<p> Managing the behavioral needs of individuals with developmental disabilities has been a long-standing concern for group home managers and direct care staff. Consultee-centered consultation has a history of documented benefits for children in schools and was theorized to be beneficial to adults with developmental disabilities residing in group homes. Adults with disabilities continue to experience behavioral difficulties while staff lack the training to maintain quality support services. Caplan&rsquo;s consultee-centered consultation (1993) bridges the gap between client centered behavioral consultation and consultee effectiveness in addressing client behavioral concerns. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of consultee-centered consultation on client behavior and the group home environment. Three community-based group homes were chosen to participate in this study using matched assignment. Participants included ten clients with challenging behaviors, two consultees (managers of group-homes), three data collectors and direct-care staff working with clients. This study showed encouraging support of a decrease in the frequency of challenging behaviors exhibited by clients residing in two group homes that received consultee-centered consultation for twelve and six weeks. The level of job satisfaction for employees participating in this study did not demonstrate change over the course of the 15-week study. Despite a lack of support for a change in employee satisfaction, both consultees receiving consultee-centered consultation reported that consultation helped them to address staff concerns and improvements in their level of confidence and skills. </p>

This thesis contains a set of empirical investigations, which explore a fundamental issue in human communication, namely the functional significance of iconic hand gestures that accompany speech. Some researchers argue that these iconic gestures function for the speaker to facilitate lexical retrieval from the mental lexicon (e.g. Butterworth and Hadar, 1989; 1997). An alternative theory is that these iconic gestures are to do with the communication of information from a speaker to a listener (e.g. McNeill, 1985; 1992). This important debate forms the basis of the current research. The research reported in this thesis was found to provide little evidence for the lexical access theoretical position but provide important supporting evidence for the argument that iconic gestures are essentially communicative. It has shown convincingly that information about the world out there is encoded into speech and gesture and seems to provide a substantial body of evidence that iconic gestures do indeed convey semantic information to respondents. It has also shown that some iconic gestures are more communicative than others and that the occurrence of these gestures is affected by certain identifiable properties of talk. One of the strengths of the current research is that it is now more precisely known what semantic information is actually received by respondents from gesture and hence this research provides a much better insight into how the linguistic and gestural codes interact in the communication of meaning. The research reported in this thesis suggests that those researchers who neglect iconic gesture in their study of how language is used in eveiyday life are missing a major component of the process of human communication.

<p> In recent years, the number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder has increased. Autism is a cognitive impairment that affects the way people socialize and behave. Currently, treatments and services exist mostly for children, even though it is a lifelong disorder and those with it are living longer. Like autism, Alzheimer&rsquo;s affects a person&rsquo;s cognitive abilities, although its onset occurs much later in life. With the increased average lifespan due to technological advances, the number of individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer&rsquo;s is expected to grow exponentially. There are many parallels between the two conditions, and research suggests that Autism may act as a buffer against Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease. This systematic literature review aims to better describe the link between autism and Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease, which could further an understanding of each condition individually.</p><p>

<p>Across industries and organizations, some managers hold dual roles that require them to meet various demands between internal and external work settings. Further, while these demands may be understood as interrelated and complementary, they can be simultaneously experienced as mutually exclusive, creating paradoxical tensions. This study applied a grounded theory (GT) method to better understand how district managers (DMs) navigated the `corporate/field paradox? in their dual role. Specifically, the DMs were corporate employees who worked remotely in the field to support their respective regional stores, to essentially help their company succeed in the retail industry. Based on a social constructivist approach, 17 DMs? perspectives were gathered through an online questionnaire, and intensive interviews, to generate a theory that reflects how this social process is experienced and understood. Both individual and organizational facets were considered in the dual role navigation of the corporate/field paradox. The following theoretical elements were identified: context (personal and organizational), interpersonal dynamics (relationships, influencing effectiveness, communications), intrapersonal dynamics (cognition, emotions, challenges/rewards), overall impacts (personal and organizational), and adapting. Overall, the generated `Corporate/Field Paradox Theory? from this study proposes an interactive systems approach to better understanding how DMs navigate between all of these interrelated elements. For future research and practice, this theory offers a more holistic and nonlinear interpretation of how paradoxes might be experienced.

<p> The purpose of this study was to understand the implications of management support and employee engagement on the improvement of organizational efficiency, as a byproduct of employees adopting organizational Project Management Methodologies (PMMs). Previous PMM-based research has not focused on assessing the (a) influence of management support and employee engagement on PMM adoption or (b) effect of PMM adoption on organizational efficiency. The PMM adoption and resistive factors researched included: PMM practices, training, coaching, PMM design involvement, PMM feedback, project type, employment type, and PMM practitioner experience level. An exploratory qualitative research method was supported by an online survey data collection method and thematic analysis data analysis method. Two Project Management Institute (PMI) Chapters comprised a sample population of over 2400 professionals. A sample size of 29 surveys was acquired through data collection that produced five key themes: (a) PMM tailoring, (b) vetting of PMM best practice, (c) good communications, (d) management support via PMM training and coaching, and (e) employee engagement via proactive involvement and reactive feedback with the caveat of receiving fair treatment. These themes promoted PMM adoption and accumulatively support higher levels of organizational efficiencies. Research findings enrich existing knowledge surrounding PMM adoption and organizational efficiency due to the pre-existing research gap.</p><p>

<p> Youth-initiated mentoring that focuses on a mentee&rsquo;s academic goals has the potential to positively influence academic, social-emotional, and identity development in older adolescents while building enduring mentor-mentee relationships (DuBois et al., 2011, Schwartz &amp; Rhodes, 2016; Bayer, Grossman, &amp; DuBois, 2015; Karcher &amp; Nakkula, 2010). While the majority of youth mentoring research has focused on long-term (12 months or more) resiliency-based mentoring models, new emerging models like youth-initiated and academic instrumental mentoring need to be investigated (Rhodes, 2002; DuBois et al., 2002; Schwartz &amp; Rhodes, 2016). The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the influences of short-term youth-initiated mentoring on higher order cognitive skill development and mentor-mentee relationship quality. Participants included 145 high school students enrolled in an International private school&rsquo;s youth-initiated academic mentoring program who completed a digital survey twice over three months. The survey instrument included a descriptive section that collected participants&rsquo; demographic information while quantifying their youth mentoring experience, a Mentor-Youth Alliance Survey that assessed mentor-mentee relationship quality (Zand, Thomson, Cervantes, Espiritu, Klagholz, et al., 2009) and two measurement tools that assessed higher order cognitive skills including the Developmental Assets Profile internal assets (Scales, Benson, &amp; Mannes, 2006) and the future expectations the Survey of Academic Youth Outcomes Youth Survey future expectations (NOIST, 2013). Findings indicated that short-term youth-initiated academic mentoring positively influenced high order cognitive development in older adolescent students. In addition, youth-initiated mentoring may promote higher quality mentor-mentee relationships within 3 to 12 months.</p><p>

<p> The author presents as the ministry problem the dropout rate of Millennials from the church and argues as a partial solution an intentional strategy of mentoring in life fulfillment. It is posited that in addition to experiencing greater life fulfillment through a process of mentoring that is gospel centered although not overtly spiritual, it will naturally create a path to which a participant will likely explore faith in Christ if it does not exist, or have existing faith strengthened. The author created an intervention wherein he recruited 14 Millennials to participate in a 6-month mentoring process focusing on life fulfillment. Then using a mixed methodology approach administered the Life Fulfillment Questionnaire or LF-Q to measure quantitatively the degree to which a participant experienced greater life fulfillment. The author then administered the Life Fulfillment Interview or LF-I to measure qualitatively the degree to which a participant experienced growth in life fulfillment as well as to determine the degree to which a participant experienced greater growth and maturation in his/her spiritual life, confessed faith in Christ, or was more receptive to the claims of Christianity. The two instruments were compared and contrasted to determine areas of agreement or disagreement and to add greater clarity to areas of congruence. The author discovered that Millennials who participate in a mentoring process that focused on life fulfillment and that is gospel centered experienced growth in life fulfillment and that the process had a positive impact in terms of their faith in Jesus Christ. </p><p>

abstract: The goal of the present study was to investigate whether a rest period following the end of chronic stress would impact fear extinction. Past research has indicated that chronic stress leads to impairments in the learning and recall of fear conditioning extinction. Moreover, the effects of chronic stress can return to levels similar to controls when a post-stress “rest” period (i.e., undisturbed except for normal husbandry) is given prior to testing. Male rats underwent chronic restraint stress for 6hr/day/21days (STR-IMM). Some rats, underwent a post-stress rest period for 6- or 3-weeks after the end of stress (STR-R6, STR-R3). Control (CON) rats were unrestrained for the duration of the experiment. In Experiment 1, following the stress or rest manipulation, all rats were acclimated to conditioning and extinction contexts, fear conditioned with 3 tone-foot shock pairings, and then had two days of extinction training. All groups froze similarly to the tone across all training sessions. However, STR-R6/R3 froze less in the non-shock context than did STR-IMM or CON. During extinction training, STR-IMM showed high levels of freezing to the non-shock context, leading to a concern they may be generalizing across contexts. Consequently, a follow-up experiment tested for context generalization. In Experiment 2, STR-IMM rats underwent a generalization test in an environment that was either different or the same as the conditioning environment, using STR-R6 as a comparison. STR-IMM and STR-R6 showed similar relative levels of freezing to tone and context, regardless of their conditioning environment to reveal that STR-IMM did not generalize and instead, maybe expressing hypervigilance. Thus, the present study demonstrated the novel finding that a rest period from chronic stress can lead to reduced fear responsiveness in a non-shock environment. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2018

<p> Profiling has its traditions in criminal investigations where it is used to assist in apprehending an offender by examining and attempting to understand his or her psychological motivations and personality. Terrorist specialists and theorists have applied traditional profiling techniques in hopes of distinguishing nonterrorists from terrorists and in an endeavor to understand the motivators for radicalization. However, these attempts have created a divide between the theorists resulting in contradictory data and debate. With the rise of social media, the methods of terrorism have changed. The Islamic State (IS) in particular has tapped into using media, not only to recruit, but as a form of technological combat, which in turn has added to their success and strength. This dissertation introduces the theory of Combat Branding. The findings of this dissertation suggest that it is possible to create a deductive profile of Western IS recruits by beginning with the examination of IS&rsquo;s Combat Brand. This is a qualitative visual narrative study of official IS media consisting of video and still images. It is my hypothesis that starting with an analysis of the Combat Brand is a missing link to approaching a deductive profile of the intended target audience.</p><p>

<p> <i>Like an elephant, while it may be difficult to describe, corruption is generally not difficult to recognize when observed</i> (Tanzi, 1998, p. 564). Many countries have been, or are currently typified by both lethal conflict and massive corruption. Historically, post-conflict development programs have imposed policies of zero corruption, yet they routinely fail. Initial research into &ldquo;corruption&rdquo; also identified significant ambiguities and self-contradiction with the definition of corruption, itself. This study used an Existential Phenomenological methodology with 8 participants from Iraq, Afghanistan, Uganda, South Sudan and Sudan to: 1) redefine and model corruption within a global construct, 2) examine the current doctrine mandating zero tolerance for corruption, and 3) examine the potential for tolerating moderate levels of corruption in favor of reduced lethal violence. Corrupt behavior is alleged by this research to include financial as well as non-financial mechanisms, and is motivated by Human, Institutional and Cultural Factors of Corruption. This research robustly redefines corruption, and develops new theories/models to better explain corrupt behavior. These include the <i> Corruption Hierarchy</i>, the <i>Corruption Pyramid</i> and the <i>Universal Corruption Model</i>. The research was inconclusive with respect to the tolerance of corruption mitigating lethal conflict, but confirmed strong support for policies of zero tolerance. In redefining corruption, many political, social and cultural norms currently exhibited by nation states, including the United States, are corrupt if/when properly classified. <i> I&rsquo;m desperate about my country. You&rsquo;ve got to be strong in my country. If you are weak, they will take you.</i> (Jeremy from Iraq)</p><p>