Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Structure Of Equine Personality, Rachel Etta Kristiansen

Dissertations

The current study was designed to investigate the structure of equine personality. Two personality questionnaires were replicated from previous studies and implemented simultaneously to test the theory that different questionnaires may extract different personality structures. Breed and sex differences were also hypothesized to be significantly different for some personality dimensions. A total of 827 horses were rated on a 90-item personality questionnaire. Participants were recruited online via email and completed the survey at their own convenience. An additional 121 respondents rated a horse that had already been rated; these results were used to calculate inter-rater reliability.

After data collection was …

An Exploratory Investigation On The Effects Of An Electronic Recording System For Repeated Reading, Seajae Calvin Hartness

Dissertations

Repeated Reading is a common reading intervention that has been used to help students read fluently since 1979. There are many variations of Repeated Reading that have been investigated and found to be effective. However, there is a relative research deficit on the effectiveness of software programs for administering Repeated Reading. This exploratory research project examined the effectiveness of Repeated Reading with an electronic recording system. The performance of the electronic Repeated Reading group was compared to the performance of participants who received traditionally administered Early Intervention Program services. The results suggest that electronically scored Repeated Reading is as effective …

Tapping The Hidden Job Market Through Informational Interviews: A Qualitative Examination Of Students' And Professionals' Perspectives, Kimberly S. Hogelucht Phd

Dissertations

A growing body of literature suggests that networking promotes not only learning about one's field of interest but also employment opportunities, without requiring a formal job search. Considering three-fourths of job openings are never advertised (Koss-Feder, 1999), it appears networking is a powerful strategy in successful job attainment. This study focuses on a less-than-obvious networking strategy, the informational interview. An informational interview is an interview with a professional that is conducted by a student or job seeker with the intention of finding out more about the professional's occupation or career field. In this study, informational interviews were examined, not only …

How Working Mothers Negotiate Work-Family Conflict: An Exploration Of Work Satisfaction, Home Life Satisfaction, And Partner Supportiveness, Karen Kramer Horning Phd

Dissertations

The demographics of the American workforce and family structures have shifted dramatically over the past 60 years, but traditional work and domestic roles have evolved only slightly. Women are more impacted than men by fixed interpretations of gender roles due to their assumption of professional positions in the workplace without relief from domestic responsibilities. For many women who are engaged in the professional realm while raising a family, the result is often a work-family conflict. Despite significant research and some governmental policy and organizational policy changes, limited progress has been made in resolving the conflict. Some dimensions of work-family conflict …

Parental Support Of Latinos In Higher Education, Maria Lorena Meza Phd

Dissertations

Many universities grapple with Latino student retention issues. Latinos are the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States, yet they also are the group that has the least amount of formal education. The literature suggests that parental support helps Latinos succeed academically in elementary, middle, and high schools. However, there has been little research on how or even whether Latino parental support influences academic success at the postsecondary level. Consequently, there is a lack of knowledge about (a) Latino parental behavior and attitudes during the years their children attend college and (b) the relationship between parents' behavior and …

What Do They Say? Students From A Private, Faith-Based, Four-Year University Share Their Perspectives On College As A Mentoring Environment, Jeffrey Andrew Bolster Edd

Dissertations

Research indicates that the term mentor in the context of higher education currently has multiple definitions and is used to describe a variety of programs, efforts, and formal as well as informal activities. In recent years, interdisciplinary perspectives on traditional undergraduate students have been converging around the idea that the functions and characteristics of mentoring students could be shared across the institution, creating what Daloz Parks (2000) has called a mentoring environment. This sharing of responsibility has the possibility to address what Baxter Magolda (2009) has recently identified as missing in higher education, a "holistic, theoretical perspective to promote the …

Perceptions Of Leadership: An Analysis Of College Students' Understandings Of The Concept Of Leadership, Paige Haber Phd

Dissertations

Colleges and universities increasingly have embraced the goal of developing students' leadership capacity. Diverse curricular and co-curricular leadership programs currently exist and continue to be developed to address leadership development outcomes. There is, however, limited understanding of how college students think about and define leadership. This study sought to fill this gap in the research by examining the ways in which college students understand the concept of leadership. In this mixed methods study the researcher analyzed data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL) project, a national research study on college student leadership and the college experience. Data for the …

Exploration Of The Impostor Phenomenon In Law School Students, Owen Glenn Smith Phd

Dissertations

Law schools compel students to think like lawyers by using intensive Socratic dialogue built around voluminous case readings. This method sometimes pushes students to feel overwhelmed, to lose self-confidence, and even to wonder whether law school was the right choice for them. To some extent, such outcomes are intended because the articulated goal of law school pedagogy is to tear law students down so they can be rebuilt to think like lawyers. Unfortunately, this demanding and competitive atmosphere prompts some law students to develop the impostor phenomenon (IP). The IP hampers students' leadership abilities because the students persistently feel like …

Exploring The Growth Of Text-Reading Fluency In Upper-Elementary English Language Learners During Instruction Based On Repeated Reading, Katharine Staub Harrison Edd

Dissertations

For the large population of school-age English language learners in California and the United States, the challenge of learning a second language while learning academic content is formidable. Learning to read English skillfully is key to their success. Reading instruction focused on development of oral text-reading fluency has shown strong potential for accelerating the general reading achievement of native-English-speaking children, but there is a lack of concomitant research on English language learners. This dissertation describes a formative experiment with the goal to improve, in 9 weeks, the general reading achievement of 17 English language learners in Grades 3, 4, 5, …

A Comparative Content Analysis Of Five Spelling Programs In The 1st, 3rd, And 5th Grade, Katherine N. Davis Edd

Dissertations

This study investigated the content of five widely used spelling programs at three grade levels. Five spelling programs, Houghton Mifflin, Scholastic Spelling, Sitton Spelling, Words Their Way, and Treasures were analyzed. The following questions guided the study: To what extent do current spelling series reflect research-based practices and what underlying theoretical framework is stated or implied in each series? What types of spelling strategies, activities, and techniques are represented in student workbooks and teacher edition books? Two sub questions included: Do they reflect current research and/or the theoretical frameworks stated or implied in each series and do spelling programs provide …

Recidivism: A Multi-Level Explanation, Brian Eric Oliver

Dissertations

Numerous studies have shown that several characteristics of offenders are related to their likelihood of recidivism after release from prison. Nearly all of these studies, however, have focused on offenders from just one state. Few studies have examined recidivism rates controlling for the characteristics of offenders from multiple states, and virtually none have examined recidivism rates controlling for characteristics of offenders from multiple states during different periods of time. Additionally, few studies have explored different types of recidivism across multiple jurisdictions. To address these shortcomings, this dissertation applied logistic regression models to data from the publicly available Prisoners Released in …

Whither Criminology?: On The State Of Criminology's Paradigm, Brendan David Dooley

Dissertations

What is the condition of criminology’s paradigm? The reply to this question has implications bearing on the profession’s bona fides as a science as well as its sustainability as an independent academic enterprise. The work attempts to capture the elusive term through the use of five themes: theoretical consensus, methodological consensus, boundaries, the departure from sociology, and the current and future status of the field. In approaching this question the work presents an analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seventeen renowned criminologists. The centerpiece of the latter data set was assembled and analyzed in …

Invariance In The Factor Structure Of Translated Instruments: Multiple Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis And Mimic Models, Fatma Ayyad

Dissertations

When factorial invariance is established across translated forms of an instrument, the meaning of the construct crosses language/cultures. If factorial invariance is not established, score discrepancies may represent true language group differences or faulty translation. This study seeks to disentangle this by determining whether cultural/linguistic variance can be decomposed separately from construct variance intended in the measuring instrument.

Translated forms of the God Mediated Control factor of the Belief in Personal Control Scale (BPCS) (Berrenberg, 1987) was analyzed across multiple samples for measurement and structural invariance among American native English speakers, Arab native Arabic speakers, and Arab bilingual Arabic/English speakers. …

Students Of Indian Heritage And United States Citizen Students' Adaptation Of College, Opinions About Mental Illness And Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Counseling Help, Margaret Omotola Ajayi-Nabors

Dissertations

The present study replicated Baysden's (2002) multi-component model and tested its generalizability on a homogeneous demographic group. This study compared international college students from India (n 0 244) and U.S. student participants (n 0 393) on their adaptation to college, their opinions about mental illness, and their attitudes regarding their professional psychological help-seeking behavior. A structural regression model was utilized to examine if student origin influenced opinions about mental illness, student adaptation to college, and attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help. /// The findings of this project supported Baysden's (2002) multi-component model to understanding international students' use of counseling. More …

Implementation Of The 2009 Cacrep Standards Addiction Competencies, Tiffany K. Lee

Dissertations

Addiction issues have been and continue to be significant problems affecting the United States. Over the past few decades, substantial scholarly attention has been paid to the lack of addictions training in the counseling profession. The purposes of this mixed-method study were to examine the current status of addiction training among institutions that offer counselor education programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) and determine how institutions plan to integrate the addiction-related competencies outlined in the 2009 CACREP standards.

The quantitative data were obtained from a 15-item online survey completed by 74 CACREP …

Union Citezenship: Impact, Influences And Challenges To Irish Immigration Laws., Ewaen Fred Ogieriakhi

Dissertations

The objective of this thesis firstly, is to attempt to explore the impact, influences and challenges that European Union citizenship rules and the adoption of the Citizens Rights Directive has on the right of Union citizens and their family members to reside in Ireland. The thesis examines the shift from “Market Citizenship”- from having adequate financial resources and sickness health insurance for the acquisition of right of residence to now recognizing right of residence for economically inactive persons.¹ The thesis assesses the impact of the relevant Treaty provisions on Free movement of Persons and the case laws of the …

Communicating Vision : A Linguistic Analysis Of Leadership Speeches, Debrah J. Martin

Dissertations

Leadership literature contains ample recommendations that leaders need to have a vision and be competent in visioning. A small subset of that literature recommends that leaders communicate their visions. There are few resources, however, that guide leaders how to communicate their visions. This study consists of an application of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), including Genre Theory, and an extension of SFL, Appraisal Theory, on four visionary speeches in the field of political discourse—Lincoln‘s Gettysburg Address, Churchill‘s ―We Shall Fight on the Beaches,‖ Kennedy‘s inaugural, and Martin Luther King Jr.‘s ―I Have a Dream‖—to discover how these leaders were able to …

Autonomy Through Social Skill Development: A Camp Intervention For Young People With Spina Bifida, Lauren Nicole Zurenda

Dissertations

Spina bifida is a complex condition that presents multiple physical and psychosocial challenges to autonomy development. Pediatric psychology may play a role in promoting autonomy development in this population through the implementation of empirically-supported, developmentally-appropriate, and syndrome-specific interventions. The current study was one attempt to meet the need for such interventions.

This study represents one step in a line of intervention research designed to promote autonomy gains among young people with spina bifida. Its purpose was to evaluate a manual-based curriculum as a part of a one-week long overnight camp exclusively for young people with spina bifida. It was hypothesized …

Sibling Suicide In Indo-American Families: Acculturation, Acculturative Stress, And Family Relationships, Suresh Unni

Dissertations

This study investigated suicide in Indo-American families. Relationships between acculturation, acculturative stress, and family relationships in completed suicides of Indo-American youth were examined. Snowball sampling procedures were used to find six adult sibling survivors of suicide as participants. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted by the researcher. Grounded theory strategies were used to analyze data and generate theory. Analysis of results yielded both protective and risk factors for suicide. Acculturation risk factors resulted from homogeneous populations lacking in diversity while protective factors were progressive and integrated neighborhood and schools. Integration was the preferred mode of acculturation by participants and suicide victims. …

Globalizing Kenyan Culture: Jua Kali & The Transformation Of Contemporary Kenyan Art: 1960-2010, Margaretta H. Swigert

Dissertations

In an age of globalization, when as a result of enhanced telecommunication and global media, the world's population is more interconnected than ever, the public at large still tends to associate Africa with poverty, disease and political instability. Yet keen observers of the social landscape have observed that despite Africa's legacy of woes, cultural productivity in the region is on the rise, leading scholars to refer to the phenomenon as an African Renaissance. This is particularly the case in Kenya where a contemporary art movement is flourishing through both local and global art networks. But the question remains: how in …

The Holy Ghost Beyond The Church Walls: Latino Pentecostalism(S), Congregations, And Civic Engagement, Norman Eli Ruano

Dissertations

In what ways is Pentecostalism a catalyst or an inhibitor of congregational and congregant civic engagement among U.S. Latinos? And how does this compare to other religious traditions, specifically Latino Catholicism, Evangelicalism, and Mainline Protestantism? The dissertation argues that Latino Pentecostal congregations, depending on a variety of reasons such as demographics, and pastor's education, can either be very conservative, inward-looking, and otherworldly, or progressive and this-worldly--in addition to other options along this continuum. Such findings are particularly important given the common social scientific research assumption that Latino Pentecostal congregations are generally conservative, inward- looking, and otherworldly.

After surveying a representative …

The Impact Of Treating Major Depression During Pregnancy On The Postpartum Phase, Jamie Kent

Dissertations

Major depression during pregnancy is a risk factor for postpartum depression (PPD). Medically acceptable treatments for depression during pregnancy and postpartum are limited and many women are turning to complementary and alternative treatments. The current project examined whether treatment of major depression during pregnancy reduced the risk for PPD and explored predictors of PPD in this high-risk sample. One hundred twenty women were clinically assessed using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD17), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) at ten weeks, six months, and nine months postpartum following random assignment to one …

Professional And Personal Lives Of Psychologists: Spillover, Family Functioning, And Life Satsiafction, Pedja Stevanovic

Dissertations

Two-wave, longitudinal data from a national, web-based survey of doctoral psychologists was used to examine work life, spillover, family, and personal lives. A measure of spillover, Stressors and Enhancers for Psychologists, was also evaluated. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated two negatively correlated dimensions of work spillover: positive spillover termed family enhancers and negative spillover termed family stressors. This measure was significantly related to a widely used, more general measure of positive and negative spillover and demonstrated high temporal stability. Respondents reported a significantly higher incidence of family enhancers than family stressors at both data collection points. Consistent with previous research, the …

Moving To The Level Of Representation To Explain Variations In Family Child Care Provider Sensitivity And The Effectiveness Of Child-Related Training, Diana Davidson Schaack

Dissertations

Many young children in the United States spend a substantial amount of time in the care of family child care providers. Previous research has found that when providers are sensitive and responsive to children's needs, children are more likely to develop secure attachment relationships with their providers, which, in turn, have been linked to many developmental benefits for young children. Unfortunately, it appears that many children do not experience the levels of caregiving sensitivity that are necessary to develop secure attachment relationships with their providers and that increased child-related training is not always effective at improving provider caregiving behaviors.

Attachment …

Positive Peers: Exploring How And Why To Incorporate Peers Into Hiv Prevention Services, Allison Tan

Dissertations

In 2002, the Human Resource Service Administration (HRSA) began encouraging and funding a new strategy in HIV prevention. Referred to as Prevention with Positives (PwP), this approach to HIV prevention focused efforts on intervention with individuals who were already HIV-infected. This study examines one particular modality for the delivery of these important prevention messages to men and women living with HIV - the utilization of a peer-based model. "Peer-based" refers to any program which utilizes HIV-positive individuals as service providers for other HIV-positive individuals. A nationwide sample of such programs is used to provide an exploratory look into the possibilities …

The Impact Of Family, Community, And Resilience On African-American Young Adults Who Had Parents Incarcerated During Childhood, Marilyn Diana Ming

Dissertations

Problem. Parental incarceration affects millions of children, and their numbers continue to rise. By losing their parents, children can be exposed to unique risks, relative to the separation. Many children face family structure disintegration, and this can be so disruptive that their normal development is impaired. Evidence suggests that children are impacted psychologically, socially, and financially. The result is the display of problematic behavior, being aggressive or withdrawn at home and in their communities. The concentration of the incarceration trends seems to be in poor African-American communities. Incarceration has left higher numbers of children without parents, making the collateral damage …

Leadership For Social Change: Learning From Latina/Chicana Activist Educators, Marcia Venegas-García Phd

Dissertations

An examination of the literature in the field of Leadership Studies exposes a void in understanding activism as leadership among Latinas/Chicanas. The contemporary theories of scholars including James MacGregor Burns (1978) and Joseph C. Rost (1993) suggest there may be shared qualities between specific concepts of leadership and the everyday working practices of Latina/Chicana activist educators. Yet, academics within the field of Leadership Studies have little knowledge of this relationship or the unique ways in which Latina/Chicana educators engage as leaders, activists and agents for change, specifically in educational communities. Research into women's studies, ethnic studies, and Chicana feminist studies …

An Investigation Of How Elementary School Teachers Make Data-Driven Instructional Decisions In Literacy, Cheryl Carangian Pham Edd

Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods phenomenological study was to explore the data-driven instructional decisions that elementary teachers make in literacy. Educators have moved towards a culture of being data-driven, and have declared data use in schools to be significant to school improvement and accountability. Yet, as school districts make great strides in creating a culture of data-driven decision making – collecting, analyzing and interpreting data – little is known about how individual teachers make sense of data and how they use the data to inform instruction. To explore the data-driven instructional decisions made by classroom teachers using literacy assessment …

How Politics, Economics, And Technology Influence Evaluation Requirements For Federally Funded Projects: A Historical Study Of The Elementary And Secondary Education Act From 1965 To 2005, Maxine R. Eversley-Gilling

Dissertations

Program evaluation does not take place in a vacuum. Its context is the interaction of political, economic, and technological developments that influenced the formation of federal policies for mandated evaluation requirements. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 established policies to provide “financial assistance to local educational agencies serving areas with concentrations of children from low-income families to expand and improve their educational program” (Public Law 89-10—Apr. 11, 1965). This legislation also had another consequence: it helped drive the establishment of educational program evaluation and the field of evaluation as a profession.

The purpose of this study is …

Learning Organization Principles: The Impact On A Midwest State Government As Perceived By Its Employees, Rosalee Billingslea Rush

Dissertations

This study sought to determine the extent to which learning organization constructs influence performance in state government. The overarching purpose was to examine the relationship between Peter Senge’s five learning disciplines and organizational performance.

The study utilized an ex post facto survey design. The sample population was composed of supervisors and professional and administrative staff within the 19 agencies of a Midwestern state government. Participants were administered an instrument that asked them to rate their perception of the organization and its performance along seven dimensions of learning. Of the randomly selected 381 participants, 110 (or 28.9%) returned the survey instrument. …