The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Progressive Relaxation Training on self-reported self-disclosure and anticipated willingness to self-disclose in the future by male subjects. Self-disclosure has been identified in theory and research as a significant factor in self-development and the development of intimate relationships. Theory and research supported the general concept that an individual's physiological status has an effect on disposition to self-disclose. Empirical data appeared to be lacking concerning the potential effects of relaxation training on self-disclosure. Relaxation training is a method commonly used to assist an individual to achieve a more relaxed physiological state. Research results have indicated that males in the western culture tend to be less likely to self-disclose than females.Subjects were 40 males who were active duty military personnel with a mean age of 32.59 years and a mean is educational level of 13.74 years. Each subject volunteered to receive two sessions of Progressive Relaxation Training. The instrument used in this study was Jourard and Jaffee's Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, which required the subjects to rate 40 items in terms of past self-disclosure and anticipated willingness to self-disclose in the future to a stranger of the same sex. Each of the 40 items had been designated by Jourard as having either a high or low intimacy value.A posttest-only control group design was used. The treatment group participated in two sessions of relaxation training one week apart. The questionnaire was administered immediately following the second training session. The control group was administered the questionnaire at the same time.Five null hypotheses were tested in an attempt to examine the subjects' past and potential self-disclosing behavior. The statistical analyses were accomplished by using a three-way analysis of variance, followed by either a Scheffe' or a pooled Scheffe. Significance was established at the .05 level.Analysis of the data indicated that the Progressive Relaxation Training had a significant effect on subjects' anticipated willingness to self-disclose, regardless of intimacy level. Indications from the analysis of the remaining data also suggested that the treatment had a partial effect on anticipated willingness to self-disclose at a high intimacy level; however, a .05 level of significance was not obtained. Length of treatment was questioned as being adequate for the subjects to fully learn the relaxation response.Recommendations for future research included longer treatment involving more than two sessions of Progressive Relaxation Training, assessment of actual self-disclosing behavior, consideration of the appropriateness of the self-disclosure, and investigation of other types of populations.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a cognitive self instruction-based career and life planning group intervention on the perception of locus of control. The null hypotheses pertained to the differences in perception of locus of control between treatment and control groups as measured by the Nowicki-Stricklard Locus of Control Scale for Children.Career and life planning is a concept that was designed to help people recognize themselves as active change agents in their own lives. Perception of locus of control has been shown to be influential in determining proactive as well as reactive behaviors. For example, people perceiving an internal rather than an external locus of control are more likely to actively engage in information gathering and use newly acquired information to aid in decision-making. Cognitive self-instruction has been used effectively with various groups to change behaviors. The emphasis of this intervention mode was on developing self-control through the awareness of alternative and more constructive self-talk.The subjects were pre-delinquent high school adolescents from a midwest residential treatment center. Eighty subjects were randomly selected by computer from a population of 131. Through computer randomization, half of the subjects were assigned to a treatment group and half to a control group. The treatment and control groups' experiences all occurred at the residential treatment center.The treatment group sessions were forty-five minutes long and were conducted every third day. A total of six sessions were held. The treatment material and approach emphasized role playing as a technique to examine self-talk that led to negative outcomes and explore alternative selftalk to achieve more satisfying results. The control group maintained their normal daily routine while the treatment group was dismissed to attend the group sessions.Immediately following the last treatment group session and again four weeks later all subjects were administered the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children. The instruments were scored and the differences between the average raw scores of the scale were subjected to two univariate analyses of variances, with differences considered significant at the .05 level.The computed F values for the treatment group effects relevant to the post and delayed post-test(F = .16, p < .6897 and F = .04, p < .8373, respectively) were not significant. Therefore, the null hypothesis-- there will be no significant difference between the treatment and control group subjects' mean scores on the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children immediately following and four weeks after treatment--was not rejected.Analysis of the data indicated that there was no significant difference in perception of locus of control between the treatment and control groups as measured by the locus of control scale. Therefore, it is concluded that using this six forty-five-minute group intervention mode, the cognitive self-instruction and career and life planning experience did not produce a significant change in perception of locus of control as measured by the aforementioned instrument scale.Comments by the subjects indicated that many positive relationships between the group leaders and the adolescents were established. Five of the six group leaders were completely inexperienced in working with pre-delinquent adolescents. Although they demonstrated the ability to relate well to the subjects, they did experience difficulty and some failure in keeping the group experience closely related to the specific treatment material. More intense training of group leaders regarding the use of the treatment material with this specific population could have been helpful.

Morality has been a central topic of philosophy throughout Western civilization. Integrity is almost synonymous with morality. However, recent widespread corporate scandals challenge our belief that individuals, who at one moment are perceived to live by the standards of integrity, will consistently be moral. Moral self-regulation research (Monin & Miller, 2001; Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006; Zhong, Liljenquist, & Cain, 2009) investigates how people’s perception of their own integrity influences morality and proposes, counter-intuitively, that boosting a sense of integrity would reduce moral behavior (moral licensing) and threatening integrity would increase moral behavior (moral cleansing). This dissertation aims at developing this research by broadening the concept of integrity and by understanding the role that moral identity plays (Aquino & Reed, 2002). I argue that integrity is not only associated with whether one behaves consistently with moral values, but also with whether one behaves consistently with non-moral values, which are also strongly held beliefs but do not involve others’ well-being. Drawing on self-affirmation theory (Steele, 1988), I argue that self-integrity associated with non-moral values (non-moral self-integrity) could influence moral behavior in a similar way as self-integrity associated with moral values (moral self-integrity). I further argue that some individuals are more subject to the influence of self-integrity than others, and moral identity, the relative importance one assigns to morality within one’s self-conception, can identify when concerns with self-integrity will matter in moral domains. Different theories, however, predict two alternative ways that moral identity could moderate licensing and cleansing effects. Evidence from moral identity research suggests that the effects would be weaker among individuals high in moral identity because these individuals are more resilient towards psychological mechanisms that lead to variations in moral behavior. However, self-affirmation theory suggests that the effects would be stronger among individuals high in moral identity because these individuals’ self-integrity are more closely connected to morality and thus they are more likely to manage changes in integrity through moral self-regulation. Four studies were conducted to test the effects of non-moral self-integrity and moral identity on four forms of moral behaviors: volunteering, donating, cheating, and ethical leadership. The accumulative evidence supports the argument that boosted non-moral self-integrity reduced moral behavior and threatened non-moral self-integrity increases moral behavior. In addition, the data supported the prediction derived from self-affirmation theory, namely that licensing and cleansing effects resulting from non-moral self-integrity maintenance were stronger among individuals high in moral identity. This dissertation extends moral self-regulation research by revealing a more thorough connection between integrity and moral behavior and by identifying an important boundary condition of this research. It also has implications for managerial research on leader integrity and using integrity tests in personnel selection.

This dissertation focuses on investigating the morphologies, optical and photoluminescence properties of porphyrin nanostructures prepared by the self-assembly method. The study is divided into three main parts. In the first part, a large variety of porphyrin nanostructures, including nanoplates, nanofibers, nanoparticles and nanowires, were obtained through direct acidification of tetra(p-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (TCPP) in aqueous solution. Protonation of the carboxylate groups of TCPP resulted in the formation of nanoplates through the J-aggregation of the porphyrin. Further protonating the core nitrogens of TCPP formed the porphyrin diacids which organized into well-defined structures through their interactions with counter-anions in the solution. The structures of the resulting assemblies were found to be counterion dependent. In the second part of this work, we explored the optical memory effect of the porphyrin thin film. We found that the morphology and the emission of the porpyrin thin film on Si can be changed by varying the pH of its surrounding solution. The changing in morphology and light emission of the thin film resulted from the protonation or deprotonation of TCPP'S core nitrogens. By selectively deprotonating the TCPP dications in a confined region utilizing the water meniscus between an AFM tip and the surface, Fluorescence patterns can be generated on the thin film. The fluorescence patterns can be easily erased by re-protonating the porphyrin. In the third part of this study, porphynoid nanoparticles were deposited on a surface energy gradient, and then characterized by AFM in order to investigate how the surface energy influences thier morphologies. The surface energy gradient was prepared by selectively oxidizing a self-assembly monolayer of octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) by UV-ozone. The nanoparticles disassemble into smaller nanoparticles with narrower size distribution on the surface with higher surface energy. Lastly, we engaged in characterizing the morphologies of polymer nanocomposites prepared by layer-by-layer assembly for wettability control. The surface roughness of the nanocopmosite in air and in salt solutions was also measured to study the correlation between the wettability of the polymer surface and its surface roughness.

Dynamics of the second language learner’s identity interests researchers in the field of applied linguistics who explore the ways in which self-identification is constituted by language. Application of psychoanalytic theories in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is assumed to provide an additional perspective on how the processes of identity formation relate to the varied contexts of language learning. The learner of the second language has to shape her relation to the L2 interactive contexts constantly comparing them with those of L1 and primary culture on one hand, and negotiating the concepts attached to the target language and culture on the other. The sense of the perceived self that accounts for how the learner feels connected to the target linguistic and cultural environment may be the key component of such processes. The formation of ego, a concept borrowed from psychoanalytic theory, as the component of both conscious and unconscious experience of the self, is believed to be formed through the symbolic realms of language. Since the bulk of psychoanalytic and language theories link ego formation to the first language development, it seems worth exploring the role of ego development in second language acquisition. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe the lived experiences of second language learners related to self-identification situated in cross-symbolical relationship between L1 and L2. / February 2009

Autonomy is defined as the subjective experience of congruence between one’s basic values and behavior. Research guided by SDT has focused on the socializing conditions that either foster or undermine the individual’s autonomy at the expense of considering the individual’s capacity to function autonomously by actively and purposively shaping his or her social ecology. The present research adopted a social-ecological approach to the problem of human autonomy, wherein people are presumed to strive for autonomy by relying on their traits and abilities to extract what they need from the social environment. After completing a range of individual difference measures, first-year female undergraduates engaged in a leaderless group discussion task and provided round-robin ratings of their group-members’ social power; self-reported autonomy satisfaction was also assessed. Findings revealed that the personality trait Openness to Experience held predictive relations to social power attainment and, through this association, was positively related to autonomy satisfaction.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

A series of polypeptides with well-defined sequences, (Asp3Phe1)n, (Asp2Phe1)n, (Asp1Phe1)n, (Asp1Phe2)n, and (Asp1Phe3)n, containing the hydrophilic amino acid, aspartic acid (Asp) and the hydrophobic amino acid, phenylalanine (Phe), were synthesized. Their behaviour in aqueous solution was investigated by performing fluorescence quenching and non-radiative energy transfer (NRET) experiments which were complemented by dynamic (DLS) and static (SLS) light scattering. The photophysical properties of the polypeptides were dependent on their Phe content. An increase in the Phe content led to an increase in the extinction coefficient, fluorescence quantum yield, and fluorescence average lifetime of the polypeptides. Circular dichroism experiments revealed that except for the (Asp1Phe3)n polypeptide, which adopts an alpha-helical conformation in aqueous solution, the other polypeptides did not adopt any known conformation in solution. The fluorescence quenching studies performed using molecular pyrene physically bound to the polypeptide via hydrophobic interactions resulted in protective quenching for the (Asp1Phe1)n, (Asp1Phe2)n, and (Asp1Phe3)n polypeptides, with some pyrenes having a lifetime of ~300 ns. Evidence for protective quenching was also observed in the polypeptides richer in Phe, when pyrene was covalently attached onto the polypeptides. However pyrene was found to be fully exposed to the quencher solution for the more hydrophilic polypeptides. The presence of NRET between a naphthalene labeled polypeptide and a pyrene labeled polypeptide for the (Asp1Phe2)n and (Asp1Phe3)n polypeptides and its absence for the (Asp3Phe1)n, (Asp2Phe1)n, and (Asp1Phe1)n polypeptides led to the conclusion that those polypeptides richer in Phe generate interpolymeric aggregates which provide protection to a hydrophobic cargo like molecular pyrene whereas the hydrophilic polypeptides exist predominantly as unimolecular micelles. These results were confirmed by DLS and SLS experiments.

People with low self-esteem (LSEs) often have doubts about how much their romantic partners love and value them. These doubts, which undermine their relationships, are difficult to overcome because LSEs tend to downplay the meaning of positive behaviour and resist positive feedback from their partners. In Study 1, I provided evidence for the notion that LSEs’ “insensitivity” to acceptance is a form of motivated self-protection, rather than a pervasive negative bias. In Studies 2-4, I investigated whether LSEs could be induced to take their partners’ kind words to heart by manipulating how abstractly they described a recent compliment. LSEs felt more positively about the compliments, themselves, and their relationships – as positively as HSEs felt – when they were encouraged to describe the meaning and significance of the compliments. The positive effects of this abstract reframing intervention were still evident two weeks later, in both participants’ self-reported thoughts and feelings about their relationships and in partners’ reports of participants’ behaviour towards them. Study 5 demonstrated that the abstract reframing intervention prevented LSEs from taking a relationship threat to heart and lashing out at their partners. Taken together, the present studies show that when prompted to reframe affirmations from their partners, LSEs feel just as secure and satisfied with their romantic relationships and behave as positively towards their partners as HSEs do.

Pregnancy, a human phenomenon experienced throughout the world and throughout history, has been largely ignored by the philosophical community. A preference for the abnormal and the extraordinary has left this common yet challenging process on the sidelines of philosophical discussion. Pregnancy stands as a significant challenge to many of our intuitions about the self, particularly those concerning the boundaries, plurality and diachronic identity of the self. Because of this, pregnancy necessitates a theory of the self which does not merely uphold our usual assumptions about the self. Daniel Dennett presents a theory of the self which meets this criterion. He argues that the self is a centre of narrative gravity: an abstract, theoretical entity which is useful for the explanation and prediction of an individual’s behaviour. Dennett’s theory, though provocative, lacks a basis in typical human experience. He relies primarily on thought experiments and extraordinary conditions to support his theory. To demonstrate the applicability and generality of this theory, it must be tested against a common, natural human occurrence like pregnancy. In this paper we explore the application of Daniel Dennett’s theory of the narrative self to the experience of pregnancy. This application yields a double result. Dennett’s theory is bolstered by a demonstration of its generality and applicability, and the experience of pregnancy is placed into a context in which it can be validated and understood.