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published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The purpose of this study was to examine Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) stress and coping theory in the context of workplace stress and coping with a focus on the influence of personal and cultural resources on cognitive appraisal, coping strategies, and the well-being of Chinese who are currently employed in professional occupations overseas. The data were collected from a volunteer sample of 228 overseas Chinese professionals (128 men, 100 women, M age = 32.6). Participants completed three sets of questionnaires over a six-week period (2 weeks apart). Specific variables of interest included cultural, social, and personal resources (Chinese collective values, perceived social support and work support, and general self-efficacy), situational appraisals (perceived situational control and self-efficacy), ways of coping (Engagement, Disengagement, and Collective strategies), and changes in short-term outcomes (job satisfaction, somatic symptoms, and depression symptoms). Items that assessed collective ways of coping were developed for this study. Significant differences were found between men and women in this sample. As such, path analysis (LISREL VIII) was used to test the hypothesized relationships in the model separately for men and women. Based on a zero-order correlation matrix, the results for the initial hypothesized path models indicated a moderate fitting model for men and an inadequate fitting model for women. However, modified models revealed a good model fit for both men and women, X 2 (29, N=128)=32.72, p=.29, Q=1.13, RMSR=.05, GFI=.96, and CFI=. 98, and X 2 (29, N=100)=44.10, p=.04, Q=1.52, GFI=.93, RMSR-.07, and CFI=.92, respectively. The pattern of relationships (path coefficients) provide partial supports for the hypothesized model and Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) theoretical assumptions. The results of this study were consistent with those obtained by other researchers who found that coping resources are associated with coping strategies and short-term outcomes (e.g., Long, Kahn, & Schutz, 1992; Terry, Tonge, & Callan, 1995). For the men, personal resources of General Self-efficacy were positively related to control appraisal, Work Support predicted Collective coping, and Social Support was associated with a decrease in depressive symptoms. As expected, Disengagement coping was found to have a significant effect on depressive symptoms for the men. For the women, General Self-efficacy and Social Support were associated with perceived self-efficacy, and predicted an increase in job satisfaction and a decrease in depressive symptoms. Self-efficacy appraisal had negative effects on Disengagement coping. As hypothesized, Engagement coping was negatively associated with changes in somatic symptoms, and Disengagement coping predicted changes in both somatic and depressive symptoms. The results Of factor analysis supported the development of a Collective coping subscale. Implications of these results and suggestions for future research are discussed.

With the intent of learning more about the process of assessing music ability, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of music learning on music aptitude scores. The problem of this study is to determine if there is a difference between pretest-posttest tonal aptitude scores, as measured by AMMA, for students who possess high and low levels of tonal audiation ability and who either received specialized audiation training on computer or no specialized audiation training. Forty-eight Grade 11 and 12 music students were administered AMMA as a pretest. An intact music class of 24 students received 13 weeks of computer instruction. The experimental treatment consisted of a computer assisted software program, Tonal Syntax Tutorial, which provided audiation practice for high school and college students. A randomly selected group of 24 students received their normal classroom music instruction. Pretest AMMA scores were used as the criterion measure. At the end of 13 weeks, all students were re-administered AMMA as a posttest. AMMA pretest and posttest Tonal scores were organized into a multidimensional design. A covariate analysis of the AMMA scores was calculated and a MANOVA was employed to determine differences between the pretest and posttest AMMA Tonal scores. Main effects, interaction effects, and simple main effects were tested at the .05 level of significance. The researcher found no significant difference between the treatment and control group tonal aptitude scores, however, there was a significant difference between levels of aptitude. It was interpreted that the difference between the students who possessed high tonal aptitude and students who possess low tonal aptitude was not a real difference because the difference in student tonal aptitude levels actually existed before the study began. The researcher believes that AMMA can be a useful instrument in the assessment of music abilities of high school students. Also, based on our present knowledge of computer assisted music instruction, it seems that that type of instruction alone is not sufficient to affect a change in tonal audiation ability of high school students.