Considering the explanations of schizophrenia that presume schizophrenia spectrum disorders (e.g., schizotypal personality disorder, schizoaffective disorder, etc.) to be genetically related to schizophrenia, the purpose of this study was to investigate the attention and information processing abilities of individuals who have been identified as schizotypal or psychosis-prone (i.e., schizophrenia spectrum functioning in individuals who do not have schizophrenia). Research indicates that persons identified as psychosis-prone may show attention and information processing deficits similar to individuals with schizophrenia. The identification and description of individuals who later decompensate into schizophrenia would advance the understanding of schizophrenia and its causes. The Chapman's PER-MAG scale (Perceptual Aberration-Magical Ideation) was used to identify 35 hypothetically psychosis-prone college students (schizotypy group) and 42 normal college students (nonschizotypy group) out of the 806 volunteer subjects. Their attention and information processing abilities were measured by COGLAB (a multiparadigmatic cognitive test battery that represents a continuum of cognitive functions, from preattentional to attentional, to conceptual). Their social adjustment was measured by the Premorbid Adjustment Scale (PAS). The hypotheses of the study were that the hypothetically psychosis-prone subjects would perform poorer than controls on COGLAB measures and that COGLAB measures of a more molar nature would better predict social adjustment …

This research examines how experience and missing information affect judgments of tax return preparers. Tax return preparers may often be faced with the problem of incomplete information, and their responses to this problem may be conditioned by whether or not they recognize information is missing. Based on the Holland et al.'s cognitive theory of induction as applied to tax judgment by Marchant et al., it was hypothesized that experienced tax preparers would correctly classify more items as to their relevance to a specific tax issue than novice tax preparers. Additionally, it was hypothesized that the strength of recommendations of tax preparers who had no relevant information missing would be greater than the strength of recommendations of tax preparers who had relevant information missing and were prompted that information was missing. Lastly, it was hypothesized that prompting that relevant information was missing would have a greater effect on the strength of recommendations of tax return preparers with lesser specific experience than it would on the strength of recommendations of tax return preparers with greater specific experience. The results suggest that experienced tax preparers do recognize the relevance of information to a greater degree than novice tax preparers. There was no significant …

The problem in this study was to determine the relationship between the scores on the three parts (reading, writing, and mathematics) of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills Test (TAAS) and the academic success of first-year students at Clarendon College, Clarendon, Texas. High school grade-point average and gender were also included in the study. The purpose of the study was to develop an equation to predict first-year college grade-point average at Clarendon College . The predictor variables were the three parts of the TAAS Test (reading, writing, and mathematics) , high school grade-point average, and gender. The equation was developed through multiple correlation/multiple regression multivariate procedures. All statistical analyses were calculated through sub-programs of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The study was limited to using only 1992/1993 Texas high school graduates who had entered Clarendon College in the fall semesters of 1992 and 1993 directly following high school graduation. A search of Clarendon College records produced 115 students from these groups who fully met all standards defined for the study. Two predictor equations were developed. One developed through a simple regression command included all five predictor variables. The second equation was produced through a stepwise procedure. This …

Southern Baptist-Related college faculty attitudes and opinions on areas of higher education most important to the professoriate as identified by the Carnegie Foundation in its 1989 National Survey of Faculty are described in this study and compared with the data from the survey reported by the Carnegie Foundation in The Condition of the Professoriate: Attitudes and Trends, 1989 and Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. The data were compared in the eight areas: goals of collegiate education, academic standards, attitudes about student life, teaching, research, and service, status of the profession, views of the institution, participation in decision-making, and general observations of higher education.

This investigation sought to identify anxiety responses to weight measurement, assessed by verbal report and cardiovascular reactivity CCR3 (systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate), which might differentiate females with either high or low self-reported bulimic behavior. Secondar i ly,, the study attempted to examine specific autonomic nervous system (ANS) arousal patterns of each group over time. The Bulimia Test (BULIT), Body Dissatisfaction Scale (BD), and a demographic questionnaire were administered to 105 undergraduate females at The University of North Texas. Based on BULIT scores, females were divided into high or low bulimic behavior groups. Of the 105 females screened, forty participated in the experiment which consisted of four phases: relaxation, anticipation of weight measurement, weight measurement, and recovery. Subjects had no prior knowledge of the weight stressor until presentation during the experiment. Results showed that subjects' notion of ideal weight was substantially lower than measured weight. During weight measurement, all subjects reported increased anxiety although the high group reported significantly more anxiety. Contrary to prediction, no significant group differences in CR were found when repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed. Orthogonal polynomial trend analysis was done with pooled groups, resulting in significant within-subject trends for …

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze how Homecourt, a nondirective support group at a public high school in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, operates and how it affects students.

The purpose of this study was to: (1) identify the sources of job-related stress which create excessive pressures for the directors and faculty of medical record administration and medical record technology programs; (2) identify the strategies that the directors and faculty of medical record administration and medical record technology programs find most helpful in coping with stress; (3) determine the relationship among demographic variables and job-related stressors as perceived by the directors and faculty of medical record administration and medical record technology programs; and (4) determine the difference among the means of five stress factors as perceived by the directors of medical record administration, faculty of medical record administration, directors of medical record technology and faculty of medical record technology programs. Questionnaires were mailed to 403 respondents. The response rate was 81.3%. Within the limitations of this study, the results revealed that "Having insufficient time to keep abreast of current developments in my field"was the highest stressor. The top stress coping strategy was "Social interaction." The relationship between demographic variables and five stress factors of reward and recognition, time constraint, departmental influence, professional identity and student interaction revealed a positive correlation between degree and professional identity factor, and a negative …

A study was conducted at The University of Texas at Arlington to obtain measurements of non-traditional age undergraduate students using the Mattering Scales for Adult Students in Higher Education (MHE). The MHE is designed to assess the perceptions of adult students on how much they matter to the institution they are attending. The study also sought to determine if "mattering" and other selected nonacademic variables associated with the university environment are perceived by nontraditional age students to effect their likelihood of completing their baccalaureate degree. Of the five subscales surveyed by the MHE, significant statistical differences were found to exist in the Administration, Interaction With Peers, Multiple Roles, and Faculty subscales denoting an interaction between gender and minority status. Significant statistical differences were also found by gender on the Advising subscale and by minority status on the Faculty subscale.

This study was conducted to determine what the relationship is between the employee compensation/benefit programs in Texas public school districts and the basic values and beliefs that are important to the success of the districts.

This study examined the policy letters and verbal testimony transcripts submitted by interest groups to the United States Department of Education (USDE) in response to the proposed regulations pertaining to the implementation of the 1997 reauthorization of P. L. 105-17, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Specifically, this study analyzed the emerging themes in the area of discipline. Responses were received from the following interest groups: (a) school administrators, (b) parents, (c) teachers, (d) state educational agencies (SEAs), (e) national educational organizations, and (f) members of the United States Congress. In addition to analyzing the emerging themes, the study compared these themes to ones found in the current literature and court cases.

This study concentrates on the social status of women in one southern town during the late nineteenth century and the Progressive Era.

Walt Whitman has long been celebrated as a Romantic writer who celebrates the self, reveres Nature, claims unity in all things, and sings praises to humanity. However, some of what Whitman has to say has been overlooked. Whitman often questioned the goodness of humanity. He recognized evil in various shapes. He pondered death and the imperturbability of Nature to human death. He exhibited nightmarish imagery in some of his works and gory violence in others. While Whitman has long been called a celebratory poet, he is nevertheless also in part a writer of the Dark Romantic.

This study investigated person-situation relations of professional preparation and job classification of secondary school athletic training positions with core job dimensions and affective outcomes within Hackman and Oldham's 1980 Job Characteristics Model. Research focused on which relations show increased affective outcomes; relationships between core job dimensions and affective outcomes; and characteristics of the core job dimensions of task identification, task significance, and skill variety of athletic trainer tasks as defined by the National Athletic Trainers Association Board of Certification, Inc. 1995 Role Delineation Study.

This study examined international education (IE) programs in Texas community colleges to determine how they compare to a general, theoretical model of IE programs discussed in the literature. The study proposed: (a) to describe, through a review of literature, the components of IE; (b) to describe the administration of IE within the Texas community colleges; (c) to identify existing IE instructional activities; (d) to describe the student support services related to IE which are in practice; (e) to describe what community and out of country outreach components are in operation; and (f) to determine how the IE programs in Texas community colleges compare to theoretical components of IE programs as identified in the literature.

The increase in the number of nontraditional aged undergraduate students (25 yrs. and older) and students transferring between post-secondary institutions has raised the question of whether effective instruction is viewed the same by these different groups of students. This study addressed this question by analyzing the responses of these different groups to 23 instructional questions on a standard faculty evaluation form.

Kenneth H. Cooper is considered to be a noted scholar in the field of wellness and fitness. This study explored his contributions to the preventive medicine and wellness movement in community college physical education programs in the United States. It examined Cooper's influence on the development of preventive medicine and wellness from its inception and growth to its impact on changes and factors affecting curriculum in community college programs. A random sample of436 physical education division directors from the nation's 1,400 community colleges yielded a 62% survey response. For purposes of comparison, the sample was stratified into two regions taken fromeast and west of the Mississippi River. Chi-square analysis at the .01 level of significance found no difference between variables due to geographic region. The findings of this study indicate that Kenneth Cooper's contributions to preventive medicine and wellness in community college physical education curriculum are overshadowed by state and local governing bodies that are the force behind curricular development in the nation's 2-year community colleges. However, as an individual contributor, Cooper ranks highly in influencing the wellness and physical education curriculum primarily in the areas of aerobic exercise, physical fitness, and cardiovascular disease. The extent of Cooper's impact on …

This study was designed to measure ten demographic membership variables of the Texas Association for Counseling and Development (TACD) and the respective relationships of those variables to ethical knowledge. It was also an effort to conduct a global study of the most recent revision (1988) of the AACD Ethical Standards and to find the relative knowledge of these standards by a random sample of 357 counselors in one state counseling organization.

Although several studies question information technology's contribution to productivity, organizations continue to invest in client/server systems (CSSs) particularly as enablers of business process reengineering (BPR). These efforts may be wasted if they do not improve business processes. This study focused on business processes and investigated the role of workstation-based CSSs in changing business processes. A multiple case study of workstation-based CSS databases in three organizations was performed with the proposition that they moderate the relation between managerial action and changes within business processes. The research framework suggested that changes to business processes are achieved by reducing uncertainty. In order to measure change in business processes, this study categorized business process change into: (1) compressing sequential tasks across functions, (2) compressing tasks vertically within the managerial hierarchy, (3) eliminating slack resources, (4) reducing the distance between the point of decision and the point of information or eliminating intermediaries, (5) reconfiguring sequential processes to operate in parallel, and (6) linking parallel activities during the process. Data collected from questionnaires, interviews, and observations from three case studies were used to construct network diagrams, relationship matrices, reachability matrices, and task tables of business processes. The results of this research partially support the proposition that …

This study examined success rates and end-of-semester grades for three instructional methods used in developmental algebra and college algebra. The methods investigated were traditional lecture, laboratory, and computer mediated learning. The population included the 10,095 students who had enrolled in developmental algebra and college algebra at Richland College in Dallas, Texas, for five semesters. Success was defined as earning a grade of A, B, C, or D in a course.

The purpose of this study was to re-examine the issue of whether adult children of alcoholics experience more depression, anxiety, and lower self-esteem than do children of non-alcoholic families. This study is a replication of the study of David Dodd, entitled A Comparison of Adult Children of Alcoholic Families with Adult Children from Non-Alcoholic Families. 1990. The measures used in this study were as follows: Children of Alcoholics Screening Test, the Beck Depression Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Coopersmith Adult Self-Esteem Inventory, and a questionnaire developed by this writer designed to obtain family history regarding not only alcoholism, but other issues of family dysfunctionality as well. The subjects for this study were 231 students enrolled in the counselor education program at this university, all aged 19 or older. Of the 230 subjects, 31 were male and 199 were female. Eleven males identified themselves as children of alcoholics, as measured by the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test, and 60 females identified themselves as children of alcoholics. Thus, a total of 71 subjects in this study were identified as children of alcoholics. T-tests were conducted to see whether any differences existed between the male and female groups. No significant differences were …

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of four learning styles (accommodator, assimilator, converger, and diverger) and two different presentation methods (traditional and computer-based) on knowledge acquisition in a university classroom.

This study was designed to determine the effects of child-centered play therapy as a play therapy training model for beginning play therapy students. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of child-centered play therapy training on play therapy trainees in (a) improving positive attitudes and beliefs toward children; (b) improving knowledge of child-centered play therapy; (c) improving confidence in applying child-centered play therapy skills; (d) reducing dominance tendencies in trainees' personality as measured by the California Psychological Inventory; and (e) increasing tolerance levels in trainees' personality as measured by the CPI. The experimental group, consisting of 37 counseling graduate students with a specialty in child counseling, received 45 clock hours of introduction to play therapy graduate course training at the University of North Texas, Denton. The control group, consisting of 29 counseling graduate students with a specialty in child counseling, received other counseling graduate courses training but no play therapy training at the time of their participation in this study at the University of North Texas. Both experimental and control group students completed the pretest and the posttest on the Play Therapy Attitude Knowledge Skills Survey and the California Psychological Inventory at the beginning and the end …

The purpose of this study was to examine district level financial data to assess equity across districts, to compare equity benchmarks established in the literature using selected functions from the state's financial database, and to determine the predictive value of those functions to the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) tests of 1997.

This study resulted in the development of the Discouragement Scale for Adults (DSA), an assessment instrument for the Adlerian construct of discouragement in adults more than 18 years of age. The DSA is a 60-item instrument that contains five sub-scales corresponding to five life tasks identified in Adlerian literature as work, love, society, self, and spirituality. Age, gender, and ethnicity norms were established for the DSA using a diverse sample (N=586). Additional normative data was developed with a presumed discouraged sample (N=47), and a special sample of traditional college students aged 18-27 years (N=531). Findings on the norm sample indicated that females are less discouraged than males on the Total DSA and on society and spirituality sub-scales. The 18-34 year old group was more discouraged than other age groups on the Total DSA and on work, society, and spirituality sub-scales. Presumed discouraged sample findings indicated that females were less discouraged than males on the society sub-scale. College student findings indicated that females were less discouraged than males on the Total DSA and sub-scales of love, society, spirituality, and work. A significant difference was found among ethnic groups in self sub-scales. Students with no absences per week were less discouraged than …