The concept of social loafing is important with regard to organizational effectiveness particularly as organizations are relying on teams as a means to drive productivity. The composition of those teams is likely to reflect the current movement of racial and ethnic minorities in the work place. The primary purpose of this research was to determine the role cultural diversity plays in enhancing performance and thereby eliminating social loafing. The research study is significant because 1) it is among the first to use culturally diverse work groups while examining the social loafing phenomenon, and 2) the groups were intact project teams, rather than ad-hoc groups commonly found in social loafing experiments. It was anticipated that the members of culturally homogeneous groups would engage in social loafing when their individual efforts were "buried." However, subjects in both culturally diverse and culturally homogeneous groups resisted social loafing behaviors. Additional statistical analysis revealed that as group orientation increased, performance levels increased as well. Group orientation, then, appears to be a more powerful determinant of performance than group composition. It is expected that the time these groups had together and the performance feedback opportunities provided them, prior to the experiment, contributed significantly to these results. …

This study described and explored perceptions of the context and behaviors of seven 4-year-old children whose parents attended a parenting education program. The problem was to explore a group of 9 volunteer parents' perceptions of their parenting styles and perceptions of their 4-year-old children at home while the parents participated in, and completed, a minimum of 4 out of 6 Active Parenting Today parenting education classes. Volunteer parents were recruited during public school registration for prekindergarten. In addition, perceptions of 4 teachers and 4 classroom educational aides in regard to behaviors of the 4-year-old children whose parents participated in and completed the Active Parenting Today program were explored.

David Mamet is best known as a playwright, but he also has a thriving film career, both as screenwriter and as director. He has taken very seriously each of these roles, formulating theories that, he suggests, account for the creative choices he makes. Though Mamet sometimes contradicts himself, as when he suggests that viewers should have the satisfaction of constructing their own meaning of a work, but at the same time is devoted to montage, which works by juxtaposing images that lead to a single interpretation, he clearly sees the story as a critical avenue into the spectator's unconscious, where he hopes it will resonate with a truth that speaks directly to the individual. His films House of Games, Things Change, and Homicide clearly reflect his ideas on the best ways of conveying a story on film. In House of Games, Mamet draws on Bruno Bettelheim's theories to construct a fairy tale designed to act on adult viewers in the same way that fairy tales act on the child. In Things Change, he creates a fable that explores issues of friendship and honor within the milieu of the gangster genre. And in Homicide, Mamet uses the expectations viewers bring to …

This study extends a research stream calling for further research regarding pricing and accounting feedback. Marketing executives rely heavily on accounting information for pricing decisions, yet criticize accounting feedback usefulness. To address this criticism, this research integrates the cognitive psychology and accounting literature addressing feedback effectiveness with pricing research in the marketing discipline. The research extends the scope of previous accounting feedback studies by using a control group and comparing two proxies of subject task knowledge; years of pricing experience and a measure of the cognitive structure of pricing knowledge. In addition, this research manipulates task complexity by using two different accounting systems. These systems vary in the number of cost pools used in allocating overhead, resulting in differentially projected cost and profit information. A total of 60 subjects participated in a computer laboratory experiment. These subjects were non-accountants with varying amounts of pricing knowledge. Subjects were randomly assigned to six experimental groups which varied by feedback type (no accounting feedback, outcome feedback only, or a combination of outcome and task properties feedback) and task complexity (high or low number of overhead cost pools). The subjects attempted to (1) maximize profits for a product during 15 rounds of pricing decisions, …

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the level of teachers' self-esteem on student achievement. This study surveys and analyzes factors of teachers' self-esteem. Its results are based on (1) a review of the literature to develop an understanding of historical perspectives and research, (2) the factors involved in the development of self-esteem, (3) the role of the parents, and (4) the role of the teacher. Forty-three teachers of grades three and five in North Central Texas completed the Gordon Personal Profile-Inventoiy to assess their levels of self-esteem. Six teachers with mid-range scores were eliminated from the study. The remaining 37 teachers were divided into high and low self-esteem categories. Students' Texas Learning Index scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills were matched with the appropriate teachers' scores. The findings of the study indicate that the students with teachers in the high level of self-esteem category scored an average of 5.67 points higher than those students with teachers in the low level of self-esteem categoiy. Findings resulting from the study led to the conclusion that teachers with high levels of self-esteem have a positive influence on the achievement of their students.

This study analyzes the effect of three different high school scheduling options on the delivery of biology instruction, on student achievement, and on student perceptions of their instructional activities. Participants were biology students and teachers from twelve high schools in a north Texas urban school district of 76,000. Block classes had 11 to 18 percent less instructional time than traditional classes. Texas Biology I End-of-Course Examination achievement results for 3,195 students along with student and teacher surveys provided information on instructional activities, attitudes, and individualization. Using an analysis of variance at a j i< .01 the following results were found; student achievement was significantly different for each of the scheduled comparisons groups, test score means were not statistically significant between the scheduled comparison groups for different ethnic groups, economically disadvantaged students, and magnet students. No significant differences were found between the science learning activity index for each of the scheduled groups. Student response data when disaggregrated and reaggregrated into program groups found a statistically significant higher index of science activity at a p. < .01 for magnet students when compared to both the regular and honor students. Regular program students had a significantly higher index of individualization than honors program …

Students in an inner city junior high school in North Central Texas participated in a study whose purpose was to examine the effect of training in test item construction on their later test performance. The experimental group underwent twelve weeks of instruction using the Test Item Construction Method (TICM). In these sessions students learned to develop test items similar to those on which they were tested annually by the state via the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). The TICM aligned with state mandated test specifications.

Organizations that must respond quickly to environmental pressures look for tools to assist in that response. Information technology may be one tool to facilitate the response. In this study the possible effects of using information technology, specifically a decision support system, in the feedback segment of one organization's strategic management loop were examined. The organization was one region of the Board of Probation and Parole in a central state. Personnel included administrators, parole officers and clerical workers. The information technology was an off-the-shelf software product called PlanRight. This study is significant for two reasons: a new application for information technology was examined and the adequacy of a generic computerized tool designed to be suitable for various operations was explored. This study was a case study. Two months of data were taken prior to the implementation of the decision support system, and four months of data were taken after the system was implemented. Questionnaire data taken before system implementation provided descriptive characteristics of the organization. Follow-up surveys and interviews at the conclusion of the study were used to evaluate employee perceptions. The study was done in three phases. During phase one questionnaires were distributed and returned. During phase two, goals, plans …

This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of Filial Therapy as a method of intervention with families with chronically ill children. Filial Therapy is an intervention that focuses on strengthening and enhancing the parent-child relationship. Parents are trained to become the agents of change for their children's behaviors by utilizing basic child-centered play therapy skills in weekly play sessions. The purpose of this study was to a) determine the effectiveness in decreasing parental stress, b) determine the effectiveness in increasing parental acceptance, and c) determine the effectiveness in decreasing problematic behaviors in the chronically ill child as assessed by their parents.

This study was designed to evaluate: (a) teachers' behavior when they are confronted with potential cases of child abuse and (b) the information teachers require to make accurate decisions regarding the reporting of suspected child abuse. Teachers were presented with three vignettes describing cases of varying levels of suspected maltreatment, and different amounts of additional information. They were then asked to indicate how likely they would be to report the case to Child Protective Services (CPS). It was expected that reporting behavior would increase as available information increased. The results generally did not support this hypothesis. No significant impact on reporting behavior was found when teachers were presented with either the symptom list or the legal interpretation; however, there was a trend toward an interaction with the level of abusive indications in the case. These results are discussed in the context of the need for further training.

The purpose of this study was to assess the outcome of a therapeutic horseback riding program on physically disabled.

The primary question addressed was, "What effect does educational attainment and acquired knowledge of ageing have on negative ageism?" Subsidiary questions are, "What effect does; age, sex, and positive/negative experiences with aged individuals, have on ageism?"

This study examines the influence of family background and structure on academic achievement. The research focuses on the 11th- and 12th-grade population in the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) at the University of North Texas, Denton. The study examines the variables in family background and family structure that contribute to the students' high academic achievement. Twelve hypotheses related to parents, home environment, family structure and interaction, family roles, and family values are proposed. The multivariate analysis shows that the variables being read to, reading independently, fathers' education, mothers' education, and ethnicity are significant in impacting academic achievement. The study underlines the fact that multiple factors in family structure and background have an influence on academic achievement.

This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of filial therapy training in: (a) increasing immigrant Chinese parents' empathic behavior with their children; (b) increasing immigrant Chinese parents' acceptance level toward their children; (c) reducing immigrant Chinese parents' stress related to parenting; (d) reducing immigrant Chinese parents' perceived number of problem behaviors in their children; and (e) enhancing the self concept of the Chinese children of immigrant Chinese parents.

A fractal stochastic point process (FSPP) is used to model molecular evolution in agreement with the relationship between the variance and mean numbers of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions in mammals. Like other episodic models such as the doubly stochastic Poisson process, this model accounts for the large variances observed in amino acid substitution rates, but unlike other models, it also accounts for the results of Ohta's (1995) analysis of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions in mammalian genes. That analysis yields a power-law increase in the index of dispersion and an inverse power-law decrease in the coefficient of variation with the mean number of substitutions, as predicted by the FSPP model but not by the doubly stochastic Poisson model. This result is compatible with the selection theory of evolution and the nearly-neutral theory of evolution.

This research grows out of an interest in what scholars commonly call the wisdom tradition of the ancient near east. This tradition or movement involved groups of thinkers and writers, known collectively as scribes, who were concerned in a philosophical way with the problems of living, and with principles of living well. Such communities are known to have flourished in Egypt, the various kingdoms of Mesopotamia, and western Asia, from at least the middle of the third millennium B.C. These scribal communities are also known to have sponsored schools, intended primarily for training in statecraft and the professions, but also for training in the scribal profession per se. The documentary and historical record indicates that such schools provided education from the most rudimentary level of literacy and writing to the most advanced levels of scribal scholarship. These advanced levels of training were functionally equivalent to what is nowadays known as higher education; and the ideals, the philosophy, which guided this enterprise found expression in a corpus of literature bearing the name "wisdom." The problem for this dissertation is whether or not there was in ancient Israel, specifically in the Solomonic era (10th century, B.C.), such an advanced scribal school associated …

This study traced the development of the Equity 2000 Program in the Fort Worth Independent School District from its inception in 1990 to its sixth and final year as an exemplary program for equal access to higher education for minority and underserved youth. Program components included mathematics, counseling, staff development, academic enrichment activities, parent education and higher education linkages. Both primary and secondary sources were evaluated from the perspectives of internal and external criticism. The following conclusions were reached: 1) District policy must change if minority students are going to access algebra and geometry. 2) The lack of involvement of other curriculum areas created primarily a mathematics inservice program. 3) Required inservice was necessary to provide improved and more effective campus and district results. 4) The precollege guidance and counseling component needed integration with the mathematics component. 5) Lack of principals' involvement in the early development of the program contributed to uneven administrative support. 6) There was no definitive strategy for parental inclusion. 7) Funding sources were inadequate to fully implement all parts of the program. 8) There was limited participation of local institutions of higher education. 9) There was a lack of an ongoing, structured evaluation process to document …

Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Princess: A Medley has posed interpretative difficulties for readers since its 1847 debut. Critics, editors, and artists contemporary with Tennyson as well as in this century have puzzled over the poem's stance on the issue of the so-called Woman Question. Treating Tennyson as the first reader of the poem yields an understanding of the title character, Princess Ida, as an ambassador of Tennyson's optimistic and evolutionary views of human development and links his work to that of visionary educators of nineteenth-century England. Later artists, however, produced adaptations of the poem that twisted its hopefulness into satirical commentary, reduced its complexities to ease the task of reading, and put it to work in various causes, many ranged against the improvement of women's condition. In particular, a series of editions carried The Princess into various nations, classrooms, and homes, promoting interpretations that often obscure Tennyson's cautious optimism.

The purpose of this study is to show principles of TAT card pull are applicable to object relations theory, and card pull effects are greater in subjects with greater impairments. Stories of physically abused and control child and adolescent subjects were evaluated on object relations scales of the SCORS (Westen et al., 1985). Scores varied systematically as a function of card stimulus characteristics. Analysis of scales assessing internalization of self supported stimulus inhibition interpretation while scales measuring views of others or individual affective experiences advanced stimulus pull explanation. Abused individuals' response patterns were similar to controls except on CR. Results of this study may increase TAT utility for evaluating object relations functioning by guiding card selection.

This research investigated whether the buyer-seller interorganizational relationship (IOR) differed between a firm and two classes of customers. The first class used electronic data interchange (EDI) with the firm and the second class used the traditional paper-based purchasing system. IOR characteristics included reputation, skill, direct power, indirect power, reciprocity, and efficiency.

This study explored the relationship between characteristics of children's families and their social adjustment and how extra-familial connections affect this relationship. According to human ecological theory, children who are in jeopardy through higher-risk family systems and other social forces were expected to be protected from sociocultural risks by social connections in such settings as school, church, kin groups, and neighborhood.

The purpose of this study was to examine concepts of "inclusion" held by policy drivers (PD), policy makers (PM) and policy implementers (PI) from various national organizations, state agencies and school districts. Interviews were conducted with 14 informants, and responses recorded, transcribed and clustered according to patterns of language. Documents provided by informants were reviewed. A Likert-type questionnaire was developed, grounded in patterns of language used in interviews and documents. Descriptive and inferential statistics identified variance between and within groups. Of 430 questionnaires sent, 266 were returned. Factor analysis of 29 items yielded 5 factors (definition of inclusion, training and support, receptivity, benefits/barriers, and prerequisites). One way analysis of variance, tests for homogeneity and multiple range tests were performed. Patterns of understanding of inclusion were clarified, and interpretations and conclusions were drawn. Significant variance was found among PD, PM, and PI on 3 of 5 factors (benefits/barriers, prerequisites, receptivity) with the greatest variance being between PD and PI. The most significant variance among 8 school districts occurred with factor 1 (benefits/barriers of inclusion). Informants' degree of support for inclusion was frequently not reflective of the organizations they represented. All groups associated inclusion with attitudes and beliefs, rather than with actions …

Researchers suggest that value congruence in superior-subordinate dyads results in positive outcomes for an organization (Kemelgor, 1980; Meglino, Ravlin, & Adkins, 1989; 1990; Parkington & Schneider, 1979; Senger, 1971; Weeks, Chonko, Kahle, 1989). Further, evidence is presented which suggests that commitment at the organizational level is achieved, in part, through value congruence at the individual level of analysis. Analysis at the individual level reflects the effect of shared values on interpersonal relations. Work value congruence in a dyad enhances the development of a high quality dyadic relationship. The subordinate in such a relationship perceives being allowed more participation in decision making, more positive work experiences, and less role stress (Turban & Jones, 1988). These items have been found to be predictor variables of commitment from Steer's (1977) framework of antecedents. In this study, a research model was proposed which suggests that work value congruence in the subordinate-superior dyad leads to organizational commitment through its effect on subordinate perceptions of role stress characteristics, participation, and work experiences. The model integrates the organizational aspects of the Steer's (1977) framework for organizational commitment with the interpersonal effect of work value congruence. A field study design using a sample of 96 subordinate-superior dyads at …

Detection of ultratrace levels of metallic ion impurities in hydrofluoric acid solutions and alkaline hydrogen peroxide solution was demonstrated using a silicon-based sensing electrode. The sensor's operation principle is based on direct measurements of the silicon open-circuit potential shift generated by the interaction between metallic ions and the silicon-based sensing surface. The new sensor can have practical applications in the on-line monitoring of microelectronic chemical processing. The detection of Ag+ content in KODAK waste water was carried out successfully by this novel sensor. Trace levels of organic impurities in the hydrofluoric acid solutions and in the cleanroom air were characterized by multiple internal reflection infrared spectroscopy (MIRIS) using an organics probe prepared directly from a regular silicon wafer.