The Social and Psychological Antecedents of Binge Drinking in a Student Population

Binge drinking has been identified as common place among student populations and due to its association with a number of negative consequences is generally considered to be problematic. This thesis adopts a mixed methods approach to the study of the binge drinking behaviour of undergraduate students at an English university, employing focus groups (N=6 groups), cross-sectional and prospective questionnaires (N= 117 and N= 300 respectively) to explore the antecedents of students’ alcohol use and binge drinking. The findings of the qualitative work demonstrate that students consider binge drinking to be drinking to get drunk and identify student drinking behaviour as highly social. A number of key alcohol related expectancies that may be perpetuating high alcohol use in this population also emerge from the data. These are interpreted as indicating that the application of social cognitive models to the study of these behaviours is appropriate. The quantitative studies support the application of the TPB to the prediction of student binge drinking behaviour showing that it accounts for between 51 and 63.3% of the variance in students’ intentions to binge drink and 34.7% of the variance in students’ self-reported binge drinking behaviour. However a number of expansions the TPB are shown to be effective with expanded models accounting for 69.6% of the variance in intentions to binge drink and 51.5% of the variance in self-reported binge drinking behaviour. Implications for further research, including replications of the suggested expanded model are discussed and potential applications to future intervention and prevention works are presented

Effects of coeducation on occupational, educational and social aspirations of adolescent girls

The sexual composition of the high school environment may have a significant effect on the educational and occupational aspirations of adolescent girls. Although the coeducational environment may provide adolescent girls with more opportunities for social encounters and development of social skills, it may not facilitate the maintenance of high educational and occupational aspirations among them. On the other hand, the emphasis in the same-sex all-girl high school may be academic rather than social. These girls are subject to a minimal amount of feminine-role conflict because they are not in direct competition with males. Same-sex peer influence may place emphasis on educational and occupational aspirations rather than popularity or other immediate social concerns

Mathematisation and Irish students: The ability of Irish second-level students to transfer mathematics from the classroom to solve authentic, real life problems.

This research considers the mathematical performance of Irish second-level students. The author considers the ability of Irish students to utilise the mathematics learned in a classroom situation to solve authentic, real-life problems. It is a mixed methods study involving testing, structured observations and semi-structured interviews. The research participants are Irish second-year, second-level mathematics students and grade 8 students from a school in the state of Massachusetts (both groups share a mean age of 13.5 years). The students from Massachusetts were involved solely at the testing stage of the data collection process in order to consider Irish performance with regard to mathematical performance from students in a different education system. The observed mathematics lessons provide a valuable insight into the teaching and learning practices used at second-level. The quantitative analysis of the classroom observations highlight patterns and learning theories used in the mathematics lessons observed with interesting results. Two tests were implemented: one traditional in format and based on the Irish Junior Certificate examination; the second consisting of an authentic scenario where students are asked to demonstrate their mathematical comprehension when faced with questions posed in an unfamiliar manner. Statistical analysis of both tests, using a two-sample t-test and a one-way ANOVA, provide the comparison techniques required to consider students performance and highlight various similarities and differences between the test results. The final stage in the data collection process involved semi-structured interviews with the mathematics teachers which provide qualitative data to enrich the findings from the quantitative aspects of the study. The findings provide an interesting insight into the ability of Irish students to solve mathematics when presented in a traditional, familiar context consisting of closed-ended questions compared with their ability to solve mathematical questions that are unfamiliar in style and consist of realistic, open-ended, messy questions. This study suggests that an ability to perform well in a traditional examination does not necessarily illustrate an ability to utilise the mathematics learned for examination success when faced with unfamiliar scenarios. The Irish students involved in this research performed at a significantly higher standard in the traditional test given compared with a lack-luster performance in the realistic test. The same pattern held true for the Massachusetts’ cohort; however the gap in performance between the two test types was considerably smaller for these students. An inability to utilise school-learned mathematics when solving real-life problems is a worrying phenomenon and the author hopes that this body of work will engage educators and policy makers in discussion, thus contributing to progress in this field

An Exploration of Contextual Factors of Weight-based Discrimination Against Business Leaders

Two-thirds of the adult population of the United States are considered overweight (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2013) and are susceptible to weight-based discrimination in the workplace (Rudolph, Wells, Weller, & Baltes, 2009). The weight-based discrimination experienced by business leaders is relatively unknown. The present research used Leader Categorization Theory (Lord & Maher, 1991) as a framework to examine the extent to which a business leader’s weight is associated with their perceived leadership qualities and effectiveness in two studies. The first study isolated the relationship between the base rate of weight in an organization and the assumed weight of the COO by verbally manipulating the weight distribution (normal weight and overweight) in the organization. The second study examined how leader gender and race as well as team performance affect perceptions of leaders in two weight categories: normal weight and overweight/obese. Combined, the results of these two studies provided evidence that a) weight-based discrimination of leaders exists, b) this discrimination is more prominent under conditions of stable and improving team performance, and c) women are more strongly penalized for their body size while race is not a significant factor. In addition to the novel exploration of identity intersectionality in leaders, this research has implications for both workplace diversity and discrimination interventions as well as leader performance evaluations

Invitation to Fun

An open fire, apples, popcorn, nuts and plenty of Christmas cheer are the chief ingredients for a successful holiday party. In front of the fireplace your old crowd who have been separated all fall at various schools can catch up on the town gossip and exchange campus notes

Mathematisation and Irish students: The ability of Irish second-level students to transfer mathematics from the classroom to solve authentic, real life problems.

This research considers the mathematical performance of Irish second-level students. The author considers the ability of Irish students to utilise the mathematics learned in a classroom situation to solve authentic, real-life problems. It is a mixed methods study involving testing, structured observations and semi-structured interviews. The research participants are Irish second-year, second-level mathematics students and grade 8 students from a school in the state of Massachusetts (both groups share a mean age of 13.5 years). The students from Massachusetts were involved solely at the testing stage of the data collection process in order to consider Irish performance with regard to mathematical performance from students in a different education system. The observed mathematics lessons provide a valuable insight into the teaching and learning practices used at second-level. The quantitative analysis of the classroom observations highlight patterns and learning theories used in the mathematics lessons observed with interesting results. Two tests were implemented: one traditional in format and based on the Irish Junior Certificate examination; the second consisting of an authentic scenario where students are asked to demonstrate their mathematical comprehension when faced with questions posed in an unfamiliar manner. Statistical analysis of both tests, using a two-sample t-test and a one-way ANOVA, provide the comparison techniques required to consider students performance and highlight various similarities and differences between the test results. The final stage in the data collection process involved semi-structured interviews with the mathematics teachers which provide qualitative data to enrich the findings from the quantitative aspects of the study. The findings provide an interesting insight into the ability of Irish students to solve mathematics when presented in a traditional, familiar context consisting of closed-ended questions compared with their ability to solve mathematical questions that are unfamiliar in style and consist of realistic, open-ended, messy questions. This study suggests that an ability to perform well in a traditional examination does not necessarily illustrate an ability to utilise the mathematics learned for examination success when faced with unfamiliar scenarios. The Irish students involved in this research performed at a significantly higher standard in the traditional test given compared with a lack-luster performance in the realistic test. The same pattern held true for the Massachusetts’ cohort; however the gap in performance between the two test types was considerably smaller for these students. An inability to utilise school-learned mathematics when solving real-life problems is a worrying phenomenon and the author hopes that this body of work will engage educators and policy makers in discussion, thus contributing to progress in this field

Home Management in Africa

Down in the Orange Free State in the Union of South Africa an Iowa State graduate in foods and nutrition has organized a home management school. She is Marie Vermeulen, who returned to South Africa from Iowa State College in 1933 and battled unsympathetic committees and school boards to start a school for training girls of high school age how to run a home and care for children

She Knows Her Turkeys

There\u27s Beth Bailey McLean, another Iowa Stater! We\u27ve met them everywhere this week-end, it seems. And that must be Eleanor Howe. Isn\u27t she good looking

A Meta-Analysis of Hiring Discrimination Against Muslims and Arabs

Muslim and Arab individuals are discriminated against in almost all domains. Recently, there has been a focus on examining the treatment of these groups in the work setting. Despite the great number of primary studies examining this issue, there has not yet been a quantitative review of the research literature. To fill this gap, this meta-analysis examined the presence and magnitude of hiring discrimination against Muslim and Arab individuals. Using 46 independent effect sizes from 26 sources, we found evidence of discrimination against Muslim and Arab people in employment judgments, behaviors, and decisions across multiple countries. Moderator analyses revealed that discrimination is stronger in field settings, when actual employment decisions are made, and when experimental studies used “Arab” (vs. “Muslim”) targets. However, primary studies provide inconsistent and inaccurate distinctions between Arabs and Muslims, therefore future work should be cautious in categorizing the exact aspect of identity being studied

Continuous Quality Improvement Applied to Outpatient Health Care Delivery in Displaced Persons Camps

Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) has been shown to be a highly effective approach for the evaluation and management of hospitals in developed countries, but it has barely begun to be utilised in less developed countries. This article defines the principles and the main tools of CQI and then applies them to the postemergency phase of a displaed persons camp situation, specifically towards improving the utilisation and the quality of care in an out patient department.L'Accroissement Continu de la Qualité s'est révélé une approche très efficace pour l'évaluation et la gestion des hôpitaux dans les pays développés, mais n'a à toutes fins pratiques jamais été mise à profit dans les pays moins développés. Cet article définit les principes et les principaux instruments, Accroissement Continu de la Qualité, et les applique à la phase post-urgente dans la situation des camps pour personnes déplacées. L'attention porte plus spécifiquementsur les possibilités d'amélioration de l'utilisation des services et de la qualité des soins en clinique externe