The purpose of this study is to examine the most significant reasons evangelical Christian faith is compelling to its adherents. Through the interviews of nineteen Evangelical Christians, it becomes clear that evangelicals see the Bible and Christian theology in a literal and factual way. Thus, contrary to some strains of contemporary thought and scholarship, evangelicals affirm that the claims of the Bible and Christian theology should be taken at face value. Even though such claims are implausible to the modem mind, it is precisely through seeing the Bible and theology in this light that evangelicals enter into their powerful faith lives. In addition to this literal-factual orientation, evangelicals are empowered by their relationship with God in Christ. Along with analysis of interview data, brief studies of evangelical approaches to the Bible and spiritual-psychological development will further serve to explicate evangelical faith. / Graduation date: 2003

Labor force statistics and other evidence have demonstrated that people with disabilities are under-represented in the work place in Canada and abroad. While an assortment of factors likely contributes to this disparity, the attitudes of employers towards hiring people with disabilities are often cited as important contributors to the situation. Some authorities suggest that employers attitudes towards people with disabilities bias their decision-making and influence employer behavior. This concept of simple discrimination suggests that employers, like others in the general public hold unfavorable stereotypes of people with disabilities that result in discriminatory hiring practices regardless the merit of a candidate with a disability. An alternative concept, ambivalence amplification, suggests that disability and merit interact in a more complex way. Research on the general publics reactions to disability suggests that when all else is equal, people will rate a person with a disability who is portrayed in a positive manner significantly higher than a comparable peer without a disability, but that the reverse will occur when both are portrayed in a negative fashion. This suggests that under favorable circumstances, employers attitudes towards employees or prospective employees with disabilities may be preferential, but under unfavorable circumstances, their negative attitudes are amplified to become more extremely negative. Both models suggest that discrimination may be occurring, but provide unique perspectives on how and if it might be occurring during employee recruitment. This study examined both simple discrimination and ambivalence amplification in order to explore their potential for explaining poor employment outcomes for people with disabilities. Ninety-nine employers rated/scored one of four condition-specific cover letters and resumes (application documents) from a hypothetical applicant either with or without a disability. As well as identifying disability status, these documents also portrayed the applicant as having merit (no errors in documents) or limited merit (multiple errors in documents). Participants were also asked if based on their review of the cover letter and resume, they would be willing to grant the applicant an interview. Analyses demonstrated that merit, as represented by error-free cover letters and resums predicted employer behavior. There was no evidence main effect for disability status and no interaction between merit and disability status on either employers ratings of application documents or on their willingness to grant an interview, regardless of gender, age, education, and affiliation with a public or private business. These findings suggest that even when a persons disability is self-reported in an application, neither simple discrimination nor ambivalence amplification influenced employers ratings of merit or decisions based on merit. Merit appears to be their primary focus in initial screening of potential employees. These findings further suggest that disparate employment outcomes of people with disabilities may instead be influenced later in the recruitment process, perhaps when employers come face-to-face with applicants with disabilities during the interview stage. It may be at this point in the hiring process that employers negative attitudes towards people with disabilities result in discrimination. / Special Education

This study explored the effects of a person's God image and religiosity on his or her attitudes toward seeking mental health services. God image for participants was measured using the God Image Scale (Lawrence, 1997) and the Loving and Controlling God Scales (Benson & Spilka, 1973) and religious devotion was measured using the Religious Orientation Scale-Revised (Gorsuch & McPherson, 1989) and the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Scale (Plante, Yancey, Sherman, Guertin, & Pardini, 1999). Attitudes toward counseling were measured using the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form (ATSPPH-SF). Results indicated that individuals who perceive God as present, benevolent, and loving have more positive attitudes towards seeking professional help. Individuals who report higher degrees of intrinsic religiosity also indicated more positive attitudes toward counseling. Further, religious devotion did not add meaningful predictive power to God image in predicting attitudes towards counseling. Finally, religious beliefs were demonstrated to be neither a strong nor statistically significant predictor of attitudes towards counseling.

This research expands on previous work and provides further validation of the Multidimensional Work Ethic Profile (MWEP) by exploring the relationships among the MWEP dimensions and other common work-related attitude variables: job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Furthermore, this study investigates the extent to which the MWEP dimensions explained variance in the above mentioned variables over and beyond that which could be explained by conscientiousness and need for achievement. Although the MWEP dimensions correlated with the other work-related variables, the MWEP allowed for the evaluation of unique patterns of relationships among these variables and the work ethic dimensions. The results indicated that the MWEP dimensions were significantly related to conscientiousness yet accounted for significant variance in job involvement, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction above and beyond that explained by conscientiousness. Contrary to what was expected, need for achievement was not significantly related to the MWEP dimensions. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine fifth, seventh, and tenth graders' attitudes toward school and classroom science by means of questionnaires and interviews. In particular, the study hoped to determine (a) if a relationship existed between these two attitudes, (b) what relationship, if any, grade level, gender, ethnicity, school/community type, expected GPA and science grade, and personally satisfying GPA and science grade had with either or both of the attitudes, and (c) the source of students' attitudes. The questionnaires used in this study (Science Attitude Scale for Middle School Students by Misiti, Shrigley, and Hanson and one constructed by the author) were found to be both valid and reliable. The surveys were administered to approximately 1,000 fifth, seventh, and tenth graders from schools representing rural, small city, and urban communities at the commencement and near the end of the schools' fall terms. After the second administration of the questionnaires, 25 students, representing each grade level from each community type, were interviewed following a structured interview format. The results indicated that while a statistically significant relationship did exist between students' attitudes toward school and toward classroom science, the relationship had no practical meaning. Females were slightly more positive about school than their male counterparts. No gender differences were found with respect to attitudes toward classroom science. Fifth graders held significantly more positive attitudes toward science than seventh and tenth graders. None of the other variables were found to have any practical relationship to either of the attitudes. The interview data suggested that students from all three grade levels had definite feelings about school and classroom science, particularly about modes of instruction, relevancy, their teachers, and the effect of attitude on achievement. / Graduation date: 1992

Although several critics since the nineteenth century have written about the variety of interpretations of the native Indian in English-Canadian literature, no one has yet devoted a full-length study to the way the Indian is depicted in fiction alone. This dissertation thus examines a large cross-section of adult long fiction and investigates the degree to which the modes of romance and realism and the genres of romance and novel have informed these depictions.<p> The dissertation is organized according to four major topics: love, religion, fighting, and community life. Each of these is divided into appropriate sub-topics, organized along roughly chronological lines. The chapter about love is the longest and focuses on fiction in which a white person and an Indian marry or have a love relationship, either potential or consummated. The chapter about religion focuses on fiction about the various kinds of relationships between native religions and Christianity. The chapter about fighting analyzes fiction about inter-tribal fighting, fighting along the frontier, and fighting between modern Indians and white authority. The chapter on community life focuses on fiction describing daily Indian life, from the pre-contact community to the contemporary reserve.<p> Several conclusions emerge. First, the basic attitude to Indians reflects prevailing social attitudes. Second, the choice and use of genre are influenced to a significant degree by literary fashion. But more specific conclusions also emerge. Most importantly, romance is the dominant genre and romantic conventions of primitivism pervade almost all serious fiction on the subject, from variations on the Pastoral and Noble Savage conventions to a recent development approaching fertility myth. Instances of the realistic-novel as such are relatively rare, but realism of a documentary sort is frequent in romances which focus on social issues and is present for verisimilitude or ornamentation in many other romances. Finally,the best romances tend to have a sound basis in observable fact, just as the good novels have the subjective psychological dimension provided by romantic convention.

The study was designed to compare and contrast responses of two groups of nurses to situational case studies relative to death and dying, with particular emphasis on euthanasia. One group of nurses was comprised of selected faculty of the 33 member universities of the Nurse Faculty Research Development in the Midwest. The second group of study participants was selected staff nurses of hospitals utilized by each of the universities in the Nurse Faculty Research Development in the Midwest. Special consideration was given to demographic data relative to age, highest level of education attained, marital status, number of classroom hours spent in the study of death, dying, and euthanasia during the basic nursing program, and present work assignment.The population of the study consisted of a total of 184 academic and staff nurses. Ninety of the nurses participating in the study were faculty members of institutions of higher education, and 94 nurses were staff nurses in hospitals utilized by the institutions of higher education.A search of the literature revealed no instrument dealing with euthanasia as it related to the nurse. An opinionnaire was designed specifically for the study because of a lack of an instrument in the area of euthanasia.The data collected from the opinionnaires were developed into a series of tables. The tables were designed to illustrate the number and percentage of academic and staff nurses responding to each situation in the opinionnaire. A comparison was made of the responses of the academic and staff nurses to determine similarities or dissimilarities in the response patterns.Conclusions based upon the review of the literature and findings of the study were:1. Staff nurses have more formal education relating to euthanasia than academic nurses.2. The number of classroom hours spent in the study of death and dying during basic nursing education has increased within the past ten years.3. Staff and academic nurses support the right of parents to make determinations regarding procedures utilized with infants that result in euthanasia.4. The greater number of nurses do not support the conclusion that the removal of life-support systems would be murder.5. A consensus of opinion does not exist between academic and staff nurses regarding the authority of a physician to determine which individual would have priority in the use of a hemodialysis machine. 6. There is an absence of agreement among academic and staff nurses regarding the allocation of scarce resources such as blood. 7. A majority of both academic and staff nurses agree that orders which would result in passive euthanasia could be followed, whereas few academic or staff nurses would follow an order which would result in active euthanasia.

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of single college students toward love. In addition, the Knox-Sporakowski (1968) Love Attitude Inventory was replicated to provide further information concerning the inventory’s ability to measure love attitudes.A Likert type questionnaire, developed by Knox and Sporakowski (1968), was mailed to 700 college students. The sample was representative of the number of students per class standing on the Ball State University campus. Of the 700 questionnaires, 358 were returned, and 356 were usable.The results were analyzed according to sex and class standing of the student. The results of the factor analysis indicated that the Knox-Sporakowski (1968) Love Attitude Inventory had four factors. Factor II was the major factor in determining love attitudes in the tests of two hypotheses.The tests of the hypotheses indicated that both males and females were realistic rather than romantic in attitudes held, with males being more romantic than females. In addition, love attitudes became more realistic as students advanced in class standing.Honors CollegeBall State UniversityMuncie, IN 47306

Background: Organizations’ ability to recognize opportunities can provide competitive advantage for organizations in changing environment. In innovation-driven countries many en-trepreneurial people are working as employees in established companies and pursuing opportunities as corporate entrepreneurs. This is a group which researchers have dis-criminated by focusing only on CEO’s and entrepreneur’s opportunity identification capability. We would like to research the topic of employees’ opportunity recognition (OpR) and to find a link with their attitudes towards entrepreneurship, something that so far was not completely investigated in the literature. Purpose: The aim of the master thesis is to examine the relationship between the employee’s atti-tudes towards entrepreneurship and their implication on their ability to recognize opportu-nities – a step before developing innovation or uniqueness, resulting in creation of compet-itive advantage to the company, presumably leading to company growth. This paper in-tends to fill the gap in the literature regarding one of the dimensions of the factors leading to company growth and analyses a different business stakeholder group – namely employees in medium-sized companies. From business perspective, it might help company leaders understand the need of encouraging entrepreneurial initiatives and encourage them with some practical suggestions. The research question is: does employees’ attitude towards en-trepreneurship affect their opportunity recognition. Method: We have chosen deductive and explanatory approach for our research because we study causal relationship between attitudes towards entrepreneurship and OpR. The primary data was collected by a self-administered electronic questionnaire. The num-ber of received responses is 53, mainly from manufacturing and service industries. Conclusion: Employees’ positive attitude towards entrepreneurship increases their opportunity identification capability.

Although several critics since the nineteenth century have written about the variety of interpretations of the native Indian in English-Canadian literature, no one has yet devoted a full-length study to the way the Indian is depicted in fiction alone. This dissertation thus examines a large cross-section of adult long fiction and investigates the degree to which the modes of romance and realism and the genres of romance and novel have informed these depictions.<p> The dissertation is organized according to four major topics: love, religion, fighting, and community life. Each of these is divided into appropriate sub-topics, organized along roughly chronological lines. The chapter about love is the longest and focuses on fiction in which a white person and an Indian marry or have a love relationship, either potential or consummated. The chapter about religion focuses on fiction about the various kinds of relationships between native religions and Christianity. The chapter about fighting analyzes fiction about inter-tribal fighting, fighting along the frontier, and fighting between modern Indians and white authority. The chapter on community life focuses on fiction describing daily Indian life, from the pre-contact community to the contemporary reserve.<p> Several conclusions emerge. First, the basic attitude to Indians reflects prevailing social attitudes. Second, the choice and use of genre are influenced to a significant degree by literary fashion. But more specific conclusions also emerge. Most importantly, romance is the dominant genre and romantic conventions of primitivism pervade almost all serious fiction on the subject, from variations on the Pastoral and Noble Savage conventions to a recent development approaching fertility myth. Instances of the realistic-novel as such are relatively rare, but realism of a documentary sort is frequent in romances which focus on social issues and is present for verisimilitude or ornamentation in many other romances. Finally,the best romances tend to have a sound basis in observable fact, just as the good novels have the subjective psychological dimension provided by romantic convention.