Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alberta, 2009. / A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Faculty of Nursing. Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on October 31, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-194).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (January 12, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-67)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1974. / Vita. Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

In the present study, three self-managed treatment programs were compared with respect to their ability to effect and maintain change in the cigarette smoking behavior of 27 subject volunteers from the population of employees of a Veterans Administration hospital. Subjects were randomly assigned to a self—imposed delay group, a self-directed relaxation group, and a self-monitoring group. The experimental program lasted 6 weeks with a 20-minute individual meeting each week. Three months following treatment, subjects were contacted by mail and were asked to monitor their smoking behavior for one week, and to return their average daily smoking rate by mail. The results provide support for the effectiveness of the self-management technique of self-imposed delay as a durability—enhancing treatment procedure. The effectiveness of self-management techniques as a general class of treatment strategies was not supported. A task for future research would be to establish the effectiveness of the delay technique implemented earlier in the cigarette smoking chain, as well as to determine whether effectiveness is increased or decreased by a specification of the content of a delay interval.

Conscientiousness-related personality traits are relevant predictors of many outcomes in achievement domains outside sport. They have also been associated with several outcomes in sport, however, their relative role on athletes’ deliberate practice (DP) and other criteria of expertise development has not been investigated. The overall aim of this dissertation was to examine the role of conscientiousness-related traits on sport expertise development. It had six specific purposes: (a) to examine the structural validity of conscientiousness-related measures; (b) to understand whether athletes’ DP amounts, skill level, and other criteria of expertise development could be predicted by these measures; (c) to identify the best personality predictor and combination of predictors that explained the maximal variance in different criteria of expertise development; (d) to examine whether grit facets predicted athletes’ practice engagement across a demanding sport season; (e) to explore coaches’ perspectives on the behavioural indicators of conscientious, gritty, and self-controlled athletes in training; and (f) to explore coaches’ views about how these personality traits may impact athletes’ quantity and quality of practice and development toward higher skill levels. The dissertation used a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, wherein Phase 1 (Articles 1, 2, and 3) quantitatively pursued purposes (a) to (c), Phase 2 (Article 4) addressed (d), and Phase 3 (Article 5) qualitatively addressed (e) and (f). Article 1 tested the factor structure of the Brief Self-Control Scale in sport and showed distinct associations between self-control variables and (a) sport-specific practice amounts, (b) engagement in various practice contexts, and (c) threats to commitment to one’s sport, in a diverse sport sample. Article 2 conducted factor analyses of the Grit Scale in sport and examined a full latent variable model showing associations between grit variables and several criteria of expertise development. In particular, perseverance of effort associated with athletes’ weekly amounts of DP, engagement in different practice contexts, and skill level, while consistency of interests associated with athletes’ commitment to their sport. Article 3 comprised two studies. In Study 1, path analyses were used to assess the role of conscientiousness on criteria of expertise development. At the broad level, conscientiousness predicted athletes’ engagement in practice contexts and commitment to their sport; at the facet-level, achievement-striving was the best predictor of athletes’ weekly DP and engagement in practice contexts. The systematic test of the role of self-control (Article 1), grit (Article 2), and conscientiousness (Article 3, Study1) for key criteria of expertise development culminated with Study 2 of Article 3, which reported comparative analyses of the predictive ability of self-control, grit, and conscientiousness facets—which had shown to be significant predictors when assessed separately—for the criterion measures of sport expertise. Study 2 showed that (a) perseverance of effort was the best predictor of athletes’ weekly DP, engagement in mandatory practice, and the only predictor of higher skill level, (b) achievement-striving best predicted athletes’ engagement in optional practice, and (c) consistency of interests best predicted athletes’ commitment to their sport. Article 4 tested whether athletes’ self-reported levels of grit (broad and facets) were longitudinally associated with their coach-reported practice engagement throughout one sport season. Perseverance of effort was the grit variable most related to indicators of practice engagement, the only variable related to overall practice engagement across three time points, and the only variable marginally associated with athletes’ stability of practice engagement over time. Article 5 explored coaches’ views about the behavioural indicators of athletes’ conscientiousness, grit, and self-control in the daily training environment and how these traits impacted athletes’ training and development. Coaches described (a) conscientious athletes as systematic and detail-oriented, highly considerate of others, and highly engaged in self-regulation; (b) gritty athletes as those who persevere despite adversity and work hard in practice; and (c) self-controlled athletes as those who control impulses, resist temptations, and delay gratification. Coaches believe grit, conscientiousness, and self-control play important roles on athletes’ development toward higher skill levels, but results generally highlighted the preponderance of perseverance of effort. Potential mechanisms (e.g., conscientiousness—self-regulation—practice quality and conscientiousness—self-regulation—skill level) were highlighted to help explain the personality-expertise link found in Phases 1 and 2. This dissertation contributed to the literature on sport expertise by parsimoniously identifying conscientiousness-related personality traits that were associated with measures of athletes’ practice quantity, quality, and stability, commitment to sport, and higher skill level. Although several facets (i.e., perseverance of effort, consistency of interests, achievement-striving, self-discipline, and dutifulness) showed associations with practice and performance-related outcomes, this dissertation generally highlighted the role of grit facets. In particular, while perseverance of effort was the best predictor of athletes’ amounts of DP, the only grit variable associated with quality practice engagement over time, and the only predictor of higher skill level, consistency of interests was the best predictor of commitment variables. Furthermore, results based on coaches’ descriptions (a) provided behavioural indicators of conscientiousness-related traits that serve as reference points for practitioners aiming to help athletes develop desirable traits, (b) suggested that gritty athletes ‘work hard’ and conscientious athletes ‘work smart’, and (c) proposed mechanisms to explain the personality-expertise link found in the quantitative studies. Taken together, the results of this dissertation suggest that the tendency to persevere despite adversity and mindfully use self-regulated processes seems to be a powerful predisposition for athletes’ development toward expert levels of performance.

abstract: Most criminological theories are tested using samples of adolescents. Consequently, there is ample evidence regarding the correlates of criminal behavior committed by teenagers. The problem, however, is that there is relatively little information regarding the correlates of criminal offending committed during late life. This limits the ability to assess the generalizability of some of the leading theories in criminology. To fill this void in the literature the present study used a sample of 2,000 elderly people (i.e., 60 years of age and older) from Arizona and Florida to examine three issues: (1) the role of general and specific routine activity measures in the explanation of criminal activity in late life, (2) the invariance of low self-control across various subgroups of the elderly sample, and (3) the generality of self-control theory and routine activity theory. The analyses revealed several important findings. First, general routine activity measures are better predictors of general criminal offending than specific indicators. However, specific routine activity measures still matter in the explanation of specific types of crimes. Another important finding of this study was that low self-control has an invariant effect on criminal offending across gender, race/ethnicity, and age. Finally, self-control theory and routine activity theory are general frameworks that explain criminal behavior committed by older people in much the same manner as among teenagers. Routine activity does not mediate the link between low self-control and offending. Rather, both low self-control and routine activity exert independent effects on late life criminal activity, net of statistical controls. The present study concludes with a discussion of the findings situated in the literature and provides policy implications that stem from the results. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Criminology and Criminal Justice 2012

The main thesis of this project is that Peirce’s theory of the categories can be applied in order to better explain and inform a robust theory of creative freedom. I defend the claim that those three categories are: Peirce’s idea of God, understood as his idea of an evolving cosmos open to growth, as firstness; self-control and our capacity to deliberate in order to make choices as secondness; and the idea of community as thirdness. However, the concept of God, what I consider the first category of freedom, is not the main focus of this project, since I have dealt with it at some length in my master thesis. In this dissertation, I provide a general overview of the context and the scholarly tradition of Peirce’s studies on ethics in order to show and justify my position in it. Moreover I explore the second category of freedom, i.e. self-control. First, I show the development of this idea under the context of the philosophical tradition that influenced Peirce; second, I deal with a reconstruction of the concept of self-control under Peirce’s theory of semeiotics; third, I attempt to explain self-control according to the three categories based on Edward Petry’s formulations; and fourth I explore the conception of the summum bonum, not only from the perspective of its development in Peirce’s theory but also in its function as the aesthetic value that directs and guides the manner in which self-control and its categories work out under the frame of a theory of creative freedom. Finally, I analyze the role of community in enabling and making freedom possible from the perspective of education, more specifically, its role of promoting truth, goodness, and beauty according to the normative sciences. The application of Peirce’s theory of the categories to a theory of creative freedom provides some advantages over other kind of approaches. If the three Peircean categories can be applied to the way in which we experience freedom, then the possible theories of ethics can be reduced to seven in the same way that Peirce’s model of classification catalogues all possible systems of metaphysics. Furthermore, it means that all other systems of ethics that neglect one of these conditions would be for Peirce degenerate in some respect. Although I do not explore this account in greater detail here, as I see it, this proposal provides a very useful framework. Thus, I hope to provide a robust perspective on freedom as creativity, where positive freedom (not just the negative freedom emphasized by North American cultures) plays an important role in acknowledging that a community acquires a responsibility for the well being and flourishing of its people, and therefore, the role of education, and community become also crucial.

A comprehensive review of the published work arising from Skinner's (1953) chapter on self-control was undertaken. This was thought to be necessary because many of the papers were of poor quality, and the existing reviews were found to be inadequate. It was concluded that the effects of motivation on self-control had received little attention from the majority of operant workers. In particular, the role of delayed rewards had been neglected. Therefore, the experimental part of the thesis was devoted to the investigation of the effects of a delayed reward on the use of an unpleasant controlling response. It was decided that this could be done most economic¬ally by using an experimental analogue of a self-control situation. A theoretical model of self-control was described and an analogue was devised. Three experiments were performed, during the course of which the analogue was refined and several hypotheses derived from the model were tested. It was found that although the analogue was partially successful, it did not provide adequate experimental control over relevant independent variables. It also resulted in considerable subject wastage. The results of the final experiment indicated that both the subjective value of the reward and the expectancy of obtaining it, influenced the use of an unpleasant controlling response. In fact, value and expectancy appeared to have complementary effects. The theoretical and practical significance of these findings were discussed.