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Today students confront more than writing, reading, and arithmetic in school. Students witness and participate in various forms of bullying at an alarming rate. As educators we must help create an environment that is conducive for all students to learn. This study examines college students' definitions and perceptions of incidents of bullying that they witnessed, or where they were the victim or perpetrator. Through 41 in-depth interviews and utilizing the constant comparative method of analysis, themes were identified including reasons students bully and are bullied, such as: weight, size, clothing, being perceived as different, sexual preferences, and placement in special education. Clothing as a reason for bullying emerged as a theme that was echoed by many of those interviewed. Whether it was the brand name of the clothes, where they were purchased, or the style of the clothes, several participants were bullied and bullied others because of clothing. Participants' definitions of bullying were from the perspective of those who are bullied, bully, and who have witnessed bullying, and included defining emotional bullying. Other students noted in their definitions the role of groups and the role of power in incidents of bullying. Unique to this study were participants' recollections of regrets. These regrets were from those participants who had participated as a bully or as a witness. In addition, themes that emerged in the data included: how students perceive teachers' involvement in incidents of bullying, ways to reduce bullying in schools, where bullying occurs, and why some people bully. / Ph. D.

Profound changes have taken place in the role of the American female; she is no longer only a wife and mother because 51.2 percent of the total population 16 years and over are employed outside the home. The importance of this segment of women has been evidenced in the popular literature and by retailers who have created specialty clothing areas catering to the employed woman. Clothing and the self-concept have been related in research studies for several years. Clothing also has been related to occupational aspirations. The purpose of the research was to develop a model using the theoretical concepts actual self-image, ideal self-image, clothing-image and achievement motivation to predict women's clothing behavior for work. Using the integrated self-concept theory, two hypotheses were formulated: 1) costumes which induce positive congruity will be worn more than costumes which induce positive incongruity or negative congruity, followed by negative incongruity; 2) there will be a significant relationship between congruity and achievement motivation for five costumes. The instrument used to collect data was composed of a Clothing Congruity Measure which was developed using five costume images: feminine, business-like, casual, sexy and collegiate. The self-administered questionnaire, including the Clothing Congruity Measure, the Mehrabian and Banks ACHS, the Tausky and Dubin COAS and a demographic section was mailed to 65 faculty and 65 staff at three land grant universities. The rate of return was 60 percent or 227 usable questionnaires. A two-way analysis of variance was used to test the first hypothesis. Clothing behavior means for the feminine, business-like, casual and sexy images followed the expected pattern of congruity, however, the collegiate image did not. An aggregate analysis of all costumes supported the hypothesis that an hierarchical order of congruity conditions existed. The second hypothesis was not supported. Congruity and career anchorage position and congruity and achievement motivation reached a statistical level of significance, using Pearson correlations, for the business-like outfit, but not for the other costume images. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between appearance management, created appearance, body cathexis, and clothing behavior for a group of women enrolled in a commercial weight loss program. Subjects were 171 females enrolled in Weight Watchers® programs in Christiansburg, Virginia. No previous research had investigated clothing behavior, appearance management, created appearance, and body cathexis of women in a weight loss program. Because clothing is such an integral part of the self, it was important to examine the influences and contributions of this variable to weight loss. The proposed research model hypothesized that the following variables would be related: appearance management and created appearance, created appearance and body cathexis, body cathexis and current clothing behavior, and created appearance and current clothing behavior. Other hypotheses tested the relationships between current clothing behavior and prior clothing and between demographics and the following variables: appearance management, created appearance, body cathexis, and current clothing behavior. Results indicated that a greater percentage of weight loss was related to a higher average body cathexis score. Respondents wore clothing that emphasized body parts with which they were more satisfied, and wore clothing that did not emphasize body parts with which they were less satisfied. Results indicated that after weight loss, respondents wore clothing that would emphasize their body with more frequency and also wore clothing that would hide or camouflage their body with less frequency. Current clothing behavior also seemed to be influenced by age and marital status. Findings from the present study provide new information about how women choose clothing based on the level of satisfaction with their bodies and where they have experienced a weight loss. The findings also provide information about the types and styles of clothing that women choose as a result of losing weight. Women in weight loss programs can use clothing to enhance their appearance and improve their body image. By increasing body satisfaction and feeling better about their bodies as they are going through the weight loss program, they may be more likely to continue with their efforts and be more successful in their weight loss. / Ph. D.

Chemical protective clothing is designed to protect the worker by providing a barrier between the individual and the contaminated environment. Unfortunately, the same equipment that is designed to help can often cause heat stress, reduced task efficiency, and reduced range-of-motion for the worker. Teams as well as individuals suffer from these effects resulting in difficulty communicating, increased task completion time, and reduced productivity. Studies investigating the effects of protective clothing generally focus on individuals; however, the military has produced research related to the effects of Mission Oriented Protective Posture (MOPP) on team performance outcomes in an attempt to understand how protective clothing might affect military teams and squads. Previous research has indicated a degradation of team performance as shown by increased task completion time; however, a comprehensive team performance measurement system studies not only the performance outcomes, but also the processes behind the outcomes. In order to provide a more complete understanding of the performance effects of protective clothing and equipment, this investigation focused on the effects of MOPP on the behavioral processes underlying team performance to include adaptability, communication, and coordination. It also attempted to validate previous studies on performance outcomes. Ten subjects formed five, two-member teams. Subjects were certified EMT's from local rescue squads and were required to perform CPR and spinal injury management (SIM). They performed each task twice-once in their duty uniform and once in MOPP level 4. Team performance was measured using the TARGETS methodology, and event-based team process performance measurement technique. A team performance index score (TPI) was calculated for each team for all four tasks and then used as the dependent measure for the analyses to compare team performance in a duty uniform versus performance in MOPP 4. Three hypotheses were tested in this study. They were as follows: team process performance will be degraded by MOPP, task completion time will increase as a result of wearing MOPP, and errors will increase as a result of wearing MOPP. Results of six primary analyses indicated that team process performance was not degraded and the number of errors did not increase when teams were wearing MOPP 4. Results did show, however, that task completion time was significantly longer when teams were wearing MOPP 4. The implications of these results are discussed in the thesis and design changes are put forth. / Master of Science

Clothing is an important factor in the life of the high school girl and with the changing times it seems to become increasingly more so. Living as adolescent girls do today, there is a greater tendency for them to be judged by the clothing they wear. / Master of Science