published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

<p>I undersökningen om ungdomars attityder mot homosexuella ochheterosexuella brottsoffer utfördes ett experiment där 151 deltagare fick svara på en enkät. Det fanns fyra olika versioner av enkäter där brottsoffret varierade mellan hetero- och homosexuell man men även orten där brottet tog plats varierade mellan liten ort och stor stad. Resultatet visade ingen skillnad i ungdomars empati beroende på brottsoffrets sexuella läggning, dock visade det sig att unga kvinnor har något mer empati än unga män. Resultatet gav inte heller någon skillnad i ungdomars empati beroende på ort. Dock upptäcktes en interaktionseffekt i empati mellan ort och sexualitet som visade att om brottet tog plats i Stockholm kände deltagarna mer empati för en homosexuell man än en heterosexuell man samt att empatin blev motsatt i en liten ort. Resultaten visade ingen signifikant skillnad på empati mellan deltagarnas etnicitet och brottsoffrets sexualitet. Resultaten kan tillämpas som diskussionsmaterial för exempelvis gymnasieskolor.</p>

The purpose of this study was to examine how body image, Body Mass Index (BMI), self-esteem and eating attitudes were related in a non-clinical sample of New Zealand women. The sample consisted of 36 women ranging in age from 17 to 55 years of age. Body image was assessed using the Body Shape Questionnaire, BMI was calculated based on measures of height and weight; eating attitudes was assessed with the Eating Concern subscale of the Eating Disorders Examination and self-esteem was assessed using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The results of this study conclude that elevated BMI is associated with higher dissatisfaction with body image, and there is a positive correlation between body image and eating attitudes. Self-esteem and eating attitudes were significantly correlated with lower self-esteem being associated with increased disturbance in eating attitudes. Self-esteem and BMI were found to significantly contribute to eating attitudes on their own as well as together. Body image on its own also made a significant contribution to eating attitudes. Previous research informs us of the negative implications of dissatisfaction with body image, elevated BMI, disturbed eating attitudes and low-self-esteem and this study examines the links between these variables in order to add further information to what contributes to each of the variables. These findings were discussed in light of sociocultural theories of eating disorders and their implications to women from nonclinical populations.

The principal purpose of this study was to compare similarities and differences in selected personal variables and death attitudes between university students enrolled in a death education course and students not enrolled in a death education course. Secondary attention was directed towards an analysis of the relationship of personal characteristics and death-related experiences with attitudes towards death. Three groups of university students, a death education-enrolled or completed group (n = 90), a death education-enrolled only subgroup (n = 47), and a non-enrolled control group (n = 46) were compared using the Health and Illness Survey. The HIS measures a wide range of variables including personal characteristics, death-related experiences and attitudes towards death. A correlational, ex post facto research design was utilized in order to compare the relationship of each of these variables with group membership. Additional correlational analyses were computed to reveal the degree of relationship between the personal variables and attitudes towards death. Findings revealed that the death education students reported experiencing their first significant personal involvement with death at a younger age, and desire more open discussion of death during childhood than the non enrolled comparison group. Death education students rated themselves significantly higher than the non death education students on present physical health and also on self esteem following completion of the HIS. With regard to the death attitudes findings, the death education-enrolled group reported higher levels of fear of personal death than those not enrolled. Additional results indicated that significant relationships did exist between death attitudes and several personal characteristics and death-related experiences. Particularly noteworthy were relationships indicating that a more favorable childhood environment regarding death-related experiences correlated with increased levels of coping with death and dying and decreased levels of fear of death and dying. Implications of these findings directed toward parents, counselors and educators were discussed, and recommendations were made to assist future research efforts in this area.

Health-case costs in the United States have been rising at an alarming pace. Therefore, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on finding more cost-effective methods of providing care and maintaining health. An area that warrants investigation is the potential for reducing inappropriate utilization of medical-care resources for relatively minor self-limiting problems. One method of accomplishing this is to provide the proper encouragement, skills, and resources to enable individuals to appropriately involve themselves in self-care activities. A study was conducted to determine if an intervention involving self-care information would change participants' beliefs and attitudes concerning responsibility and involvement in their own health care. Students entering the Student Health Service at the University of Arizona during the study period were randomly assigned to the treatment group or control group. Members of the treatment group received the intervention and were asked to complete a survey instrument. Members of the control group were asked to complete the survey instrument only. The survey instrument consisted of a measurement of attitudes toward information and behavioral involvement in health care (i.e., Krantz Health Opinion Survey) and a measure of beliefs regarding one's ability to exert control over their health (i.e., Multidimensional Health Locus of Control). Also on the instrument was a measure of the individual's behavioral intentions regarding projected use of medical-care practitioners. Results of the study indicated that the intervention was able to change the treatment group's attitudes regarding a greater preference for more active involvement in their health care. Also subsequent to the intervention, the treatment group's responses reflected less of a belief that health was outside of their control. No difference was found between the treatment and control group in regard to behavioral intentions. These results demonstrate that a positive change in health-related beliefs and attitudes can come about as a result of a relatively uncomplicated and inexpensive intervention.

In 1972, town-based farmworkers in the agricultural region of Pinal County, Arizona were surveyed. Random samples of Anglo, Black, Mexican American, and Native American male family heads provided data to study the correlates of their occupational prestige. The work of Harland Padfield and William Martin offered a measure of prestige, along with a functional set of predictors, while conflict-competition theory furnished an alternate set and its corresponding hypotheses. Ethnicity was studied for interaction with the 21 independent variables, and the ranking of the ethnic groups relative to one another was scrutinized. Since analysis of covariance revealed significant interaction by four of the predictors (with the slope for Blacks contrasting most markedly with the Anglo reference category), further analysis, by multiple regression, was made within the ethnic divisions. In the case of Anglos, the significant correlates of prestige were optimism about workers' being able to improve their job situation, and a desire for training, although age, in the negative, controlled the latter. With Blacks, an equation which included age, time spent in the county, residence in Eloy, and membership in associations explained 53% of the variation in prestige. The Mexican American study yielded only a working family pattern as a correlate. Native Americans showed the influence of education on their job prestige (when age was not controlled), and of residential mobility, lack of house ownership, and unwillingness to move. A study of cases from each ethnic group, with insight from experience, suggested several conclusions beyond the data themselves. Caution in measuring attitudes of Native Americans was indicated. There also emerged implications for future policy and research.

An information processing model was developed to describe how information used by pharmacists in providing pharmacy services is processed. The process is hypothesized to be sequential and to consist of perception, recognition, judgment, decision making and response control components which continuously interact and are influenced by memory, particularly long term memory. Information in long term memory was hypothesized to be organized according to the perceived typicality of the stimulus. A laboratory methodology using a microcomputer was developed to test the effect of typicality on three of the process components, recognition, judgment and decision making. Three groups of ten subjects were tested, practicing pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and fourth year PharmD students. For the recognition task, subjects were shown a drug name on the computer screen then asked to indicate which of two drug names, one typical and one atypical, was shown. Pharmacists' responses were most likely to be biased toward the typical drug, technicians' responses were less likely to be biased and students' responses were least likely to be biased. For the judgment task, subjects were shown a drug name and a brief description of a typical or atypical patient; subjects were asked to indicate whether the drug was likely to be appropriate therapy for the patient. Pharmacists' responses were most likely to be biased by the perceived typicality of the patient, technicians, less likely and students, least likely. The decision task was identical to the judgment task except subjects were asked to indicate whether they would dispense the prescription as written or whether they would contact the prescriber. Pharmacists' choices were most likely to be influenced by the perceived typicality of the patient, and technicians were less likely to be influenced by typicality. Students' responses appeared not to be influenced at all. When between groups comparisons were made on difference scores, only the comparison between pharmacists and students on the decision task was significant. No statistically significant differences were found on the reaction time dependent variable for any of the subject groups.

The major focus of this study was to examine the consistency between the perception of teachers and parents toward the value of bilingual education for facilitating the academic growth of school-age children. Relationships of perceptions to the academic achievement of children was also evaluated. Three specific areas of the bilingual program were investigated: philosophy, functional value, and implementation. In order to obtain measures of perception of teachers and parents toward bilingualism and bilingual education, an instrument was developed. This instrument, named as the Attitudes Toward Bilingualism (ATB), contained 49 Likert-type items. The items of the ATB were divided into three categories: philosophy, functional values, and implementations. Items in each section were rated on a five-point scale ranging from a low to a high agreement scale. Teacher and parent volunteers filled out the ATB. The faculty of five targeted bilingual schools volunteered to participate in this study. Teachers included in the sample were drawn from all first, second, and third grade bilingual classrooms of the target schools. Thirty bilingual teachers and 107 parents participated in the study. The overall directions of the findings clearly suggested a great deal of similarity in the perceptions of parents and teachers toward various issues surrounding bilingual education practices. The specific issues examined in this study can be viewed in a broad sense of parent-school partnership issues, which need to be studied at greater depth. Issue concerning implications of the study and the general utility of obtained results were discussed.

This qualitative study investigates the interaction among teachers' beliefs, their practices, and the practical argument staff development process in two schools and suggests how school culture may affect that interaction. The subjects for this study were the intermediate teachers from two of the schools participating in the OERI Study, A Study Teachers' Research-Based Instruction of Reading Comprehension (RIS). This study was designed to investigate the proposal in staff development/teacher change literature that conscious examination of beliefs facilitates teacher change. Furthermore, this study explores the importance of school culture to the success of a staff development program. Social interactivity may affect the change process. Data was gathered in a participant-observation process extending over an eight-month period. During that time, there were classroom and staff development process observations, formal and informal interviews with teachers and administrators, examination of audio/videotapes of events, dialogues with the research team, and documentation of each event with field notes. The findings are introduced through a description and interpretation of events in each of the two schools. They are established upon an understanding of how the participating teachers responded to change and to the staff development process, and how school culture affected those teachers and the process. The findings also incorporate the most recent research on teachers' beliefs, staff development, and school culture. They address the theory/practice dichotomy and its relation to change; teachers' beliefs about reading and teaching and their relationship to the teachers' involvement in the staff development program; the culture of each school; the practical argument staff development program, its organization, and presentation; and the relationship between the teachers' willingness to change and the school culture, teachers' beliefs, and the staff development process. This is a set of case studies about teachers in two schools with varied beliefs and backgrounds. Generalizations from this study, applied to other schools and/or staff development programs, may focus on an understanding of the influence of teachers' beliefs and school culture on a staff development program and the process of teacher change.