Digital Commons Network^™

Color, Culture, And The Implications For Emotional, Cognitive, And Behavioral Reactions, Renee Lucas

LSU Master's Theses

Color plays a significant role in life, influencing how we perceive things, how symbols change in meaning, how brands, logos, and pictograms are communicated, as well as how our emotions are perceived and how our moods are affected. For designers, advertisers, and visual communicators, color is crucial because it has a big impact on how people perceive, relate to, and value an image or advertisement. There are many factors that play a role when people develop their personal color interpretations – one being culture. The purpose of this study is to investigate the links between culture, color, and individuals’ cognitive, …

What Are People Searching During The Pandemic? Exploring The Determinants Of Public Interest Through Google Searches, Justin Weng

LSU Master's Theses

In 2020, COVID-19 became a serious health concern to people worldwide, regardless of their socioeconomic status, cultural characteristics, or political freedom. Even though this unprecedented crisis was the most impactful and dominant issue in 2020, COVID-19 was not the only issue that people were interested in. This study explored if and how national characteristics influenced global public interests during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Using popular online searches in 23 nations, this study categorized global public interests into two ways: COVID-19 related and non-COVID-19 related issues, with four and 13 sub-categories, respectively. Results showed that people in higher political freedom …

The One – Way (Agri)Cultural Mirror: A Case Study Of How Young Agriculturalists Understand And Experience Culture, Janiece M. Pigg

LSU Master's Theses

As the global economy continues to transform how society operates, cultural competence has become a buzzword in education, professional development, research, government, and healthcare (Gay, 1994; Gallus et al., 2014). Cross et al. (1989) developed the most accepted definition of cultural competence: “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enable that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations” (p. 13).

Despite this, little to no research has been devoted to understanding cultural competence in agriculture. Thus, a need emerged to describe the cultural competence …

Examining The Mechanisms Of Religious Ecology On Population Health And Material Well-Being, Joseph Andrew Clark

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A growing body of research has addressed the relationship between community-level religious environments and important aspects of well-being, such as mortality, crime, and social mobility. This research argues that the prevalence of specific religious traditions shapes these important outcomes through a variety of mechanisms. While there is no shortage of mechanisms proposed by authors - such as local attitudes towards public institutions, gender norms, and social networks - these mechanisms remain themselves untested. A notable critique of this literature suggests that without evidence supporting the existence of these mechanisms as described, scholars involved in this research run the risk of …

Examining Teacher Multicultural Competence In The Classroom: Further Validation Of The Multicultural Teaching Competency Scale, Melissa Jo Hamilton

LSU Master's Theses

The focus of this study is to strengthen the technical adequacy of the Multicultural Teacher Competency Scale (MTCS; Spanierman et al., 2011) self-assessment measure for teacher multicultural competence. This study will also examine the relationship between it and the teacher-student relationship and teacher self-efficacy. Results show that the MTCS shows similar internal consistency reliability with a new demographic of in-service teachers. The MTCS also has predictive significance for teacher self-efficacy and student-teacher relationship scores. Implications of the study include the importance for teachers to be taught and practice this competency, as well as, validation that this construct is related to …

A Tale Of Two Cultures: A Qualitative Narrative Of Nigerian Immigrant Parenting In The United States, Chinwe Onwujuba

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Current demographic estimates indicate that the foreign-born population makes up about 13% (40 million) of the total U.S. population. This number consists of immigrants from all over the world, with a larger majority originating from Latin America and Asia. Research in the area of immigrant adaptation is robust and compelling; however, it is replete with studies on immigrants from the cultural regions identified above, and not as much on other regions with relatively less numerical representation, specifically Africa. From this region, Nigerian individuals and families make up a larger portion of this immigrant group. This study employs a qualitative research …

Mind Playing Tricks: Individualism, Upward Mobility, And The Commitment To Self-Determination Among The Urban Poor, Will Bryerton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The ethos of the American Dream offers a popular and straightforward prescription for success: Work hard, rely on yourself before others, avoid bad choices, and prosperity will follow. It is a decidedly optimistic, largely undefined, and intensely individualistic promise with serious implications for Americans’ views on achievement and upward mobility. For all of these reasons, the validity of this ethos has come under attack. Philosophically, it is seen as illusory, ambiguous, and unrealistically demanding of individual exceptionalism. Sociologically, it is admonished for being too dismissive of structural constraints, systemic inequalities, and the value of relationships, social embeddedness, and mutual dependence. …

Burn, Boil & Eat : An Intersection Analysis Of Stereotypes In The Most Influential Films Of All Time, Roslyn M. Satchel

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research builds upon the work of Entman & Rojecki (2001) in examining the ways the most influential movies use racial stereotypes in media frames. The results of this study contribute to the rather limited mass media research and body of knowledge regarding the media content that attracts the largest and most enduring audiences in the new media landscape. As ten of the films that have generated the most revenue, the movies in this sample constitute a genre of movies that are also a prime feature of on-going publishing, cable, internet, digital gaming, DVD, and movie sequel franchises. If, as …

"Do It For Me, My Dear": Structuration And Relational Dialectics Among Mother-Daughter Dyads In Lebanese Arranged Marriages, Khaled Nasser

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research applied a two-step triangulation approach to the study of mother-daughter communication in arranged marriages among the religious Sunnis of Beirut, Lebanon. Combining the theory of structuration and relational dialectics in one theoretical framework, the study investigated the role of mother-daughter interactions in the socialization of the daughter into the marital experience. The study investigated the process of marital socialization by first surveying 199 mother-daughter dyads, representing 398 individuals. In the second step, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 families (three interviews per dyad), randomly selected out of the 199 surveyed pairs. The dyadic data analysis of the surveys …

Why The Old Traditions Will Not Fail: Landscape, Legends, And The Construction Of Place At Dartmouth College, Charles H. Wade

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, is one of the nine Colonial Colleges and a member of the exclusive Ivy League. Congregationalist minister Eleazar Wheelock founded Dartmouth in 1769 on the premise of training missionaries to Christianize the Indians of the region and, over the years, Dartmouth developed into a premier college. Dartmouth is famous for its traditions, its ardently loyal alumni, and as a classic New England liberal arts college. But this image does not correspond with a closer, more critical look at the College. Through both archival and ethnographic research, this dissertation examines the cultural landscape, folklore, …

Descriptive Study Of Korean E-Mail Discourse, Jaegu Kim

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study is an examination of a corpus of computer mediated Korean discourse (i.e., e-mail), based on a folk-cultural category, nunch’i. Nunch’i is actively involved in linguistic feature use in terms of [+age] and [+distance] of human relationships. Many Koreans think that the world has an inherent hierarchy according to age. This idea has been reflected through nunch’i, a culture-specific system for maintaining harmonious social relationships especially between [+age] and [–age] people. Nunch’i has a function of foresight, in that it is part of the way that people read the situations and the faces of addressers and addressees. Like oral …

Walden Pond And The Performative Touristic Gaze, Daniel Christopher Bono

LSU Master's Theses

This is an ethnographic study of tourism at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. I argue that Walden Pond operates as a site that creates tensions among visitors due to the ways that time has transformed the once serene landscape into an overcrowded swimming pool. These tensions, however, fall under the expectation that the State Reservation of Massachusetts (re)creates Thoreau’s Walden as suggested in his discourse, but the performance of history is enacted through the creation of meaning among visitors engaging in a dialogue that references the past, talking about a space that has cultural significance. Exploring the touristic experience and …

Alzheimer's Caregiving Appraisal, Andre' Fortier

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the knowledge base of AD caregiving appraisal by understanding a connection of factors that influence caregiving appraisal. It is important for the profession of social work to understand the complexities which may impact the level of care and/or appraisal. A combination of research questions and hypotheses were devised to determine the influence of each factor and/or a combination of factors on caregiving appraisal. The survey comprises of six sections: demographics and stage of AD, burden, resilience, family strengths, ethnic awareness, and caregiving appraisal. The overall survey was designed by the researcher; …

Korean Hurricane Media Discourse Analysis, Youngae Lee

LSU Master's Theses

Presented within this thesis, I have analyzed a particular TV broadcast news discourse called Korean Hurricane Media Discourse (KHMD), which was presented online from YTN, a Korean cable TV news station. The data presents the topic of the Korean refugees who were forced to evacuate to Baton Rouge from New Orleans, after facing the destructions of Hurricane Katrina on August 2005. The methods are Ron Scollon’s TV news frames (1998), van Dijk’s superstructure (1988a and 1988b) and macrostructure (1980), Allan Bell’s news structure (1991), Dell Hymes’s SPEAKING model (1974), and Erving Goffman’s frameworks (1986). Since KHMD is a spoken, plannable …

The Emerging Culture Of A Community College, Misty Kyle O'Connell

LSU Master's Theses

This study explores the emerging organizational culture of Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC). Specifically, the study looks at how faculty and key administrators describe the institution’s culture. Qualitative interviews with seven administrators and ten faculty members reveal the two groups had consistent viewpoints on many themes. Findings indicate BRCC exhibits the characteristics of an adhocracy culture. BRCC’s administration and faculty also describe the college’s culture as strong and externally oriented.

Musical Play Across Ethnic Boundaries In Western Jamaica, Ronald Eric Dickerson

LSU Master's Theses

An ethnography of music, ritual, and festival in western Jamaica, this thesis reports on fieldwork performed in St. Elizabeth and St. James Parishes between June 2002 and January 2003. Featured field sites include rural dancehall events, Kumina performances, Accompong Town's Maroon Heritage Festival, and a Rastafarian music and nutrition festival called "The Supper of Rastafari." Building an account of these and other sites of cultural performance, this study focuses on social connections between groups of participants, traced through poetic, historical, and personal relationships among performers, especially across boundaries of ethnic, stylistic, or religious difference within Jamaica's national cultural identity.

Pot-Au-Feu Japan: Foods And Weddings, Satomi Fukutomi

LSU Master's Theses

As Japan underwent rapid modernization and economic expansion after World War II, its cultural complex transformed into a postmodern mingling of Western and Eastern cultures, merging modern and antiquated tradition (Heine 1995:29). The Japanese have absorbed many Western traditions without immigrating, or living outside of their own (Eastern) society; Japanese marriage rituals exhibit such Eastern and Western cultural minglings. Wedding receptions, regarded as mini-drama, contain traditions of old—material taboos, inedible wedding cakes, beer ceremony, the importance of the color white, as well as blended traditional-modern acts such as toasting champagne while wearing a kimono, and gift-giving rituals incorporating famous American …

Transformation Of Paradise: Geographical Perspectives On Tourism Development On A Small Carribbean Island (Utila, Honduras), Frances Heyward Currin

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis addresses the recent development of tourism on Utila, the westernmost island of the Bay Islands of Caribbean, Honduras. Especially during the 1990s, international tourists, mostly Europeans and North Americans, were attracted to the island because it was a relatively inexpensive place to dive on a beautiful fringing reef and to enjoy other benefits of a tropical beach community. Larger nearby islands, Roatán and Guanaja, had developed something of a tourism industry earlier. A review of the economic and culture history of Utila reveals that modern islanders -- English-speaking Anglo- and Afro-Caribbeans originally from the Cayman Islands were preadapted …