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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    JOB SEARCH EXPERIENCES: A WITHIN-PERSON EXAMINATION OF JOB SEARCH SELF-EFFICACY, BEHAVIORS, AND OUTCOME
    (2011) Liu, Songqi; Wang, Mo; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    A dynamic self-regulatory perspective is useful to explain within- and between-person variations in job search behaviors (e.g., Barber, Daly, Giannantonio, & Phillips, 1994; Kanfer, Wanberg, Kantrowitz, 2001). However, few studies have incorporated models and designs appropriate for addressing when and why individuals are persistent in their job search activities. In addition, although goal orientation and attribution are highly relevant to self-regulation, previous studies on job search have not integrated these important constructs into the dynamic model of job search. Using data from college seniors in China, the current study advanced the understanding of the dynamic pathways leading to job search behaviors and number of job offers. Specifically, conceptualizing job search behaviors as guided by the employment goal and its sub-goal job search behavior goal, the current study differentiates employment self-efficacy from job search behavior self-efficacy. The data showed that at the within-person level, higher levels of perceived job search progress lead to more job search behaviors through enhanced levels of job search behavior self-efficacy. At the same time, higher levels of perceived job search progress could also lead to less job search behaviors through elevated employment self-efficacy. Finally, active job search behaviors were positively related to the number of job offers received by job seekers. The data also suggest that performance goal orientation and attribution moderated the within-person relationship between perceived job search progress and self-efficacy believes. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications to multiple goal theories regarding dynamic self-regulation processes and practical implications to employment interventions.
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    Achievement Goal Orientations in Physical Rehabilitation
    (2005-12-01) Lawson, Sonia; Alexander, Patricia A; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Goals are used extensively in physical rehabilitation medicine to measure success. However, the goal construct has been given very little attention in research as compared to the domains of education and sport. Educational researchers and sport psychologists have described the cognitions and relations between goals, beliefs, motivation, and achievement behavior for their respective domains. In particular, goal orientation, a set of beliefs about ability, effort, achievement, and resulting behavior, is a dimension of achievement motivation that affects success in those fields. Goal orientation may influence participation and success in physical rehabilitation as there are aspects of physical rehabilitation that are similar to education and sport contexts. This study examined goal orientations for 237 patients receiving acute in-patient rehabilitation. A questionnaire was created and validated to assess goal or work orientations specific to this sample. Interview data supplemented results from the factor analysis of the questionnaire. Occupational therapists of the patient participants provided quantitative and qualitative data regarding their patients' success and factors related to success. The mastery and performance-avoid goal orientations and the cooperation work orientation were found with the highest frequency. However, none of these orientations related to success. The high frequency of the cooperation work orientation with interview comments validating the usefulness of this motivational aspect provides evidence for the use of groups in rehabilitation. The age of the participant significantly influenced three of the five goal or work orientations included in the study. This study provides a start in the investigation of additional dimensions to the goal construct that may affect participation and rehabilitation success.
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    Understanding State Goal Orientation: Leadership and Work-Group Climate as Key Antecedents
    (2005-01-26) Dragoni, Lisa; Stevens, Cynthia K.; Tesluk, Paul E.; Management and Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This research attends to a broad range of practically significant employee achievement goals and provides insight into how to enhance individual-level performance by examining the antecedents to individual-level state goal orientation in organizational work groups. State goal orientation is defined here as a temporary achievement goal, and it is theorized that leadership and work group climate processes parallel each dimension of state goal orientation to cue and ultimately induce the corresponding achievement goal among individual work group members. The leader's achievement priority is argued to drive the formation of work group climate consistent with this priority. The resulting work group climate signals and compels group members to adopt the ascribed form of state goal orientation. The quality of the leader-member exchange (LMX) relationship is viewed as a means to internalize cues from the work group climate in the emergence of state goal orientation. Results from experimental and field studies provide evidence that (1) leadership and climate perceptions are related to their parallel form of state goal orientation, (2) the relation between individual perceptions of a climate for learning and state learning goal orientation is stronger when group members enjoy higher quality exchange relationships with their leader, and (3) state goal orientation may be validly and reliably assessed using the measure created especially for this research.
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    The Role of Goal Structure in Undergraduates' Use of Self-Regulatory Variables in Two Hypermedia Learning Tasks
    (2004-11-17) moos, daniel Charles; Byrnes, James P; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Think-aloud and posttest data was collected from 64 undergraduates to examine whether they use a different proportion of self-regulated learning (SRL) variables in two related learning tasks about science topics while using a hypermedia environment. We also manipulated the goal structure of the two learning tasks in order to explore whether goal structure of a learning task is related to the use of SRL variables. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions [mastery goal structure, performance-approach goal structure, or performance-avoidance goal structure] and participated in two 20 minute learning tasks in which they learned about the circulatory and respiratory system. Results indicate that while a mastery goal structure and a performance-approach goal structure are related to undergraduates' use of a similar proportion of SRL variables in two related learning tasks, a performance-avoidance goal structure is related to undergraduate's use of a different proportion of SRL variables, specifically planning.