Project report (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 1998. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-92).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of West Florida, 2006. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 85 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

This qualitative study aims to explore attitude formation within a small sample of Tertiary level student-athletes in relation to their antecedent experiences, individual knowledge about psychology and the social factors impacting on their attitude formation. The study is intended to allow for the development of themes related to the participants’ personal responses to the questions posed to them. The participants’ answers from the interviews will allow for an in-depth analysis and interpretation of the constituents influencing attitude formation towards sport psychology consultation. Primarily, the study aims to explore how attitudes towards clinical and sport psychology practitioners are constructed in this sample. Clinical psychology is used as a contrasting reference point to explore attitude formation in sport psychology. The participants’ beliefs, knowledge sources and attitude toward clinical psychology are examined to understand the fundamental constituents of their attitudes and to understand how this might be related to attitude formation towards sport psychology. It is intended that exploration of the participants’ knowledge sources (e.g. parents, peers, media and coaches) and additional influences on attitudes towards clinical psychology are used to provide insight into how they might shape attitude formation toward sport psychology. This is viewed as particularly important as sport psychology is an increasingly important tool in assisting the enhancement of sporting performance output. This qualitative study uses four elite student-athletes from the same sporting discipline and contextual background to allow for close linkages between the participants’ responses about attitude formation to be made. The study further aims to explore and understand how similarities and differences occur between the participants’ responses which will be completed through analysing and drawing parallels within themes relating to the literature or emerging separately. The Literature Review is intended to help guide the research through providing a reference source for contextualizing individual, public and socially generated beliefs and knowledge (literacy) about mental health / psychology, the constituents of attitude formation and the student-athlete’s context. These factors were identified in the literature as crucial components in attitude formation and also assisted in the development of initial themes, thus guiding the research. Unfortunately, there was limited literature pertaining to attitude formation in relation to sport psychology services and thus provide justification for using clinical psychology to explore attitude formation in sport psychology. This initial exploration of attitude formation in clinical psychology was used as a ‘template’ for contrasting attitude formation in the sample student-athletes as an indication of attitude formation in sport psychology. The Literature Review is viewed as an integral and active component of the study that is used as a body of reference guiding the exploration and interpretation of the emergent themes. This is done through the iterative reference to past research relating to attitude formation, health beliefs, and the numerous sources of information influencing attitude formation within clinical psychology and the student-athlete context. Most importantly, the Literature Review provides a significant base of information that guides the Research Question and the particular factors that have been noted as the most significant to the research. The Literature Review is intended to guide the Research Question and highlight the significant components that need to be taken into consideration in exploring attitude formation. This study, having taken the numerous individual, social, contextual and other factors into consideration, seeks to understand how such factors combine to shape attitudes and influence attitude formation. The collection of literature on social, knowledge and antecedent factors are significant in their role of shaping attitude formation and thus have been included within the Research Question. Furthermore, the Research Question and Literature Review had an impact on the Methodology and why Thematic Analysis was selected. Given the similarities in the participants’ sporting and contextual backgrounds (e.g., being in the same crew, university and social context), it was felt that the primary determinants of attitude formation, within antecedent experiences, knowledge and social influences, would emerge in related themes and thus provide greater insight into attitude formation within the student-athlete context. A limiting factor however, does lie in the small number of participants from a limited diversity of backgrounds, experiences or factors that could assist in allowing broader generalisations of the findings. However, this study aims to understand how the particular factors influence or shape attitudes towards sport and other psychology services and aims to understand the more specific or ‘fundamental’ components of attitude formation that are experienced within the student-athlete’s context and environment.

D.Litt. et Phil. / This study posits that although the South African government has shown an unprecedented commitment to acknowledging and upholding the human rights of bisexual men and women, negative attitudes exist towards bisexual men and women. A mixed method research study was conducted, consisting of three phases. In the first phase of the study (quantitative), a biographical questionnaire, the Attitudes Regarding Bisexuality Scale (ARBS-FM) (Mohr & Rochlen, 1999), and the Sexual orientation scale of Berkey, Perelman-Hall and Kurdek (1990) was utilised. A total of undergraduate 1 459 students were selected by convenience sampling. However, the reliability of the scales of the ARBS-FM in this student sample appeared to be significantly lower than desired. Therefore, the researcher organised an expert group (N = 11). This second section of the study served as expert advice from cultural interpreters that brought about adaptation of the measures (qualitative) and was complementary to the quantitative study. The researcher endeavoured to seek elaboration and clarification of the results from one method with the results of the other method. In the third phase of the study a revised ARBS (consisting of two scales measuring attitudes towards bisexual men and women separately), a biographical questionnaire, and the sexual orientation scale was administered. A total of 578 undergraduate students were selected by convenience sampling. The psychometric properties of the revised ARBS instruments were investigated by means of confirmatory factor analyses. Results indicated a two-factor structure (Tolerance and Stability) for both of the ARBS-F and ARBS-M. Tucker’s coefficients of congruence showed that attitudes towards bisexual men and women may be measured by an integrated scale. Differential item functioning (DIF) and differential test functioning (DTF) analyses suggested the removal of some items that favoured either the black or the white group. The revised ARBS-F and revised ARBS-M were used for testing the stated hypotheses. The results indicated that participants’ attitudes towards bisexual men and women vary on a range of factors such as gender, religiosity, contact, and the sexual orientation of the participants. Both heterosexual and homosexual students have more negative attitudes towards bisexual men and women than bisexual students. This double discrimination by heterosexuals and the gay and lesbian community is seldom recognised or acknowledged. Therefore, the current research findings elucidate that this oppression is real, and may have negative psychological effects on bisexual men and women. The results are discussed against the background of previous studies, and suggestions for future research are made. Key words: bisexual men, bisexual women, biphobia, homophobia, heterosexism, sexual orientation, university community, survey, attitudes, students.

No description available.

No description available.

The questions posed by this study were: (1) To determine the relationship between authoritarianism and ressentience among high school coaches employed within San Joaquin County, California.; and (2) To compare authoritarianism and ressentience among high school coaches within San Joaquin County, California, a sample of college students majoring in physical education, and a sample of college students majoring in a subject area other than physical education attending the University of the Pacific, Stockton, California.

Human risk perceptions and responses to risks are driven in part by personal experiences with relevant threats. In the case of climate change, humans have been slow to take sufficient action to mitigate climate risks, but personal experiences with extreme or abnormal weather events may shape attitudes and behaviors regarding climate risk. This dissertation presents a series of five papers that examine the effects of experiences with weather events on people’s attitudes and behaviors related to climate change. Paper 1 presents a detailed review of existing recent theoretical and empirical papers on the topic. Paper 2 presents evidence that a variety of extreme weather events can increase attention to climate change. This paper quantifies attention to climate change as frequencies of social media messages about climate change paired with records of extreme weather events in the United States. Next, Paper 3 reports evidence that experiences with abnormal weather events can impact climate policy support, an essential climate mitigation behavior. Across five studies in Paper 3 including survey data, online search data, and real election outcomes paired with objective weather observations, findings indicate that experiences with abnormal temperatures can increase climate policy support. Papers 2 and 3 together provide evidence that experiences with extreme or abnormal weather can affect attention to climate change and can affect substantial real-world climate mitigation behaviors. Paper 4 sheds light on the psychological mechanisms underlying the effects of experiences with extreme weather on climate change attitudes and behaviors. We examine experienced affect about climate change as a candidate mechanism which is investigated over three studies including survey data, experimental data, and social media data. We find support for the hypothesis that weather experiences influence climate attitudes and behaviors in part through experienced affect. Papers 1-4 together provide evidence that experiences with abnormal weather events can influence climate attitudes and behaviors. It remains an important question how these effects compare to effects of other drivers of climate attitudes such as climate activist events. Paper 5 analyzes the effects of climate activist events in direct comparison with effects of abnormal weather experiences. We find that the aggregate effects of weather experiences over the course of an average year are comparable to the individual effects of the world’s largest recent climate activist events and also to the effects of intergovernmental climate summit events. In sum, this dissertation reviews and synthesizes past literature, reports new evidence that abnormal weather experiences can affect citizens’ climate attitudes and mitigation behaviors, sheds light on an underlying mechanism of this phenomenon, and demonstrates that the magnitude of the effects of personal experiences is comparable to other known drivers of climate risk perceptions and mitigation behaviors.

This study attempted to obtain evidence on the construct validity of the Women Workers Scale (WWS), an attitude scale developed to measure male supervisors' attitudes toward women workers. As women enter the work world in increasing numbers, they are usually supervised by men. However, few studies have examined the attitudes of male supervisors toward women workers. At least one author (Bass, 1972) reported that there were significant differences among male managers in their attitudes toward women. Specifically, those male managers who had not worked with women held more favorable attitudes than male managers who had worked with women.

No description available.