The purposes of this study were to (1) describe the personal values and work values of nursing students in the last year of their present educational preparation, (2) to investigate the relationships between values, both personal and work, and selected demographic variables (type of educational institution, present educational preparation, job interests, and age), and (3) to examine the correlations between students' personal values and work values. Using the Profile of Life Values (PLV) and the Ohio Work Values Inventory (OWVI) , the personal and work values of 452 student nurses were examined, first as a total sample for means and standard deviations, then by selected demographic variables with MANOVA, ANOVA, and Scheffe at the .10 level of significance. In the sample were 43 students from graduate nursing programs, 143 students from baccalaureate nursing programs, and 266 students from associate degree programs, from both public and private educational institutions in two northwestern states. The order of the means for the total sample on the PLV scales from the highest to lowest were Considerate, Intellectual, Achievement, Recognition, Creative, Artistic, and Integrity. The order of the means for the total sample on the OWVI scales from highest to lowest were Task Satisfaction, Self Realization, Altruism, Security, Money, Independence, Ideas/Data Orientation, Object Orientation, Control, Prestige, and Solitude. In comparing the values on the PLV and OWVI by type of educational institution, the means were significantly higher for students enrolled in private educational institutions than for students from public educational institutions. When the values on the PLV and OWVI scales were compared by educational preparation, significant differences were found on the means, with graduate students placing more values on Intellectual, baccalaureate degree students placing more value on Recognition, Control, Independence, and Object Orientation, and associate degree students placing more value on Integrity, Security, and Money. When the means on the PLV and OWVI scales were examined by job interest, students interested in pediatrics placed more importance on Considerate, Achievement, and Intellectual; students interested in specialty areas, such as the operating room or emergency room placed more value on Object Orientation, just as students interested in critical care and pediatrics placed more value on Object Orientation than did the students interested in medical/surgical nursing, geriatrics, obstetrics, mental health, nurse practitioner or clinical specialist role. In the final comparison of the PLV and OWVI values with age, the 40-54 age group placed more value on Intellectual while the 20-29 age group placed more value on Recognition, Security, Control, Money, and Prestige. Using Chi-Square as the inferential test, educational preparation and job interests were found to be related. Graduate students were primarily interested in the nurse practitioner or clinical specialist role; students receiving a baccalaureate degree expressed more interest in critical care and pediatrics; students receiving an associate degree expressed more interest in medical/ surgical nursing and geriatrics. In examining the correlations between the PLV and OWVI, 58 of the 77 coefficients were significant at the .05 level. The correlations of the two instruments demonstrated a logical relationship exists between the instruments. These findings have implications for nursing education. The educational foundation for nursing is based on the fostering of personal well-being and continuing growth through interpersonal interactions. The nursing curriculum needs to be reviewed periodically for differentiation, interpretation, and clarification of values. In order to provide an education that is conducive to recognition of values, the faculty need to be aware of their own values, be able to recognize how their values relate to teaching, student learning, and professional practice, and periodically evaluate how they use values in the process. Teaching by relating values to subject matter, human differences, and practice enables student nurses to recognize and understand their own values as well as the values of other people. These findings have implications for further research, as values of faculty and students are in some ways related to age, specific interests, and educational preparation.

This dissertation seeks to further understand the relationship between nativism, the opinion that the American way of life needs to be protected against foreign influence, and the immigration policy preferences of the American public. It is argued that nativism is theoretically distinct from immigration policy preferences and should be operationalized and modeled accordingly. Disentangling nativism from its related policy preferences is essential for better understanding the role of nativism in driving immigration policy attitudes in comparison to other important factors such as economic threat, racism, and ideological conservatism. A variety of methods are employed in this analysis, including cross-sectional survey data analyses, an implicit association test, and a nation-wide survey list experiment. Using these methods, this project examines the determinants of nativism (including psychological factors), the nature of the relationship between nativism and immigration policy preferences, and how nativism might distinctly affect immigration policy preferences among Latinos and African-Americans. The conclusion discusses the implication of these results for the current public debate regarding the degree and effect of foreign influence on American society.

This study included 114 Native adults and 6 Native/non-Native pairs of friends (age 18-25). Experiences and attitudes for close interethnic friendships were investigated. Friendship patterns and predictors were quantitatively assessed for the 114 Natives, with qualitative examination of the development and qualities of the six friend pairs. Results of quantitative analysis revealed that 80% of this sample reported friendship investment with Whites, and 55% reported friendship investment with same-tribe members. Over 90% of participants were open to engaging in friendships with member of any ethnicity or race. Approximately 98% of participants reported being targeted for racial discrimination, with most reporting some distress, often at a low level. Significant positive correlates of past and future friendships with Whites included: household income in childhood, identification with White culture, racial/ethnic composition of students in college, multicultural experiences, and past support from parents. Multiple regressions included as significant predictors of past friendships: past parental support (t = 6.488, p < .001), past multicultural experiences (t = 3.852, p < .001), racial composition in college (t = 3.083, p = .003), and diversity climate in high school (t = 2.468, p = .015). Multiple regressions for future friendships with Whites revealed as significant predictors: past friendships (t = 5.187, p < .001), and past parental support (t = 2.507, p = .014). Qualitative findings revealed authenticity/acceptance, communication, similarity, and trust as aspects of close friendships with non-Natives. Opportunities to share cultural teachings, and shared cultural interests helped friendships develop. Participants’ descriptions of their friendships largely coincided with contact/opportunity theories, with propinquity allowing homophily, reciprocation, and disclosure to develop within the friendship. All friendship pairs weathered periods of time during which contact between friends became infrequent, but all participants asserted that they were still close friends during those periods. Findings illuminate the prominence of interethnic friendships in the lives of Native youth, and positive intergroup attitudes expressed within those relationships.

This study examined attitudes and behavioral intentions of eight-grade students toward figures (representing hypothetical peers) of varying body weight (average, overweight, and obese). The primary aim of this study was to investigate how weight impacts students’ attitudes toward and interactions with peers. Second, impact of the rater’s gender was explored. It was hypothesized that girls would rate average-weight figures more positively than overweight figures and overweight figures more positively than obese figures. It was also hypothesized that boys would rate average-weight figures more positively than overweight and obese figures, with less discrepancy between their ratings of overweight and obese figures. One-hundred seventy primarily Caucasian, eight-grade students (72 male, 98 female; mean age = 13.61, SD = .49) were identified as part of a convenience sample from a public elementary school and were randomly assigned to view a target photo of their same gender in one of three conditions: average-weight, overweight, obese. Participants rated attitudes toward the figures on the Adjective Checklist and behavioral intentions on the Shared Activity Questionnaire-B (SAQ-B). Results showed the hypotheses to be partially supported. Students’ responses on the SAQ-B showed they were statistically significantly more willing to interact with an overweight peer (M = 16.33, SD = 4.19) than an obese peer (M = 14.30, SD = 3.83) for active-recreational activities. The overall effect size (males and females combined) was moderate (.51), with a small effect size for females (.42) and a moderate effect size for males (.64). There were no other statistically significant differences on the SAQ-B subscales of active-recreational, academic, and social, or on the Adjective Checklist. Although differences were not significant, effect sizes for social domain for average versus obese and overweight versus obese were mostly small to medium. Conversely, almost all effect sizes for academic were nonmeaningful. Therefore, it appears weight has less impact in academic interactions than the other two areas. Effect sizes were larger for males than females for overweight versus obese on the Adjective Checklist and SAQ-B social and active recreational, showing that males tended to hold more negative views of obesity than females in these areas.

No description available.

No description available.

The problem addressed in the study concerned the lack of attraction of girls into professional Mining Industry (MI) careers. The study had four main objectives. The first was to review the literature to determine the reasons why there were so few women currently in MI careers, and then to describe strategies that have been successfully used to increase their participation. It quickly became apparent that while little research could be located relating directly to MI, the broader fields of science, engineering and technology (SET) could be reviewed to include the subset of mining-related careers.The second objective was to determine the attitudes towards MI careers of a select group of Year 10 schoolgirls, with the ability to proceed to the tertiary prerequisites for MI courses. This was accomplished through the development, implementation and statistical analysis of an instrument, the Mining Industry Attitude Survey (MIAS), designed specifically to focus on MI-related careers, rather than SET generally.The third objective was to develop and implement appropriate intervention strategies aimed at enhancing the attitudes of the group of girls, as determined through analyses of MIAS and related research. Under the auspices of the Western Australian School of Mines Engineering and Technology Camp, conducted annually in Kalgoorlie, a program of strategies was adapted and implemented over a period of five days at the residential camp.The final objective of the study was to determine if the intervention program did, in fact, enhance participating girls' attitudes. Using quasi-experimental research methods, quantitative data were collected and analysed from girls attending the camp, as the experimental group, and from applicants that did not attend as the control group. In addition, qualitative data were collected from select girls in the experimental group, during the camp ++ / program.The outcomes of the study are set out in terms of the main objectives, culminating in a discussion of the implications which the stated findings pose for researchers, practitioners of equity programs and employers of future MI graduates.

It has long been acknowledged that pre-service Early Childhood teachers enter university with a notable lack of confidence, high levels of anxiety and an aversion to science and mathematics. Unless redressed during their time spent at university, such negative attitudes may ultimately influence the quality of science education these teachers offer to young children. This study considers the affective attitudes to science and science education of those people considered to be central to the education of young children.Specifically the study investigates the attitudes and backgrounds in science/ science education, of academics, pre-service and in-service teachers together with their attitudes towards teaching science to young children. The attitudes to science of a group of young children, aged between 4 and 8 years, were also investigated in the study. The potential links between the attitudes held by each group was of great interest to the researcher who considered the ways that academics promoted the teaching of science to young children, the factors influencing the willingness of pre-service and in-service teachers to present science to young children and the effect that teachers have on the responses of young children to science.The findings suggest that in contrast to the attitudes towards science of pre- and in-service teacher groups in the study, the young children and academics displayed attitudes such as interest, curiosity, confidence and enjoyment towards their experiences in science. There was a strong link between the memory of prior experiences in science and the present attitudes to science of the adult participants. The implications of the study are that science education in the early years will be enhanced if ways can be found to provide more positive science related experiences for pre-service and in-service teachers.

One purpose of the present study was to validate a modified version of the What is Happening In This Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire and the Test of Science Related Attitude (TOSRA) in both Australia and Indonesia. It was the first classroom environment study that used the two above questionnaires simultaneously in these two countries. The second aim of this study was to find out whether the scores on the WIHIC questionnaire and TOSRA vary with country and with gender. The third and final aim of this study was to evaluate the strength of the associations between students' perceptions of their classroom environment and their attitude to science in both Australia and Indonesia. The sample consisted of 1,161 students (594 students from 18 classes in Indonesia and 567 students from 18 classes in Australia). All the students came from private coeducational schools. The original WIHIC questionnaire had eight scales made up of ten items per scale while the original version of TOSRA had seven scales made up of ten items per scale. Principal components factor analysis followed by varimax rotation resulted in the acceptance of a revised version of the WIHIC comprising 55 items and a revised version of TOSRA comprising 20 items. The a priori factor structure of the revised version of each questionnaire was replicated in both countries, with nearly all items having a factor loading of at least 0.30 on their a priori scale and no other scale. / The use of MANOVA revealed that there were a few differences between Australian and Indonesian students' perceptions of their classroom environments and in their attitudes to science. For example, Australian students had a more positive attitude towards scientific inquiry while Indonesian students had a more positive attitude towards career interest in Science. A comparison between male and female students in the two countries revealed that both genders had almost similar perceptions of their learning environments and attitudes to science. However, female students had a slightly higher score when it came to career interest in science, student cohesiveness and equity. A series of simple correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed reasonably strong and positive associations between each classroom environment scale and the attitude scale. Overall Teacher Support and Involvement were the strongest independent predictors of student attitudes to science in both Indonesia and Australia.

This thesis reports the findings of a study of the influence of the classroom learning environment on students cognitive and affective outcomes among 2,498 third-year computing students in 50 university-level classes in Indonesia. Students perceptions of the classroom environment were measured using a modified Indonesian version of the What Is Happening In This Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire. To assess students affective outcomes, a scale derived from the Test of Science Related Attitudes was adapted for use in higher education computing classes and translated into Indonesian. Students' final scores in their mathematics course (either linear algebra or statistics) were used as a measure of cognitive achievement. Secondary aims of the present study were to examine whether differences exist between (a) students perceptions of the actual and preferred classroom learning environment, (b) the perceptions of male and female of the actual and preferred classroom environment and (c) students' perceptions of the actual learning environment in linear algebra and statistics courses. The results of this study make important contributions towards explaining why Indonesian students are achieving at less than desirable levels in their computing courses.