Doctor of Organization Development & Change (D.O.D.C.), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Organization Development

The purpose of this dissertation was twofold; first to advance the Use of Self (UoS) construct by examining the dimensions of UoS, then to develop an instrument for people to self-assess how they view and use themselves in the workplace. The validity and reliability of the Use of Self Survey Instrument (UoS-SI) were analyzed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and reliability analysis. A preliminary EFA was conducted using principal component analysis with a Promax rotation method which supported the three factor-structure of the instrument. The three dimensions of Self-Awareness, Situational Awareness, and Intentional Action were comprised of 55 initial items that were reduced to 33 (eleven per factor) after the items that did not load, cross-loaded, or were substantially the same as another item that loaded higher were removed. The final three-factor structure was run using PCA as the extraction method with a Promax rotation method with the remaining 33 items. The resulting structure loaded cleanly with the three factors of Self-Awareness, Situational Awareness, and Intentional Action, explaining 53.09% of the variance in the relationship patterns of the items and the factors correlating at r > .51. This supports the assertion that the three factors are part of the larger UoS construct, while also being unique and highly reliable with Cronbach alphas a >.90. This also supports that the UoS-SI is a valid and reliable instrument. This research is important because it further extends the empirical evidence on UoS and contributes to the body of knowledge within organizational contexts. Much of the UoS literature focuses on helping-type professions and specifically in the therapy and Organization Development & Change (OD&C) fields. However, little empirical research has been conducted on UoS and there is no known research on how professionals outside of these helping disciplines in organizations use UoS in the workplace. Addressing this limitation is importa (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Steven Cady Ph.D (Committee Chair); Jari Willing Ph.D (Other); David Jamieson Ph.D (Committee Member); Colleen Boff Ed.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Management; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Personal Relationships; Social Research

PHD, Kent State University, 2023, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Lifespan Development and Educational Sciences

This quantitative research sought to answer two questions: (a) What is the factor structure of emic and etic constructs?; and (b) How much do the extracted factors explain the variance of emic and etic constructs within the survey? These questions were answered through the use of an exploratory factor analysis. A total of 294 counselors participated in a survey through Qualtrics. The survey consisted of statements which participants either agreed or disagreed on a 6-point Likert scale. The statements consisted of multicultural counseling behaviors. An exploratory factor analysis produced a three-factor solution. The first factor, which accounted for 24.02% of the total variance was labeled as the Counseling Relationship. The Counseling Relationship had an eigenvalue of 6.00. Factor loadings for the Counseling Relationship ranged from λ = .49 to λ = .89. The Counseling Relationship scale consists of six items. The second factor, which accounted for 11.69% of the total variance, was labeled as Emic. Emic had an eigenvalue of 2.92. Factor loadings for Emic ranged from λ = .43 to λ = .61. The Emic scale consists of 11 items. The third factor, which accounted for 8.19% of the total variance, was labeled as Etic. Etic had an eigenvalue of 2.05. Factor loadings for Etic ranged from λ = .41 to λ = .69. The Etic scale consists of seven items.

Committee: Jason McGlothlin (Committee Chair); Sonya Wisdom (Committee Member); Marty Jencius (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Counseling Education

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2016, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

Capacity building has become the centerpiece of recent attempts to strengthen regional biodiversity conservation. Many conservation organizations aim to increase this capacity by training local conservation professionals. While many practitioners will agree that these trainings presumably have a psychological effect on their participants that may benefit long-term local action toward conservation goals, there also seems to be a resignation that these effects are difficult if not impossible to measure and target, especially within diverse cultures. The common result is a perfunctory evaluation of observable behaviors or basic knowledge, which may be easy to count but undoubtedly fails to represent the nuance of complex psychological variables associated with long-term capacity to conserve biodiversity. My dissertation is fundamentally aimed at investigating capacity for biodiversity conservation at this psychological level. Specifically, I explored the current understanding of capacity for biodiversity conservation and how this understanding can be supplemented by psychological theory to strengthen the development, evaluation, and prediction of this capacity over time. I did this within the context of case studies that focus on three separate populations of conservation professionals who participated in capacity building trainings in Africa and North America between 1994 and 2014. I administered surveys to these conservation professionals to create and validate an instrument that measures the construct I call psychological capacity for biodiversity conservation (PCBC). PCBC includes psychological dimensions such as meaningful ownership, effective autonomy, being needed, group effectiveness, and understanding. I administered the PCBC survey instrument to training alumni and conducted interviews with their trainers to the evaluate the effectiveness of the capacity building methods at increasing PCBC directly after and two to ten years after a training. I found that mea (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Carol Saunders Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Beth Kaplin Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Raymond De Young Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jean Kayira Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Education; Environmental Studies; Psychological Tests; Psychology