This study compares the effect of text-based and narration-based multimedia presentation modalities on the accuracy and efficiency of procedural performance, a combination that the introduction to the New Standards for Elementary, Middle, Secondary, and Continuing Education of the New York State Education Department uses as the definition of "procedural fluency" (New York State Education Department, 2005). In addition, this study also examines the influence of reading skill on both procedural fluency resulting from and student choices of presentation modalities. By studying community college students with low computerized placement test scores, a wide range of reading skill levels was sampled. The independent variable, was the mode of presentation (text only, narration only, and learner's choice) in instruction to teach a new computer procedure. While results showed no overall advantage for any of the treatment conditions in procedural fluency, improvement was seen in the amount of time it took for students to complete the tutorial lesson when they were allowed to choose their preferred mode for receiving the lesson. The results showed that a disproportionately large portion of those students who failed to complete the procedure at all had been placed into the mode where reading was chosen for them. It was recommended that unless other factors dictate that the use of spoken presentations is counter-productive to the learning at hand, narration be included as an alternative presentation modality. This was recommended to increase the accessibility of the instructional product, to reduce the amount of time spent going through the lesson, and to increase the likelihood that learning of the procedure will take place. / A Dissertation submitted to the department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2005. / January 27, 2005. / Procedural Fluency, Media Comparison Studies, Audio Narration / Includes bibliographical references. / Walter W. Wager, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ian Douglas, Outside Committee Member; Amy L. Baylor, Committee Member; Allan Jeong, Committee Member.

The popularity of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI; Hathaway & McKinley, 1940), MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) and the Rorschach in the assessment of psychopathology in applied settings have been well established (Archer & Krishnamurthy, 1993b; Greene, 2000). Although it might be expected that the MMPI and the Rorschach would be interrelated, a review of the literature revealed little congruence between these two widely used assessment measures (Archer & Krishnamurthy, 1993a, 1993b; Ganellen, 1996a, 1996b, 1996c; Meyer, 1996; Meyer, 1997; Meyer, Riethmiller, Brooks, Benoit, & Handler, 2000). The general goal of this study was to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between the MMPI-2 and the Rorschach variables related to psychosis in a clinical population of adults. To accomplish this goal, the current study was broken down into two specific goals. . First, following previous convention (Meyer, 1997; Meyer et al., 2000), this study examined the effect of test interaction styles on the interrelationships between the MMPI-2 and the Rorschach on psychotic-related indices. Second, this study examined the incremental validity and the clinical utility of the MMPI-2 and Rorschach with regard to differential diagnosis in a sample of adult inpatients with a primary psychotic disorder (PPD) or a primary mood disorder without psychotic features (PMD). Results indicate that grouping patients according to test-interaction style, in the form of being either dilated or constricted when responding to the task, had minimal impact in the predicted direction on the level of convergence between the MMPI-2 and Rorschach. When test interaction styles were ignored, there were modest significant correlations between the MMPI-2 Sc and BIZ scales and the Rorschach PTI. Similarly when patients approached each test with a similar style, there were modest significant positive correlations between the MMPI-2 Sc and BIZ scales and the Rorschach PTI. When patients approached the test in an opposing manner, the MMPI-2 scales and the Rorschach variables tended to be negatively correlated. Despite significant correlations between the MMPI-2 Sc and BIZ scales and the Rorschach PTI, these correlations were small in magnitude, and were not consistent with those reported by Meyer et al. (2000) and Lindgren and Carlsson (2002). On its own, the PTI showed a better overall classification rate than the MMPI-2. The PTI was able to correctly classify PPD and PMD patients 84% of the time as compared to 70% when the MMPI-2 variables were used. To assess the clinical utility of the MMPI-2 and Rorschach in differentiating psychotic patients from non psychotic patients, diagnostic efficiency statistics were computed at each block of the hierarchical regression analyses. When the MMPI-2 variables were entered first into the analyses, diagnostic efficiency statistics indicated that the addition of the Rorschach PTI contributed to the prediction of group membership above what was predicted by the MMPI-2 variables. When the Rorschach PTI was entered first into the analyses, diagnostic efficiency statistics showed that the MMPI-2 scales were not able to add to the predictive capacity of the Rorschach / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: April 23, 2007. / Psychosis, MMPI-2, Rorschach / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances Prevatt, Professor Directing Dissertation; Thomas Joiner, Jr., Outside Committee Member; Gary Peterson, Committee Member; F. Donald Kelly, Committee Member.

This study applied Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the robustness of parameter estimates for a two-level Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) to the violations of the second-level residual homoskedasticity and independence assumptions. It considered these violations in the context of a typical HLM model with random intercepts as outcomes, a model that has been commonly used in value-added analysis for school settings. The study had a factorial design with unbalanced data, where five factors were considered in the simulations. The first two represented variance and independence assumption violations, while the other three were conditional. The baseline values for the model specifications and sample size reflected results obtained from HLM analysis conducted on an actual school data system. Variations of these values were considered in representing the five study factors. The first factor represented three homoskedasticity levels of the residuals at the second level of the model: no assumption violation, moderate violation, and an extreme violation. The second factor represented three independence levels for the residuals at the second level of the model: no assumption violation, a violation by misspecifing a second-level predictor having a medium-positive effect size, and a violation by misspecifing a second-level predictor having a small-negative effect size. The other three factors in the study included three levels of collinearity among second-level predictors; two sample sizes at the second level; and two average sample sizes at the first level. The five factors manipulated in this study produced 108 conditions, and 100 replications were used for each condition. The robustness of the HLM parameter estimates was evaluated through the absolute and relative bias, the mean square error, and the absolute and relative inaccuracy of their apparent standard errors. In addition, a five-way factorial ANOVA was used to identify significant and relatively important main and interaction effects of the study factors on the bias of the estimates for each parameter. In addition, graphs were utilized mainly to show variations in the accuracy of the apparent precision of the estimates for each parameter under the study conditions. The study results showed that the HLM parameter estimates and their apparent precision were robust to moderate and severe differences in second-level residual variances. However, they relied heavily on having independent second-level residuals, resulting from a correctly specified model. When the independence assumption of the second-level residuals was violated, the HLM parameter estimates of the second-level predictors and variance were biased and the accuracy of the apparent precision of all HLM second-level parameter estimates decreased. The effect of this violation became more evident as sample size was decreased, particularly at the second level. This effect depended also on the parameter of interest, the correlation of the misspecified predictor with other predictors included in the model, in addition to the effect size and sign of this misspecified predictor. When the assumption violation factors interacted with the conditional factors, collinearity level and sample sizes, the pattern of their effects on bias and accuracy of apparent precision differed from their pattern when they were considered separately. More specifically, the pattern of interaction was considerable for the independence assumption violations. The results also showed that the apparent standard errors produced by HLM had a tendency to be larger than the actual standard errors for all parameters, particularly with small sample sizes. This could be partially attributed to the correlation among the predictors at the different levels of the model and centering-related issues. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2004. / Date of Defense: December 12, 2003. / Multilevel Models, Level-2 Asssumptions, School Effectiveness, Value-added Model Full Maximum Likelihood Error Variance / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard L. Tate, Professor Directing Dissertation; Colleen Kelley, Outside Committee Member; Albert Oosterhof, Committee Member; Akihito Kamata, Committee Member.

The purpose of the present study is to explore various risk factors which may potentially be used to predict and distinguish two subtypes of juvenile sexual offenders (JSOs): (1) juvenile sexual offenders with a history of antisocial behavior (JSO- generalists) and (2) juvenile sexual offenders without a history of antisocial behavior (JSO-specialists). The overall goal of this study was to fill a gap in the research by providing empirical support for two different developmental pathways that may lead to juvenile sexual problem behaviors. Although several theories have been proposed, the etiology and developmental pathways of sexual offending behavior in juveniles remains unclear (Parks & Bard, 2006). Consequently, predictive factors and differences among subgroups of juvenile sexual offenders remain inconclusive. Logistic Regression was used to examine the relationship between the categorical dependent variable of history of antisocial behavior (present or absent) and several risk factors associated with sexual recidivism. Potential covariates were screened and entered into the model, if significant. Descriptive statistics were also used to describe background characteristics. The developmental model of sexual aggression proposed by Seto and Barbaree (1997) describes at least two types of sex offenders; the first type described as persistently antisocial with the second type being described as less antisocial, but more likely to demonstrate deviant sexual interests. In addition to providing empirical support for different developmental pathways of sexual aggression, identifying different risk factors among these two types of offenders will provide significant implications for the treatment and assessment of juvenile sexual offenders. The current study sought to answer the following research questions: 1) Is there an overall relationship between the outcome variable--group membership based on history of antisocial behavior (JSO-specialist vs. JSO-generalist) and the predictor variables: single-parent home, use of physical force or threats, child victim, male victim, sexual victimization history, exposure or experience of domestic violence, lack of empathy, and lack of remorse, after controlling for history of ADHD, failed/held back status, and ESE/SLD class enrollment? 2) Which predictor variable(s) predict group membership based on history of antisocial behavior? If significant, how does the predictor variable(s) affect group membership? Based on a review of the literature, it was predicted the risk factors: use of threats or force during the offense, lack of empathy, lack of remorse, exposure or experience of domestic violence, and single-parent home would be significant predictors of JSO-generalist group membership. Where as, it was predicted that the risk factors of sexual victimization history, having a male victim, and having a child victim, would be significant predictors of JSO-specialist group membership. History of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), held back/failed status, and enrollment in ESE or SLD classes were screened as potential confounds based on prior research linking ADHD and academic difficulties with antisocial behavior (e.g., Lahey & Loeber, 1997). In addition, it was suspected that group differences in intellectual ability could potentially impact the variables of lack of empathy and lack of remorse due to differences in stages of moral development. The omnibus model was a significant predictor of group membership (JSO-specialist vs. JSO-generalist). However, there was not a significant increase in the effect size from model 1 to model 2. In other words, the predictors were unable to significantly increase the prediction beyond what was already accounted for by the covariates. Looking at the individual impact of each of the predictors, the coefficients indicate that lack of empathy was a significant positive predictor of history of antisocial behavior after controlling for ADHD, ever held back/failed status and enrollment in ESE/SLD classes. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2008. / Date of Defense: October 23, 2008. / Delinquency, Specialists, Ceneralists, Juvenile Sex Offenders / Includes bibliographical references. / Donald Kelly, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ann Mullis, Outside Committee Member; Steven Pfeiffer, Committee Member; Beth Phillips, Committee Member.

Within the last decade, risk sports and activities have received a great deal of attention within the psychological arena. With this attention, risk sport participants have been identified as registering high in the sensation-seeking personality trait, displaying an enhanced degree of self-efficacy, and reflecting a paratelic metamotivational state dominance. Recently, research within this domain has provided evidence that risk sport participants actively engage in a degree of deliberate and purposeful preparatory behavior, which is contrary to the impulsive and spontaneous generalizations that often characterize these sport participants. Preparatory behavior is often engaged in by risk sport participants in an attempt to positively influence the appraisal of their risk sport environment. Through the use of preparatory behavior such as rehearsing task-specific motor movements, checking weather reports, and establishing contingency plans, risk sport participants attempt to increase their perception of control over task-relevant and environmental stimuli. As a result of this planning-related behavior, participants can successfully enhance their perceptual control over their sport environment. Consequently, risk sport participants often obtain an increased degree of motivational desire to participate, and risk sport performance is often enhanced. The current investigation sought to empirically test the effect of manipulating risk sport participants' cognitive resources prior to engaging in a risk sport task. Inexperienced and experienced climbing participants (N =72) were either prompted or unprompted to engage in preparatory behavior, or were cognitively interfered with via completion of several mental puzzles (i.e., verbal responses to mathematical equations, etc.) prior to engaging in a timed top-roping (i.e., vertical) task. This manipulation was done in an attempt to influence climbing participants' degree of planning, their perceptual control over the risk sport environment, their degree of motivation to complete the climbing task, and their overall risk sport performance (i.e., time to complete the climb). Participants' degree of climbing experience was also investigated to determine the degree to which climbing experience moderated the effect of the manipulation in regards to planning, perceptions of control, motivation, and performance. Results of the current investigation support previous research that risk sport participants do actively engage in preparatory behavior. Specifically, the manipulation of cognitive resources was found to significantly affect climbing participants' planning-related behavior. Furthermore, participant climbing experience was found to significantly affect participants' degree of planning, perceptual control, and risk sport performance. Climbing participants who were either instructed to plan or afforded a time interval to plan if they so chose to, reported significantly higher degrees of planning than participants' who were cognitively interfered with. Climbing participants who reported higher degrees of planning tended to report descriptively higher perceptions of control, a higher degree of motivation, and recorded faster climbing times. Discussion concerns the influence of preparatory behavior on perceptual control, motivation, and performance within risk sports and activities. Preparatory behavior, which is contrary to the tenants of the paratelic metamotivational state dominance characteristic of risk sport participants, is also addressed. Future research in regards to the role of preparatory behavior within risk sport activity should address a diverse selection of sports and activities. Furthermore an attempt to further examine the relationship between preparatory behavior and perceptual control is warranted. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2010. / Date of Defense: May 13, 2010. / Planning, Risk Sports, Motivation, Performance / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert C. Eklund, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robert Glueckauf, University Representative; Gershon Tenenbaum, Committee Member; David W. Eccles, Committee Member.

SES related differences in children’s early language skills influence their later language development. Parent-child verbal interactions during the initial years of children’s life play an important role in children’s early language development. Although both mothers’ and fathers’ early language input contributes to children’s language skills, until recently mothers were considered as the only primary caregivers of children and thus have been the focus of majority of the research in this area. The father’s role in a family has evolved in the past three decades meaning that fathers are increasingly spending more time with their children and contributing to their overall development. The evidence from limited research comparing mothers’ and fathers’ early speech with their preschool aged children is mixed. Also, some findings, mainly derived from research on mothers, suggest that parents socialize their sons and daughters differently, which reflects in early parent-child verbal interactions. In contrast, some research suggests that children, by the function of their own gender, elicit speech differently from their parents. Furthermore, there is an indication of differences in mother-son, mother-daughter, father-son, and father-daughter early talk. Considering the important role of parent and child gender in early parent-child verbal interactions, the current study aimed to compare parental quantity/quality and children’s quantity of language among the four independent groups of father-daughter, father-son, mother-daughter, and mother-son. A total of 112, mainly African-American, parent-child dyads were recruited for this study. Specifically, the sample included 32 father-daughter, 28 father-son, 26 mother-daughter, and 25 mother-son dyads. The convenience sample of children (37-60 months of age) and their respective mother or father were recruited from preschools known to serve a socio-economically disadvantaged population in the southeastern US. Semi-structured parent-child play sessions were videotaped at the child’s child-care facility for approximately 15-minutes. The videotapes were coded for parents’ quantity and quality of language and children’s quantity of language. The results indicated no differences among father-daughter, father-son, mother-daughter, and mother-son groups in terms of parental quantity/quality of language and children’s quantity of language. Suggesting the bi-directional nature of early parent-child interaction process, the exploratory analysis revealed significant differences in correlations among parental quantity/quality and child quantity of language across the four groups of this study. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / June 30, 2017. / Early child language development, Early parent-child interaction, Father-child interaction / Includes bibliographical references. / Beth M. Phillips, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ithel Jones, University Representative; Alysia Roehrig, Committee Member; Yanyun Yang, Committee Member.

This study explored maintenance of psychological method use and self-efficacy of method use during and following a systematic psychological skills training (PST) program. A sample size of 44 division-I collegiate athletes (27 males, 17 females) competing in baseball (n=19), softball (n=14), and track and field (n=11) sports participated in a quasi-experimental, two-group, untreated control group design study with dependent pretest-posttest and three-month follow-up. The PST program, titled AIM (Adopt, Integrate, Maintain), combined evidence-based practices with pragmatic psychological method use recommendations, and was implemented using systematic protocols for each session. Participants received four successive and cumulative PST sessions consisting of goal setting, relaxation, imagery, and self-talk that emphasized education, skill building, self-monitoring, and regulation of psychological methods. Participants were measured on use of psychological methods via the Test of Performance Strategies-2 (TOPS-2; Hardy, Roberts, Thomas, & Murphy, 2010) and self-efficacy in use of psychological methods via a scale constructed based on Bandura’s (2006) recommendations. Both measures were administered pretest (pre-intervention), posttest (one week following fourth session), and at six-week follow-up. Repeated measures MANOVAs conducted for method use and method efficacy separately, revealed nonsignificant interaction effects. Conversely, within-subjects contrasts revealed treatment group participants significantly increased (pre- to posttest) and maintained (posttest to follow-up) method use in relaxation, imagery, and self-talk. Control group contrasts indicated significant increases in imagery from posttest to follow-up. For method efficacy, the treatment group significantly increased and maintained efficacy for all four methods with no significant changes for the control group. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first sport psychology study to employ intervention fidelity monitoring, revealing full adherence and adequate intervention quality. Overall, findings from the study revealed support for increasing and maintaining method use and efficacy treatment gains three months following PST. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 10, 2017. / Maintenance, Psychological Skills Training, Psychological skill use, Self-Efficacy, Self-Regulation, Sport Psychology / Includes bibliographical references. / Graig Chow, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lynn Panton, University Representative; Gershon Tenenbaum, Committee Member; Jeannine Turner, Committee Member.

This study used data from the High School Longitudinal Study [2009-2013] to address racial/ethnic and gender similarities and differences in the relationships among behavioral engagement, self-efficacy beliefs, academic achievement in mathematics and future career choices in a sample of 23,450 ninth-graders in the U.S. The data were analyzed using the Log-linear Model Selection Multinomial Logistic Regression programs in SPSS. The results indicated that students with low behavioral engagement and low self-efficacy in mathematics were more likely to obtain very low GPAs in math, while those with moderate behavioral engagement and moderate self-efficacy were less likely to obtain low GPAs. On the other hand, students were more likely to choose math, science and technology careers only when both their behavioral engagement and self-efficacy were moderate. Whenever behavioral engagement or self-efficacy in mathematics was low, they were more likely to choose other white-collar or predominantly blue-collar careers. There were also significant variations in the relationships among the variables depending on students’ race/ethnicity and gender. Finally, students’ gender, self-efficacy in mathematics, and the interaction of behavioral engagement and self-efficacy in math were all significant predictors of students’ certainty about their future career choices. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the Master of Science. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 13, 2017. / Behavioral Engagement, Career Choice, Gender, Race/Ethnicity, Self-efficacy in Mathematics / Includes bibliographical references. / Susan C. Losh, Professor Directing Thesis; Alysia Roehrig, Committee Member; Jeannine Turner, Committee Member.

Disparities in school discipline for Black students has been a problem for decades. The negative effects of exclusionary discipline have been well-documented. This problem must be addressed by educational stakeholders in order to take steps to reduce the issue and provide interventions to reduce the disproportionality. Disproportionality in discipline prevents schools from achieving the ultimate goal of fostering positive outcomes for all students. School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support Programs have created a systems-level approach to reducing overall school discipline issues. Some studies have identified SW-PBIS programs that have been able to reduce disparities in secondary schools and increase graduation rates, however, studies of SW-PBIS and disproportionality have overlooked disparities in elementary schools. The present study contributed to the current research base by investigating elementary disparity rates and how schools are using a SW-PBIS system to lower those rates. It also identifies factors that create strong programs successful in reducing disparity rates as well as factors that hinder the success of schools with disparity problems. This qualitative analysis revealed four themes that are critical to the success of a SW-PBIS system in lowering disparity rates: training, finding the root of the negative behavior, high expectations, and support for teachers. Implications for professional development, data tracking, and measuring disproportionality in schools are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education. / Summer Semester 2018. / May 17, 2018. / Discipline Disparities, SW-PBIS / Includes bibliographical references. / Stacey Rutledge, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ithel Jones, University Representative; Helen Boyle, Committee Member; Motoko Akiba, Committee Member.

The purpose of this research was to generate an understanding of the impact of Title I funding on high-poverty schools. Although the Title I policy was designed to provide supplemental funding to high poverty schools, research has uncovered that the highest poverty schools are not always the schools that receive the supplemental funds. This study was motivation by two research questions: (1) How do teachers and administrators in two schools in a Central Florida school district describe their experiences of working within high-poverty schools in years with and without Title I funding; and (2) How do the cases of these two schools help us understand the impact of the Title I funding allocation processes on the working of schools in one school district in Central Florida? Through a qualitative research approach these research questions were answered. Interviews were conducted across two school sites to explore the experiences of teachers and administrators within two high-poverty schools in years with and without Title I funding. The findings revealed that the loss of support that Title I funding provided caused a negative impact on the morale of teachers and students. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education. / Summer Semester 2018. / May 11, 2018. / equitable education, equity in schools, funding in schools, high-poverty schools, students living in poverty, Title I / Includes bibliographical references. / Ayesha Khurshid, Professor Directing Dissertation; Steve McDowell, University Representative; Robert Schwartz, Committee Member; Stephanie Zuilkowski, Committee Member.