College of Education
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item PERSPECTIVES OF VETERANS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: EXPLORING THE TERM "STUDENT VETERAN" AND THE IDENTITY SHIFTS BETWEEN MILITRAY AND COLLEGE(2014) Hernandez Baron, Paola Maria; Griffin, Kimberly; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Given changes in the G.I Bill, warfare, and higher education, post 9/11 veterans are a unique and expanding college student population. The purpose of this narrative inquiry study was to better understand how post 9/11 student veterans perceive and identify with the term "student veteran." The findings suggest that "student veteran" is more than a label and shares some qualities of a social identity. The participants wanted to be treated as "regular students," but also valued what the term "student veteran" signifies including a unique sociohistorical, cultural, and personal context and history that framed their academic experience. Participants described the term as a way to uphold military culture amidst the more ambiguous college culture. Participants felt the term carries imposed meanings and judgments different from that which participants themselves attribute to it. Findings suggest both theoretical and applied implications for expanded cultural competency around interacting with heterogeneous student veteran populations.Item FEAR CONDITIONING ACROSS DEVELOPMENT: AN EXAMINATION OF FEAR ACQUISITION, EXTINCTION, AND GENERALIZATION IN 5-TO-10 YEAR OLD CHILDREN(2013) Hong, Melanie; Fox, Nathan A; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The acquisition and extinction of fear is widely studied using fear conditioning (FC) paradigms. Few studies, however, have examined how fear learning emerges across development. Understanding the developmental mechanisms underlying FC can provide a framework to examine disruptions in fear learning, particularly when fears become pervasive as in the case of anxiety disorders. Traditional FC paradigms in adult and animal studies involve aversive stimuli, like shock, which present ethical limitations in youth. The present study aimed to examine the validity of a novel FC paradigm in a sample of sixty-four typically developing 9-to-15 year old children. Results revealed differential learning to the CS+ compared to the CS- during conditioning as evidenced by subjective fear ratings and greater skin conductance response. No differences emerged across pre-conditioning and extinction phases. Results from this study indicate the utility of this novel bell conditioning paradigm at eliciting fear learning and extinction behaviors in children.Item RESISTING STEREOTYPES: EVALUATIONS OF PEER GROUP EXCLUSION(2013) Mulvey, Kelly Lynn Sara; Killen, Melanie; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Gender stereotypes permeate peer groups, often functioning as the norms, or conventions, which contribute to group identity. Little is known about the conditions under which children will resist the norms of their peer groups, including norms that reflect stereotypic expectations. This study investigated this issue by measuring how children responded to members of their gender groups who disagreed with the group about gender stereotyped aggressive behaviors (female stereotype: relational aggression, male stereotype: physical aggression) as well as about social activities (football and ballet). Social domain theory as well as social identity theory provided the basis for formulating the design and the hypotheses. It was expected that children and adolescents would expect their peers to challenge the group, but that they would be concerned about the consequences of challenging the group in terms of social exclusion. Participants (N = 292, 9-10 and 13-14 years of age) assessed members of same-gender peer groups who disagreed with their group. The findings revealed that children and adolescents generally expected that their peers will resist the group's gender stereotypic norms surrounding aggression, but that this may be more difficult for boys when voicing their counter- stereotypic opinions. Further, participants themselves believed that they would be less influenced by gender stereotypes than would their peers. They asserted that they would, individually, be more likely to resist the group than they expect a peer would be. This research also revealed important barriers to resisting the group. Specifically, children and adolescents expected that group members who dissent from or resist the group are likely to be excluded from the group for voicing their dissent. This stands in sharp contrast to much research which indicates that children are not accepting of exclusion. Rejecting the behavior of one's peer group, especially when that behavior has negative intrinsic consequences for others, is a key step towards changing the culture of peer groups more broadly. However, the findings indicate that, while children and adolescents are optimistic about their peers challenging the peer group, they also see exclusion as a very real possibility and consequence for such resistance.Item Exploring the Relationship between Socio-Cultural Issues Discussions and Social Change Behaviors(2011) Segar, Thomas Christopher; Komives, Susan R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between student participation socio-cultural issues discussions and student participation in social change behaviors. This study utilized data from the 2009 administration of the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL), a national research project designed to explore student experiences and environmental factors that contribute to student leadership development. An internet-based survey was used to collect data from participants at 101 higher education institutions throughout the United States. The usable sample for this study consisted of 94,367 undergraduate students who completed at least 90% of the core survey and scales used for the study. An adapted version of Astin's college impact model (Astin, 1991; 1993) provided the conceptual framework for the study. In this input-environment-outcome (IEO) model participant demographic characteristics and pre-college experiences represented the inputs. The environment included institutional characteristics, positional leadership experiences, leadership capacity, and socio-cultural issues discussions, which was the main independent variable for the study. Self-reported frequency of participation in social change behaviors was the outcome and dependent variable. Results indicated that the regression model accounted for 46% of the variance in predicting student participation in social change behaviors. Demographic characteristics were a positive but weak predictor of participation in social change behaviors. Institutional characteristics were found to have little influence in predicting student participation social change behaviors. Pre-college leadership experiences and positional leadership experiences were found to be strong predictors of social change behaviors. After accounting for these variables, socio-cultural issues discussions were found to be a positive weak predictor. When matched with other environmental predictors, socio-cultural issues discussions contribute to student leadership experiences related to participating in social change behaviors. Implications for practice provide practitioners with strategies to increase the likelihood of student participation in social cange behaviors.Item Examining Developmental Stages of Leadership for College Students: A Validation Study of the Leadership Identity Development Model(2011) Wagner, Wendy; Komives, Susan R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to confirm or disconfirm the leadership identity development (LID) model (Komives, Longerbeam, Owen, Mainella, & Osteen, 2006). The LID model identified six stages in the development of a leadership identity. Although used widely to inform the design of leadership development programs, it has not been validated by further research. This study used Q methodology to classify subjects with similar views of leadership into groups. The resulting groups were congruent with the stages of the LID model that are most frequently experienced during the college years. Thirty-nine subjects described their points of view about leadership and themselves as leaders through a 64-item card sort, placing the cards into piles along a continuum from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Principle components analysis was used to classify subjects into groups based on similarities in the card sorts. The way each of the four resulting groups described leadership was interpreted by examination of an aggregate card sort representing the views of the students in that group. These descriptions were compared to the stages of the LID model. Factor one from this study was similar to stages four through six of the LID model. There was no evidence distinguishing these three stages from each other in this subject sample. Factor two was similar to stage three with an independent view of self with others. Factor three was similar to stage three with a dependent view of self with others. Factor four had only a single subject, whose description did not readily fit into the LID model. Further research is needed to examine the LID stages experienced pre-college, as well as further exploration into whether LID stages four through six are truly distinct. However, the findings of this study do provide support for the existence of the stages of development most often experienced during the college years (stages three and four) as described in the LID model.Item Examining the Socially Responsible Leadership Development Outcomes of Study Abroad Experiences for College Seniors(2010) Lee, Amye Mae; Komives, Susan R.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis explored the leadership development outcomes of study abroad experiences for college seniors. This is the first study attempting to identify the link between involvement in study abroad, a growing trend in higher education, and student leadership development, a value of higher education institutions. Data from the 2009 Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership was used in this study, specifically the sample of over 31,000 seniors from 99 four-year institutions. The hypothesis that study abroad contributes significantly to student leadership development was tested using hierarchical regression statistical analysis. This study's model explained 21% of the variance in the omnibus measure of the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale (SRLS), with pre-college leadership development factors as the only independent variable with significant contribution. A post-hoc analysis found that there was a small but significant difference on the omnibus SRLS between those who did, and those who did not, study abroad. This study's findings offer implications for higher education practitioners and research.Item Reward modulation of inhibitory control during adolescence: An age related comparison of behavior and neural function(2010) Hardin, Michael George; Fox, Nathan A; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The developmental period of adolescence is distinguished by a transition from the dependent, family-oriented state of childhood to the autonomous, peer-oriented state of adulthood. Related to this transition is a distinct behavioral profile that includes high rates of exploration, novelty-seeking, and sensation-seeking. While this adolescent behavioral profile generally aids in the transition to autonomy, it comes at a cost and is often related to excessive risk-taking behavior. Current models attribute the adolescent behavioral profile to a developmental discordance between highly sensitive reward-related processes and immature inhibitory control processes. Specifically, reward-related processes appear to develop in a curvilinear manner characterized by a heightened sensitivity to reward that peaks during adolescence. On the other hand, inhibitory processes show a protracted linear developmental trajectory that begins in childhood and continues gradually throughout adolescence. Thus, the unique developmental trajectories of these two sets of processes leave the adolescent with highly sensitive, reward-driven processes that can only be moderately regulated by gradually developing inhibitory processes. Despite the usefulness of these models of adolescent behavior, they remain incompletely supported by data, as few studies specifically examine the interaction between reward-related and inhibitory processing. The current study addresses this particular gap in the adolescent neural development literature by administering a reward-modified inhibitory control task to children, adolescents, and young adults during functional neuroimaging. Three key findings emerged from the current study. First, adolescents showed greater inhibition-related neural responses than both adults and children when potential monetary reward was available. Second, adolescents reliably showed greater striatal recruitment with reward than both adults and children. These differences in striatal response occurred as all three age groups showed significant reward-related behavioral improvements. Third, when reward was not present, adolescents and children showed deficient inhibitory behavior relative to adults. Findings from this study support models proposing interactive relationships between heightened adolescent sensitivity to reward and protracted development of inhibitory control. Additionally, the current findings expand these models by suggesting heightened adolescent sensitivity to reward may facilitate developmentally inefficient inhibitory control processes in a bottom-up manner.Item Age related changes in social reasoning regarding parental domestic roles(2007-05-03) Sinno, Stefanie Marie; Killen, Melanie; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The present study investigated age related changes in individuals' understanding of the parental role of caretaker from a social reasoning perspective. The methodology involved administering surveys to children, adolescents, and young adults (N = 300). Four hypothetical scenarios were described, in which the amount of caretaking tasks completed and time spent at work varied by gender of the parent, and individuals' evaluations and reasoning about the situations were assessed. Three additional factors that influence social reasoning about the caretaker were investigated, including, participants' gender attitudes, their perceptions of their parents' working status and division of caretaking, and their expectations for their own future family life. Results showed that individuals' judgments and reasoning about the caretaker role vary based on both the family arrangement and the gender of the parent in the caretaker role. Overall, participants' judged that the better arrangement is for one parent to spend less time at work in order to be the primary caretaker. However, it was also found that regardless of work arrangement, it would be better if the mother was the primary caretaker. There were age related changes in social reasoning about the caretaker role, with an overall increase in recognizing the complexity of family situations and reasoning from a moral perspective. In addition, gender attitudes, perception of parental work status and division of caretaking and expectations for future balance of work and family influenced social reasoning. Those individuals with more egalitarian attitudes, perceptions, and expectations were aware of societal expectations of parents' roles, but were accepting of arrangements that did not match with expectations. Thus, the present study addressed issues about the developmental origins of individuals' understanding of gender equity, gender development, and developmental social cognition. Understanding developmental changes in social reasoning about gender roles is important because it affects choice of future career and educational goals and opportunities.Item THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A CASE STUDY OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS IN SENEGAL(2005-01-25) Nordtveit, Bjorn Harald; Klees, Steven J.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The World Bank and other international institutions often promote market-based solutions for implementation of public services. This research examines the set-up, implementation, and results of public-private partnerships and outsourcing, using a World-Bank funded literacy project for women in Senegal as a case study. The case is analyzed from a critical and welfare economics perspective, as well as from a neoliberal view, and shows how the analytical approach conditions the understanding of the project. The World Bank implements much of its development projects in the belief that the market is more cost-effective than government implementation. In this case, literacy education was not funded by the World Bank until the Senegalese state had formulated a project that fit the Bank's neoliberal policy vision. The requirement of private implementation strategies was a way to impose marked-based solutions that in the end proved to be unreasonable and ineffective. Analysis of enrollment, success and drop-out rates shows that the project enrolled approximately 180,000 learners, of which only about 44,000 learned to write and read. The literacy courses offered very cheap and very ineffective schooling (whereas the state-implemented primary school system offered much more expensive but also a somewhat more effective education). Literacy education offered in Senegal therefore appears to be poor education for the poorest of the citizens. The literacy providers offered low-quality literacy learning because they wanted to make money from the service delivery, and therefore cut costs. The government and the World Bank failed to correct these negative aspects of the public-private partnership system. The outsourcing affected civil society in Senegal. The project created and structured civil society by helping to establish women's associations in the villages. However, outsourcing also had a negative effect, since provider associations increasingly became businesses that were dependent on politicians, and corrupt practices multiplied. In order to improve literacy education in Senegal, it is necessary to acknowledge the inability of the market to solve literacy problems on its own, and to adopt a more balanced distribution of responsibilities between the public and the private sectors.Item Preschoolers' Emotional Understanding of Others Who Are Ethnically the Same or Different(2004-11-22) Mende, Linda; Strein, William; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)According to Mayer and Salovey (1997), emotional understanding is the ability to "label emotions and recognize relations among the words and the emotions themselves". While children at an early age are aware of racial differences, do children understand emotions differently for others of another ethnic group? This study considered the potential impact of race on understanding the emotions of others, by focusing on children's accuracy in inferring story characters' emotional response during emotion-eliciting situations. The cultural component involved the racial match between the participant and the story character. Study findings indicate that preschoolers understood others' emotions similarly, regardless of racial background. Study results also examined children's overall accuracy and assignment of emotional intensity. Similar to previous emotional understanding results, preschoolers found happy emotions the most easily identifiable and the most intense. In contrast, angry emotions were the most difficult to identify and the least intense emotion.