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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The present study compared the effects of two types of preretirement programs, a traditional and a lifestyles, on attitude toward retirement, attitudes toward planning for retirement, and interest levels for the content of the two programs for employees varying in age, gender, and occupational status at a large university in the Southeastern United States. The primary focus of the traditional program was on describing consequences to expect following retirement, such as income decline, health care costs, and alterations in social and leisure activities. In contrast, the primary focus of the lifestyles approach was on describing how one could plan ahead to address potentially undesirable consequences in the areas of financial stability, health care, or social/leisure lifestyle which might affect adjustment to retirement. Prior to participation in the planning seminars, which contained both traditional and lifestyles program formats, males in the younger age group perceived themselves as less prepared for retirement and exhibited a more negative attitude toward retirement than did those in the older age group. Males in the younger age group demonstrated significantly more positive attitude changes following participation in the planning seminars, while males in the older age group did not. After attending these programs, younger age group males felt more prepared for retirement, perceived retirement more positively, and felt preretirement planning was more useful than they had prior to participation. Analysis of female employees’ responses indicated that participation in the planning programs had no impact on their attitudes toward retirement and preretirement planning, regardless of their age or perceived level of preparedness. The study also found that, as predicted, older participants were more interested in the traditional presentation than they were in the lifestyles format. In contrast, younger participants were equally interested in the traditional and lifestyles formats. As females did not change in their attitude toward retirement or perception of how well prepared they were for retirement, the possibility was supported that current programs may not be adequately addressing the preretirement planning needs of female participants. Implications for future preretirement planning efforts are discussed. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among the factors identified in the McCubbin ( 1993) Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment, and Adaptation (MRM) to determine the applicability of the model to caregivers for a family member with Alzheimer's Disease (AD). The MRM was developed to describe the factors that influence the family's ability to adapt to a stressful situation over time. The applicability of the MRM to family caregivers in which a family member suffers from progressive dementia, or AD, has not been evaluated. Data were collected through a mail survey sent to 300 family caregivers of persons with AD on the mailing list of a local AD service organization. An anonymous random sample of 43 family caregivers was obtained. Participants completed a demographic tool and two interval level scales developed by McCubbin and colleagues; the Family Index of Regenerativity and Adaptation General (FIRA-G) and the Family Member Well-being Index (FMWB). The instruments measured the association between MRM's independent variables (Stressors, Strains, Social Support, Coping, Coherence, Relative and Friend Support, and Hardiness) and MRM's dependent variables (Family Member Well-Being and Distress). The relationships between the scores of the FIRA-G and the FMWB were determined by Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Significant relationships were found between the factors identified in the MRM. The findings in this study suggest that significant relationships exist among the factors identified in the MRM and that the MRM maybe useful in studying AD populations. Ultimately, the use of the MRM may improve healthcare providers' ability to recognize and treat caregiver stress, which will in turn improve the home care of patients with AD.

This study sought to answer critical questions surrounding the impact that national culture has on specific parts of the employment experience of employees working for multinational organizations. As globalization expands and organizations are gaining larger footprints beyond regional operations, there has become a need to understand how cultural nuances could be playing a role in the employee experiences at these organizations. This study looks at two pieces of the employee experience in great detail, the psychological contract and job satisfaction. Understanding the process that builds psychological contracts between employee and employer is a critical piece to promoting a satisfied and productive workforce. The perception of a breach of the psychological contract has substantial negative implications. Understanding how the psychological contract and employee job satisfaction are linked is a key focus of this study. Binary logistic regression and path analysis were conducted on a sample of employees of multinational organizations which provided key findings and evidence that both nationality and job satisfaction play a statistically significant role in the perception of a psychological contract breach. The path analysis provided results that warrant further research, but was unable to substantiate the moderating effects of the dimensions of national culture on job satisfaction and psychological contract breach. Implications and recommendations for multinational organizations and learning technology practitioners are discussed as well as recommendations for future research.

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is one of the most prevalent and disabling health conditions in the US and worldwide. Biomedical explanations of acute injury fail to account for why some individuals experience remission of pain and restoration of physical function while others do not. Pain-related fear, accompanied by elevated appraisals of physical exertion and avoidance of physical activity, has emerged as a central psychosocial risk factor for transition from acute injury to chronic pain and disability. Research has indicated that these pain-related factors may be maintained through observational learning mechanisms. To date, no studies have experimentally examined the role of observational learning and pain-related fear in the context of actual musculoskeletal injury. Accordingly, the present study examined the impact of observational learning and pain-related fear on activity appraisals and exertion following experimentally- induced acute low back injury. Healthy participants' appraisal of standardized movement tasks along with measures of physical exertion were collected prior to and following a procedure designed to induce delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) to the lower back. Following induction of DOMS, participants observed a video prime depicting CLBP patients exhibiting either high or low pain behavior during similar standardized movements. In line with hypothesized effects, participants assigned to the high pain behavior prime demonstrated greater elevation in pain and harm appraisals as well as greater decrement in physical exertion. Further in line with hypotheses, significant changes in appraisal and physical performance following the high pain behavior prime were only observed among participants endorsing high pain-related fear during baseline assessment. Discussion of findings addresses potential mechanisms of action as well as study limitations and direction for future research.