Digital Commons Network^™

Bystander Intervention In The Workplace Sexual Harassment, Yunjung Lee

Student Theses

Despite increased global attention since the #MeToo movement of 2017, workplace sexual harassment remains a pervasive issue. This is because victims of workplace sexual harassment often react passively, meaning that approaches primarily reliant on victim reporting are less likely to succeed. Given this, bystander intervention has emerged as a promising way to prevent sexual harassment and protect victims. Adopting the previous theoretical framework (Bowes-Sperry & O’Leary‐Kelly, 2005), this study aimed to investigate the decision-making process of bystanders responding to workplace sexual harassment, and to identify the relative frequencies of intervention types and influencing factors. 170 participants from various occupations in …

Residents’ Perceptions Of Use On Community Interface Areas At Protected Areas’ Boundaries: A Comparison Between Users And Non-Users, Louis Santiago Brevan

All Theses

Over the past fifty years, Protected Area (PA) management has gradually transitioned from the traditional top-down approach toward a more collaborative and participatory management model, which integrates the needs and perspectives of local communities. This quantitative study used a questionnaire to assess the perceived constraints of visitation, the attitudes toward tourism development, and the level of involvement in decision-making among community members residing near a community interface area on a PA’s boundaries. Structural constraints were the most prominent barrier to visiting (i.e., the poor state of the road and facilities). Residents indicated strong support towards tourism development and nearly half …

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 …

An Exploration Of Educator Experiences Making Data-Driven Decisions Within A Multi-Tiered System Of Support, Jennifer L. D'Angelo

Doctor of Education Program Dissertations

School districts across the country often face challenges using data to implement a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) to meet the needs of all learners through high quality educational opportunities. This qualitative investigation explored how educators in a public school district in the northeastern United States experience the collection and analysis of data to inform decision-making within a MTSS. Guided by the theory of planned behavior and employing a phenomenological analysis, this study addressed the inconsistencies in educator training along with a lack of existing literature focused on the foundational elements of data literacy. The research questions focused on understanding …

“Teen Health” Empowers Informed Contraception Decision-Making In Adolescents And Young Adults, Christina Lepore

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Adolescents and young adults (AYAs), here defined as aged 13-25 years, face uniquechallenges in accessing sexual and reproductive health information. Interactive internet resources provide a free, private and personalized opportunity to help AYAs make informed contraception choices. We designed an original website called “Teen Health” to provide age-appropriate and evidence-based SRH education to AYAs, as well as an interactive contraception education tool (CET). We introduced “Teen Health” to AYAs in a clinical setting and observed trends in contraception preference after website exposure. We hypothesized that “Teen Health” would support informed contraception decision-making.

A convenience sample of AYAs were recruited from …

Prototypicality And Need To Belong: How One’S Standing In The Group Affects Parochial Cooperation, Huidi Yuan

Honors Theses

This study explores the dynamics of parochial cooperation within intergroup social dilemmas, specifically examining the roles of harm, prototypicality, and the need to belong (NTB). Utilizing an experimental design and an adapted investment game, the study investigates how these factors influence individuals' decisions to engage in cooperation that is biased towards their own group, especially when such actions potentially harm outgroup members. The findings reveal a strong preference for parochial cooperation over universal cooperation and free-riding, consistent with previous research on ingroup favoritism. Notably, this preference is significantly moderated by the harm condition, where participants reduced their parochial investments when …

Formalizing The Faustian Bargain Within The Healthcare Domain: An End-Of-Life Approach., Rachel Appel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A Faustian Bargain refers to an individual making a “deal with the devil,” exchanging something moral or sacred for an unattainable earthly good. The Faustian Bargain has been used to describe a ubiquitous social dilemma inherent to human civilization: exchanging individual liberty for public goods (e.g., security) provided by societal leaders and governments (Ostrom, 1980). Research on Faustian Bargains often examines tradeoffs between outcome utility (i.e., value derived from the outcomes of a decision) and procedural utility (i.e., value derived from being involved in the decision process (e.g., Frey et al., 2004). Much of the research on Faustian Bargains has …

Numeracy, Consistency, And The Allais Paradox, Sean J. Mcginity

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the relations between mathematical abilities and preferences, preferences for consistency, and the Allais paradox. To answer this question, 144 participants completed a survey which measured objective numeracy, subjective numeracy, preference for consistency, and consistency of probabilistic choices. The results did not show the predicted relations where consistency would moderate the relations where subjective numeracy mediates the relations between objective numeracy and the consistency of probabilistic choices. The previously indicated relations where subjective numeracy simply mediated the relations between objective numeracy and probabilistic reasoning were also not replicated.While the hypotheses were not supported overall one interesting finding was …

Emotional Intelligence In Difficult Decision-Making: A Multiple-Case Study Of Community College Academic Deans, Ekaterina Kalinina Brooks

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

The decisions made by leaders noticeably impact employee morale and influence the fulfillment of the organizational mission. However, making decisions can be challenging when options are complex and involve multiple risks and benefits. Navigating such decisions in an era of technology when decisions are more transparent than ever before can be particularly difficult for academic deans in community colleges. These mid-level administrators often face internal conflicts stemming from the nature of their positions, campus politics, and the challenge of working between the competing interests of faculty and senior leaders.

Over the last three decades, research has pointed out that strong …

Exploring And Identifying Healthcare Leaders Competencies Required For Effective Decision Making In A High Velocity Environment To Achieve Sustainability Under The Regulatory Compliance Tenets Of The Patient Protection Affordable Care Act, Sylvester Foote

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Background and Purpose of the Study: Healthcare organizations face challenges in efficiently accommodating increased participant demands with limited resources and capacity. The modern reimbursement environment prioritized the maximization of operational efficiency and the reduction of unnecessary cost (i.e., waste) while maintaining or improving quality. As healthcare organizations adapt, significant pressures are placed on leaders to make difficult operational and budgetary decisions (Hamrock, Eric, et al., 2013).

As healthcare goes through this transformation within its high velocity environment defined as environments in which there is rapid and discontinuous change in demand, competitors, technology and /or regulations, such that information is often …

Examining The Role Of Pretrial Detention On The Juvenile Plea Process, Isabelle May Clough

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Plea bargains are a necessary part of the criminal justice system as a whole, and the juvenile justice system more specifically. However, juveniles may be at a particular disadvantage when entering into a plea bargain as a result of their developmental capacities. Pretrial detention in particular might influence the quality of the final plea agreement that a juvenile accepts, as adolescents would be motivated towards the short-term goal of being released from detention. The current study aimed to examine the relationship between juvenile pretrial detention and plea discounts through mediating relationships with number of attorneys and time to plea. Data …

Simulation Modeling For Robust And Just Public Policy Decision-Making, Jack Mitcham

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Public policy decision-making is challenging for several reasons. First, the outcomes of pulling a public policy lever are often deeply uncertain because of the complexity of the social and physical systems involved. Second, even if outcomes can be predicted, there are multiple points of view to consider, and the same outcome can be viewed anywhere from very positively to very negatively by different stakeholders. Because of this, public policy decisions should be both robust and just. Robustness helps with the uncertainty in outcomes and justice helps with differences in worldview. In this dissertation, I employ system dynamics and agent-based simulation …

Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory: An Analysis Of Teen Court Decision-Making By Youth Jurors And Adult Volunteers, Colette Briana Harris

All Dissertations

Few studies have explored the effects of emotional or rational stimulations concerning juror verdicts. There has yet to be a study to examine the impact of cognitive or experiential processing on teen juror decision-making in teen courts. The survey of teen court participants after the completion of teen court jury trials was used to gauge whether rational processing or experiential processing was triggered in selecting a verdict. Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory (CEST) and juvenile decision-making theories and perspectives (The Focal Concerns Theory of Sentencing, Attribution Theory, and Formal Legal Perspective) were used to explain teen jurors’ decision-making. A sample of 107 grade, …

Professional Discretion Of Child Protective Services Investigators In Foster Care Placements, Leonard Fikes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Families of color in North Carolina have been disproportionately affected in the child welfare system, particularly in the foster care system. The purpose of this qualitative research study examined the discretionary powers of Child Protective Services (CPS) investigators and how they interpreted and applied child welfare policies that disproportionally impacted African American families from marginalized, underrepresented communities. Guided by Wallander and Molander’s professional discretion as the framework, this research expanded the current literature and increased awareness of racial disproportionality and the continued disproportionality of African American children in the child welfare system, especially foster care placements. The central research question …

Leadership And Spirituality: The Relationship Of Incorporating Spirituality In Ethical Workplace Decision Making, Tiffany D. Cooper

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Unethical actions such as fraud, corruption, and corporate scandals have led to a global loss of more than $7.1 trillion. The unethical actions concern business leaders because unethical decision-making can lead to business closure. Grounded in Fry's spiritual leadership theory, the purpose of this quantitative correlation study was to examine the relationship between spiritual leadership, spiritual well-being, and ethical decision-making. The participants were 102 mid-level managers in the United States who completed the Spiritual Leadership Survey. The results of the multiple linear regression were significant, F(4, 97) = 7.808, p < .001, R2 = .244. In the final model, hope/faith was the only significant predictor (t = 2.079, p = .040, ß = .314). A key recommendation is for organizations' leaders to incorporate hope/faith in their overall decision-making. The implications for positive social change include the potential of leaders enlightening an individual's thinking toward ethical decisions for themselves, their organizations, and personnel within the workplace.

Chaos Is Not Rational: Nursing Leadership And Intuition In Disaster Preparedness And Response, Sarah Banks

Dissertations

Nurses are looked upon as leaders in disaster preparedness and response. Charged with making life-altering decisions, experienced nurse leaders utilize analytical and intuitive strategies to manage crisis situations. Rarely recognized by upper-level management and educational institutions, intuition is our natural ability to know something without any evidence or validation. Intuition allows us to make decisions in ever-changing circumstances when solutions are not obvious. Though difficult to explain, intuition is a powerful skill that gives nurse leaders the confidence needed to make decisions based on their previous experience. Experienced nurse leaders utilize intuition to arrive at a solution without conscious awareness …

Disconnected, Frustrated And Withdrawn: Institutional Policy Implications For Equity In Student And Faculty Community, Jessica Marie Welsh

Dissertations and Theses

DFW rates at intuitions of higher education for students from underrepresented populations trended higher than majority students. A single explanatory case study provides insight to the factors impacting DFW rates in first-year gateway courses at a four-year, public, comprehensive institution. The study employed the use of focus groups of students, non-tenure-track faculty, and tenure-track faculty. In addition, institutional data was collected and used to triangulate to the data collected from focus groups. The inductive results showed multiple institutional barriers causing DFW rates among first-generation, Pell Grant, and/or students of color. Using Turner and Angulo’s (2018) theoretical framework of high-risk decision-making …

Leadership And Spirituality: The Relationship Of Incorporating Spirituality In Ethical Workplace Decision Making, Tiffany D. Cooper

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Unethical actions such as fraud, corruption, and corporate scandals have led to a global loss of more than $7.1 trillion. The unethical actions concern business leaders because unethical decision-making can lead to business closure. Grounded in Fry's spiritual leadership theory, the purpose of this quantitative correlation study was to examine the relationship between spiritual leadership, spiritual well-being, and ethical decision-making. The participants were 102 mid-level managers in the United States who completed the Spiritual Leadership Survey. The results of the multiple linear regression were significant, F(4, 97) = 7.808, p < .001, R2 = .244. In the final model, hope/faith was the only significant predictor (t = 2.079, p = .040, ß = .314). A key recommendation is for organizations' leaders to incorporate hope/faith in their overall decision-making. The implications for positive social change include the potential of leaders enlightening an individual's thinking toward ethical decisions for themselves, their organizations, and personnel within the workplace.

Psychiatric Diagnostic Decision-Making: Investigating The Theory Of The Dual-Process Model, Christopher S. Kleva

Theses and Dissertations

Diagnostic decision-making is an important component of clinical practice; however, there is substantial diagnostic unreliability within mental health diagnoses. The lack of reliability emphasizes the importance of investigating diagnostic decision-making; however, the research to date is limited, primarily relying on a vague definition of decision-making based on the dual-process model. The present study is an exploratory attempt to apply the dual-process model to explain how mental health clinicians (n = 30, 73.3% cisgender female, 96.7% psychologists) arrive at making diagnostic decisions through the use of an interactive interview mechanism. For each participant, we are able to create a figure …

Factors Influencing Decision For Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy Versus Unilateral Mastectomy, Julian Huang

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Background: Rates of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) are increasing despite falling rates of contralateral breast cancer and controversy over survival benefit of the procedure. We investigated why and how patients choose to undergo CPM, with focus on the roles of financial burden, decision-making resources, and active participation in decision-making.

Methods:Female unilateral breast cancer patients older than 18 years old who had undergone mastectomy (with or without CPM) coming in to the Yale Breast Center for a follow-up or post-operative visit between June and August 2017 were approached with an opportunity to participate in this survey study. Chart review was completed …

Time Is Money: Using Delay Discounting And Reflection To Improve Decision-Making In The Iowa Gambling Task, Soha Munir

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Gambling disorder is described as a persistent and reoccurring behavior that leads to distress and significant impairments in relationships, jobs, or career opportunities in the DSM V (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). With gambling behaviors on the rise, it is crucial to understand what makes one individual more likely than another to develop a gambling disorder. Impaired decision-making has been associated with problematic gambling behaviors, and delay discounting has been related to multiple behaviors such as alcohol use, drug use, and gambling. This study investigates the relationship between delay discounting and performance on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a commonly used …

Service-Learning Curricula In Eastern Pennsylvania’S K-12 Schools: Educational Decision-Makers’ Experiences Through A Critical Lens, Megan Jerabek

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This research examines the experiences of K-12 curricular decision-makers in their consideration of service-learning curricula within their schools and districts. Recent evidence indicates service-learning offerings have decreased in K-12 schools in the last decade (The Education Commission on the States), and this research utilizes qualitative inquiry and a critical theory framework to understand this phenomenon via the lived experiences of educators with service-learning and the conditions at play that impact its inclusion and exclusion from schools. The findings consider the similarities and contradictions educators face, the policies and experiences that frame their perspectives of service-learning, and its accessibility within their …

Borderline Grading Decisions: The Factors That Influence The Choices Of High School Physical Science Teachers, Kate Roberts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teachers consider many different kinds of factors in determining student grades. They use a mix of achievement and non-achievement factors in grading decisions, to the criticism of educational measurement experts (Brookhart, 1991; Brookhart, 1993; Frary et al., 1993; Popham, 2009). The factors that influence this decision making are particularly salient when teachers consider borderline grades and make decisions about raising, holding, or lowering marks. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experiences and self-reported practices of high school physical science teachers’ decision making about borderline grades. Through a series of two semi-structured interviews, twelve participants described the …

Narcissism And Risk-Taking For Others, Tyler B. Cowley

LSU Master's Theses

While prior findings demonstrate that narcissists are excessively risk-seeking for themselves, research does not yet understand if their risk-seeking behaviors extend to others as well. This paper examines the role of narcissism in risk-taking on behalf of others. I hypothesize that narcissists will take more risks when deciding for others because they lack empathy and perspective taking. Therefore, narcissists are more likely to take risks based on their personal preferences, rather than the recipient’s desires. To test my hypotheses, participants completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) for themselves, another individual, and an anonymous individual, followed by completing the Narcissistic …

Asymmetry Of Gains And Losses In Human Decision-Making And Choice: Behavioral Correlates Of Loss Aversion, Money, Food, And The Menstrual Cycle, Marcia Mackley Ventura

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to determine if loss aversion is replicable as an overt behavioral response to potential gains and losses in complex, recurring, uncertain, and risky choice with real gains and losses of money and food. Cognitive methods used to determine the effect of loss have primarily measured verbal response to hypothetical choice scenarios in which participants cognitively predict their behavior in a series of bets or situations involving imagined monetary gains and losses. Less has been done using behavioral methods that measure overt behavioral response to gains and losses of actual commodities. The present study uses …

An Examination Of The Effects Of Workgroup Characteristics On Criminal Case Processing & Case Outcomes, Luis Torres

Dissertations

The court communities and inhabited institutions perspectives posit that courts should be examined through a lens that considers the complex and collaborative process that court actors (e.g., judges, prosecutors, and defense counsels), collectively referred to as the courtroom workgroup, engage in during case processing. However, empirical research infrequently examines such intricacies and devotes little attention to how the characteristics of workgroup members influence courtroom interactions, the efficiency they process cases, and ultimately case decisions. This omission is notable because theory asserts that the dynamics of the workgroup are at least in part driven by the characteristics of its members.

This …

Cognitive Preference And Skill Acquisition: The Relationship Between Student Nurse Anesthetists And Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists Thinking Styles, Thomas Diller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Decision-making in healthcare is a complex and, at times, uncertain process. In the United States Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA) administer the majority of anesthesia. Nurse Anesthetists must draw on their educational background, clinical experience, and cognitive processes to make sound clinical judgments. To avoid errors understanding the relationship between cognitive preference and skill acquisition is critical. This study was designed to describe the cognitive preferences of Student Nurse Anesthetists (SRNAs) and CRNAs in the United States. The 2 cognitive preferences explored are rational (analytical) and experiential (intuitive) decision-making.

The researcher used a quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive correlational design. The researcher …

How Do People Justify Not Paying Their Taxes? A Study On Moral Disengagement And Tax Evasion, Grace M. Hufff

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Early studies on the reasons for tax evasion focused on economics. When economic reasons were deemed insufficient to explain all decisions, researchers added psychological and sociological constructs to their explorations. These studies focused on whether taxpayers see their tax compliance decisions as ethical ones. For those who believe their choice is ethical, they must come to grips with their own internal ethical standards and feelings of guilt when they make an unethical decision. They must then employ some mechanism to disconnect these feelings of guilt from their unethical decision. Researchers have characterized this mechanism of disconnection as neutralization, rationalization, and/or …

Impact Of Fear On Interpersonal And Economic Decision-Making, John Wilson

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Fear is one of the most basic, intrinsic, and powerful emotions an individual may experience when faced with known or unknown threats, imminent pressures, or expectations of approaching doom. Fear may allow an individual to act quickly in a fight-or-flight response. Fear can alter both physiological and psychological frameworks to avoid certain calamity. Fear provides motivation to protect oneself or to effectuate altruistic behavior towards others for the greater good. One lesser explored area of research pertaining to fear and its implications is the influence of fear on interpersonal and economic decision-making. Economic volatility can produce both immediate consequences as …

Pedestrian Evacuation: Vulnerable Group Member Influence On The Group Leaders’ Decision-Making And The Impact On Evacuation Time, Terra Lynne Elzie

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

As pedestrian evacuations of buildings, outdoor venues, and special events occur, dynamic interactions between pedestrians and vehicles during egress are possible. To model pedestrian and vehicle evacuations, simulation models have evolved to incorporate more realistic crowd characteristics and behaviors to provide improved results. Past studies using modeling and simulation, specifically agent-based modeling, have explored pedestrian behaviors such as decision-making, navigation within a virtual environment, group formations, intra-group interactions, inter-group dynamics, crowd behaviors such as queuing and herding, and pedestrianvehicle interactions. These studies have led to relevant insights helpful to improving the accuracy of evacuation times for normal and emergency egress …