UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item CROSS-CLASSIFIED MODELING OF DUAL LOCAL ITEM DEPENDENCE(2014) Xie, Chao; Jiao, Hong; Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Previous studies have mainly focused on investigating one source of local item dependence (LID). However, in some cases, such as scenario-based science assessments, LID might be caused by two possible sources simultaneously. In this study, such kind of LID that is caused by two factors simultaneously is named as dual local item dependence (DLID). This study proposed a cross-classified model to account for DLID. Two simulation studies were conducted with the primary purpose of evaluating the performance of the proposed cross-classified model. Data sets with DLID were simulated with both testlet effects and content clustering effects. The second purpose of this study was to investigate the potential factors affecting the need to use the more complex cross-classified modeling of DLID over the simplified multilevel modeling of LID by ignoring cross-classification structure. For both simulation studies, five factors were manipulated, including sample size, number of testlets, testlet length, magnitude of the testlet effects represented by standard deviations (SDs), and magnitude of the content clustering effects represented by SDs. The difference between the two simulation studies was that, simulation study 1 constrained the SDs of the testlet effects and content clustering effects as the same across testlets and content areas, respectively; simulation study 2 released this constraint by having mixed SDs of the testlet effects and mixed SDs of the content clustering effects. Results of both simulation studies indicated that the proposed cross-classified model yielded more accurate parameter recovery, including item difficulty, persons' ability, and random effects' SD parameters with smaller estimation errors than the two multilevel models and the Rasch model which ignored one or both item clustering effects. The two manipulated variables, the magnitude of the testlet effects and the magnitude of the content clustering effects, determined the necessity of using the more complex cross-classified model over the simplified multilevel models and the Rasch model: the larger the magnitude of the testlet effects and the content clustering effects, the more necessary to use the proposed cross-classified model. Limitations are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented at the end.Item Alienation and Power: Prison Workers in Prison(2013) McGuinn, Stephen Crandall; Wellford, Charles F; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The US incarcerates close to one percent of the adult population. The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) detains over 200,000 men and women. In order to manage this substantial prisoner population, the Bureau of Prisons employs close to 40,000 individuals. Using multilevel modeling and drawing on data from the yearly Prison Social Climate Survey administered by the BOP, this study poses three questions: (1) How do prison workers perceive institutional power derivation? (2) Do power adoptions impact prison worker perception of effectiveness in inmate management? (3) Does alienation harden prison workers and reduce their ability to effectively manage inmate populations? Results indicate that prisons largely promote formal and constructive power adoptions and these power adoptions improve prisoner management. In addition, alienation harms effective prisoner management and hardens prison workers. Discussion includes implications for theory, policy, and practice.Item ARE YOU IN OR OUT? A GROUP-LEVEL EXAMINATION OF THE EFFECTS OF LMX ON JUSTICE AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION(2005-01-03) Mayer, David M.; Schneider, Benjamin; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Early work on leader-member exchange (LMX) theory suggested that leaders differentiating followers into in-groups and out-groups leads to superior group performance. However, research on LMX has almost exclusively studied individual outcomes as opposed to group outcomes. In addition, the notion of differentiation suggests that not all group members have high quality relationships with their leaders thereby violating rules surrounding experienced organizational justice. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to conceptualize and study LMX at the level of analysis at which it was initially conceptualized (i.e., the work group level), and to examine the effects of LMX level (i.e., mean in group members' LMX scores) and LMX strength (i.e., variance in group members' LMX scores, i.e., differentiation) on group performance (i.e., unit-level customer satisfaction) and group-level fairness perceptions (i.e., justice climates). Drawing on LMX, organizational justice, social comparison theory, and multilevel theory and research, I derived a number of testable hypotheses involving the relationship between LMX level and LMX strength on justice climates and group performance. There were three major sets of findings regarding (1): the effects of LMX level, (2) the effects of LMX differentiation (later called LMX strength), (3) and the moderating roles of task interdependence and group size on the LMX strength to justice climates relationships. First, LMX level was positively related to justice climates; however, the relationship between LMX level and customer satisfaction was not significant. Second, as predicted, LMX strength was negatively related to justice climates, but, incongruent with the differentiation (strength) hypothesis of LMX theory, there was not a significant relationship between LMX strength and customer satisfaction. Third, consistent with the hypothesis, task interdependence moderated the relationship between LMX strength and justice climates such that justice climates were more favorable when strength was high and task interdependence was high. Collectively, these results suggest that having variability (i.e., differentiation) in the quality of relationships in a work group may have negative effects on justice climates, particularly when individuals must work interdependently; but a negligible direct effect on group performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.