Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-162).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-193). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-193). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at New Paltz, 2007. / Also issued in electronic version. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-74). Online version available via the SUNY New Paltz Sojourner Truth Library : http://hdl.handle.net/1951/42568

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Notre Dame, 2005. / Thesis directed by John G. Borkowski for the Department of Psychology. "July 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-44).

From summary: This study describes a procedure for predicting course success for certain first term engineering technicians. The aim of the study is to reduce the high attrition rate of trainee engineering technicians through the early identification of candidates who are likely to fail their first term of study. This identification is done by testing all applicants to the courses on a battery of psychological tests, and from this information estimating the applicants' first term course results. It is suggested that the student counsellors attached to the various Technikons integrate the suggested procedure into a flexible vocational guidance service for engineering technicians. It should be borne in mind that no validation study can predict future success with a hundred percent accuracy, and that the sample used in this study may be specific to the Witwatersrand Technikon.

Different types of nonprofit organizations including human service nonprofits like homeless shelters, public broadcasting organizations, and the like thrive on donations. Effective fundraising techniques are essential to a nonprofit’s existence. This research study explored a revised theory of planned behavior to include guilt and convenience in order to understand whether these factors are important in donors’ intentions to give. This study also examined the impact of two different kinds of guilt; anticipated guilt and existential guilt to determine if there was any difference between the types of guilt and the roles that they play as predicting factors in a revised TPB model. This study also explored how human service nonprofits and public broadcasting organizations compare in the factors that help better predict their donating intentions. An online survey was administered to a convenience sample, and hierarchical regression analysis was used to determine significant predicting factors within each revised TPB model. This study confirmed that the standard theory of planned behavior model was a significant predictor of intentions to donate for donors of both human service nonprofits and public broadcasting organizations. However, in both contexts, not all traditional factors of the TPB model contributed to the donation intentions. This study also provides further evidence that guilt can increase the predictive value of the standard TPB model for both types of nonprofits. Anticipated guilt more specifically, was a significant predicting factor for donors’ intentions to give to public broadcasting organizations. In contrast, convenience did not affect the explanatory power of the TPB model in either context. The TPB models for the two nonprofits are compared and theoretical and practical explanations are discussed.

The present study evaluated the relationship between parental attitudes and their injury preventive efforts related to bicycle-related head injuries. Specifically, the present study assessed the contribution of components of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT; severity, vulnerability, response-efficacy, self-efficacy, response-cost) in persuading parents to engage in the preventive action of purchasing a bicycle helmet. Participants were 69 parents of elementary school-aged children. Parents were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions: a PMT/low RC group (n = 18), a PMT/high RC group (n= 18), a No Information/low RC group (n = 17), and a No Information/high RC group (n = 16). As such, parents either received a PMT-based informational message regarding bicycling head injuries or they received no information. Similarly, parents in both of these conditions either received a discount coupon for a bicycle helmet or they received no coupon. Parents' intentions to purchase a bike helmet for their child as well as their actual purchases were assessed. Overall, regardless of experimental group, parents reported similar perceptions of severity, vulnerability, response-efficacy, self-efficacy and response-costs associated with bicycle head injuries and helmets. Neither the receipt of PMT-based information nor the availability of discount coupons resulted in parents' increased intentions to purchase or actual purchases of bicycle helmets for their child. Rather, parents generally reported that they were fairly likely to purchase a bicycle helmet for their child, yet few had done so at the time of the home visit. The most notable finding involved the failure of parents' intentions to purchase a bicycle helmet for their child to predict their actual purchasing behavior. Limitations of the present study and directions for future research are discussed. / Master of Science

The present study evaluated the applicability of the theory of planned behavior (TRP, Ajzen, 1988: Ajzen and Fishbein) to the prediction and understanding of a young woman's intentions to raise or place her child for adoption. During a woman's second and third trimester of pregnancy self-report measures were administered assessing a woman's intentions, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control about both pregnancy resolution choices (i.e., raising or placing a child for adoption). Participants were 52 Caucasian women (26 who placed; 26 who raised) ranging in age from 15-32 (M =19). In most respects the findings supported the TPB. However, subjective norms did not significantly enter the regression model in predicting behavioral intentions due to the multicollinearity between it and attitudes. Consequently, subjective norms was replaced by its salient measure of normative beliefs in another regression model. This hierarchical regression analyses revealed that attitudes, normative beliefs, perceived behavioral control and age significantly predicted a woman's intention to raise or place her child. A logistic regression revealed that behavioral intention was the single best predictor for the final pregnancy resolution behavior, suggesting that it successfully mediated the influences of all other variables studied. Further analysis revealed that women who placed versus those who raised their children differed on a number of behavioral beliefs, outcome evaluations, normative beliefs, and control beliefs. / Master of Science

This research study was designed to investigate the relationships of imagery, self-concept, anxiety, stress, subjective stress and seriousness of illness and to determine the potential of certain cognitive mediating variables, especially imagery and an interaction between self-concept and imagery, to significantly increase the efficiency of stress as a predictor of seriousness of illness. The purposes of this study were: (1) to determine the efficiency of stress as a predictor of disease, (2) to determine if cognitive mediating variables will significantly increase the predictive efficiency between stress and disease, (3) to investigate selected correlations among the variables, (4) to provide a research base for current treatment procedures using imagery treating various illnesses.