The hiring of teachers is one of the most important responsibilities of principals (Emley & Ebmeier, 1997; Place & Drake, 1994). When errors in hiring occur, consequences are felt by staff, students, parents, community, and the overall operation and functioning of the school (Emley & Ebmeier, 1997). Unfortunately, not much empirical research has been conducted to date to support how to hire quality teachers effectively. "The research to date has not sufficiently addressed questions such as (1) what criteria need to be assessed; (2) which of those criteria are judged to be the most important by those using them in the process; and (3) what variables influence principal priorities." (Place & Drake, p. 87) The implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2002) has mandated that all teachers meet the definition of being highly qualified. This mandate poses unique challenges to principals in the identification of teachers who possess the characteristics considered essential in the teacher selection process. The purpose of this study was to develop consensus among nationally recognized principals regarding the traits considered essential for teachers, the best interview questions to target these traits, and other sources utilized to identify these essential traits. The research methodology that was used to develop consensus consists of a three-round Delphi study. By definition, the Delphi technique is "a group process involving an interaction between the researcher and a group of identified experts on a specified topic, usually through a series of questionnaires" (Skutsch & Hall, 1973). The knowledge and experiences of the panel of expert principals provided the underlying premise from which group consensus was built. / Ed. D.

Cette étude vise à évaluer l'association entre les traits de tempérament, les traits psychopathiques et le trouble des conduites (TC) à début précoce, ainsi que l’évolution de ces associations dans le temps aux plans la persistance et de la sévérité, chez des enfants âgés de 6 à 10 ans. Plus spécifiquement, elle vise d’abord à établir les associations transversales entre les traits de tempérament, les traits psychopathiques et le TC, selon le genre. Ensuite, elle cherche à évaluer les traits de tempérament et les traits psychopathiques comme prédicteurs de la persistance et de la sévérité du TC à début précoce, selon le genre. Les résultats obtenus quant à la portion transversale montrent d’abord qu’aucun trait de tempérament n’est associé significativement avec le nombre de symptômes du TC, tant chez les filles et que chez les garçons. Toutefois, l’étude révèle que les trois traits psychopathiques ainsi que le score total de psychopathie sont significativement associés au nombre de symptômes du TC. Les résultats obtenus quant à la portion longitudinale montrent qu’aucune des variables de prédiction ne permet d’obtenir de contribution significative quant à la persistance du TC dans le temps, tant pour les garçons que les filles. Au plan de la prédiction de la sévérité du TC dans le temps, un seul résultat atteint un seuil marginalement significatif. Ainsi, le trait d’insensibilité chez les filles apporte une contribution supplémentaire au nombre de symptômes du TC un an plus tard. Ce résultat n’est pas significatif chez les garçons. D’autre part aucune de dimension du tempérament n’est associée à l’évolution du TC un année plus tard. En conclusion, notre recherche appuie les constats observés dans la littérature quant au rôle possible joué par le trait d’insensibilité dans l’évolution du TC. D’autres études en ce sens permettraient certainement de mieux cerner les enjeux qui s’y rapportent. Par ailleurs, il serait souhaitable de reproduire cette étude, mais en ayant cette fois un nombre de sujets plus important afin d’augmenter la puissance statistique. L’état des connaissances quant au sujet de cette recherche est en construction et demeure très actuel. Il nécessite plus de travaux en ce sens.

The present review sought to clarify and synthesise the existing research of the role parental harshness and parental warmth have on children and adolescents with callous unemotional traits by comparing research across different study designs and study samples in a systematic review. The systematic review search rendered in 16 publications which revealed that callous unemotional traits moderate the relationship between parental harshness as well as parental warmth and behaviour problems in children and adolescents. The moderation effect was directed by the level of callous unemotional trait in the child or adolescent where those with low levels exhibited the most negative effects when exposed to parental harshness. Conversely, children or adolescents with elevated levels exhibited the most positive effects when being exposed to parental warmth. Furthermore, the review revealed that both forms of parenting predict changes in callous unemotional traits over time, where parental harshness increased traits and parental warmth decreased traits. These results are further discussed in relation to the contextual theories of Lykken’s parental competence and socialisation model as well as Kochanska’s conceptual model of conscience development.

De nos jours, les entreprises font de plus en plus face au manque d’idées créatives en interne (Leimeister et al., 2009). Ce constat a conduit un nombre important d’entre elles à faire appel au crowdsourcing pour bénéficier de la créativité des participants sur Internet. Malgré les multiples bénéfices que cette stratégie procure aux entreprises, les chercheurs et praticiens soulignent l’existence d’un manque de participation de la part des consommateurs. Cette recherche vise à comprendre cette problématique en identifiant les facteurs explicatifs de la participation des consommateurs aux initiatives de crowdsourcing, plus particulièrement aux concours créatifs. Pour y répondre, le présent travail doctoral propose une série d’études empiriques destinées à : (1) comprendre les objectifs managériaux associés au crowdsourcing, ses conditions de réussite et ses freins (2) examiner les principales motivations de la participation et le profil des individus participants et (3) tester l’influence d’un ensemble de variables sur l’intention de participer par le biais d’une étude expérimentale. Les résultats soulignent que la force ou l’attrait de la marque, l’attachement à la marque, le gain financier et la volonté d’apprendre influencent positivement l’intention de participer aux concours créatifs. Cette recherche contribue à la littérature existante en apportant une meilleure compréhension du rôle modérateur des traits individuels des participants et de l’attitude à l’égard du brief dans l’explication de l’intention de participer. Finalement, nous terminons ce travail doctoral par une discussion des principaux résultats obtenus et des voies de recherche à envisager dans le futur. / Nowadays, companies have to increasingly face a lack of internal creative ideas (Leimeister et al., 2009).This has led a significant number of companies to resort to crowdsourcing to benefit from the creativity of participants on the Internet. Despite its multiple benefits, businesses, researchers and practitioners notice a lack of user participation. This research aims to understand this problem by identifying the factors explaining the participation of users in crowdsourcing initiatives, especially in creative competitions. Following an incursion into the literature to understand and delineate the outlines of crowdsourcing, we identify the factors explaining participation in such initiatives. In order to feel the gap of the literature to some extent, this doctoral work proposes a series of empirical studies aiming at: (1) understanding the managerial objectives associated with crowdsourcing, its conditions of success and its constraints, (2) examining the main motivations for participation and the profile of participants, and (3) testing the influence of a set of variables on the intention to participate through an experimental study. The results point out that brand strength, brand attachment, financial gain and willingness to learn positively influence the intention to participate in creative contests. This research contributes to the existing literature by providing a better understanding of the moderating role of participants' individual traits and their attitude towards the brief in explaining the intention to participate. Finally, we conclude this doctoral work with a discussion of the main results obtained and the research paths to be considered in the future.

Attitudes towards corruption have been attributed to a broad range of macro-level and, to a limited extent, micro-level antecedents. Neglected is academic research on the effect of individual-level psychological factors on the attitudes toward corruption. To fill this gap, this article aims to explore the impact of individuals' personality traits on their willingness to justify corrupt acts, drawing on data from World Values Survey Wave 6. By applying fixed effects models, the study finds that two of five personality traits - consciousness and agreeableness are significantly and negatively associated with individuals' willingness to justify corrupt exchanges. Additionally, the study results show that the association between the personality traits and corruption tolerance varies from country to country: openness to experience, for instance, was significantly and negatively associated with corruption tolerance in Germany, whereas this trend was not observed in the Dutch sample. Among the control variables, age and sex were significant predictors of corruption tolerance as well as the Dutch were less willing to justify corrupt acts than Germans. The study provides empirical and practical implications as well as suggestion for future research.

Several studies examining the genetics of adaptation have identified single alleles, of large phenotypic e ect, contributing to divergence between populations. This empirical finding is consistent with predictions made by the geometric model of adaptation, where a small number of alleles of large e ect and many alleles of small e ect are fixed as the population adapts. However, these examples of single genes of large e ect may represent a biased sample of the alleles of adaptation with polygenic allele shifts having a greater contribution than currently understood. Increasing power to detect smaller e ect variants, due to falling sequencing costs and improved statistical methods, has made the contribution of small allele frequency shifts at many loci, or polygenic adaptation, more apparent. In contrast to models predicting single genes of large e ect with large allele frequency changes, polygenic adaptation allows for small allele frequency changes across many alleles of small e ect to contribute to phenotypic change. Using artificial selection, I demonstrate the alignment of genetic e ects contributing to wing shape variation within a developmental pathway but a lack of replication of these same genetic e ects in other wild-caught populations. Secondly, using advanced intercross QTL mapping between altitudinally diverged populations, I demonstrate a polygenic basis for wing shape and size variation. Finally, using comparative developmental biology I investigate how change to cell size and number in the wing may contribute to divergence between high and low altitude populations. Together, this work provides evidence for many alleles of small e ect rather than alleles of large e ect contributing to adaptive divergence of wing shape and size and provides context for identified alleles through replication in other populations and comparative developmental biology. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The aetiology and pathogenesis of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), the second most common cause of irreversible visual loss in the United Kingdom, remains a conundrum for contemporary ophthalmology. Evidence suggests that glaucoma is a complex disorder, where multiple genes interact with each other and with factors in the environment. However, the aetiological heterogeneity of glaucoma coupled with its varied clinical presentation and course has made the study of glaucoma genes problematic. We established the Orcades Eye Study, a cross sectional family based genetic study, to explore the inheritance of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG). As POAG is a disease of late onset and low prevalence, rather than study disease per se we chose to study quantitative traits (QTs) related to POAG, in an isolated population in the northern Scottish archipelago of Orkney. A number of factors in this population, including reduced genetic heterogeneity and more homogenous environmental effects, confer certain advantages over more admixed urban populations in complex disease gene mapping. Preliminary analysis of the procured quantitative trait data (n=256) has demonstrated that the values obtained for the POAG related QTs of intraocular pressure (IOP), central corneal thickness and a number of optic disc parameters including optic cup area, disc area, retinal nerve fiber thickness, vertical cup to disc ratio and peripapillary atrophy are not dissimilar to other published White Caucasian populations. We also found that intraocular pressure shows an increase with age and is influenced by central corneal thickness but found no relationship between IOP and gender or IOP and other ocular biometric variables including optic nerve head parameters and refractive components. Neither central corneal thickness nor optic nerve head parameters had a statistically significant relationship to age, gender or other tested ocular biometric parameters. These findings are clinically important as these factors should be taken into consideration when evaluating intraocular pressure and other ocular biometric traits in the investigation of glaucoma and other ocular diseases in the population of Orkney. Data collection is ongoing, and with time, an increased sample size and a meaningful genetic analysis, the Orcades Eye Study will hopefully identify genes and regions of the genome associated with primary open angle glaucoma susceptibility in the Scottish Population Isolate of Orkney. To our knowledge, the only other population based study which has investigated as large a number of glaucoma related QTs is the Beijing Eye Study.

No description available.

The purpose of this study is fourfold: (1) to investigate any differences in self-concept scores of a normal (adjusted) and abnormal (maladjusted) population; (2) to investigate any difference in self-concept scores between psychotic and non-psychotic hospitalized patients, (3) to investigate changes in self-concept concomitant with psychotherapy, and (4) to investigate any sex differences in self-concept.

The principal purpose of this study was the assessment of the relationships of five personality traits, achievement motive, decisiveness, need for power, initiative, and selfassurance, to a criterion of executive success in business. A second purpose of the present study was the construction of a regression equation for the prediction of executive success.