Research that has examined the comorbid psychiatric symptoms present in neurological disorders and psychiatric symptoms has grown exponentially over the past decade. A number of authors have argued in favor of the biological basis of psychiatric symptoms and the interaction with neurological dysfunction (Noggle & Dean, 2012). These data indicate the importance of considering individuals’ emotional and medical functioning which offer psychiatric signs of neurological impairment. The use of measures of symptoms found in structured and unstructured interviews has been found to overlap significantly with measures of disorders thought to be solely neurological. This study examined the degree to which factor score of a relatively newly developed structured interview could account for the variability of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) clinical scales. All patients were administered the Dean-Woodcock Emotional Status Examination (D-WESE) and the MMPI. The purpose of the study was (1) to quantify the amount of shared variance between clinical scales of the MMPI and individual items of the D-WESE and (2) to determine the amount unique clinical information provided by each measure. As hypothesized, canonical analysis indicated that the MMPI clinical scales and the D-WESE factors significantly overlapped across six significant canonical functions. A redundancy analysis suggested both the MMPI and the D-WESE provide a relatively large amount of unique clinical information. Whether one of these measures has more relevance in current neuropsychological practice remains a question for future research. / Department of Educational Psychology

The mobility, flexibility, convenience, and ubiquity of mobile data services (MDS) have contributed to their enormous growth and popularity with users. MDS allow users to communicate through mobile texting (mTexting), mobile Instant Messaging (mIM), multimedia messaging services (MMS), and email. A unique feature of MDS that enhances its popularity among its users is the awareness capability, which is revolutionizing the way MDS is being used to communicate today. It allows potential communication partners to socialize through these technologies. This dissertation explored the relationship between user experience, perceived richness, perceived social presence and satisfaction with MDS. A research model for examining the antecedent conditions that influence social presence, richness, social interaction and satisfaction with MDS was developed. Partial least square analysis showed that user experience influenced both social presence and richness. Also supported was the relationship between richness, social presence and satisfaction with MDS. Social presence mediated the relationship between user experience and richness. However, only one dimension of interactivity influenced social presence.

Early childhood is one of the most critical times in a child’s life, and research has shown that quality experiences in an early childhood program can have many positive impacts on a child’s wellbeing. One critical determinant of success within early childhood programs is the quality of the relationship between the parent and caregiver, which is profoundly impacted by communication patterns between the two. As communication technology continues to rapidly develop, there exists a need to explore how technology is used to facilitate communication between parents and caregivers in early childhood programs. By exploring the use of communication technology, we can uncover how this type of communication may promote parent-caregiver relationship quality, which is useful to provide best practice guidelines to inform programmatic efforts. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore parent and caregiver perspectives regarding the use of communication technology and its perceived contribution to parent-caregiver relationship quality. In order to address the lack of current empirical data, this research used online and face-toace focus group methodology to explore the topic until saturation occurred. Participants were parents (N=24) and caregivers (N=23) of children five years of age and younger in licensed childcare programs throughout the state of Mississippi. Study findings indicate that communication technology can be useful in promoting the parent-caregiver relationship quality, but not without caution. Practitioners must consider individual needs, barriers, and concerns of using technology as well. Implications for practice, as well as recommendations for future research, are addressed.

No description available.

Family group chats are a popular form of technology-mediated communication. Family group chats represent an understudied area of family communication. In this qualitative multi-method study, I aimed to investigate how and why families use family group chats and how family processes are enacted within them. This grounded theory study was informed by family systems theory and uses and gratifications theory. Families participated in multi family member group interviews and were invited to submit the last one-month's history of their family group chat. Forty-nine participants from thirteen families across the United States participated in this study. I identified four themes from the data: (1) entering the chat, (2) growing and aging with the group chat, (3) accepting terms and conditions, and (4) holding the invisible string. I present a theoretical explanation of how these themes interact. Family group chats held a significant place in family life that extended family members' availability to one another and kept them in near constant contact, even when they were separated by geographic distance. I propose the possibility of family group chats as a protective factor to increase family functioning. This research generates future directions for the field and has implications for families, professionals who work with families, and group chat application developers. It provides one of the earliest investigations into family group chats from a family science perspective. / Doctor of Philosophy / Family group chats have grown in popularity over the last decade as a way for multiple family members to communicate at once. Yet, in the family science field, little is known about how families use these chats. In this study, I examined how and why families use family group chats to perform family processes, which are the interactions that make up family life. I used qualitative methods to study this topic and was guided by two theories, family systems theory and uses and gratifications theory. I invited family members to participate in a group interview and submit their family group chat text messages from the last month. Forty-nine participants from thirteen families across the United States participated in this study. I identified four themes across the family interviews and group chats: (1) entering the chat, (2) growing and aging with the group chat, (3) accepting terms and conditions, and (4) holding the invisible string. I present a visual model to explain how these themes work together. I found that family group chats held a significant place in family life that extended family members' availability to one another and kept them in near constant contact, even when they were separated by geographic distance. I suggest the possibility of family group chats as a protective factor that may improve family life. This research can guide future research on this topic and makes an impact for families, professionals who work with families, and for companies that develop group chat platforms.

This thesis is based around five studies examining the psychology of interpersonal communication applied to organizational settings. The studies are designed to examine the question of how the way that people in positions of power in organizations communicate with subordinates, affects various measures of health, well-being and productivity. It is impossible to study modern organisational communication without recognising the importance of electronic communication. The use of e-mail and other forms of text messaging is now ubiquitous in all areas of communication. The studies in this thesis include the use of e-mail as a medium of communication and examine some of the potential effects of electronic versus face-to-face and verbal communication. The findings of the studies support the basic hypothesis that: it is not what is said that matters but how it is said. The results showed that an unsupportive, formal, authoritarian style of verbal or written communication is likely to have a negative effect on health, well-being and productivity compared with a supportive, informal and egalitarian style. There are also indications that the effects of damaging communications may not be confined to the initial recipient of the message. Organizational communication does not take place in a vacuum. Any negative consequences are likely to be transmitted by the recipient, either back to the sender or on to other colleagues with implications for the wider organisational climate. These findings are based on communications that would not necessarily be immediately recognised as obviously offensive or bullying, or even uncivil. The effects of these relatively mild but unsupportive communications may have implications for the selection and training of managers. In the final section of the thesis there is a discussion of how examples of various electronically recorded messages might be used as training material.

No description available.

Concurrent error detection (CED) is the detection of errors or faults in a circuit or data path concurrent with normal operation of that circuit. The general approach for CED is to calculate a check symbol for the inputs to the circuit under operation, predict the check symbol that will result for the output of the circuit for those inputs, and compare the predicted check symbol to the one that is actually calculated for the output. If the predicted and actual check symbols are different, an error or fault has been detected. The alternative to this check symbol prediction is to use a second copy of the circuit under operation and compare the results of the two circuits. For some classes of circuits the prediction of the output check symbol can require less circuitry than a second copy of the circuit being tested. Four examples of these types of circuits are examined in this dissertation: Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs), array multipliers, self-synchronous scrambler-descrambler pairs with their intervening data path, and switch fabrics. Faults in integrated circuits tend to produce unidirectional errors. Unidirectional errors are those in which all of the errors are in the same direction (e.g., 0 to 1 errors) within the block of data covered by a given check symbol. For this reason, codes that are optimized for unidirectional errors are the focus of investigation for most of the applications. In particular, the Bose-Lin codes are examined for those applications where unidirectional errors are expected to be typical. In order to examine the performance of the Bose-Lin codes in one of these applications, it was necessary to determine the theoretical performance for Bose- Lin codes for error rates beyond what had been previously studied. This analysis of Bose-Lin codes with large numbers of "burst" errors also included a further generalization of the codes. / Graduation date: 2002

Texting is ubiquitous; the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry reported that 4.1 billion text messages were sent per day in the first half of 2009. In isolation, texting does not injure individuals; however, when combined with driving, lives have changed for the worse. The National Safety Council estimates that 1.6 million crashes per year can be attributed to distracted drivers either talking on cell phones or texting while driving and nearly 28 percent of all crashes in the United States can be ascribed to these behaviors. An increasing number of texting while driving fear appeal campaigns are being utilized in the media. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to create and test theoretically-based messages aimed at discouraging texting while driving. Formative research along with the Extended Parallel Process Model was used for guidance in the creation of the fear appeal messages. No low threat message was used for the main study after repeated message validations failed. For the study, three high threat messages varied only by a single paragraph which targeted beliefs about benefits, mastery, and ubiquity of texting while driving. 155 undergraduates at Texas A & M University completed a pretest, read the high threat message, and answered a posttest. Need for cognition and sensation seeking tendencies were measured in order to understand the effects such personality traits have on message perceptions. Five major outcomes were revealed even though numerous hypotheses were unsupported. There was a significant interaction between perceived threat and sensation seeking tendencies on message realism. There was a significant interaction between perceived threat and need for cognition on message realism. There was a significant interaction between perceived threat and need for cognition on message accuracy. There was a significant interaction between perceived threat and need for cognition on attitudes. There was a significant positive correlation between perceived threat and perceived message sensation value. This project provides support that sensation seeking tendencies and need for cognition do interacted with perceived threat on perceptions of message effectiveness and that perceived message sensation value was positively related to perceived threat. Results also revealed the prevalence of texting while driving behavior and relationships between personality traits and texting while driving. Sensation seeking tendencies were positively correlated with initiating text messages while driving. Need for cognition was negatively correlated with reading and replying to text messages while driving.

This study deals with how E.W. Kenyon’s use of the Bible was the foundation used by Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland to build the Word of Faith Movement. Kenyon could be considered the grandfather of this movement, while Hagin can be regarded as the father and Copeland, the one on whose shoulders Hagin’s mantle has fallen since his death. It includes brief biographies of Kenyon, Hagin and Copeland and their ministries. It looks into how influential Kenyon’s use of the Bible is in developing his doctrines, which have been copied by both Hagin and Copeland and the Word of Faith's pastors throughout the world. This study is not an exhaustive examination of Kenyon’s doctrines but enough is studied to show he does not conform to traditional reformed theological hermeneutics. Kenyon’s writings date back to the early twentieth century. Hagin’s writings are from the mid- and late twentieth century, while Copeland writes from the late twentieth century to the present day. It will be shown that Hagin and Copeland copied Kenyon’s use of the Bible almost verbatim, resulting in them promoting doctrines in the Word of Faith Movement similar to his doctrines. This study deals with Kenyon’s writings in Chapter 2, while Chapter 3 deals with Hagin’s and Copeland’s teachings. Chapter 4 compares the three’s teachings from a reformed theological perspective, using literature by fairly modern-day writers on reformed theology. Chapter 5 evaluates and concludes and offers recommendations for further study. Finally, Kenyon’s and his two followers’ teachings are summarised and evaluated. The study will also examine some of the effects these teachings have on the individual who attends Word of Faith Movement churches. Future research topics that could help in understanding the attraction these teachings have for people and the danger they pose to reformed churches today are suggested. / Thesis (MA (Dogmatics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.