Motivation is rarely used as a diversity management strategy, and as a result, little academic research explores the relationship between generational age differences and motivation in public sector management. Using Deci's intrinsic and extrinsic motivation theory as the foundation, the purpose of this correlational design study was to evaluate the relationship between generational age differences and employee motivation in a Maryland government agency. Data were collected through an online survey using the Work Preference Inventory from 35 of the agency's 5585 employees, born between 1946 and 2000. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance with post-hoc tests to assess the relationship between the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. Findings of the ANOVA revealed that there were no statistically significant associations between the 3 generational cohorts regarding intrinsic or extrinsic motivations suggesting that there are no differences among the 3 generations in terms of preferences. However, an analysis of correlations between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for both Baby Boomers and Generation X were strongly positive at r = .862 and .602 respectively, but strongly negative for Generation Y at r = -0.856. One of the social change implications stemming from this study is the recommendation for public organizations to explore a blend of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to attract and enhance the longevity of members of each generational group in the public sector. This provides a more balanced and cost effective approach in sustaining generational diversity in the sector through employee motivation. This will benefit the general public because they could receive efficient services offered with minimal personnel cost.

Why some countries are so much richer than others is a question of central interest in economics. Low aggregate income per worker in poor countries is mostly accounted for by low labor productivity and high employment in agriculture. This thesis attempts to understand cross-country income difference through examining productivity differences at the sector level - in agriculture and in non-agriculture. Between rich and poor countries, there is a 45-fold difference in agricultural output per worker and a 34-fold difference in mean farm size. In the first chapter, I argue farmer's skill as a plausible explanation for these differences. The model features heterogeneity in innate agricultural skill, on-the-job skill accumulation, and span-of-control in agricultural production. I show that low total factor productivity (TFP) in poor countries not only induces more individuals with low innate skill to choose farming, but also reduces the incentive to accumulate skill. Between rich and poor countries, the model generates substantial difference in farmer's skill, which translates into differences in agricultural productivity and farm size distribution. Quantitatively, the calibrated model explains half of the cross-country differences in agricultural output per worker, and successfully replicates the size distribution of farms in both rich and poor countries. Cross-country productivity differences are asymmetric across sectors. The labor productivity gap between rich and poor countries in agriculture is twice as large as that in the aggregate, and ten times larger than that in non-agriculture. The second chapter shows that these sectoral productivity differences can arise solely from difference in aggregate TFP. I extend the framework in the first chapter to allow for different skill in non-agricultural production as well. Low TFP distorts the allocation of skills across sectors and discourages skill accumulation on the job. To discipline the initial skill distribution and skill accumulation, the model is calibrated to match earnings distribution and age-earnings profiles in both agriculture and non-agriculture in the U.S. The model's implications are then examined using a sample of 70 countries that covers a wide range of development. Between rich and poor countries, the model accounts for most of the productivity differences at the sector level - productivity difference in agriculture in the model is 1.8 times larger than those in the aggregate and 6 times larger than those in non-agriculture. As in the data, the share of farmer in the labor force in the model declines from 85 percent in the poorest countries to less than 2 percent in the richest countries. These results suggest that policy aiming at improving overall efficiency should be prioritized.

State federal vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies are one of the most wide spread and oldest programs designed to help individuals with disabilities. Currently, VR agencies provide various services designed to aide individuals with disabilities obtaining and maintaining employment. Currently, VR agencies serve approximately 1 million individuals with disabilities and spend about 3 billion dollars annually. Given how large and the amount of state and federal dollars are spent on VR, it is important that the outcomes of this program are researched and evaluated. The purpose of this study was to examine how different variables are related to VR outcomes across states. More specifically, this study utilized the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) as a framework to study how contextual factors such as personal characteristics, agency level factors, and state-economic variables impact the employment rate of three different groupings based on state VR agency performance. This study utilized secondary data analysis to explore these relationships using the FY 2013 RSA-911 dataset was paired with the 2013 American Community Survey (ACS). Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the relationships that exist between personal characteristics and state economic factors across the VR performance groups. Further, a hierarchical linear model (HLM) was used to investigate how the relationship between personal level characteristics and state economic variables may be influenced by investigating this data by considering the levels of the agencies. Results of this study revealed that agency-level factors and state economic variables are important predictors of the employment rate. The final model of the HLM found that state economic variables and agency-level factors moderate the relationship between personal characteristics and the employment rate. Further, all agency-level factors and state economic variables except poverty resulted in a significant relationship regarding the employment rate. In this final model, none of the personal characteristics were significant. The results of the multiple regressions revealed different relationships exist among personal characteristics, agency-level factors, and state economic variables and employment rate given the performance group.

Investigations regarding age-related behavioral, emotional, and social differences between younger and older groups of children with NLD remain scarce (Ozols & Rourke, 1988; Casey, Rourke, and Picard, 1991; Pelletier, Ahmad & Rourke, 2001) and have shown mixed results regarding the direction and severity of internalized and externalized behaviors. The current study explored the behavioral, emotional, and social differences between two groups of children and adolescents. The "younger" group consisted of children between the ages of 6 and 10 years of age. The "older" group consisted of children and adolescents between the ages of 11 and 16 years. Seventy two patient charts were selected for this study (males = 41, females = 31). A one factor Multivariate Analysis of Variance was run to investigate externalized and internalized age-related differences between the two groups. No age-related differences were found indicating that younger and older children may manifest the behavioral, emotional, and social characteristics of NLD in a similar manner. Additionally, results indicated that more than half of the total sample had a comorbid diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. However, results did not suggest that children and adolescents with NLD are at an increased risk for internalized psychopathology. When the NLD group was compared to a pediatric sample, it was found that the NLD group was more likely to demonstrate explosive behaviors, anxiety, and self-esteem problems. Although no significant age-related differences were found in the current study, the investigation has implications for practice as information from this study may aid clinicians in making an earlier diagnosis of NLD in children and adolescents, as well as lead to better interventions.

This study compared differences in kinematically based performance success characteristics of elite sport rock climbers during competition both within and across the variable of gender. The purpose of this study was to identify kinematically based performance success and gender differences in elite sport rock climbers for the development of further studies and gender-specific training procedures. The dependent variables included the kinematics of the dynamic grasping hand (DGH) and the center of mass (CM) and the timing of these variables. The participants included both the men and women competitors registered for the 1997 American Sport Climbing Federation's Fall National competition held at the Boulder Rock Club in Boulder, Colorado. Analysis was performed on the top five placing participants in each respective gender category (N = I 0). For comparison within gender, the first through third place finishers were classified as the top performers with a higher degree of performance success than the bottom performers who placed fourth and fifth (n = 5). Adjusted R-squared values were computed by way of multiple regression for the kinematic variables; variables providing adjusted R-squared coefficients greater than .24 were selected for further analysis. A one-way repeated measures ANOV A was computed for the selected kinematic variables and finish place of the participants. Standardized mean difference effect sizes were computed to determine practical significance. No statistical significance was found at or below the .05level of probability for finish place and any of the kinematic variables. Effect size differences were found for the DGH and CM kinematics with the top-performing men and women exhibiting more controlled horizontal movements, and more powerful but still controlled vertical movement. The control of the vertical CM motion indicated by the tops was evident from lesser distances the CM traveled. The kinematics of the CM show the top men and women with less vertical distances traveled, indicating a more efficient movement. Gender differences included the males performing the route segment with slower times but with faster DGH events. The top men provided greater event vertical velocities while the women provided greater horizontal velocities and accelerations. These differences provide considerations for the development of specific training protocols to address performance success based requirements that are gender-specific.

Thesis advisor: Gorica D. Petrovich / Learned associations are formed when cues from the environment are paired with biologically important events and can later drive appetitive and aversive behaviors. These behaviors can persist and reappear after extinction because the original learned associations continue to exist. In particular, cues previously associated with food can later stimulate appetite and food consumption in the absence of hunger. Renewal, or reinstatement, of extinguished conditioned behaviors may help explain the mechanisms underlying persistent responding to food cues and difficulty associated with changing unhealthy eating habits. The aim of this dissertation was to determine key components in the neural circuitry mediating renewal of responding to food cues. The main focus was on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC; includes the infralimbic (ILA) and prelimbic (PL) areas) because that region was selectively recruited during context-dependent renewal (Chapter 3). In all of the experiments, the behavior and neural substrates of male and female rats were compared. It was important to examine both males and females because sex differences in context-mediated renewal were recently established: males consistently show renewal responding while females fail to do so (Chapters 2 and 3). The first study in this dissertation examined whether behavioral sex differences were driven by estradiol (Chapter 2) and whether the vmPFC is recruited during renewal responding (Fos induction; Chapter 3). Then, to establish the vmPFC is causal in driving the behavioral responding during renewal in a sex-specific way (Chapter 4), the vmPFC was silenced in males and stimulated it in females. This was accomplished using a chemogenetic methodology, DREADDs (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs). Inhibiting the vmPFC in males blocks renewal responding. Reversely, stimulating the vmPFC in females resulted in renewal of responding. To determine key components of the vmPFC circuitry mediating renewal and whether these were different in males and females the experiments in Chapter 5 examined activation of PL inputs using a retrograde tract tracing combined with Fos detection design. The pathways to the PL from the ventral hippocampal formation (subiculum and CA1), the thalamus (anterior paraventricular nucleus), and the amygdala (anterior basolateral nucleus) were recruited in males and not recruited in females. This lack of recruitment could explain the lack of behavioral responding during renewal for females. Taken together, there are distinct and sex-specific circuitries recruited during context-mediated renewal. The findings from these experiments advanced our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying sex differences in associative memory and contextual processing. They are also important for our understanding of the resilience of food cue to influence our consumption and diet choices. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology.

Marketers often extend product lines by introducing slight variations of existing products (e.g., there are 53 varieties of Crest toothpaste, 15 varieties of Cheerios). As a result, consumers select from assortments containing relatively similar options. Unfortunately, consumers sometimes fail to differentiate among options, and instead consider the different options as similar and choose. Consequently, prior research shows that selecting from choice sets containing relatively similar options can sometimes lead to negative consequences such as decreased satisfaction. In light of these negative consequences, and given the frequency with which consumers choose from sets of similar options, it becomes important to identify interventions that can be used to optimize option differentiation (i.e., to optimize the perceived difference between two similar options or the perceived variety in an assortment). This dissertation proposes that incidental muscular sensations that consumers encounter while performing regular marketplace activities can serve as one such sensory based intervention. Drawing on theories related to learned associations and classical conditioning, it is proposed that because individuals experience high intensity muscular contractions concurrently with threat/danger, these muscular contractions and the responses they facilitate (i.e., self-protective reflexes) become linked. Through classical conditioning, high (vs. low) intensity incidental muscular sensations eventually activate self-protective reflexes in the absence of any threat or danger. Once activated, self-protective reflexes lead to increased perceptual sensitivity and discriminatory ability, and a sense of unconscious vigilance. Six studies show that the enhanced perceptual sensitivity and unconscious vigilance that result from high (vs. low) intensity muscular sensations optimize option differentiation, and can help to offset the decreased satisfaction that is sometimes associated with choosing from relatively similar options. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / GABAA receptors are implicated in the pathology of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. They are rapidly affected by stress in a sex-dependent fashion, suggesting that GABAA receptors may be relevant to understanding the association between stress and psychiatric disorders. Thus, this thesis examined how GABAA receptors are affected in both male and female mice exposed to stress in adulthood (Chapter 2), early-life (Chapter 3-5) and a combination of both early-life and adulthood stress (Chapter 6). 2. The effects of acute adulthood stress (3 minute warm swim stress) on GABAA receptor binding in the brains of male and female mice were examined using quantitative receptor autoradiography. The total number of GABAA receptor [3H]GABA binding sites was increased following swim stress in specific forebrain cortical regions of female mice swum individually or in a group, but decreased in male mice when swum in a group only. These findings confirm and extend previous studies, identifying the cortical regions involved in rapid stress-induced changes in GABAA receptors. 3. Post-natal handling models in rodents comparing control (brief handling sessions; EH) with no intervention stress conditions (NH), indicate that the NH condition results in an anxious adulthood phenotype and this was confirmed in the present thesis using the elevated plus-maze behavioural test. Using this model the effects of early-life stress on adulthood GABAA receptors were then examined. 4. Regional densities of GABAA receptor α1 and α2 subunit proteins were observed in the adult brain of male and female mice using immunoperoxidase histochemistry. NH males showed a loss of the α2 subunit from the thalamus and the lower layers (IV-VI) of the primary somatosensory cortex, whilst NH females showed a reduction of α2 but an increase in α1 protein in the lower layers of the primary somatosensory cortex only. These regionally specific alterations in the α1:α2 subunit ratio suggest that early-life stress disrupts the developmental α subunit switch, which occurs in a regionally-dependent fashion over the first two weeks of rodent life. 5. Double-labelling immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy were used to examine the effects of sex and early-life stress on GABAA receptor synaptic clustering. Regardless of sex, mice exposed to early-life stress (NH) showed reduced colocalisation of the GABAA receptor α2 subunit with the synaptic marker protein gephyrin relative to the control condition (EH). This suggests that early-life stress impairs adulthood inhibitory synaptic strength and is consistent with the increased anxiety of the stressed relative to control mice. 6. Finally, the effects of early-life stress on adulthood swim stress-induced changes in GABAA receptor binding were examined using quantitative receptor autoradiography in forebrain cortical regions. Findings showed that the effect of adulthood stress on the total number of GABAA receptor binding sites for [3H]GABA in forebrain cortical regions was altered by early-life stress in both male and female mice, suggesting that the rapid adulthood stress response of GABAA receptors is affected by early-life experience. 7. Together these results show that GABAA receptors are sensitive to subtle changes in the environment in both early-life and adulthood and that these neurochemical responses to stress in adulthood are sex-dependent. The short and long-term stress-sensitivity of the GABAergic system implicates GABAA receptors in the non-genetic aetiology of psychiatric illnesses in which sex and stress are important factors.

The role of gender in the social construction of literacy is investigated in some detail. Gender construction is examined by observing and analysing the literacy interactions of six kindergarten children (three boys and three girls) at school and in the home. The analysis shows the ways in which the girls and boys differ in attaining literacy skills, and also reveals the different interactions between the children and their families. The ways literacy is perceived in the home are also noted. The children responded in a much more uniform way in the classroom than they did in their individual home situations. The findings are significant for educational practice because they provide insight into how implicit structuring by teachers can affect the extent of participation of boys and girls in the classroom. The results indicate how analysis in the emergent state of literacy development is critical for a thorough understanding of gender construction. Significant theoretical insights are gained through a methodology using both a microanalysis and a macroanalysis. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Emergency on-call duties have been highlighted as a key stress factor in newly qualified physiotherapists whose job performance may be affected. The concept of stress relating to on-call work, the general lack of interest or confidence in the respiratory on-call field, and subsequent difficulties with recruitment and retention, pose a difficult problem for managers of services responsible for the maintenance of a competent workforce and a high standard of service provision. Differences in novice and expert physiotherapists’ patient management and clinical reasoning strategies have been previously examined in orthopaedic, neurology, domiciliary and cardiorespiratory fields. However, no such investigations have been undertaken in the field of emergency on-call. The purpose of this study was to determine if differences existed between novice and expert physiotherapists who had by definition differing levels of context-related experience within the emergency on-call environment. This study also aimed to consider what factors may influence their physiotherapy intervention for an acute cardiorespiratory patient. A purpose-designed vignette-based postal questionnaire was administered to 26 emergency on-call providers in New Zealand. The questionnaire sought demographic data, investigated participants’ attitudes towards emergency on-call service provision and presented a vignette-based clinical scenario which asked questions throughout an evolving clinical case scenario. Analysis was performed using the computer software package for social sciences, SPSS for Windows (version 14), results were analysed using descriptive statistics, and significance testing was performed using non-parametric methods. A good response rate was achieved (78.8%; n = 56). Statistically significant differences between novices and experts were determined in scores for confidence, stress, and support required, also in the factors affecting stress levels. Novices are less confident (p = < .0001), more stressed (p = < .001) and require more support than experts (p = < .001). Factors which influenced both novice, and to a lesser extent, expert stress levels when working as emergency on-call physiotherapists, were established. A relationship was determined between confidence and level of support required (r = -.65; p = < .001); confidence and amount of stress felt (r = -.58; p = < .001); and support required and stress felt (r = .47; p = < .001). Some differences were demonstrated between novice and expert physiotherapists in their answers to a clinical case scenario. Although these were not statistically significant, a trend was noted which may reflect the different clinical reasoning strategies of these physiotherapists. There is a need for novices to gain the type of experience which includes independent problem solving and guided reflection; the use of vignette-based case studies may be one method which could be further exploited. The profession is responsible for the provision of better ways to meet the needs of our future emergency on-call workforce. If this is not achieved, other professional groups will be required to fill the gaps and physiotherapy; particularly cardiorespiratory physiotherapy will lose out.