Despite all the national efforts to increase STEM enrollment in the United States, the gap between the U.S. and other developed countries in terms of STEM graduates has widened over the last 20 years. Researchers have studied factors such as gender, race, high school GPA, and the student’s socioeconomic status for their impact on STEM enrollment. This study offers another possible explanation of why students might choose, or not choose, to enroll in STEM majors by examining the relationship between personality and STEM enrollment. the sample included 2,745 respondents to the 2008 Cooperative Institutional Research Program freshman survey at a large research university in the southwestern United States. Factor analysis was used to create four personality scales, based on John Holland’s theory of personality types, with items selected from the survey. Logistic regression was utilized to answer three research questions: Are students classified as a strong investigative personality type more likely to enroll in STEM majors than students classified as a weak investigative personality type? Are there differences in their likelihood to enroll in STEM majors among students of investigative-social, investigative-artistic, and investigative-enterprising personality types? What effect does personality have on students’ self-selection into a biological versus a physical STEM major? Results suggested that students with a combined investigative and social personality were more likely to enroll in STEM majors whereas students with a combined investigative and artistic personality were less likely to do so. Additionally, STEM students with an enterprising personality were more likely to choose a biological STEM major than a physical STEM major. These results should benefit educators and policy makers who seek to strengthen the pipeline into STEM fields.

The purposes of the present study are to attempt to discover if there is a predictable relationship between conflict and an increase in the number of choice alternatives, to specifically determine if this hypothesized relationship exists in a predictable order in children, to endeavor to show that this hypothesized relationship is such that generalization of application to a natural environment is credible, and to attempt to discover if there are sex differences that may influence this relationship.

This dissertation studies the occupational choices of women in developing countries. In Chapter 1, I examine how removing barriers to higher education for women affects their enrollment, marriage and labor outcomes. In 1992, Pakistan equalized admissions criteria for women and men applying to medical school. I show that the reform induced a rapid increase in the female proportion of medical graduates. Next, I use cross-birth cohort variation to show that post-reform women medical graduates were more motivated to work: they delayed marriage in their 20s and increased labor force participation in their 20s and 30s. When they married, they matched with higher earning spouses. I consider four channels of effect and find suggestive evidence in favor of a treatment effect of the reform. Equalizing admissions criteria especially induced women from middle class and migrant families to choose work over marriage in their 20s. In Chapter 2, I study how an increased proportion of women in medicine affects the structure of the medical sector and patient care. Post reform, the medical sector was increasingly feminized, women specialists entered male dominated specialties, and especially so in urban areas. In the short run, women patients’ experience with pregnancy and infant mortality did not change, suggesting that labor force composition changes take longer to affect downstream outcomes. Chapter 3 studies the effect of male-biased labor demand shocks on women's employment. I study shocks in the Indonesian mining sector using proprietary mine location data and instrumenting for mine value with the world price of minerals. Expansions in the mining industry lead to negligible changes in employment, but higher wages for women. They cause substantial shifts in individuals' sector and location of work. Both women and men move from agriculture to the service and mining sectors, and women are less likely to work without pay. Mining booms induce movements between districts, which may allow labor supply to adjust to changes in labor demand. Together, these results imply that shocks to a male dominated industry cause structural shifts that affect both genders.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor Educationis in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education Faculty of Education University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / The aim of this investigation was to determine learners’ attitudes towards language choice in secondary school. The focus was on secondary school learners attending schools where the medium of instruction is not in their mother tongue. An introductory literature review was provided of mother tongue education versus English as medium of instruction. Advocates of mother tongue education argue that a child learns better and quicker through the mother tongue than through an unfamiliar linguistic medium and it is also an important means of identification among the members of the community to which the child belongs. However, black communities are generally opposed to instruction in their home language because they view the indigenous languages as low status languages and as barriers to their upward mobility in a world dominated by English. In the South African society English is associated with prestige as it is in many other countries. An overview of the current language-in-education practices in South African high schools revealed that depending on which language is taught, as first language either English or Afrikaans is compulsory as a second language. English, as a first language and Afrikaans, which is their third or fourth language, as a second language. The problems experienced with second language instruction were discussed with reference to reading, writing, speaking and listening. For the purpose of the empirical investigation, a self-structured interview was conducted with the educators. A quantitative descriptive analysis was undertaken of the completed questionnaires and a qualitative analysis of the interviews. In conclusion a summary of the study and findings emanating from the literature and empirical investigation was presented. Based on these findings the following recommendations were made:  A school based language policy should be formulated in accordance with the national language-in-education policy but must also take into consideration the language needs of the learners in the school.  Indigenous languages must be developed and promoted by providing financial assistance and/or incentives for literature works and textbooks in the indigenous languages.  Educator training should include strategies to teach multilingual classes.

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Medical decision making is complicated and requires a full understanding of the options being presented. It is easy as a practitioner to assume that a patient has capacity, when in fact they might not. Evidence indicates that frequently with the best intentions, health care practitioners allow people to make medical decisions when they do not understand the implications of that choice. I believe that this happens when practitioners feel that the patient is autonomously making a choice that promotes beneficence. This too creates an ethical dilemma, as it does not fully promote autonomy if the patient does not have capacity to make the decision. I believe that further reflection can help physicians understand what motivates their patient’s, and their own, decision making. / Urban Bioethics