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The purpose of the study was to examine relationships among athletic identity, reason for retirement, self-concept clarity, and loneliness during the transition process out of competitive athletics. Participants were former high school athletes (N = 65) no more than 12 months removed from their last competitive event (M = 8.52 months, SD = 3.2). Results showed that athletic identity significantly and negatively predicted the self-concept clarity of transitioning athletes. Additionally, athletes retiring for voluntary reasons showed higher self-concept clarity during the transition phase, as compared to athletes involuntarily ending their sporting careers. Self-concept clarity moderated the relationship between athletic identity and loneliness. Understanding the factors that contribute to an athlete's self-concept clarity and loneliness during the transition process allows practitioners to take a proactive approach by preventing some of the negative consequences associated with these variables including low self-esteem, neuroticism, negative affect, depression, and anxiety (Campbell, 1996). / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the Master of Science. / Spring Semester, 2015. / April 3, 2015. / Athletic Identity, Self-Concept Clarity, Sport Psychology, Transition / Includes bibliographical references. / Graig Chow, Professor Directing Thesis; Gershon Tenenbaum, Committee Member; Shengli Dong, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to test whether or not increased self-esteem can protect against negative consequences of self-objectification. Specifically, a quasi-experimental design, utilizing self-esteem and self-objectification manipulation, was employed to test the extent to which self-esteem can serve as a buffer against negative emotions (e.g., shame), negative appearance evaluation, an appearance orientation, and decreased cognitive performance among males (n = 138) and females (n = 132). Participants (n = 270) were physically active individuals with a mean age of 24.22 years (SD = 8). State self-esteem was manipulated by providing false feedback about their facial appearance and having students write a short essay about their favorite or least favorite body parts. State self-objectification was manipulated by having participants wear tight or baggy clothes, while looking at themselves in a mirror. Findings showed main effects for appearance evaluation and appearance orientation, such that females were more satisfied with their appearance than males, and males placed more importance on their physical appearance compared to females. Although none of the interaction effects for state self-objectification were significant, some approached statistical significance. The interactions for state self-objectification included (1) gender and self-esteem manipulation, and (2) gender and self-esteem manipulation and state self-objectification manipulation. Interaction effects of state shame and appearance evaluation of gender and self-objectification were also significant. Although the findings of the present study are mixed on many accounts, they present numerous venues for future research to examine the nature of self-objectification experiences within/between males and females. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2014. / August 12, 2014. / Cognitive performance, Objectification, Self-esteem, Self-objectification, Shame / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeannine E. Turner, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Robert C. Eklund, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Yanyun Yang, Committee Member; Linda Schrader, Committee Member; Insu Paek, Committee Member.

A study was conducted to test the role mental representations play in executing a motor skill under different visual conditions that vary in complexity and vividness. High-skill (n = 20) and low-skill (n = 20) soccer players performed a passing task to a 10 and 20 yard (9.14 and 18.29 m, respectively) target under three visual conditions: normal, occluded, and distorted in a counter-balanced order omitting visual feedback. Following each pass, participants provided an estimate of the perceived final ball destination of their previous pass. This estimate was contrasted to the observed performance, which was unknown to the performer. Results revealed that the visual attention conditions and the task complexity affected the motor task of both the high-skill and low-skill participants. High-skill participants, however, performed significantly better than low-skill participants on all tasks. Furthermore, high-skill players were able to estimate performance better than low-skill participants, across all conditions. Findings have major implications on the practice of motor skills under varying visual conditions, because of the role mental representations play under conditions of uncertainty. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Science. / Spring Semester, 2009. / February 6, 2009. / Sport, Visual information, Motor task, Mental representations / Includes bibliographical references. / Gershon Tenenbaum, Professor Directing Thesis; Robert Eklund, Committee Member; David Eccles, Committee Member.

The term "academic competence" was coined by Elliott and DiPerna (2000) to describe the entire set of skills and behaviors necessary to achieve success in school. However, the components that comprise the idea of "competence" vary between instruments and academic institutions. The purpose of this study was the examine the extent to which two instruments that purport to measure competence can differentiate between extreme academic groups of students, to determine the overlap in terms of data derived from these instruments, and investigate the extent to which data derived from these instruments can aid in the prediction of college performance. Two separate MANOVA procedures were statistically significant for differences between groups in terms of scores on these instruments. Two canonical roots were derived indicating significant overlap among the scales that comprise these instruments. Finally, hierarchical regression results indicated that these instruments contribute comparatively little information in the prediction of semester grade point average in comparison to previous performance. Implications and conclusions are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2004. / August 16, 2004. / Academic Competence, College Students, Specific Learning Disability, ACES, LASSI, Academic Competence Evaluation Scales - College, Learning and Study Strategies Inventory / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances Prevatt, Professor Directing Dissertation; Andrew Oseroff, Outside Committee Member; Gary Peterson, Committee Member; Briley Proctor, Committee Member.

Reversal theory conceptualizes that telic-dominant individuals tend to be more serious-minded and anxiety-avoidant than paratelic-dominant individuals who tend to be more playful and excitement-seeking. Previous reversal theory research has shown that telic/paratelic metamotivation plays an important role in the way individuals experience their sport involvement. This study was undertaken given the fact that no known effort has been made to comprehensively examine the influence of motor task conditions (favorable vs. unfavorable) on motor performance and related affective states for individuals who differ in their metamotivational dominance. The main purpose of this research was to experimentally examine whether motor performance, affect, self-efficacy, and telic/paratelic state vary as a function of task condition (favorable vs. unfavorable) and telic/paratelic dominance. It was hypothesized that paratelic-dominant individuals would show better motor performance, more pleasant feelings, and higher efficacy perceptions under unfavorable task conditions (i.e., losing) compared to telic-dominant individuals. On the other hand, telic-dominant individuals would show better motor performance, and more pleasant feelings under more favorable task conditions (i.e., winning) compared to paratelic-dominant individuals. Furthermore, it was predicted that telic-dominant individuals would reverse to a paratelic state of mind while performing under favorable condition, whereas paratelic-dominant individuals would tend to maintain a paratelic state of mind for a longer period of time until they reverse to the telic state under unfavorable conditions. Participants (n = 40) were divided into three dominance groups (telic, nondominant, and paratelic) based on their paratelic dominance scale (PDS) total scores. Two main tasks were employed in the current study. The first task required participants to throw darts from short (1.37m) and long (3.37m) distances from the dartboard. The second task required participants to compete against each other under positive (win), variable (win/lose), and negative (lose) feedback conditions. The dependent variables included dart-throwing accuracy, pleasantness, arousal, self-efficacy, and telic/paratelic state. Repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were utilized to test the study's hypotheses. Although the hypothesized condition-by-dominance interaction effects did not achieved statistical significance, the main effects of the dart-throwing condition on the dependent variables were evidenced. Results for dart performance, pleasantness, and efficacy perception in the competitive task revealed that the effects of receiving variable and negative feedback were relatively more negative for telic-dominant participants than for their paratelic counterparts. Under variable and negative feedback, paratelic-dominant participants demonstrated better dart accuracy performance, more pleasant feelings, and higher efficacy perceptions compared to the telic-dominant participants. The results further showed that several reversals from telic-to-paratelic state and from paratelic-to-telic state occurred between and within conditions. Participants were more serious-minded under the long throwing distance and negative feedback conditions (more unfavorable conditions), whereas they tended to be more playful-minded under the short throwing distance and the positive feedback conditions (more favorable conditions), with significant differences between conditions. Furthermore, the results showed that the pleasant feelings and efficacy perceptions experienced in the short throwing distance and the positive feedback conditions were more pronounced than in the long throwing distance and negative feedback conditions. These differences between conditions were found to be significant. Furthermore, overall results of this study revealed that participants were more paratelic-minded and reported the highest pleasant scores in the short throwing distance and positive feedback conditions. Their efficacy perceptions were also the highest in these conditions. This suggests that the perception of self-efficacy is important in elevating feelings of pleasantness, as well as inducing the paratelic state while performing. These results might therefore clarify previously reported findings. Moreover, results showed that although paratelic-dominant participants performed better and felt more self-efficacious under the short throwing condition; they felt less pleasant compared to their telic counterparts. In accordance with reversal theory, this suggests that paratelic-minded participants might have interpreted their high efficacy as an indication of task competence and, thus, such a non-challenging task is less likely to be appealing to them. Overall, the study's findings provide some evidence that supports previously reported research findings that assert that task condition interact with metamotivational dominance to determine feelings and motivations. The current study emphases the importance of including metamotivational dominance in future reversal theory research. Importantly, this study adds efficacy perceptions to the existent reversal theory literature on telic/paratelic dominance. Telic and paratelic-dominant individuals' difference in efficacy perceptions might be valuable to consider in order to more fully understand their sport behavior and experience (e.g., affect, physical activity preference, risk taking). Thus, forthcoming reversal theory studies need to consider both telic/paratelic dominance and efficacy perceptions in studying sport and exercise experiences. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2004. / November 13, 2003. / Sport, Emotion, Affect / Includes bibliographical references. / Gershon Tenenbaum, Professor Directing Dissertation; Aubrey Kent, Outside Committee Member; David Pargman, Committee Member; Akihito Kamata, Committee Member.

Past research suggests that reading comprehension performance relies not solely on cognitive skills such as decoding, vocabulary, and inference skills, but also on attention and behavior. Specifically, the literature has pointed to attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and test anxiety as possible influences on reading comprehension test performance. Previous work has examined the individual effects of ADHD and test anxiety on reading comprehension test performance. However, there is little research investigating their joint effects on reading comprehension test performance. The proposed study will attempt to answer three questions through a series of structural equation models (SEM). First, do ADHD and test anxiety affect reading comprehension test performance? Second, if so, are these effects independent or redundant? Third, in addition to their main effects, do test anxiety and ADHD interact in affecting reading comprehension test performance? Taken together, these results will inform researchers on the effects of ADHD and test anxiety about reading comprehension test performance. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester 2015. / November 30, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard K. Wagner, Professor Directing Thesis; Sara Hart, Committee Member; Walter Boot, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to explore and better capture the concept of choking under pressure by operationally redefining it. Choking was examined using a Bayesian approach to internal psychological crisis and the evaluation of the four psychologically meaningful time phases (beginning/ end 1st half and beginning/end 2nd half) of a basketball game. Fifty-three participants were randomly assigned into 2 groups (game half) to further evaluate performance decline and choking as a function of time, score gap, and game half. Within each group participants viewed 8 scenarios, which featured a different player making an error or experiencing some level of performance decline, and rated the extent of performance decline, the instance of choking, and the salience of various performance attributions to the error. The presence of choking was most salient in the 2nd half of the game, as hypothesized but participants identified an error as choking more frequently in the beginning of the 2nd half. This trend was also shown for participant perception of performance decline. Participant ratings of performance attributions however revealed that in the end of the 2nd half participants rated attributions, particularly time pressure and lack of concentration, the highest. These results provided solid evidence in opposition to the leading definition of choking and provided further evidence for better understanding of the complex phenomenon. The additional implications for this study and future research are discussed in detail. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the Master of Science. / Spring Semester 2016. / February 19, 2016. / choking under pressure, performance decline, sport and performance psychology / Includes bibliographical references. / Gershon Tenenbaum, Professor Directing Thesis; Graig Chow, Committee Member; Allan Jeong, Committee Member.

While Bayesian meta-analysis has flourished both in methodological and substantive work, group-specific Bayesian modeling remains scarce. Common practice for choosing prior distributions entails using typical non-informative priors. Currently, there is a push to use more informative prior distributions. In this dissertation I propose a group specific weakly informative prior distribution. The new prior distribution uses a frequentist estimate of between-studies heterogeneity as the noncentrality parameter in a folded noncentral t distribution. This new distribution is then modeled individually for groups based on some categorical factor. An extensive simulation study was performed to assess the performance of the new group-specific prior distribution to several non-informative prior distributions in a variety of meta-analytic scenarios. An application using data from a previously published meta-analysis on dynamic geometry software is also provided. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / March 4, 2016. / Includes bibliographical references. / Betsy Jane Becker, Professor Directing Dissertation; Kathy Clark, University Representative; Russell Almond, Committee Member; Ariel M. Aloe, Committee Member; Yanyun Yang, Committee Member.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is comprised of a range of therapeutic modalities and atypical practices which have been found to successfully accompany standard medical care. Interventions such as guided imagery and stress management education, among many others, have been linked to improved health outcomes and recovery in the area of mind-body research (Freeman, 2005; Tusek et al., 1997). The objective of this study was to ascertain the degree of impact biofeedback and guided imagery have on psychological variables and medical measures as individual and combined interventions among orthopedic patients who underwent joint replacement surgery. Hip and knee arthroplasty patients (n = 60) were randomly assigned to one of four groups where each received some form of preoperative intervention. Participants in the guided imagery, biofeedback, guided imagery and biofeedback, and general education groups all met with the researcher one to two weeks preoperatively where baseline measures were collected, instruction and demonstration on the use of the interventions were provided, and packets were distributed with assessments to be completed during their inpatient stay. Anxiety, stress and coping strategies were all measured at baseline, the day of surgery, and in the hospital on the last day of admission just prior to discharge. In addition, the patients level of reported pain each day following surgery while inpatient was appraised as well as the amount of pain medication needed and length of hospital admission. Results of the present study support continued use of biofeedback and imagery in medicine and demonstrated the enhanced benefit of combining interventions as proposed. The imagery intervention reduced anxiety and perceived pain among the patients. A reduction in state anxiety scores was observed from baseline measurement to the day of discharge and its patients experienced a significant (p < .01) reduction in pain on post-operative day 3 from days 1 and 2. The biofeedback intervention generated positive results on a number of variables evaluated. A steady decline in stress was observed among patients from baseline measurement through discharge from the hospital as well as the continued reduction in medication use from post-operative day 1 through day 3. Furthermore, participants in the biofeedback treatment reported a significant (p < .05) reduction in pain from post-operative day 2 to day 3 (p < .05). Combining both imagery and biofeedback to be used simultaneously as its own intervention elicited the most significant outcomes compared to all other treatment conditions in reducing stress and medication use. Only participants in the combo intervention experienced a significant (p < .001) reduction in stress from the day of surgery to the day of discharge and required significantly (p < .001) less medication administered through the pain pump than any other treatment condition (p < .01). Patients in the general standard of care intervention receiving education experienced a reduction in anxiety from the initial baseline measurement to day of discharge although it was minimal. Positive outcomes were observed for all interventions provided in the present study. Outcomes reflect those reported across much of the CAM research exploring the benefits of interventions such as guided imagery and biofeedback on health related outcomes (Blanchard et al., 1987; Gervitz, Hubbard, & Harpin, 1996; Scherwitz et al., 2005). While guided imagery and biofeedback yielded benefits for the variables evaluated as sole treatment approaches, current findings reflect the efficacy of a combined approach with greater significance. The benefits of patients in any complementary and alternative medical practice can only positively influence the overall experience and potential results. Continued development and evaluation of more multifaceted approaches are essential in order to provide an optimal level of care. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2016. / July 7, 2016. / Biofeedback, Imagery, Orthopaedics, Psychology, Surgery / Includes bibliographical references. / Gershon Tenenbaum, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lynn Panton, University Representative; Alysia Roehrig, Committee Member; Jeanine Turner, Committee Member.