Open access institutional repositories (OA IRs) are electronic systems that capture, preserve, and provide access to the scholarly digital work of an institution. As a new channel of scholarly communications IRs offer faculty a new way to disseminate their work to a wider audience, which in turn can increase the visibility to their work and impact factors, and at the same time increase institutions prestige and value. However, despite the increased popularity of IRs in numbers, research shows that IRs remain thinly populated in large part due to faculty reluctance to participate. There have been studies on the topic of open access repositories with the focus on external factors (social or technological context) that affect faculty attitudes towards participation in IRs, and there is a lack of understanding of the internal factors and the psychology of the reluctance. The goal of this mix method study was to identify the overall factors that affect faculty attitudes towards participation in IRs and examine the extent to which these factors influenced faculty willingness to participate in IRs. First, from literature review and the Model of Factors Affecting Faculty Self-Archiving this study identified eleven factors that influenced faculty members' intention to participate in OA …

The environmental problems associated with the boom in hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," such as anthropogenic earthquakes and groundwater contamination, have motivated some citizens living in affected areas such as Denton, Texas to form movements with the goal of imposing greater regulation on the industry. As responses to an environmental threat that is localized and yet mobile, these anti-fracking movements must construct rhetorical appeals with complicated relationships to place. In this thesis, I examine the anti-fracking movement in Denton, Texas in a series of three rhetorical analyses. In the first, I compared fracking bans used by Frack Free Denton and State College, Pennsylvania to distinguish the argumentative claims that are dependent on the politics of place, and affect strategies localities must use in resisting natural gas extraction. In the second, I compare campaign strategies that use local identity as a way of invoking legitimacy, which reinforces narrative frameworks of environmental risk. In the third, I conduct and analyze interviews with anti-fracking leaders who described the narrative of their movement, which highlighted tensions in the rhetorical construction of a movement as local. Altogether, this thesis traces the rhetorical conception of place across the rhetoric of the anti-fracking movement in Denton, Texas, while …

Keep Denton Beautiful (KDB) is inspired by Keep America Beautiful's model of community engagement to create a clean, beautiful, and vibrant city. The community mural initiative, Artscapes, aims to enliven public spaces, abate graffiti, and inspire community members to keep Denton, Texas, clean and beautiful. The goals of this research project are to understand the impact of Artscapes initiative, community perceptions of public art, and find ways KDB can better align future mural projects with the needs and desires of community members. By talking to artists that have worked with KDB, members of the mural art committee, and community members from the neighborhoods that have existing murals, this research provides input from these three populations to continue creating public art for the Denton community. I discuss the context of my work through Lefebvre's concept of "Right to the City," Rafael Schacter's opposition between sanctioned and non-sanctioned murals, Bourdieu's concept of symbolic and social capital, and David Harvey's work on neoliberalism and the entrepreneurial city.

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 …

Previous research indicates that women are judged on the amount of food eaten and that both men and women are judged on the type of food eaten. This study is an attempt to determine whether meal size or type predominantly accounts for these findings on the variables of masculinity, femininity, attractiveness, thinness, fitness, and likability. Physical activity was also included to determine its effect on these variable. Subjects used were 313 undergraduate students. Results indicate that meal type is more influential than meal size and that physical activity significantly influences judgements of others. The results are discussed in terms of future research and relatedness to socio-cultural theories of eating disorders.

Using the "revealed operant" technique, variability during acquisition and extinction was examined with measures of response rate and a detailed analysis of response topography. During acquisition, subjects learned to emit four response patterns. A continuous schedule of reinforcement (CRF) for 100 repetitions was used for each pattern and a 30 min extinction phase immediately followed. One group of subjects learned the response patterns via a "trial-and-error" method. This resulted in a wide range of variability during acquisition and extinction. Only one subject emitted a substantial amount of resurgent behavior. A second group of subjects was given instructions on what keys to press to earn reinforcers. This group had less variability in acquisition and extinction and resurgent responding was prevalent.

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 role of point loss for symmetrical relations introduced simultaneously with probe trials in the absence of original relations on all probe trial performances was evaluated. Training was completed after six conditional discriminations were established in two contexts. Point loss was introduced simultaneously with probe trials in the absence of original relations in the first context. Probe trials with no point loss in the absence of original relations were introduced in the second context. The simultaneous introduction of probe trials and the point loss contingency may in some cases prevent the emergence of an equivalence class in the context that contained the point loss as well as in the context where no point loss occurred.

The purpose of the study was to determine whether age, ethnicity, gender, full-time/ part-time status, and the community college academic variables of cumulative GPA, total transferable hours, and number of completed core courses predicted students' persistence or GPA at a four-year university.

This study examines the effect of class discussion as a pre-writing activity on actual writing performance. The experiment was conducted with all the Level 3 and Level 4 students enrolled in the Intensive English Language Institute of North Texas State University in the Spring, 1986 semester. Cochrans C test was performed to test significant differences between groups at the beginning of this test. Multivariate analysis of variance tests were used to determine the treatment effect between and within groups, and a matched t-test was also utilized to analyze the difference within tests. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was calculated to determine the relationship between the discussion activity score and the actual writing score. Analysis of covariance tests were used to determine which variance of discussion activities had greater effect on the actual writing score.

The purpose of this study was twofold. The first purpose was to identify and determine the degree of satisfaction experienced by selected groups of international students at North Texas State University in Denton, Texas. The second purpose was to analyze and interpret the data collected in relation to selected demographic variables. The following hypotheses were devised to guide the interpretation of the data findings. 1. There will be a significant difference in the degree of satisfaction with university administration among the three selected groups of N.T.S.U. international students. 2. There will be a significant difference in the degree of satisfaction with university faculty among the three selected groups of N.T.S.U. international students. 3. There will be a significant difference in the degree of satisfaction with fellow students among the three selected groups of N.T.S.U. international students.

This study focuses on the problems of international students as perceived by both international students and faculty in a public university. The major purposes of the study are to determine if there are significant differences in perceptions of the problems of international students between international students and faculty members, between groups of international students, and between groups of faculty members. A modification of an international student problem inventory instrument was used to collect data from 371 international students and 316 faculty members. Thirteen hypotheses were tested using frequency and percentages, analysis of variance, multivariate analysis of variance, and univariate analysis of variance, as required according to the data collected and the hypothesis being tested.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible events in the external environment between 1987 and 1997 that may affect the future of North Texas State University. Two groups of experts participated in the study, a group of individuals from outside North Texas State University and a group of experts from the university.

This study primarily attempts to (1) identify the specific adjustment problems anticipated by international students prior to departure from their home countries and those actually experienced while studying in America, (2) compare any significant, differences that may exist between problems as anticipated and as experienced in terms of levels of difficulty, and (3) investigate the discrepancy means between problems as anticipated and as experienced in relation to selected personal variables. The instrument used to gather the needed data is a questionnaire developed by the researcher. The initial questionnaire of 182 problem items was validated by a panel of experts and pretested on a small sample of international students. The revised questionnaire consists of two main sections; Section A contains fourteen items of demographic and personal data on the subjects, and Section B contains seventy-two items on problems that are purposely categorized into the eight related areas of student personnel services of (1) communication and language, (2) academic, (3) social-cultural, (4) psychological-personal, (5) financial, (6) health, (7) housing and food, and (8) international student advising.

This study is a lifespan analysis of adult college students between the ages of twenty-three and fifty-five at North Texas State University in Denton, Texas, with respect to academic achievement as measured by grade point average, self-esteem as measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and anxiety as measured by the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale.

The problem of this study was to test the differences between adult children from alcoholic families with adult children from non-alcoholic families on levels of depression, self-esteem, and anxiety. The sample consisted of 203 volunteers, all from the Counselor Education Department, 150 females and 53 males, ages 19 and older. Volunteers who were noted as being adult children of alcoholic families numbered 60. Measures used were the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the Coopersmith Adult Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI). Multivariate Analysis of Variance was used to test for differences between groups. In addition, a secondary analysis using a one-way MANOVA was used to test for differences between dysfunctional and functional family of origin status on the dependent variables of depression, self-esteem, and anxiety.

An investigation of attitudes toward selected international problems and issues, and the relationship between attitudes and some independent variables was conducted among 234 graduate and undergraduate students in the College of Education at North Texas State University, Denton, Texas. Attitudes toward Chauvinism, World Government, Cooperation, War, and Human Rights were measured by thirty-two Likert-type items developed by Educational Testing Service. The 234 returned, useable responses were tabulated according to each attitude scale and educational level. The attitude scales enumerated above were all correlated with students' backgrounds, educational experiences, and political attitudes.

The problem of this study was to determine if there were differences in perceived attitudes of self-concept between young people who returned to alternative education after dropping out of public education and educationally disadvantaged at-risk youth in Coordinated Vocational Academic Education (CVAE) classes as measured by the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. The hypotheses formulated for the study predicted no significant difference in mean attitude self-concept scores of returned dropouts to alternative schools and CVAE students enrolled in junior high school preemployment laboratories and high school students enrolled in Cooperative Education classes as measured by the Piers-Harris scale; and no significant change in mean attitude self-concept scores of former dropouts enrolled in alternative education centers and CVAE students as measured by the Piers-Harris scale over a two-month period utilizing an extended Solomon Four-Group Design, with and without the treatment. The scale was administered to 351 students from junior high and high school CVAE classes in Ector County (Odessa), Fort Stockton, and Midland Independent School Districts and alternative schools in Denton, Fort Stockton, Midland and Odessa, Texas. The self-concept scores were treated for significance by an analysis of variance. Findings were that all groups tested scored within the age range, junior high …

Parental socialization values are compared over sixty years by using data from the Denton Parent Project collected in 1989 and from similar questions asked of parents in Middletowri in 1924 and 1978, The objectives of the study were as follows: how have parental socialization values changed through time since the 1920s; has the impact of parental social class status on parental socialization values decreased over time; compare Alwin's study on obedience and autonomy to see how trend has changed from 1978 Middletown to 1989 Denton; and, finally, look at certain family structure variables to determine their influence. Today's parents emphasize social acceptance and a sense of social responsibility in child training practice. Social class still has an impact on parental socialization values but not as great as expected.

In an attempt to find meaningful predictors of the ability to interpret Rorschach protocols by clinicians, a paradigm change (Kuhn, 1962) was instigated by using as predictors the scores of the perceptual organizational abilities of 30 subjects, and their ratings of favorableness toward the Rorschach in terms of its usefulness as a clinical tool. The subjects were first year, graduate psychology students, and the Haptic Visual Discrimination Test (HVDT) was the instrument used to measure perceptual organization. A multiple linear regression analysis was computed, and the data supported the hypothesis that perceptual organization and favorableness are of significant predictive value (R = .54, F(2, 27) = 5.43, p = .01). The standardized beta for usefulness was .47 (p = .008) and the HVDT beta was .33, (p = .05). The results were interpreted as applying to Rorschach validity research methodology and pedagogy.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of fatigue on force application and resulting movement patterns during the performance of consecutive chin-ups. Special attention was directed toward relating any fatigue effects to upper limb strength dominance. Twenty male adult subjects each performed one trial. Each trial consisted of consecutive chin-ups. Fatigue caused changes in the movement patterns, duration of movement and force applied through the supporting hands. Throughout the performance greater vertical forces were applied through the dominant upper limb segment with the application of these forces resulting in horizontal displacement of the total body center of gravity toward the dominant hand.

This study explored the inferences male children held about the brand personality. The sample included 46 male fifth graders. Personal interviews were conducted and the results were compiled and interpreted using descriptive statistics. Four subject areas were addressed: identification and inferences about brand personality, sources of inferences, children's ability to make inferences about other children based on brand personality, and application of brand personality to self. Results indicated children make inferences about brand personality, make inferences about other children based on brand personality, and apply brand personality to themselves. An attempt to identify sources of inferences was inconclusive.

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Illinois Test of Psycholinuistic Abilities (ITPA) and to investigate whether High Verbal-Low Performance (HV-LP) scorers on the WISC score significantly higher on certain ITPA subtests than High Performance-Low Verbal (HP-LV) scorers, and whether HP-LV scorers on the WISC score significantly higher on certain other subtests of the ITPA. Two main hypotheses were investigated in an effort to accomplish these purposes.