Emotional Intelligence and Decision-Making in Higher Education Administrators in Post-Secondary Institutions in Eastern Tennessee

This purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the impact of emotional intelligence on decision-making in higher education administrators. A qualitative research design was used for this study. Data was collected in three phases from the following sources; survey, case study submissions, and open-ended face-to-face interviews. The research data, about emotional intelligence and decision-making, were collected form ten higher education administrators. Constant comparative method was an important part of the data collection process for this study. Range of participant leadership experience was 3-8+ years and participant roles were either, Department Chair, Program Director, Dean, Provost, and President. The findings from this research study indicate that decision-making is impacted by emotional intelligence of higher education leaders. Empathy, self-awareness, and relationship management were influential components in navigating difficult situations, conflict resolution, and the decision-making process

Rachel Ellis, Cello

Caprice No. 6 / Piatti; Sonata for Piano and Cello in A major, Opus 69 / Ludwig van Beethoven; Sonata for Piano and Cello in F Major, Op. 99 / Johannes Brahm

“We’ve got a lack of family values”: an examination of how teachers formulate and justify their SRE approach

Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) in England has been the focus of critical scrutiny on several occasions, but there has been little attention paid to how teachers formulate their provision, especially given their crucial role in determining what is taught in the classroom. While current policy suggests that provision should be inclusive of sexual diversity, it simultaneously gives educators the scope to determine the form this takes. This is an important issue given the substantial impact that teachers’ views and discourses have on what is taught. Using a discourse analytical framework, this study sought to examine how teachers of SRE formulate and account for their provision, with a particular focus on how their assumptions about young people’s sexual health needs underpin their actions. Initially, teachers sought to formulate their activities in terms of an overall ethos, providing legitimacy for the key elements of their programme being aligned with official government health promotion strategy, as opposed to other areas such as pleasure and diversity. This was supported by their constructions of young people, particularly young women and individuals from ‘at risk’ communities, as being particularly vulnerable

“It’s Not Equality”: How Race, Class, and Gender Construct the Normative Religious Self among Female Prisoners

Prior sociological research has demonstrated that religious selves are gendered. Using the case of female inmates—some of the most disadvantaged Americans—this article shows that dominant messages constructing the religious self are not only gendered, but also deeply intertwined with race and class. Data from 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork on religion inside a U.S. state women’s prison reveal that religious volunteers—predominately middle-class African American women—preached feminine submissiveness and finding a “man of God” to marry to embody religious ideals. However, these messages were largely out of sync with the realities of working class and poor incarcerated women, especially given their temporary isolation from the marriage market and the marital prospects in the socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods to which many would return. These findings suggest that scholars must pay attention to how race, class, and gender define dominant discourses around the religious self and consider the implications for stratification for those who fail to fulfill this dominant ideology

Vibration Overtone Hyperpolarizability Measured for H2 Using Electric Field Induced Second Harmonic Generation

The vibrational contribution to the second hyperpolarizability (γ) of gas phase H2 was measured using electric field induced second harmonic generation. Measurements were made for the pure vibrational 3-0 Q(J) overtone transitions (v=0,J → v’=3,J for J = 0,1,2,3). Measured intensities were found to be 4-14% larger than ab initio calculations. The first chapter of this thesis provides an introduction to nonlinear optics, second harmonic generation, and the tensor nature of hyperpolarizabilities. The second chapter provides theoretical expressions for γ and relevant static and Raman polarizabilities. The third chapter covers the experimental design and electric field induced second harmonic generation. The final two chapters discuss the results and analysis of the experiment and possible future impact

Combined effects of occupational noise exposure and shiftwork on performance tasks in a seafaring population

This study was undertaken to complement a cross-sectional survey of the combined effects of selfreported workplace stressors. Data were collected from seafarers on board support vessels for the North Sea oilrigs as part of a project on offshore fatigue. These data could also be used specifically to address whether there were any cognitive effects associated with working in loud noise at night that were different to working in loud noise during the day, low noise at night or low noise during the day. The participants were 62 male workers from 3 different vessels. Their mean age was 40.3 years. Individuals were from a range of different jobs onboard the vessels. There were two between-subjects factors (day/night shift and noise exposure) and one within-subjects factor (test session). Workers were asked to complete a battery of computer tests both before (Pre-shift) and after (Post-shift) their shift on one day. Four tests were presented using laptop computers. These tests were visual analogue mood scales, a simple variable fore-period reaction time, and categoric search and focused attention choice reaction time tasks. The mood scales were presented at the beginning and end of the testing session. Occupational noise exposure (Leq) was measured over a two-day period using a dosimeter. Workers were categorised into day/night workers by their shift pattern. Regression analyses distinguishing noise exposure, day/night shift and their interaction were performed on the data from each test session and the change score between the start and end of the shift. Noise exposure was associated with increased alertness but also with slower reaction times. Those working night shifts showed a large drop in alertness over the course of work and became slower at tasks requiring more difficult responses. There were also a limited number of interactions between noise and shift, such as more lapses of attention (very long response times) but fewer incorrect responses in the noise/night-work condition. The findings suggest that these techniques may provide valuable information about the possible combined effects of occupational stressors in situ. The present analyses are based only on a small number of night workers and further consideration of effects of potential confounding influences must also be undertake

Ibuprofen Blunts Ventilatory Acclimatization to Sustained Hypoxia in Humans.

Ventilatory acclimatization to hypoxia is a time-dependent increase in ventilation and the hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR) that involves neural plasticity in both carotid body chemoreceptors and brainstem respiratory centers. The mechanisms of such plasticity are not completely understood but recent animal studies show it can be blocked by administering ibuprofen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, during chronic hypoxia. We tested the hypothesis that ibuprofen would also block the increase in HVR with chronic hypoxia in humans in 15 healthy men and women using a double-blind, placebo controlled, cross-over trial. The isocapnic HVR was measured with standard methods in subjects treated with ibuprofen (400 mg every 8 hrs) or placebo for 48 hours at sea level and 48 hours at high altitude (3,800 m). Subjects returned to sea level for at least 30 days prior to repeating the protocol with the opposite treatment. Ibuprofen significantly decreased the HVR after acclimatization to high altitude compared to placebo but it did not affect ventilation or arterial O2 saturation breathing ambient air at high altitude. Hence, compensatory responses prevent hypoventilation with decreased isocapnic ventilatory O2-sensitivity from ibuprofen at this altitude. The effect of ibuprofen to decrease the HVR in humans provides the first experimental evidence that a signaling mechanism described for ventilatory acclimatization to hypoxia in animal models also occurs in people. This establishes a foundation for the future experiments to test the potential role of different mechanisms for neural plasticity and ventilatory acclimatization in humans with chronic hypoxemia from lung disease

Redefining Creativity: A New Approach To Understanding Divergent And Convergent Thinking And Personality

Researchers and practitioners have long been interested in understanding creativity and related aspects of thinking. For example, studies have focused on the ways in which convergent and divergent thinking and personality factors relate to creativity (Guilford, 1950). Traditionally, convergent thinking involves finding the correct answer to a problem; in contrast, divergent thinking involves generating a creative response through spontaneous exploration of different ideas, perhaps via associative processes (Guilford, 1950). Past research shows that divergent thinking and openness to experience, an aspect of personality that involves imagination and exploration, are related (e.g., Chamorro-Premuzic, 2008; MacKinnon, 1962, 1965; Silvia et al., 2009). The goal of our study is to further explore the relations between various measures of convergent and divergent thinking and openness to experience. Participants will be 100 ISU students 18 years or older recruited through the Department of Psychology online sign-up system. They will complete our measures via an online survey methodology that will include the Remote Associates Test (RAT), the Unusual Uses Test, a vocabulary test, the 10-item TIPI Personality questionnaire, and a demographic survey. The RAT is a well-known test of convergent thinking, where three unrelated words are shown, and participants must relate the fourth word. The Unusual Uses Test is a popular test of divergent thinking, where participants must come up with creative and uncommon uses for an object. But, according to Gabora (2019), the RAT may be more suitably classified as a divergent thinking test, especially when insight is involved. If the RAT relies on divergent thinking, then we would expect to observe strong, positive correlations between the RAT and Unusual Uses Test and openness to experience measures from the personality questionnaire. However, we would expect to observe no correlations with vocabulary, a convergent thinking measure. These results would provide a better understanding of creativity processes.https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/urs2021psych/1004/thumbnail.jp