<p> The purpose of this quantitative research study is to analyze the relationship between individual cognitive, behavioral, and motivational characteristics and sales quota attainment for three industrial sales organizations in West Virginia. The intent of the study is to learn more about organizational efforts to implement an effective system for hiring to identify top performing talent in order to accomplish sales goals. From a human performance improvement perspective, this research study applies both the Behavior Engineering Model (Gilbert, 1978) and the Human Performance Improvement / HPT Model (Van Tiem, Moseley, &amp; Dessinger, 2012). The Behavior Engineering Model allowed the researcher to determine which individual characteristics are relevant for the purpose of this study. The Human Performance Improvement/HPT Model further allowed the researcher to define the issue of the recruiting approach of sales as a performance gap. Individual cognitive, behavioral, and motivational characteristics of 238 sales representatives were assessed using a psychometric assessment tool, the ProfileXT&copy; (Profiles International, I, 2007). A stepwise multiple regression was conducted to evaluate which ProfileXT&copy; scale scores were most effective at predicting sales performance. The only factor significantly related to sales performance was Independence, F (1,236) = 18.286, p &lt; .001, with a multiple correlation coefficient of .268, indicating that approximately 7.18% of the variance in sales performance could be accounted for by independence alone. Further analysis indicated no other significant predictor variables from the ProfileXT&copy; scales. The researcher concluded with recommendations for future research.</p>

<p> PURPOSE. The purpose of this study was to identify the career benefits and calculate the return on investment (ROI) of unpaid volunteer leadership as perceived by chapter leaders in a professional talent development industry association. The definition of career benefits was adapted from Hirschi&rsquo;s Career Resources Model, which includes: social capital, human capital, career identity and psychological resources (2012). Additionally, this study used the ROI Institute&rsquo;s ROI MethodologyTM to identify and calculate the costs and benefits of volunteer leadership to determine the ROI of time served as an unpaid volunteer leader (2013).</p><p> METHODS. This descriptive mixed-method study gathered quantitative and qualitative data via an online survey and semi-structured telephone interviews from 40 volunteer chapter leaders of the Association for Talent Development (ATD). </p><p> FINDINGS. There were multiple positive findings and several levels of ROI data documenting the strong value of volunteer leadership in a professional talent development association, and also demonstrating that there is very positive return from giving back to the profession. By giving their time and sometimes their money, volunteer leaders reaped multiple career benefits such as skill development, deeper relationships, publishing, contracts, speaking opportunities, new jobs and promotions. These specific career benefits resulted in a very significant positive financial ROI of 246%. </p><p> CONCLUSIONS. This study proved the paradox of volunteer leadership &mdash; often the main motivator is to give back, however what volunteer leaders receive is so much more. There is a strong tangible return on investment, as well as numerous intangible career benefits for serving as a volunteer leader in a professional talent development association. RECOMMENDATIONS. This study provides ideas for leveraging the value of volunteer leadership for individuals, associations and organizations. Individuals can improve or enhance their social capital, human capital, psychological resources and career identity. Associations can use this data to provide clear evidence of the value of volunteer leadership. Finally, corporations can encourage volunteer leadership as a tool to enhance or accelerate the leadership development of employees while also supporting professional industry associations.</p>

<p> The current study is a replication and extension of Wilson and Ryan (2013), the goal of which study was to reduce the size of the 34-item Professor-Student Rapport Scale via principal components analysis. In light of several shortcomings of their methods, including use of an inadequate sample size, we sought to determine whether or not the two factors were replicable. An exploratory factor analysis conducted using an adequately large sample (>300) failed to replicate the factor structure previously found. Instead, we describe the emergence of two new factors: &ldquo;Professor Cares about Students&rdquo; and &ldquo;Professor Creates an Engaging and Constructive Atmosphere.&rdquo; The new factor-structure exhibited adequate model fit in a confirmatory factor analysis (<i>N</i> > 300) and significantly predicted five of the six student and course outcomes examined through multiple linear regressions (<i>N</i> >= 109 for all regression analyses). Importantly, in addition to methodological improvements, our results appear to have produced two factors &ndash; &ldquo;Professor Cares about Students&rdquo; and &ldquo;Professor Creates an Engaging and Constructive Atmosphere&rdquo; &ndash; that better capture the broader construct of professor-student rapport than did the previously identified factors. Implications of our findings for instructors wishing to establish rapport with their students are discussed, as are directions for future studies and remaining problems for the scale not addressed by the current research (namely, a need for discriminant validity). </p>

<p> Athletes are given many forms of advice about how to think in ways that promote persistence in the face of aversive and fatigue-producing events. This study evaluated the impact of different kinds of verbal statements on task persistence by athletes. Competitive CrossFit athletes from the Western United States were recruited to participate in one of two experiments. Experiment 1 employed a within subject, alternating treatments design (ATD); Experiment 2-used a pre-and-post group comparison. The ATD investigated the efficacy of three kinds of specific statements designed to increase performance during a demanding and stress-producing task: two were suggested by traditional sports psychology (a statement to focus on the task and a statement to distract from the task), and one suggested by Relational Frame Theory (RFT) and the concept of psychological flexibility (a statement to focus on willingness to persist in the face of aversive emotions). The pre/post group design aimed to replicate and statistically improve the power of the effects indicated in Experiment 1. Results from this program of research suggest that the statement focused on openness to experience improved task persistence significantly over baseline, and more so than a statement instructing athletes to distract themselves from the task. The willingness statement was also marginally more effective than the statement prompting the athletes to focus directly on the task.</p>

<p> The importance of effective leadership practices as related to environmental issues and climate change is well established by climate change policy negotiators and there has been an increasing trend in leadership roles being created in organizations to address environmental issues. Organizational change efforts focused on social responsibility initiatives, such as changing environmentally relevant behaviors, often generate significant costs for organizations without contributing to desired results and messages from leaders to stakeholders in organizations do not frequently align with performance related to those messages. The science of behavior analysis focuses on the prediction and influence of socially significant behavior and provides principles to address performance in organizational settings. In the current study, principles of behavior analysis were applied to examine the relationship between a leader&rsquo;s verbal behavior with an employee and that employee&rsquo;s performance. Antecedent rule statements about climate change and human behavior were emailed by a leader to employees to examine the effect of those communications on employee energy consumption as related to each individual employee&rsquo;s values about anthropogenic climate change. In an analysis of employee reported values as related to human-caused climate change and the effects of leader communication on energy consumption behavior based on those individual values, results provided additional information about the potential utility of tailoring leader communication to employee values and also provided findings that informed future research directions in the area of the effect of a leader&rsquo;s verbal behavior on employee performance in context of values.</p>

<p> This research aims to provide evidence that will serve to better the quality of treatment in residential care settings for the at-risk adolescent population. Because of the various factors associated with iatrogenic effects in residential care settings and because of the impact that the developmental stage of adolescence has on later adulthood, attempts to increase this treatment quality type becomes salient. Contemporarily, dialectical behavioral therapy is utilized in residential care settings with the at-risk adolescent population and has research supporting its&rsquo; efficacy. Although dialectical behavioral therapy is utilized in this context and has demonstrated effective, it is often only provided in therapy and not in the milieu. Because of the quantity of time clients in residential care settings spend in the milieu with milieu staff, these experiences likely influence their overall therapy progress. Therefore, this research hypothesizes that dialectical behavioral therapy&rsquo;s use in the milieu in addition to therapy will increase overall therapy progress for the client population than if treatment as usual were to proceed. This research was conducted in a residential care setting for at-risk adolescents and collected data during a treatment as usual assessment period; provided the intervention of training milieu staff in dialectical behavioral therapy theory, strategies, and adolescent adaptations; and collected data during a dialectical behavioral therapy treatment assessment period. Concluding is a statistical analysis of the measurable changes between assessment periods, an interpretation of the results, a discussion regarding generalization of the findings, limitations, and future considerations.</p>

<p> Evidence Based Practices (EBPs) in schools show promise in meeting the behavioral health needs of urban students, however there are multiple barriers to implementation. Providers&rsquo; attitudes towards EBPs may be one of these barriers. Through a cross sectional survey design, this dissertation answers four major research questions: 1) Is the EBPAS-50 an appropriate tool to use with school based behavioral health providers, 2) Do attitudes vary depending on level of experience (student vs. professional), 3) Do attitudes vary depending on a practitioners&rsquo; hire status (school-hired vs. non-school hired), and 4) Do EBPAS-50 scores predict implementation of EBPs? Participants were 160 school behavioral health providers who provided at least one hour per week of direct or indirect services within the Boston Public Schools. Results indicated that the factor structures for the EBPAS-50 and EBPAS- 15 did not hold with this population, however the EBPAS-15 was used for further analysis as it has been validated many times since its introduction. Using the EBPAS-15: 1) graduate students reported more positive attitudes than professionals, 2) school-hired providers reported more positive attitudes than non-school hired providers, and 3) there was no correlation between attitudes and use of EBPs. Though differences may have been statistically significant, it is questionable as to whether these differences are practically significant as the average, rounded, response from providers indicated that they agreed with EBPs to &ldquo;a great extent&rdquo;. This suggests need for ongoing research to identify: 1) aspects of evidence based practices that are important to school-based providers, and 2) a revised tool to measure the attitudes of school-based providers towards EBPs.</p>

<p> Contrary to the dominant view that generally equates feelings with poor thinking, converging evidence indicates that decisions &ndash; including those involving risk &ndash; are influenced by affective experiences. Research, however, is limited to studies on undifferentiated, global positive versus negative mood states; less is known about the influence of discrete emotions. The purpose of this research was to extend the affect-cognition literature by (a) examining the effects of discrete emotions varying along the dimensions of valence and arousal, and (b) identifying the systematic ways that discrete emotions underlie risky decision making. We used a set of emotion-laden IAPS images to elicit and compare the impact of incidental emotions on risky decision making. One hundred and twenty-two undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of the four affective conditions: excitement, contentment, fear, and sadness. Following the emotion induction procedure, participants completed the Choice Dilemmas Questionnaire (CDQ) to assess their risk-taking propensity. Results indicated an interaction effect between valence and arousal for positive emotions, such that excited participants were significantly more risky in their decision making compared to contented participants. The discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical health implications of these findings. We recommend that future research capitalize on the insights gained from emotion research and use it favorably to improve decision making under risk. </p>

<p> This thesis, by analyzing how rape is treated in William Shakespeare&rsquo;s <i> Titus Andronicus</i> (1592-3), Thomas Middleton and William Rowley&rsquo;s <i> The Changeling</i> (1622), and Aphra Behn&rsquo;s <i>The Rover</i> (1677), details how the early modern English theater frequently dramatizes the period&rsquo;s problematic understanding of rape. These texts reveal the social and legal illegibility of rape, illuminating just how deeply ambivalent and inconsistent patriarchy is toward female sexuality. Both using and departing from a feminist critical tradition that emphasized rape as patriarchy&rsquo;s sexual entrapment of women, my readings of the period&rsquo;s legal treatises and other documents call attention to the ambiguity of how rape is defined in early modern England. As represented in these three plays, male rapists exploit the period&rsquo;s paradoxical views of female sexual consent, thus complicating how raped women negotiate their social and legal status. The process of disclosing her violation ultimately places a raped woman in an untenable position.</p>

<p> This mixed methods study examined the proactive personalities of cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Survey responses from first- and third-year cadets were analyzed to examine the influence of a cadet&rsquo;s proactive personality on several factors, to include perceived organizational support, leader-member exchange, affective commitment, job performance, job satisfaction, and intention to quit. Findings indicated that cadets&rsquo; proactive personalities significantly predicted their levels of perceived organizational support, the quality of their leader-member exchanges, their emotional commitment to the Academy, their job satisfaction, and their job performance as measured by their Military Performance Average. In addition, social desirability moderated the relationship between the cadets&rsquo; proactive personalities and their intention to quit. Furthermore, experiences and perspectives of cadets were captured using open-ended survey questions which addressed how cadets define proactivity, how cadets engage in proactive behavior, how naturally proactive cadets are perceived, how being proactive is important to leader development, and how being proactive benefitted the cadets. The collective responses contributed to the overall essence of what it means to be proactive at the Academy from the perspectives of cadets. Overall, findings supported the notion that encouraging cadets to be proactive and helping them gain access to being proactive may contribute to their leadership development. As such, the proactive personality construct should be considered as part of the CCLD&rsquo;s (2011) Conceptual Framework for Developing Leaders of Character, specifically within the area of cadets owning their development, the first step in the deliberate process of leader development at the Academy.</p>