Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2007. / Thesis directed by John G. Borkowski for the Department of Psychology. "April 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-75).

Communication cannot be successful without the cooperative listening response of an auditor. Auditors must feel empowered to act as agents of change or their decisions and actions cannot be influenced by the discourse. Their every response depends upon their ability to perceive themselves as potential mediators of change. A review of the literature supports the notion that women auditors are affected by biological, social, historical, and psychological forces which serve to inform their ability to perceive themselves as agents of change. In many instances, their lack of perceived personal power is apparent. The purpose of this study was to construct and analyze an instrument developed for the purpose of measuring perceived personal power. The instrument was designed and validated through a Delphi process. The questionnaire contained thirty-six (36) items, with a four-point Likert type scale used to indicate the respondent's attitude. Questions were completed by 300 randomly selected female students at Oregon State University. The mean age of the respondents was twenty years, 34 percent were married and the mean years of university classwork completed was 2.4 years. The Hoyt-Stunkard method was used to assess reliability. The computed reliability coefficient was 0.948. An R-mode factor analysis was utilized by clustering items--acting as a tool for determining construct validity through the extraction of common factor variances, showing the highly correlated items which share variance. Five factors were extracted through use of a varimax rotation of the factor matrix loadings. Thirty-five (35) of the thirty-six (36) instrument items were clustered on one of the five factors. Based on the results, it is reasonable to believe that the Perceived Personal Power Inventory developed for this study is reliable and valid when used with the population from which the population was drawn. / Graduation date: 1993

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-136). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-136). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Psychology, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics, Modern Languages and Cultural Studies. At head of title screen : University of Alberta. Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on December 8, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

Terror management theory (TMT) asserts that cultural worldviews and self-esteem help humans manage death-related concerns. To date, most of the evidence for TMT is from Western cultures which are characterized by individualism. However, cultural values and self-esteem among East Asian cultures characterized by collectivism are distinct from ones among Western cultures. It is unclear how individualist vs. collectivist cultures influence terror management mechanisms and whether TMT findings derived from Western cultures could be generalized to East Asians cultures. This research aimed to explore cultural differences and similarities in three terror management mechanisms involving self-esteem, social norm and perception of control. 825 participants were recruited from two individualist cultures (i.e., Germany, Austria) and one collectivist culture (i.e., China) in four studies. The Pilot Study validated the mortality salience paradigm among Chinese participants. Study 1 examined whether individualists and collectivists utilize different types of self-esteem to manage existential terror. Study 1A tested the correlations between death anxiety and types of self-esteem and showed a negative correlation between death anxiety and self-liking among both Chinese and Austrian participants, but a negative correlation between death anxiety and self-competence only among Austrian participants. Studies 1B and 1C tested the correlations of personal vs. relational self-esteem with death anxiety and their moderating influence on mortality salience effects. Results revealed that for the Chinese, relational self-esteem showed a stronger negative correlation with death anxiety than did personal self-esteem. It also moderated the effects of mortality salience on worldview defense. In contrast, for German participants, personal rather than relational self-esteem moderated the effects of mortality salience on worldview defense. Taken together, these findings indicate that culture determines the type of self-esteem that serves as a buffer against death anxiety. According to TMT, existential terror motivates individuals to follow social norms by which they maintain self-esteem and mitigate terror. Study 2 tested this by examining the changes in self-esteem when Chinese participants followed (or violated) the modesty norm. Results revealed that mortality salience led Chinese participants to follow the modesty norm by showing explicit self-effacement, but their implicit self-esteem also decreased. Moreover, when participants were reminded of their mortality, those who violated the norm by showing explicit self-enhancement reported higher implicit self-esteem than those who followed the norm. These findings indicate that when norm and self-esteem motives collide, following the norm engendered by mortality salience does not benefit self-esteem. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

College is a time of pressure and stress for students. The presence of a physical disability can be a factor which lends additional complications and adds to the stress and adjustment difficulties in the college years. In recognition of the stresses and pressures and in response to legislative mandates, colleges are beginning to offer programs of support services for physically disabled students. Although the literature supports such offerings as helpful in the adjustment process, little research has been done to determine effectiveness of support services. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of two types of support services, Adaptive Physical Education and Group Counseling on the adjustment of physically disabled students as measured by pre and post treatment mean scores on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale and the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scale. Additionally, Goal Attainment Scaling was used with students who participated in a Counseling Group. Subjects were 21 physically disabled volunteers who were students at The University of Arizona, Tucson, during the fall semester 1980. Subjects were divided into three groups: students enrolled in Adaptive Physical Education classes (n = 7), students participating in a semester long counseling group (n = 6), and students who were neither enrolled in Adaptive Physical Education nor participating in a counseling group (n = 8). The experimental treatment consisted of participation in Adaptive Physical Education twice a week over the course of the semester for Group 1. Group 2 participated in a once per week counseling group for 10 weeks. Subjects in the Control Group did not report receiving regular counseling and were not enrolled in Physical Education classes. The Tennessee Self Concept Scale and Rotter I-E Scale were administered to subjects at the beginning and end of the semester. Additionally, subjects in the Counseling Group established and rated themselves on goals as part of the pre and post treatment assessment. This group also rated the group counseling experience at the end of the semester. The study was designed to see if participation in Adaptive Physical Education or Group Counseling would significantly effect the pre and post treatment mean scores on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale and the Rotter I-E Scale. Analysis of variance of the pre and post treatment mean scores for all three groups did not reveal any statistically significant differences in either Self Concept or Locus of Control scores. All students in the Counseling Group reported achieving their goals and reported the group experience to be a positive one. From the evidence gathered in the study, it was concluded that neither Adaptive Physical Education nor Group Counseling have a statistically significant effect on the self concept or locus of control of physically disabled college students. The small numbers of subjects in the three groups may have been a contributing factor in the failure to achieve any statistically significant difference between the three groups. Recommendations include further study of support services with a larger number of subjects over a longer period of time, further research to identify alternate methods of measuring change and further study of other types of support services.

The purpose of this study was to develop and test an index of primigravidas' Performance Incongruency as represented by the difference between the scores on the two forms of the Schroeder Labor Locus of Control Scale (SLLOC). The first form measured primigravidas' expectations for control during labor and delivery. The second form indexed primiparas' perceptions of the actual control they had during their childbirth experience. The convenience sample of primigravida included 34 subjects from one prenatal clinic and 27 from another. Of this sample of 61, 50 delivered during the study and comprised the primipara sample. A descriptive design was used for validity and reliability estimates. The results indicated that the content validity of the pre-labor form of the SLLOC met the established criterion of 90% interrater agreement. Criterion validity estimates on both forms did not achieve the established criterion nor did the convergent-discriminant estimates of construct validity within the instrument. Convergent-discriminant validity external to the scale, however, approached the established criterion. Test-retest reliability estimates of the pre-labor form demonstrated stability (r = .81). The Internal subscale of both forms of the SLLOC was internally consistent with coefficient Alphas of .81 for the pre-labor form and .71 for the post-delivery form. The External-Chance subscale of both forms approached the criterion for internal consistency, but the External/Powerful Others subscale did not. The findings for the index of Performance Incongruency supported literature reports suggesting that primigravidae who had participated in childbirth education classes experienced less control than they had anticipated whereas those who had not participated in childbirth education classes experienced more than they expected.

This study examined the influence of parenting-related factors to emerging adults’ emotion regulation, especially in the context of interparental conflict. Specifically, the purpose of the study was to examine how interparental conflict, parenting (defined as parental psychological control, autonomy support, and behavioral control), and parentchild relations (defined as parent-child attachment) are related to emerging adults’ emotion regulation. In addition, do parenting behaviors (psychological control, autonomy support, and behavioral control) and parent-child attachment mediate the relations between interparental conflict and emotion regulation? A total of 361 college students reported their perceptions of interparental conflict, their parents’ parenting practices, parent-child attachment, as well as their emotion regulation capabilities. The majority of the participants were females (n = 292), and Caucasians (n = 322) with an average age of 20.23 (SD = 1.39) years. In general, the participants reported moderate interparental conflict, relatively low psychological control and behavioral control, moderate levels of parental autonomy support, and high parent-child attachment, along with relatively high emotion regulation capabilities. With regression analyses, the results showed that emerging adults who reported higher levels of resolution of interparental conflict, moderate levels of parental behavioral control, greater attachment communication, and lower levels of alienation from parents were associated with better emotion regulation. Path analyses were used to test the role of parenting and attachment in mediating the relations between interparental conflict and emotion regulation. Results demonstrated that parental behavioral control, autonomy support, and parent-child attachment partially mediated the role of resolution of interparental conflict on emotion regulation. In addition, parental behavioral control and autonomy support partially mediated the impact of resolution of interparental conflict on emerging adults’ alienation from parents. In particular, resolution of interparental conflict was the strongest predictor of emerging adults’ emotion regulation capability, even when parenting practices and parent-child attachment were controlled. / Department of Educational Psychology