Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Behavioral process'

Each year millions of people face the medical decision-making cycle that comes with a diagnosis of cancer. For patients and their families, this can be a rollercoaster of confusion and fear. Researchers have indicated that the complexity of the decision-making process is underrepresented in the current approach of informed decision-making. The purpose of this study was to add to scientifically-validated research expanding the identification of factors that influence decision-making for individuals diagnosed with cancer. Fuzzy trace theory (FTT) is the dual process memory theory used as the framework for this study. Qualitative data were collected using semistructured interviews with 10 participants. The sampling strategy included purposeful sampling and snowball or chain sampling. The audio-recorded interviews were transcribed and analyzed. Software tools were used to aid in the creation of word mapping and clusters and a naming structure emerged. A comprehensive thematic analysis was completed. Participants detailed experiences with family and social dynamics, psychological or emotional stress, external influencing factors to the decision-making process, and experiences with cancer advertising. This research can create positive social change through the advancement of scientifically-validated research to support patients during the decision-making process.

Conjoint behavioral consultation, an extension of traditional behavioral consultation, is a relatively new model of structured problem-solving. No published study exists that systematically examines the relationship between process and outcome variables in CBC. In an effort to expand on the process-outcome research in traditional behavioral consultation, a relational communication perspective was adopted to examine the presence of relational control in CBC and its relationship to outcomes. CBC was initiated for 20 clients who were elementary and middle school students identified as having a disability such as behavioral or learning disorders. Consultants were 16 advanced graduate students trained in CBC, and consultees were 23 school-based professionals and 20 parents. Consultant, teacher, and parent control was measured within the Conjoint Problem Identification Interview of each case using the Family Relational Communication Control Coding System (Heatherington & Friedlander, 1987). This coding system, an extension of the Rogers and Farace (1975) Relational Coding System, allows for patterns of relational control regarding the process of consultation to be examined. For each speaker, two measures of relational control were calculated, domineeringness and dominance. Domineeringness is the number of one-up messages by speaker A divided by the total number of messages for speaker A. Dominance is the number of one-up messages by speaker A responded to with one-down messages by speaker B. Outcomes were assessed at the conclusion of CBC regarding the acceptability of CBC, consultant effectiveness, and client improvement. Correlational results suggest that parent control (i.e., dominance) toward the consultant is associated with less favorable teacher ratings regarding model acceptability, r(19) = -49, p = .01, and less favorable parent ratings of client improvement, r(14) = -61, p = .01. Additionally, parent-to-teacher control was associated with less favorable parent ratings of client improvement, r(14) = -58, p = .01. In contrast to behavioral consultation's focus on teacher behavior, the results of this study suggest that greater importance should be paid to parent relational control with respect to outcomes of CBC.

This dissertation explores a gap in understanding about how hiring managers determine whether an ex-offender job applicant passes or fails a selection and hiring process based on their subjective evaluations of the applicant. The research question posed was how do hiring managers describe the process of considering ex-offender job applicants? A grounded theory design was selected to answer the research question so that a concept, model, and/or theory could be developed. The larger population for this dissertation research included hiring managers within organizations residing in the state of Oregon. The sample was recruited from publicly available Chamber of Commerce directories, and consisted of eight voluntary participants from five small businesses who had varied experiences with considering ex-offender applicants for employment. These experiences were analyzed using systematic grounded theory data analysis techniques to develop a theory. The proposed theory explains the concepts and processes that participants used when evaluating an ex-offender applicant for employment and includes 32 detailed concepts and considerations for hiring decisions model. The model explains how participants weighed applicant offense history, severity of crime, and job position requirements when evaluating an applicant. The proposed theory contains three phases, which include a hiring manager’s worldview concerning ex-offenders, such as a belief that employing ex-offenders is a service to the community that reduces crime; a hiring manager’s cognitive and psychological processes related to recruitment, selection, and integration of ex-offenders into his or her organization; and the primary phase where the decision undergoes additional scrutiny when the applicant is an ex-offender. Movement through these phases appeared to assist participants in arriving at a decision to hire or not hire an ex-offender applicant. Further research is suggested to test and refine the proposed theory and its components.

The present dissertation comprises four empirical studies within the area of behavioral treatment of panic disorder with agoraphobia. The focus is on studying issues pertaining to outcome, treatment process and determinants of change. The first study is a randomized controlled treatment study of 73 patients undergoing 16 sessions of either exposure in vivo (E), or cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Both treatments showed clear improvements at post-treatment that were well maintained at 1-year follow up, and there were no significant differences between the treatments.

The second study concerned prediction of outcome in the same sample. From a variety of pre-treatment characteristics severity of avoidance was the one most related to outcome. Most predictors were found unrelated. Two approaches of prediction were also compared: treating outcome as a categorical vs. continuous variable. The different approaches yielded a somewhat dissimilar picture of the impact of pre-treatment severity of avoidance. The third study examined different aspects of the therapeutic relationship, and their relation to outcome. Clients’ perceptions of therapists and their ratings of the working alliance were generally not related to outcome at any point. On the other hand, therapists’ perceptions of patients as showing goal-direction and active participation were related to outcome from early on in therapy. The fourth study examined different aspects of change. It was found that change in indices of the frequency of panic attacks was not closely related to change in agoraphobic avoidance at post-treatment. Change in avoidance was also more related to other aspects of outcome. At one-year follow-up, a more unitary picture, regarding the different aspects of change was observed.

There are limitations to traditional methods of capturing the dynamics of violent interactions. These limitations are due to outcome driven approaches, data sampling issues, and inadequate means to capture, express, and explore the complexity of behavioral processes. To address these challenges, it is proposed that “violent offending” be re-framed as an emergent feature of a complex adaptive social system. This dissertation abstracts and computationally implements a theoretical framework that forms the basis of a complex social simulation of the violent offending process. The primary outcome of this effort is a viable synthetic offender that emerges from simulated interactions between potential offenders (subjects) and potential victims (targets) within an environment. The results of calibrating this model to a real-world murder series are discussed, as well as, the comparison metrics used to assess goodness-of-fit of simulated and real-world event-sites. A synthetic offender promises valuable insights into individual offending trajectories, offender tactical processes, and the emergence of geospatial and temporal behaviors. Furthermore, this approach is capable of reproducing the violent offending process with sufficient detail to contribute new scientific understanding and insights to criminology and the social sciences.

Since the reauthorization of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1997 and then later, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act in 2004, students that display behaviors that impede learning require that a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) be conducted for the development of a behavior plan that is focused on Positive Behavior Support (PBS) strategies. The traditional FBA measures and analyzes environmental variables that trigger problem behaviors; however, it does not measure adaptive academic behavior skills that are needed for academic success in the classroom environment. This study’s literature review examines the reasons for incorporating a strength-based model for measuring academic behaviors for a more comprehensive analysis of a student’s strengths as well as deficits. Adaptive/academic behavior skill measurements are also appropriate for identifying and teaching replacement skills. This study examined an academic behavior tool that helps educators to identify both the student’s adaptive academic behavior strengths as well as behavior deficits during the FBA process. In addition, psychometric properties for the statistical relationships between behavior variables were measured for consistency, standardization, and better overall assistance for the classroom educator.

The findings of this analysis support that the psychometrics properties of the academic behavior assessment tool meets the measurements for a reliable and valid tool. The Alpha Cronbach Reliability test measured .96. The principle components factor analysis with a varimax rotation was measured. The factor analysis identified the connections between the studies demographic variables, and the relationship that existed amongst the 25 survey items of the tool. The eigenvalues greater than 1.0 resulted in a four-factor solution that accounted for 69.81% of the variance. Given that the first factor was six times or more times larger than any other factor, a decision to retain only one factor and retain all 25 items to create a total score.

Based on the psychometric measurements of this study, this academic behavior assessment tool possibly will help classroom educators address problem behaviors by identifying the appropriate replacement skills needed for the development of the BIP, interventions, and the FBA process. Additional findings suggest that, used as a screening tool, it may identify skill deficits with preschool-aged children, primary students, special education, and the RtI model, to connect both the academic and behavioral components needed to be taught for academic success.