While there has been an increase in research concerning female offenders in recent years, there is no current standard for the comprehensive assessment of readiness for transition from a correctional environment into the community for this population. Most of the literature on female offenders focuses on factors contributing to criminal behavior and factors that predict recidivism risk with little focus on assessing readiness for transition from incarceration into society. Assessing and then addressing the special needs of women during incarceration may help them successfully re-enter society, live a quality life, and thus avoid recidivism. This study represents the first steps in the construction of a reliable and valid needs assessment, the Transition Readiness Scale, to pinpoint and target the needs of female inmates and enhance readiness for release. The Transition Readiness Scale was based on a theory of readiness involving two dimensions: complexity and capability (Sampson, Peterson, Reardon, & Lenz, 2000). Complexity refers to readiness factors relating to an individual's environment or circumstances. Capability refers to factors relating to an individual's abilities or competencies. Upon review of the literature concerning female inmates, nine content areas were chosen to represent the most salient readiness areas in female inmates: substance abuse, physical health, mental health, education, employment, support, spirituality, life skills/resources, and parenting. The instrument was developed in three phases. During the first phase, the items on the Transition Readiness Scale were written to assess the domains of complexity and capability across the nine content areas listed above. An average of five items per content area were written to represent each domain of complexity and capability, for a total of one hundred initial items. The items underwent professional critique and serial revisions. Data collection to refine the instrument was conducted utilizing female correctional inmates at a large southeastern federal women's prison. The second phase, Tryout, involved fifty subjects completing the 100-item Transition Readiness Scale. Items on the instrument were eliminated if they did not meet certain inclusion criteria or demonstrate significant statistical variability, resulting in an 85-item instrument. Also during this phase, a team of expert judges was asked to sort the items into the domains of "complexity" and "capability" for the purpose of assessing content validity. During the third phase, Field Trial, three hundred and fifty inmates completed a reduced version of the instrument, producing 324 valid data sets. These subjects also completed a background questionnaire for the purpose of describing the development sample. The data for this phase were analyzed using a confirmatory factor analysis. Background information was compiled and used to describe the sample. The results of this research indicate that the items on the Transition Readiness Scale represent the constructs of capability and complexity. Support was found for many of the content domains to be considered subscales of the measure, but such support was not found for some. The TRS can be considered a screening tool for the assessment of female inmates' capability and complexity needs to promote readiness for release into community living. Further development of the instrument is needed for all content domains to be considered subscales, and further reliability and validity studies need to be conducted. / 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, 2005. / Date of Defense: February 28, 2005. / Female immates, Female criminals, Female offenders, Feminism / Includes bibliographical references. / R. William English, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Gary W. Peterson, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Michael Railey, Committee Member; Richard L. Tate, Outside Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to examine how goal orientations, perceived competence, and strategy training affect college students' use of self-regulated learning strategies and achievement in learning foreign languages. One hundred seventeen undergraduates participated in the study. The students came from 8 introductory Arabic, Chinese, German, and Japanese classes, with 2 classes from each language. Students were categorized as either having task-involved goal orientation or ego-involved goal orientation. A median split method was used to categorize students into either with high perceived competence or with low perceived competence. One of the two classes of the same foreign language was randomly selected to receive self-regulated language learning strategy training. Students' use of self-regulated learning strategies was measured by a strategy inventory for foreign language learning. Students' achievement was measured by course-related tests. The results showed that students with task-involved goal orientation scored significantly higher than students with ego-involved goal orientation on self-regulated strategy use, but there was no significant difference in achievement. No interaction effect was found with student ego-involved goal orientation and perceived competence. The results showed no significant difference between students who received training and those who did not. The reasons for these findings were discussed. Implications of the findings as related to foreign language instruction were discussed. Implications for further research that might yield significant findings were also discussed. / 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, 2006. / Date of Defense: October 14, 2005. / Task-involved Goals, Self-regulation, Strategy Training, Ego-involved Goals, Goal Orientations, Motivation, Self-regulated Learning Strategy / Includes bibliographical references. / John Keller, Professor Directing Dissertation; Feng Lan, Outside Committee Member; Robert Reiser, Committee Member; Walt Wager, Committee Member.

After firstly investigating the correlations among students' omniscient authority beliefs, students' perceived teacher-directedness, and students' intra-group communication behaviors, this research explored the cultural differences between American students and Chinese students regarding to these variables. A total of 89 Chinese students and 131 American students participated in this research. The results indicated that students' naïve omniscient authority beliefs were positively correlated with their perceptions of higher teacher-directedness and negatively correlated with the mega-cognitive perspective of intra-group communication behavior. Meanwhile, differences were found between Chinese and American cultural groups with regards to students' omniscient authority beliefs, perceived teacher-directedness, and communication behaviors during cooperative learning. Chinese students tended to rely on themselves as the resources of information and knowledge and Chinese students perceived less teacher-directedness compared to American students. As to within-group communication behaviors, Chinese students were more excelled at time management while American students were more excelled at maintaining group affection. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: March 2, 2007. / SLA, Epistemological Beliefs, Instruction / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeanine E. Turner, Professor Directing Thesis; John Keller, Committee Member; Susan C. Losh, Committee Member.

Meta-analytic Structural Equation Modeling (MASEM) has drawn interest from many researchers recently. In doing MASEM, researchers usually first synthesize correlation matrices across studies using meta-analysis techniques and then analyze the pooled correlation matrix using structural equation modeling techniques. Several multivariate methods of MASEM have been proposed by the researchers. In this dissertation, I compared the commonly used multivariate methods for meta-analytic path modeling. Specifically, I examined the Generalized Least Squares (GLS) method (Becker, 1992; Becker & Schram, 1994) and the Two-Stage Structural Equation Modeling (TSSEM) method (Cheung, 2002; Cheung & Chan, 2005) using both simulation studies and real data analyses. Both the traditional GLS approach (Becker, 1992) and the modified GLS approaches (Becker & Fahrbach, 1994) were applied and compared with the TSSEM approach. Fixed-effects data and random-effects data were generated to see how these approaches differ at the first and second stages of MASEM. The results shows that the modified GLS approach performs as well as or better than the TSSEM approach in both the first step of synthesizing correlation matrices and the second step estimation of the parameters and standard errors, using both fixed-effects data and random-effects data. The original GLS approach only performs well when the within-study sample size is large enough (of the simulation situations in this dissertation, n ). Both the modified GLS approach and the TSSEM approach produce equivalent parameter estimates across all conditions. However, the standard errors from the TSSEM approach seem to be over-estimates under certain conditions. Overall, both the modified GLS and TSSEM approaches are appropriate for conducting meta-analytic path modeling and the difference in parameter estimates is minimal. / 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, 2011. / Date of Defense: January 14, 2011. / Meta-analytic SEM, GLS, multivariate / Includes bibliographical references. / Betsy Jane Becker, Professor Directing Dissertation; Yanyun Yang, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Xufeng Niu, University Representative; Robert Eklund, Committee Member.

Over the last 30 – 40 years, transitions (e.g. college, marriage, retirement), in general, and their outcomes have gained growing attention (Halamandarus & Power, 1999). Transitions break down habitual patterns of action and force the individual to form new behaviors to fit his or her novel experience (Dornbusch, 2000). Late adolescence is a period marked by numerous developmental changes and novel experiences that the individual needs to conquer in order to prepare for adulthood (Pratt, Bowers, Terzian, Hunsberger, Mackey, Thomas, et al., 2000; Tao, Dong, Pratt, Hunsberger, & Pancer, 2000). One significant juncture for many late adolescents is the entrance into college. Even though some students find the transition into college as a challenge to personal growth, many students are overwhelmed and experience stress (Wintre & Yaffe, 2000). In 1999, approximately 60% of adolescents attended college where as only 15% attended in the 1930s (Steinberg, 1999). Despite this increase in the pursuit of higher education, many college freshmen end up transferring from their original institution or dropping out of college entirely. The current university attrition rate among American and Canadian freshmen is 25% (Wintre, Bowers, Gordner, & Lange, 2006), although, this rate does not include students who transferred to another university or re-entered college at a later point. Several studies have reported the beneficial effects of social support during the transition to college (Pratt et al., 2000; Tao et al., 2000; Hinderlie & Kenny, 2002; Schwitzer, Robbins, & McGovern, 1993; Halamandaris & Power, 1999). In particular, studies have found that peer support significantly affects one's adjustment to college (Hinderlie & Kenny, 2002; Pratt et al., 2000; Giacobbi, Lynn, Wetherington, Jenkins, Bodendorf, & Langley, 2004; Hays & Oxley, 1986; Wiseman 1997). It may be that first-year student-athletes are more fortunate than other students because they enter college with a pre-existing support network of teammates who can aid in their transition. For example, first-year student-athletes have reported in interviews that fellow teammates positively affected their adjustment to college (Giacobbi et al., 2004). Currently, there is limited research on the transition into college for student-athletes. The aim of the present study was to advance the understanding of the impact of social support on student-athletes during their transition into college, and compare this to nonathlete-students. Specifically, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of team support on adjustment in first-year student-athletes. The results have indicated that student-athletes', both first-year and vii second-year, were similarly adjusted to college than first-year and second-year nonathletestudents. There was a significant difference in network composition between student-athletes and nonathlete-students, indicating that student-athletes rely on the appropriate support providers (i.e. athletes). However, when compared to nonathlete-students, student-athletes did not display higher college adjustment scores. In fact, both groups exhibited normatively typical adjustment scores. Furthermore, results indicated that there was no difference in adjustment scores between first-year and second-year student-athletes. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Mater's of Science. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2008. / Date of Defense: July 31, 2008. / College Adjustment, Student-Athlete, Social Support, Support Network, Transition / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert Eklund, Professor Directing Thesis; Gershon Tenenbaum, Committee Member; Jeannie Turner, Committee Member.

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.