Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1964. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Includes tables. Sponsor: Charles Morris. Dissertation Committee: Esther Lloyd-Jones. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2006. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-205). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 289 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Graduation date: 2006 / The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the experience of gifted girls transitioning from elementary school to sixth and seventh grade. The current counseling literature in this area found that gifted girls often struggle emotionally when transitioning to sixth and seventh grade. The bulk of this literature was based on quantitative research methods, and often on girls who were older. For the field of counseling it is important to add literature to the field that expresses the views of girls who are in sixth and seventh grade, and that their views are expressed qualitatively. Qualitative research methods were utilized for this study, specifically the use of grounded theory. Seven research participants were selected and interviewed over a four-month period. Three of these participants were in sixth grade at the conclusion of the study, and one was in seventh grade. Three seniors in high school were also interviewed to provide confirming data throughout the study. The interview data was coded and analyzed using grounded theory techniques. The major findings of this study were that for these gifted girls transitioning from elementary school to sixth and seventh was not as difficult as the literature had stated. With a strong sense of identity, these gifted girls were able to balance their desire to work hard academically and their interest in extra-curricular activities. In being able to balance their academic lives, they were able to make friends and build connections. The connections they made in turn contributed to their sense of self and their experiences of sixth and seventh grade. The implications of these findings are that gifted girls who have a strong sense of who they are, and a connection to others can move through this transition smoothly. For counselors working with this population it provides another understanding of the issues that face gifted girls in sixth and seventh grade.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-131). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-131). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. , 20. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

This case study focuses on the influence of certain sociocultural factors on the ability of adolescent girls to fulfill their potentials. Specifically, the purpose of this research is to advance an alternative perspective on the relationship between the sociocultural influences of friendship, mother/daughter relationship, school experience, and body image and a loss of potential among adolescent girls from a historical, poststructural, postmodern-feminist perspective. The dissertation is presented in the form of narrative from both the author’s and girls’ and women’s perspectives in order to seek a rich and thick description. Throughout the study, the author integrates moments from her own journey during adolescence with the young girls and their mothers or grandmothers encountering the oftentimes overwhelming negative sociocultural challenges existing today. The data consist of interviews with four girls and four women; interviews with two school personnel; and observations covering 7 weeks of guided discussion groups. Personal stories are closely examined with current and in-depth research to produce valuable insight and recommendations linking sociocultural factors and potentiality among adolescent girls. In general, these data contribute to an existing body of knowledge as well as advance educational theory regarding adolescent girls and potentiality. Moreover, these findings bolster the argument that, although realistic approaches to create necessary change require a certain resignation to the forces that exist within our culture, educational psychologists will increase the discipline’s impact on students by conducting comprehensive research that creates and supports genuine efforts to teach girls effective strategies on ways to not relinquish control to relentless, disingenuous sociocultural pressures. The case study indicates that, although many positive gains have been made to support young girls, there remain many obstacles as well.

The current study is the first of its kind in Australia. It is breaking new ground therefore and is exploratory in nature. Attention is focused on the variables influencing the vocational decision-making of highly-able adolescent girls in Victoria, Australia. / This is a complex study and the design incorporates both quantitative and qualitative data collection spanning a six year period. The importance of this study lies in the of research strategy of identifying and examining different educational settings and application of the findings from the first two studies (n=112) to a very specific educational setting in Study Three (n=14). / The external socializers of family, friends and the media as well as the internal dimensions of self-esteem, aspirations and interest have been investigated systematically through three interrelated but independent studies. A combination of methodologies has been employed to identify those variables that might, over time, influence the vocational decisions of these young women. / It is an accumulation of the young women’s perceptions and self-report using questionnaires, formal inventories and interviews. The data collection was progressive and the information gathering procedures included inventories of self-esteem and vocational preference, questionnaires completed by the subjects, interviews as well as anecdotal comments made by the students. Overall the analysis in this study depended on an interpretation of aggregated data employing simple frequency counts, cross tabulations and t-tests which described observations, explored relationships and identified differences between the two groups, high-ability and control, on the variables selected. A matrix enabled a triangulation of the data, both quantitative and qualitative. The data were coded to determine constant themes and to identify important influences and trends across a time frame. Different cases were compared and patterns which emerged were then analysed. / In Study One the high-ability cohort differentiated from the controls in three major areas. These were in their aspirations, self-esteem and the relative influences of parents, especially father. Although the high-ability girls in Study Two had made vocational choices commensurate with their interests identified in the VPI these choices were by no means stable over the six-year period. Both the home and school environment were found to have impacted on these collective factors as they modified and developed vocational interest. In Study Three the findings of the earlier studies were applied to a very specific cohort with important differences identified in the areas of self-esteem and subject choice. The environmental contexts of home and school again proved to be salient. The dissimilar contextual experiences of the high-ability cohort were found to impact on their vocational choices and their subsequent career trajectories in a different way to that of the non-gifted schoolgirl. / Based on this study, a model of vocational choice informed by the findings has been proposed.