Although training evaluation is understood as an important way of determining the effectiveness of a training program, additional research in the area of training transfer and core self-evaluations (CSE) could provide insight on measuring the effectiveness of training programs. Training transfer differences and CSE were examined in training courses offered in a workforce development program. The goals of the study were to: (1) evaluate the validity of using CSE as a means of predicting perceptions of transfer, (2) test the previous findings that utility reactions measures are a stronger predictor of transfer than affective reactions measures, (3) determine which type of enrollment format in the Career and Workforce Development program has higher transfer of training, (4) evaluate if CSE can predict different rates of learning, (5) determine if CSE correlates positively with affective and utility measures of reaction surveys, and (6) further examine the finding that utility measures positively correlate with knowledge gains. In order to do this, eight Western Kentucky University Career and Workforce Development training courses were evaluated. The study did not find support for any of the hypotheses. Possible reasons for this lack of support include a small sample size, a lack of responses to the transfer survey, the number of different courses evaluated, and characteristics of the training courses such as different trainers. Thus, additional research is needed in this area to better understand the nature of the relationships between CSE, perceptions of transfer, utility reactions, affective reactions, and training course knowledge gains.

As the number of women entering postsecondary education continues to increase (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014), universities will be tasked with ensuring that their pregnancy leave policies and practices are aligned with the principles of organizational justice. When organizations are aware of the perceptions of both decision makers and those affect by decisions, they are able to alter policies and practices in a way that promotes perceptions of fairness. The present study examines department head and faculty member perceptions of pregnancy leave practices in a university setting. This study is a replication/follow-up of two studies conducted in 2005 and 1995 on perceptions of pregnancy leave practices within a university setting. The results indicate that department heads and faculty members similarly perceive the fairness of options to cover a pregnant faculty member’s responsibilities. Department heads and faculty also rated their willingness to use an option similarly. Additionally, department heads are more willing to use options that they perceived as fair and are less likely to use options they perceived as unfair. The findings of this study indicate that it is important for those affected by decisions such as pregnancy leave practices to experience voice in the decision-making process. The results of this study should be useful to universities and department heads when determining how to cover the responsibilities of a faculty member on pregnancy leave.

Life review involves a systematic, chronological review of an individual’s life from birth to death as well as an examination of the meaningfulness of life experiences and events. The purpose of the current study was to discover the effects of life review on happiness and life satisfaction in the older population. Participants from 71 to 85 years of age completed a demographics questionnaire, the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). SHS and SWLS were completed every other day from the beginning to the end of the data collection process. Once a consistent baseline was reached for the individual, the life review process began. Participants shared experiences from childhood and adolescence, adulthood, and older adulthood during the course of three sessions. At the end of the third session, participants were asked to write a letter to their younger self. It was hypothesized that engaging in the life review process would increase life satisfaction and happiness in the elderly. Results revealed that the life review intervention did not affect participants’ levels of life satisfaction and subjective happiness, with the exception of participant four who displayed increases in these variables.

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) is the self-inflicted damage to one’s bodily tissues without the intent to die. Previous research has sought to discover the motivation of an individual to perform such behavior and differences in the experience of pain among those who self-injure. The goals for the current study were to reveal any relationships between the function of NSSI, the subjective experience of pain, and an objective measurement of pressure pain threshold. Participants completed the Inventory of Statements About Self- Injury (ISAS; Klonsky & Glenn, 2009), which measures the functions that NSSI serves, and a measure assessing subjective pain experience, specifically frequency and severity of pain. Pain thresholds were also induced and recorded using a pressure algometer. The findings suggest that pain frequency significantly predicted pain threshold, whereas subjective pain severity did not. Furthermore, marking distress, the function of NSSI which serves as creating a tangible representation of emotional distress, was significantly associated with pain frequency, such that as marking distress increases in relevance, the less often one would be expected to experience pain. Therefore, the current study has implications relevant to both future research and the clinical setting.

The relationship between drinking patterns of college students and their measured level of assertiveness was examined in this study. The subjects were categorized into six groups based on their self-reported frequency and amount of drinking. They were also asked to record the number of drinks they had drunk in the prior week. The MacAndrews Alcoholism Scale and the Rathus Assertion Schedule were administered to all the subjects. Pearson Product-moment correlations were calculated to assess the relationship between levels of drinking, the number of drinks in the prior week and scores from the Rathus Assertion Schedule and the MacAndrews Alcoholism Scale. The subjects were divided into two groups based on their scores obtained on the MacAndrews Scale: those whose score was 26 or above (prealcoholics) and those whose score was below 26 (Non-prealcoholic). Pearson Product-moment correlations were calculated to assess the relationship between the variables for these two groups. The results of the analysis did not support previous research that heavy drinking is associated with lower levels of assertiveness in alcoholics. In contrast to previous findings with alcoholics, the results indicated a very limited positive relationship between these variables for the non-prealcoholics, particularly the males, and no relationship at all for the prealcoholic subjects. It is suggested that the lack of assertiveness observed in alcoholics may develop after the onset of their alcoholism. While it was expected that the drinking level of the subjects would be related to their scores on the MacAndrews Scale this was not the case. This finding suggests that drinking may not be a reliable predictor of alcoholism. Further research is suggested using a larger sample of only prealcoholics to determine what relationships exist between assertiveness, drinking and the prediction of alcoholism.

A McDonald’s training program for the positions of grill and counter was evaluated in order to identify recommendations for curriculum refinement or enhancements. The methodological approaches developed by Ford and Wroten (1984) and Bownas, Bosshardt, and Donnelly (1985) were applied. Three evaluation assessment inventories were developed: The Job task Inventory, The training Emphasis Inventory, and The Training Effectiveness Inventory. These inventories were constructed with the assistance of 49 managers, trainers, and employees with six or more months of service. Four managers, seven trainers, and 22 recent training graduates responded to the appropriate inventory and these ratings were used in the content validity evaluation. Scale reliability was evaluated for each inventory using Cronbach’s coefficient alpha and Kuder-Richardson 21. Descriptive statistics were calculated for training requirements, training emphasis and training effectiveness measures. A plotting matrix was developed and correlation analyses were performed to assess content validity. Results of the analyses indicate: (a) that the three inventories are reliable, (b) that the overall grill training program reflects job tasks needed for successful job performance with the exception of a single content domain, (c) that counter managers and trainers differ in their perception of the importance of job tasks and the training emphasis needed, (d) that recent grill graduates find the training curriculum effective while counter graduates do not, and (e) that managers and trainers for both positions perceive task importance differently. The results call for slight grill training enhancements for the Secondary Duties content domain. Additionally it is indicated that the counter training program needs significant adjustments in terms of curriculum content and training emphasis.

The purpose of this study was to determine if nursing students could be differentiated along a patient-technique nursing orientation continuum, and whether there would be a shift in the orientation of student nurses subsequent to participating in a training program for nurses. This study attempted to determine if personality traits could be used as predictors of the patient-technique orientation of the student nurses and if the personality of the student nurses remained stable over one year. Thirty-four student nurses in the two-year associate degree nursing program in a southern regional university were administered the nursing Pictures Interest Test (NPIT), the Personality Research Form (PRF), and a brief biographical questionnaire. The student nurses were assessed at the beginning of the second semester and at the end of the third semester of the four-semester training program. The results of this study indicated that these nursing students could be differentiated into role orientations along the patient-technique continuum, but that there were no consistent changes in orientation from the pre- to post-testing periods. The results also indicated that the group means for the personality traits were generally stable over time, but that the Aggression and Infrequency scores declined significantly. An increase in Order resulted in a decrease in Impulsivity, and an increase in Autonomy resulted in a decrease in Succorance. The personality variables appeared to predict orientation, but the usefulness of that apparent predictive power was minimal, due to the small sample size in relation to the number of predictor variables. The results of this study indicate that nursing students can be classified along a continuum of patient-technique orientations and that predictions of orientation type can be made from personality variables. Additional data on the reliability and validity is needed to ascertain the credibility of this instrument in measuring nursing orientation.

Recent studies have shown that different free will beliefs affect moral behavior. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether different free will beliefs also influence moral judgment. College students (N = 56) were randomly assigned to one of three framing manipulations: free will, determinism, or neutral. They then read three morally questionable scenarios that differed by situational context. Following each scenario, participants completed a moral judgment questionnaire that measured four moral constructs: moral evaluation, moral responsibility, justification, and punishment. Finally, participants completed a Free Will & Determinism Questionnaire (FWD-Q) that measured their lay beliefs in free will and determinism. For analysis, we grouped participants according to their reported FWD-Q scores into one of three groups: free will, determinism, or compatibilism. We found that different free will beliefs influenced moral judgment to a small degree, but not in the ways that we predicted. Our results show that situational context affects moral judgment much more than lay philosophical beliefs regarding free will. Future studies should examine whether this still holds true for older adults with more developed worldviews.

The first part of this literature review goes over the biological and psychological aspects of stress. The cause of stress can be linked back to a primitive instinct known as “fight or flight.” The “fight or flight” instinct is triggered by several chemical reactions in the body starting from a signal from the amygdala to the sympathetic nervous system. Stress can also be categorized into internal and external stress. Further research links stress to sports. Many studies show that stress coping techniques such as meditation, self-talk, rituals, etc. are beneficial to athletes during competition. Suggested avenues of further research are to develop a standardized way to incorporate practicing stress coping techniques into a younger athlete’s routine, discover whether the same stress coping techniques can be used throughout all sports, and whether certain stress coping techniques will benefit people of different personality types equally. Keywords: Stress, Coping, Sports, Psychology, Athlete

The present studies evaluated the effect of training structures on the development of equivalence classes in college students and individuals with intellectual disabilities. Experiment 1 evaluated the effects of two types of training structures, One-To-Many (OTM) (AB, AC, AD), and Many-To-One (MTO) (BA, CA, DA), on the establishment of equivalence classes in college students. A between group comparison was used in Experiment 1. Forty-two participants were randomly assigned to two different groups. Twenty-one were assigned to the OTM group and twenty-one to the MTO group. Participants in both groups were taught 3 four-member stimulus classes. Participants in both groups were exposed to conditional discrimination training, mixed training, symmetry and equivalence test. Response accuracy and response latency were measured in both groups. The results showed that the MTO training structure was slightly more effective in establishing equivalence classes in college students. In the Experiment 2, six young adults with intellectual disabilities were taught mathematical relations using the MTO training structure which was the most effective training structure in Experiment 1. All participants were taught three 3-member stimulus equivalence classes using the MTO training structure. The experimental sequence consisted of a generalization probe and pretest followed by conditional discrimination training, symmetry test, equivalence test, and posttest. Upon the completion of the training and testing phases a generalization probe was evaluated. Five participants demonstrated equivalence relations. The results show that the MTO training was superior to the OTM in the Experiment 1. Response latencies were faster in the MTO group during the training phases and slower in the testing conditions. Experiment 2 showed that only five participants demonstrated equivalence relations and transferred untaught relations to new setting. Results and implications are discussed in light of the research on equivalence and training structures in both adults and individual with intellectual disabilities.