Ensuring generalization and maintenance of the effects of staff training is a significant challenge in human service settings. The application of behavioral management procedures, especially performance feedback, has proved particularly effective in meeting that challenge. However, few studies have reported management of such procedures by co-workers (peers). This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of a package consisting of inservice training and a peer management program on the promotion and maintenance of instructional interactions of paraprofessional staff working with mentally retarded clients. Three pairs of subjects, vocational instructors at a large residential facility for the developmentally disabled, participated directly at their job sites. Dependent measures of staff instruction included complete and incomplete teaching interactions, and contingent reward. Collateral measures their client's performance included engagement with work materials for prevocational-level clients and rates of productivity for vocational-level clients. The experimental phases, introduced in multiple baseline fashion across the three pairs of subjects, were: (1) baseline, (2) inservice training of teaching skills, (3) return to baseline, (4) training in peer management, (5) peer management, (6) instructions to fade peer management, and (7) follow-up. The peer management program was associated with increased and sustained levels of high quality teaching by all subjects. Two subjects had previously demonstrated short-term gains in teaching skills following inservice training. Collateral measures of client performance indicated increased work productivity among nine of eleven vocational-level clients, but minimal effects on engagement among the prevocational-level clients. The results obtained in this study support benefits to staff and clients through utilizing paraprofessional peers as managers of the performance of their co-workers.

This study evaluated the effects of an interactive, psychologically-oriented program upon pubertal growth, egocentrism, self-consciousness, and self-esteem for seventh-grade girls. An experimental group (N = 16) volunteered for an activity that taught about communication, stress-management, peer-refusal, and leadership, and applied their learnings to development of self. A sub-group (N = 11) taught a self-designed replication of this information to younger children. Three control groups were comprised of same-age girls: Those who volunteered for either Chorus (N = 15) or Sports (N = 6), and those who did not volunteer for an activity (N = 9) and were assigned to Study Hall. All students voluntariLy participated in this study. A pre-test, post-test design was applied to four measurements: The Puberty Scale, The Self Focus Sentence Completion: A Study of Egocentricity, The Self-Consciousness Scale, and a Self-Esteem Inventory, before and after the activity curricula. The results determined that all of the girls were significantly aware of their growth in height, perceived that their growth was similar to others, and the Sports Group was bothered by the growth. An examination of the conclusions related to the hypotheses revealed four significant findings about the experimental group: they achieved a balanced Self-Other egocentric ratio, they exhibited a decrease in social anxiety, they remained higher in private self-consciousness, and they demonstrated an increase in self-esteem. The three control groups did not shift from divergent to convergent thinking about self and other, even in a minimal way and showed marginal changes in self-consciousness and self-esteem. The Sports Group, however, revealed a significant decrease in self-esteem. The overall results indicate that a personal and interpersonal curriculum enhances positive psychological development in seventh-grade girls.

The purpose of this research was to commence the development of a Chinese Vocational Interests Inventory (CVII) which will assist Chinese secondary school students in the identification of their vocational interests. The inventory contains 323 items which include a variety of occupational activities and titles. The occupational titles were selected from Chinese Dictionary of Occupational Titles based on the popularity of occupations in PRC and categorized into 11 subgroups which represented a majority of occupational groups. The occupational activities which related to each occupational title were generated and refined from a description of the nature and work activities of selected occupations defined by occupational specialists in Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the U.S. Labor Department (1991). Further design of the study included establishing preliminary reliability and validity of the CVII, and confirmatory factor analysis to identify occupational interests areas. The CVII was administrated to 454 Chinese secondary school students who voluntarily participated in the project. The results of this preliminary study suggested the CVII have reliability (r =.98), concurrent validity (r =.65) between expressed occupation interests and inventoried interests, and internal validity (r =.81, occupational title versus occupational activities). Principal-component analysis extracted nine factors from 11 proposed subscales of the CVII. They are labelled as Artistic, Science & Technology, Business, Artistic creativity, Scholastic, Legal, Medical, and Service. The combination of some factors is compatible with John Holland's 6 occupational categories, indicating to a certain extent universal value of career interests. Gender difference was found in both factors clusters and occupation preference in which female students favored Liberal Art, Performing Art, and other language expressing related occupations, whereas male students were strongly interested in Science, Engineering, and Mechanical type of occupations. The homogeneous scales for female students and the combined-gender students were established throughout the factor analyses. More research will be needed to develop homogeneous scales for the male students, and to collect test-retest reliability and predictive validity by using criterion groups in order to develop a menu for the CVII.

The United States has yet to reach the White House’s 2020 goal of attaining the top international ranking in college degree attainment among young adults. Researchers have investigated the academic performance variables associated with timely degree attainment for first-year college students. Prior research has indicated that poorly motivated students are likely to struggle academically, experience academic stress, and drop out of school. However, it remains unknown which types of motivation significantly affect academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to better understand which Reiss basic desires of motivation predict undergraduate academic achievement. An additional purpose of this study was to determine which basic desires of motivation, among gender and age groups, predict cumulative grade point average (GPA). Based on Reiss’s theory, I used the Reiss School Motivation Profile (RSMP) to examine which of the motivational factors predicted cumulative undergraduate GPA. Using a convenience sampling method, I recruited 459 community college students to complete the online surveys. The bivariate ordinal logistic regression results indicated a modest yet significant relationship between 4 of the Reiss motivation factors (curiosity, order, status, and vengeance) and cumulative GPA. The multivariate ordinal logistic regression results indicated a modest yet significant relationship between 3 Reiss motivation factors (order, vengeance, and physical exercise) and cumulative GPA, but not between gender, age, and cumulative GPA. The results of this study may provide useful insights to academic institutions administrators regarding how they can use motivational factors to identify students who may need academic assistance.

Reflexive and voluntary performance in four test batteries was examined in 12 able-bodied and 12 disabled (6 spinal cord injured, 6 with cerebral palsy) subjects. The batteries, administered pre and post to 4 weeks of training, consisted of tests for patellar tendon tap reflex, phasic vibratory response, knee extension isometric strength, reaction time, and speed of movement. Training involved 120 patellar tendon taps per session, 3 sessions per week. The training patellar taps were paired with an auditory tone; one half of the subjects were trained with a loud (100 db) auditory tone, the remaining were trained with a soft (50 db) auditory tone. No significant difference was observed for reflexive agonist and antagonist EMG amplitude and reflexive peak force during the training or posttraining sessions. The expected habituation of reflexive response was not observed, but the impact force to elicit a maximum reflexive response increased across sessions. These findings suggest that the muscle spindles became less responsive with repeated sessions, but this decreased responsiveness was masked by the increased impact force. Pre to posttraining increases were observed in: tendon tap reflex long motor time and long reflex time; phasic vibratory response; maximum isometric knee extension strength; and velocity of movement in both groups. Posttraining changes in reflexive and voluntary responses were likely due to increased Ia afferent presynaptic inhibition and a more efficient muscle contraction. Auditory effects on reflexive and voluntary responses were mainly limited to a shortening of reaction premotor time especially in the disabled group. The loud tone increased the agonist EMG during the strength test, without a concurrent increase in maximum strength. Between group differences, with regard to spinal and supraspinal influences during the reflex profile, indicated that the gain in reflexive response was greater for the disabled subjects under spinal conditions, and greater for the able-bodied subjects under supraspinal conditions. Another finding revealed greater absolute antagonist reflexive responses, and greater relative antagonist voluntary responses of the disabled group compared to the able-bodied group under all conditions. Adaptations across training sessions and descriptive differences between groups provide insight into future research and rehabilitation strategies.

This investigation was an attempt to understand creativity, the creative personality, and the productively creative scientist. It was also an attempt to understand and utilize personality measures which are valid and effective for identifying, significantly predicting, and selecting creative scientific talent. The purpose of the study was to replicate a 1972 study by Frank Barron and Jack Chambers, which identified behavioral characteristics common to creative scientists. The present study tested the validity of the instrumentation used in 1972 as a predictor of success in a particular field. To provide a theoretical background for the study, the review of the literature included both a historical survey on the studies of scientific talent and a literature search of research on the creative and productive scientist and the unified psychograph of this type of scientist. Literature on the assessment and measurement of creativity and identifying behavioral characteristics and traits of the productive creative scientist was reviewed. This began with Galton (1874) through Jack Chambers (1972) and Torrance (1987). Also reviewed were the methodologies of investigating personality structure. The replication of the Barron and Chambers' study was with a population of prominent scientists who are members of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. A questionnaire was used to gather the data--the 16-Personality Factor Questionnaire (Cattell & Stice, 1957). A personal letter was sent along with the questionnaire explaining the purpose, procedures, the protection of privacy and confidentiality of anonymity of response.

The purpose of this study was to investigate level of spelling development in three types of spellers. First, two broad groups of spellers with average to above average intelligence were identified from an overall sample of 446 eleven to thirteen year old subjects based on K-TEA Spelling Test scores: high scores designated normal spellers, or the control group; low scores designated unexpected poor spellers, or the UPS group. Second, thirty-eight subjects in the control group and thirty-seven subjects in the UPS group were administered four word pronunciation, four spelling identification, and four spelling from recall tests. Scores on one of the word pronunciation tests (the Woodcock-Johnson) were used to divide the UPS group into two subgroups: above-mean scores designated dysgraphic spellers; below-mean scores designated dyslexic spellers. Mean scores by group for correct scores and error scores were analyzed by one way analyses of variance and follow-up Duncan's Multiple Range Tests to determine if and where significant differences occurred across groups. Prior to data collection, nine hypotheses were made based on Frith's (1986) three-phase model of reading and writing acquisition whereby children were hypothesized to develop through logographic, alphabetic, and orthographic phases of development, each phase marking a stage of normal development for normal spellers or a point of arrest for UPS spellers. Frith hypothesized an arrest at the logographic stage for dyslexic spellers; at the alphabetic stage for dysgraphic spellers. Data strongly support Frith's three-phase developmental model. Results from measures chosen to reflect functioning at different developmental levels tend to support that normal spellers have mastery of all three levels of development; that dysgraphic spellers have developed beginning level orthographic strategies; and that dyslexic spellers have developed beginning level alphabetic strategies. However, since both dysgraphics and dyslexics, unlike normals, seemed to show upper level skill loss in unfamiliar situations, a tentative alternative explanation to Frith's Developmental Arrest Theory is offered: that point of arrest for both dyslexic and dysgraphic spellers is at the logographic phase, with dysgraphics reaching higher developmental skill levels than dyslexics because of advanced verbal ability and compensatory strategies.

This study investigated burnout and aspects of perceived work environment among employees of selected state-operated community residences in western Massachusetts. The primary aim of the study was to compare alternative approaches to diagnosing burnout: a traditional regression model, and a burnout phase model. This comparison was employed to assess the relative utility of the burnout models for guiding managerial decisionmaking about organizational change interventions. The descriptive component of the study found that the sample was characterized by low burnout. Low burnout was strongly associated with positive perceptions of the work environment, as expected. Both burnout and work environment perceptions varied significantly for the sample subgroups of high/low contact workers, workers with previous experience in private social service agencies, and workers assigned to either apartments or to the more restrictive and closely monitored Intermediate Care Facilities. Diagnosis using the traditional approach suggested the primacy of structural factors in predicting burnout, while the phase model implicated social factors. In addition, the traditional approach suggested that burnout was not an issue of concern in the organization studied, while the phase approach led to the finding that a significant portion of the employees were severely burned out. Thus the guidance provided for managers through application of the traditional versus phase approaches differed depending on which model was used. Although the study supported a functional difference between the phase and traditional approaches, further research using objective outcome measures and comparing groups over time is needed.

The purpose of this dissertation was threefold: To determine if parental involvement in monitoring mathematics homework of seventh grade Hispanic students improved their achievement, to assess the effects of parental homework monitoring on the students' self-esteem and to determine if the students' perceptions of their teachers, their parents and their own involvement in mathematics homework changed after the monitoring experience. A total of 28 families/31 students participated in the study. A pretest-posttest control group design was used. The experimental group subjects' parents received training in homework monitoring. The Computation section, Level 2 of the Mathematics subtest of the Stanford Achievement Test, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventories and, a "Student Mathematics Homework Perception Scale" constructed by the researcher were used for pre and posttest measures of achievement, self-esteem and students' perceptions. The students' grades and the percentage of homework they completed and returned for the first three quarters were obtained from their mathematics teachers. Ten of the experimental group subjects' families were interviewed at the end of the study. Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences between either the computation or the self-esteem posttest scores of the two groups. No significant differences were obtained for teachers' grades and the percentage of homework completed and returned. However, the grades and percentage of homework completed and returned by the experimental group showed a trend in the expected direction. A significant difference was found (p $<$.05) in the perception posttest scores of teacher involvement in mathematics homework. Significant negative correlations were found between parent level of education (p $<$.05) and self-esteem measures and between teachers' grades and self-esteem measures (p $<$.05) for the experimental group. The home interviews revealed: Positive feelings and sense of closer relationship between parents and students, a heightened sense of responsibility for mathematics homework by parents and students in their respective roles, and conflictual issues between parents and students in following the homework monitoring program. Educational implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

The predominant traditional method of teaching case material in graduate business education may have a number of inherent limitations such as an intrinsically hierarchical approach, an overdependence on the discussion-leading skills of the instructor, and the possible promotion of the incomplete or "non-real world" positions of observer, critic and strategic advisor. Inspired by the use of a reflecting model in the family therapy movement in clinical and counseling psychology, psychiatry and social work, the reflecting team model presented here addresses these issues in a novel, unique and flexible manner. Over the last three years, the author has developed, applied and refined a Reflecting Team Model, based theoretically on a number of concepts drawn from diverse disciplines. The context of the model's application was in case-oriented Management Information Systems (MIS) and MIS-related classroom instruction with approximately 300 graduate students. After establishing the theoretical grounding of the model and explicating a number of operational refinements in four qualitatively oriented phases, a recent group of students (N = 39) participated in an application of the model and rated its efficacy on 21 scales derived from the model's grounding assumptions and assumed to have face validity. These results were analyzed with respect to age, gender, major area of undergraduate study and years of professional work experience. Next, another group of students who had experienced the enhanced model were interviewed. The resulting enhanced model was again employed in classroom use with still another group of students (N = 34). Following that, the model was again used with a small group (N = 15) and evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively to gain further insight into its workings and the best modes of application. The results strongly suggest that the Reflecting Team Model does, in fact, address the issues outlined above and that it has wide and even applicability. There is evidence, however, that gender plays a role in the model's acceptance and efficacy, with women apparently more attuned to the assumptions and operation of the model. More post-dissertation analyses need to be done to confirm and replicate these results and to extend the analysis into areas not previously studied.