What a counselor-in-training believes about his or her ability directly impacts his/her persistence and ability to perform a task successfully. Evidence shows a link between academic factors and counselor self-efficacy with trainees who perform better academically being more confident in their ability to counsel. In addition, there is a strong probability that part of a trainee‟s belief system and subsequent behavior choices are connected with his or her total wellness. Having a higher self-efficacy can improve counselor competence and give insight into the gatekeeping process. Because there is limited research to address academic factors and total wellness of counseling self-efficacy (CSE) of counselors-in-training (CIT), this study concentrates on the gap in the educational and counseling literature. This research documents the extent to which these variables can contribute to the prediction of CSE of CIT. Specifically, academic factors, wellness and CSE of CIT were assessed across randomly selected CACREP accredited master‟s-level counseling programs. Liaisons were contacted, provided a description of the study, and invited to ask any questions related to their students‟ involvement in the study. Those who agreed to allow participation in their program were asked to forward an email introducing the study and requesting participation to counseling practicum and internship students at their institution. In the email, potential participants were provided with directions for accessing and completing the survey, contact information for the researcher, and approximate deadline for completion. Each participant was asked to complete a consent form, a demographic questionnaire, the 5F-Wel, and the Counselor Activity Self Efficacy Scale. There were 2 hypotheses considered in this study. First, a significant relationship will exist between academic factors and the CSE of CIT. This hypothesis was not supported. A significant relationship will exist between the total wellness score and the CSE of CIT. Regression analysis revealed that the complete model including all 5 predictor variables did not significantly predict CSE of CIT. This model accounted for only 6 % of the variance of CSE of CIT. Thus, this hypothesis was not supported. These findings indicate the need for additional research to examine which factors contribute to the CSE of CIT.

Opioids are powerful and effective drugs used for pain management, but their therapeutic usage is limited due to their side effects. Therefore, obtaining an extensive understanding of the pharmacological properties that underlie the actions of these drugs is much needed. Efficacy is the extent to which an agonist can stimulate the activity of the receptor it interacts with, and many studies have claimed to determine the efficacy of a wide range of opioid agonists. However, these opioids reportedly appear to be full agonists in some studies but seem to be partial agonists in others. Discrepancies from previous findings hamper the determination of accurate measurements of the efficacy of these drugs. As such, several assays focus on different aspects of opioid receptor signaling to deduce how efficacious these drugs may be. In this study, we focus on the μ-opioid receptor (MOR) as agonists that act on it represent the majority of clinically used opioids. We take advantage of a unique cellular model that captures the differential activation of each Gαi/o/z protein on top of measuring the relative efficacies of each tested opioid agonist. Using various cell-based assays, we demonstrate that these can be tools used to directly look at the interaction between the receptor and its effectors through the coupling of inhibitory heterotrimeric G proteins. The distinctions between each functional readout reveal insights about the nature of each established system, highlighting their advantages as well as their limitations. Key details about the mechanistic basis of inhibitory G protein activation are also uncovered. Precise determination of the efficacy of opioids could ultimately impact the understanding of opioid-mediated neuromodulation, as further links can be made between this important pharmacological parameter and the extent in which it induces analgesia and limits the side effects typically associated with opioid intake.

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Self-efficacy beliefs are evaluations people make about their capability to handle specific, future challenges. Self-efficacy belief levels predict actual success. Public school principals face ever-changing challenges. Understanding school principal self-efficacy beliefs and supporting the development of these beliefs is one way supervisors can help the future effectiveness of school principals. There are four main sources of information used to develop self-efficacy beliefs. These four sources of information are: mastery learning, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and emotional arousal. This multiple case study research examined the factors that influenced self-efficacy beliefs of elementary school principals prior to facing a personally meaningful challenge. The overall research question was: What Factors Attend to the Domains of Self-Efficacy Belief Formation in School Principals? The purpose of the research was to understand what information influenced the mindsets of principals as they formed their initial self-efficacy beliefs prior to facing a personally meaningful challenge. / Ed. D.

The purpose of the present study was to replicate Cervone's (2004) study, specifically for a work context. By focusing on the context of work, I believe that a "situationally-sensitive" nomothetic measure of personality for predicting job performance can be developed. My findings indicate that participants were able to identify self-relevant attributes in the context of work and then rate the relevance of each self-relevant attribute to work situations, such that the scores of the self-efficacy items related to those situations rated as relevant correspond with the self-relevant characteristics that were originally identified. Also, the data suggest that while there are several instances of idiosyncrasy in self-perception, there are also many commonalities in both the characteristics believed to be self-relevant and the situations to which those characteristics are relevant. This finding opens up the possibility of using an alternative strategy to develop a nomothetic measure of personality based on idiographic methods. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictors of teachers&rsquo / sense of efficacy including gender, teaching field, years of teaching experience, satisfaction with performance, support from colleagues, support from parents, and support from administration, and teaching resources. The present study was conducted in the 2006-2007 academic year. The study included a total of 383 science, mathematics, and classroom teachers from 62 elementary schools of &Ccedil / ankaya district in Ankara. Data were collected through Teachers&rsquo / Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschannen-Moran &amp / Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). In the present study, data were analyzed by utilizing four separate hierarchical regression analyses. Results showed that gender, teaching field, and years of teaching experience variables were not significant predictors for overall teacher efficacy, efficacy in instructional strategies, efficacy in classroom management, and efficacy in student engagement, whereas satisfaction with performance variable made significant contribution to all dependent variables. Parental support and teaching resources predicted only efficacy in student engagement.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between teacher efficacy levels and fifth grade Virginia SOL Mathematic achievement. This study sought to determine the extent to which personal efficacy, general efficacy, and total efficacy account for fifth grade Virginia Standards of Learning Mathematic achievement over and above that explained by teacher experience, teacher education, and class size. A critical review of the previous research methodologies and findings on teacher efficacy demonstrated the need for further research in this area. This study hoped to provide school officials in educational leadership with data necessary to plan professional development to improve classroom instruction, teacher efficacy, and student achievement. This study utilized a quantitative survey which measured personal, general, and total efficacy levels among fifth grade teachers in 11 elementary schools located in central Virginia. Twenty-one of the 27 (78%) 5th grade teachers that were surveyed, completed and returned the survey used in the study. Other data, such as teacher education, teacher experience, class size, and student achievement scores were collected from the division with the permission of the division's superintendent. Results of the data analysis indicated that there was no statistically significant relationship between teacher efficacies and 5th grade mathematics SOL achievement. The findings demonstrated that personal teaching efficacy, general teaching efficacy, and total teaching efficacy had no significant impact on 5th grade mathematics SOL achievement over and above the extent that teacher experience, teacher education, and class size impacted student achievement. It should be noted that the following limitations may have impacted the final results of the analysis. Class sizes were of mixed math ability, ranging from 11-23 students. Special education students tended to be in the smaller sized inclusion classes and gifted and talented students tended to be in the larger class sizes. Teacher efficacy levels were based on self-report. The sample size was small and limited generalizability of the results due to the focus on one Virginia school division. Also, student factors, such as prior achievement, were not included in the study. In this study, teacher education and class size did show significance associated with student achievement. Again, the limitations may have contributed to the findings of this study. The study showed that teachers with a master's degree had lower student achievement than teachers with a bachelor's degree, but the results might have been impacted from the limitations. Larger class sizes also had increased student achievement. Factors, such as class make-up of students (smaller classes typically had special education inclusion students and larger class sizes typically included gifted and talented students), class size (smallest class was 11 students and the largest class was 24), and teacher assignment (teachers with master's degrees could have been assigned to students with more academic needs), need to be considered when reviewing these findings, implications, and recommendations. The implications and recommendations were drawn from the findings of this study. The factors and limitations of the study were taken into consideration when the implications and recommendations were developed. / Ed. D.

The perception of self-efficacy is a central cognitive construct in explaining motivation. Assigned goals are established in the literature as affecting self-efficacy, but only a few researchers investigated their effects in complex tasks. One stream of research revealed the positive effects of easy goals on performance in a complex task without regard to self-efficacy perceptions. In the present study, the focus was on the effects of assigned, easy goals on self-efficacy and personal goals in complex task performance. It was expected that easy goals would be superior to moderate or impossible goals because the complexity and uncertainty of the task distorts subjects' perceptions of goal difficulty.