Research on the adoption of innovation is largely limited to factors affecting immediate change with few studies focusing on enduring or lasting change. The purpose of the study was to examine the personality characteristics of cognitive playfulness, innovativeness, and essentialness beliefs in educators who were able to make an enduring change in pedagogy based on the use of technology in the curriculum within their assigned classroom settings. The study utilized teachers from 33 school districts and one private school in Texas who were first-year participants in the Intel® Teach to the Future program. The research design focused on how cognitive playfulness, innovativeness, and essentialness beliefs relate to a sustained high level of information technology use in the classroom. The research questions were: 1) Are individuals who are highly playful more likely to continue to demonstrate an ability to integrate technology use in the classroom at a high level than those who are less playful? 2) Are individuals who are highly innovative more likely to continue to demonstrate an ability to integrate technology use in the classroom at a high level than those who are less innovative? 3) Are individuals who believe information technology use is critical and indispensable to their …

Assessing offenders' risk of future violent behavior continues to be an important yet controversial role of forensic psychologists. A key debate is the relative effectiveness of assessment methods. Specifically, actuarial methods (see Quinsey et al., 1998 for a review) have been compared and contrasted to clinical and structured clinical methods (see e.g. Hart, 1998; Webster et al., 1997). Proponents of each approach argue for its superiority, yet validity studies have made few formal comparisons. In advancing the available research, the present study examines systematically the type of forensic case (i.e., sexual violence versus nonsexual violence) and type of assessment method (i.e., actuarial, structured clinical, and unstructured clinical). As observed by Borum, Otto, and Golding (1993), forensic decision making can also be influenced by the presence of certain extraneous clinical data. To address these issues, psychologists and doctoral students attending the American Psychology Law Society conference were asked to make several ratings regarding the likelihood of future sexual and nonsexual violence based on data derived from actual defendants with known outcomes. Using a mixed factorial design, each of these assessment methods were investigated for its influence on decision-makers regarding likelihood of future violence and sexually violent predator commitments. Finally, the potentially …

The purpose of this study was to describe the implementation, structure, content and outcome of an art-centered unit developed for 5th grade students. This unit was designed to be an example/model of specific tools and procedures that teachers can use in the art and general classroom to promote critical cultural consciousness, which is the ability to analyze both the covert and overt elements of a culture with the purpose of developing a holistic viewpoint that values the cultural heritages of self and others. The participants selected for this study were all the students in three 5th grade classes. The art-centered unit focused on three artists-Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett and Charles White-under the theme "Respect and Homage." The research methods used in this investigation were qualitative. This study was written in a style that described the research design with its origins, organization and implementation. The implementation of the curricular unit developed for this study took place in the art and general classroom. Of particular interest in this study was the framework and structure of the art-centered unit, designed around two specific strategies utilized to promote critical cultural consciousness. One strategy in this unit was the identification of art-related or art-centered micro-cultures …

This qualitative study examined whether a connection exists between children with emotional disorders consumption of traditional entertainment media and their subsequent vegative/anti-social classroom behavior. Research participants included six first-grade children diagnosed with an emotional disorder and their teacher. They were interviewed using a semi-structured approach. The students were observed in the natural setting of their classroom for a total of twenty-four hours, over a four-day period. Transcripts and classroom observations were analyzed, looking for connections between behavior and consumption of traditional entertainment media. Findings from this study concluded that these students used traditional entertainment media as a method of temporally escaping from the environment of their respective households.

The present study contributes to the widening body of spirituality research by conceptualizing it as a state-trait construct. A new measure of spirituality, the State-Trait Spirituality Inventory (STSI), was created and validated according to psychometric methods of test construction. In its current form, the STSI contains seven state spirituality items and six trait spirituality items. A thorough review of the literature identified common themes in spirituality definitions and assisted in developing definitions of trait and state spirituality. Internal consistency for the trait scale was .88 and for the state scale, .68. Good test-retest reliability was found with coefficients of .84 for trait spirituality and .81 for state spirituality. Results from a preliminary undergraduate sample as well as from the validation sample yielded a two-factor solution. In general, items determined by expert panels as trait items loaded on one factor and items deemed to be state items loaded on the second factor. Multitrait multimethod analysis yielded mixed findings for convergent, divergent, and concurrent validity for the spirituality and religiosity traits. Methods consisted of paper-and-pencil cognitive and behavioral measures. Cognitive measures were more likely to support convergent/divergent validity than were behavioral measures. A major emphasis in the study was to determine whether …

children

Examined in this hermeneutic phenomenological study is a transformation in the researcher's choral music teaching in which students' abilities to construct self emerged organically from interactions, or dialogues, that took place among and between the students, the teacher, and the music being studied. To allow for such interaction to emerge organically and meaningfully, students and teacher both shared in the power needed to construct a classroom environment in which the localized issues of the classroom and the specific contexts of students' lived histories were maintained and encouraged. This process of interaction, based upon dialogue among and between equal agents in the classroom, is described in the study as dialogic interactionism. In order to examine the concept of dialogic interactionism, three constructs upon which dialogic interactionism is based were developed and philosophically analyzed. They include the construction of self through the construction of self-knowledge; the localized reference system of the classroom, and the issue of power. Each construct is considered within the context of extant writings both in general education and music education philosophy. Following the analysis, a theoretical description of the dialogic interactive choral classroom is given as well a description of how such ideas might be realized in practice. …

"Distance" and Other Stories is a collection of four short stories and a novella that explore the themes of isolation and personal revelation. The dissertation opens with a preface which describes my background as a writer and the forces that shape my work, including science fiction, technology and the internet, cultural marginalization, and Joseph Campbell's hero's motif.

This dissertation argues that the four writers named above use the grotesque to illustrate the increasingly peculiar consequences of the assault of modernity on traditional Southern culture. The basic conflict between the views of Bakhtin and Kayser provides the foundation for defining the grotesque herein, and Geoffrey Harpham's concept of "margins" helps to define interior and exterior areas for the discussion. Chapter 1 lays a foundation for why the South is different from other regions of America, emphasizing the influences of Anglo-Saxon culture and traditions brought to these shores by the English gentlemen who settled the earliest tidewater colonies as well as the later influx of Scots-Irish immigrants (the Celtic-Southern thesis) who settled the Piedmont and mountain regions. This chapter also notes that part of the South's peculiarity derives from the cultural conflicts inherent between these two groups. Chapters 2 through 5 analyze selected short fiction from each of these respective authors and offer readings that explain how the grotesque relates to the drastic social changes taking place over the half-century represented by these authors. Chapter 6 offers an evaluation of how and why such traditions might be preserved. The overall argument suggests that traditional Southern culture grows out of …

This research addressed two main issues that have become evident in studies of interstate cooperation. The first issue has to do with the relationship between cooperation and conflict. Can they be represented on a single, uni-dimensional continuum, or are they better represented by two theoretically and empirically separable dimensions? Granger causality tests were able to clarify the nature of cooperative events. The second issue is related to factors that might facilitate or discourage cooperation with other countries as a foreign policy tool. Factors used to explain cooperation and conflict include domestic variables, which have not been fully accounted for in previous empirical analyses. It is hypothesized that economic variables, such as inflation rates, GDP, and manufacturing production indices affect the likelihood of cooperative event occurrences. The effect of political dynamics, such as electoral cycles, support rates and national capability status, can also affect the possibility of cooperative foreign policies. The domestic factors in panel data was tested with Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS) in order to take care of heteroscedasticity and autocorrelations in residuals. The individual case analysis used linear time series analysis.

A number of studies have shown that sensory deprivation is associated with selective decreases in GABA, GAD, and GABA receptors, in deprived areas of visual and somatosensory cortex. Those studies focused on layer 4, a recipient of direct thalamocortical sensory input. However, supragranular layers 2/3 have been recently identified as a major locus of functional plasticity in sensory deprivation and long-term potentiation. To examine whether GABAA receptors in layers 2/3 are affected by sensory deprivation, rats had mystacial vibrissae in middle row C or rows ABDE trimmed for 6 weeks beginning in early adulthood. Layers 2/3 above the deprived and adjacent whisker barrels were located in tangential sections, using patterns of radial blood vessels as fiducial marks. In deprived whisker barrel columns, [3H]muscimol binding to GABAA receptors decreased by 12.8% ± 1.2 (P &lt; 0.001) in layers 2/3 and 11.4% ± 1.2 (P<0.001) in layer 4. Altered levels of GABAA α1 subunit (Fritschy et al., 1994) were indicated by reduced optical density of immunostaining, both in deprived layers 2/3 (6.4% ± 0.7; P&lt; 0.001) and in layer 4 (3.4% ± 1.0; P &lt; 0.005). Interestingly, Nissl staining density also decreased in deprived layers 2/3 (12.7% ± 1.8 P &lt; 0.001) …

Food waste in the waste stream is becoming an important aspect of integrated waste management systems. Current efforts are composting and animal feeding. However, these food waste disposal practices rely on slow thermodynamic processes of composting or finding farmers with domestic animals capable of consuming the food wastes. Bioconversion, a potential alternative, is a waste management practice that converts food waste to insect larval biomass and organic residue. This project uses a native and common non-pest insect in Texas, the black soldier fly, which processes large quantities of food wastes, as well as animal wastes and sewage in its larval stage. The goal of this research is to facilitate the identification and development of the practical parameters of bioconversion methods at a large cafeteria. Three major factors were selected to evaluate the practicality of a bioconversion system: (1) the biological constraints on the species; (2) the economic costs and benefits for the local community; (3) the perception of and interaction between the public and management agencies with respect to the bioconversion process. Results indicate that bioconversion is feasible on all levels. Larvae tolerate and consume food waste as well as used cooking grease, reducing the overall waste volume by 30-70% …

There were two major goals of this study - to examine validity of scores for the Boholst Life Position Scale and to examine potential associations between life positions and affective traits. Two hundred seventy-seven students enrolled in undergraduate psychology classes at a large university volunteered for the study. Concurrent validity of scores for the life position scale was supported based on two compared instruments. Pearson product-moment correlations for the comparisons were -.765 and .617, both statistically significant at the p < .001 level. Factor analysis demonstrated that the scale could accurately be conceptualized as consisting of two factors - an "I" factor and a "You" factor. MANOVA, ANOVA, multiple linear regression, and canonical correlation analysis were used to examine associations between life positions and the affective traits of angry, sad, glad, social anxiety, loneliness, and satisfaction with life. Subjects were catagorized into four groups representing their life position: "I'm OK, you're OK," "I'm OK, you're not OK," "I'm not OK, you're OK," and "I'm not OK, you're not OK." A MANOVA employing life position as the independent variable with four levels and the six affective traits as the dependent variables demonstrated statistical significance (p < .001 level) and h2 was …

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with negative outcomes in adulthood, including difficulty in relationships. Research has posited CSA may lead to insecure attachment in survivors, which may be the vehicle by which dysfunctional parent-child relationships develop. The purpose of the proposed study was to examine differences in parenting outcomes between CSA and non-CSA mothers utilizing both observational and self-report methods and to examine the unique impact of CSA on parenting attitudes. Abuse status was determined by scores on the Sexual Abuse subscale of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), with the CSA group comprised of mothers scoring in the moderate to severe range. Mothers self-reported parenting attitudes on the Parent-Parental Acceptance Rejection Questionnaire/Control (P-PARQ/Control) and the Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory-2 (AAPI-2), while parental depression was assessed with the revised Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-2). Parenting behaviors were observed by coding the Parent-Child Interaction Assessment (PCIA). Hypotheses were not supported until child gender was considered as a third variable. Results of MANCOVA analyses indicated CSA mothers, but not comparison mothers, exhibited significantly poorer limit-setting skills (h² = .21) with male children compared to female children, but did not self-report these differences. Although not statistically significant, small but potentially meaningful effect sizes were …

The current study investigated the relationship between clients' object relations functioning and the working alliance. The Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (SCORS; Westen, 1991), an object relations scoring system for the TAT, was used to assess object relations functioning. Forty-eight therapy clients at a university-based training clinic were administered the TAT, Adult Attachment Scale (AAS), Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 1977), and the short form of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSD; Crowne & Marlowe, 1960). Following the initial assessment of client characteristics shortly after intake, clients and their therapists rated the working alliance 3 sessions later. Results indicated that the SCORS was significantly correlated with client and therapist ratings of the working alliance. The current study also assessed the predictive validity of the SCORS by examining how its various scales are related to aspects of the working alliance and the other measures used in this study. The findings suggest that the relationship between object relations functioning, the working alliance, symptom severity, and attachment disturbance depends on the aspect of object relations that is being assessed.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a relationship exists between the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) of first-term Air Force medical service corps (MSC) officers and their initial occupational placement matches (OCUPLACE MATCH), and, if so, whether this could it predict job satisfaction. The population consisted of 116 first-term Air Force MSC officers already assigned and working at their initial occupational placement. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS®) computer software program was used for the statistical computation. Several techniques were used, including, frequency distribution, the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, and regression analyses, among others. Results showed a statistical significant correlation between the MBTI type of the first-term MSC officer matches and their initial occupational placement (OCUPLACE MATCH, r = .440, p < .01). Furthermore, results of a regression analysis showed no statistical significance for predication on job satisfaction (r = 492, F = .887, p < .05). Based on this study, the Air Force Personnel Center can match first-term MSC officers' personality type to an initial occupation placement; however, based on the second part of the hypothesis, prediction of job satisfaction may not be yield on less other aspects of the group are considered such as time …

Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) tend to experience social functioning problems, with girls more likely to encounter peer rejection than boys. The present study investigated gender differences in child, parent, and teacher perceptions of social functioning among ADHD and control children. Participants included 119 children (ages 6-11) and their parents. Sixty-one children were previously diagnosed with ADHD. Parents, teachers, and children completed measures assessing the child's social functioning. The results indicate that the relationship between ADHD status and social functioning differs as a function of rater. Teachers and parents reported that ADHD children had lower social functioning than controls, while ADHD and control children reported similar levels of social functioning. Gender differences were found on the child self-report, with girls reporting lower social functioning than boys. In ADHD children the relationship between social functioning and comorbid depression differed as a function of rater. Specifically, among ADHD children with depression, parents rated children as having lower social functioning than did children or teachers. In ADHD children without comorbid depression, however, there were no rater differences. Additionally, no rater differences in social functioning were found between ADHD children with and without a comorbid psychiatric condition. Overall, the results of the …

Educational researchers, practitioners, and policy makers have long expressed their concern that gender disparity of academic performance and participation in science and mathematics education continues to increase with educational progress of students through the pipeline. Educational and occupational aspirations, high school experience, external support from family members and significant others appear to be influential factors that develop strong self-concept among female students who aspire to study science and mathematics. Using a national sample of aspirants in science, mathematics, and engineering majors in public community colleges, that participated in the 1996 Cooperative Institutional Research Program American Freshman Survey, this study investigated the influences of students' pre-college experiences on their college choice, aspirations, and self-concept by examining three theoretical structural models. In addition, gender differences were tested by using multiple group analysis. The findings from the multiple group analysis revealed that there was no statistically significant gender difference in predicting college choice, aspirations, and self-concept. The results from the descriptive analysis indicated that the female students were already underrepresented in science, mathematics, and engineering majors. Taken together, the findings challenge researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to examine why the persistent fall off, and how can community colleges support and retain these students …

The present study compared the career development concerns and other vocationally relevant variables of employees of organizations who have and have not engaged in downsizing within a one year timeframe. The sample consisted of 162 participants, 72 layoff survivors (those who remained in an organization after its downsizing) and 92 non-survivors (employees in organizations who have not downsized within 12 months). Significant results were found that differentiated the career related experiences of participants in the survivors group, survivors from non-survivors, and participants in general regardless of survivorship status. In general, results indicated that non-survivors reported greater job satisfaction and job security than layoff survivors, that being married with children may increase job satisfaction, and social support may buffer the grief reactions that survivors have to the loss of their co-worker friends. Furthermore, Super's age-associated stages within the Life-Span, Life-Space Theory were moderately upheld in the sample, especially for the Exploration stage. However, younger workers demonstrated more Maintenance concerns that would be predicted by the theory. A discussion of the relevant literature is included as well as possible explanations of the results, small sample size, and implications for future research.

This study assessed the impact of the Texas Counselors' Network (TCN) on students of counselors who attended TCN workshops. TCN is a professional organization created in 1996 for the professional development of counselors. TCN impacts primary and secondary school students by providing counselors with selected skills to assist them in helping students. In theory, TCN thus impacts these students by improving overall skills of participating counselors. This study assessed the progress of students before and after implementation of TCN. Students' progress was considered in four areas: Texas Accountability Assessment Scores (TAAS), attendance rates, dropout rates, and high school student enrollment in technical programs. The current study compared student performance in the above four areas during a two to three year period prior to the establishment of TCN, with the initial six years of TCN existence. This study examined data attained through the Texas Educational Agency (TEA) Website using their Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) for four regional TCN groups. The study used a paired t-test to compare the performance of students before versus after counselor participation in network workshops. The findings indicated that overall, counselor participation in TCN could have a significant effect on student performance. In fact, eight tests …

An exploratory study was conducted examining Internet usage among African-American college students. The study examined both psychosocial correlates, including technological anxiety and racial identity as well as socioeconomic measures, as they impacted Internet usage. Additionally, three distinct measures of Internet usage, thin access, thick access and the Internet Connectedness Index (ICI), were used as criterion variables in three separate multiple regression analysis (MRA) models. The results of the study found differences in predictive validity based on the criterion variable used, with the ICI accounting for the greatest amount of variance (54%). Racial identity, in terms of internal beliefs and feelings about being African American and internalization of Afrocentric values in a political context were found to be predictive of Internet usage as measured by the ICI.

Electrodeposition is a novel method for fabrication of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films on metal substrates. In this work, DLC was electrochemically deposited on different substrates based on an anodic oxidation cyclization of acetylene in liquid ammonia. Successfully anodic deposition was carried out for DLC onto nickel substrate at temperatures below -40°C. Comparative studies were performed on a series of different carbon sources (acetylene, sodium acetylide, and a mixture of acetylene and sodium acetylide). The films were characterized using a variety of methods including Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), XPS valence band spectra, and/or scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Raman spectroscopy is used as a bench mark technique to verify the presence of deposited DLC films, to access the films homogeneities, and to provide the ratio of the different carbon phases, mainly disordered graphite (D) and graphite (G) phases in the films. A combination of the Raman with FTIR and valence band spectra analysis allowed the distinction between hydrogenated DLC and unhydrogenated DLC films. Three different kinds of DLC [(1) hydrogenated DLC (a-C:H); (2) tetrahedral hydrogenated DLC (ta-C:H); and (3) graphitic-like DLC] were deposited depending upon the deposition conditions and substrates. Temperature and current density are …

Sequenza III was written in the mid -1960s and is widely available for study and performance, but how can this work be defined? Is it a series of sounds, or phonemes, or the anxious mutterings of a woman? Is it performance art or an operatic mad scene? Sequenza III could be all of these or something else entirely. Writing about my method of preparation will work to allay some of my own and other performer's fears about attempting this unusual repertory. Very little in this piece is actually performed on pitch, and even then the pitches are not definite. The intervals on the five-line staff are to be observed but the singer may choose to sing within her own vocal range. The notation that Berio has used is new and specific, but the emotional markings and dynamics drawn from these markings permit a variety of interpretive decisions by the performer. There is a very brief text and no actual melody, so where does one begin? As a composer, Berio was often responsive to external stimuli. Quotation of his earlier works and the works of others was a common tool of his technique. By comparing Sequenza III with other works by …

This project investigated the metacognitive strategies used to appraise obsessive thoughts employed by individuals with different anxiety symptoms. Two hundred eighty-seven undergraduate students completed two repertory grids and three anxiety scales. The repertory grids respectively examined the appraisal process of intrusive thoughts both from the perspective of the rater and the rater's imagined average person. Variables quantified from the rep grid related to the construal process of raters' own intrusions, failed to demonstrate robust differences between OCD, non-OCD anxious, and non-anxious individuals. However, it appears that anxious individuals, not just those with OCD, use metacognitive strategies to suppress rigid constructions under perceived social evaluation. Future studies may wish to use related grid variables to explore the relation between obsessions and social anxiety.