In the last several years, there has been an interest in graphical user interfaces as compared with character user interfaces. The "mouse" is the device most closely associated with graphical user interfaces. Key strokes are more closely associated with character user interfaces. Given these associations, is there a preference for the keyboard or for the mouse as an input device? The determination of user preference was reduced to the determination of preference of key strokes or mouse clicks for selection of main menu items. The subjects, university students working with Microsoft Works by Microsoft Corporation, copyright 1987-1989, were learning how to use application software. While Microsoft Works was running, tracking software recorded every user key stroke and mouse click, together with data about these key strokes and mouse clicks. From the analysis of these data, common preference for the means of menu item selection was determined.

The effects of top-level text structure and signaling on the reading recall of Japanese female junior college students studying English as a foreign language were investigated in this study. One hundred thirty-two subjects were selected from a private female junior college in Tokyo. The students were divided into three groups—high, average, and low reading comprehension levels—based on the results of the Test of Reading Comprehension. The instrument used to measure students' recall ability was developed from expository passages taken from a biology textbook. The passages were rearranged to show identifiable top-level structure, collection of description, causation, problem/solution, or comparison. Each passage was divided into two versions: a with-signaling version, in which top-level structure was explicitly stated by signaling words or phrases, and a without-signaling version, where signaling words or phrases were omitted. After the students were stratified on reading comprehension, they were assigned to eight different versions of text—two of each of the four top-level text structures, one with- and one without-signaling. In the recall test, students were instructed to read the text and to remember as much as they could.

The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of level III video disc instruction on high school biology students. There were three areas studied: students' achievement in biology, students' attitude toward biology, and confidence. The experimental group consisted of 70 biology students. The control group also consisted of 70 biology students. The teacher of the experimental group used level in video disc instruction to teach about invertebrates, vertebrates, human systems, and plants throughout the semester. The teachers of the control group taught the same topics during the same period using the traditional lecture method and without level III video disc instruction. Students took the Biology Achievement Test, the Purdue Master Attitude Scale, and the Confidence in Learning Inventory before and after the treatment period. A t-test on the pretest scores of the experimental group and the control group showed no significant difference between the two groups. The experimental group also took the Technology Preference Survey after the treatment period.

This study applies Destler's institutional counterweights to Putnam's two-level analysis, substituting Liberal Institutionalism and Realism for internationalism and isolationism, in a comparative case study of the roles played by the U.S. and the EC in multilateral trade negotiations in agriculture under the aegis of the General Agreement for Tariffs and Trade during the first half of the Uruguay Round. Using game theory as an analytical tool in the process, this present study demonstrates that a clear pattern emerges in which stages of cooperation and deadlock can be easily anticipated in games of Chicken and Prisoners' Dilemma in accordance with various but predictable levels of institutional influence.

The present investigation evaluated sport-related motivational climates by assessing personal and perceived parental goal orientations and perceived parental pressure in children and adolescents. Data were collected from 202 middle-class, racially diverse students, including 43 male and 50 female children aged 12 or below (M age = 10.6) and 51 male and 58 female adolescents aged 13 or above (M age = 14.7), who had participated in a variety of organized sports, and were enrolled in elementary, middle, and high schools of the Dallas (TX) Independent School District. Measures included personal and parental projected versions (mother's and father's) of the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ), the Sport Parental Pressure Scale (mother's and father's versions), and a background assessment.

The banquet staff at a north Texas hotel were responsible for setting up 11 different functions (e.g., buffet dinners) for conferences and meetings. The functions were often set up late and items were often omitted. An analysis suggested that performance problems were the result of weak antecedents, inefficient work procedures, inadequate training and a lack of motivating consequences. An intervention consisting of task checklists, feedback, goal setting, monetary bonuses, training and job aids was designed to enhance the accuracy and timeliness of function setups. Performance increased from an average of 68.8% on the quality measure (accuracy plus timeliness) in baseline, to 99.7% during the intervention phase. Performance decreased to 82.3% during a follow-up phase in which parts of the intervention were discontinued by hotel management. Performance increased to 99.3% with the reintroduction of the intervention phase.

Trapped in the Body of a Cheerleader is a feature-length comedic screenplay using juvenile witticisms and black-comedy to tell the story of a teenaged girl accepting her own identity. The introduction, a personal essay, offers the author's personal views towards screen writing, teen-oriented films, and contemporary screen comedy.

The problem of this study was to determine training priorities as mandated by the Texas Legislature on the CORE Curriculum for Management and Leadership Development and their implications for Texas public school principals. Purposes of the study were to validate an instrument for assessing principals' training needs, to provide data for planning and delivering training for principals, to provide results to staff developers, and to develop a profile of similarities and differences in the perceptions of principals and their superordinates.

This qualitative study examined the characteristics of the mother-child relationship of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse at the time of the abuse. The study consisted of data from the McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD), the Family of Origin Scale (FOS), and a set of structured interview questions designed by the researcher. Autonomy/intimacy concepts from the FOS examined constructs of clarity of expression, responsibility, respect, openness, acceptance of loss and separation, expression of a wide range of feelings, conflict resolution, mood and tone, and empathy.

The purpose of this study was to describe the actual implementation of the transition process as observed in bilingual classrooms, and in particular, to examine the critical components (policy, curricular, and instructional characteristics) of the Spanish-to-English reading transition policies implemented in bilingual education programs in elementary schools in the Denton Independent School District in Texas. Four research questions drove this study. To investigate these questions, a multidimensional, descriptive research design was employed. The researcher used questionnaires, interviews, and field observations. The 11 educators, 6 bilingual teachers, 2 school-site principals, 2 school-site coordinators, and 1 district bilingual coordinator, were asked several types of questions (open response and closed response) using different types of instruments (questionnaires and interviews). Also, the six bilingual teachers were observed using two types of instruments (field notes and video tapes).

The purpose of this study was to determine if task type, task complexity, and search mechanism would have a significant affect on task performance. The problem motivating this study is the potential for systems online help designers to construct systems that can improve the performance of computer users when they need help.

Various constructs are related to predicting consumers' perceptions of brand extensions. Among these, three constructs, perceptions of perceived quality (PQ) associated with the parent brand, product category similarity (PCS) of an extension to its parent brand, and brand breadth (BB) of the parent, are central to many brand extension studies. The purpose of this study is to clarify the roles of these three constructs and to pit predictions from an alternative theoretical perspective — cognitive response theory — against predictions based on categorization theory.

This dissertation is a study of the romantic elements in Bernard Malamud's fiction that can be seen as representing a romantic ideology closely related to the romanticism of William Wordsworth.

Studies of the English Renaissance reveal a patriarchal structure that informed its politics and its literature; and the drama especially demonstrates a patriarchal response to what society perceived to be the problem of women's efforts to grow beyond the traditional medieval view of "good" women as chaste, silent, and obedient. Thirteen comedies, whose creation spans roughly the same time frame as the pamphlet wars of the so-called "woman controversy," from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth centuries, feature women who have no public power, but who find opportunities for varying degrees of power in the private or domestic setting.

In this study of several novels each by Barbara Pym, Fay Weldon, and Margaret Atwood, I focus on two areas: the ways in which female protagonists break out of their victimization by individuals, by institutions, and by cultural tradition, and the ways in which each author uses a structural pattern in her novels to propel her characters to solve their dilemmas to the best of their abilities and according to each woman's personality and strengths.

Social support needs have neither been formally addressed nor assessed in prior research with parents of children of special needs. Typically, behavioral management skills, specific knowledge about the disorder/illness/handicap, parents' self-perception, and participants' evaluation of program effectiveness have been measured. Research information collected to date supports the exploration of social support as a treatment intervention. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine perceived social support for parents of children with ADHD who completed a parent training program. The program, entitled "ADHD Parent Training," included information about ADHD, behavior management strategies, child advocacy, and a social support component. Upon completing the ADHD Parent Training program, parents were expected to perceive a significantly greater amount of social support than they did prior to treatment. In addition, the relationship between change in perceived social support and the more traditionally assessed outcomes of parent training was examined (parent's satisfaction with treatment, parent's perception of child's progress, and teacher's perception of child's progress).

The purpose of the study was to determine if exposure to a challenging interpersonal situation would have an adverse impact on intra- and interpersonal constructs. Individual difference variables including level of hostility and anger, Type A behavior, control in social situations, depression and sex were examined as "predictors" of those more likely to be adversely affected by personal challenge. Eighty subjects, 40 male and 40 female, completed questionnaires at a pretesting session including measures of hostility, the Type A behavior pattern, trait anger, exaggerated social control, depression, and self-other constructs. Twenty subjects then participated in a "supportive" role-play condition where the confederate was agreeable and friendly. Sixty subjects participated in a "challenge" role-play condition; the confederate was disagreeable, confrontive, and unpleasant. The posttesting measures were then completed.

Camping has been identified as a resource for educational, therapeutic, and recreational growth. The purpose of this study was to determine the psychosocial effects of a therapeutic camping experience with first time campers with spina bifida. In this study with four first time campers with spina bifida, three areas related to the camp experience were observed and measured: recreation participation, fun/pleasure, and self esteem. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used, including the Coopersmith Self Esteem Inventory, the Recreation Participation and Fun Inventory, participant and non-participant observations, interviews, and a counselor questionnaire. The measurements of self esteem, recreation participation, and fun/pleasure were taken at three intervals, before camp, during camp and three weeks following the camp experience. The four camper case studies demonstrated that each camper experienced his/her own unique first time camp experiences.

The dissertation begins with an introductory chapter that examines the short story cycle as a specific genre, outlines tendencies found in minimalist fiction, and discusses proposed definitions of the short story genre. The introduction examines the problems that short story theorists encounter when they try to.define the short story genre in general. Part of the problem results from the lack of a definition of the short story in the Aristotelian sense of a definition. A looser, less traditional definition of literary genres helps solve some of the problem. Minimalist fiction and the short story cycle are discussed as particular forms of the short story. Sixteen short stories follow the introduction.

The purpose of this study is to examine historically the presidential administration of John Christopher Stevens at Abilene Christian University from 1969 to 1981. During this time the institution grew in enrollment, faculty, facilities, endowment, and quality of educational opportunity. Limited to selected experiences and accomplishments, this dissertation examines Stevens' personal and administrative characteristics through interviews with him and those who worked with him. Materials were also used from Stevens' Presidential Archives in the Callie Faye Milliken Special Collections of the Herman and Margaret Brown Library at Abilene Christian University.

The literature demonstrates that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often experience peer rejection as a result of their difficulties with interpersonal interactions. The manner in which children with ADHD process social information and the extent to which social difficulties may adversely impact these children has remained unclear. In the first part of the study, the perceptions of social support between boys (ages 7 to 11 years) with and without ADHD were compared. An analysis of variance procedure (ANOVA) was performed and children with ADHD were found to perceive significantly lower levels of social support from their classmates than normal peers at pretreatment. The groups did not differ significantly with regard to perceptions of parent, teacher, and close friend support. In the second part of the study, the role of ADHD parent training and its effectiveness in decreasing problem-behaviors, ameliorating social problems, and enhancing perceptions of social support was examined. Repeated measures MANOVAs revealed a significant rater (mother and teacher) by time (pretreatment and posttreatment) interaction effect for total behavior problems, externalizing behavior problems, internalizing behavior problems, and social problems. On each scale, mothers reported more behavior problems than teachers at pretreatment, but fewer problems than teachers at posttreatment …

This empirical study is aimed at understanding the patterns of relationships among the organization structure of self-managed work teams in terms of three sets of constructs: 1. organization-based self-esteem; 2. consequent behaviors of intrinsic work motivation, general job satisfaction, organization citizenship, and organization commitment; and 3. performance. The primary significance of this study is that it adds to the pool of empirical knowledge in the field of self-managed work team research. The significance of this study to practicing managers is that it can help them make better-informed decisions on the use of the self-managed work team structure. This study was a sample survey composed of five standardized questionnaires using a five-point Likert-type scale, open-ended questions, and demographic questions. Unstructured interviews supplemented the structured survey and for means of triangulation of results. The variables were analyzed using regression analysis for the purpose of path analysis. The site was a manufacturing plant structured around self-managed work teams. The population was full-time, first-line production employees.

Using a sociolinguistic and post-colonial approach, I analyze Irish dramas that speak about language and its connection to national identity. In order to provide a systematic and wide-ranging study, I have selected plays written at approximately fifty-year intervals and performed before Irish audiences contemporary to their writing. The writers selected represent various aspects of Irish society--religiously, economically, and geographically--and arguably may be considered the outstanding theatrical Irish voices of their respective generations. Examining works by Alicia LeFanu, Dion Boucicault, W.B. Yeats, and Brian Friel, I argue that the way each of these playwrights deals with language and identity demonstrates successful resistance to the destruction of Irish identity by the dominant language power. The work of J. A. Laponce and Ronald Wardhaugh informs my language dominance theory. Briefly, when one language pushes aside another language, the cultural identity begins to shift. The literature of a nation provides evidence of the shifting perception. Drama, because of its performance qualities, provides the most complex and complete literary evidence. The effect of the performed text upon the audience validates a cultural reception beyond what would be possible with isolated readers. Following a theoretical introduction, I analyze the plays in chronological order. Alicia LeFanu's The …

This study examines the relationship between sonnet form and musical form in Benjamin Britten's sonnet cycles with a view toward identifying the musico-poetic form how the musical form interprets the poetry. Several issues come to the fore: 1) articulation of the large-scale divisions of the poetic form in the music; 2) potential of the musical setting to make connections between lines of the text ; 3) potential of the musical setting to follow or imitate the thought processes of the poem; and 4) placement of the departure and return.