Individual Learning In Team Training: Self-Regulation And Team Context Effects

Although many analysts recognize that team-level learning is reliant on the acquisition of learning content by individuals, very little research has examined individual-level learning during team training. In a sample of 70 teams (N = 380) that participated in a simulation-based team training setting designed to teach strategic decision-making, we examined how self-regulation during team training influenced the extent to which team members subsequently demonstrated individual mastery of the team training content. We also investigated the extent to which team characteristics moderated the relationships between self-regulation and learning outcomes. Multilevel mediation results indicated that self-efficacy fully mediated the effects of metacognition, or self-monitoring of learning, on individual declarative and procedural knowledge of team training content. The results also revealed that these individual-level relationships were moderated by the team context. In particular, a team’s overall performance and quality of cooperation amplified the positive effects of individual self-regulation. Implications for team training research and practice are discussed

When Sex Doesn't Sell - Political Scandals, Culture, and Media Coverage in the States

The determinants of media coverage of political scandals are examined through a content analysis of AP Wire stories in ten states from 1998 to 2005. Tests of the conventional explanations of the amount of media coverage demonstrate that political culture, institutional factors, and the prominence of the officials involved matter, but find only mixed evidence that scandal severity is an important factor. Contrary to assumptions, sexual scandals do not generate more media coverage than other types of exposés

Breast Self-Examination Among College-Aged Females: An Intervention Study

Although 95% of women report awareness of recommendations to perform monthly breast self-examinations (BSEs), only about 17-36% of women conduct BSEs regularly. This study investigated whether combining Motivational Interviewing (MI) and a Health Belief Model-based (HBM) intervention would promote BSE behaviors. Thirty-three females were randomly assigned to a HBM-based psychoeducational intervention using MI (PE/MI; n = 17) or a no-treatment control group (n = 16). Together, the HBM constructs predicted intentions to engage in BSE. Also, results indicated that the PE/MI participants reported significantly greater self-efficacy, awareness of BSE cues, and intentions, to conduct monthly BSE at posttest than control participants. The groups did not differ on other HBM constructs. Overall, results indicate that MI appears to be a promising strategy for promoting BSE

Housing Policy and the Underclass debate: Policy Choices and Implications (1900-1970)

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The Opportunity Gap: Rural Gifted Students Left Behind

This study looks at the opportunity gap in identification, opportunities, financial resources, and learning outcomes due to the contexts of urban versus rural districts. Results revealed significant differences in the percent of students identified, opportunities available in the district, financial resources, and learning outcomes for gifted students among urban and rural school districts. Urban school districts have distinct advantages with more students identified compared to their ADM, more opportunities and financial resources for gifted students, and more students in the AIG subgroup scoring level 5’s on the North Carolina EOG and EOC tests than rural districts. The study found significant correlations between opportunities and learning outcomes; financial resources and percent of students identified; financial resources and opportunities; and financial resources and learning outcomes. The higher percentage of opportunities available or the greater the financial resources the more level 5’s scored by the AIG subgroup. The more financial resources the more opportunities and percent of students identified. There are implications of inequities in identification and opportunities. The use of local norms or elimination of test-based identification and a move to MTSS for identification is proposed. To equalize opportunities without more funding, authentic differentiation, acceleration, and individualized learning through MTSS is suggested

Wilderness Imagery in the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM): A Phenomenological Perspective

The author employed phenomenological methodology to examine clients’ experiences of wilderness imagery in music psychotherapy sessions utilizing the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM). GIM is a music-centered approach to psychotherapy in which the client engages with spontaneously generated imagery while listening to specially selected programs of music from the Western classical canon. The resultant imagery provides the basis for therapeutic experiences. Client experiences at times include imagery of wilderness. Due to the conflicting and at times contradictory ways of defining wilderness, the author utilized a broad definition: that which is primarily nonhuman. Three individuals with whom the researcher had conducted at least four GIM sessions prior to the study participated. Each participant engaged in a semi-structured interview focused on their experiences of wilderness imagery in one session of their choosing. Twelve themes emerged from these interviews: The experiences involved extraordinary interactions with wilderness images, and events felt both unexpected and predetermined. The degree of agency felt in choice-events was important to their experiences. Wilderness imagery provided both support and challenges for the participants. There was a sense of openness and expansiveness, as well as continuity of affect, associations, feelings, or images through shifting settings or images. Each participant became wilderness images, yet there was a sense of separateness. Wilderness was accompanied by energy sensations, and wilderness contained that which they needed. Wilderness images were experienced as analogs to waking life. Finally, the full meaning of these experiences continued to emerge over time. These themes illustrated complementarity in the participants’ experiences of wilderness imagery. This way of understanding incongruent or opposing qualities, experiences, or beliefs provides a more integrative alternative to the idea of paradox in therapy. Additionally, their experiences pointed to an alternative organizational system in wilderness that tended to be nonlinear and unpredictable

Collective Action and the Mobilization of Institutions

Bias in the composition of interest communities is often explained by reference to variations in the collective action constraint facing voluntary and nonvoluntary organizations. But with the exception of literature on PAC formation, studies of direct institutional mobilization are rare. More often than not, their mobilization advantages vis-à-vis problems of collective action are simply assumed. This paper fills this gap by testing the collective action hypothesis on direct institutional mobilization. We argue that the PAC studies are flawed as tests of this hypothesis; they study the wrong mode of political activity and use selective samples and limited research designs. We develop a new test using state data on seven types of institutions to solve these problems. We also compare the collective action problem facing institutions to the related problems facing voluntary organizations. We find strong evidence of collective action problems in institutional mobilization, problems that make interest populations of nonvoluntary and voluntary organizations appear far more similar than commonly thought

An Investigation Of The Fundamentals And Mechanics Of Individual And Team Man For Man Defensive Techniques And Principles

It is the purpose of this study (1) to establish the qualities and attitudes for a good defensive player; (2) to investigate the mechanics of individual defensive movements; (3) to examine the variations of the man-for-man defense; and (4) to establish sound coverage of the opponent at the different offensive positions. The major emphasis of this study will be placed on sound defensive coverage as it relates to many game developing situations

Influence Of Interstitial Sediments On An Endangered Freshwater Mussel Population

Erosion and transport of sediment and associated pollutants to rivers and other aquatic systems is among the most commonly-reported yet poorly-understood water quality stressors. Freshwater mussels are benthic invertebrates that spend much of their lives buried within sand and gravel substrates but appear to be sensitive to changes in concentrations of fine sediments associated with anthropogenic activities. I examined the role of sedimentation associated with a highway expansion project on an Appalachian elktoe (Alasmidonta raveneliana) mussel population in the South Toe River in western North Carolina. I compiled abundance data, used freeze cores to extract and quantify interstitial substrate and conducted field and lab experiments using juvenile mussels in order to better understand the degree to which sediment composition affects mussel population size as well as juvenile growth and survival. The data I gathered suggest road construction may be contributing to Appalachian elktoe declines in the South Toe River but the mechanism does not appear to be direct impacts of fine sediments. Instead, the impacts of fine sediments are likely sub-lethal and may involve alteration of streambed microhabitats or exclusion of mussels from the hydraulic refugia that facilitate persistence in this high-gradient mountain stream

A Nuclear Jihad: The Effects of Nuclear Weapons on Non-state Violence in the India-Pakistan Conflict

Nuclear weapons have been studied extensively in the literature, but seldom with a focus on their effects vis a vis non-state actors and levels of non-state violence. This paper proposes a systematic way to study just this, using the comparative method and a most-similar research design to uncover the role nuclear weapons have played in the India-Pakistan conflict. This study divides the conflict into three separate cases for cross-comparison: 1948-74, 1975-85, and 1986-2007. When rates of non-state violence are compared across the cases it becomes clear that nuclear weapons have precipitated a drastic rise in levels of non-state violence