Digital Commons Network^™

How Technology Interacts With Emerging Adulthood Psychosocial Developmental Tasks: An Examination Of Online Self-Presentation And Cell Phone Usage, Samantha Lynn Gray

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation outlines three distinct, yet interrelated, projects aimed at understanding the role of technology in relation to emerging adulthood developmental tasks: individuation & identity development. The first paper provides a context for understanding the developmental tasks of emerging adulthood, and the role that technology may serve in relation to those developmental tasks. This brief review of the literature on emerging adulthood developmental tasks provides a solid theoretical background and history for the theoretical premises proposed for the respective studies included in this dissertation. The second project is an empirical investigation that seeks to understand how the task of identity …

Early Predictors Of Executive Function Abilities In School-Aged Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Kelley Knoch

Doctoral Dissertations

Executive Functions (EF) are a set of cognitive processes that direct and regulate behavior for the purpose of future goal attainment. These processes include working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, planning, and fluency. Previous research has delineated impairments in individual processes of EF that may be related to the core social and communicative deficits typically found in children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). This line of research thus far has yielded mixed results, and further clarification is needed to determine if EF are directly related to clinical measures of ASD symptoms. Understanding the development of EF is critical, as …

Perspectives On Disability And Community Engagement In Albania: Developing Mutual Understanding Through The Sharing Of Individual Narratives, Lucia Murillo

Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores current perspectives on disability in Albania by bringing into discourse the voice of families and community members in order to learn how history, tradition, and family values influence individual or community response to having or being in community alongside children with special needs.

Research Theory and Protocol

I carried out this research using critical hermeneutic theory. The protocol followed an interpretive approach as outlined by Ellen Herda (1999). This orientation brought the researcher and participants together and used narratives as a medium for participatory inquiry.

Research Categories

The critical hermeneutic concepts of narrative identity, mimesis, and communicative …