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Abstract not available.

Abstract not available.

Abstract not available.

Adults enrolled in basic education exhibit poor academic performance, often reading at elementary and middle-school levels. The current study investigated the similarities and differences of reading skills and eye movement behavior between a sample of low-skilled adult readers and first grade students matched on word reading skill. T-tests for matched pairs found no significant differences on language comprehension, reading comprehension, or eye movement variables. Regression analyses revealed that language comprehension made greater contributions to reading comprehension for adults (verses children) in the simple view of reading model. Processing time (gaze duration) was found to account for unique variance in both passage reading comprehension and sentence comprehension efficiency after controlling for word reading and language skills for adults. For children, processing time was only a significant predictor for sentence comprehension efficiency. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2015. / June 3, 2015. / Adult Basic Education, Component Skills, Eye Movements, Fluency, Reading Comprehension / Includes bibliographical references. / Young-Suk Kim, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carla Wood, University Representative; Barbara Foorman, Committee Member; Jeannie Wanzek, Committee Member.

An expanded model to conceptualize sacred human experiences is discussed wherein the term Spirituality is broadened to include: (1) Ritualistic Spirituality, (2) Theistic Spirituality, and (3) Existential Spirituality. However, a measure incorporating this expanded model does not yet exist. A 67-item self-report questionnaire was developed and data were collected from 1,301 undergraduate students. A series of factor analytic procedures yielded a three-factor structure consistent with the guiding theoretical model and refinement produced three 10-item subscales. Evidence for construct validity and sound psychometric properties was indicative of a reliable, valid, and unique tool to assess the multidimensional nature of spirituality.

The proposed study was designed to evaluate a newly developed Prejudice towards Interracial/Interethnic Couples Scale (PTICS) using exploratory and confirmatory analyses. In this study, 963 workers from Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) (which was randomly split 60/40 to form the exploratory and confirmatory datasets) completed the 25 items generated for the PTICS, the Marlowe-Crone Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS) Form C, the Political Correctness Ideology-Race Scale (PCIRS), the Social Distance Scale (SDS), the Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) scale, the Color-blind Racial Attitude Scale (CoBRAs), the Modern Racism Scale (MRS), and a demographic survey. The researcher collected data from two different subject matter expert groups to modify the original 17 item PTICS generated from a review of the literature. AMT workers (N = 50) currently in interracial/interethnic relationships and graduate students (N = 21) enrolled in a graduate level Principles of Measurement course at the time of data collection, indicated whether the items measured prejudice towards interracial/interethnic relationships, whether the items were clearly written, types of prejudice not captured by the items, and their own experiences (if applicable) with prejudice towards interracial/interethnic relationships. Based on the feedback from the subject matter experts, items were revised and 8 additional items were added to form the final 25 item PTICS. Exploratory factory analyses of the PTICS resulted in a two factor (relationship inferiority, social disapproval) final solution containing 14 items. Reliability and validity analyses were conducted, and were especially promising for the relationship inferiority subscale (i.e., α = .900; significantly positively correlated with CoBRAS, MRS, SDS, and SDO, significantly negatively correlated with interracial/interethnic exposure), and the PTICS total score (α = .849; significantly positively correlated with CoBRAS, MRS, SDS, and SDO, significantly negatively correlated with diversity exposure and interracial/interethnic exposure); while further refinement is needed for acknowledging social disapproval (α = .706; significantly negatively correlated with CoBRAS, and MRS, significantly positively correlated with SDS). Confirmatory factor analyses showed global and local fit issues with the two-factor structure, particularly with items from the social disapproval subscale; however, when seven covarying errors were added, global fit improved and issues with local fit were eliminated. Global fit was also improved from the original two-factor model when conducting a one-factor model which included only the relationship inferiority scale, though a few areas of local misfit still remained. Reliability and validity analyses conducted with the cross-validation data further supported the strong reliability and validity for the relationship inferiority subscale (α = .897; significantly positively correlated with CoBRAS, MRS, SDO, and SDS, significantly negatively correlated with diversity exposure and interracial/interethnic exposure), and the PTICS total score (α = .849; significantly positively correlated with CoBRAS, MRS, SDS, and SDO, significantly negatively correlated with diversity exposure and interracial/interethnic exposure); and the need for further refinement for acknowledging social disapproval (α = .686; significantly negatively correlated with CoBRAS, MRS; significantly positively correlated with SDS, and diversity exposure). Cross-validation results indicate that social desirability and political correctness may be concerns for both subscales and the total score, while the exploratory data only showed issues for the social disapproval subscale. Overall, the development of a Prejudice towards Interracial/Interethnic Couples Scale (PTICS), with two subscales, is an important contribution to the field; and takes a critical step in deepening our understanding of interracial/interethnic romantic relationships and facilitating quantitative research in this domain.

No description available.

No description available.

Anger is a pervasive problem after individuals experience traumatic stress that heightens the risk for violence, health problems, poor relationships, and poor treatment outcomes. Previous research has demonstrated a moderate relationship between anger and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet this research also highlights that anger has not been rigorously measured in the context of PTSD. Thus, this study concerns the development of a complimentary measure to assess anger in the context of PTSD. Participants were 435 undergraduate students. The participants were given a battery including the proposed scale and measures of trauma exposure, PTSD, anger, depression, anxiety, and social desirability to assess. Exploratory factor analyses revealed that a hierarchical, four-factor model was the best model. The Posttraumatic Anger Scale appeared psychometrically sound, with excellent internal consistency, good evidence of validity, and good model fit. This scale may provide implications for clinical work, specifically for the assessment and tracking of anger symptoms connected to PTSD. Additionally, this scale may assist with research by predicting treatment outcomes, aggression, and PTSD. / Master of Science