Digital Commons Network^™

Coyotes On The Web: Understanding Human-Coyote Interaction And Online Education Using Citizen Science, Zuriel Anne Rasmussen

Dissertations and Theses

Coyote (Canis latrans) numbers are increasing in urban areas, leading to more frequent human-coyote interactions. Rarely, and particularly when coyotes have become habituated to humans, conflicts occur. Effective education about urban coyotes and how to prevent habituation reduces conflict. Citizen science, in the form of online education, can be used to engage and educate city dwellers about urban coyotes. In this research, I explore Portland Metropolitan Area (PMA) residents' baseline experiences with, and attitudes toward, urban coyotes. Next, I investigate citizen science as a tool for education. Using the Portland Urban Coyote Project (PUCP), a citizen science project, as a …

Thinking About Work At Home: Implications For Safety At Work, Frankie Guros

Dissertations and Theses

Safety at work is of the utmost importance to employees and the organizations they work for, and as such, it is a central issue for occupational health psychology. Although dramatic decreases in the number of worker injuries and fatalities have been observed over the last several decades, safety remains a principal concern for organizations. This is especially true in occupations in which employees face serious threats to their personal safety, such as correctional officers (COs). While a number of studies have identified workplace factors that contribute to worker safety, few have attempted to draw a link between employee nonwork experiences …

The Development Of Personal Resources In The Academic Domain: Age Differences In The Evolution Of Coping And Perceived Control And The Process Structures That Facilitate Academic Engagement, Teresa Marie Greene

Dissertations and Theses

Studies investigating the development of perceived control and coping in the academic domain generally adopt an individual differences approach, reporting mean-level changes in these and associated constructs. Very few studies attempt to chart the process by which these personal resources exert individual and combined influences on academic outcomes, such as motivation and achievement, in light of normative developmental changes. Further, a consideration of reciprocal influences of these constructs on developmental changes and the contribution of social partners to these processes is not common.

Conceptualized from a systems perspective, this study integrates these different approaches in a longitudinal inquiry into the …

Beyond Fruit: Examining Community In A Community Orchard, Emily Jane Becker

Dissertations and Theses

The Fruits of Diversity Community Orchard, located in Portland, Oregon in an affordable housing neighborhood, is a site of alternative food provisioning in which a group of people, organized by two nonprofits, work together to manage fruit and nut producing plants. Through conversations with volunteers who participate regularly and participant observation, this study explores the questions: What does community mean in the context of a community orchard? In what ways does partnering with a nonprofit from outside the neighborhood influence community and the way the project is operationalized?

This thesis situates community orchards within the literature on alternative food networks …

Supervisor-Specific Outcomes Of A Work-Family Intervention: Evidence From The Work, Family, & Health Study, Mackenna Laine Perry

Dissertations and Theses

Workplace interventions provide a practical and important means of providing support for employees' work-family needs. However, work-family interventions are rare and are generally not thoroughly evaluated. The current study seeks to better understand the impacts of STAR ("Support. Transform. Achieve. Results."), the large-scale work-family intervention developed and implemented by the Work, Family, & Health Network (see Bray et al., 2013). Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989), this study examines supervisors' participation in STAR through assessment of three primary supervisor-specific outcomes: training-related views and behaviors, well-being, and the work-family interface. The sample, consisting of 184 supervisors from 30 extended-care …

Training "In A Good Way": Evaluating The Effect Of A Culturally Responsive Pre-Training Intervention On Learning And Motivation, Adam Thomas Murry

Dissertations and Theses

Employee Training and Development (T&D) is a crucial component to an organization’s success and its ability to remain competitive. Although researchers in the field have discovered ways to enhance the effectiveness of training programs through the design, delivery, and evaluation process, research has not provided empirically-based recommendations for how to best train individuals whose cultural backgrounds may influence receptiveness of training curriculum. This is particularly relevant for employees whose cultural groups have been historically discriminated against, where cultural norms implicit in the training design may be met with resistance on behalf of the trainees. In the field of multicultural education, …

Mistrust: An Exploration Of African Americans' Attitudes And Perspectives Toward Healthcare, Adolfo Gabriel Cuevas

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation explored mistrust through focus group discussions (study 1), responses to standardized laboratory vignettes (study 2), and survey questionnaires (study 3). In the first study, I found that African American community members (N=60) experienced perceived discrimination, medical mistrust, and poor communication in numerous and interrelated ways. For example, medical mistrust occurred when clinicians did not convey respect to patients, leaving patients to wonder whether their clinician's treatment was discriminatory or not. Based on these findings, I wanted to see whether these experiences of perceived discrimination and mistrust were related to other dimensions of Black experience, such as racial identity. …

The Multilevel Effects Of Supervisor Adaptability On Training Effectiveness And Employee Job Satisfaction, Joseph Alvin Sherwood

Dissertations and Theses

The present study explored the multilevel effects of supervisor learning adaptability on training effectiveness, and post-training employee job satisfaction in a work-family and safety-based intervention aimed at increasing family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) and safety behaviors. Using a sample of 291 municipal public works field workers from two independent organizations, it was hypothesized that supervisor adaptability positively relates to post-training FSSB and employee job satisfaction. Specifically, it was hypothesized that learning adaptability prepares those supervisors to be more inclined to engage actively in training, thereby increasing employee reported FSSBs more significantly for those supervisors and leading to intervention target results, …

Intrapersonal And Interpersonal Consequences Of Loneliness: Health Behavior, Social Interactions, Self-Disclosure, And Perceived Responsiveness, Sarah Noel Arpin

Dissertations and Theses

As a social species, human beings are driven by an innate desire to belong and are thus motivated to develop and maintain meaningful social relationships. As such, perceiving a lack of belongingness strongly impacts psychological and physiological health and well-being. A common form of perceived relationship deficits is loneliness, a negative-affective experience detrimental to health and well-being over time. Through a series of three manuscripts, this dissertation applies the full-cycle model of social psychological research to explore various affective, behavioral, and cognitive consequences of loneliness. Whereas existing models of loneliness focus on long-lasting or chronic forms of loneliness, these studies …

Transformational Leadership, Diversity, And Creativity At Work: A Moderated Mediation Model, Aisha Smith Taylor

Dissertations and Theses

Organizational leaders often seek to hire and retain innovative employees as a source of competitive advantage. Both transformational leadership and effectively managed workplace diversity have been theorized and shown to lead to increased employee creative performance at work; however, a full model of the relationships between leadership and the multi-dimensional construct of workplace diversity has not yet been tested. Using a sample of 371 employees in three Chinese high-technology firms matched with 64 supervisors collected at three time points, this study theorized and tested a moderated mediation path model in which transformational leadership and diversity climate were predicted to significantly …

Investigating Relationships Among Work, Family, And Sleep: Cross-Sectional, Daily, And Intervention Effects, Tori Laurelle Crain

Dissertations and Theses

Few studies to date have investigated associations among work, family, and sleep outcomes. The following dissertation includes three studies that attempt to further understanding of such relationships by utilizing data from information technology workers within the Work, Family, and Health Network study. In Study 1, which is published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, associations between work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict, family-supportive supervisor behaviors, and sleep outcomes, measured both subjectively and objectively, are examined in a cross-sectional sample. Study 2 investigates associations among work-to-family conflict, family-supportive supervisor behaviors, and subjective sleep outcomes within a seven-day daily diary framework. Furthermore, workplace …

The Role Of Emotional Support Consistency And Child Risk Factors In Predicting Pre-K Cognitive And Social-Emotional Development, Amy Lynn Cannell-Cordier

Dissertations and Theses

The quality of children's daily experiences in preschool classrooms is predictive of their school readiness and later achievement (Duncan et al., 2007; La Paro & Pianta, 2000). One particularly important aspect of these experiences is the quality of emotional support provided by teachers and peers in the classroom (Hamre & Pianta, 2005; Howes et al., 2008; Mashburn, 2008; National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning, 2012). Traditionally, emotional support quality has been calculated as the average of ratings taken across the school year and is meant to represent children's average daily experience, without regard to any variability which exists within …

Workplace Aggression: A Multi-Study Examination Of Work And Nonwork Consequences, Caitlin Ann Demsky

Dissertations and Theses

Workplace aggression has been associated with a number of detrimental employee and organizational outcomes, both at work and away from work. This dissertation includes three studies that expand our knowledge of the implications of workplace aggression in the work and nonwork domains. Further, this research illuminates the processes through which this relationship occurs by utilizing various sources of data from employees in a variety of contexts including universities, long term health care, and the USDA Forest Service. In Study 1, which was published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, multi-source data are utilized to identify the indirect effects of …

Dynamic Job Satisfaction Shifts: Implications For Manager Behavior And Crossover To Employees, David Ellis Caughlin

Dissertations and Theses

In this dissertation, I investigated job satisfaction from a dynamic perspective. Specifically, I integrated the momentum model of job satisfaction with the affective shift model and crossover theory in an effort to move beyond traditional, static conceptions of job satisfaction and other constructs. Recent research and theoretical development has focused on the meaning of job satisfaction change for workers and how such change impacts their decisions to leave an organization. To extend this line of inquiry, I posited hypotheses pertaining to: (a) job satisfaction change with respect to positive work behavior (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior, family-supportive supervisor behavior); (b) the …

Building Resources At Home And At Work: Day-Level Relationships Between Job Crafting, Recovery Experiences, And Work Engagement, Allison Marie Ellis

Dissertations and Theses

Work engagement is an increasingly popular construct in organizational and occupational health psychology. However, despite substantial advances in our understanding of work engagement at the between-person level, scholars have argued for increased investigation into what drives engagement on a daily level for individual employees. In the current study, a within-person, day-level design was employed to examine the relationships between nonwork mastery experiences, job crafting behaviors, and daily work engagement. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (Hobfoll, 1989) theory, nonwork mastery experiences and job crafting were operationalized as employee-driven, resource-building strategies that assist employees in generating important psychological and job resources that …

Exploring The Developmental Dynamics Of Motivational Resilience Over The Transition To Middle School, Jennifer Rose Pitzer

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years students' academic engagement has gained increasing favor as a necessary component of authentic learning experiences. However, less research has focused on what students do when they run into everyday problems in school that allows them to return (or not) to a state of ongoing engagement. Expanding on these ideas, this project explores students' motivational resilience in school, that is, the dynamic interactions among their ongoing engagement, emotional reactivity, academic coping, and re-engagement after encounters with difficulties and setbacks in school. Grounded in an established motivational model based on Deci & Ryan's (1985) self-determination theory, and building on …

Rethinking Autism, Communication, And Community Involvement: Exploring Involvement In Online Communities, Communication Preference, Autistic Identity, And Self-Determination, Colleen Anne Kidney

Dissertations and Theses

Autistic individuals experience marginalization and stigmatization, and are often not connected to mainstream services or organizations fostering peer relationships (Boundy, 2008; Jaarsma & Welin, 2012; Robertson, 2010). Therefore, the accomplishments of the online Autistic community in building a community for self-advocacy, peer-support, friendships, and identity development (Brownlow & O'Dell, 2006; Kidney, 2012) are important to recognize, empirically examine, and promote (Blume, 1997a; Davidson, 2008). Utilizing a community-based participatory research approach (CBPR; Israel, Schulz, Parker, & Becker, 1998) the Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE; www.aaspire.org) conducted the AASPIRE Internet Use, Community, and Well-Being Study, and collected …

Exploring Dietary Sacrifice In Intimate Relationships For Couples With Celiac Disease, Lindsey Marie Alley

Dissertations and Theses

Prior research on eating behaviors has shown that romantic partners actively merge their dietary preferences throughout the course of a relationship and find significant value in cooking and eating the same foods together at the same times. Yet, little is known regarding the impacts of specific dietary support processes involved in maintaining said communal diet when one partner drastically alters his or her eating patterns. The current study defined dietary sacrifice as a phenomenon within the context of Celiac Disease (CD): a chronic illness that requires strict adherence to the gluten-free diet (GFD). Drawing from existing research on sacrifice within …

Supporting The Aging Workforce: The Impact Of Psychosocial Workplace Characteristics On Employees' Work Ability, Jennifer Rae Rineer

Dissertations and Theses

It is estimated that by 2020, 25% of the US labor force will be aged 55 or older. Along with this demographic shift, Americans and employees in other industrialized nations are now working longer than before, either out of preference or financial necessity. Therefore, it is essential that we understand how to support employees so that they can continue working in a healthy, happy, and productive manner as they age. The construct of work ability (the extent to which people perceive they can meet the mental and physical demands of their jobs) has the potential to guide research and practice …

Developmental Perspectives On Motivational Resilience: Predictors Of Eighth-Grade At-Risk Students' Academic Engagement And Achievement, Heather Anne Brule

Dissertations and Theses

This study uses the concept of stage-environment fit (Eccles et al., 1993) in conjunction with self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) to guide an investigation of at-risk eighth graders' motivational and academic resilience. A developmentally-calibrated method was used to divide students into motivational and academic resilience groups based on their resilient, average, or stress-affected levels of academic engagement and GPA. Data from 167 eighth graders and 155 sixth graders were used to examine the extent to which students' ratings of autonomy, teacher support, peer support, and engagement in garden-based education were related to resilience group membership, and whether these four …