<p> This study investigates the association between athletes&rsquo; emotional intelligence and age, gender, academics, and sport performance. Participants in this study consisted of 181 NCAA Division II athletes from one faith-based university. Results indicate that no relationship between emotional intelligence and age, academics, and sport performance exist. A significant relationship was found when comparing gender to emotional intelligence. Male athletes scored higher than females in overall EI, self-management, and self-awareness. Furthermore, the study found gender was a predictor of GPA. Females had a slightly higher GPA than males. Descriptive statistics are included to show several trends depicted in tables and bar graphs that are identifiable by viewing the tendencies of the means.</p>

<p> Trust is a topic that has been written about hundreds of times, still it is hard to define. In the literature, trust and relationships are grouped together as going hand-in-hand. In Christian education circles, trust is something that is implied to be present. This research explored the presence of trust in a suburban Christian school in the Midwest. The research explored trust from the perception of three different stakeholder groups (staff, parents, and board) from the study school. The researcher used data sets that included: The Visible Elements of Trust Inventory (VETI)- online survey, focus groups- by stakeholder type, and secondary data from the study schools annual surveys. In this case study, the study school&rsquo;s stakeholders&rsquo; perceived trust was demonstrated and hindered through communication and relationships. </p><p>

Scholars have documented the ways in which the influence of neoliberal ideology, and particularly the extension of free-market logic, has resulted in meaningful changes within colleges and universities in the United States. However, largely omitted from these discussions is the impact of neoliberal ideology on college students. Concurrent with the discussion concerning neoliberalism and higher education, a separate dialogue focusing on the rise of the conceptualization of students as customers has been occurring amongst higher education scholars. Such an understanding of college students is consistent with free-market logic, as the relationship between students and their institutions become defined in economic terms. While many scholars have lamented about the rise of this new approach towards education, few have connected it with larger changes in higher education or with the influence of neoliberal ideology. More importantly, researchers have yet to measure reliably the extent to which students actually express a customer orientation. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide the first measure of a customer orientation, and in the process help describe the impact neoliberal ideology, and free-market logic in particular, has had on college students.

A study of 174 applicants to the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School was conducted to identify factors in student choice of graduate schools and to determine if enrollment intent could be predicted. A 20-item survey based on the motivational and cognitive decision making theory of Janis and Mann (1977) was constructed. Applicants were surveyed on two scales regarding: (a) the importance of factors represented in the 20-item survey; and (b) which graduate school better matched those factors. Respondents to the survey were sorted into four groups: (a) accepted; (b) denied; (c) accepted, intending to enroll at URI; and (d) accepted, not intending to enroll at URI. These respondents chose nine of the 20 items as important factors in deciding which graduate school to attend. From these ratings three strong, psychologically interpretable factors matched the Janis and Mann constructs used to develop the survey: (a) Self Approval; (b) Utilitarian Costs; and (c) Concern for Others. A one way analysis discriminated between the "Will Enroll" and the "Will Not Enroll" respondents as the "Will Enroll" group assigned higher ratings of importance to three factors at the.05 level of significance: (a) affordability; (b) closeness to home; and (c) being able to better support family upon graduation. Of eight factors identified by chi-square statistics, only one, "better academic program", differed between the two groups in terms of school choice. Through discriminant analysis, responses to the 20 item survey were classified into "Will Enroll" and "Will Not Enroll" with 78 percent accuracy. (Discriminant analysis results may be inflated, on account of a single sample of respondents. The research results have (a) identified factors salient to a group of graduate school applicants in their decision to attend one graduate school as opposed to another; (b) measured the degree of importance these factors had in that decision; (c) identified significant differences between the "Will Enroll" and "Will Not Enroll" groups; and (d) predicted group membership. In addition, a base for determining the applicability of Janis and Mann's decision making constructs appears to have been established. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)

Despite the continuing trend to delay parenthood in contemporary society, research about late-timing parenthood has been extremely limited. The purpose of this study was to examine the process of maternal adjustment for a sample of late-timing primiparous mothers. This developmentally rooted short-term longitudinal study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. Twenty mothers, all of whom were twenty-nine years of age and older, were interviewed during the eighth month of pregnancy and again at two months postpartum. Measures of social support were administered in the prenatal period, and again in the postnatal period, along with measures of maternal self-esteem and infant temperament. Observations of mother-infant interaction and the home environment were done at two months. Qualitative data were used to develop "personal profiles". The data show that the late-timing mothers adjusted well to new parenthood. They had positive prenatal attitudes about motherhood and demonstrated average or higher levels of maternal self-esteem. They were satisfied with the support they received, and did not feel isolated. They found their infants adaptable and unpredictable, but not difficult or dull. They were sensitive and responsive to the needs of their infants. Results also show that maternal adjustment was influenced over time by prenatal attitudes about motherhood, infant temperament, maternal self-esteem, and the quality of the caregiving environment provided by the mother. The personal psychological resources of the mother and the temperament of the infant were most influential in determining the quality of maternal adjustment and the developing mother-infant relationship. Qualitative results show that maternal adjustment, for some, was also influenced by sources of support and stress. Late-timing motherhood was seen as a desirable life-course choice by most of the late-timing mothers.

Differences in self-control between a group of typical and a group of boys clinically diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) between 5 to 6 years of age were assessed using a procedure in which subjects could select larger, more delayed reinforcers versus smaller, more immediate reinforcers exchangeable for toys. During two of the six phases of self-control assessments carried out over two days, subjects had access to additionally programmed activities (music and toys). Along with choice data, several collateral measures were collected including different classes of activity (e.g., actometer, out of seat), latency to respond, ratings of enjoyment, verbal and nonverbal time estimations of delay, and contingency descriptions of the self-control task. ADHD subjects chose the delayed, larger reinforcer significantly less frequently over time than did typical subjects, while typical subjects chose increasingly to self-control over phases. The opportunity to engage in the additionally programmed activities did not alter self-control responding and both groups used the music and toys equally often. Latencies did not differ significantly between the two groups, but were significantly different between phases, with longer latency times during Phase B when the additional sources of reinforcement were available. ADHD subjects became more active over time, although this effect was mitigated during the B Phases. The group members did not differ in their ability to estimate the delays, or in their ratings of task enjoyment, and they could describe the contingencies accurately. The results demonstrated that the choice task proved to serve as an objective way to measure self-control differences between ADHD and other children.

The purpose of this study was to implement the van Hiele model of geometry in the seventh grade of a public school and determine if the levels of knowing, determined by the van Hieles, could be identified in a classroom setting. The study investigated the observed subjects' entry levels of geometric knowing, whether those entry levels were consistent with those identified by Pierre and Dina van Hiele and in the Brooklyn College Study, whether journal entries could be used to identify the van Hiele levels of thinking within the context of a classroom setting, and the five phases that van Hiele believes are necessary for progression from one level of thought to another. Seventy-eight subjects, from three ability level groups, participated in the 15 sessions of the study. Each session included time for the individual student to record initial responses to questions and to explain relationships and share responses. This study was designed to determine if a classroom investigator could follow the steps outlined by The Project at Brooklyn College, and identify the van Hiele levels of thinking using the Module descriptors. The students in this study kept their own records which were read and interpreted by the investigator. A second reader validated the findings. It was found that it is possible to correlate the van Hiele levels of thinking in the classroom setting with findings of The Project at Brooklyn College. Sixty-eight percent of the subjects in Class A remained at Level 0, identifying shapes by appearance, while 32% of the subjects made progress toward Level 1 where properties were included. For Class B, 10% remained at Level 0, 70% made progress toward Level 1 and 20% had some movement toward Level 2, where informal arguments were presented. Class C had 6% in Level 0, 73% in Level 1 and 21% showing movement toward Level 2. Finally, as suggested by the van Hieles, one must continually pass through the five phases of learning to move from one level to the next. This was affirmed in the clinical setting in the Brooklyn College Study and reaffirmed in this classroom study.

<p> The low graduation rate of degree-seeking students at public community colleges is an important crisis facing communities across the United States. College satisfaction and withdrawal cognitions in students have been identified as key factors in college persistence by researchers. However, a review of the literature revealed no study in which a college-persistence intervention based on the personalization principle theory or using tailored messages has been conducted. The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a college-persistence intervention, based on the personalization principle theory and Mashburn's theory, for students at a community college. This study used between-groups experimental research design and employed a nonprobability convenience sample comprising 108 college students at a regionally accredited public community college in the United States. Random assignment to 1 of 3 groups, including 2 experimental groups and 1 no-message control group, was conducted. The 2 experimental groups were the personalization-based tailored instructional messages and generalized instructional messages groups. A one-way MANOVA indicated that there was no significant difference in the college satisfaction and withdrawal cognitions of students in the experimental and control groups. A chi-square test of independence also indicated that there was no significant association between intervention type (personalization-based tailored instructional message, generalized instructional message, and no-message control) and college persistence. This study provides educators with a basis for social change with the debut of a prototype intervention that may be replicated and extended in future research to help students earn a college degree.</p>

<p>Relationship quality has been determined to be a positive factor in the treatment of depression (Brown, 2000; Fagan, 2009). Although the importance of marriage has been broadly studied, little research has investigated correlations among relationship quality, depressive moods, and attachment styles. Although the prevalence of depressive moods has been documented within populations of Taiwanese/Chinese international students and American college students (Wei et al., 2007), Wang and Mallinckrodt (2006) found that definitions of ideal attachment differ in these groups. Furthermore, researchers have not yet investigated the effect of cultural differences and attachment styles on the interactions between relationship quality and depressive moods among Taiwanese and Chinese international students. </p><p> Two-group and four-group comparison (Macready, 2005) methods were applied to answer the following questions: 1) Is there a significant difference between quality of romantic relationships or levels of depressive moods of American college students with anxious or avoidant attachment style and Taiwanese or Chinese college students studying in America with anxious or avoidant attachment style? 2) How does the effect differ between the two groups? A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to determine the effect on the linear combination of relationship quality and levels of depressive moods between the American students and Taiwanese/Chinese international students with different attachment categories (secure, preoccupied, dismissive, and fearful). Four follow-up analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted to determine statistical significant differences in levels of depressive moods or relationship quality among Taiwanese/Chinese international students with different attachment categories. </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1995. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-04, Section: B, page: 2888. Chair: Frances Campbell-LaVoie.