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In a previous study by our research group, parents and teachers of gifted children disagreed about the importance of group work in the inquiry-based classroom, with parents rating group work as less important than did teachers (Syer & Shore, 2001). The purpose of the present study was to attempt to understand this difference of opinion. Parents (n = 15), teachers (n = 11), and a group who were both parents and teachers (n = 5) of gifted children responded to a researcher-designed telephone interview. Teachers perceived parents as competitive and grade-oriented. Parents themselves, however, reported that their opinions of group work were based on their children's negative experiences. Teachers reported that their opinions were affected by their pedagogical knowledge regarding group work. Although parents' and teachers' opinions differed, they were aware of each other's point of view.

Typescript. / Bibliography: leaves 364-375. / Microfiche. / xvii, 375 leaves ill

The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether or not there has been a change in the way DN Debatt has been depicting muslims. This study process the time between 11 September 2000 and 11 September 2002. To reach my result I am using a content analysis, this because I found it the most useful to my material. The result I got with this thesis was that it wasn’t that big of a difference in the picture that the writers wanted to show. The biggest difference was the linguistic, the words used in the articles changed from quite positive to become rather negative. For example before 11 September 2001 the word terrorism was not to be seen in a article about Muslims, but after the same date every article used in this study has the word terrorist in some way. In my thesis I used a hypothesis, the hypothesis was that the reporting about Muslims was going to be radically changed and become hostile towards Muslims. This was not the case and my hypothesis was in one way contradicted.

Chronic illnesses and disabilities are the number one health problems in North America, and are the health challenges of this era. Many studies have investigated the illness experience for people with chronic conditions, but little is known about how people with chronic conditions experience feeling healthy. Recent studies indicate that people with chronic illnesses/disabilities perceive themselves to be predominantly healthy. What follows from these studies is the need to know more about how health is experienced by this client group. The purpose of this study was to investigate this phenomena of health within illness. Specifically, the research question was: What is the meaning of feeling healthy for people with chronic illnesses/disabilities. An interpretive phenomenological investigation was undertaken with eight participants living with a variety of different chronic conditions. The results of this study provide two important findings. First, the participants described their healing journey which brought them to the experience of feeling healthy, and seven essential themes emerged to describe this healing experience. These themes included; (a) In the Beginning, (b) Hitting the Wall, (c) Turning Around, (d) Letting Go, (e) Opening Up, (f) Letting In, and (g) The Gift. Second, the participants described their experience of feeling healthy and six themes emerged to describe this experience. These themes included; (a) Honouring the Self, (b) Seeking and Connecting with Others, (c) Creating Opportunities, (d) Celebrating Life, (e) Transcending the Self, and (f) Acquiring a State of Grace. The rigor of this study was considered to by attending to the auditability, credibility, applicability and confirmability of this research method and results. The results of this research were then compared to theories of growth and change as a result of crisis, theories of developing consciousness, self identity, social support, hardiness and resilience. Also, these results were compared with other definitions of health. Recommendations were made for further research and theory development regarding the conceptualization of health within illness. Finally, the implications of incorporating a health within illness perspective for clients, nurses, and the health care system were discussed. The reconceptualization to include the experience of health within illness would contribute to an expanded focus for client care, and to the promotion of health. / Graduate

This study was an investigation of attitudes toward perceived values of physical activity among students and faculty within the Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation at North Texas State University. The specific purposes of this study were to determine if a significant difference in attitudes toward each of six values of physical activity exist (1) among men at four educational levels, (2) among women at four educational levels, (3) among undergraduate men who chose to major or minor in either health, physical education or recreation. (4) among undergraduate women who chose to major or minor in either health, physical education, or recreation, (5) between part-time and full-time faculty men, (6) between part-time and full-time faculty women, (7) among graduate men who work in either elementary, secondary, college, or recreation programs, and (8) among graduate women who work in either elementary, secondary, college, or recreation programs. Finally, the study was to determine if significant differences in attitudes toward perceived values of physical activity among subjects within each of twenty-six selected groups within the professional preparation program.

M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A number of lifestyle merchandising and advertising strategies are being used in the home furnishings industry. However, there is limited research regarding the effectiveness of these strategies. The purpose of this study was to explore consumers' attitudes toward the lifestyle concept. Analyses of several consumer behavior variables and descriptors offered noteworthy findings for the home furnishings industry. This study found that although lifestyle orientation is a valuable tool for delineating consumer markets, these segmentations were not significant determinates of consumers' preference for elements of the lifestyle construct. Retailers and manufacturers are not simply creating home furnishing collections that target the needs of specific psychographic segment, but rather creating lifestyles being aspired to obtain. Although respondents scored the attitude variables neutral, the current market environment offers many examples of successfully home furnishing implementations of the lifestyle concept. These success stories coupled with additional findings indicate consumers' positive response to lifestyle merchandising.

L’autoritarisme de droite (Right Wing Authoritarianism ; RWA) est une co-variation du conservatisme social, du traditionalisme et de l’autoritarisme. Une des caractéristiques du RWA est une moindre malléabilité des attitudes dans le temps. Cependant, ce lien entre RWA et rigidité des attitudes a été très majoritairement observé dans le cadre de l’étude des relations inter-groupes. Ces études se concentrent sur le lien entre le RWA et le changement d’attitude envers des groupes réels. Si l’intérêt de ces travaux est indéniable, il n’est pas possible d’y examiner la formation et le changement d’attitude de manière contrôlée. En effet, l’étude des groupes sociaux réels implique des effets de contexte ou des préconceptions sociales dans la formation et le changement d’attitude. Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons à la compréhension du RWA dans le changement d’attitude au sein d’un cadre standardisé et contrôlé : le conditionnement-contre-conditionnement évaluatif. À travers 11 expériences, nous avons testé si le RWA prédisait un plus faible changement d’attitude envers des stimuli nouveaux et artificiels. Nous avons alors pu observer que le RWA est négativement associé à la sensibilité au contre-conditionnement. Cet effet, présent dans la grande majorité de nos expériences, a été modulé en fonction des caractéristiques du conditionnement-contre-conditionnement. Plus précisément, la quantité d’informations contre-attitudinales disponibles, la présence d’instructions ou encore la diminution des ressources attentionnelles modulent le lien entre RWA et changement d’attitude. Dans l’ensemble, ces résultats corroborent l’hypothèse d’un plus faible changement d’attitude lié au RWA pour des stimuli nouveaux et artificiels. / Right wing authoritarianism (RWA) is a co-variation of social conserva- tism, traditionalism, and authoritarianism. One of the characteristics of RWA is a less malleability of attitudes over time. However, the linkbetween RWA and rigidity of attitudes has mainly been observed in inter- group relation contexts. Such studies focus on the relationship between RWA and attitude change towards real groups. While the value of this work is unde- niable, it is not possible to examine attitude formation and attitude change in a controlled manner. Indeed, studying real social groups implies context effects or social preconceptions on the attitude formation and on attitude change. In this thesis, we are interested in the understanding of RWA in attitude change within a standardized and controlled framework, the evaluative conditioning- counter-conditioning paradigm. Across 11 experiments, we tested whether RWA predicts a lower change of attitude towards new artificial stimuli. We observed that RWA was negatively associated with sensitivity to counter- conditioning. This effect, present in the great majority of our experiments, has been modulated by the characteristics of conditioning-counter-conditioning. More specifically, the amount of counter-attitudinal information available, the presence of instructions, and the decrease in attentional resources were shown to modulate the link between RWA and attitude change. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that a smaller change in attitude is related to RWA even with novel artificial stimuli.

The relationships between gender, gender role attitudes, and participants' anticipation of future life roles (career, marriage, family, and homecare) were examined. Participants consisted of 297 single college students between the ages of 17-29 years (M = 20). Females reported significantly (p< .01) more egalitarian gender role attitudes than males. Significant results were found for the relationship between gender and anticipated life roles (p< .01) as well as between gender role attitudes and anticipated life roles (career role value, r = .14 and marital role value, r = - .18). The study findings suggest a possible gender conflict for females with more egalitarian gender role attitudes and behavior intentions and their male counterparts.