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This study investigated the relationships between locus of control and perceived contingency of parental rewards and punishments. Questionnaires measuring subjects' locus of control and their perception of parental contingency behavior were administered to undergraduate college students. The obtained measures of contingency of parental rewards and punishments were correlated with scores on Rotter's I-E Scale. Of the maternal contingency factors, only noncontingent punishment related significantly and negatively to internality (males only). Paternal contingent punishment related positively and significantly to internality for both males and females. There was a significant negative relationship between paternal noncontingent punishment and internality (males only). None of the parental reward factors related significantly to locus of control.

This study examined the attitudes of undergraduate college students toward marriage and family life. The students in the study lived in college residence halls located in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas in the southwestern portion of the United States. A survey instrument consisting of fifty-eight attitude statements and six demographic items was used to gather information for the study. All of the fifty-eight attitude statements were listed in the following ten cluster areas for easier accessibility: cohabitation and premarital sexual relations, marriage and divorce, childhood and child rearing, division of household labor and professional employment, marital and extramarital sexual relations, privacy rights and social needs, religious needs, communication expectations, parental relationships, and professional counseling services. The six demographic items included age, gender, ethnic background, year in school, parental status, and dating experience .

This thesis examined the instructor-student relationship through an interpersonal communication perspective. The current thesis took a two-step process to first derive participant-generated responses concerning undergraduate student maintenance behaviors and second to construct and validate a scale concerning those behaviors. Of additional interest was to explore reasons as to why students aim to maintain these relationships. A 16-item measure titled the Student Relational Maintenance Scale was created and consists of making connections, advice seeking, etiquette, and attendance behaviors. Additionally, results revealed that both professional and personal reasons motivated students to build these relationships. Making connections, advice seeking, etiquette, and attendance behaviors were positively related to students having professional goals; advice seeking, etiquette, and attendance were positively related to students having personal goals. The results of this thesis provided further insight into how and why undergraduate college students build positive interpersonal connections with their instructors.

While there is evidence about the relationship between career development and psychological outcomes, more work is needed to understand how career development is related to personal mental health outcomes in college students. Studying some of the social and cognitive predictors of self-efficacy, this study espouses a holistic perspective to career development and aims to better understand its impact on well-being. Using social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and Super's life-span, life-space theory, this study examines how social (e.g., parental support) and cognitive (e.g., career values awareness) factors influence career decision-making self-efficacy, and furthermore, how this impacts well-being in undergraduate students. Specific mediation hypotheses were assessed, including the mediating role of career values awareness in the relationship between parental support and career decision-making self-efficacy, and the mediating effect of career-decision-making self-efficacy on well-being. Data were collected from 1446 undergraduate students at a large Midwestern public land-grant university through an online survey. Using structural equation modeling to analyze the data, results indicated that: (a) career values awareness mediated the relationship between parental behaviors and CDMSE; (b) CDMSE mediated the relationship between parental behaviors and well-being; and (c) CDMSE mediated the relationship between career values awareness and well-being. In an alternative model, parental support and socioeconomic status (SES) were also found to be significant positive predictors of well-being. Post hoc analysis revealed that academic standing (i.e., year in school) did not moderate the relationship between CDMSE and well-being. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are suggested along with implications for clinical practice.