In this inquiry, I used a qualitative-portraiture approach to examine the social, cultural, and psychological influences on piano students' decisions to continue taking piano lessons. I collected data between 1997 and 2002. Data types included field notes, interpretive memos, audiotaped and videotaped piano lessons, audiotaped one-on-one interviews and retrospective interviews, email messages, and written documents. The main sources of data used for analysis were transcribed videotapes of piano lessons in the music studio and interviews with the teacher and three of her promising students. I drew on Vygotsky Halliday, and Wenger's theoretical frameworks to conceptualize my understanding of the social, cultural, and psychological issues that influence promising music students' commitment to learning music. I used Vygotsky's social-psychological-developmental theory of learning and Halliday's social theory of language to portray the significance of piano students' experiences in a music studio, their relationships with their teacher, and the teachers' use of language in the decision. Vygotsky's perspective on volitional-affective tendencies provided a framework for understanding how students' abilities to cope with their emotions influenced them to continue their music studies. I drew on Halliday's concept of Register to analyze the transcribed videotaped lesson data sets. I used Wenger's notion of Community of Practice to portray the social, cultural, and historical characteristics that play a role in motivating students to learn music. I found that being socialized into the music community, developing musical competencies, becoming a self-regulated learner, and being able to cope with the emotional experiences of playing and performing shape students' decisions to continue piano lessons. The results of my findings support that teachers influence their students' decision to continue their music studies by socializing them into the practices

AIM. The aim of this study was to describe the utilization of family planning methods by the nursing students in the selected nursing education institution. METHODOLOGY. A non-experimental descriptive survey design with a quantitative approach was used to describe the utilization of family planning methods by the nursing students. For the study, the quota sampling technique where 106 nursing students were selected. A self-developed questionnaire based on a conceptual framework, study objectives, and existing questionnaires was used as a data collection instrument. FINDINGS. The results yielded by the study showed that 63.9% (n = 62) used family planning methods before coming to college which was the majority of the respondents. Of the total number of participants, 35.1% (n = 34) who never used family planning methods before were still not using any method. The majority of students using family planning methods perceive this as beneficial. The perceived self-efficacy by the users is also high. A recommendation for future practice is that there should be health information available to students during orientation. The name used for these services may also need to be looked at. The qualitative study on the topic may yield different or similar results. / Thesis (M.N.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

College student men (n = 185) and women (n = 244) rated how desirable certain characteristics are in an ideal sex partner within a long-term relationship. They reported personal beliefs and predictions about the other gender's preferences. Of the twenty-six items that comprised each measure, factor analyses yielded five subscales: Communication/Openness, Physical Attractiveness, Knowledge/Skill, Take Control, and Response/Drive. As hypothesized, men placed greater emphasis than did women on Physical Attractiveness and Response/Drive, whereas women, more than men, believed Knowledge/Skill was important. Men and women differed completely on what they thought was important to each other. Furthermore, men recognized that there were gender differences on all subscales but Knowledge/Skill, whereas women recognized gender differences on all subscales. When the actual responses of men and women were compared with the beliefs that each had about the other, results showed that both genders underestimated the importance the other placed on Communication/Openness and overestimated that of Physical Attractiveness. Results are discussed with regard to implications for counselors. / Department of Psychological Science

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable scale to measure attitudes toward teenage parents. The instrument, called the Attitude Toward Teen Parent Scale (ATTPS), was based on Robinson's (1988a) suggested myths about teenage fathers. The ATTPS consisted of 20, Likerttype items and was administered to 133 volunteer undergraduate students attending Ball State University. A series of exploratory principal component factor analyses were conducted to identify independent factors represented by the ATTPS. A four-factor solution, accounting for 54% of the variance on the ATTPS was retained . The internal consistency reliability for the ATTPS was .67. Two factors were interpreted as "psychological deviance" (alpha = .77) and "supportive involvement" (alpha = .66). The other two factors were not interpretable. These findings suggested that the ATTPS measured two independent constructs. It was suggested that future research should further test the validity and reliability of the ATTPS by focusing on the two interpretable factors identified in this study, and by increasing the items on the scale as well as the number of subjects tested. Further studies should also examine attitudes among different populations (e.g., varying by race, sex, age, profession) toward teenage parents. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The purposes of this study were to describe perceived health problems and perceived stress and examine the relationship between perceived health problems and perceived stress in nursing students in five small religiously affiliated colleges with schools of nursing in Indiana.The Neuman Systems Model (Neuman, 1989) was the theoretical framework for the study. Health problems were examined using the Health Problems Inventory (Jones, L. H., 1988) and stress was measured by the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983).Findings included a moderate level of perceived health problems and a moderate level of perceived stress for the 150 study participants. The relationship between perceived health problems and perceived stress was strongly positive at a significant level (r= .69, p< .001). These findings were consistent with other studies that showed a relationship between stress and health problems in college students. These findings support Neuman's model of the effect of stressors on the system (disrupting the stability).Conclusions were that there is a level of stress that is unmanaged and perceived health problems which may be interfering with the students' education. The study findings have implications for students, nursing faculty, and those who provide health care to college students. Implications are organized into Neuman's three modes of prevention: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Implications included assessment of students to determine the presence of stress, stress management education for students, alerting nursing faculty and health care providers to the health problems identified by students, and increasing faculty awareness concerning the stressful nature of nursing school. / School of Nursing

There is a need to look at the determinants of exercise behavior in adolescents, as there is a large deficit of research concerning this population. The purpose of this study was to examine Social Physique Anxiety (SPA) and the body shape of adolescents participating in a semester of physical education class. A secondary purpose was to create general profiles by combining the SPA information and the Transtheoretical Model (TM) of behavior change. Middle school students (N= 374) participated by completing a regularly scheduled physical education class and completing the Exercise Behavior Change Survey (which assessed Body Shape, SPA and TM) pre and post semester. The study revealed participation in class had no effect on SPA levels or Body Shape scores, nor did the study reveal any gender differences with these two concepts. Concerning the TM, SPA may not be a factor for progressing through the stages of change, although it may effect which processes were utilized and how one identifies the pros and cons of exercising. The Social Physique Anxiety Scale only reached an alpha of .50, possibly contributing to the lack of relationship between SPA and TM. / School of Physical Education

The present study examined the relationship between Pepper's (1942) worldview theory and health promoting behavior. Three hundred and twenty three college students at a medium-sized Midwestern state university were asked to complete a battery of inventories measuring worldview, health promoting behavior, socioeconomic status, alcohol consumption, demographic variables, and willingness to seek treatment from a variety of health service practitioners. It was hypothesized that there would be a positive relationship between worldview and health promoting behavior. Specifically, individuals endorsing an organismic worldview would engage in more health promoting behaviors than those endorsing a mechanistic worldview. It was also hypothesized that socioeconomic status and gender would be related to worldview and indirectly to health promoting behavior. Finally worldview was hypothesized to be related to subjects' willingness to seek treatment from a variety of "alternative" health providers. The data were analyzed by means of structural equation modeling using the SPSS and AMOS computer programs. The results of the study support the idea that a modest relationship exists between worldview and health promoting behavior. There was also a slight indirect effect of sex on health promoting behavior, with women more likely to endorse an organismic worldview and therefore more likely to engage in health promoting behavior than men. No relationship was found between socioeconomic status and health promoting behavior. In addition, significant correlations were found between certain health care providers over others. Specifically, an organismic worldview was significantly correlated with willingness to receive services from a reflexologist, a clinical or counseling psychologist, a herbalist, an aromatherapist, and a homeopath. / Department of Secondary, Higher, and Foundations of Education

The purpose of this study was to describe the resilience in adult at-risk college students who had overcome adverse circumstances and the role resilience played in the post secondary experience in formal education. This qualitative study examined the characteristics and behaviors of resilience within the framework of human development.The eight study participants were clients of the Educational Opportunity Center program in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The study participants were low-income, first generation college students. Several assessment tools were administered to evaluate levels of resilience in the eight participants. In addition, all participants were interviewed, which allowed the participants to share their post secondary experience.The analysis of the evidence gathered showed that the eight participants exhibited traits of resiliency. These traits included being goal-oriented and exhibiting a desire to excel, exhibiting positive responses to new opportunities, using a capacity to delay gratification, demonstrating a high level of personal discipline and responsibility, being self-understanding and independent, exhibiting a high self-esteem, being flexible and creative in responding to life events, displaying a strong internal locus of control, making wise use of the presence and support of a caring person, building positive relationships with others, selecting environments that provided positive and high expectations as well as an opportunity to participate and contribute, possessing an easy-going temperament, finding meaning in life and having a vision of the future, responding with a sense of humor, and possessing a strong faith.All of the eight participants believed that resilience is present in all people and that resilience can be learned. There was not sufficient evidence provided by the assessment tools in this study to support strongly that resilience is a developmental process in adulthood. However, the analysis of the data gathered from the interviews suggest that resilience may be learned and strengthened by observing and learning from others.Conclusions and recommendations of this study focused on the identification of resilient at-risk adult students, determination of the role environment plays in the development and use of resilience in at-risk adult students, and the evaluation of effective assessment tools in identifying resilient at-risk students. Implications of this study for low-income, first-generation post secondary students include providing and strengthening the support of at least one caring adult in students' lives, as well as determining methods to teach or foster resilient behavior in at-risk adult students. / Department of Educational Leadership

The purpose of this study was three-fold: to measure the ability of the Medical Explorers case-based curriculum to improve higher order thinking skills; to evaluate the impact of the Medical Explorers case-based curriculum to help students be self directed learners; and to investigate the impact of the Medical Explorers case-based curriculum to improve student attitudes of the life sciences. The target population for this study was secondary students enrolled in advanced life science programs. The resulting sample (n = 71) consisted of 36 students in the case-based experimental group and 35 students in the control group. Furthermore, this study employed an experimental, pretest-posttest control group research design. The treatment consisted of two instructional strategies: case-based learning and teacher-guided learning. Analysis of covariance indicated no treatment effect on critical thinking ability or Motivation and Self-regulation of Learning. However, the Medical Explorers case-based curriculum did show a treatment effect on student attitudes toward the life sciences. These results seem to indicate that case-based curriculum has a positive impact on students’ perspectives and attitudes about the study of life science as well as their interest in life science based careers. Such outcomes are also a good indicator that students enjoy and perceive the value to use of case studies in science, and because they see value in the work that they do they open up their minds to true learning and integration. Of additional interest was the observation that on average eleventh graders showed consistently stronger gains in critical thinking, motivation and self-regulation of learning strategies, and attitudes toward the life sciences as compared to twelfth grade students. In fact, twelfth grade students showed a pre to post loss on the Watson-Glaser and the MSLQ scores while eleventh grade students showed positive gains on each of these instruments. This decline in twelfth grade performance is an endemic indicator of underlying problems that exists in this transitional year of education and supports the need to strengthen the transitional connections between high schools and institutions of higher learning. / Department of Biology

Linguists have long accepted the inevitability of linguistic variation as scientific fact. However, the general public continues to associate regional variation with low intelligence and to promote a non-regional, “accentless” English as the ideal. The result of this ideology, which ignores the natural diversity of all languages, is that speakers of marked, stigmatized dialects suffer from linguistic discrimination. As a solution to the problem of dialect discrimination, many linguists have attempted to disseminate knowledge about the natural diversity of all languages; however, only one study (Reaser, 2006) has quantitatively evaluated the effectiveness of such dialect awareness programs. The purpose of the present study is to determine if explicitly teaching dialect awareness can provide a successful counter to pervasive negative attitudes towards stigmatized dialects. In order to determine the effectiveness of teaching dialect awareness, I designed a dialect awareness unit for a first-year composition course. This unit incorporates previously published language and dialect awareness lessons with original lesson plans. This eight-week dialect awareness unit was taught to 19 students at Ball State University. The effectiveness of this dialect awareness unit was evaluated using a pre-test post-test study design; a control group was also given the pre-test and the post-test for comparison purposes. The results of the Likert-style scale pre-tests and post-tests were subjected to statistical analysis and the participants’ written responses were analyzed qualitatively. The results of statistical tests and qualitative analysis of the students’ answers support the hypothesis that the dialect awareness unit increased students’ tolerance for stigmatized dialects and increased their linguistic awareness. The paired samples t-test for the experimental group was statistically significant, indicating that the dialect awareness unit made a measurable difference in their answers. The qualitative results reveal that although the participants learned basic linguistic facts about the nature of linguistic variation, a few participants resisted some learning objectives of the dialect awareness unit. These results indicate that college-age adults learned to be more tolerant of linguistic variation at approximately the same rate as Reaser’s eighth-grade learners (2006). We can therefore conclude that college-age adults are not too old to unlearn myths related to the standard language ideology or to develop tolerance for nonstandard dialects. / Department of English