This study examined a preliminary model of client, therapist and process factors in relation to psychotherapy outcome. These factors included client motivation, homework compliance, therapist homework delivery behaviors and working alliance. Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000; 2002) was used to examine qualitative differences in autonomous and controlled forms of client motivation. Data were collected from 147 participants receiving individual counseling at 1 of 3 university counseling centers in the United States. Participants completed an online survey which consisted of 6 questionnaires. Structural equation modeling with maximum likelihood estimation was used to estimate model parameters. Multiple fit indices were examined in order to assess overall fit and the preliminary model was respecified twice. Examination of the path coefficients revealed that 3 of the hypothesized relationships were not significant. Neither autonomous nor controlled motivation significantly predicted outcome, and working alliance did not significantly predict homework compliance. A significant relationship emerged which was not originally hypothesized: therapist homework delivery behaviors significantly predicted working alliance. Working alliance emerged as a strong mediator of autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and therapist homework delivery behaviors in relation to psychotherapy outcome. Homework compliance significantly mediated the relationship between controlled motivation and psychotherapy outcome. Five indirect effects and 2 direct effects were reported, thus the final model was a strongly mediated model which accounted for 52% of the variance in treatment outcome. Overall, results indicated that qualitative differences in client motivation may influence psychotherapy process and outcome variables, and that working alliance and homework compliance are significant mediators of both client and therapist factors. / 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, 2012. / April 26, 2012. / Client Motivation, Homework Compliance, Psychotherapy Outcome, Self-Determination Theory, Working Alliance / Includes bibliographical references. / Georgios Lampropoulos, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lynn Panton, University Representative; James P. Sampson, Committee Member; Robert Eklund, Committee Member.

Charter schools are "autonomous, publicly funded entities that operate on the basis of a contract between the individual and/or group (e.g., teachers, parents, others) which organizes the school and a sponsor (typically local or state education boards or districts)" (Lavine, 1994, p. 8). Charter schools are responsible to sponsors for their performance, and organizers are held accountable if the specified outcomes are not achieved. However, charter school board accountability continues to be a problem in charter schools in part because sponsors and boards are making up the rules as they go along. Since their inception in 1991, many charter schools have closed due to administrative and fiscal oversights (Center for Education Reform, 2002). These oversights have focused attention on the capacity of charter school boards to successfully govern their schools. This focus is important because boards have been generally overlooked in charter school research. The primary focus of charter school research over the years has been on the academic achievement of students attending charter schools. However, research indicates charter school students perform no better academically than their public school counterparts (Nelson, Rosenberg & Van Meter, 2004). The acute attention on academic achievement in charter schools misses an opportunity to examine charter school inputs and processes that produce outcomes. As nonprofit organizations, charter school boards are ultimately responsible for outcomes, and as an important input into charter schools, new attention to who they are and what they do is both important and timely. This research describes the characteristics, composition and practices of charter school boards. It also examines the relationships among the characteristics, composition, and practices of charter school boards of directors and the general success of charter schools achieving academic performance. The findings reveal that age and professional diversity of charter school board members positively impact charter schools' effectiveness achieving academic outcomes. However, the communication skills of charter school boards are poor. Charter school boards are also participating in activities and practices, such as education and training and the use of agendas and committees, generally associated with effective board governance. Overall, examining charter school boards provides much needed insight into charter school governance and presents an opportunity to improve charter school accountability. / 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. / Fall Semester 2011. / August 26, 2011. / charter school boards, charter schools, evaluation, organizational theory, resource dependency / Includes bibliographical references. / Linda Schrader, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Marcy Driscoll, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Francis Berry, University Representative; Jeanine Turner, Committee Member.

Current literature in the social sciences largely ignores important nested data structures when seeking to explain or interpret effects of independent variables on outcomes of interest. This is particularly true when the outcome of interest is dichotomous. A set of demonstration data is analyzed using HGLM software, and a set-by-step description of the procedure is presented. Appropriate interpretations of results and program output are illustrated. Some conclusions regarding the demonstration data within a juvenile justice prevention context are also discussed. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester, 2003. / November 5, 2003. / Delinquency Prevention, Juvenile Justice, Florida, Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling, Hglm, Co-Mingling / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard Tate, Professor Directing Thesis; Albert Oosterhof, Committee Member; Akihito Kamata, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to explore career paths satisfaction based on chaos theory. Phase I of the analysis provided information about the relationships among the predictor variables of opportunity, congruence, ability, and social connectedness and the criterion variable of career path satisfaction. Phase II of this study was a qualitative analysis of career path development. A criterion sample was drawn from the population of retired adult white males (n=65). The age of the participants ranged from 53 years old to 94 years (m=71.3, sd=9.9). Career path satisfaction was measured by the Career Path Satisfaction Index (CPSI) (m=7.9. sd=3.8), calculated by measurement of the Career Satisfaction Trace Line. The area above and below the neutral line (0) was measured by counting the grids on the Career Satisfaction Trace Line. Possible scores range from –15 to +15. The area below the line was subtracted from the total area above the line and divided by the total number of years in the career path. . Opportunity (ISP) was measured using the Hollingshead Two-Factor Index of Social Position (Hollingshead, 1965). A significant, but negative, relationship was found between career path satisfaction and opportunity at the 0.01 level (F=7.16, df=1, r=0.319, p=0.003). Congruence (CPCI) was the congruence between the individual Holland Code and the weighted average of the Holland Occupation Code for each job. The relationship between congruence and career path satisfaction was not found to be significant at the 0.05 level (F=2.9, df=1, r=0.21, p=0.09). Ability (APS) was based on an 11-point scale. A significant relationship ( p<0.01) was found between career path satisfaction and ability (F=5.4, df=1, r=0.282, p=0.023). Social connectedness (CIS), which was determined by the Social Connectedness Survey. A significant relationship (p=<.01) was found between career path satisfaction and social connectedness (F=4.33, df=1, r=0.319, p=0.041). Multiple regression indicated a significant relationship (p=< 0.01) between career path satisfaction and the predictor variables (F=3.79, df=4, R=0.450, p=0.008). The ISP was significant at the 0.05 level. CIS and APS were significant at the 0.05 level. The ISP was the most influential variable but in a negative direction. This was an unexpected result that may reflect perceptions of generational progress. / 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. / Fall Semester, 2004. / July 26, 2004. / Career Paths, Life-Span Developmen, t Career Development, Chaos Theory, Career Satisfaction, Career Satisfaction Trace Line / Includes bibliographical references. / Gary W. Peterson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lee P. Stepina, Outside Committee Member; Stephen A. Rolln, Committee Member; Robert C. Reardon, Committee Member.

Many studies utilized psychophysiological indices to measure attentional and affective states for the examination of affect-performance relationships in stressful competitive conditions. In this applied, but scientifically driven, project we determined individual affect-related performance zones (IAPZs) by utilizing Kamata, Tenenbaum, and Hanin's (2002) probabilistic model as a basis for examining idiosyncratic affective patterns during golf performance. The investigation implemented a multi-modal assessment approach in which the probabilistic relationship between affective states and both, performance process and performance outcome, measures was determined. More specifically, introspective (i.e. verbal reports) and objective (heart rate and respiration rate) measures of arousal were incorporated to examine the relationships between arousal states and both, process components (i.e., routine consistency, timing), and outcome scores related to golf performance. Three male golfers of a varsity golf team at a major Division I university in the Southeastern United States were observed during three rounds of golf competition. The performance and the associated physiological measures were recorded simultaneously for each golfer with video and telemetry equipment. The results revealed distinguishable and idiosyncratic IAPZs associated with physiological and introspective measures for each golfer. The associations between the IAPZs and decision-making or swing/stroke execution were strong and unique for each golfer. Optimal IAPZs were often not associated with the most consistent patterns for glances at the target, practice swings or strokes, and time phases during the pre-performance routines. In addition, the patterns during the pre-performance routine were found to be highly consistent, differed between the golfers, and appeared to vary with task difficulty and task specificity. Comparison of the temporal patterns associated with the project's four functional time phases indicated more consistent time use by the golfers during the confirmation and evaluation phase immediately preceding and following the task execution (i.e., swing or stroke), respectively, compared to the information processing phase and the reorientation phase preceding and ensuing the task execution (i.e., swing or stroke), respectively. Consequently, an hourglass performance (HP) model for golf was developed to illustrate the relationship between a golfer's information processing pattern and the functional performance phases in golf. / 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, 2010. / January 22, 2010. / Affect, Performance, Golf, Routines, Physiology, Hourglass Performance Model / Includes bibliographical references. / Gershon Tenenbaum, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robert Eklund, Committee Member; Jeannine Turner, Committee Member; Lynn Panton, Committee Member.

The current study was conducted to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the Rorschach Comprehensive System's (CS) (Exner, 1993) Depression Index (DEPI) and Coping Deficit Index (CDI) in assessing depression among a clinical sample of adolescents. DEPI and CDI archival data collected from roughly 340 inpatient adolescents were compared via independent, pair-wise t-tests with data from Exner's (1993) non-clinical, CS normative sample of roughly 450 adolescents to investigate degree of co-relationship for both DEPI and CDI by diagnostic group (i.e., clinical depressed, clinical non-depressed, and non-clinical). Pearson coefficients assessed the degree of co-relationship between DEPI and CDI total scores, and ANOVA analyses tested the overall effect of age. Diagnostic efficiency coefficients were calculated for clinical DEPI and CDI scores, and variable combinations based on Exner's (1993) cutoff points. Also, the incremental validity of the DEPI and CDI towards predicting depression was evaluated using hierarchical logistic regression, relative to the contributions of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A)(Butcher, Williams, Graham, Archer, Tellegen, Ben-Porath, and Kaemmer, 1992) and the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS)(Reynolds, 1987). For the most part, t-test results revealed no significant differences in DEPI total scores between clinical and non-clinical adolescents, or depressed-only and non-depressed clinical adolescents. Both depressed and non-depressed clinical groups demonstrated significantly higher CDI scores than the non-clinical adolescent group. When DEPI and CDI scores were compared, significant correlations were observed for the depressed-only group and combined depressed and non-depressed clinical adolescents, but not for non-depressed clinical adolescents. No significant main effect of age was identified on either DEPI or CDI total scores. Overall, the DEPI yielded diagnostic efficiency considerably inferior to that anticipated by Ganellen's (1996) roughly comparable study involving adults. Overall, the CDI did not contribute meaningfully towards enhancing the diagnostic efficacy of the DEPI, as Exner (1993) has predicted. Findings provided partial corroboration of Archer and Krishnamurthy's (1997) study in indicating that neither the DEPI nor CDI total scores appeared to produce incremental increases towards improvement in diagnostic classification. Limitations of the current study, implications for the assessment of depression for adolescent populations, and recommendations for future research are 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. / Spring Semester, 2006. / December 12, 2005. / Psychometric Efficiency, Incremental Validity, Adolescent, Depression Indices, Rorschach, DEPI, CDI / 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 compared the effect of lecture-based instruction to that of pon learner performance (on near-transfer and far-transfer problems), problem solving processes (reasoning strategy usage and reasoning efficiency), and attitudes (overall motivation and learner confidence) in a Genetics course. The study also analyzed the effect of self-regulatory skills and prior-academic achievement on performance for both instructional strategies. Sixty 11th grade students at a public math and science academy were assigned to either a lecture-based instructional strategy or a problem-based instructional strategy. Both treatment groups received 18 weeks of Genetics instruction through the assigned instructional strategy. In terms of problem solving performance, results revealed that the lecture-based group performed significantly better on near-transfer post-test problems. The problem based group performed significantly better on far-transfer post-test problems. In addition, results indicated the learners in the lecture-based instructional treatment were significantly more likely to employ data-driven reasoning in the solving of problems, whereas learners in the problem-based instructional treatment were significantly more likely to employ hypothesis-driven reasoning in problem solving. No significant differences in reasoning efficiency were uncovered between treatment groups. Preliminary analysis of the motivation data suggested that there were no significant differences in motivation between treatment groups. However, a post-research exploratory analysis suggests that overall motivation was significantly higher in the lecture-based instructional treatment than in the problem-based instructional treatment. Learner confidence was significantly higher in the lecture-based group than in the problem-based group. A significant positive correlation was detected between self regulatory skills scores and problem solving performance scores in the problem-based group, but not in the lecture-based group. The difference between correlation coefficients for the two treatment groups was not statistically significant. Further, a significant positive correlation between prior academic achievement and problem solving performance scores was detected in both treatment groups. Once more, however, the difference between correlation coefficients for the two treatment groups was not statistically significant. Results from this research study are discussed. Limitations of the research study are identified and discussed. Recommendations for future research are presented. Finally, implications of the research study for educational research and practice are presented. / 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, 2003. / April 18, 2003. / Problem-Based Instruction, Lecture-Based Instruction / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert Reiser, Professor Directing Dissertation; Peter Easton, Outside Committee Member; Marcy P. Driscoll, Committee Member; Robert M. Morgan, Committee Member.

The study investigated the effects of two instructional approaches (part-task vs. whole-task) and levels of learner expertise (novice vs. advanced) on learner acquisition and transfer of a complex cognitive skill (e.g., preparing a grade book in Excel). In addition, the study examined the effects of these variables on learners' cognitive load, instructional efficiencies, time on task and their attitudes towards the instruction. Fifty-one undergraduate students (pre-service teachers) in four sections of an Introduction to Educational Technology course participated in the study. Two sections were assigned to each of the two instructional approaches (part-task vs. whole-task). In the part-task condition, a complex skill was decomposed into a series of smaller tasks, each of which was demonstrated and practiced separately; the whole skill was practiced at the end of instruction after practicing part skill. In the whole-task condition, which was based on the 4C/ID-model (van Merrienboer, 1997), learners were exposed to the entire complex skill right from the beginning of the instruction and were required to practice performing a series of whole tasks. Two 60-minute instructor-led lessons were designed and developed for this study. In each treatment group, the two lessons were presented on the same day, with a five minute break separating the two lessons. The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the two treatment groups (whole-task > part-task) on (a) whole-task performance, (b) far-transfer performance, (c) instructional efficiency on the whole-task performance, and d) instructional efficiency on the far-transfer performance. However, no significant differences were found for (a) cognitive load, (b) time spent on the whole-task test, (c) time spent on the far-transfer test, and (d) attitudes toward instruction. In terms of the levels of learner expertise, the results yielded no interaction among the groups on any of the dependent measures described above; in many cases, however, there were significant differences between the novice and advanced learners, with the advanced learners demonstrating (a) higher scores on the far-transfer test, (b) higher efficiency on the whole-task test, (c) higher efficiency on the far-transfer test, (d) less time spent on the part-task test, and (e) more confidence toward the instruction. / 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, 2006. / March 2, 2006. / Teacher Education, Instructional Efficiency, Instructional Design, Cognitive Load, Transfer of Learning, 4C/ID-Model, Training, Contextual Interference / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert A. Reiser, Professor Directing Dissertation; Neil Charness, Outside Committee Member; J. Michael Spector, Committee Member; Zane Olina, Committee Member.

The focus of this study is to consider random differential item functioning (DIF) for polytomous items from a multilevel (3 level) logistic regression perspective. Often, in educational studies, three levels with nested variables are common (e.g., items scores for students nested in schools). A statistical model for detecting random DIF for polytomously scored items will be presented. The random-effect DIF model will incorporate a multilevel (3 levels) approach. In order to parameterize this model for polytomous outcomes, a hierarchical generalized linear model (HGLM) will be utilized. This approach will be modified to include an item response theory (IRT) model for ordinal response data. In this model, DIF may be present between any levels of the categorical response. This can be referred to as "inner-response DIF" or IDIF. In order to allow the DIF effect to randomly vary, the DIF parameters are given a random component in the level-3 model. This approach allows for the DIF effect to not be consistent across the level-3 groupings. In this modeling framework, the number of random effects can rapidly increase because of multiple threshold parameters which can all be random. More traditional maximum likelihood estimation procedures may not be feasible computationally due to the high-dimensional integrals in the likelihood function. Since a Bayesian approach does not deal with numerical integrations, estimation will be feasible even when the model contains many random effects. Thus, this study incorporates a Bayesian approach in parameter estimation. A Bayesian approach would consider these unknown parameters as random variables with appropriate prior distributions. The estimation of parameters for the three-level random DIF model would be based on the joint posterior distribution. A Bayesian estimation procedure will be derived, and tested using Monte Carlo simulation methods. Finally, the model will be used to analyze an actual data set involving polytomous data, with a discussion of the results. / 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. / Fall Semester, 2006. / October 18, 2006. / DIF, Multilevel, Bias, Bayesian, Random, Polytomous, HGLM, Differential Item Functioning / Includes bibliographical references. / Akihito Kamata, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Betsy Jane Becker, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Fred Huffer, Outside Committee Member; Richard Tate, Committee Member.

This study investigated the effects of Yoga with or without mindfulness as a mental health and wellness intervention. College students (N = 79; 5 Male, 74 Female) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: yoga with an emphasis on mindfulness (Y-EM) (N = 26), yoga with no emphasis on mindfulness (Y) (N = 28), or a control group (N = 25). It was hypothesized that both yoga groups would be superior to a control group in improving psychological health, and that the mindfulness yoga group (Y-EM) would be the most effective. After participation in four weekly, 45 minute yoga sessions, an ANCOVA on posttest scores measuring aspects of psychological well-being showed statistically significant differences and large effect sizes between the intervention group(s) and the control group on measures of positive affect, mental health, relaxation, and mindfulness. The overall results provided partial support for the hypotheses, but high attrition rates and sample size limitations precluded more definitive conclusions. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science/Educational Specialist. / Fall Semester, 2011. / November 1, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references.