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Mental health professionals who provide treatment to sex offenders navigate the complex legal, ethics and moral intersections surrounding the population within the professional-personal dialectic. The purpose of this research study was to explore the potential relationship between mental health professional's attitudes toward sex offenders and their level of moral development in order to encourage increasingly effective training and experiential interventions which then may impact treatment outcomes. Research participants included licensed and non-licensed counselors, social workers and psychologists (n = 135). Along with a demographic questionnaire and the Marlowe- Crowne Social Desirability Scale, the Defining Issues Test was used as a measure of moral development and the Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offender Scale evaluated the attitudes of mental health professionals toward the sex offender population. This study identified a statistically significant relationship between a mental health professional's level of moral development and attitude toward sex offenders with 6.2% of the variation in attitudes related to DIT-II N2 scores. Mental health professionals that engaged in greater amounts of self-directed training endorsed less negative attitudes toward sex offenders. No relationship was found between the mental health professional's length of experience, other types of training and attitudes toward sex offenders. The results and limitations identified within this study support further development of this line of research with an emphasis on recruiting a sample with a larger representation of participants with sex offenders specific credentialing and with the inclusion of additional or alternative assessments related to evaluating attitudes toward sex offenders.

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The purpose of this study was to determine if the behavior modeling approach to training could be used effectively to teach managers conflict management skills. The researcher explored whether behavior modeling training made a significant difference in the participants' conflict management behaviors and whether videotaped feedback to participants enhanced their gain scores.;Forty-eight managers from an industrial organization in central Virginia were the subjects for this study. The managers were invited to participate following a needs assessment identifying conflict management as a skill deficit.;The design used for this study was a combination of the pretest-posttest control group design and the posttest only control group design. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the two experimental treatment groups: Group I--behavior modeling training/no video feedback (N = 24) and Group II--behavior modeling training/video feedback (N = 24). Each group was broken into two sub-groups (N = 12). One received a pretest and posttest, the other received a posttest only. The eight dependent variables Describe the Problem, Ask for Reasons and Listen Attentively, Define Needs, Generate Alternatives, Evaluate Alternatives, Select an Alternative, Follow-up, and Overall Rating, were collected using assessment center methodology.;It was hypothesized that (1) behavior modeling would be an effective approach for training managers in conflict management skills, and (2) that videotaping participants' role plays for use as feedback would produce greater gains than behavior modeling without videotaped feedback.;It was concluded that behavior modeling training significantly improved scores on the eight dependent measures. However, behavior modeling training with videotaped feedback had no additional effect on the dependent measures.

The purpose of this study was to determine how RNs who were seniors in academic programs leading to a baccalaureate nursing education perceived their programs. These perceptions were determined by assessing: (1) the educational and experiential characteristics of senior re-entry registered nurses, (2) reasons for returning to college for a baccalaureate education, (3) perceptions of the relevancy of nursing course work, and (4) personal, professional and academic difficulties encountered in the program of study. The study also investigated specific demographic data with relationship to perceptions.;Participants attended nursing programs at seven Virginia state supported colleges and universities. A sample of convenience was used with a total of 78 participants (75% return rate). Participants were in their last semester of study at their respective universities.;The five research questions were: (1) What are the educational and experiential characteristics of the senior re-entry registered nurses who return to college for a baccalaureate nursing education, (2) What are the reasons senior re-entry registered nurses cite for their return to college for a baccalaureate nursing education, (3) How do senior re-entry registered nurses rate the relevancy of their nursing course work, (4) Is there a difference between the work experience of senior re-entry registered nurse students and their perceptions of the academic, professional and personal difficulties experienced while in college? (5) Is there a difference between the educational level of senior re-entry registered nurse students and their perceptions of the academic, professional and personal difficulties experienced while in college?;It was concluded that: The average re-entry RN is 31 to 40 years of age, female, married, with children, white and employed 1-10 years in staff nurse positions in hospitals. (1) Registered nurses return to college for personal reasons, because it is the trend in nursing, and for credibility/prestige, (2) nursing education material is current and reflects new research from a variety of sources, and is appropriate for their backgrounds, (3) the cost of education requires RNs to work in order to afford college, (4) and (5) there was no difference between AD graduates and diploma graduates based on experience and education.