Digital Commons Network^™

School Leaders' Ethical Decision-Making Related To Student Cyberbullying: A Multi-Case Study Of Two Tennessee School Districts, Jeana M. Partin

Doctoral Dissertations

This multi-case study was designed to explore cyberbullying issues and how school leaders handle student issues related to cyberbullying. I explored how ethical decisions related to student cyberbullying are processed within two school districts in Tennessee. Furthermore, understanding how districts implement and interpret Tennessee Bullying and Harassment Policies helps in exploring school leaders' ethical decision-making process regarding student cyberbullying. Shapiro and Stefkovich's (2021) multiple ethical paradigms, care, critique, justice, and the profession, provided a comprehensive framework for analyzing how school leaders process complex 21^st-century ethical decisions related to student-centered cyberbullying issues. A multi-case study supports the research questions …

Opportunities And Constraints Related To The Production And Use Of Knowledge For Climate Change Adaptation Efforts In Urban, Energy, And Water Systems, Kathleen Marie Ernst

Doctoral Dissertations

Urban, energy, and water system decision-makers are increasingly focused on preparing for the impacts of climate change. These impacts combine with social, economic, and environmental changes to create nuanced localized effects across systems. Climate change adaptation efforts have largely been organized by sector, even though coupled systems approaches could identify negative consequences and mutually-beneficial actions that occur across systems. These insights are missed when coupled systems are not considered in adaptation efforts. However, constraints inhibit adaptation processes within coupled systems. For example, United States energy-water nexus adaptation is constrained by insufficient data and information, path dependence, and institutional fragmentation and …

Having An Elective Cesarean Section: Doing What's Best, Cynthia R Acuff Michaluk

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to discover a theory on how women decide to deliver their babies by cesarean section instead of experiencing a trial of labor and expected vaginal delivery when it is appropriate. The specific goals are to answer the research questions: What is the decision-making process by which healthy, low-risk women choose to deliver their babies by cesarean delivery in the absence of medical indications? What antecedents occur to influence a pregant woman's decision to undergo a maternal request cesaren section? Seven women from the surrounding Knoxville area underwent in-depth interviews. To qualify for the study, …

An Empirical Investigation To Detect The Presence Of Confirmation Bias In The Decision-Making Strategies Used By Litigants In Tax Court Memorandum Cases, Mary M. Anderson

Doctoral Dissertations

Normative decision theory describes the judgment and decision-making process as a cost/benefit analysis based upon maximum utility. One assumption of the theory is full rationality for choices made throughout the process. Due to bounded rationality, however, mental shortcuts become necessary. Use of these shortcuts does not necessarily diminish the quality of the decision. However, a suboptimal use of a heuristic results in a biased decision.

Kahneman and Tversky (1979) identify three basic heuristics: availability, representativeness, and anchoring and adjusting. One suboptimal use of the anchoring and adjusting heuristic, confirmation bias, is the unconscious search for and evaluation of information that …

Preventing Driving Under The Influence Through Informal Interventions: An Examination Of The Decision Making Processes Common To Potential Dui Offenders, David John Williams

Doctoral Dissertations

One novel approach to the driving under the influence (DUI) problem is the informal DUI intervention. Informal DUI interventions are any attempts made to prevent an alcohol-impaired individual from driving. The research to date has concentrated on the factors leading individuals to intervene, informally, in a DUI situation. Comparatively little research has investigated the factors leading potential drunk drivers to comply with informal intervention requests.

An interactional arousal/cost-benefit model was used to predict self-reported informal DUI intervention compliance. According to the model, potential DUI offenders' decisions to comply with intervention requests would be influenced by background variables, context variables, intervention …