzing her increased visibility and voice in …

Role Of Intracellular Free Calcium In The Obesity And Insulin Resistance Associated With Dominant Agouti Mutations, Jung Han Kim

Doctoral Dissertations

Several dominant mutations at the agouti locus in the mouse cause a syndrome of adult-onset obesity, hyperinsulinemia, and insulin resistance. Although ectopic overexpression of the agouti gene is directly responsible for the disease in these mutations, the precise mechanism is unclear. Intracellular Ca²⁺ ([Ca²⁺]i) appears to have a role in mediating insulin signal transduction, and altered handling of [Ca²⁺]i homeostasis and flux is observed in obese and insulin resistant animals and humans. Data reported here demonstrate that mice carrying the dominant agouti mutation, viable yellow (A^vy), exhibit an elevation of [Ca²⁺]i …

Examining The Effects Of Performance Beyond Role Requirements : A Field And Laboratory Study, Tammy Dawn Allen

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to extend existing theoretical and empirical knowledge regarding the processes whereby extrarole performance influences performance judgments. Two existing overarching theoretical perspectives were posed as useful frameworks for understanding how extrarole performance impacts overall evaluation and reward recommendations. Moreover, several variables thought to mediate and moderate the relationship between extrarole performance and the dependent measures were investigated.

A number of specific hypotheses were proposed. Extrarole performance was predicted to add to the variance associated with the outcome measures above and beyond the variance contributed by in-role performance. The relationship between the dependent variables and extrarole …

The Experience Of Native American Women Obtaining Ph.D'S In Psychology At Traditional American Universities, Reva Lynn Ballew

Doctoral Dissertations

A review of the literature regarding Native Americans and the American educational system indicates that this minority group has, as a collective entity, experienced great difficulty in succeeding academically in the formal educational system. This is evidenced by the significantly low attendance and completion rates at all levels of education for all Native Americans. The purpose of this study was exploratory in nature, with the ultimate goal being to provide a better description of Native American women's experiences obtaining their Ph.D.'s in traditional American universities. The phenomenological method, a qualitative approach, was utilized to explore this topic, focusing on the …