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Meaning In Sexual Behavior: Associating Personal Constructs With Condom Use, David W. Indest

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Thirty-seven female and 30 male heterosexual undergraduates responded first to vignettes of sexual behavior in which they were asked to describe the partners' behaviors using their own personal constructs and using the researcher-provided constructs safe sex, unsafe sex, intimate, and impersonal; participants then responded to questions about condom use. Sixty-one percent of participants reported using condoms at least 75% of the time, and 64% reported use on last intercourse. Women reported a higher percentage of intercourse without condoms than did men. Within-subject principal components analysis was used to identify the extent to which an individual's personal constructs loaded …

The Pediatric Breathing Survey, Linda J. Galloway

Health Services Research Dissertations

To ensure culturally-sensitive assessments, the researcher designed a Pediatric Breathing Survey (PBS) to measure quality of life for African-American children. The purpose of this study was to test whether the PBS is a reliable and valid instrument. Comparisons of group differences on race, income and parent's level of education based on parent responses to the questionnaires were conducted. More specifically, differences in Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) between Caucasian and African-American children were examined. The researcher-designed instrument was compared to Juniper's Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire. The sample consisted of parents of 84 school-aged children diagnosed with asthma. …

One Mistress And No Master: Elizabeth I And Her Use Of Public Personas To Gain And Maintain Power, Michael J. Davye

History Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the evolution of the personas that Elizabeth used to gain, hold, and wield power during her reign as Queen of England. These personas were most likely conscious constructs created to deal with the problems Elizabeth faced as ruler of England. She had been bastardized by her father, Henry VIII, and, therefore, was considered by many to have no legitimate claim to the throne. But this problem was almost insignificant in contrast to the problems she faced trying to assert her authority as a female monarch. Elizabeth realized the prevailing wisdom of the …

Implementation Theory And Determinants For Success: A Case Study Of Televised Distance Learning Implementation In An Urban University, Deanne Shuman

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

The purpose of this study is to explore the implementation process of a distance learning initiative using televised instruction in an urban university. The scope and complexity of problems faced by colleges and universities today are growing, and public institutions are being asked to do more with less. Despite limited budgets and stretched resources, institutions are expected to be responsive to the challenges of change. Distance learning using televised instruction, which brings the classroom to the learner, is an available technology that can be responsive to students' diverse needs.

This study explores factors that facilitated or served as barriers in …

The Use Of A Modified Stroop Task To Assess Attentional Biasing Related To Adult Attachment Classification, Kristie L. Hebert

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Adult attachment styles can be thought of as representational schemata for how an individual interprets other people's actions, relationships, and emotions in close relationships. This study utilized an emotional Stroop task that consisted of different word/letter stimuli to investigate the effect of attentional biasing, in the form of the interference effect, on reaction times. Five measures of adult attachment were used that varied based on whether attachment was categorized or placed on a dimension. Contrary to expectation, insecurely attached individuals did not have longer reaction times on negative stimuli; however, negative word stimuli did cause an interference effect relative to …

The Role Of Campus Surroundings In Student Retention: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis Of The Campus Surroundings Construct, Laura E. Kellard

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study developed and examined a new construct, Campus Surroundings, in the college student retention process. Based on previous research, it was hypothesized that different aspects of the campus environment might affect student retention. The three major aspects analyzed in the questionnaire included the students' satisfaction with (1) the appearance or impression of the campus, (2) the safety of the campus, and (3) specific aspects of campus life. The twenty-nine-item scale was administered by mail to 1,195 traditional freshmen at a large urban institution. Results from the 307 respondents were examined using confirmatory factor analysis and measurement model assessment. …

Kicking At The Closet Door: The Opinions, Attitudes, And Experiences Of Military Homosexuals, Rodney Lee Parks

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the opinions, attitudes, and experiences of active-duty homosexual/bisexual military servicemembers. Very little research currently exists on this topic because the sample population remains hidden among the ranks of their heterosexual counterparts for fear of discrimination, harassment, and physical violence. Using a snowball sampling technique, survey analysis was conducted to analyze the relationship among homosexual/bisexual military servicemembers and assess their experiences. Most homosexual men and women serve effectively in the military and are proud of their military performance. Although many homosexuals join the military to suppress their desires, the majority (70%) felt that …

Arousal, Goal Commitment, Goal Difficulty, And Performance, Monica Ann Rickard

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of arousal on commitment to a goal, and secondarily, to test the assumption that more difficult goals result in better performance. It was predicted that arousal would cause research participants to be more committed to a goal, and that those participants assigned a difficult goal would perform better than those participants assigned an easy goal. Research participants were 124 active duty members of the United States Navy stationed at a remote military facility in Cornwall, England. Participants in the arousal group first viewed video clips designed to produce emotional …

Behavioral Couples Therapy For Female Substance-Abusing Patients: Effects On Relationship Adjustment And Drug-Using Behavior, Jamie J. Winters

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The effectiveness of Behavioral Couples Therapy (BCT) in the treatment of substance-abusing males has been demonstrated (Fals-Stewart, Birchler, 8 O'Farrell, 1996). However, research on the effectiveness of BCT in substance-abusing females has remained unexamined. It was hypothesized that BCT would improve posttreatment results of substance abuse treatment, both in terms of drug use and relationship satisfaction.

Married or cohabitating female substance-abusing patients (N=60) who were entering an outpatient treatment program were randomly assigned to one of two equally intensive treatment conditions. One treatment package (IBT) consisted of individual based therapy only; the other (BCT) consisted of individual based therapy and …

A Power Structure Study Of An Urban Superintendent's Tenure In The City Of Virginia Beach, 1967–1986, Sophia V. Stubblefield

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

This study examined the 19-year tenure of Dr. E. E. Brickell, superintendent of the Virginia Beach City School System. Specifically, the study has further developed an understanding of the role, expectations, and challenges of the position to identify factors that contributed to Dr. Brickell's tenure longevity.

The literature review conducted in this study revealed that specific factors contributing to a long tenure (more than 2.5 years) for a superintendent is inconclusive. The available data suggest that an interaction of political, environmental, and individual factors could effect the length of a superintendent's tenure.

A qualitative research design was used in this …

The Influence Of National Culture On Crew Resource Management And Team Performance In Aircraft Accident And Incident Reports, Jenny Chia Yi Kuang

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study explored the influence of national culture on crew resource management (CRM) and team performance. Accident and incident reports involving foreign aircraft were qualitatively analyzed to discover the relationship between three of Hofstede's (1980, 1997) cultural values and the variables of teamwork behaviors, flightcrew task performance, and flightcrew error. The three cultural values used in the analysis were power distance, individualism and collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance. Low power distance flightcrews exhibited more instances of positive teamwork behaviors, fewer instances of negative teamwork behaviors, fewer instances of error behaviors, and more instances of task performance behaviors than high power distance …

Strategies For Maintaining Positive Behavior Change Stemming From Functional Behavioral Assessment In Schools, Robert A. Gable, Jo M. Hendrickson

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Nationwide, schools are struggling to prepare IEP teams and other school personnel to conduct functional behavioral assessment and develop positive behavioral intervention plans and supports. While there is a growing evidence that functional behavioral assessment is effective in identifying the reason(s) behind student misbehavior, less is known about producing positive, long-term changes that are both functionally and socially relevant. Drawing upon the available research, we explore an emerging technology for promoting maintenance and generalization of behavior change. We discuss various strategies and procedures and offer recommendations to IEP teams regarding maintaining positive changes in student behavior that stem from functional …

White Women, Black Revolutionaries: Sex And Politics In Four Novels By Nadine Gordimer, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

As early as 1959, the white South African novelist, essayist, and short story writer Nadine Gordimer wrote an essay, "Where Do Whites Fit In?" As the black struggle for power intensified and finally achieved its primary goal of black majority rule in 1994, Gordimer continued to reflect upon this question. Her eighth novel, July's People (1981), is a psychological and political fable. It celebrates a white woman's readiness to reject the relationships and privileges that bind her to the white world and her readiness to embrace the new South Africa of an emancipated black majority. The novels written before July's …

International Student-Athlete Adjustment To College: A Preliminary Analysis, Lynn L. Ridinger, Donna L. Pastore

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

This preliminary investigation was undertaken to determine how well international student–athletes adjusted to college relative to their domestic teammates and the general student body. The results revealed that international student-athletes were significantly more well-adjusted to college than international nonathletes. International student–athletes adjusted to college as well as students and student–athletes from the United States. Results should be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size. The effects of gender and ethnicity on adjustment to college were also examined.

Identification Of Violence In The Home - Pediatric And Parental Reports, Bonnie D. Kerker, Sarah Mccue Horwitz, John M. Leventhal, Stacey Plichta, Phillip J. Leaf

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Objectives: To compare the rates of domestic violence reported by mothers with those identified by physicians, to compare the rates of harsh discipline practices reported by mothers with the rates of abuse identified by physicians, and to examine the relationship between reported domestic violence and harsh discipline practices.

Design: Interviews with parents and pediatricians to compare pediatric detection of domestic violence and child abuse with parental reports of domestic violence and harsh discipline practices.

Setting: Community-based pediatric practices in the 13-town greater New Haven, Conn, area.

Participants: Of the 23 practices invited, 19 agreed to participate. Of the 2006 parents …

Distinguishing Sales Professionals From Their Marketing Counterparts: An Empirical Inquiry, Patricia Knowles, Anusorn Singhapakdi

Marketing Faculty Publications

Sales and other marketing professionals were compared in terms of some of their demographic, socioeconomic, and psychographic characteristics. It was generally expected that sates professionals would be different from the other marketing professionals in the sample. Regarding demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, more sales than other marketing professionals were male and they were less affluent. They also had fewer years of business experience. In terms of their personal values and moral philosophies, sales professionals, despite a general consensus evidenced in many leading sales and sales management texts that they are different from other employees, are generally speaking, very similar.

Primary Health Care Service In Saudi Arabia Old Dominion University Saudi Students Prospectives, Khalid Abdullah Alzamel

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The main goal of this study was to answer the following objectives: 1. To examine the level of satisfaction including accessibility, quality of care, doctor's treatment, and health information provided with the Primary Health Care Services in Saudi Arabia; 2. To find how the Old Dominion University Saudi students compared these services with U.S. health care services; 3. To determine Old Dominion University Saudi student's views and recommendations for changes that would be helpful to generate other ways for improving current practices of Primary Health Care in Saudi Arabia.

A Study Of The Effectiveness Of Using Volunteer Tutors In A Corrective Reading Program, Jay R. White

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The following hypothesis was used to evaluate this study: 1. Students in the corrective reading program who engage in a volunteer tutoring approach to reading skill improvement will show greater reading skill improvement than those students only exposed to the academic classroom.

An Analysis Of Remedial Reading Preparation For Beginning Information Systems Students At Eastern Shore Community College, Cynthia Hodges

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The hypotheses under investigation during the course of this study were as follows: 1. Students who complete the developmental reading course (ENG 04, Reading Improvement) at ESCC earn grades in the introductory computer course (IST 114, Fundamentals of Computer Information Systems) comparable to those students who did not need remediation. 2. The developmental reading course prepares the remedial reading students to comprehend the technical material required to complete the introductory computer course at a level comparable to those students who did not need remediation.

A Study To Determine If Participating In Technology Education Classes Improved The Mechanical Aptitude Of Students, Amos C. Peterson

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The following hypothesis was set forth to guide this study: 1. Students taking technology education classes at Northside Middle School developed higher levels of mechanical aptitude when compared to students from the same school that took only the traditional general education classes.

Nadine Gordimer's Fictional Selves: Can A White Woman Be At Home In Black South Africa?, Nancy Topping Bazin

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Growing up in South Africa where only 5.6 million people are white out of a population of 37.9 million, Nadine Gordimer became increasingly conscious of her whiteness¹. The colour of her skin instantly signaled 'oppressor' to black South Africans. Her whiteness imposed upon her a social and political identity that she rejected; yet, it was like a face she could not wash off, a mask she could not take off. As she said in a 1978 interview, 'In South Africa one wears one's skin like a uniform. White equals guilt' (Bazin & Seymour 1990:94). She often …

The Gender Revolution, Nancy Topping Bazin

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) In the fall of 1958, when I arrived at Stanford University to begin a Ph.D., the all-male faculty of the English department were still grumbling in the corridors about the last woman they had hired. They had found her too assertive, so they did not want to repeat that mistake. Later, at a session on getting jobs, the department chair told us that females would be hired "at one level of university lower than what they deserved." In 1960, like the other silent students, I accepted that pattern as the way the world worked. Yet the injustice of …

Portuguese-Americans And Mental Health Treatment Client-Therapist Ethnic Match, Ethnic Identity, And Satisfaction With Treatment, Katherine B. Gamble

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Multicultural issues in psychotherapy have increasingly been recognized as important in the provision of mental health services to our diverse population. Issues such as beliefs about mental health, attitudes toward authority, and even world view affect how clients access and make use of psychotherapy. Cultural views are essential to how one sees the world, and consequently there is much debate about whether clients would benefit from having therapists from the same cultural background. Ethnic identity, or the degree to which a person holds to the beliefs of their culture of origin, consequently plays an important role in psychotherapy. The Portuguese …

Community Social Disorganization Theory Applied To Adolescent Academic Achievement, Spencer Ross Baker

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

Over the years, the public education system has been transformed by outside political and societal forces to provide an equal opportunity for all students. Investigations of the public education system were not consistent and yielded divergent results on how to improve adolescent academic achievement. These divergent results were caused by different operationalizations of variables, data analytical procedures that possibly provided biased parameter estimates, and a failure to use a comprehensive theory. Although these results were inconsistent, the latest transformation of the public education system currently involves holding schools, administrators, parents, and students accountable for learning.

The measurement of success in …

Increasing Readiness To Change Among Smokers In A Primary Care Setting, Sheila F. Collicott

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study compared the effectiveness of two brief interventions, direct advice and motivational interviewing, for increasing motivation to quit among male smokers in the pre-contemplation and contemplation stages of change who were primary care patients at an Eastern urban VA medical center. Contrary to expectations, participants receiving motivational interviews did not increase more in readiness to change, motivation, and actions to quit, than those receiving direct advice or a control conversation, nor did they smoke fewer cigarettes per day. As expected, contemplators reported more cutting down and quit attempts than pre-contemplators. Factors that may have limited the effectiveness of interventions …

Perceptions Of Clinical Psychologists Relative To Other Mental Health Providers, Glenora Nelson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

There is a myriad of job titles that exist within the mental health profession. Public perception about the differences between these professionals has been the focus of many studies and the results generally suggest that the public cannot clearly distinguish among these mental heath professionals. The present study is also concerned with perceptions about the various mental health professionals, in particular, perceptions of clinical psychologists relative to other professionals in this field. Undergraduate psychology students age 18–47 participated in a study of perceptions and attitudes about the qualifications and competence of clinical psychologists, professional counselors, psychiatrists and clinical social workers. …

Identification Of Noncognitive Factors As Predictors Of Freshman Academic Performance And Retention In A Community College Setting, Mark Fallon Freeze

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

This study identified noncognitive factors (via the use of discriminant analysis) that impact freshmen academic performance and retention in a community college setting. The study used a modified version of the Freshman Survey, that had been validated for use at an urban four-year institution, to determine the predictive validity of the instrument for use with first semester freshmen in a two-year college setting. Existing research suggests that cognitive factors can, at most, explain 10 to 20 percent of the variance in student retention and academic performance. The remainder (approximately 80 percent) of the variance in student academic performance and …

Toward A Model Of Team Situation Awareness, Alexis Anne Fink

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Situation Awareness (SA) is a construct that is considered important to safety in dynamic, risky, time-constrained and complex environments, such as military aviation, nuclear reactors and emergency management. Research consideration of SA is complicated by the fact that there is no clearly superior methodology for SA measurement. Typically, SA is considered at the individual level; however, the nature of the SA context often requires more than one individual for safe and effective operations. Team SA is a qualitatively different phenomenon than individual SA. Few models of team SA have been proposed. The primary purpose of this paper was to develop …

America Calling: A Social History Of The Telephone To 1940. (Book Review), Philip A. Reed

STEMPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Factors Associated With Asthma Readmissions In Children's Hospitals, Maria Acedo Kronenburg

Health Services Research Dissertations

Asthma is the most common chronic illness of childhood. Pediatric asthma hospitalization rates and costs of care have risen in recent years. Readmissions, an adverse outcome often used to monitor quality of care, may account for the increase in asthma hospitalization rates. This research examined selected hospital and patient risk factors related to asthma readmissions, using Donabedian's framework for structure, process, and outcomes to assess the quality of care for children with asthma. Outcome measures included readmission for asthma within one year of initial hospitalization, readmission within 30 days, and multiple readmissions within one year. Structure factors measured were insurance …