Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 36-02, Section: A, page: 1128. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1975.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 37-07, Section: A, page: 4651. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1976.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 38-09, Section: A, page: 5750. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1977.

Drawing on anthropocentric, ecocentric and biocentric worldviews, I examine the use of research animals as a case to investigate human-animal interactions in science. Specifically, I investigate a case of potential tensions between eco- and biocentric worldviews by examining oversight mechanisms of animal care during research. Despite abundant focus on responsible care of laboratory animals, I argue that inattention to the treatment of wildlife constitutes an ethical shortcoming in contemporary animal research. I review significant shortcomings in legal and institutional oversight and argue for the relatively rapid and transformational potential of editorial oversight in preventing inhumane treatment to vertebrates studied in the field and outside the direct supervision of institutions. Straightforward changes to animal care policies in journals, which the analysis of 206 journals suggests are in many cases absent (34%), weak, incoherent, or neglected by researchers, could provide a practical, effective, and rapidly imposed safeguard against unnecessary suffering. The ARROW (Animal Research: Reporting on Wildlife) guidelines, an original contribution to the present work, coupled with strong enforcement, could result in significant changes to how animals involved in wildlife research are treated. The research process would also benefit. In many cases, reliability, validity, and replicability of data requires animal subjects to be physically, physiologically, and behaviorally unharmed. Accordingly, publication of methods that contravenes animal welfare principles risks perpetuating inhumane approaches and bad science. I conclude by assessing whether paradigms have shifted from anthropocentric to non-anthropocentric approaches to interacting with animals in research, and offer practical and conceptual suggestions for ensuring humane human-animal interactions. / Graduate / 2020-04-05

Dental decay is a worldwide Public Health problem. In the last decade Oral Health professionals in the UK have focused on developing national and regional Oral Health programmes to reduce dental caries rates in young children. Smile4Life is an example of a regional programme, which has been implemented in North West England. Recent research suggests health programmes should have a conscious theoretical base and incorporate multi-sectorial approaches. A literature review was undertaken to identify the differences between the theoretical underpinnings used in Oral Health interventions compared to General Health interventions. This showed that Oral Health interventions have been predominately underpinned by educational approaches and used fewer approaches that consider organisational and environmental factors. However, the literature review did not identify barriers and facilitators to the use of theoretical underpinnings in real-life settings. To understand the barriers and facilitators to developing and implementing interventions in real-life settings, and how barriers and facilitators relate to the theoretical underpinnings identified in the literature review, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine policymakers who were responsible for developing and ten implementers who were responsible for delivering Smile4Life. The analysis was undertaken using an inductive thematic analysis. The interview findings consist of an overall meta-theme and three themes. The meta-theme refers to ‘intra-group relationships and inter-group boundaries’. Intra-group relationships refer to the relations within the policymaker group or implementer group. The inter-group boundaries refer to divisions between the two groups that meant people within each group perceived themselves to be distinct from people in the other group. The first theme intra-group inclusion and inter-group exclusion outlines that within each group, individuals interacted with one another and had a shared sense of unity and group beliefs. However, there were boundaries between the two groups due to a lack of interactions and feelings of exclusion between the groups. The second theme, different knowledge, experiences, and beliefs identified that each group shared similar knowledge and experiences, but between the groups this knowledge was not shared. The third theme standardised or flexible implementation identified that due to the differences in knowledge, experiences, and beliefs between the groups, these differences prevented the formation of a shared vision of how to implement Smile4Life. The groups divisions led to the implementers making changes to the intended implementation strategy of Smile4Life. This research suggests that the implementers (middle managers) are important in the development and implementation of Oral Health programmes and potentially other interventions. Currently, theoretical underpinnings do not explicitly consider middle managers in the development and implementation of interventions. A set of Implementer Engagement Guidelines, underpinned by the Social Identity Theory, are presented that consider the engagement of middle managers in the development and implementation of interventions, to enable policymakers to develop future General and Oral Health programmes.

Is personality important for understanding the variation we see in animal welfare? In this thesis, I address that question by studying the association between personality and health, welfare, and happiness in three species of nonhuman primate: rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), brown capuchins (Sapajus apella), and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). As part of this research I test a newly designed animal welfare questionnaire. In Chapter 1 I review how animal welfare questionnaires can be designed and implemented as an addition tool for assessing animal welfare. In Chapter 2 I present a study of rhesus macaque personality, dominance, behaviour, and health. In Chapter 3 I test the reliability and validity of my animal welfare questionnaire. In Chapter 4 I extended my work on welfare questionnaires to test if they are valid for assessment of chimpanzee welfare and associated with personality. I specifically test if welfare ratings are based on observed behaviour. I conclude my quantitative work in Chapter 5 with a study testing the association between personality and health, welfare, and subjective well-being in rhesus macaques. Finally, Chapter 6 includes my conclusions and future directions for this line of research. Across all four quantitative studies some common trends were found. First, personality is associated with overall welfare and health. Second, welfare questionnaires are reliable and valid way to assess welfare in the studied species. And third, welfare and subjective well-being are measuring the same construct in these species. Overall, I conclude that personality is clearly useful for understanding animal welfare and that questionnaires are a reliable, valid, and valuable method of animal welfare assessment, in additional to traditional methods.

Child welfare social workers are excellent advocates for children in the foster care system. These children can greatly benefit from long lasting relationships as well as long term supportive relationships such as that of a social worker. The researcher took on a positivist approach with an aim to answer the research question “Do factors such as supervision, peer support, and organizational factors have a positive impact on social worker retention at a child welfare agency?” The research site was a foster family agency (FFA) located in the Southern California Inland Empire region. A self-administered survey was provided to participants. The findings demonstrated a strong positive relationship between variables such as supervision and peer support.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 38-08, Section: A, page: 5083. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1977.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-06, Section: A, page: 3569. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 33-06, Section: A, page: 3048. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1972.