This study was conducted in an attempt to understand which, if any, groups of college students are susceptible to cult influence based on false perceptions. Religion is a powerful practice that, if used for the wrong reasons, can influence a person to dissolve social and financial relationships with family, friends, and the surrounding community. Surveys were given to randomly selected cluster samples of students currently enrolled at the university. These surveys consisted of demographic questions and a scale designed to measure perceptions. Also devised was a scale to measure traits of depression. Both bivariate and multivariate analysis showed that the depression scale was more significant than the perceptions scale in measuring vulnerability.

High self-compassion has been shown to provide many benefits for overall well-being. Some studies have suggested that the environment in which an individual grew up could have some effect on this trait in adulthood. The present research examined the relationship between the parenting style with which an individual was raised and their later adulthood self-compassion and compassion for others. It was hypothesized that the responsiveness of the parent would be directly related to the way that an individual learns to respond to themselves and others. Authoritative parenting style was expected to be related to higher self-compassion and compassion for others as it is characterized by parents who respond positively to their child. Authoritarian parenting was expected to be related to lower levels of each construct as it is characterized by negative responses to the child’s actions. It was found that both authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles are associated with higher levels of self-compassion. The two parenting styles considered to negatively affect children raised in the style, authoritarian and permissive, were found to be related to higher levels of compassion for others. Future research directions for the relationship are discussed.

Preface -- A note to the reader -- A word about wisdom essentials -- Wisdom is best : think and live wisely -- Make insight your priority -- Buy wisdom, education and insight -- Good things come out of wisdom -- Wisdom's cry and call to everyone -- Intelligence outranks muscles -- Don't assume you know it -- Your face mirrors your heart -- Finding wisdom has much gain -- A warning against a life of crime -- Favor : how to obtain favor for successful living -- Speak out for justice -- Walk with the wise -- A whack on the heads of fools -- One who knows much says little -- If you quit listening -- Warning against adultery -- Warning against foolish acts -- The value of hard work -- The king's protocol -- Children listen to your father -- Wisdom and foolishness throw a party -- A honest life is worth it -- Fear of God expands your life -- The path of a good leader -- Manage your energy, attention and time -- Do your best : prepare for the worst -- Thirty sterling principles to live by -- Without good direction people lose their way -- A God-shaped life -- Sift and weigh every word -- Everything has a place and a purpose -- The right words at the right time -- Fools recycle silliness -- Hodge-podge of wise principles -- Four mysteries -- Four intolerables -- Four dignitaries -- Fall small wonders -- A good wife -- Start with God -- Learn it by heart -- The final word. "At the core of your being you truly want an enriching and fulfilling life. There are many ways to experience a good life. Wisdom Essentials for Successful Living is designed to help you find the right way to experience a good life. Wisdom Essentials for Successful Living is written so that we'll all know how to live well and right. It is written so that we will understand what life means and where it's going. It is essentially a manual for living, for learning what's right and just and fair. It is a practical book for everyday people stumbling through life. It will teach the inexperienced the ropes and hopefully give young people a grasp on reality. There is something in this book for everyone. There's something in the manual for seasoned men and women. There is still a thing or two for the experienced to learn. There is fresh insight broken down in simplicity to probe and penetrate the rhymes and seasons of your life..." / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1092/thumbnail.jpg

The purpose of this study was to sort out and specify the dimensions of acculturation for kaigaishijo, Japanese sojourning students who presented an anomaly in a monocultural setting, based on factors that surfaced through data collected in the interviews and observations as a result of my conceptual framework that focused on the family, educational environment, and maturity. By sorting the data and comparing and contrasting one child's experiences to those of others as individuals and as an aggregate, nine factors appeared to repeatedly impact the process of acculturation. These essential factors that provide insights into acculturation are (1) the mother's role, (2) language acquisition, (3) clothing, (4) artistic endeavors, (5) educational experiences, (6) a receptive attitude, (7) personality, (8) length of residency, and (9) family value of education.;Elements of two of the three original concepts that organized my thinking, interviewing, and observations, that is family and school, played significant to moderate roles in the acculturation process of all four students of the study. The children, according to information gleaned from their parents, teachers, and school records, had met appropriate maturational milestones; therefore, the concept of maturation did not impact in these cases. Specific elements from the familial and educational environments did, however, impact the process. Two factors directly pertaining to the individual children's social and psychological make-up rendered significant consequences in the process.;Numerous variables impacted the acculturative process and each child's story was varied and complex. The nine common factors isolated in the study do not appear to influence the process of acculturation with equal weight. Some constitute a more salient role than others. It was concluded that three factors appear to play a minor role in acculturation, four appear moderately important, and two factors, personality and a receptive attitude, display the greatest importance.;The study was conducted in a Middle Atlantic state where the author was a school administrator. The dimensions of the process of acculturation should raise consciousness levels regarding the need to dispel stereotypes and to acknowledge differences as means to understanding and accepting diversity. Further study is needed to ascertain the generalizability of the findings to other cross-cultural populations.

This study explored the qualities that distinguished a select group of college freshmen women (National Hispanic Scholars) from a general sample of Hispanic women as assessed by the PIT (Picture Identification Test) a semi-projective systems-oriented instrument that measures motivation (Chambers, 1988). The PIT was mailed to 496 Women Scholars, and administered to self-identified Hispanic freshmen women who attended four universities in the United States for the first time in the Fall of 1990. Results were based on the responses of 99 Ss (Select Group), and 57 Ss (Regular Group) who completed the PIT and fulfilled the criteria.;The specific hypothesis tested in this study was that an academically Select Group of Hispanic women would deviate less on PIT normative measures than a Regular Group of Hispanic college freshmen women. The data supported the prediction at a high level of significance.;PIT variables were first grouped and analyzed by a Multiple Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) program to ascertain any differences on Needs for each variable between the groups. Twenty-two out of 28 MANOVAs were significant at the p.02 level or less. A stepwise discriminant function analysis was used to order 114 of the most significant ANOVA variables (p {dollar}<{dollar}.05) and the most significant Bonferroni variables (p {dollar}<{dollar}.002). Out of this group, 43 variables were selected and ordered according to strongest discrimination and independence. The Select Group was closer to the Target Model on twenty-two of the twenty-six discriminant variables with significant ANOVAs (p {dollar}<{dollar}.04). Results are discussed in terms of understanding the qualities and motivational dynamics observed in the Select Group. Recommendations for further research with the PIT are discussed exploring its possibilities as an adjunct to multicultural counseling with populations "at risk".

This research compares the performance of a group of extraverts to a group of intraverts on a cognitive reasoning task. According to the theory of Hans J. Eysenck, one would expect that the intraverts would perform better than the extraverts on a task of massed reasoning. On the basis of scores on the Eysenck Personality Inventory and the Otis Lennon Mental Ability Test, a sample of 72 Ss were drawn from two undergraduate classes, Principles of Applied Learning and Human Development, at Western Kentucky University. Only Ss with extreme scores on the Extraversion scale E were selected, with each extravert and intravert being matched according to I.Q. Those Ss with high Neuroticism scores (N) were eliminated. After selection, the Ss were administered an abstract reasoning test. A comparison of the performance of the two groups revealed no significant differences.

Horner postulated the existence of an avoidance motive called the motive to avoid success and suggested that many women experience anxiety about achieving success because they expect negative consequences as a result of succeeding. Horner's fear of success concept has been widely cited as an explanation for the lack of stability and predictability in research on female achievement motivation. Recent research by Tomlinson-Keasey has demonstrated much lower fear of success in older, married college women than in a younger, single group. This finding was attributed to the age difference between the married and single groups, but more specifically to role variables (marriage) in that fulfilling the feminine role of wife and mother reduces anxiety about success. Affiliation needs in women have also been found to decrease in older, married women as assessed by Farrar. furthermore, previous research has also shown that the predominant theme in women's fear of success stories pertains to affiliative loss. The present study attempted to identify more clearly the relationship of age and marital status to women's production of affiliative and fear of success imagery. A total of 10? subjects, ages 18 - 30, wrote stories in response to a very explicit achievement cue and to a more ambiguous, neutral cue. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that age and marital status were not significantly related to affiliative imagery and fear of success. However, relatively high percentages of the total sample showed evidence of fear of success (77.5%) and affiliative imagery (78.4%). Additional multiple regressions revealed that both sentence cues elicited very similar scores for fear of success and affiliative imagery, indicating that very ambiguous cues may be as capable of eliciting fear of success imagery as very explicit achievement cues.

Previous research has demonstrated that self-affirmation via values affirmations seem to buffer the self against perceived threats (Steele, 1988). An example of such a threat is opposing worldviews regarding civil liberties in counterterrorism policies. The present study uses the threat of worldview opposition in regards to counterterrorism policies in conjunction with an experimental induction of mortality salience to explore whether self-affirmation can attenuate increases in worldview defense following mortality salience. It was hypothesized that mortality salience would increase worldview defense, but that self-affirmation would decrease worldview defense following exposure to a worldview threat. When extremity of attitudes toward civil liberties in counterterrorism policies were considered in analyses, results indicated an interaction of self-affirmation and mortality salience, such that self-affirmation decreased worldview defense in participants in the mortality salience condition if they expressed extreme civil liberty attitudes. Results suggest that self-affirmation and mortality salience interact to predict worldview defense in those who care about civil liberties in counterterrorism policies. This study provides qualified theoretical support for self-affirmation theory (Steele, 1988). More research on the topic of self-affirmation and civil liberty attitudes is needed.

Public opinions of climate change are not consistent with the reality that climate change is occurring. Effective persuasive messages must be created to ensure that irreparable damage to the environment is prevented. This study investigated the cognitive processes that occur when an individual is exposed to a persuasive message regarding environmental concerns that is matched to an individual’s personality characteristics like right wing authoritarianism and purity. Messages on two environmental topics (solar panels and the Environmental Protection Agency) were created. Each topic was framed in multiple ways to test hypotheses about personality-based message matching. Participants completed a thought listing task after reading about each of the topics, and then indicated their attitudes toward the message topics. Participants were also asked to complete several individual difference scales. Reported attitudes were regressed on individual differences and message frame type in order to determine the effects of message matching on attitudes. While the results do not support a matching effect for purity, an effect of right wing authoritarianism was found after controlling for environmental apathy. This suggests that individual difference matching effects do exist, although they may be more complex than initially hypothesized.

Researchers have demonstrated that college students with strong religious beliefs unsupported by religious behaviors report greater involvement in underage drinking, drug use, and risky sex than students with concordant high or concordant low religious beliefs and behaviors. Recent research also suggests personality traits, belief systems, and environments may be influencing this group’s risky behaviors; however, further research is needed to identify factors contributing to these students’ life choices (including the decision to not support their religious beliefs with specific religious behaviors). This study reports on tests of a psychosocial mediational model, connecting personality traits, religious beliefs, religious behaviors, and underage drinking. Using Structural Equation Modeling and a sample of 411 underage college students, we tested whether the association between five impulsive personality traits and underage drinking was mediated by the discordance of religious beliefs and behaviors. We also tested whether the same predictive effects could be observed using three broader personality trait domains. Although students with discordant religious beliefs and behaviors drank more than their concordant religious peers, we did not find support for the proposed mediational models. Exploratory follow-up analyses offered support for an alternative direction; underage drinking mediated the relationship between eight out of nine personality variables and the discordance of religious beliefs and behaviors. Findings indicated students with strong religious beliefs unsupported by religious behaviors reported higher levels of impulsive traits and perceived invincibility and lower levels of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness than their peers high in both religious beliefs and behaviors; this effect operated indirectly through underage drinking. Implications for directional risk models and points of intervention are discussed.