Inference is a process by which appropriate belief states get connected. Belief states are biological states in the sense that they are reentrant loops (or loops which connect different stimulus); their intrinsic feature is recognition. In inference or reasoning the transition process between belief states is regulated by the rule of concept usage, involved in the belief state, in natural language. Like belief states experiential states are also biological states whose extrinsic feature is recognition, such that, one can have an, say, X-type experience without recognizing it as an experience of X. One can, however, also have an experience of an X; in the latter case, one not only has an X-type experience but also recognizes an X as an X. In some cases the transition from X-type experience to believing an X to be there instantiates a quasi-inferential pattern. In all such cases the transition process is regulated by the rule of X usage. In such quasi-inferential transition additional belief states are involved. Such states assert that there are no countervailing factors and there are additional factors conducive to the conclusion. Such belief states are expressed non-propositionally in the language of thought. Propositions are a necessary part of such quasi-inference for they give content to thoughts to which one can assign 'falsity' and defeasible reasoning requires us to assign 'falsity' to our thoughts. Propositions implicated in the quasi-inferences from experience types to belief states are the evidential reasons for the conclusion and they can only be accepted as provisionally true and have to be revised in the light of further information.

Building upon previous emergent literacy research, this descriptive and correlational longitudinal study investigated the relationship between parent-child storybook reading and children's early literacy skill development. A new, reliable videotaping system was used as was a measurement tool sensitive to the growth of children's early literacy skills, the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Twenty-five parent-child dyads volunteered for phase one; all children were 3 to 5 years old. Eighteen of the original 25 children participated in a follow-up study a year later. Most families were Caucasian, English-speaking, and interested in literacy activities. Dyads were videotaped reading storybooks and their interactions were coded. Six video categories became predictor variables: Parent Q, A, D, L (Parent questions, answers, discusses content of book, or discusses book as it relates to life of parent or child); Child Q, A, D, L; Child reads or is prompted to read, Off-task events, Total events; and Words read per minute. Other predictor variables included Minutes per week of Parent and Parent-child reading (derived from a parent interview) and children's scores from the Early Screening Profiles (ESP) Cognitive/Language Profile subtest of the American Guidance Service (AGS). These variables were correlated with dependent variables obtained by administering three DIBELS tests to the children: Onset Recognition Fluency (ORF) and Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), used in both phases, and Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF), used only in follow-up. Only children 5 and older were administered the age-sensitive PSF probes. From follow-up scores, slope data were generated measuring progress in the three skill areas. A number of the video predictor variables correlated at .32 (a small effect size) or above with the children's concurrent LNF scores. The children's ESP cognitive and language scores also correlated at .32 or above with several of the children's concurrent or subsequent DIBELS scores. Description and discussion of the direct observation system and parent interview are included, with suggestions for refinements. The ESP and DIBELS are discussed, and recommendations are made for future research.

The objective of this study was to respond to two primary questions: (1) What is the process of self transformation for the recovering alcoholic? and (2) What is surrender and what role does it play in that process of transformation? Eight subjects were interviewed who have maintained abstinence from alcohol for over ten years and who are active members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Subjects were chosen though two key informants who participated in a pilot study. Key informants were long-term recovering alcoholics and referred the researcher to individuals who could provide in-depth and process-oriented reflections about their experiences. Subjects were asked to tell their story of addiction and recovery in their own terms. An interview guide with focal and follow-up questions insured that each subject gave his/her own authentic and full account of the process of self transformation and experiences of surrender. Grounded Theory guided the collection and analysis of the data generated in the interviews. Analysis of data revealed common themes and patterns in regard to the recovery process and the experiences of surrender. A common pattern of recovery, illustrated as a gestalt process model, involved four components: action, awareness, connectedness, and choice. These components were found to be highly interactive, each contributing to or augmenting the other three. No common sequence was found; instead, any one of the components could serve as an entry into a cyclical, multileveled system of interaction of all four components, in ways that led to crucial experiences of surrender. Although surrender was found to be the necessary and critical core experience in all the sustained recoveries, differing forms of surrender were described, and various names for the experience were identified. All subjects described the process of recovery and the experiences of surrender as what led them to new "ways of being", forms of "knowing", and different modes of consciousness.

This dissertation examines the use of the dark areas of the occult in the lives of six adolescents who have been involved with black magic, satanic ritual, or other occult practices. All but one of the subjects were connected to the community helping system because of divorce, abuse and/or neglect, delinquency, and substance abuse. Data was collected by means of an interview concerned with the ethnic, economic and religious background of the subjects' family, the subjects' relationships with family, community and state agencies, and the duration of involvement with the occult. The interview and data analysis drew from two perspectives: The first five stages of Erik Erikson's "Eight Stages of Man" identity development model and the existential psychological examination of the "problems of youth" by Paul Goodman in Growing Up Absurd (1960). The study provides an examination of the historical and current use of the occult as a social-strain gauge and disturbing parallels of despairing behavior between the youth culture of Weimar Republic Germany and that of the United States. A strong connection is made between the involvement with dark areas of the occult and the loss of meaning, hope and faith. The subjects came from circumstances that hampered healthy negotiation of Erik Erikson's first five stages of identity development. The subjects grew up in circumstances that led to despairing beliefs and behaviors, as described by Goodman. The data suggests that the nature of the use of magic during early adolescence depends on the nurturent (physical, psychological and ideological) circumstances of infancy, and latency. If the child despairs because of insufficient family/community nurturence then the dark, deviant and depraved element of the occult is more likely to manifest itself. The subjects represent a larger despairing population (uninvolved with the occult or the helping system) that puts society at risk politically and economically. The current youth culture parallels with Weimar Republic youth culture suggest that this larger despairing population threatens society because they could be manipulated by historical circumstance and charismatic personalities to commit widespread depravity in the name of political change.

Despite the continuing trend to delay parenthood in contemporary society, research about late-timing parenthood has been extremely limited. The purpose of this study was to examine the process of maternal adjustment for a sample of late-timing primiparous mothers. This developmentally rooted short-term longitudinal study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. Twenty mothers, all of whom were twenty-nine years of age and older, were interviewed during the eighth month of pregnancy and again at two months postpartum. Measures of social support were administered in the prenatal period, and again in the postnatal period, along with measures of maternal self-esteem and infant temperament. Observations of mother-infant interaction and the home environment were done at two months. Qualitative data were used to develop "personal profiles". The data show that the late-timing mothers adjusted well to new parenthood. They had positive prenatal attitudes about motherhood and demonstrated average or higher levels of maternal self-esteem. They were satisfied with the support they received, and did not feel isolated. They found their infants adaptable and unpredictable, but not difficult or dull. They were sensitive and responsive to the needs of their infants. Results also show that maternal adjustment was influenced over time by prenatal attitudes about motherhood, infant temperament, maternal self-esteem, and the quality of the caregiving environment provided by the mother. The personal psychological resources of the mother and the temperament of the infant were most influential in determining the quality of maternal adjustment and the developing mother-infant relationship. Qualitative results show that maternal adjustment, for some, was also influenced by sources of support and stress. Late-timing motherhood was seen as a desirable life-course choice by most of the late-timing mothers.

Moffitt's (1993) taxonomy of adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent offenders suggests, among other things, that an early onset of antisocial behavior a) increases the likelihood of a life-course persistent offending trajectory and b) is the product of neuropsychological deficits and familial risk factors working in concert. Over two decades of research has yielded a substantial amount of support for Moffitt's claims. Nevertheless, research has yet to significantly expand the repertoire of biosocial processes that might influence the onset of antisocial behavior during childhood. For instance, only a handful of criminologists have considered the role that infant and early childhood nutrition might play in the development of antisocial behavior. Moreover, studies employing genetically sensitive methods to examine the link between nutrition and child antisocial behavior are virtually nonexistent. Scholars have also neglected to consider the socioemotional mediators of the nutrition-externalizing relationship, as well as whether infants and children are differentially sensitive to nutritional intake depending on their level of genetic risk, perinatal risk, and security of attachment. Finally, researchers have yet to explore the ways in which nutritional factors across infancy and early childhood work together to influence externalizing behavior. This dissertation seeks to address these gaps in the literature by employing a large, nationally representative sample of twin pairs. The findings suggest that, even after accounting for the influence of genes and the shared environment, nutritional factors during infancy and early childhood have both direct and indirect effects on externalizing behavior during kindergarten. Furthermore, some significant interactions between genetic and nutritional factors, as well as nutritional factors across life stages, were detected. The limitations of the study are noted and recommendations for policy, theory, and future research are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2015. / May 22, 2015. / Antisocial, Attachment, Breastfeeding, Diet, Genetics / Includes bibliographical references. / Kevin M. Beaver, Professor Directing Dissertation; Amy M. Burdette, University Representative; William D. Bales, Committee Member; Brian J. Stults, Committee Member.

This study explored the relationships among separation-individuation, bulimia, social characteristics, and perceived parenting style in a sample of 192 non-bulimic and 39 bulimic college females. There was support for the hypothesis that bulimics are underseparated from their parents when compared to non-bulimic subjects. The bulimic women exhibited a distinctly different pattern of social qualities characterized by higher levels of depression, lower self-esteem, higher private and public self-consciousness, and higher social anxiety than the non-bulimic subjects. It was not possible to discriminate between bulimic and non-bulimic subjects based on the parental rearing styles they experienced. However, there were strong relationships between type of parenting style received and level of independence; the warm and flexible authoritative parenting style was most closely linked to a supportive relationship between parent and child that is free from undercurrents of anger and resentment. Suggestions for future research are discussed.

Success is often defined by the quality and effectiveness of an organization’s employees, and workplace design can be a primary driver in employee recruitment, satisfaction, and retention (Gensler, 2013). Since understanding employees is requisite in providing for employees’ needs and desires in the physical work environment, this study seeks to build upon the generational research by taking a more in depth look at employees through the lens of adulthood stage of life. The stages of life in adulthood are broadly defined as early middle and late adulthood (Levinson, 1978). With the demographics of the workforce shifting, this study focuses on employees in early adulthood as they make up the largest portion of the workforce population and have the most working years left (Fry, 2015). At a time with increasing pressures on the business bottom-line and a heightened awareness for employee well-being, many employers are turning to amenities to combat the digitalization of work, aid in attraction and retention, and improve employee satisfaction, health, and well-being (Smart Growth America, 2015). With a growing emphasis on workplace amenities and their role in supporting employee attraction and retention, this study explored the workplace amenity preferences of employees in early adulthood and how valued amenities can be provided in or near an existing high-rise office building. To identify the amenity preferences of early adult employees, this study’s methodology surveyed early adult employees currently working at a technology company located in metropolitan Washington, D.C. The survey addressed participants’ stage of life characteristics and their workplace amenity preferences. From this survey the researcher was able to identify the workplace amenities the sample population valued most. These findings informed programming and site location decisions to develop a design solution that illustrates how the most valued amenities can be provided to employees. With a shift towards a walkable, urban future and many companies relocating or opening new offices in urban locations, the design solution explored how the discovered amenity desires could be provided in an existing high-rise structure. With a better understanding of employees and their amenity desires, employers can make more informed decisions about office locations and amenity selections that support employees daily lifestyles and provide choice while also improving the fabric of our growing urban communities. To identify the amenity preferences of early adult employees, this study’s methodology employed a survey to employees currently working for a technology company in metropolitan Washington, D.C. The survey addressed participants’ stage of life characteristics and their workplace amenity preferences. From this survey the researcher was able to identify the workplace amenities the sample population valued most. These findings informed programming and site location decisions to form a design solution that illustrates how the most valued amenities can be provided to employees. With a shift towards a walkable, urban future and many companies relocating or opening new offices in urban location, the design solution explores how the discovered amenity desires can be provided in a existing high-rise structure. With a better understanding of employees and their amenity desires, employers can make more informed decisions about office locations and amenity selections that support employees daily lifestyles and provide choice while also improving the fabric of our growing urban communities. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Interior Architecture and Design in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts. / Summer Semester 2016. / June 28, 2016. / Early Adulthood, Generations, physical work environment, Retention, Stage of Life, Workplace Amenities / Includes bibliographical references. / Steven Webber, Professor Directing Thesis; Marlo Ransdell, Committee Member; Amy Huber, Committee Member.

The present study investigated the meta-relations among common components of reading comprehension. The Simple View of Reading (SVR, Hoover & Gough, 1990) posits that reading comprehension is the sum or product of linguistic comprehension and decoding. The meta- analysis presented here investigated extending the SVR using a two-stage correlational meta- analytic structural equation modeling (SEM) approach with added additional components of working memory, background knowledge, and reasoning and inference. A comprehensive literature search using terms related to reading comprehension and the hypothesized predictors produced a total of k = 155 included studies. Results of an expanded SVR model run on the full sample (n = 1,205,581) showed that none of the hypothesized added predictors accounted for additional variance beyond that accounted for by the SVR components of decoding and linguistic comprehension. Age was then considered as a moderator in these analyses. The correlation matrices were dichotomized into a younger (age < 11 years) and older cohort (age >= 11 years). The SVR model fit the data well for both the younger cohort and the older cohort. Whereby both decoding and linguistic comprehension were important in earlier grades, once decoding was fluent, only linguistic comprehension was a significant predictor of reading comprehension for later grades. Neither working memory, background knowledge, nor reasoning and inference made significant contributions to reading comprehension in the older cohort. For the younger cohort, reasoning and inference was a statistically significant predictor of individual differences in reading comprehension but the additional variance accounted for was trivial. The models accounted for approximately 60% of the variance in reading comprehension. Results are presented in the context of the development of reading ability in the early elementary years and implications for policy and practice are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2016. / June 2, 2016. / meta-analysis, reading comprehension, reading development / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard K. Wagner, Professor Directing Dissertation; Young-Suk Grace Kim, University Representative; Christopher Schatschneider, Committee Member; Sara A. Hart, Committee Member; Jeanette Taylor, Committee Member.

Lyons et al. (2018) used exploratory factor analysis to develop and validate a spatial anxiety questionnaire that can reliably measure anxiety in situations that involve different types of spatial skills. Using the framework set forth by Uttal et al. (2013) for different types of spatial skills to inform their factor analysis, they were able to create an empirically validated Spatial Anxiety Scale incorporating three of the subtypes of spatial processing. This project developed and validated a revised spatial anxiety scale. In Study 1, expert reviews and cognitive interviews were used to establish substantive reliability for a revised spatial anxiety scale. Specifically, this study evaluated a total of 121 items pulled from the items proposed by Lyons et al. (2018), items from existing spatial anxiety scales (Lawton, 1994; Malanchini et al., 2017), and researcher- developed items. Based on these reviews and interviews, items were removed and the remaining 68 items were given to a pilot sample of 229 college students. To examine structural validity, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted, which provided evidence for the four-factor model as was theoretically expected consisting of 22 items. In Study 2, the revised spatial anxiety scale with additional items to examine structural validity were given to 201 college students alongside measures of subtypes of spatial skill and other covariates. We examined the relations between each subscale and measures of each spatial subdomain to assess external validity and results provide some mixed evidence for the external validity of the scale. In addition, another CFA was conducted that verified the factor structure found in Study 1. Overall, results of the present study suggest that spatial anxiety has a four-factor structure similar to spatial skill, in line with existing research (Uttal et al., 2013), and the revised spatial anxiety scale adequately captures that complexity. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / 2019 / November 4, 2019. / construct validation, factor analysis, spatial ability, spatial anxiety, spatial anxiety scale / Includes bibliographical references. / Colleen M. Ganley, Professor Directing Thesis; Sara A. Hart, Committee Member; Walter R. Boot, Committee Member.