<p> There are more self-made, billionaire entrepreneurs than billionaires who simply inherited their fortunes, but the majority of startup ventures fail within five years. A possible factor in business success or failure could be the emotional intelligence (EI) level of the entrepreneur, defined broadly as the ability to perceive, interpret, and manage emotions. Although there is substantial literature on EI applications in established organizations, there are few empirical studies exploring the predictive value of EI in the context of success for startup entrepreneurs. The purpose of this study was to determine whether EI scores can predict how successful an entrepreneur will be using objective success criteria, as defined in this study (Hypothesis 1), and which, if any, EI competencies are particularly relevant for entrepreneurs (Hypothesis 2). Hypotheses were tested using Spearman correlation and Ordinal regression, with sensitivity testing with Pearson correlation and Ordinary Least Squares regression, respectively. Each analysis controlled for the entrepreneur&rsquo;s demographic profile and subjective success measures. Regression analysis (n=31); ordinal analysis and correlation analysis revealed a statistically significant effect of only one of the 15 EI scores (Empathy) on entrepreneurial success, as defined in this study, but the exponentiated coefficients from the ordinal regression indicate that improving Overall EI scores can increase Overall Success. Specifically, six of the 15 EI scores were more than two times more likely to increase Overall Success scores (Empathy, Interpersonal Relationships, Social Responsibility, Flexibility, Stress Tolerance, and Optimism), which is consistent with Hypothesis 2. This study is one of the first to empirically examine the EI construct in the context of entrepreneurial success with a population of entrepreneurs seeking assistance using the EQ-i 2.0 emotional intelligence assessment. A key implication of the results is that teachers, emergency services personnel, legal and financial services personnel, even sports coaches and single parents, can all develop competencies to make them more successful in their chosen endeavor, have a sense of fulfillment, and increase the success rate of industries that go far beyond entrepreneurs. </p>

<p> According to C. G. Jung, the individuation process requires a reflective turn inward toward the voice of psyche, or said differently, the inner voice. The inner voice can only be heard by the individual, but that does not mean the individual must discover it alone. A Quaker practice termed the clearness committee brings a small group of people together to help an individual access her inner voice in order to find clearness regarding a life issue. This phenomenological study explores the experiences of eight people who sought the assistance of clearness committees. The focus of this research is the exploration of these people&rsquo;s essential lived experiences of being the focus person in a clearness committee. Participant narratives reveal themes from their clearness committee experiences, illuminate characteristics helpful for hearing one&rsquo;s inner voice, and uncover insights they received while exploring the nature of their issue. A phenomenological psychological method guided the analysis toward a description of the essential experience of the clearness committee. This research concludes that the interaction of the clearness committee with the individual can lead to a tension of opposites in psyche that stirs movement of the individuation process. When combined with the perspective of transformational alchemy, this study suggests that repetitive stirring of psyche is required for the individuation process.</p>

<p> Cognitive science has been beset for thirty years by foundational disputes about the nature and extension of cognition&mdash;e.g. whether cognition is necessarily representational, whether cognitive processes extend outside the brain or body, and whether plants or microbes have them. Whereas previous philosophical work aimed to settle these disputes, I aim to understand what conception of cognition scientists could share given that they disagree so fundamentally. To this end, I develop a number of variations on traditional conceptual explication, and defend a novel explication of cognition called the sensitive management hypothesis.</p><p> Since expert judgments about the extension of &ldquo;cognition&rdquo; vary so much, I argue that there is value in explication that accurately models the variance in judgments rather than taking sides or treating that variance as noise. I say of explications that accomplish this that they are <i> ecumenically extensionally adequate</i>. Thus, rather than adjudicating whether, say, plants can have cognitive processes like humans, an ecumenically adequate explication should classify these cases differently: human cognitive processes as paradigmatically cognitive, and plant processes as controversially cognitive.</p><p> I achieve ecumenical adequacy by articulating conceptual explications with <i>parameters</i>, or terms that can be assigned a number of distinct interpretations based on the background commitments of participants in a discourse. For example, an explication might require that cognition cause &ldquo;behavior,&rdquo; and imply that plant processes are cognitive or not depending on whether anything plants do can be considered &ldquo;behavior.&rdquo; Parameterization provides a unified treatment of embattled concepts by isolating topics of disagreement in a small number of parameters.</p><p> I incorporate these innovations into an account on which cognition is the &ldquo;sensitive management of organismal behavior.&rdquo; The sensitive management hypothesis is ecumenically extensionally adequate, accurately classifying a broad variety of cases as paradigmatically or controversially cognitive phenomena. I also describe an extremely permissive version of the sensitive management hypothesis, arguing that it has the potential to explain several features of cognitive scientific discourse, including various facts about the way cognitive scientists ascribe representations to cognitive systems. </p>

<p> This study investigated the role of pre-deliberation leading to a group consensus-based decision in government planning. Six people from local municipalities in Skagit County participated in a 5-question in-person interview study process with qualitative measures. Existing literature on consensus decision making and informal pre-meeting discussions, identified in the study as pre-deliberation, is limited. The researcher was concerned with understanding elements from communication theory that support a communication process leading to group decisions in a recent government planning project. Therefore, five variables were measured in this study: needs and concerns, understanding the positions of others, facilitating group decisions, accountability, and successful partnerships. In analyzing the empirical data, the researcher found evidence to support the notion that pre-meeting discussions improve decision making. Future research may further address gender and age implications, and the role or impact of open meeting laws in government planning.</p>

INTRODUCTION: Psychiatric disorders are among the most common illnesses in children. Most psychiatric disorders begin in childhood but most children with psychiatric symptoms receive delayed or no treatment. A resilience-based strategy for at-risk children in primary care, such as enhancing childhood sports participation, could be an effective and feasible early intervention. Existing literature demonstrates an association between sports participation and mental health in adolescents and adults, and that exercise can improve depressive symptoms. There are few studies on the link between mental health and sports participation in children under twelve. OBJECTIVE: Since sports participation could be a simple and potentially available intervention for mental health, we investigated the association between sports participation in children ages 6-11 and measures of psychiatric impairment. METHODS: We performed linear regression analyses between measures of psychiatric symptoms (total number of CBCL/6-18 syndrome scale elevations and individual syndrome scale elevations) and sports participation as measured by the number of parent-reported sports, with demographic factors as covariates. RESULTS: The association between sport count and number of CBCL syndrome scale elevations was not significant (p = 0.638). However, we found a significant association between fewer numbers of sports reported and higher T-scores on the Withdrawn/Depressed CBCL syndrome scale (p = 0.019) and was also significant for age (p = 0.003) and ethnicity (p = 0.037). CONCLUSION: Playing one or fewer sports during childhood is associated with higher withdrawn/depressive symptoms in school-age children. This replicates earlier findings which suggest that sports participation may be protective for child mental health.

<p> Stalking has been a growing concern in criminology over the past few decades. This area needs more theoretical development. Two important theoretical perspectives are gender inequality and routine activities theory. So far, these perspectives have not been combined in research. This study seeks to improve research on stalking by integrating these two theories. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship that economic ability and routine activities have on a woman's risk of being stalked, as well as whether economic ability and routine activities can predict whether a victim can successfully change their routine activities and prevent future stalking events. Although the primary focus of this study is female victims, a comparative analysis between male and female victims is also performed. The data used for this study are the 2006 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and its Supplemental Victimization Survey (SVS), which focuses on detailing aspects of respondents' stalking victimizations.</p><p>

<p> Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) come from different ethnicities and backgrounds. With the growing Hispanic population and increased prevalence of ASD, it is imperative that our evidence-based practices support and assist Hispanic families. Behavioral Skills Training (BST) is a supported practice that satisfies evidence-based criteria and has been used to train caregivers in applied behavior analysis (ABA) techniques to teach their children new skills and manage challenging behaviors. We completed a quality improvement project on a BST based parent training program used to teach parents ABA interventions. We evaluated the fidelity of implementation of the intervention during a training provided in English via a video interpreter and fidelity of implementation during a training provided with cultural accommodations (a bilingual clinician and documentation translated into the participant&rsquo;s dominant language). Fidelity of implementation was evaluated with a clinician and with the participant&rsquo;s child during in-vivo trials. This program was completed with three participants using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across skills for each participant. BST with cultural accommodations was needed for training to mastery in at least one ABA intervention across all participants, however the skill that required accommodations varied. For some, there was a clear difference between rates of acquisition in clinician trials and in-vivo trials. Social validity measures showed that parent preference for treatment presentation was related to their response on level of proficiency in either language.</p><p>

<p> Various determinants have been found to explain the donor status and giving levels of college alumni. Limited research exists on what motivates college alumni to give repeated donations to a higher education institution. The purpose of this study was to determine if commitment and trust significantly related to higher education institutions receiving repeated annual gifts from college alumni. The extent of the relationship that commitment and trust had with college alumni donating repeated annual gifts was investigated using the commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing (commitment-trust theory) as the theoretical framework. Demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, race, marital status, number of dependents in a household, annual income, highest degree earned, family legacy, and number of years since graduating) were also included and examined to assess how strongly commitment and trust predicted college alumni giving repeated annual gifts. A quantitative, correlational, nonexperimental research design was used in the study to collect and analyze data from online survey responses. The study's sample consisted of 478 college alumni that were purposively drawn from a population of 43,381 college alumni at two 4-year higher education institutions located in the southeastern region of the United States. This sample was comprised of college alumni who graduated from one of the two higher education institutions during or before 2007. Most of the study's alumni were older Caucasian females who were married or in a domestic partnership and without any dependents living in the participants' households. The majority of the alumni also reported having an annual income of more than $100,000, earning a bachelor's degree as the highest level of education and not having any family ties at either institution involved in the study. Multiple regression analyses were performed and revealed commitment and trust to be statistically significant predictors of repeated giving by the sample. A second multiple regression model showed that the demographic variables were insignificant predictors of repeated giving. Including the demographic variables contributed to very small declines in the strength of commitment and trust as predictors of repeated giving. The commitment-trust theory was found to align with the results of the study.</p><p>

<p> Many individuals receiving care in general care hospitals have both mental and physical illness. Health care providers in these settings often lack the necessary behavioral health competencies to provide appropriate care to persons with mental illness, typically attributable to lack of education and training. Negative or mixed attitudes of health care providers can also impact the therapeutic relationship and treatment provided, resulting in disparities in care for persons with mental illness in the hospital setting. Nurses provide the most consistent presence with patients in hospitals and possess attitudes similar to all health care providers and the general population. In addition, they often do not believe they possess the knowledge and skills to adequately care for individuals with mental health needs. Formal nursing education and workplace training in behavioral health have been inconsistent and the few specific behavioral health programs for nurses in the literature have not demonstrated a long-term impact on knowledge or attitudes. </p><p> This aim of this research study was to identify the relationship between nurses&rsquo; attitudes toward person with mental illness and their self-reported behavioral health competencies and to examine whether prior training influences the relationship between attitudes and self-reported competencies. The research questions were answered through a self-administered survey using the Error Choice Test (ECT) to identify attitudes and bias and the Behavioral Health Care Competency (BHCC) tool to determine self-reported competencies. Training focused on whether the participants had clinical experience in their pre-licensure program and/or education in the work setting, including aggression management programs. </p><p> The results of this study suggest that there is not a significant relationship between nurses&rsquo; attitudes toward persons with mental illness and their self-reported behavioral health care competencies. Prior education and training do not appear to influence attitudes or self-reported competencies. This study highlights the importance of studying strategies that have the potential to reduce disparities in the care of persons with mental illness in acute care hospitals, including evidence-based standardized preparation for nurses and other professionals practicing in these settings.</p><p>

<p> The path to expertise has been quantified on several occasions (Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-R&ouml;mer, 1993; Ericsson 2001; Ericsson &amp; Charness, 1994; Ericsson 2008) as well as explored through qualitative retrospective methods (Bloom 1985; Kreiner, Phillips, &amp; Orlick 1993; Hayman et. al. 2014). However, little research has investigated the experience of elite performers as they attempt to maximize their performance over time. The purpose of this study was to examine how elite golfers think about, structure, and experience practice intended to maximize performance throughout a long career.</p><p> The researcher utilized a phenomenological approach to explore the lived experience of five PGA Tour players as they reflected on their practice experience thus far. The central themes found were: a) tailoring practice, b) <i> achieving balance, c) staying engaged, d) being proactive</i>. The core thematic findings spring from two results: 1. The most effective practice for elite golfers are highly individualized, and 2. effective practice for these players is reached when they proactively tailor their approach to pursue appropriate balance and achieve consistent engagement. These findings may benefit golfers, golf coaches, and applied sport psychology practitioners. Theoretical implications and possibilities for future research are discussed. </p><p>