Too many students leave school without even the essential skills (ACT, 2011), and many others are so drained by the experience they lack a desire to continue on to a post-secondary education. Academic engagement has emerged as a construct representing students’ personal investment in school (Greenwood, Delquadri, & Hall, 1984), and may be a psychological variable which can be intervened on. However, interventions must occur as quickly as possible to maximize their efficiency (Heckman, 2007). Students’ peer groups may be a particularly potent venue of intervention, however several options exist for how to go about measuring their social networks. In this thesis, social networking data of the only middle school of a small town in the north-eastern United States is analyzed to determine the properties of two collection methods (self-reported networks and participant observations) and four network identification methods (probability scores, reciprocal nominations, factor-analyses, and rule-based). Analyses overwhelmingly supported participant observations as a more inclusive, less biased data collection method than self-reports. Meanwhile, hypothesis tests were somewhat mixed on the most inclusive, least biased network identification method, but after a consideration of the findings and the structural properties of each network, the probability score method was deemed the most useful network. Implications, future research, strengths, and limitations are discussed.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: Julie A. Hubbard, Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

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

Not available / text

The research reported in this thesis investigated the reputational orientations and aggressive behaviour of primary school aged bullies. It also sought to determine whether the reputational orientations of bullies who were loners differed to those who had established friendship networks. To achieve the research aims four separate yet inter-related studies were conducted. Study One explored the construct of reputation and its relevance to the bullying behaviours of 23 male and 23 female Grade 5 (10 year old) children from eight separate primary schools. All of these children had been suspended from school because of their bullying. Semi structured interviews revealed that reputation was an important construct to bullies, primarily because of the feelings of strength, power, and social status attributed to them by others as a result of their bullying. They also reported that the type of image and status they attained from bullying others was what they were actively seeking. To achieve their desired image different types of overt and covert bullying acts were perpetrated. The bullies also revealed that they carefully selected the physical locations where they bullied others so as to maximize the visibility of their actions to others. The school oval, playground and toilets were the most popular locations, but the use of new media such as mobile phones and the internet allowed them to bully others without the presence of an audience. The bullies also reported that their victims communicated what had happened to them to others, which disseminated their actions to a wider audience. It was clearly evident from Study One that the construct of reputation was important to bullies and was worthy of further investigation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 230-245).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2007. / Principal faculty advisor: Julie A. Hubbard, Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references.

La presente investigación tuvo como principal objetivo crear el test “Habilidades de Interacción Social” y analizar las propiedades psicométricas de las puntuaciones derivadas de aplicarlo en la muestra de estudio. Se utilizó un muestreo no probabilístico por conveniencia y la muestra estuvo compuesta por 222 niños de 3 a 6 años de los distritos de Surco y La Molina de Lima Metropolitana. Las tutoras respondieron la prueba en base a la frecuencia de las conductas que observaban en los niños. Los resultados indican que las puntuaciones derivadas de aplicar este instrumento cuentan con propiedades psicométricas satisfactorias en la población de estudio / Tesis