Ph.D., Antioch University, 2018, Leadership and Change

A reliable scale to measure adaptive leadership with authority—leadership from a position of power—does not exist. This was an embedded mixed-methods study–QUAN(qual) with data collected through an online survey instrument that included the proposed scale items and an open-ended question. The quantitative part of the study, using data from 436 respondents (92.7% from Mechanical Turk, 7.3% from snowball sampling), involved the development and validation of a unidimensional scale that measures adaptive leadership with authority using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The 11-item scale had a Cronbach's alpha value of .891 and thus displayed high reliability. In the qualitative part of the study, thematic analysis was used to analyze data from 550 respondents to confirm the presence of adaptive leadership with authority sub-constructs and identify possible adaptive leadership behaviors not included in the adaptive leadership framework. The analysis provided support for the following adaptive leadership with authority sub-constructs: Distinguish Between Adaptive and Technical Challenges; Identify the Stakeholders and Their Losses; Create the Holding Environment; Regulate the Distress to maintain focus on adaptive work; Give the Work Back; and Use of Self as a diagnostic and intervention instrument. The narrative data did not support Protecting Voices of Leadership without Authority. The combination of the narrative data and scale pointed to Give the Work Back, Use of Self, and Create the Holding Environment as the most important elements in adaptive leadership with authority. This dissertation is accompanied by a de-identified data file [xls] and the author's MP4 video introduction. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and Ohiolink ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/

Committee: Mitchell Kusy Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Carol Baron Ph.D. (Committee Member); Harriette Thurber Rasmussen Ed.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Developmental Psychology; Management; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2017, Leadership and Change

This study developed a teacher self-assessment instrument in the form of six factors across two overarching constructs, resulting in one Positive Relationships scale with three factors; and three related, but separate, scales measuring elements of the Classroom Environment. Many teacher skills and qualities are known to contribute to effectiveness in the classroom, such as teacher self-efficacy, content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and instructional knowledge. The inclusion of affective dimensions of teacher effectiveness can complement the prevailing focus on other measures of teacher effectiveness, through the consideration of critically important, but relatively ignored, aspects of effective teaching. This study examined teacher attitudes toward building positive relationships with students and creating an empowering classroom environment, grounded in teacher effectiveness research. A survey was taken by 403 practicing elementary teachers in the United States. The results were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The resulting factors were compared with a four-item classroom management subscale of the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) to determine convergent validity, measuring similar underlying constructs; and divergent validity, measuring attitudes versus efficacy. Participant demographic variables were compared using independent sample t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and tests for metric invariance to determine if the instrument performed similarly with all groups. Findings show good model fit, reliability, and validity for the factors related to each overarching construct, and most demographic variables showed no variance in the models. Significant differences were found for the Managing Conflict factor between teachers who taught grades K–2 and teachers who taught all elementary grades. Group differences on the Student-Centered and Positive Guidance factors were found between t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jon Wergin Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Carol Baron Ph.D. (Committee Member); James McMillan Ph.D. (Committee Member); Thomas Good Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Education; Educational Evaluation; Educational Leadership; Elementary Education; School Administration; Teaching

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Arts and Sciences : Psychology

Knowledge acquisition and change has long been argued to progress through sequential, qualitatively different developmental stages. Mounting evidence, in the form of performance variability on tasks in the balancing micro-domain, suggests that this explanation is not sufficient. This study employed two experiments using a balance beam task that examined three disparate manipulations: feedback, symmetry, and the frequency and variety of beams. Experiment I looked specifically at how performance varies as a function of whether feedback was allowed or visual symmetry cues were present. Findings in this experiment indicate that access to visual symmetry cues plays a role in performance. Experiment II considered the impact of frequency distribution and beam-variety. The findings of this experiment were inconclusive, as both the range and types of beams used varied between the groups. Nevertheless, results showed that specific experience during training sessions resulted in better performance with that same beam type in a subsequent test session.

Committee: Adelheid Kloos PhD (Committee Chair); Chung-Yiu Chiu PhD (Committee Member); Rhonda Douglas Brown PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2010, Geography

This thesis is informed by the literature on sustainable tourism development and homestay projects in various countries worldwide. The research problem in Dominica is that remote portions of the island that are far from the island's cruise ship ports are not receiving significant tourism income. This thesis examines the establishment, operation and successes to date of a community-based homestay project of which I was a key organizer in the remote village of Grand Fond. This homestay project acts to counter the inaccessibility to cruise tourism money while offering tourists a culturally authentic experience. The research is informed by an analysis of participant feedback from both hosts and visitors. Results show that the Grand Fond homestay project, while still in its infancy and fragile, is resilient, culturally positive, and brings tourism money into the village. It has also inspired homestay projects elsewhere on the island, and therefore helps to contribute much-needed funds to remote portions of Dominica.

Committee: Thomas Klak PhD (Committee Chair); Charles Stevens PhD (Committee Member); Robbyn Abbitt (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Educational Studies

The purpose of this study is to complete the first phase of development of the MDMA, a scale that will measure decision-making abilities among youth and young adults aged 5-30. While the scale can be used in a variety of settings, its specific goal is for use in juvenile transfer cases. There are currently no standardized assessments related to the Kent criteria, and the goal of this scale is to support objective determinations by judges and attorneys. For this study, the Delphi Method was used to gather expert opinions on the relevancy of each scale item. The researcher began by identifying experts and inviting them to participate in the survey. Next, the researcher employed two rounds of surveys using a Likert scale, along with qualitative feedback opportunities for each subscale. Following each of the two rounds of data collection, the researcher determined relevancy by identifying which items had at least 70% consensus with no more than 15% disagreement. This study extended the available literature and processes used in juvenile transfer cases in the following ways: (a) identify the dimensions within the construct of “decision-making;” (b) determine the optimal method of measuring these dimensions; (c) create scale items that measure each of the identified dimensions and connect them to the Kent criteria; and (d) summarize uses for this scale. Limitations of the study, directions for future research, and implications for practitioners are discussed.

Committee: Kisha Radliff (Advisor); Laurice Joseph (Committee Member); Scott Graves (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Psychology; Law; Legal Studies; Psychology

Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2024, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Autism spectrum condition (ASC) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by a spectrum of neuropsychological and behavioral impairments ranging from mild to severe. Formal diagnostic assessments primarily rely on a comprehensive evaluation of behavioral and developmental factors. However, the self-report assessments currently used have limitations which threaten the scales' reliability and validity. The purpose of this study was to develop and assess the psychometric properties of the Autism Spectrum Trait Scale (ASTS), a new self-report scale developed to detect ASC in adults. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (n = 764) was conducted to develop the factor structure, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (n = 754) was performed to determine model fit. The results indicated a stable six-factor model with good model fit, metric measurement invariance, and relatively high sensitivity and specificity. These findings provide evidence for the utilization of the ASTS as a component of assessment for ASC in adults.

Committee: Amir Poreh (Committee Chair); Kathleen Reardon (Committee Co-Chair); Elizabeth Goncy (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Psychology

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2023, Human Factors and Industrial/Organizational Psychology MS

Sexual harassment continues to be an important area of study. However, there's a dearth of research regarding sexual harassment towards others that considers sex, gender, and sexual orientation. Previous research has suggested that gender harassment and heterosexist harassment are intertwined (Leskinen & Cortina, 2014), but little research has examined how the empirical and conceptual overlap of gender harassment and heterosexist harassment could allude to a more general construct, norm violation sexual harassment. Norm violation sexual harassment is an overarching construct focusing on norm violations rather than sex, gender, or sexual orientation specifically. Using two samples, my study demonstrates evidence for the unidimensional construct of norm violation sexual harassment. Moreover, I developed the norm violation sexual harassment scale (NVSHS), providing evidence for reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and its usefulness over the SHP. Therefore, the NVSHS should be considered in future harassment work and studied further to provide additional validation evidence.

Committee: Corey E. Miller Ph.D. (Advisor); Debra Steele-Johnson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Nathan A. Bowling Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2023, Industrial/Organizational Psychology (Arts and Sciences)

Leaders have been identified as having an important role in the employee well-being process, as a result, “healthy leadership” has emerged as a research domain that includes several constructs based on the concept of leaders protecting and promoting the well-being of their followers (Caplan, 1987, Rudolph et al., 2020). Within this domain, there are conceptual and empirical challenges that obscure the distinction between healthy leadership and other leadership domains. The present study developed a comprehensive definition of healthy leadership, as well as created and validated a measure of healthy leadership. This study also examined the utility of healthy leadership beyond other leadership domains. Data were collected from full-time employees (n = 635). The incremental validity results indicate that the newly developed measure of healthy leadership explained a limited amount of additional variance for some well-being outcomes beyond other leadership domains. Further examinations are needed to identify if healthy leadership is a unique form of leadership. The theoretical and practical implications for this study, as well as future directions, are discussed.

Committee: Peggy Zoccola (Committee Chair); Ryan Johnson (Committee Member); Kimberly Rios (Committee Member); Lindsay Dhanani (Committee Member); Jeffrey Vancouver (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2023, Industrial/Organizational Psychology (Arts and Sciences)

Over the past several decades, there has been a gradual increase in the number of faculty of color in the academy. However, no data on LGBT+ identity among faculty are widely available. While research exists on occupational stressors among faculty (e.g., pressures to publish, student course evaluations), less quantitative work has investigated stressors for faculty who hold identities where discrimination exists at the intersection of their race, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity (i.e., intersectional stressors). Therefore, the primary aim of this research was to develop the Faculty Intersectionality Stressors Scale (FISS), which measures the frequency and perceived intensity of stressors among LGBT+ faculty of color. Additional aims were to determine if FISS could differentiate between stressors in the two data collection groups: a target group of LGBT+ faculty of color and a comparison group of cisgender heterosexual White faculty. Next, two aims centered the use of contextual variables to understand, for example, how FISS scores varied across institution types, geographic regions of the United States, and tenure status. Data were collected, using an online survey, from 208 participants in the target group and 95 participants in the comparison group. It was hypothesized that a 5-factor structure would exist when measuring disrespect displayed by students, research discredit by colleagues, identity-based service commitments and mentorship responsibilities, and bullying across three levels of the positional hierarchy (students, colleagues, administrators). Exploratory factor analysis revealed a 7-factor solution that was closely aligned to the hypothesized factors, whereby academic disrespect was split into identity and non-identity stressors and academic bullying was split into stressors based on the positionality of the bully (i.e., student versus colleagues/administrators). The remaining three factors aligned with the hypothesized structure: research (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Peggy Zoccola Ph.D. (Advisor) Subjects: Psychology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Counselor Education

Traditional or hegemonic masculinity (i.e., the normative cultural expectations for men as defined by the dominant group) has been identified as key influence on men's mental health and service use. Whereas past efforts have approached masculinity from a deficit-focused perspective, recent research suggests the presence of positively perceived components of masculinity that protect against risky health practices as well as facilitate health-promoting attitudes. Among the most widely used masculinity scales, content that is positively perceived and linked to positive health outcomes appears under-represented. In this dissertation, items identified as typical of American males and perceived as positive were adapted to develop the Positive Masculinity Scale (PMS). Using exploratory structural equation modeling, initial evidence was found for a general factor of positively perceived masculinity in an online sample of males (n = 635) and in an independent online sample (nmales = 823 and nfemales = 570). Excellent scale reliability suggested total scores were useful and evidence of scalar invariance suggested they could be compared across the two samples, the sexes, disability statuses, and ethnicities. Among males, general positive masculinity had a complex web of associations with other constructs—positively perceived masculinity was linked to both positive (e.g., lower negative self-esteem) and negative (e.g., lower preventive care use) health-related outcomes. The same was true of traditional masculinity facets, as measured by the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI). Future research can identify the mechanisms connecting masculine traits to negative health-related outcomes, thereby laying the groundwork for interventions that leverage positively perceived masculine traits to improve health while minimizing complications.

Committee: George Richardson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Mei Tang Ph.D. (Committee Member); Joseph Nedelec Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Mental Health

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Psychology/Industrial-Organizational

Language understanding plays a crucial role in psychological measurement and so it is important that semantic cues should be studied for more effective and accurate measurement practices. With advancements in computer science, natural language processing (NLP) techniques have emerged as efficient methods for analyzing textual data and have been used to improve psychological measurement. This dissertation investigates the application of NLP embeddings to address fundamental methodological challenges in psychological measurement, specifically scale development and validation. In Study 1, a word embedding-based approach was used to develop a corporate personality measure, which resulted in a three-factor solution closely mirroring three dimensions out of the Big Five framework (i.e., Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness). This research furthers our conceptual understanding of corporate personality by identifying similarities and differences between human and organizational personality traits. In Study 2, the sentence-based embedding model was applied to predict empirical pairwise item response relationships, comparing its performance with human ratings. This study also demonstrated the effectiveness of fine-tuned NLP models for classifying item pair relationships into trivial/low or moderate/high empirical relationships, which provides preliminary validity evidence without collecting human responses. The research seeks to enhance psychological measurement practices by leveraging NLP techniques, fostering innovation and improved understanding in the field of social sciences.

Committee: Michael Zickar Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Neil Baird Ph.D. (Other); Richard Anderson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Samuel McAbee Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychological Tests; Psychology; Quantitative Psychology

Honors Theses, Ohio Dominican University, 2023, Honors Theses

This paper describes the process of development and evaluation of an open educational resource (OER) e-module on the Central Limit Theorem written for an Introductory Statistics college-level course. The purpose of this project is two-fold. First, the e-module bridges the knowledge gap between introductory topics and Hypothesis Testing – one of the most challenging concepts in Statistics. Second, the project focuses on developing tools that allow instructors to analyze the effectiveness of the module and reveal student patterns of interaction with the platform. The overall goal of the project is to improve the quality of open educational resources, provide students/instructors with additional study materials in response to rising cost for textbooks and higher education, and provide more data for further research on student behavior while interacting with e-textbooks. The interactive e-module was developed using LaTeX markup language and Overleaf editor, uploaded to the XIMERA platform and tested on two sections of MTH 140, a college-level Statistics course. Once the experiment has been performed and the data collected, the results were analyzed using Python programming language. As a result of the study, some tools for analysis of user data have been developed, and an OER has been created.

Committee: Anna Davis (Advisor); John Marazita (Committee Chair); Kristall Day (Committee Member); Lawrence Masek (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science; Education; Mathematics; Psychology; Statistics

PHD, Kent State University, 2023, College of Nursing

Family members and close friends of ICU patients receiving mechanical ventilation often sit helpless at the bedside. Participation in care of their loved one may improve adaptation to the stressful situation and better prepare them for caregiving after discharge. The primary aim of this study was to develop and test the psychometric properties of the Family Willingness for Caregiving Scale (FWCS). The impetus for scale development was the lack of a valid instrument to measure caregiver willingness of family members for the ICU patient. The Facilitated Sensemaking Model (FSM) and adapted Psychosocial Assessment Model (PAM) provided the theoretical foundation for the FWCS which was developed after a review of the literature and construction of a concept analysis of caregiver willingness. The process followed DeVellis' eight step method for scale development over three phases of study. In phase one, 10 content experts examined the FWCS to evaluate content validity. Subsequently, the scale was revised based on item content validity index (I-CVI) scores and expert feedback. In phase 2, a small group of family members evaluated the FWCS for face validity which confirmed the scale was easy for the target population to understand. In phase 3, the FWCS was administered to a sample of family members who were currently visiting an ICU patient. The internal consistency reliability of the scale was .95. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a one-factor structure comprising both nursing and emotional/supportive care tasks. The secondary aim, to examine differences in caregiver willingness based on demographic variables, revealed a significant difference based on gender; women reported higher willingness than men. Further testing of the FWCS should be conducted using a larger sample and additional methods to establish construct validity such as convergent validity or known group differences. After further refinement, the FWCS could be used to evaluate factors that contribute to ca (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Amy Petrinec (Committee Co-Chair); Christopher Was (Committee Member); Dana Hansen (Committee Member); Pamela Stephenson (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Nursing

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Psychology

The population of the United States is rapidly aging, and the number of Americans shouldering the burdens of providing informal care to aging family members is climbing steadily (National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2016). In response to mounting evidence that family caregivers of individuals with dementia face unique challenges, researchers have tested dozens of interventions designed to meet the specific needs of this population (Maslow, 2012). Although evidence-based dementia caregiver interventions generally produce significant benefits to participants (Brodaty et al., 2003; Laver et al., 2017; Vandepitte et al., 2016), very few caregivers have opportunities to access them. One significant barrier to the dissemination of evidence-based services to caregivers in the community is a lack of clarity about how best to assess individual needs and circumstances relevant to selecting evidence-based interventions (Bangerter et al., 2017; Mansfield et al., 2017). With this project, we used a two-phase mixed-methodological research design to develop and validate a self-reported assessment of dementia caregivers' unmet needs for use in clinical settings. Common factor analysis revealed a bifactor structure with a general factor and five specific factors (i.e., Leisure Difficulties, Grief Difficulties, Caregiving Difficulties, Emotional Difficulties, Physical Health Difficulties) that best fit the data. Scores on these subscales were internally consistent and were related to scores on existing validated instruments of caregiver burden, social functioning, impacts of caregiving, psychological well-being, and physical health. Strengths of this project include our focus on utilizing gold-standard scale development procedures throughout the multi-phase design. Future researchers should investigate the effectiveness of using this measure to match caregivers to current evidence-based interventions.

Committee: Jennifer Cheavens (Advisor); Holly Dabelko-Shoeny (Committee Member); Paulus De Boeck (Committee Member); Daniel Strunk (Committee Member) Subjects: Gerontology; Psychological Tests; Psychology

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2022, Leadership and Change

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the Kingdom of Bahrain (KB) are currently in the process of the rapid transformation of health care to a self-sustained autonomous system. Middle managers play a pivotal role in achieving this goal. The aim of this study is to develop a feasible, reliable, and valid scale for measuring the leadership and managerial competencies of MM in KSA and KB. Zhou's (2019) conceptual framework using a mixed-method approach was followed. After procuring ethical clearance from concerned authorities and informed consent from all the participants (n = 27), semi-structured interviews were conducted across three groups: Top Management (TM), Middle Management comprising of Middle Managers (MM), and Lower Management (LM) for the creation of items for the scale, which were later approved by five experts. Two hundred two participants from medical education (ME) and health care (HC) responded to the new scale. Cronbach's alpha and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were performed to confirm internal consistency and validity. The model fit was adequate with a good GFI (0.90), TLI (0.96), and RMSEA (0.06). Seven major themes emerged from the thematic analysis, while a structural model with three inter-related constructs—“professionalism and problem solving,” “team management and adaptation,” and “time management and expertise” were recognized based on factor analysis. Both TM and LM identified the ability to motivate (70.8%) as comprising one of the most significant characteristics of MM. TM also indicated that concern and consideration of subordinates (68.8%) were important. LM considered being active (71.6%) as important for MM. Interestingly, MM had scored these attributes lower, illustrating the different ways in which MM is perceived across the three levels of management. Importantly, MM acknowledged concern for employee well-being, relationship, communication, and being active as crucial competencies, representing a mix of all competenc (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elizabeth Holloway PhD (Committee Chair); Beth Mabry PhD (Committee Member); Reginald Sequeira PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Health Care; Health Care Management; Health Education; Management; Medicine; Public Health

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Psychology/Industrial-Organizational

Dispositional Algorithm Aversion (DAA) is presented as the preference for expert judgment over mechanical judgment. Previous research suggests that the DAA measure is a reliable and potentially valid measure of this disposition (Melick, 2020). The present research examines the criterion-related validity of the DAA measure for predicting algorithm averse behavior. Participants (N = 500) were presented with self-report measures of DAA, personality, risk propensity, and decision style as well as basic demographic questions. Two weeks later, they were asked to engage in a college grade point average (GPA) prediction task for which they may tie their incentive to predictions made by either an algorithm or an admissions officer. Results indicate that DAA was positively related to preference for the admissions advisor over the algorithm (r = .14) and that DAA predicted algorithm-averse behavior over and above personality, risk propensity, and decision style.

Committee: Scott Highhouse Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Eric Dubow Ph.D. (Committee Member); Margaret Brooks Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jill Zeilstra-Ryalls Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2021, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

The APA's 2017 multicultural guidelines task psychologists with the aspirational goal of understanding the nuances of historical and contemporary systems of power, privilege, and oppression. Scholars such as Helms (1984) demonstrated the critical need to readjust psychology's focus from oppressed groups to privileged groups. In her seminal 1988 article, McIntosh insisted that in order to “redesign social systems,” privileged groups must first acknowledge their “unseen dimensions” (p. 1). Similarly, Black and Stone (2005) and Johnson (2018) asserted the lack of social privilege awareness is part of American culture, which helps to maintain the invisibility of privilege and the status quo of oppression. Since then, educators such as Case (2013) have argued that increased awareness of social privilege can shed light on and address the status quo of systemic and structural oppression. While instruments that measure constructs related to social privilege currently exist, psychology's understanding of these constructs has been growing. Bergkamp et al. (2020) created a developmental social privilege integration model (DSPIM), which captures the growing definition of social privilege awareness by introducing the concept of social privilege integration. Based on the current literature, this study's objective was to construct items for a new developmental social privilege integration scale that will address the limitations of existing measures. This study hopes to contribute to the field of psychology as well as the general community by aiding in the accurate measurement of social privilege integration to better address systems of oppression in the future.

Committee: Jude Bergkamp PsyD (Committee Chair); Michael J. Toohey PhD (Committee Member); Paula K. Miller-Buckner PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Psychology; Social Research

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2021, Human Factors and Industrial/Organizational Psychology MS

Researchers previously gave considerable attention to role overload as a predictor of employee health, job attitudes, and behavior. However, the validity and conceptualization of role overload measures have been questioned and show inconsistent results. In response to the issues with role overload measures, the researcher developed a new measure of total role overload, consisting of two work related dimensions, qualitative and quantitative. These dimensions were crossed with “data people and things” to provide diagnostic ability and one non-work-related dimension of family role overload to contextualize the individual's life. The researcher conducted three studies to examine the psychometric qualities of the new scale. Across these three studies, it was demonstrated that the new role overload scale had desirable psychometric qualities including that it displayed higher levels of substantive validity than previous versions, had high levels of internal consistency, produced an interpretable four factor structure, and evidence of construct validity was found.

Committee: Nathan Bowling Ph.D. (Advisor); David Lahuis Ph.D. (Committee Member); Corey Miller Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

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.

Committee: Debra Steele-Johnson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Nathan Bowling Ph.D. (Committee Member); David LaHuis Ph.D. (Committee Member); Valerie Shalin Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Organizational Behavior; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2020, Clinical Psychology (Arts and Sciences)

Research on the measurement of youth irritability lacks consensus, and there is need to address the underdeveloped literature on clinical assessment of the tonic (i.e., persistent irritable/angry mood) and phasic (i.e., temper outbursts) components of irritability. Currently, no measure has been developed or validated that assesses tonic/phasic irritability, which presents concerns with existing evidence related to the assessment and treatment of youth irritability. The current study developed and provided initial psychometric support for a parent-report, dimensional rating scale of irritability using empirically-supported steps to scale development. Mothers of children ages 6-12 (N = 397) were recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and completed items measuring tonic/phasic irritability and related problems. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) derived a 22-item, two-factor scale that demonstrated excellent reliability and showed convergent validity with other measures of child psychological problems. The ability for tonic and phasic irritability to differentially predict outcomes was not supported, and evidence for using the scale as a screening tool was mixed. These results provided, to my knowledge, support for the first tonic/phasic irritability scale and have important implications for research and practice related to youth irritability.

Committee: Brian Wymbs PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Psychology