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A Study of One Computer-Driven Text Analysis Package for Collegiate Student Writers (open access)

A Study of One Computer-Driven Text Analysis Package for Collegiate Student Writers

This study examines the effects of the computer-assisted text analysis program, WRITER'S WORKBENCH, on writing performance, levels of writing apprehension, students' writing processes and attitudes about using the computer and WORKBENCH for writing. A sample of 275 subjects enrolled in freshman composition were divided into an experimental group (N = 200) who used WORKBENCH in a mandatory computer lab component in addition to their composition course and a control group (N = 75) who received only the course, itself. Because random selection of participants was not possible, a Nonequivalent Control Group design was utilized. Holistic scoring of pre and posttest essays revealed a significant improvement in writing among both groups as a result of the treatments, but there was no significant difference in writing gains between the group using WORKBENCH and the group who did not (p = .942) . Similarly, though both groups demonstrated a small decrease in writing apprehension after instruction, there was no significant difference in the degree of decrease between the two groups (p = .201). Also, the data did not support a relationship between writing performance and apprehension. A 40 item questionnaire was given to the experimental group to determine: 1) attitudes about writing with …
Date: December 1988
Creator: Hert, Ronald Sterling
System: The UNT Digital Library
Determinants of Small Firm Performance: the Importance of Selected Managerial Personality Traits, Perceived Environmental Uncertainty, Scanning Activities, and Managerial Goal Setting Activities (open access)

Determinants of Small Firm Performance: the Importance of Selected Managerial Personality Traits, Perceived Environmental Uncertainty, Scanning Activities, and Managerial Goal Setting Activities

Much of the previous research on organizational performance deals with the larger businesses. As such, the owner/managers of small firms and researchers interested in small businesses have had to work with planning models which were not formulated with small businesses in mind. Therefore, the general purpose of this study is to help correct this deficiency and add to the body of knowledge concerning the contributions specific factors make toward increasing the performance of small firms. Specifically, selected managerial personality traits, managerial perceived environmental uncertainty, managerial scanning habits, and managerial goal setting activities are utilized to develop three models. The three models are used to determine the relationship the factors have to each other and the contribution the variables make toward the performance of the firm. The firms included in this study are located in a South Central metropolitan area. The firms have between 2 and 100 employees, sales of less than 3 million dollars, and have been in operation 2 years or longer. This study utilizes regression analysis and path analysis to determine the effects the factors have on each other and their contribution to the firm's performance. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSSx) is utilized to run …
Date: May 1988
Creator: Walker, Jim L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Public View of Adult Education (open access)

A Public View of Adult Education

In this study the public view of adult education in the United States was inferred from articles published in nationally distributed magazines. Two hundred twenty-eight articles from fifty-three non-professional magazines published in the United States from January 1,1970, through December 31, 1987, were reviewed. The articles were selected from those listed under "adult education," or cross referenced as "see also" under "adult education" in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature. The research questions were: What concept of adult education appears in the print media? To what extent is this view congruent with professional views of adult education? Leisure learning and literacy programs were prevalent and available from a variety of sources. Adult illiteracy was reported as a national concern. Programs that were commonplace (basic education, general equivalency degree classes, job skills training, and industrial training) were reported less often than new or novel programs. Most articles were positive in tone, promoting adult education activities as useful, rewarding, and enjoyable experiences, but ignored adult education as a professional field. The public view as reflected in the articles was positive with programs available to adults of many levels of educational attainment. The public view was not congruent with professional writings. Group activities …
Date: December 1988
Creator: McCallister, Joe Michael
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Decline of the Country-House Poem in England: A Study in the History of Ideas (open access)

The Decline of the Country-House Poem in England: A Study in the History of Ideas

This study discusses the evolution of the English country-house poem from its inception by Ben Jonson in "To Penshurst" to the present. It shows that in addition to stylistic and thematic borrowings primarily from Horace and Martial, traditional English values associated with the great hall and comitatus ideal helped define features of the English country-house poem, to which Jonson added the metonymical use of architecture. In the Jonsonian country-house poem, the country estate, exemplified by Penshurst, is a microcosm of the ideal English social organization characterized by interdependence, simplicity, service, hospitality, and balance between the active and contemplative life. Those poems which depart from the Jonsonian ideal are characterized by disequilibrium between the active and contemplative life, resulting in the predominance of artifice, subordination of nature, and isolation of art from the community, as exemplified by Thomas Carew's "To Saxham" and Richard Lovelace's "Amyntor's Grove." Architectural features of the English country house are examined to explain the absence of the Jonsonian country-house poem in the eighteenth century. The building tradition praised by Jonson gradually gave way to aesthetic considerations fostered by the professional architect and Palladian architecture, architectural patronage by the middle class, and change in identity of the country …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Harris, Candice R. (Candice Rae)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Alternative Social Security Taxing Schemes: an Analysis of Vertical and Horizontal Equity in the Federal Tax System (open access)

Alternative Social Security Taxing Schemes: an Analysis of Vertical and Horizontal Equity in the Federal Tax System

The objectives of this study were twofold. One objective was to analyze the effects of growth in the social security tax, when combined with recent changes in U.S. income tax law, on the distribution of the combined income and social security tax burden during the 1980s. The second objective was to estimate the effects of certain proposals for social security tax reform upon that distribution. The above analyses were performed using simulation techniques applied to the 1984 IRS Individual Tax Model File. The data from this file were used to estimate the income and social security tax liabilities for sample taxpayers under tax law in effect in 1980, 1984 and 1988 and under fourteen proposals for social security reform (under 1988 law). The results indicated that the income tax distribution was almost 25 percent more progressive under 1988 tax law than under 1980 tax law. In contrast, the combined distribution of income and social security taxes was almost 25 percent less progressive under 1988 income and social security tax law relative to 1980. Two types of social security tax reform were analyzed. One type consisted of reforms to the basic social security tax structure, such as removal of the earnings …
Date: December 1988
Creator: Ricketts, Robert C. (Robert Carlton)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Validity of a Brief Self-Rating Visual Analogue Pain Questionnaire (open access)

Validity of a Brief Self-Rating Visual Analogue Pain Questionnaire

It is believed by many researchers that little attention has been given to patients' perceptions of the impact of chronic pain on their lives. In recognition of this need, G. Frank Lawlis, C. Edward McCoy, and David K. Selby developed the Dallas Pain Questionnaire (DPQ) to assess the amount of chronic pain that affects four aspects (daily activities, work-leisure activities, anxiety-depression, and social interest) of the patients' lives. The present study, conducted to validate the DPQ's statistical properties, first reviews the literature addressing the various theories and varieties of pain, its opiates, and the two current approaches to quantify pain. This study included a total of 143 subjects. Clinical subjects were 104 inpatients in the Spinal and Chronic Pain Center at Medical Arts Hospital and 15 chronic pain outpatients released to work. Normal subjects consisted of staffing personnel (n = 13) and flight assistance employees (U = 11)- Both clinical and normal groups completed the DPQ. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was administered only to the clinical population. Results suggest that the DPQ is both externally reliable (stability reliability coefficient of .970) as well as an internally consistent instrument. Two factors emerged from factor structure analysis. Factor one (63.2% …
Date: May 1988
Creator: Cuencas, Ramon
System: The UNT Digital Library
California-ko Ostatuak: a History of California's Basque Hotels (open access)

California-ko Ostatuak: a History of California's Basque Hotels

The history of California's Basque boardinghouses, or ostatuak, is the subject of this dissertation. To date, scholarly literature on ethnic boardinghouses is minimal and even less has been written on the Basque "hotels" of the American West. As a result, conclusions in this study rely upon interviews, census records, local directories, early maps, and newspapers. The first Basque boardinghouses in the United States appeared in California in the decade following the gold rush and tended to be outposts along travel routes used by Basque miners and sheepmen. As more Basques migrated to the United States, clusters of ostatuak sprang up in communities where Basque colonies had formed, particularly in Los Angeles and San Francisco during the late nineteenth century. In the years between 1890 and 1940, the ostatuak reached their zenith as Basques spread throughout the state and took their boardinghouses with them. This study outlines the earliest appearances of the Basque ostatuak, charts their expansion, and describes their present state of demise. The role of the ostatuak within Basque-American culture and a description of how they operated is another important aspect of this dissertation. Information from interviews supports the claim that the ostatua was the most important social institution …
Date: May 1988
Creator: Echeverría, Jerónima, 1946-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Intimate Relationships of Adult Children of Alcoholics (open access)

Intimate Relationships of Adult Children of Alcoholics

Difficulties developing and maintaining intimate relationships are often attributed to adult children of alcoholics (ACAs). However, the focus of the literature has been on those obtaining psychological treatment and has primarily involved clinical impressions. The purpose of this study was to examine intimacy in the close friendships and love relationships of ACAs. Autonomy and intimacy in respondents' families of origin were also analyzed. Comparisons were made between ACAs currently in (n = 59) and not in (n = 53) therapy, and comparisons who had (n = 48) and had not (n = 77) received therapy. Alcoholics were eliminated. It was hypothesized that ACAs would score significantly lower than comparisons on love and friendship intimacy and autonomy and intimacy in their families of origin. Among the ACAs, those in therapy would score lower than those not in therapy. Hypotheses were tested using MANOVAS. ANOVAs were administered where there were significant differences, and Newman-Keuls contrasts further delineated the divergence. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to obtain explanatory data. The two ACA groups seem to represent distinct populations with those not in therapy failing to report intimacy differences previously ascribed to them. While all of the groups were similar in friendship closeness, only …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Settle, Karen Ree
System: The UNT Digital Library
Unity, Ecstasy, Communion: The Tragic Perspective of W.B. Yeats (open access)

Unity, Ecstasy, Communion: The Tragic Perspective of W.B. Yeats

As a young man of twenty-one in 1886, William Butler Yeats announced his ambition to unify Ireland through heroic poetry. But this prophetic urge lacked structure. Yeats had only some callow notions about needing self-possession and appropriate control of his imagery. As a result, his search for essential knowledge and experience soon led him into occult and symbolist vagueness. Yeats' mind grew flaccid, and his art languished in preciosity for over a decade. Lotos-eating had replaced prophetic fervor. However, early in the new century, as Yeats neared middle age and permanent mediocrity, he recovered his early zeal and finally found the means to give it artistic shape. Through daily theatre work he had discovered tragedy. And through personal trials he had developed a tragic sense. Hence, an entire tragic perspective was born, one that would dominate Yeats' mind and art the rest of his life. Locating the contours of Yeats' shift in-viewpoint, then, provides the key to understanding the man and his mature work. The present study does just that, tracing the origin, development, and elaboration of Yeats' tragic perspective, from its theoretical underpinnings to its poetic triumphs. Above all, this study supplies the basic context of Yeats* careers why …
Date: May 1988
Creator: Brooks, John C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Minimization of a Nonlinear Elasticity Functional Using Steepest Descent (open access)

Minimization of a Nonlinear Elasticity Functional Using Steepest Descent

The method of steepest descent is used to minimize typical functionals from elasticity.
Date: August 1988
Creator: McCabe, Terence W. (Terence William)
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Analysis of Enrollment Patterns in Required General Education Courses and the Related Success, as Measured by Grade Point Average, of Technical-Occupational Students in a Multi-Campus Urban Community College (open access)

An Analysis of Enrollment Patterns in Required General Education Courses and the Related Success, as Measured by Grade Point Average, of Technical-Occupational Students in a Multi-Campus Urban Community College

This study investigated the following with regard to technical-occupational students in a multi-campus urban community college: The enrollment patterns in required general education courses at specific intervals of course work; the relation between successful completion of certain required general education courses (English and mathematics) and academic success as measured by grade point average; and the profiles or basic characteristics (age, GPA, sex, and high school graduation status) of (a) the student who had completed a specified amount of general education course work and (b) the graduate who had attained a higher grade point average in technical course work than in general education course work. The data was obtained from the academic records of 328 current student, selected by established criteria, and 284 graduates of six technical-occupational programs. The six programs were chosen by pairs to represent white-collar, technical-skilled, and blue-collar oriented occupations. Data on enrollment patterns were analyzed according to percentage in frequency distributions. Differences in mean grade point averages for completers and non-completers of English and mathematics were analyzed using the t-test. Significant variance among the groups representing types of occupations was analyzed using the chi-square test for independence. The Pearson Product Moment test was used to investigate correlations …
Date: December 1988
Creator: Hines, Linda Kay, 1942-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nonlinear Absorption Initiated Laser-Induced Damage in [Gamma]-Irradiated Fused Silica, Fluorozirconate Glass and Cubic Zirconia (open access)

Nonlinear Absorption Initiated Laser-Induced Damage in [Gamma]-Irradiated Fused Silica, Fluorozirconate Glass and Cubic Zirconia

The contributions of nonlinear absorption processes to laser-induced damage of three selected groups of transparent dielectrics were investigated. The studied materials were irradiated and non-irradiated fused silica, doped and undoped fluorozirconate glass and cubic zirconia stabilized with yttria. The laser-induced damage thresholds, prebreakdown transmission, and nonlinear absorption processes were studied for several specimens of each group. Experimental measurements were performed at wavelengths of 1064 nm and 532 nm using nanosecond and picosecond Nd:YAG laser pulses. In the irradiated fused silica and fluorozirconate glasses, we found that there is a correlation between the damage thresholds at wavelength λ and the linear absorption of the studied specimens at λ/2. In other words, the laser-induced breakdown is related to the probability of all possible two-photon transitions. The results are found to be in excellent agreement with a proposed two-photon-initiated electron avalanche breakdown model. In this model, the initial "seed" electrons for the formation of an avalanche are produced by two-photon excitations of E' centers and metallic impurity levels which are located within the bandgaps of irradiated Si02 and fluorozirconate glasses, respectively. Once the initial electrons are liberated in the conduction band, a highly absorbing plasma is formed by avalanche impact ionization. The resultant …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Mansour, Nastaran
System: The UNT Digital Library
Multivariate Analyses of Amphibian and Reptilian Distribution in Texas (open access)

Multivariate Analyses of Amphibian and Reptilian Distribution in Texas

Presence-absence data for amphibians, chelonians, saurians, ophidians, and the terrestrial and aquatic ecological guilds of reptilians were analyzed using multivariate analyses. Geographically consistant distributional patterns were found for all faunal groupings. The correspondence between analyses of the different taxa and guilds was not perfect, but similarities were found. All analyses agreed on the presence of a distinctive region in east Texas. Most analyses also agreed on the presence of distinctive regions in south Texas, the Trans-Pecos, the Edwards Plateau, and north-west Texas. There is strong correspondence between interpretations of the analyses based on the amphibian, saurian, ophidian, and terrestrial reptilian distributions, and the biotic provinces produced by earlier, subjective analyses. The Edwards Plateau and a region on the western periphery of east Texas were found to be transitional between other, more faunally distinctive areas for most fauna! groups. Detailed examination of these regions suggested they are best described as clinal in nature. The environmental variables which were most effective in explaining patterns in the distribution of the various taxa and guilds were related to precipitation. However, variations in temperature and physiography were also important predictors of distribution for several of the groups. The distributions of soil and vegetation associations were …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Ward, Rocky
System: The UNT Digital Library
Operators on Continuous Function Spaces and Weak Precompactness (open access)

Operators on Continuous Function Spaces and Weak Precompactness

If T:C(H,X)-->Y is a bounded linear operator then there exists a unique weakly regular finitely additive set function m:-->L(X,Y**) so that T(f) = ∫Hfdm. In this paper, bounded linear operators on C(H,X) are studied in terms the measure given by this representation theorem. The first chapter provides a brief history of representation theorems of these classes of operators. In the second chapter the represenation theorem used in the remainder of the paper is presented. If T is a weakly compact operator on C(H,X) with representing measure m, then m(A) is a weakly compact operator for every Borel set A. Furthermore, m is strongly bounded. Analogous statements may be made for many interesting classes of operators. In chapter III, two classes of operators, weakly precompact and QSP, are studied. Examples are provided to show that if T is weakly precompact (QSP) then m(A) need not be weakly precompact (QSP), for every Borel set A. In addition, it will be shown that weakly precompact and GSP operators need not have strongly bounded representing measures. Sufficient conditions are provided which guarantee that a weakly precompact (QSP) operator has weakly precompact (QSP) values. A sufficient condition for a weakly precomact operator to be strongly …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Abbott, Catherine Ann
System: The UNT Digital Library
Physiological Responses of Myriophyllum spicatum to Time Varying Exposures of Diquat, 2,4-D and Copper (open access)

Physiological Responses of Myriophyllum spicatum to Time Varying Exposures of Diquat, 2,4-D and Copper

The physiological responses of Myriophyllum spicatum to 2,4-D, diquat and copper were quantified using a plant tissue viability assay, and daily measures of dissolved oxygen and pH. Correlations of herbicide tissue residues to physiological response measures were determined and the relationship was used to develop exposure-response models. Diquat and copper had a greater effect on plant tissue viability than was observed for 2,4-D. Diquat produced greater reductions in dissolved oxygen concentrations and pH values than 2,4-D or copper. Copper exposure had the least effect on these parameters. Exposure-response models developed for 2,4-D predicted effective control at plant tissue residues ranging from 4000 to 4700 mg/kg. Aqueous exposure concentrations necessary to produce effective control plant tissue residues ranged from 0.20 to 0.40 mg/L. Exposure-response models developed for diquat predicted effective control at plant tissue residues ranging from 225 to 280 mg/kg. Aqueous exposure concentrations necessary to produce effective control plant tissue residues ranged from 0.113 to 0.169 mg/L. Exposure-response models developed for copper predicted effective control at plant tissue residues ranging from 680 to 790 mg/kg. Aqueous exposure concentrations necessary to produce effective control plant tissue residues ranged from 0.32 to 0.64 mg/L. Model predictions for 2,4-D, diquat and copper were …
Date: May 1988
Creator: Rocchio, Patricia Mary
System: The UNT Digital Library
Relationships of Shyness, Extroversion, Leisure, Gender, and Activity Style to Perceived Freedom in Leisure (open access)

Relationships of Shyness, Extroversion, Leisure, Gender, and Activity Style to Perceived Freedom in Leisure

This research examined several independent variables and their prediction of perceived freedom in leisure (PFL). Four instruments were utilized to collect data from research subjects regarding the independent variables of shyness, extroversion, gender and activity preference style and the dependent variable, PFL. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients were calculated for each scale employed in the research. Reliabilities for the scales within this research were as follows: Stanford Shyness Survey (.78), Adult Short Form of the Leisure Diagnostic Battery (.92), three scales from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire - Extroversion (.85), Neuroticism (.79), and LIE (.75), and the Activity Preference Style Scales - Active (.45), Group (.53), and Risk (.67). Due to the low alpha reliabilities of two of the Activity Preference Style Scales, Active and Group, factor analysis was performed in an attempt to construct new sub-scales with higher alpha reliabilities. This resulted in some of the new sub-scales, as well as the original Active and Group scales being used in the data analysis. The sample was comprised of 325 undergraduate students enrolled in a required history or English class. The age of the sample ranged from 17 to 50 with a mean age of 20.4. Questionnaires were given out during class …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Marr, John F. (John Fraser)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Love Attitudes and Marital Adjustment Through Five Stages of the Marital Life-Cycle in Protestant Nigerian Society (open access)

Love Attitudes and Marital Adjustment Through Five Stages of the Marital Life-Cycle in Protestant Nigerian Society

This study examined the relationship between love attitude and marital adjustment across five stages of the marital life-cycle in Nigerian society. The subjects for this study were 202 volunteers from six protestant churches representing six cities in the southern part of Nigeria. An average of 20 couples were representatives of each of the five marital life-cycles. Each of the subjects completed the Love Attitude Inventory (LAI), and the Marital Adjustment Test (short form) (MAT). Wilk's multivariate analysis revealed no significant differences between husbands' and wives' love attitude and marital adjustment across the five stages of the marital life cycle. Multivariate analysis split-plot 5.2 with repeated measures revealed no significant difference for the total sample among the groups, but indicated a significant difference between love attitude and marital adjustment for the total sample using sex as a factor. A univariate test of the MAT and LAI indicated that the MAT accounted for the difference. A canonical correlation indicated a significant positive relationship between husbands1 and wives' marital adjustment and love attitude within each of the five groups. The findings suggest that husbands and wives included in this study have a good understanding of their roles in the marriage relationship and that …
Date: December 1988
Creator: Acho, Onyebuchi S. (Onyebuchi Sunday)
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Faculty Orientation and Design for Writing Across the Curriculum (open access)

A Faculty Orientation and Design for Writing Across the Curriculum

A Faculty Orientation and Design for Writing Across the Curriculum is a case study of the work done to introduce the concept of writing across the curriculum at an urban community college. Emphasizing the related processes of learning, thinking, and writing, the researcher describes private interviews and analyzes transcriptions of small group meetings designed to discuss ways to encourage increased quantity and improved quality of writing in vocational and university-parallel courses on the campus. The focus of the study is the transcription of the faculty meetings where teachers reveal their methodologies and educational philosophies as they discuss ways to provide increased writing opportunities to large classes of open-door students. The culmination of the orientation project is a faculty booklet of ways to increase writing. The researcher concludes that although a writing "program" is not in place as a result of the year's work, essential groundwork for such a program is laid.
Date: May 1988
Creator: Fulkerson, Tahita N. (Tahita Niemeyer)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Educational Contributions of Dr. W.A. Criswell, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, 1944-1987 (open access)

The Educational Contributions of Dr. W.A. Criswell, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, 1944-1987

Dr. W. A. Criswell is the well known pastor of the twenty-seven thousand member historic First Baptist Church in downtown Dallas, Texas. He has held the position for the past forty-three years. Until now no one has attempted an in-depth study of Criswell's educational contributions to the First Baptist Church (which have also been adopted into the Southern Baptist denomination, America's largest Protestant religious organization). Although Criswell has been the Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas for many years, this was by no means his introduction to the pastorate. In 1928 he was ordained as a seventeen year old minister of the gospel in Amarillo, Texas. He has been a pastor for over sixty years. Criswell has made a lasting impact on the church staff, school staff (Criswell College and First Baptist Academy), students in those schools, the Southern Baptist denomination and also the city of Dallas. He has been one of the key figures in evangelical national movements. Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Senators, and Governors are no strangers to a Sunday morning service held in the large sanctuary in downtown Dallas. Much of the research for this project originated from the Oral Memoirs of W. A. Criswell. a …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Rohm, Robert A. (Robert Allan)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Aesthetic Justifications for Music Education: a Theoretical Examination of Their Usefulness (open access)

Aesthetic Justifications for Music Education: a Theoretical Examination of Their Usefulness

Justifications for music education have been studied only by examining historical trends in statements of aesthetic versus utilitarian values, and not from the perspective of evaluating the justifications' usefulness. A number of prominent writers in the music education field, while supporting aesthetic values as important for music education, have expressed doubts about the effectiveness of aesthetic justifications when used for convincing outsiders of the importance of music in the public school curriculum. These doubts, along with a preponderance of aesthetic justifications in the recent music education literature, led to the present study, which conducted a theoretical examination of the usefulness of aesthetic justifications for music education. The study addressed three research problems, namely: (1) the attitudes of the clientele groups of the public schools in terms of their values toward music as a subject in the schools; (2) the attitudes of the groups within the music education profession in terms of their values for music in the public schools and for the profession itself; and 3) the likelihood that justifications based upon "aesthetics" as a system of values would be accepted by the groups both inside arid outside the music education profession. A philosophical-sociological perspective was chosen for the theoretical …
Date: December 1988
Creator: Paul, Stephen John
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Study of Perceived Leadership Styles of Vocational Administrators within Two-Year Postsecondary Institutions in Texas (open access)

A Study of Perceived Leadership Styles of Vocational Administrators within Two-Year Postsecondary Institutions in Texas

This study investigated effects of selected demographic variables and styles of leadership on the self-perceived leader effectiveness scores of vocational administrators at two-year postsecondary institutions in Texas. Demographic variables were type of institution represented, teaching experience, age, trade experience, administrative experience in vocational education, highest degree earned, institutional enrollment and vocational enrollment. Seventy-eight administrators were mailed copies of the Leader Behavior Analysis II—Self (LBA) and a demographic questionnaire. The LBA contained twenty supervisory situations. Respondents were to select the alternative approach that most closely resembled action they might take. Scoring determined the respondents' primary leadership styles and leader effectiveness scores. One-way analysis of variance was used to determine if selected demographic variables or primary leadership style was significant in determining a difference in their effectiveness scores. Primary leadership style and degree held were significant in determining leader effectiveness scores at alpha .05. It was determined that 84 percent of the administrators completing the questionnaire preferred the supporting style. None of the administrators preferred delegating or directing styles. Recommendations included studies using the LBA with supervisors in associations serviced by the institutions to provide an understanding of relationships between the leadership style of the administrators of training institutions and those of …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Schroeder, Charles Olin
System: The UNT Digital Library
Hostile Environment: A Discriminant Model of the Perceptions of Working Women (open access)

Hostile Environment: A Discriminant Model of the Perceptions of Working Women

This study examines the problem of operationally defining "hostile environment" sexual harassment, ruled a type of disparate treatment actionable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by the United States Supreme Court on June 19, 1986. Although the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines a hostile environment as an "intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment," there is no consensus as to what is "offensive" behavior. An extensive review of the literature yielded various attempts to define and ascertain the magnitude of sexual harassment, but the fact that the actual percentages varied indicates that this is a difficult issue to measure. As perception by the victim is the key, this study surveyed 125 working women from all over the United States to determine their perceptions of behaviors that constitute sexual harassment. Discriminant analysis was then used to correctly classify 95% of the women according to their perceptions of having experienced sexual harassment. Using tests for proportions, three hypotheses were found significant. Women who have been sexually harassed are more likely to view sexual harassment as a major problem. Older men are more likely to have their behavior perceived as sexual harassment. In addition, women who have experienced acts such as staring, …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Kirk, Delaney, J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Role of Theodore Blank and the Amt Blank in Post-World War II West German Rearmament (open access)

The Role of Theodore Blank and the Amt Blank in Post-World War II West German Rearmament

During World War II, the Allies not only defeated Germany; they destroyed the German army and warmaking capability. Five years after the surrender, Theodor Blank received the responsibility for planning the rearmament of West Germany starting from nothing. Although Konrad Adenauer was the driving force behind rearmament, Theodor Blank was the instrument who pushed it through Allied negotiations and parliamentary acceptance. Heretofore, Blank's role has been told only in part; new materials and the ability now to see events in a clearer perspective warrant a new study of Blank's role in the German rearmament process. Sources for this dissertation include: Documents on Foreign Relations of the United States; memoirs, among them those of Konrad Adenauer, Georges Bidault, Lucius Clay, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Anthony Eden, Ivone Kirkpatrick, Harold MacMillan, Kirill Meretskov, Jules Moch, Sergei Shternenko, Hans Speidel, Harry S. Truman, Alexander Vasilevsky, and Georgiy Zhukov; contemporary reports from newspapers, among them the Times (London), New York Times, Le Monde, Pravda, Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung, Suddeutsche Zeitung, and Das Parlement; Parliamentary Debates; official records; and interviews. Rearmament involved the interrelationship of vast, diverse interests: the conflict between East and West, national and international fears, domestic problems, and the interplay of leading personalities. When …
Date: May 1988
Creator: Lowry, Montecue J., 1930-
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Relative Value and Importance of Perceived Benefits of Active Foundations of Public Community Colleges in the United States (open access)

The Relative Value and Importance of Perceived Benefits of Active Foundations of Public Community Colleges in the United States

The problem of this study was the relative value and importance of perceived benefits of active foundations of public community colleges. The purposes were to identify a list of benefits; determine the importance of these benefits as perceived by presidents and foundation executive directors; assess the degree to which the level of importance of the benefits was affected by college or foundation demographics or foundation executive director characteristics; and to determine if presidents and foundation executive directors differ in their perceptions of the importance of the benefits. Survey instruments were mailed to presidents and foundation executive directors of colleges determined to have active foundations. Both instruments contained seven categories listing potential benefits to the community colleges of an active foundation. The foundation executive directors' instruments also requested college and foundation demographic data. Respondents were asked to rate the benefits according to their level of importance. Analysis of variance tests were performed to determine whether the categories of benefits were affected by any of the demographic data, when a level of significance emerged, a Scheffe' test was performed to determine the source of significance. Major findings were that the most important single benefit to the community colleges of active foundations is …
Date: August 1988
Creator: Henry, Elizabeth H. (Elizabeth Henderson)
System: The UNT Digital Library