Digital Commons Network^™

A Study Of Adult Undergraduate Students Attending Eastern Illinois University, Huey-Li Li

Masters Theses

Adult students over the age of 25 have comprised a significant proportion of student body in traditionally youth-oriented institutions of higher education. At Eastern, adult students comprised 7.2 percent of the population of undergraduate students in the Fall, 1986. Based on an institutional survey, this study attempted to gain a deeper understanding about adult students' academic and personal experiences of returning to a four-year university.

One-fourth of the adult students (N=183) were randomly selected and invited to participate in this study. A total of 104 adult students returned the questionnaires. Participants' responses were categorized into six groups in accordance with …

Female Criminality And Feminism – Is There A Causal Relationship?, Heather Whitcroft

Masters Theses

In the past, many criminologists have viewed the collective sentiments of feminism as potentially crimogenic (Lombroso, 1985; Thomas, 1923; Pollak, 1950). Even female academics writing in the last decade have claimed the women's movement has a "darker side" (Cowie, 1968; Adler, 1975; Simon, 1975; Hart, 1975; Dening, 1977). Substantial sceptics appear to remain unheard amongst those who profess that "liberated" women are committing more masculine, violent, serious, male-dominated and occupational crimes. Such remarks are generally unsubstantiated by research.

Box and Hale (1983:36) suggest that "... those who are attempting to prove a causal connection between emancipation and female crime by …

Trying To Publish An Article On American Painter Thomas Eakins, Elise Hempel

Masters Theses

Freelance writing for magazines is an uncertain business; that is, one cannot specifically school oneself to guarantee even a modicum of success in this career. A writer may, of course, learn the "proper" procedures for preparing and submitting an article by reading any of several reference books written by those who have "made it" in the business. These procedures vary, however, with each author; also, they say little or nothing about the actual business of writing well. Ultimately, then, a writer must test the waters of freelance magazine writing by trying and failing and trying again.

This paper details the …

Career Planning Center: Development Research, William L. Geurin

Masters Theses

Statement of Problem

The concern of this study is the type of facility presently available for career planning activities at Mt. Carmel High School, in Mt. Carmel, Illinois. The present facility offers only a minimum opportunity to the Mt. Carmel students for effective career investigation. Hopefully the work applied to this research project will result in paving the road to a modern, successful career center at Mt. Carmel High School. This can best be accomplished by gathering the information necessary to convince the local administration and board of education through presentation of the information acquired, about the need and value …

Conflict Management: Key To Effective School Principals, Henderson O. Days

Masters Theses

Effective school research studies have identified many characteristics of effective schools and effective leaders. In October, 1984, the U.S. Department of Education and the National Commission on Excellence identified 202 schools and 54 principals that met their school effectiveness criteria (Appendix C) and later that year they were given national recognition.

This researcher reviewed literature by Edmonds (1982), Eicholtz (1984), Guthrie (1980), Brookover and LeZotte (1982), Sergiovanni (1984) and others on effective schools as a validity reference in measuring the responses of the surveyed principals who listed what they perceived as being school effectiveness factors.

In establishing effective school programs, …

A Study Of The Organizational Climate Of Effingham High School As Perceived By The Faculty, Calvin R. Kirk

Masters Theses

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this field study was to determine how the faculty at Effingham High School in Effingham, Illinois, perceived the organizational climate of the school.

As first year assistant principal of the high school, the researcher saw the need to understand the personality of the organization with which he worked. The researcher viewed teacher perceptions of the school's organizational climate as a meaningful beginning point for initiating an ongoing project to build a positive school climate at Effingham High School.

Procedure

The Organizational Climate Index constituted the instrument used to gather faculty perceptions of the organizational …

Attitudes Of Preservice Elementary Teachers Toward Science And The Teaching Of Science, Gregory C. Schaeffer

Masters Theses

The importance of attitude toward the teaching and understanding of science has long been a concern of researchers. Its importance in the schools, as a means to influence academic achievement, continues to be felt. Teachers, often without trying, pass on to their students attitudes about science that are unproductive. It is, therefore, important for teachers to possess attitudes supporting the subjects that they teach. The problem then is determining what factors contribute to these teacher attitudes and how are they passed on to students.

Past research has failed to show conclusively what actually contributes to the creation of positive and …

The Inter-Rater Reliability Of The American Association On Mental Deficiency Adaptive Behavior Scale (School Edition) Using Secondary Special Education Personnel As Raters, Jimmy L. Camp Jr.

Masters Theses

The concept of adaptive behavior has been present in the definition of adaptive behavior for many years. With the advent of intelligence testing, adaptive behavior was deemphasized, but later reemerged as widespread dissatisfaction with the testing movement grew among researchers in the area of mental retardation. The importance of the concept of adaptive behavior has been affirmed by the American Association on Mental Deficiency (A.A.M.D.), which developed a dual criteria system of defining mental retardation that included adaptive behavior as a major component. The Federal government later adopted this classification system for funding purposes in P.L. 94-142.

The valid and …

Analysis And Trends Of Education And Employment: 1985 Fountain Central High School Graduates, Beverly J. Shelton

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived quality of education and the employment expectations of the 1985 graduates of Fountain Central High School and to gather current statistics on those graduates. Subjects comprised 103 graduates of a rural, west central Indiana public high school. The graduates were administered a survey to determine opinions and perceptions of education received, to determine whether they were employed or continuing their education, and to determine what trends may be developing or maintained.

Today' s students reflect a much wider range of preparation, as indicated by grades and class rank. The test …

Wit And Humor In Asl, Keila Tooley

Masters Theses

In his article "Linguistics and the Study of Poetic Language," Stankewicz (1960) characterizes poetic organization as "completely embedded in language and fully determined by its possibilities." The purpose of this study is to examine the form that poetic function assumes in a language that itself has a structural organization fundamentally different from that of oral languages and in which, accordingly, the possibilities for poetic organization are radically different.

In wit and poetry, elements of form and meaning—a linguistic system--are used to create complex multi-layered expressions with multiple meanings and systems of form and meaning. Similarities--and differences—in form, function and meaning …

The Battle Of The Wills In Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, Ruth M. Cook

Masters Theses

Throughout the 400 pages of the first installment of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, the heroine vies with at least three important people for the right to govern herself. Her brother, James Harlowe, Jr., is leader of the large extended family unit and is aiming at family aggrandisement by forcing Clarissa to marry a wealthy but odious man, Roger Solmes. Clarissa's mother, Mrs. Harlowe, aims at family peace, hoping to coax Clarissa into the same sort of obedience to patriarchal authority that she has adopted as her lifestyle. Robert Lovelace, a debonair young rake, aims at gaining total control of Clarissa, …

Assembly Process To Collective Behavior Episodes, Karen M. Glumm

Masters Theses

There have been three major reviews of the field of collective behavior out of which have come a challenge for future research. In response to that challenge this thesis is the investigation of growth and dispersal patterns of one short-range non-periodic extemporaneous gathering from beginning to end.

A brief review of the literature will be presented to focus on what has been done with regard to collective behavior episodes. The research has been somewhat limited and has tended to focus on retrospective accounts rather than on-the-spot interviews and observation.

The research for this thesis was conducted on the day of …

What's On Tv? A Demonstration Of The Utility Of Contextualism And Content Analysis In Mass Media Research, Craig P. Gaumer

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis has been to develop, test and utilize a reliable method to quantify the prevalence of pro- and anti-social behavior on children's television as assessed from a contextualist perspective. Many previous studies in the area of television have arbitrarily assigned either pro- or anti-social labels to television programs without the benefit of analyzing the content of these programs

The few studies that have attempted to analyze the pro- and anti-social content of children's television have used only physical parameters to define pro- or anti-social behavior. Through the development of a reliable method of analyzing the contextually …

Genesis Of An Expert System For Umr Degree Auditing, Ruth Sue Dare

Masters Theses

"This paper describes the features, design, and development of an expert system for degree auditing at the University of Missouri--Rolla. It summarizes artificial intelligence as it is known today while specifically addressing expert systems. It describes selected expert systems currently in existence.

The present audit procedure utilized at the University of Missouri--Rolla is discussed. A description is given of the design and development of an expert system, written in LISP, to conduct a degree audit. Finally there are concluding remarks which include an analysis of the system and a discussion of possible system enhancement"--Abstract, page ii.

Music: A Nursing Intervention For Increased Intracranial Pressure, Carol Roberts

Masters Theses

Individuals with increased intracranial pressure (ICP) from all causes are subject to periods of marked increased intracranial pressures. Research since the 1960's has focused primarily on pathophysiologic causes and on variations between pathologies. Since 1978, nursing research has identified increases in ICP with patient-related activities such as suctioning, vagal stimulations, positioning, turning, noises, and emotive conversations. The use of therapeutic touch has been identified as a nursing intervention that correlates with a lowering of ICP. Since auditory pathways have been shown to be intact even in severely brain-injured individuals, the use of music (the universal language) may be effective in …

An Investigation Of The Low Voltage Failure Mechanism In Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors, Christopher John Brannon

Masters Theses

"Enhanced leakage current was induced into multilayer ceramic capacitors by the introduction of micro-cracks. These cracks extended from the surface through the electrode layers and were formed by means of thermal shock. The capacitors were then exposed to a low voltage bias and a humid atmosphere. Results indicated that a simple electrolytic solution mechanism may be responsible for the increased conduction, and that the proposed dendritic growth mechanisms may be more complex than necessary"--Abstract, p. ii

Middle/Junior High School Guidance Programs: Recommended Guidelines And Services For Counselors, A. Nadine Boyer

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Parents, Teachers, And Administrators Of The Learning Disability Programs Of The Macon, Moweaqua, And Warrensburg-Latham School Districts, Carl R. Hall

Masters Theses

Purpose

The purpose of this field study was to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of the learning disability resource services, the model used to deliver services in Macon, Moweaqua, and Warrensburg-Latham School Districts, from the parents’, regular teachers’, resource learning disability teachers’, and administrators’ perspectives.

Assessing the perspectives currently held of the resource services by regular teachers, parents, resource learning disability teachers, and administrators served as an initial step in planning for future program needs and may help in establishing future goals for learning disability students. Discrepancies in the perceptions of these four groups may represent communication problems and identify areas …

A Test-Retest Reliability Study Of The Valpar Pre-Vocational Readiness Battery: Component #17, Vocational Interest Screening, Roger K. Anderson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine a set of test-retest reliability coefficients of the Valpar Pre-vocational Readiness Battery, Component 17, Subtest 3, Vocational Interest Screening for both male and female students receiving direct special education services at a rural high school in central Illinois. A sample was drawn on 25 subjects who were diagnosed as having learning disabilities, mental retardation, or social-economic educational handicaps and who were enrolled in the special education funded cooperative work training program at the school. Research was conducted on 16 males and 9 females (mean age = 17.1) who were administered the Valpar …

A Study Of The Truants Alternative Program In The Clay-Jasper-Richland Educational Service Region, Southeastern, Illinois, Larry Rinehart

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine if the Clay-Jasper-Richland Truants Alternative Program had reduced truancy and chronic truancy in the region during the 1984-85 school year and to identify possibly needed modifications in the Truants Alternative Program.

A review of the research and literature revealed that truancy is a complex problem that may require the treatment of the student, school environment, and general environment. Only after a careful evaluation of a student's situation can a plan be formulated for remediating the truancy problem.

Statistics were obtained on the numbers of truants, chronic truants, and student population in each …

Dream In The Fiction Of Nathanael West, James M. Caldwell

Masters Theses

Since the publication of his first novel in 1931, Nathanael West has presented significant problems for critics in their attempts to arrive at conclusions about his work and to classify him among twentieth century novelists. Various critical approaches have helped to clarify some of the ambiguities in West's four novels, but the bibliographic, source, and psychological studies have often often neglected specifics of the texts in favor of finding West a niche in relation to his twentieth century contemporaries.

Most criticism of West's fiction discusses dreams to some extent. His fictions are considered dreamworlds, and each novel's ordering dream is …

Superintendent Internship In Jasper County Cusd #1 And Robinson Cusd #2, Beverly L. Turkal

Masters Theses

This internship includes involvement, through employment, in two Illinois school districts: Jasper Community Unit #1 at Newton and Robinson Community School District 2 in Robinson. The internship has been under the direction of Superintendent James B. Taylor in Jasper Unit #1 and Superintendent Robert J. Verdun in the Robinson school district. Dr. Larry Janes, EIU professor, has been the student's advisor.

Jasper Unit #1 is the largest school district in Illinois, geographically. It includes 461 square miles and is the only district in Jasper County. There are ten attendance centers, including one high school and several elementary schools. The present …

Converting The Bement Junior High School To The Bement Middle School, Greg Zollman

Masters Theses

The town of Bement, Illinois, had an elementary school (K-8) and a high school (9-12) prior to 1976. The Bement Community Unit School District initiated its junior high school in 1976. This school consisted of the seventh and eighth grades.

During the 1983-84 school year, the administrators of the Bement schools expressed a general concern with the academic grades, social development, and behavior that was occurring in the Bement Junior High School. They indicated that many of the problems were the result of having the junior high school students housed with the senior high school students. They perceived that some …

Stress And Anxiety Levels Of Exercising Versus Sedentary Male Adults, Michael James Hanley

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare stress and anxiety levels of exercising and sedentary male adults at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois.

Forty-four male adults were selected as subjects for the study. Thirty-two subjects were chosen from an Adult Fitness group and comprised the exercising group. The sedentary group, chosen at random, consisted of twelve staff members who were not currently in a regular exercise program.

The Anxiety Scale Questionnaire developed by the Institute for Personality and Ability Testing (IPAT) was used. Using a provided answer key, a raw score was obtained for each participant. Raw scores …

A Data Structure For The Use Of Patterns In The Perceptual Ordering Of The Game Of Chess, Russ L. Hanna

Masters Theses

"It is well known that the way one perceives a problem can influence the difficulty of solving the problem in a profound way. In the case of computer chess playing programs, one finds that most programs perceive the game in much the same way. They are all based on Shannon's original proposal for chess playing programs. His approach was to generate all of the possible combinations of moves up to a certain number of plays and then a subset of all combinations to a deeper level thereafter. Each of these moves would then be evaluated as to its relative worth. …

Patient Perception Of Severity Versus Actual Clinical Severity In Acute Myocardial Infarction (Coronary Care, Cardiac Rehabilitation), Denise Kay Busman

Masters Theses

Myocardial infarction affects many people each year. Patients begin to form ideas regarding their myocardial infarction and perceive elements of their environment shortly after admission to the Coronary Care Unit (Runions, 1985). One of the ideas formed concerns the severity level of their myocardial infarction. The pupose of this study was to identify factors contributing to patients' perceptions of the severity level of their myocardial infarction and in turn compare these perceptions with predicted clinical severity. Numerous studies have explored patients' psychosocial reactions and adaptation to coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction. However, few studies identify patients' perceptions of events …

A Computerized Audio-Visual Speech Model, Joaquin Alberto Vila Ruiz

Masters Theses

"This thesis describes an expert system able to animate (graphically) and reproduce (acoustically) a text in any language which uses the Latin alphabet. A rule editor has been developed to create and modify the set of letter-to-sound rules of the target language. A parser has been implemented to apply the set of rules and translate text-to-speech. Each phoneme has a unique sound and thus requires its particular positioning of the vocal organs which are displayed in two different projections: a front view and a profile cross view of a human face in synchronization with the output sounds of the speech …

The Effects Of A Contingency Contract On Bulimic Behavior, Tim Lee Vander Molen

Masters Theses

In dealing with a 22 year old university student suffering from bulimia, two factors of the subject's behavior must be corrected. First, the subject must regain control over eating. This was done by having the subject regulate the type and amount of.food consumed and the time of day in which food was consumed. Second, the subject must correct the misconceptions about body weight, body image, and means of weight control. This was done by having the subject read and discuss relevant literature which force the subject to reevaluate the concepts of body weight and weight control. To clarify the treatment, …

Inhibition Of Transfer Between The Cerebral Hemispheres: A Possible Neuropsychological Mechanism For Some Instances Of Perceptual Defense, Sean R. Wierenga

Masters Theses

The present study investigated the role of inhibition of transfer between the cerebral hemispheres in the manifestation of perceptual defense. Paired contributions of affectively positive and negative pictures were tachistoscopically presented to 25 subjects who were asked to verbally rate the overall affective value of each presentation. Perceptual defense would be indicated if the presentation was rated as being significantly more positive when the left hemisphere viewed a negative picture than the reverse condition. This situation would indicate the inhibition of transfer of negative information from the right hemisphere to the left where the input could be vocalized. Rather than …

Tamoxifen Effects Upon Body Weight, Water Intake, And Several Behaviors, And Tamoxifen’S Unconditioned Stimulus Properties In The Conditioned Taste Aversion Paradigm, Steven J. Anderson

Masters Theses

The antiestrogen tamoxifen citrate (Stuart Pharmaceuticals) is indicated for treatment of breast cancer. Tamoxifen (TMX) is frequently employed because of demonstrated effectiveness in tumor reduction and a low incidence of debilitating side effects compared to similar agents. Even though side effects are uncommon with use of TMX, medical and behavioral sequalae have been noted. The present , . study investigated several behaviors in female rats administered TMX in two separate studies. In the first investigation, the effects of 25 daily treatments of TMX upon body weight, water intake, and several behaviors were assayed. In the second study, aversion to a …