Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2022, Higher Education

This exploratory study attempted to determine if there were specific precollege or college experiences that female engineering students have had that impacted their perceived social self-confidence. Particularly, the study focused on female engineering students enrolled at private institutions of higher education. The study focused on private institutions of higher education because 14 of the 15 top institutions in the United States that had the highest percentage of engineering bachelor's degrees awarded to women were private in 2018 (Roy, 2019). The theoretical framework for this exploratory study was Astin's student involvement theory. The conceptual framework used for this study was Astin's input-environment-output (IEO) college impact model. The output variable, or the hypothesized dependent variable for this study, was female engineering students' perceived social self-confidence, as reported on the Higher Education Research Institute CIRP Freshman Survey (TFS) and College Senior Survey (CSS). This exploratory study examined 174 variables from TFS and CSS to determine if any of these variables had an impact on the output or dependent variable. A blocked form of stepwise regression was used to determine which variables from TFS and CSS had a statistically significant impact on female engineering students' perceived social self-confidence. The study identified 10 variables found to have a statistically significant influence on female engineering students' perceived social self-confidence.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Mathematics/Mathematical Statistics

Simultaneous inference is a traditional topic in analyzing data. In survival analysis, simultaneous inferences are usually required for comparisons on various treatment levels, on different time periods, and moreover, on both. To solve the aforementioned research goals, this dissertation proposes a methodology of drawing simultaneous conclusion of treatment effects over a time period when confidence band for the treatment effects is available. This dissertation starts with deriving the specific expressions of confidence bands for the treatment effects on exponential and Weibull populations respectively. After obtaining the confidence bands, a main theorem is provided that simultaneous inference on several treatment levels over a time period can be derived by a stepwise confidence procedure. Additionally, to study the treatment regimes and system reliability, an issue of substitutable confidence intervals is raised. The idea of the proposed methodology can be applied on this issue, and a stepwise confidence procedure is provided as well.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Statistics

As more and more dense, yet cost-effective, genetic maps become increasingly available, the focus of linkage analysis is shifting from testing for linkage signals to sufficiently localizing putative disease loci before fine mapping begins. Currently, there exists only a limited number of methods that provide confidence regions for the locations of trait loci. Among them is the confidence set inference (CSI) procedure based on the mean IBD sharing statistic for data from affected sib-pair studies described by Lin (2002) that deduces such regions with known lower bound on their coverage. Although this method has many attractive features, including avoidance of multiplicity adjustment for the number of markers scanned, its formulation poses some restrictions that limit its usefulness on practical applications. First, it assumes that all markers are 100% polymorphic, so that the IBD state at each of them is inferred unequivocally, an assumption rarely met in reality. Second, when the genetic map available is sparse, it tends to produce intervals that overcover the trait locus. Finally, its application requires knowledge of the IBD sharing distribution at the trait locus by an affected sib-pair. These probabilities are estimated using population disease characteristics that can be obtained through epidemiological studies with reasonable accuracy. However, there is a number of issues that renders this method of estimating the IBD distribution impractical. We propose several extensions that address some of the limitations of the CSI approach. First, we extend it to accommodate markers with incomplete polymorphism, thereby increasing its practical value. Next, we modify it so that it tests each location on the genome for its possibility to be the trait locus. This way, we obtain regions with known exact coverage probability, rather than placing a lower bound on it. Finally, a two-step application of the CSI approach promises to avoid using population disease characteristics (open full item for complete abstract)

EDD, Kent State University, 2023, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

The purpose of this research was to explore the perceived levels of confidence among an early professional athletic trainer through one large metropolitan health system through an onboarding program. Secondary to the exploration of one's confidence level, this research examined the perceptions and barriers to developing an onboarding program within this system. Using an interpretive case study design, the participant completed a 10-week onboarding program developed by the student investigator that sought to foster improvement in clinical confidence. Due to initial study design flaws, the pre and post data originally collected was unable to be utilized for statistical analysis. Following the onboarding program, the participant completed a semi-structured interview where he shared his experience during the onboarding process and the perceived needs of his transition to practice (TTP) period as an early professional athletic trainer. The research utilized Durkheim's socialization theory as the conceptual framework of the interpretive case study foundation and utilized a phenomenological approach to allow Lucas to share his lived experiences during the TTP period. Through the case study interview, the findings established six key perspectives (time, administrative responsibility, self-confidence, technology, onboarding mentor, and clinical reasoning development) as key constructs for development of onboarding programs specific to sports medicine.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Wright State University, 2021, Human Factors and Industrial/Organizational Psychology PhD

Adopting organizational science recommendations can lead to beneficial outcomes, but there is a gap between what scientists recommend and what managers do. This research introduced the construct of confidence in organizational science procedures (COSP), which refers to an individual's belief that organizational science findings a) are accurate, b) are important, and c) should be applied in organizations. In addition to introducing COSP, the purposes of this research were to develop a measure of COSP and test hypotheses related to the nomological network of this construct. First, 29 participants completed an item sorting task, providing content validity information for the COSP measure. Next, 686 participants completed measures of COSP, cynicism about organizational change, rationality, and experientiality. Factor analyses revealed that the COSP measure is likely unidimensional and statistically distinct from measures of the aforementioned constructs. Finally, 784 participants completed measures of COSP and various cognitive constructs, such as motivated reasoning, and organizational constructs, such as organizational change resistance. Two weeks later, 173 of these 784 participants completed the same measures again. Results yielded reliability and validity evidence for a six-item COSP measure and suggested relationships between COSP and other variables of interest. Key takeaways included the utility of the COSP measure when predicting workplace-specific outcomes, the generalizability of motivated reasoning beyond a climate science context, and the potential trainability of COSP.

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2021, Speech Pathology and Audiology

This study examined the effect of training and an eight-week practice regimen on inexperienced rater agreement with experts as well as confidence when making auditory-perceptual judgments of voice. Eight speech-language pathology undergraduate students served as raters and were assessed for agreement and confidence at four different points throughout the study: before training, after training, after eight-weeks of practice (experimental condition), and three months after the practice period. Raters made auditory-perceptual judgments of voice samples using the CAPE-V for Overall Severity, Roughness, Breathiness, Strain, and Pitch; and indicated their confidence for rating each parameter using a four-point Likert scale at each of the four testing sessions. Results: Overall increases were observed in rater agreement for the experimental group following practice that were maintained above baseline for three months, though few reached the level of significance. Training and practice both resulted in confidence increases with mixed results for statistical significance. No significant relationship was found between confidence ratings and rater agreement with experts. Conclusions: Results must be interpreted with caution due to lack of statistical significance and sample size. Preliminary findings indicate more research into the effects of practice on rater agreement and confidence in making auditory-perceptual judgments of voice is warranted.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Psychology

Individuals' Decision-Making Ability Beliefs (DABs) have been previously connected to pre-experiential choice confidence (O'Dell, 2016). The goals of this dissertation are twofold. First, I sought to further expand the understanding and applicability of DABs. That is, I focused first of all on providing causal evidence of a link between DABs and pre-experiential choice confidence. Second, I aimed to also address some additional consequences of the pre-experiential choice confidence, especially for resistance to choice change. Results of this dissertation research showed that inflated or deflated beliefs about one's decision abilities were able to predict pre-experiential choice confidence. This included studies in which the DABs were measured (Study 1) and studies in which the DABs were manipulated (Studies 2 & 3). In both contexts, reported choice confidence correlated with resistance to choice change, even when controlling for potential antecedents of choice confidence (Studies 1 & 3). The DAB-manipulation data provide the best evidence to date that subjective beliefs about one's ability in specific decision-making contexts has downstream consequences beyond any influences of objective decision-making ability. The data documenting correlations between choice confidence and resistance to choice change provides the first initial indications that choice confidence has consequences beyond persistence of choices over time (cf. Folke, Jacobsen, Fleming, & De Martino, 2016).

Master of Science in Exercise and Health Studies, Miami University, 2017, Exercise and Health Studies

Recent research has defined and conceptualized a form of sport confidence, known as robust sport confidence (RSC), as a stable, protective, and strong set of beliefs that enable athletes to deal with adversity, setbacks, and challenges that occur regularly in sport. (Thomas et al., 2011). The purpose of this study was to identify possible predictors of RSC in collegiate athletes. The study included 236 collegiate athletes across multiple sports. Participants completed a set of quantitative inventories regarding athlete trait RSC, Vealey and colleagues' (1998) nine sources of sport confidence, and optimism. Two open-ended questions were also included to give the participants a chance to discuss other potential predictors of sport confidence previously not considered. The present study was one of the first to examine the interrelationships between RSC and other psychological constructs.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2017, Speech Language Pathology

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia (LPAA) on communication confidence through the use of the Communication Confidence Rating Scale for Aphasia (CCRSA) (LPAA Project Group, 2001; Cherney, Babbit, Semik, & Heinemann, 2011). Retrospective data was obtained from eight persons with aphasia who had participated in an LPAA program. A significant difference was found regarding participation in the LPAA program compared to a change in CCRSA scores. Additionally, there was no correlation between the amount of time spent within the program and the change in CCRSA scores. These findings are compared to others' in the literature and support the call for continued investigation of communication confidence in persons with aphasia.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2012, Psychology

We applied a sequential sampling model (RTCON2; Ratcliff & Starns, submitted) to confidence judgments from a brightness discrimination task. Subjects in the experiments were asked whether test items were bright or dark, and responded with one of six possible choices that ranged from “very sure dark” to “very sure bright”. The confidence judgment and response time data are qualitatively similar to those typically found in recognition memory tasks. We fitted RTCON2 to the data and used the model to explain the mechanisms underlying the confidence judgment decision process. Because this was a perceptual task, we were able to control the stimulus strength values (brightness) and the variability of those values within an experimental condition. This allowed us to test the model's assumptions and quality of measurement of an important model component: between-trial variability in stimulus strength. We demonstrate the utility of RTCON2 when used in conjunction with explicit knowledge of external stimulus strength values. We also implement and discuss other applications of the combination of control over perceptual stimuli with the computational process model of RTCON2.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2008, Educational Policy and Leadership

Since at least 1989, over seventy faculties or faculty senates have voted no-confidence in their academic presidents. Although these votes are symbolic, as only an institution's governing board can remove a president, they nonetheless bring paralysis to the campus community. What, then, are the sources of these votes of no-confidence?Data suggest that most of these votes are held because faculty members believe that shared governance principles have been violated. This study examines this phenomenon at three institutions – Baylor University, Texas A and M University at Kingsville, and Goddard College – through case studies. This examination uses literature on university governance and organizational culture to explore shared governance, its sanctity in higher education, and how the notion of shared governance is rooted in academic culture. Because shared governance problems are indicative of organizational conflict, conflict management literature is used to help identify ways that these problems can be addressed. By understanding the sources of no-confidence votes against presidents, colleges and universities can attempt to stop them from occurring. The practical benefits are profound; the campus community can heal and participants can truly fix institutional issues in a productive manner.

Master of Science in Sport Studies, Miami University, 2008, Physical Education, Health, and Sport Studies

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships among selected personalityand social factors, sources and different types of confidence in collegiate athletes, using the sport-confidence model (Vealey, 1986; Vealey & Chase, 2008) as a guiding framework. Different types of confidence and sources were found to be associated with different factors. For example, task-involving motivational climate positively predicted athletes' selection of both controllable and uncontrollable sources of confidence, while ego-involving motivational climate did not appear as a significant predictor of both types of sources. Several dimensions of perfectionism (i.e. personal standards, doubts about actions, perceived coach pressure, concern over mistake) appeared as strong predictors of different types of confidence. The results also indicated a link between controllable sources of confidence and the level of confidence. Overall, the results from the present study supported the multidimensionality of athletes' confidence. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Master of Science in Civil Engineering, Cleveland State University, 2012, Fenn College of Engineering

This work presents the mathematical constructs for certain statistical elements that when combined properly produce a quality control program that can be used to accept or reject ceramic materials based on mechanistic strength information. Due to the high tensile strength and low fracture toughness of ceramic materials the design engineer must consider a stochastic design approach. Critical flaws with lengths that cannot be detected by current non-destructive evaluation methods render a distribution of defects in ceramics that effectively requires that the tensile strength of the material must be treated as a random variable. The two parameter Weibull distribution (an extreme value distribution) with size scaling is adopted for tensile strength in this work. Typically the associated Weibull distribution parameters are characterized through the use of four-point flexure tests. The failure data from these tests are used to determine the Weibull modulus (m) and a Weibull characteristic strength (σθ). To determine an estimate of the true Weibull distribution parameters maximum likelihood estimators are used. The quality of the estimated parameters relative to the true distribution parameters depends fundamentally on the number of samples taken to failure and the component under design. The statistical concepts of “confidence intervals” and “hypothesis testing” are discussed here relative to their use in assessing the “goodness” of the estimated distribution parameters. Both of these inferential statistics tools enable the calculation of likelihood confidence rings. Work showing how the true distribution parameters lie within a likelihood ring with a specified confidence is presented. A material acceptance criterion is defined here and the criterion depends on establishing an acceptable probability of failure of the component under design as well as an acceptable level of confidence associated with estimated distribution parameter determined using failure data from a (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2012, Industrial and Systems Engineering (Engineering and Technology)

This research explains the methodology for deriving the confidence interval on the cost estimate of a part, when a feature-based approach is used. The components of a steam turbine are used in order to demonstrate the methodology. With a parametric approach to estimate cost, developing a confidence interval is straightforward because there is one cost-estimating relationship (CER) that incorporates a design's parameters. However, in feature-based cost estimating, there are multiple CERs that each estimate the cost of a part feature and the feature estimates are accumulated to get the total manufacturing cost. This makes deriving a confidence interval more complex, since the variance in each CER must be incorporated into determining the overall variance of the estimate. Confidence intervals are derived for multiple CER generation techniques that utilize both regression and Artificial Neural Networks. The differences between their parametric and feature-based results are statistically tested to determine whether a difference exists. The testing shows that in 7 out 8 instances tested, the differences between the two approaches were not found to be statistically significantly different. Feature-based models are more transparent than multivariate models because exactly how each parameter affects an estimate can be easily determined. When there is no difference between the two methods than the feature-based method should be used by the analyst.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2008, Graduate School

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), University of Findlay, 2024, Education

Twice exceptional (2e) students show unique characteristics of any disability and giftedness which may include students who have learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as mandated by Child Find (Baldwin et al., 2015; Berninger & Abbot, 2013; Cain et al., 2019; Leroux & Levitt-Perlman, 2000; Wrightslaw, 2018, par. 1) Evaluation procedures should look similar to gifted and special education assessments to create a cumulative profile of the student (Morrison & Rizza, 2007; Rizza & Morrison, 2007). The closest prevalence estimation of identified 2e students is about 6% (National Education Association, 2006). This 6 participant qualitative study was coded using the lens of Bandura's self-efficacy (1977). Results showed that current practices varied depending on the district's resources. Although they felt prepared, most participants reported that they had no training in identifying 2e students. Those who were not confident in their ability reported they wanted a clearer role and more training. From this, state and federal policies should look at defining a clearer role for school psychologists in the evaluation process through a more formalized plan and adding a check box on the ETR form. School districts and administration should also create a policy that clarifies roles and expectations for all parties involved in the evaluation process. They should also make sure that there are no scheduling conflicts for services provided to 2e students. Finally, more professional development should be done either by graduate programs or continuing education programs to increase the identification knowledge of 2e students.

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2024, Clinical Psychology (Arts and Sciences)

Therapists' responses to difficult therapy moments can be one of the most emotionally fraught aspects of conducting psychotherapy and is a strong indicator of therapeutic process and client outcomes. However, therapist emotional reactions are difficult to measure in the moment and are most often assessed at the end of therapy sessions. For this reason, little is known about therapists' feelings following these moments. This study assessed changes in therapist feelings and perspectives as an outcome of teletherapy training. I focused on how the Tele-Facilitative Interpersonal Relationship Skills Training (Tele-FIRST)—which is designed to increase therapist self-awareness of feelings and provide pathways for constructing responses based on identified feelings—might influence their 1) immediate emotional reactions to realistic psychotherapy moments and 2) later measures of therapy skills self-efficacy. Immediately after viewing each of the challenging therapy simulations, therapists verbally responded and rated their emotional reactions to each client using the Feeling Word Checklist (FWC). These brief video simulation clips were from both the Facilitative Interpersonal Skills (FIS) performance task and a novel set of tele-FIS clips developed for this study. The novel tele-FIS clips illustrate challenges especially prevalent in teletherapy: emotional connection, boundaries and privacy, distraction, and tele-therapy specific issues. Next, therapists provided global ratings of their interpersonal skills and therapy skills self-efficacy. There was a Time by Condition interaction on both therapist feelings of confidence and inadequacy in response to simulated client clips that focused on issues of emotional connection, but not other teletherapy challenges. Additionally, therapists who received training reported increases in their self-efficacy for both insight and exploration skills (e.g. providing reflection, helping a client gain self-awareness, etc (open full item for complete abstract)

DNP, Walsh University, 2023, Nursing

Nurses that care for pediatric patients with behavioral disorders and aggression in a non-psychiatric setting face unique challenges. Pediatric nurses are usually not trained to care for children with aggression and behavioral outbursts, which result in high rates of burnout. Providing formal trauma-informed patient care education and training to pediatric nurses can improve their confidence and the quality of care in managing patient aggression. The purposes of this study were to a.) examine if Welle behavioral-management training is effective in improving pediatric nurse confidence in the management of pediatric aggression in a non-psychiatric setting and b.) examine the relationship between demographic characteristics and nurse confidence. A convenience sample of 13 registered nurses employed on the pediatric medical-surgical unit who received the Welle training educational intervention were recruited to participate in this study. A one-group pretest post-test study design was used to assess registered nurses' level of confidence in managing pediatric patients with aggression before and after the Welle training. To measure nurse confidence in the management of pediatric aggression, The Incidence of and Attitudes Toward Aggression in the Workplace questionnaire was administered before and up to two weeks after the Welle training. Results indicate that the Welle training was effective in improving nursing confidence scores in the management of patients with aggression. Findings from this study provide information on how training and education can improve nurse confidence scores in the management of pediatric aggression. These findings can be useful when designing nursing orientation programs and standardizing aggression management education across health systems.

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.), Franklin University, 2023, Business Administration

Leadership development programs offer the opportunity for an organization to invest within to identify and support the next generation of leaders. Community colleges are complex organizations whose survival depends on competent leaders who can address the organization's business and academic needs. The academia and departmental isolation culture inhibits the cross-departmental collaboration needed to develop a broad spectrum of leadership capabilities. While a wealth of scholarship is dedicated to the outcomes of leadership development programs in the business sector, there needs to be more insight into the impact a leadership development program can have at a community college. This study relied upon Kolb's experiential learning theory to examine the development and distal outcomes of cross-departmental collaboration skills of the participants of a community college's leadership development program. This theoretical framework was used to understand how participants of a leadership community college described the change in their leadership skills to improve cross-department work. A generic qualitative methodology was used for this study of 15 former community college leadership development program participants to understand how the program affected their cross-departmental collaboration skills before, during, and up to one year after the program. The qualitative coding of semi-structured interviews allowed the development of major themes embedded within the participants' experiences. Key themes from this study include a significant increase in personal confidence, cross-departmental collaboration improvements to campus governance, and barriers to cross-departmental collaboration induced by the relationship between the community college and the leadership development program. Greater research into the relationship between the program and the organization is needed to understand further the cross-departmental collaboration potential of leadership development programs (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2023, College of Communication and Information

This research examines emergency health communication with college students during the early phase of the 2019 coronavirus pandemic to provide better insights for emergency planning and to ensure success in early-stage communication efforts. Trust and confidence in various spokespersons are tested, along with students' levels of cooperation with nationwide and college-level directives. To fill a gap in the current emergency preparedness literature, this research also focuses on the communication needs and cultural perspectives of international students on American college campuses. Based on the Trust, Confidence and Cooperation (TCC) Model and its ability to predict cooperation with health directives, this study tested and further defined the aspects of trust and confidence in contributing to public cooperation during a health emergency - in this case, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. The study also evaluated whether the TCC Model could be applied to foreign residents, such as international students, during such an emergency. While better understanding the path to cooperation for international students, the lessons learned can be applied to both college and immigrant populations nationwide. Problematic operationalizations within the TCC Model are clarified and tested in hopes of better defining the variables involved in the model, and new variables, such as cultural competence, are tested for fit.